192 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 165. 



and the refined, poetic quality of his talent, one can well 

 believe that the exhibition was very interesting, as well as 

 novel in character. 



A new monthly magazine, called the Modern Cemetery, has 

 been started in Chicago with the object of supplying useful 

 information to cemetery superintendents and lot-owners, and 

 of improving the taste of the community as regards the plan- 

 ning and conduct of burial grounds. 



A correspondent in Massachusetts states that he has found 

 in growing Tomatoes under glass that the old plants cut down, 

 as recommended by Mr. Mathews in our issue of April 8th, do 

 much better than young seedlings. We should like to hear 

 from others who have tried this plan. 



Dr. Lorenzo G. Yates calls attention, in the Pacific Rural 

 Press, to the value of the Chocho Plant {Sechium edule) as a 

 food-product. The plant is a native of the West Indies, and 

 thrives satisfactorily in Florida. It is one of the Cucurbitaceae, 

 resembling an ordinary Squash in general appearance. Both 

 roots and fruits are available as food. 



The Revue Horticole states that our common water-weed, 

 Elodea Canadensis, which had already spread widely in Eng- 

 land, has more recently introduced itself into France to such 

 an extent that many streams are now seriously obstructed by 

 it. In the canals of Belgium it is also proving a conspicuous 

 source of trouble, and the same bids fair to be the case with 

 another American immigrant, the little moss-like, floating 

 Azolla Caroliniana. 



Last week the Cornelian Cherry, the Forsythias, the early 

 upright Honeysuckle (Lo nicer a Standishii), with our native 

 Spice-wood and Andromeda (A. floribunda), comprised about 

 all the shrubs which were blooming in Central Park. But 

 two or three hot days in a northern spring work wondrous 

 transformations, and no doubt the thickets will be all ablaze 

 with the flowers of the Japan Quince and a dozen other shrubs 

 before this paper is read. 



Three of the Strawberries which were specially commended 

 by Mr. T. T. Lyon, who tested them at the South Haven Sub- 

 station of the Michigan Agricultural College, were Parker 

 Earle, Pearl and Cloud. The first of these originated in north- 

 ern Texas, the second came from southern New Jersey, and 

 the third is a Louisiana seedling. That these plants are all 

 promising in places so far from their origin would seem to 

 indicate that they have great strength and adaptability of con- 

 stitution. 



According to L'Art dans les Deux Mondes, " a splendid col- 

 lection of wood specimens " will be sent to the World's Fair at 

 Chicago from Jamaica and the other West Indian islands. 

 " These specimens . . . will have the appearance of bound 

 books, one cover of which will be polished, while the other 

 will show the natural aspect of the wood, and the back will 

 retain the bark and will bear a tablet giving, in gold letters, 

 the name of the species. This ' botanical library ' will be 

 accompanied by notices explaining the localities where the 

 tree is found, and the qualities and uses of its wood." 



In an address, delivered at a recent meeting of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, Colonel Henry W. Wilson said 

 that the Cocoanut Palm thrives in the Bahamas as well as in 

 any part of the world, and this is the only district near to the 

 United States where it certainly will. These Palms will bear 

 in four years from planting the seed, and then fruit perennially, 

 a leaf expanding every month, with a cluster of flowers at the 

 base which produces from forty to sixty nuts. They keep 

 growing the whole year, and show, at all times, the whole 

 gamut, from flower to ripe fruit ; every day the owner can 

 pick fruit, which sell there for three cents apiece. 



Colonel J. B. Clark, editor of the Mirror and Farmer, of 

 Manchester, New Hampshire, offered $100 in prizes for the 

 best essay on maple-sugar making. Forty-one essays were 

 received, and all of them are published in the Mirror and 

 Farmer for April 2d. They would make together a duodecimo 

 volume of 250 pages, and contain a body of doctrine compris- 

 ing about all that is known of practical sugar making in north- 

 ern New England. The first prize was taken by E. W. Bisbee, 

 of Moretown, Vermont ; the second by H. I. Collins, of the 

 Experiment Station, Burlington, Vermont ; the third by A. S. 

 Moody, of Moscow, Vermont, and the fourth by Timothy 

 Wheeler, of Waterbury, Vermont. 



A correspondent, writing from Kansas Experiment Station 

 at Manhattan, under date of April 15th, says that the Forsythia 

 was in full bloom there for the first time in a number of years. 

 The mercury reached zero but twice during the last winter, 



and then remained there but for a short time. Usually this 

 shrub shows only a few blossoms on the lower and more 

 sheltered branches. Lonicera fragrantissima was also in full 

 bloom, and seems perfectly hardy in severe winters in stiff, 

 clayey, upland soil, but is often killed back on bottom-lands. 

 Nearly all the Arbor-vitces on the station grounds have suffered 

 unaccountably, notwithstanding the mild winter. Trees which 

 have endured, in former years, a temperature of twenty de- 

 grees below zero without harm now appear disfigured and 

 dead on the north side. 



A " Biographical Index to British and Irish Botanists," com- 

 piled by Messrs. James Britten and G. S. Boulger, has recently 

 been issued in serial form in the Journal of Botany. It is now 

 proposed to publish it in book form, and subscriptions will be 

 received by the editors of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club in this city. The price will be one dollar, payable on the 

 delivery of the volume. The list includes " all persons resid- 

 ing in the British Islands who have been at all prominent in 

 the science, including collectors and patrons of botany," and 

 gives the date and place of birth and death, the place of 

 burial, dates of election to the Linnaean and Royal Societies, 

 and references to sources where fuller information may be 

 obtained. 



In his proclamation, setting apart April 25 as Arbor day, 

 Governor Russell, of Massachusetts, gives this wise counsel 

 as to the higher uses of the celebration : " And I recom- 

 mend that it be observed in ways which may serve to 

 increase the love and respect in which we all hold the dig- 

 nity and beauty of this noble land which God has given to 

 our keeping. Let us devote the day to the establishment 

 and adornment of public grounds, to the restoration of our 

 wasted forests, to the repair of every defacement which makes 

 this commonwealth less beautiful than it should be, so that 

 we may not only have it appear the nobler in our own time, 

 but that we may hand it down to our children the statelier and 

 more fruitful for our care." 



A circular has been prepared by Professor B. T. Galloway, 

 and issued by the Department of Agriculture, on the treat- 

 ment of nursery stock for leaf-blight and powdery mildew. 

 The Bordeaux mixture and the ammoniacal solution, both of 

 which preparations have been often described in this paper, 

 are alone commended for use. The circular gives directions 

 for applying these remedies to the various kinds of trees for 

 the different diseases and gives illustrations of the most effec- 

 tive pumps and nozzles which have been devised for spraying. 

 Apple-seedlings, it is stated, can be treated with the ammonia 

 solution five times at a cost of eight cents a thousand, while 

 the Plum, Pear, Cherry and Quince can be treated six times 

 the first season with the Bordeaux mixture for fifty-five cents 

 a thousand. These are certainly inexpensive remedies, and 

 they are reported to be very effective. This little circular of 

 eight pages will be forwarded by the Department to any 

 nurseryman or fruit-grower on application. 



It is now possible to add a few facts relating to the 

 lamented Maximowicz to the short note which appeared a 

 few weeks ago in these columns at the time of his death. The 

 information is gathered principally from a notice published 

 in Nature on the 12th of March, from the pen of Dr. Otto Stapf. 

 Maximowicz was born at Jula in 1827, and was educated in St. 

 Petersburg. At the age of seventeen he entered the University 

 of Dorpat, where, after completing his studies, he was 

 appointed assistant to the director of the botanical 

 gardens, a post which he continued to fill until 1852, when he 

 was made conservator of the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg. 

 A year later he started on a voyage round the world on the 

 frigate Diana, being entrusted with the duty of gathering living 

 plants for the St. Petersburg garden. On this journey he 

 visited Rio, Valparaiso and the Hawaiian Islands. The Crimean 

 war compelled the Diana to seek a Russian port, and the near- 

 est was De Castris on the coast of Manchuria. Maximowicz 

 was obliged to leave the ship, and decided to explore the basin 

 of the Amour and the adjacent region, then little known. 

 This task he carried out under great difficulties and with 

 severe privations, and returned to St. Petersburg through 

 Siberia in 1857. He traveled in Manchuria again in 1859 an d 

 i860, visited Jesso in 1861, Nepon in 1862, Kiu-siu in 1863, and 

 returned to Europe by sea in 1864. In 1869 he was appointed 

 Botanicus Primarius of the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. 

 Petersburg, and was entrusted with the care of the herbarium 

 of the Academy. Those who had the advantage of Maxi- 

 mowicz's acquaintance and friendship will feel, with Dr. Stapf, 

 " that he was a noble, high-minded nature, a highly cultivated 

 scholar in almost every branch of learning, and a gentleman 

 in the truest sense of the word." 



