264 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 171. 



Notes. 



It is claimed that Castor-beans grown in California average 

 three times the size of those grown in the east. 



The Rhododendrons in the Central Park have never been 

 finer than this year. They were at their best about the 25th of 

 May, when the glen at the north end of the Park was a beautiful 

 sight. 



A Washington correspondent writes of the beauty of some 

 fine specimens of Cladrastis lutea, or Yellow-wood trees, in 

 the Capitol Park. They have a symmetrical form, with clean 

 bark", smooth twigs and rich green foliage, and are now in full 

 bloom, bearing graceful racemes of snowy pea-shaped blos- 

 soms, which have a delicate perfume. 



The Horticultural Society at Elizabeth, New Jersey, recently 

 offered a package of China Aster seeds to any girl or boy who 

 would apply for them and agree to grow and enter them for 

 competition at the exhibition to be given in September. Over 

 500 packages have been distributed. This incident contains a 

 practical suggestion for individuals and societies. 



A long-continued blooming season is certainly a great rec- 

 ommendation for any plant used to ornament public parks. 

 None is more remarkable in this respect than the Moss-pink. 

 Early in April its flowers began to unfold in the Central Park ; 

 by the 20th of the month they were in full bloom, and on the 

 25th of May the wide mats they form had not yet wholly lost 

 their rosy color. 



A new species of Lilac, discovered in Thibet and western 

 China by Prince Henry of Orleans and his companion, Mon- 

 sieur Bonvalot, is described by Bureau and Franchet under 

 the name of Syringa tomentilla. Its affinities are with Syringa 

 pubescens, from which it differs in its longer and narrower 

 leaves, pubescent especially on the lower surface, and by the 

 nearly entire calyx. 



The most conspicuous blossoms in the Central Park, after 

 the Forsylhias, the Lilacs, the Wistarias, the Judas-trees and 

 the Dogwoods had had their day, were those of the many 

 species of Spirasa which, in every direction, spread their close 

 white clusters. Fortunately the park authorities do not think 

 it needful to "trim" shrubs like these, and the wisdom of 

 leaving them to their own graceful inclinations must have 

 been apparent to every one who noticed how beautifully their 

 long branches drooped toward the grass, uniting the verdure 

 of the ground with that of the shrubberies above. 



According to the Brick, Tile and Potteries Jourjial success- 

 ful experiments have been made at the Technological Insti- 

 tute, in Charlottenburg, Prussia, with regard to the use of 

 sawdust as a building material. Mixed with certain refuse 

 mineral products the sawdust is compressed into excellent 

 bricks, which are very light, are impervious to moisture, and 

 are uninflammable even when brought into direct contact 

 with (lame. The same journal says that a French writer 

 recommends the use of sawdust instead of hair for mixing 

 with mortar, the special combination named being two parts 

 of lime, five of sand, one of cement and two of sawdust. 



A correspondent writes from Manchester, Massachusetts, 

 for information as to the best methods of protecting apples 

 against various insects. Different remedies are needed for 

 different attack's, but just now it is good general practice to 

 spray the trees with the Bordeaux Mixture, containing in addi- 

 tion Paris Green at the rate of one pound to 200 gallons of the 

 mixture. This will prove useful against the Apple-scab as 

 well as against insects. Bulletin Number 13, just published by 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural College Experiment Station, 

 contains an admirable summary of practical directions for the 

 preparation and use of remedies against insects and fungi in- 

 jurious to fruit. 



A circular recently issued by the Forestry Commission of 

 New Hampshire might well be imitated by similar bodies in 

 other states. It invites the people to give facts and sugges- 

 tions regarding fires in the forest ; to note the places in moun- 

 tain regions where new roads and paths are needed ; to record 

 the effects of denudation on the volume of water in the rivers 

 and streams ; to point out views of unusual beauty or natural 

 objects of scientific or picturesque interest, access to which 

 has not yet been rendered easy ; and to report upon the value 

 of timber-lands as investments, as well as upon any new or 

 unusual uses to which timber or other forest-products are 

 being put by manufacturers. If the people of the state gener- 

 ally respond to these invitations, a mass of very interesting 



and ultimately beneficial information will unquestionably be 

 collected. 



In his "Common-Place Book" Southey quotes from Pierre 

 Huet, a French critic of the seventeenth century, a passage 

 which proves that the garden roller was not them out of Eng- 

 land at least, a familiar implement. Writing of the garden of 

 Lord Paulet, at Hinton, St. George's, Huet says: "It is very 

 different from the common style of English gardens. These 

 are usually walks of sand, made perfectly level by rolling them 

 with a stone cylinder, through the axis of which a lever of 

 iron is passed whose ends, being brought forward and united 

 together in form of a triangle, serve to move it backwards 

 or forwards, and between the walks are smooth grass-plots, 

 covered with the greenest turf, without any other ornament." 

 The garden of Lord Paulet, we are then told, " is a meadow 

 divided into several compartments of brick-work which are 

 filled with flowers." 



A writer in the Sun, of this city, recently remarked, that in 

 spite of the attitude taken by certain prominent men toward 

 the multiplication of railroads in the Adirondacks, "the feel- 

 ing against them is intense and almost warlike in the hearts 

 of thousands who have seen the woods-, before and since rail- 

 road building began there.- 'In 1884,' said one New Yorker, 

 * I entered the woods below Malone, and fished and hunted 

 through a great reach of as absolutely wild forest as I ever 

 saw. Fish and deer were plenty, and wild nature was luxuri- 

 ant. Three years later I went there again. The whole area 

 where I had hunted before was waste and bare — all burned 

 over and desolate. A great sand desert was one feature of 

 the country, and the rest was a litter of blackened stumps. 

 Miles of the forest had been irrevocably destroyed, for not 

 even time can replace the original woods. That was what 

 followed the building of one little railroad in the Adirondacks."' 



No single plant does more to ornament the Central Park 

 than the Wistaria. On the many arbors and shelters over 

 which it is trained its spring display of blossoms is enchanting, 

 while after these have fallen its thick, yet graceful, foliage 

 forms an impenetrable canopy of shade without producing too 

 heavy an effect. But if less useful, it is perhaps still more 

 beautiful where it has been planted close to isolated trees and 

 allowed to twine itself among their branches. When the tree 

 is a conifer the contrast of its stiff and dusky green with the 

 paler green and the lilac blossoms of the creeper is perhaps a 

 little too pronounced. But on deciduous trees the Wistaria 

 often combines with its support in a manner as harmonious 

 as it is striking. A most beautiful instance of such a combina- 

 tion could be observed a week or two ago on the East Drive, 

 near the Seventy-second Street entrance, where a Linden 

 of moderate size and symmetrical growth was completely 

 covered with Wistaria, yet so loosely draped that its develop- 

 ment had not been hindered and the character of its own leaf- 

 age could still be seen. From its lowest branches to its 

 topmost twigs it was thickly hung with the fragrant lilac clus- 

 ters, so that it wore the aspect of a gigantic bouquet composed 

 of flowers and of two kinds of foliage; and this aspect it pre- 

 served for many consecutive days. In another part of the 

 park the same plant displayed itself in a different, but almost 

 equally charming, way. Here an arbor runs at right angles to 

 the drive, opening directly upon it between closely flanking 

 trees and shrubs. The Wistaria that had been planted to cover 

 this arbor had spread over the trees as well, so that one saw 

 an archway, apparently composed entirely of flowers, sup- 

 ported by masses of green, over which the blossoms were 

 more loosely spread. 



Catalogues Received. 



Dr. L. P. Britt, 37 College Place, New York, N. Y. ; Britt's Auto- 

 matic Safety Bit. — Wilfred A. Brotherton, Rochester, Mich.; Cata- 

 logue of Michigan Wild Flowers for Parks, Gardens, Bogs, etc. List 

 of Plants for Carp Ponds. Also, Wholesale Trade List of Michigan 

 Wild Flowers, Trees, Shrubs and Ferns.— Dammann & Co., -San 

 Giovanni a Teduccio, near Naples, Italy ; Wholesale Catalogue of 

 Bulbs, Roots and Orchids. — F. W. Devoe & Co., cor. Fulton and Wil- 

 liam Sts., New York, N. Y. ; Catalogue of Artists' Materials. — Wm. 

 Baylor Hartland, 24 Patrick St., Cork, Ireland; Daffodils for the 

 Trade. — L' Horticulture Internationale, Brussels, Belgium; New 

 Orchids, Established Exotic Orchids, Nepenthes, Ornamental Plants 

 for Conservatories and Winter Gardens, Palms, etc. — A. W. Living- 

 son's Sons, Columbus, Ohio ; Vegetable and Flower Seeds.— Pitcher 

 & Manda, The United States Nurseries, Short Hills, N. J. ; Descrip- 

 tive Catalogue of New and Rare Plants. Also Price List of Hardy 

 Perennials, including Alpines, Aquatics, Orchids, Ferns and Small 

 Shrubs. 



