262 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 171. 



A Grape called Winchell was sent to us this year with the 

 statement that it is the same Grape that has been sent out as 

 " Green Mountain." We planted it alongside the Green Moun- 

 tain received last year. So far it differs widely in the appear- 

 ance of its foliage from the Green Mountain. 



Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C. W. F. MtlSSey. 



Syringa pubescens, of which a figure was published in these 

 columns (vol. i., page 415), is one of those plants which 

 improve with age. The large plants in the neighborhood 

 of Boston, raised in the Arnold Arboretum from seed sent 

 by Dr. Bretschneider from Pekin, have flowered better 

 this year than ever before, and have proved that this species 

 is one of the most beautiful Lilacs in cultivation. The 

 individual flowers are not large, and the clusters are smaller 

 than those of the other species ; they are produced, how- 

 ever, in the greatest profusion, and quite cover the branches. 

 The flowers are at first a delicate rose-color, but, before 

 fading, become almost white ; they are deliciously fragrant. 

 Syringa pubescens, which must not be confounded with the 

 plant sometimes cultivated in European gardens under that 

 name, but which is really the Syringa villosa of Northern 

 China, and probably identical with the Himalayan S. Emodi, 

 is perfectly hardy even in our most severe climates, and 

 nurserymen will do well for themselves and for the public 

 by placing it within reach of all planters of hardy, handsome- 

 flowered shrubs. 



An Abundant Rust. — The well-known and destructive orange 

 rust of the Blackberry {Caoma nitens, Schw.) is very abundant 

 this season. Specimens have been received at the station 

 from various parts, of the state, and during a recent trip 

 through the south it was observed in many places. It is a 

 showy rust, and the fungus not infrequently gave a decided 

 orange color to the infested areas. This rust is one of those 

 that penetrate all portions of the plant and live within the 

 tissues from year to year. When new shoots and leaves form, 

 it quickly spreads from the old parts and shows itself in count- 

 less yellow spores, usually in large blotches upon the under 

 side of the leaves. On account of its perennial nature, it is 

 difficult to eradicate this pest by spraying, and the best method 

 is to remove the diseased plants, roots and all, and burn them. 

 As the rust spreads from plant to plant by means of the spores, 

 spraying, if done at the right time, would tend to prevent the 

 spread of the rust. 



N.J. Experiment Station. hyron JJ. Hals ted. 



Correspondence. 



Bermuda in May. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It is not surprising that the genial climate of Bermuda 

 should attract so many winter visitors from our northern 

 states. A sea-voyage of less than three days, and one which 

 a fast steamer might easily make within forty-eight hours, 

 suffices to bring them to shores that are green the year 

 through, and yet to an air so equable that the fervors of the 

 summer sun are rarely oppressive or enervating, because the 

 heat is so constantly tempered by breezes from the sea. The 

 change in the political and social atmosphere is quite as strik- 

 ing, for the American citizen will suddenly find himself in a 

 loyal English colony where even the negroes — perhaps the 

 most active and intelligent specimens of their race to be found 

 in all the world — speak with a perfect English accent, 

 where fleet or fortress is forever in sight to manifest the im- 

 perial power of Britain, and where a large proportion of the 

 men one meets on the street wear the uniform of her army or 

 navy. 



The great mass of those who flee to Bermuda to escape the 

 rigors of winter return in April, so that the impressions one 

 receives from a flying visit in late May may be worth record- 

 ing. The islands are not at their best until June, it is said, 

 and, perhaps, the time is not far away when this will be a 

 favorite haunt for the summer tourist from New York, who 

 could hardly find elsewhere a week or a fortnight of rest and 

 change so perfect and so convenient as that furnished by a 

 trip over cool seas to these breezy islands. 



One need not expect any touch of the sublime in the land- 

 scapes here, for it would not be possible to crowd many natu- 

 ral objects which inspire awe by their vastness or sublimity 

 within a long and narrow chain of islands containing alto- 

 gether an area of some twenty square miles. But the land, 

 what there is of it, is pleasantly diversified in surface, rising 

 atone point to an altitude of some 200 feet ; and the ever- 



present sea of itself suffices to insure every wide prospect 

 against the charge of being tame or commonplace. One 

 charm of the sea, by the way, is its marvelous and inde- 

 scribable color, for the water over these coral reefs outrivals 

 the azure of the sky in the richness and depth of its blue. 

 There are occasional inland views where, in happy valleys, 

 the sea is shut out of sight by encircling hills, and here, at 

 times, one is reminded of New England, with roads winding 

 along Pine-woods with an undergrowth of Ferns. No Pines 

 are here, it is true, but the Bermuda Cedar, at a little distance, 

 constantly suggests the Pine, and on a nearer view it shows 

 so close a relation to our common Red Cedar that there is 

 nothing strange or unfamiliar in its presence, although the 

 species is confined mainly to these islands. When Juan Bermu- 

 dez, nearly 400 years ago, was feeling his way along the treach- 

 erous reefs which surround them, he saw the islands covered 

 with forests of these trees, which then attained to stately pro- 

 portions. These forests have been cut and re-cut since, and 

 yet they form the most conspicuous growth upon the island 

 to-day ; indeed, the larger proportion of the surface seems 

 forest-clad, for wherever the land is left to itself the Cedar 

 "comes in." It would be naturally supposed from the ship- 

 loads of onions and potatoes that reach our markets from 

 Bermuda in the spring that every rod of the scanty territory 

 was under plow or spade, but the visitor's first surprise, and 

 one from which he can hardly recover during a brief sojourn, 

 is, that he rarely finds these articles of export growing in large 

 fields — indeed, an acre would pass for a considerable planta- 

 tion here— but generally in little pockets a rod or so across, where 

 the red soil is deep enough to furnish root-room for the plants, 

 while all about them the rock is thinly covered or thrusts its 

 massive shoulders quite above the ground. 



Next to the forests, clothing the hills which slope toward the 

 shore, one who for the first time sails in sight of'them through 

 the tortuous channel which leads to Hamilton is struck with the 

 white houses which nestle in their foliage. These a re all built 

 of the light friable limestone of the island, which is so soft that 

 it can be readily sawed into blocks. Even the roofs are made 

 of thin stone plates, and the whole building is whitewashed 

 till it glitters. In spite of this shining color the houses have 

 no staring or obtrusive effect, but being substantial and low 

 they only serve to deepen the color of the green about them, 

 making the landscape more cheerful and investing it with a 

 more home-like and human interest. 



Once on the land, the roads are among the first objects to 

 invite attention. Very few level acres can be found on the 

 islands, but these old highways adjust themselves most gra- 

 ciously to the contour of the hills and the curving of the 

 shores, winding in and out apparently without purpose or 

 direction. But in so small an area there is. little need of rail- 

 way directness, and one is glad to lose a little time in travel 

 where there is so much of it in a day. At every turn there is 

 a changing prospect, a new arrangement of sea and shore, of 

 cliff and dell, of Lily-fields and Oleander-hedges. Broken 

 pieces of the soft stone spread upon the road-bed at once 

 paclc into a smooth surface over which a wheel delights to 

 roll, and its gray tone blends most happily with the prevailing 

 colors of the landscape. And then the fences, which gener- 

 ally are objects whose ugliness needs some excuse, are here 

 a positive ornament. They are walls constructed of the same 

 sawed-stone blocks and cement which are used in all the 

 island architecture, and they would stand for a century here, 

 where there is no frost to heave them, unless they should 

 chance to be crowded over by the roots of some pushing tree. 

 They seem to have been built along the roads generations ago 

 when slave-labor was abundant, standing everywhere square 

 and firm — now as parapets along the brow of some cliff whose 

 base is beaten by the sea, and again as retaining walls against 

 the face of some cutting — usually bare, gray and honey- 

 combed with age, but often draped and garlanded with Mau- 

 randya and other vines, or overhung by huge masses of Cactus. 

 They are always picturesque, and, like all solid, hoary and 

 weather-beaten structures, are agreeably suggestive of an- 

 tiquity. These, then, are the leading features of the landscape 

 •which are permanent : a narrow stretch of land, with a roll- 

 ing and often a rugged surface ; bold shores surrounded by a 

 sea of an unspeakable blue ; open fields with scant, coarse grass, 

 which leaves them rather brown than green ; forests of Cedar 

 with blue-gray foliage ; snow-white cottages and a web of 

 roads in a close net-work, uniting with each other at every 

 conceivable curve and angle. Over all_ hangs a translucent 

 atmosphere which dims the distance, mellows the outline of 

 objects nearer by, and softens away the glare of every intense 

 color. Very beautiful and impressive are the shifting combi- 

 nations of these simple elements under such a sky. 



