May 13, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



227 



Apple-seeds at the foot of what is now College Hill, in the 

 town at present called Kirkland, a part of what was then the 

 town of Paris. This nursery was on a grant of land made_ to 

 the dominie by the tribe to which he preached the Christian 

 doctrine. They were much attached to him, and the chief, 

 Sconondoa, aided him in his horticultural as well as religious 

 enterprises. Out of this nursery three or four orchards were 

 planted. The dominie's own was on a slope of the hills over- 

 looking the valley of the Oriskany, one of the most beautiful 

 valleys in New York state. I remember the trees fifty years 

 ago, as they stood in their prime, and all of them were giants, 

 compared with modern Apple-trees. Now there are standing 

 but a dozen out of one hundred. As the loss is clearly trace- 

 able to neglect for a few years, I feel confident that an orchard 

 of seedling Apples might be kept in good health for one hun- 

 dred and fifty years. I hope to preserve a few of those now 

 standing for at least ten years more. 



The fruit is perceptibly of the old English and French fami- 

 lies of Pippins, Bellefleurs and Swanro. One sort only proved 

 to be so very good as to deserve careful preservation. This is 

 named Kirkland, after its planter. It is every way a Bellefleur, 

 pure white when picked, but rich yellow in the spring. The 

 shape is like the yellow Bellefleur, but rounder, core open, and 

 less acid than most of the family. It keeps well into April, 

 or even June, in a cool moist cellar. I have had samples keep 

 entirely through a year into the next spring. It is, in fact, the 

 best keeping apple I have ever grown that had good value. A 

 curious feature of this seedling is that another tree from the 

 same nursery bears an apple so nearly identical as to be dis- 

 tinguished only by close examination. The original Kirkland 

 tree stood until 1889, when I was obliged to cut it, but have 

 carefully preserved a sucker from the roots that is capable of 

 replacing the old tree. _ _, _ ,, 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



The Broad-leaved Maple. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Since your correspondents have shown so much in- 

 terest of late in relation to the hardiness in the east of trees 

 from the Pacific coast, I send you some sprays of Acer macro- 

 phyllum, gathered from one of" our trees here. We have three 

 of them and they are all some twenty-five feet high. While 

 young they suffered in severe winters, but for several years 

 past they do not seem to have been injured in the slightest 

 degree. The flowers of this Maple come out slightly in ad- 

 vance of those of the ordinary Sycamore Maple. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



The Rattlesnake Plantain as a Window Plant. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Some of your correspondents have recently shown 

 that many wild flowers, even of shy-seeming sorts, lend them- 

 selves well to careful transplanting ; and I should like to add a 

 mite of evidence with regard to one which I have found a 

 bo d and brave little bloomer even under conditions when 

 nothing that could be called care was bestowed upon it. In 

 my summer home on the shore of Buzzard's Bay I have fortu- 

 nately made friends with two ladies who, living there all the 

 year round, are examples of the incorrectness of the oft-re- 

 peated statement that country people neither know nor care 

 much about wild flowers. Their kindly hands have brought 

 me rarities for which, despite all Asa Gray's directions, I had 

 searched with small success, and great bunches of other flow- 

 ers which, while not exactly rare, I had rejoiced to find as mere 

 isolated specimens. In a basketful of such treasures I discov- 

 ered last July a Rattlesnake Plantain with white-striped leaves 

 (Goodyera pubescens), the tall spike of which was in bud, and 

 which, apparently by accident, had been taken up, roots and 

 all. This I planted in the woods near my house in a shady 

 moist spot close to a big rock, watering it at the time, but 

 giving it no further attention save an occasional glance to see 

 what it was doing. For many days it apparently did nothing, 

 for though its flowers did not open, neither did they wither. 

 Then, after a fortnight or more, they came into bloom as 

 prettily and completely as though the plant had never been 

 disturbed. 



At Christmas-time, again, I received from these same friends 

 through the post a box of greens and berries, and among them 

 was another of these little Orchids with the root, embedded in 

 moss and earth, still attached to the cluster of evergreen 

 leaves. I gave it to a friend whose care is surer than mine 

 and whose window is sunnier, and she set it in a saucer of 

 water. The second week in April it was more than merely 



alive. It was putting forth new little leaves and bore a prom- 

 ising spike of flower-buds, although not so large a one as 

 though the time were July and the spot a Plymouth County 

 wood. Of course it was but a wee and modest plant compared 

 with those usually seen in-doors in early spring. But its very 

 unlikeness to such plants and the flavor of deep summer 

 woods that hung about it seemed for the moment to put their 

 showier claims to admiration out of court. 



M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



New York. 



Recent Publications. 



Chrysanthemum Culture for America. James Morton, 1891. 

 The Rural Publishing Company, New York. 



This little volume is the first treatise on the Chrysanthemum 

 which has as yet appeared in the United States in book 

 form, and is an interesting compendium of the foreign 

 and domestic history of the flower, with cultural details 

 which the author considers best adapted to this country. 

 The book also contains an extended list of synonyms and 

 a good calendar of garden operations. Any writer on the 

 Chrysanthemum at this time is hampered by the exhaus- 

 tive manner in which both the history and culture of the 

 flower have already been recorded abroad. Mr. C. Harman 

 Payne, a London amateur, has made the history of the 

 subject his own by searching out and recording the slight- 

 est facts connected with the flower in all countries where it is 

 grown. Mr. Morton has summarized these annals, and has sup- 

 plemented them with some points as to the American history 

 of the flower. As for all details of culture, Mr. Edward 

 Molyneaux has fairly illuminated this subject with such 

 minuteness and clearness as to leave little to be said, except 

 in the way of modification to suit climatic conditions. His 

 writings, not only in his book but in his very extended mono- 

 graphs in the horticultural press, may be fairly considered 

 among the curiosities of literature, for he has recorded not 

 only notes on general culture, but special points on the differ- 

 ent families and varieties, showing powers of observation 

 which would be remarkable if applied to any subject. Mr. 

 Morton's cultural details seem, in the main, sound and helpful, 

 although there are points in practice upon which experts 

 differ. The book would have been improved, perhaps, by 

 more explicit directions as to some of the finer points of culti- 

 vation, such as the treatment of weak-growing varieties and 

 the details of disbudding, both of which are important matters 

 to novices. The list of synonyms is very full, and Mr. Morton 

 has done a service in collecting such an extended catalogue. 

 Curiously enough, one of the best-known examples is omitted, 

 that of Domination, also called Mrs. G. Bullock and Milkmaid. 

 Mr. Morton's lists of varieties are more open to criticism. 

 "We are at a loss to know at what exhibition blooms of 

 Cullingfordii and Mrs. John Wanamaker would be allowed to 

 be staged with Empress of India, etc., among the " best twelve 

 Chinese." 



Great care should be taken to secure correctness in the 

 matter of nomenclature in hand-books of this sort, and the 

 hasty proof-reading which has permitted some errors in this 

 department is to be regretted. 



Mushrooms : How to Grow Them. By William Falconer. 

 New York : Orange Judd Co. 



This is a compact treatise of 165 pages which has been pre- 

 pared for the purpose of giving complete and accurate details 

 of all the processes of Mushroom-culture both for home use 

 and for market. In addition to his long personal experience 

 as a gardener, Mr. Falconer has taken pains to visit many 

 of the principal establishments where Mushrooms are success- 

 fully grown in this country, not only to examine the various 

 methods employed, but to secure from the growers careful 

 explanations of the methods employed by each. There are 

 also chapters on the growing of Mushrooms by the gardeners 

 who supply the London market, and a very interesting account 

 of the productive beds in the caves underneath the city of 

 Paris and its suburbs. One would think, on reading this little 

 treatise, that such a delicious and nutritious article of food as 

 the Mushroom should be abundant on every American table, 

 for it seems so easy to raise them, not only by those who have 

 a greenhouse or can afford a house especially prepared for 

 them, but by every farmer or householder who can command 

 a shed or an ordinary cellar. Every one knows that in certain 

 old pastures Mushrooms abound in a wild state, and the direc- 

 tions for growing them in the fields are so simple that there 

 appears to be little excuse for their scarcity. And yet, although 

 their cultivation seems so easy to a reader who has never tried 



