204 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 166. 



ance of the book, from the artistic point of view, is sadly 

 marred by the bright red line which surrounds the page of text. 

 It may be a convenience to our readers to know that Mon- 

 sieur Linden's address is ioo Rue Belliard, Brussels, and that 

 Lindenia can also be procured from all the principal booksell- 

 ers of the United States. 



Notes. 



In a report on Forage Grasses, just issued by the Mississippi 

 Experiment Station, Japan Clover is said to yield on rich land 

 from two to three tons of hay to the acre of as good quality as 

 the best Clover hay. 



According to the Census Bulletin on Truck Farming, the 

 season at which a given vegetable reaches a marketable size 

 advances northward along the Atlantic coast at the rate of 

 about thirteen miles a day. 



The second annual banquet given by the trustees of the 

 Missouri Botanic Garden in honor of Henry Shaw, the founder 

 of the Missouri Botanic Garden and the "Shaw School of Bot- 

 any in St. Louis, will be held in that city on Thursday, the 21st 

 of May. 



The census returns show that the average melon-fields of 

 the southern Atlantic states yield 400 salable melons to the 

 acre. Twelve hundred of these will load a car, which will sell 

 in the north for from $150 to $275, which leaves a net return of 

 from nothing up to $150 an acre. 



The Third Report of the California State Board of Forestry, 

 which has been noticed in these columns, can be secured 

 from Mr. J. C. Lemmon, of Oakland, California, by remitting 

 ten cents a copy to cover expenses. The previous report, 

 which relates principally to the Pines of the Pacific slope, can 

 be obtained in the same way of Mr. Lemmon. 



The lllustrirte Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, under the title of 

 "New Roses for 1891," publishes a list of eighty-seven varie- 

 ties, produced by thirty horticulturists. Five varieties are of 

 American origin : Golden Gate, Henry M. Stanley, Maud 

 Little, Mrs. Jessie Fremont and Pearl River, all announced by 

 Messrs. Dingee and Conard, of West Grove, Pennsylvania. 



One of the most curious plants in Europe was a Birch-tree 

 which for about eighty years grew vigorously on top of the 

 unfinished tower of St. Stephen's Church, in Vienna. When, 

 in recent years, the work of completing this tower was begun, 

 the tree was transplanted into the Rath-haus Park, but, in spite 

 of the most careful tending, it died about three years ago. 



The office of Commissioner of Forests has been abolished 

 in Colorado. Since this state has been hitherto supposed to 

 take a more enlightened view of the value of her forests than 

 some others, the determination to dispense with any officer 

 whose duty it was to give special attention to this interest is a 

 surprise, and, at this distance, seems like a step backward. 



It is about forty years since the Weigelia was first introduced 

 into European gardens from China. German catalogues now 

 note between thirty and forty varieties, most of which have 

 pink or pale crimson flowers, although, in one or two, the 

 flowers are darker crimson, and in about half a dozen are 

 pure white. A few varieties have also been grown with leaves 

 streaked with yellow or white. 



From the interesting address on the Sponge-bearing Cucum- 

 ber, of which we have quoted the greater portion in another 

 column, we learn that Herr E. Dammann, of San Giovanni-a- 

 Teduccio, near Naples, has for years been hunting the world 

 for seeds of the Luffa, which he has cultivated as a seedsman, 

 and that he has secured varieties which are of great interest 

 to botanical collectors. By exchanging with Herr Dammann, 

 Dr. Harris has added materially to his own list of varieties for 

 testing here, and has sent several of the most valuable sorts 

 to Japan, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico and Florida, with a view to 

 improving the varieties there. 



A bill has been passed by the legislature of Ohio which 

 creates a park board for the thriving city of Youngstown, and 

 gives it the authority to establish the boundaries of a park, to 

 accept lands for park purposes, and to make necessary 

 regulations for its government and maintenance. The Com- 

 mission was authorized to make a preliminary survey, with 

 an estimate of the cost of the probable improvement, and 

 submit the same to the vote of the people. The project 

 was sustained by a majority of three to one. We understand 

 that suitable grounds near the city have been secured, and the 



descendants of the men who inaugurated this movement will 

 bless them for taking steps in this matter before the oppor- 

 tunity was lost of securing the land at a reasonable price. 



From Mr. H. B. Ayres, of the Forestry Department, Washing- 

 ton, comes the following note of observations which he made 

 in the forests of northern Minnesota last winter. In slightly 

 timbered regions the " pot-holes " along the hills of drift have 

 a border which is frequently covered by standing water, and 

 upon which trees do not grow. Where the timber has been 

 lately cut away it is a common thing to see a belt of thrifty 

 timber on the moist land encircling the pond-hole, and again 

 inside of this belt of living timber another belt of dead trees 

 and grass above an old shore-line. The inference seems irre- 

 sistible that denudation causes a more rapid accumulation of 

 water, which means a higher rise of water in the basin, thus 

 killing the trees which had grown up where water had not 

 previously injured them. 



A German horticultural journal says that one of the latest 

 inventions in medicine is the use of cold greenhouses in 

 tropical countries as a means of combating yellow fever. 

 This disease, it states, can be conquered if one removes 

 to those elevated regions in which Oaks will grow. This 

 fact recently inspired a celebrated Cuban physician with the 

 idea of reducing the temperature of sick-rooms by arti- 

 ficial means, and wonderful cures resulted. Now it is 

 proposed that, in districts liable to the epidemic, each 

 town shall erect a great glass-house in which plants of 

 cold and temperate regions may be grown, the temperature 

 being artificially cooled instead of heated, as in our green- 

 houses ; and that they shall be devoted to the treatment of 

 patients suffering from the fever. 



The California Board of Forestry has memorialized the Con- 

 gress of the United States on the subject of the water-supply 

 which so profoundly affects the material welfare of that state. 

 Environed as they are on the south and south-east by an arid 

 district almost uninhabitable by reason of its torrid heat, the 

 people of California look upon the enlargement of this inhos- 

 pitable region with profound apprehension. Their immunity 

 from invasion by this hostile climate depends upon the benign 

 influence of great forests, and the diminution and extinction 

 of these forests must be inimical and fatal to their prosperity. 

 The forest-commissioners, therefore, urge the absolute with- 

 drawal from sale of all the timber-lands in California until 

 future surveys have determined what tracts should be held in 

 permanent forest. And, again, they ask that the timber of 

 such lands, when fit to harvest, should be sold, and not the 

 lands. The lumberman, as a rule, cares little for anything 

 beyond the number of feet of timber to an acre, and, therefore, 

 there will be no loss of revenue in selling the logs only, while, 

 if the fee remains in the United States, the Government can 

 impose such reasonable regulations for preserving the 

 young growth and preventing fire as will insure the perpetual 

 forest-character of these lands and yield future returns of 

 revenue. 



A series of field meetings will be held in the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum during May and June for the purpose of supplying 

 popular instruction about the trees and shrubs which grow in 

 New England. They will be held on Saturday mornings at 

 ten o'clock, and on Wednesday afternoons at three o'clock, 

 beginning on Saturday, May 9th, and will be conducted by Mr. 

 J. G. Jack. The class will assemble in the lecture-room of the 

 building of the Bussey Institution, where a brief review will 

 be given of the plants to be especially observed during the 

 meeting of the day. It will then adjourn to the plantations 

 and the nurseries of the Arboretum for an informal study of 

 the plants themselves. It is not proposed that the instruction 

 given in these meetings shall be technical, and a knowledge 

 of descriptive botany is not essential for persons who desire to 

 follow them. The intention is to indicate, by comparison, the 

 easiest means of distinguishing the common native trees and 

 shrubs as they appear in this part of the country, and of re- 

 cognizing the foreign species which have been introduced 

 into our gardens. The ornamental and useful properties of 

 trees and shrubs, their habits of growth, their peculiarities and 

 common diseases, will be considered, the different plants 

 being taken up, as far as possible, in course as they become 

 conspicuous by flowering. An hour and a half to two hours 

 will be devoted to each meeting. During the season it is ex- 

 pected that the class will be conducted to at least two well- 

 known gardens in the vicinity of Boston. Applications or 

 further inquiries may be addressed to Mr. J. G. Jack, Jamaica 

 Plain, Massachusetts. 



