228 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 168. 



to grow them, the fact is that a great many men who have at- 

 tempted it seriously have failed, and it is probable that the 

 Mushroom crop will prove more uncertain than the Bean crop 

 to the average cultivator for many years. 



To grow Mushrooms well needs some experience and needs 

 constant care in the details of cultivation from the beginning 

 to the end, and just here is the prime value of this little 

 manual. The directions are full and minute, covering the 

 smallest particulars, so that one who had never seen a single 

 Mushroom growing could take up this volume, and by follow- 

 ing the directions explicitly have a reasonable hope of some 

 success. The first fifty pages of the book are in the main de- 

 voted to the proper construction of caves and houses for 

 Mushroom-beds or for the proper adaptation of the beds to 

 ordinary cellars and sheds. Then there are directions for se- 

 lecting and preparing the manure, the making of the beds, the 

 use of the spawn, the loaming, earthing, top-dressing, etc., 

 even to the final work of gathering and marketing the crop. 

 After this come some directions for invigorating old beds, 

 and for the discouragement of insect enemies, together with a 

 selection of receipts for various methods of cooking. The book 

 has an excellent index and some illustrations which serve fairly 

 well to explain the text ; but it would have been more 

 attractive if the publishers had taken greater pains in preparing 

 the cuts and had printed them on better paper. 



Notes. 



The late Mr. Shirley Hibberd had formed in his garden a 

 collection of ninety different varieties of Ivy. 



The Flowering Dogwood, the Black Haw (Viburnum pruni- 

 folium) and the Sassafras are all blooming abundantly in the 

 woods and hedge-rows near this city, and very beautiful 

 they are. 



The Messrs. Putnam are about to publish a book called 

 " Practical Landscape-Gardening, " by Mr. Samuel Parsons, Jr., 

 whose long experience as Superintendent of Parks in this city 

 has qualified him to write an interesting and instructive trea- 

 tise. 



Le Notre, the great seventeenth-century gardener, lies 

 buried in the Church of St. Roch in Paris. His tomb was 

 designed by Coysevox, one of the most prominent sculptors 

 of the time, and one of those who had assisted him in deco- 

 rating the royal gardens at Versailles. 



A Philadelphia correspondent writes that a fine tree of 

 Magnolia Fraseri, still standing in the old Bartram Garden, now 

 Bartram Park, is covered with bloom and is a beautiful object. 

 This is really one of the most beautiful of the native Magnolias, 

 its large flowers having a tint of canary yellow which is very 

 delicate, and their fragrance, too, is almost equal to that of our 

 Magnolia glauca. 



The leading article in the Illustrirte Gartenzeitung of Vienna 

 for the month of April is devoted to Begonia bicolor, Wats. 

 The history of its discovery in Mexico by Dr. Palmer, in 1886, 

 is quoted from Mr. Sereno Watson's account in vol. xxii. of the 

 " Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," 

 and the article is accompanied by a fine colored plate, prepared 

 from a specimen which bloomed last autumn in the Royal 

 Belvidere Gardens at Vienna. 



It is a matter of concern to some people that the blossoms 

 have come, hereabout, and many of them have gone, without 

 any heavy rain. There is a popular superstition that the so- 

 called blossom-storm is in some way connected with a fruitful 

 year. On the other hand, there has been a theory that a cold 

 rain while the trees are in flower may prevent fertilization, 

 and therefore injure the fruit-crop. Recent investigation 

 seems to show there is no real basis for this belief. The blos- 

 som-storm, like the equinoctial, is an uncertain quantity, and, 

 whether it comes or not, has little effect on the fruit. 



William M'Corquodale, a Scotch forester of reputation and 

 the forest manager on the estates of the Earl of Mansfield, 

 died last month in his eighty-first year. He is spoken of as 

 the acknowledged father of forestry in Britain. During the 

 long period he was connected with the Mansfield estates he 

 planted and raised thousands of acres of woodlands, and has 

 done much to encourage the taste for planting in north 

 Britain. David Douglas was a townsman of his, and in this 

 way M'Corquodale early became interested in the conifers of 

 the north-west coast, especially in the Douglas Fir, which he 

 was one of the first to plant in large quantities as a forest-crop. 

 Many contributions from his pen are found in the Transac- 



tions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society. He was ardently 

 devoted to the interests of this society, and was a constant 



attendant at its meetings. 



A particularly fine specimen of Licuala grandis is included 

 in the small, but choice, collection of Palms and other foliage 

 plants in the conservatories attached to the city residence of 

 Mr. A. J. Drexel, in Philadelphia. The plant referred to is 

 about five feet in height, and carries over twenty fine leaves, 

 doubtless being one of the best examples of this handsome 

 Palm to be found in the country. In the same collection are 

 some nicely grown Gleichenias, among them being G. flabel- 

 lata, G. Spelunccs, G. dicarpa longipi?inata and G. dichotoma, 

 the last-named being well represented by a specimen between 

 five and six feet in diameter. 



One of the most charming descriptions of English rural 

 scenery which we have recently read may be found in Harper's 

 Magazine for May, being the first instalment of Mr. Quiller 

 Couch's account of a boat journey down the Warwickshire 

 Avon. It is delightfully illustrated by Mr. Alfred Parsons, 

 and one of his most effective pictures "shows us "Guy's Cliffe 

 Mill," with regard to which the author writes : " The beauties 

 of this spot have been bepraised for centuries. Leland speaks 

 of them ; Drayton sings them. ' There,' says Camden, * have 

 yee a shady little wood, cleere and cristal springs, mossie 

 bottoms and caves, medowes alwaies fresh and greene, the 

 river rumbling heere and there among the stones with his 

 streame making a milde noise and gentle whispering, and, 

 besides all this, solitary and still quietness, things most grate- 

 ful to the muses.' Fuller, who knew it well, calls it ' a most 

 delicious place, so that a man in many miles' riding cannot 

 meet so much variety as there one furlong doth afford.' The 

 water-mill is mentioned in Doomsday-book and has been 

 sketched constantly ever since— a low quaint pile fronted by 

 a recessed open gallery, under which the water is forever 

 sparkling and frothing, fresh from its spin over the mill- 

 wheels or tumble down the ledges of the weir." 



The death is announced, in his ninety-first year, of William 

 Barron, a Scotch gardener, distinguished in his day, and at 

 one time considered the highest authority in England on culti- 

 vated conifers. His greatest achievement was the formation 

 of the gardens at Elverston Castle, the seat of the Earl of 

 Harrington, in Derbyshire, famous for their topiary work and 

 the great collections of coniferous plants which they contain. 

 Barron made a specialty of moving large trees, and scoured 

 the country round for old Yews and other large specimens 

 with which to embellish the pleasure-grounds at Elverston. 

 His greatest feat of this sort is said to have been the removal 

 from the Buckland churchyard of the so-called Buckland Yew, 

 a huge tree supposed to be more than a thousand years old, 

 and mentioned in the Doomsday-book. Barron left the im- 

 mediate control of Elverston some forty years ago, and estab- 

 lished himself in the neighborhood as a nurseryman and 

 landscape-gardener. For many years he was one of the most 

 active figures in English horticulture, and was employed in 

 all parts of the kingdom in executing works of landscape- 

 gardening and in moving large trees. He was a man highly 

 respected by every one, and his influence and example did 

 much to elevate the profession of gardening in England. His 

 portrait and a detailed account of his career, with views 

 taken in the gardens at Elverston, appear in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle for the 25th of April. 



Catalogues Received. 



o 



W. T. Alan, Greenville, Mercer County, Pa.; Collections of Plants 

 for Bedding. — H. H. Berger & Co., San Francisco, Cal.; Bulbs, 

 Seeds and Plants from Japan, China and Australia. — Cleveland 

 Baking Powder Co., New York, N. Y. ; Cooking Receipts. — F. W. 

 Devoe & Co., corner Fulton and William Sts., New York, N. Y. ; 

 Paints, Oils, Varnishes. — B. A. Elliott Co., 54 Sixth St., Pittsburgh,' 

 Pa.; A Few Flowers Worthy of General Culture, Seeds, Trees, 

 Shrubs and Small Fruit. — Benjamin Hammond, Fishkiil-on-Hudson, 

 N. Y.; Hammond's Slug Shot. — H.W.Johns, 87 Maiden Lane, New 

 York, N. Y. ; Asbestos Materials. — The J. L. Mott Iron Works, 86, 

 88 and 90 Beekman St., New York, N. Y. ; Wrought Iron Tree Guards, 

 Garden Rollers, Cast Iron Settees, etc. — Novelty Manufacturing 

 Co., New Bedford, Mass.; The Climax Patent Pruner. — Wm. Paul 

 & Son, Waltham Cross, Herts, England; New Roses and Florists' 

 Flowers. — Waterbury Rubber Co., 49 Warren St., New York, N. Y. ; 

 Sphincter Grip Armored Hose. — F. W. Wilson, Wilson's Nurseries, 

 Chatham, Ontario; Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Vines, Shrubs, 

 Plants, Bulbs, etc. — The Yokohama Gardeners' Association, 21-35 

 Nakamura, Yokohama, Japan, and Glen Avenue, Oakland, Cal.; 

 General Flowering, Ornamental, Hardy Trees and Shrubs, Bulbs, 

 Climbers, Fruit Trees, etc., from Japan. 



