286 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 173. 



remember that for three or four months this brilliant display 

 continues ; I bent down and counted the flowers and yet un- 

 opened buds on the nearest plant of CEnothera ovata. The 

 plant was nowise conspicuous among its fellows that dotted 

 the slope ; in fact, many showed far more flowers and covered 

 a greater area. The sample plant, however, made a very re- 

 spectable display. The circle of its outer leaves was about a 

 foot in diameter ; they rested upon the turf, hardly rising four 

 inches above it at any point. Fifteen open flowers rose well 

 above the foliage, and no less than thirty-six buds could be 

 counted without pulling the crown apart and descending to the 

 microscopic sizes. Each of the four-petaled flowers was fully 

 as large as a fifty-cent piece ; one almost covered a silver dol- 

 lar. The rich clear yellow hue, and the regularity of the petals 

 and stamens, with the golden ball of the erect pistil, formed a 

 charming whole. 



Botanists are interested in this little CEnothera on account of 

 its peculiarly long calyx-tube, which is never less than one 

 inch, and usually is from three to five inches long. The ovary 

 is concealed in the very crown of the plant, and is thus protected 

 from accident in as complete a manner as one could well 

 imagine. There are not many flowers of this curious type, 

 and none is better adapted for a garden-flower. CEnothera 

 ovata, if planted on the lawn in a solid bed of, say, ten feet 

 square, would surprise every beholder by its abundant bloom 

 and its glowing color. 



Niles Cai. Charles Howard Shinn. 



The American Association of Nurserymen. 



Annual Meeting at Minneapolis. 



'THE sixteenth annual meeting of the American Association 

 *■ of Nurserymen was held during the first week of June in 

 Minneapolis. President Emery called attention in his address 

 to the strength of the organization, which now numbers more 

 than four hundred members, with abundant money in the 

 treasury and a history which proves that substantial benefits 

 have been received from concerted action. In regard to the 

 condition of the business the President said : " We have to 

 congratulate ourselves upon the improved tone of the nursery 

 business. Nursery stock is worth from twenty-five per cent. 

 to forty per cent, more at wholesale than it was a year ago, 

 but this is no good reason why indiscriminate planting should 

 be indulged in, for the fact is that the past prevailing low 

 prices have discouraged heavy settings, and the overplus has 

 thus been .reduced, and prices raised to a point where it pays 

 the grower to produce stock." 



Mr. Emery advocated among the improvements to be de- 

 sired the official adoption of a general telegraphic code by 

 which orders could be abbreviated, and time and expense 

 saved ; and on the subject of the World's Fair he said : "The 

 fact is patent that California is determined to control the Hor- 

 ticultural Department The work of the Classification Com- 

 mittee, of which a member from California is chairman, is 

 pathetic in its ludicrousness. That they assign four classes to 

 horticulture and fourteen to viticulture shows the animus. A 

 chief of the Horticultural Department, a Californian, has been 

 appointed ; his appointment has not been confirmed — the 

 principal opposition coming both from his own state and from 

 the horticulturists of the country at large. Under his manage- 

 ment and dictation we can expect the wines, brandies and 

 citrus fruits of California to head the procession, and her dried 

 fruits and flavorless orchard products to occupy space that 

 rightfully should belong to the class. of fruits that are the bone 

 and sinew, so to speak, of the business. A vigorous protest 

 against such folly is in order, and failing to secure the recog- 

 nition that our suggestions, as the nurserymen of the United 

 States, entitle us to, we ought to wash our hands of the entire 

 matter." 



The committee who made a report on the President's ad- 

 dress also protested against the World's Fair classification, 

 and resolved, "That we most earnestly protest against the ap- 

 pointment of Mr. Walter S. Maxwell, of California, as Chief of 

 the Division of Horticulture of the World's Columbian Expo- 

 sition, believing as we do that there should be a man at the 

 head of this great work who, by taste, knowledge, experience 

 and acquaintance, is in full touch and sympathy with every 

 horticultural interest of this great country." 



Wm. C. Barry, of New York, E. L. Watrous, of Iowa, N. H. 

 Albaugh, of Ohio, and Charles W. Garfield, of Michigan, were 

 appointed a committee to meet the Board of Directors of the 

 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, to present to that 

 body the action of the Association. 



Among other resolutions adopted by the Association was 

 one commending the work done for horticulture through the 

 Eleventh Census, and tendering thanks to the superintendent 

 and to Mr. J. H. Hale, the special agent, for the complete in- 

 vestigation which had been made of the nursery interests in 

 the United States, and requesting the superintendent to issue 

 a bulletin report of this, work similar to the one on floriculture 

 before the opening of the fall season. 



It was decided to hold the next annual meeting at Atlanta, 

 Georgia, and the following list of officers was elected : Presi- 

 dent, J. Van Lindley, North Carolina ; Vice-President, W. J. 

 Peters, Ohio ; Secretary, C. A. Green, New York ; Treasurer, 

 G. A. Whiting, Dakota. Executive Committee — W. F. Heikes, 

 Alabama ; W. C. Barry, New York ; G. J. Carpenter, Nebraska. 



Extracts from some of the addresses delivered at the meet- 

 ing are given below : 



GROWING AND MANAGEMENT OF EVERGREENS FROM THE SEED, 



This subject was treated by Charles F. Gardener, of Iowa, 

 who said : 



" In growing evergreens from seed the beds are prepared 

 four feet wide, running east and west, and raised three to 

 four inches. Stakes fourteen inches high are driven on the 

 north side, and twelve inches high on the south side of the 

 beds ; on these stakes are nailed strips of boards two inches 

 wide and one inch thick. The seed is sown broad-cast, at 

 about the rate of four to the square inch, after the soil is well 

 pulverized by raking, and a garden-roller is run over the bed, 

 lengthwise, twice if necessary, to firm each seed in its place 

 in the earth. The beds are then covered with evergreen 

 leaves to the depth of two inches. As soon as the seeds sprout 

 the leaves are raked into the alleys between the beds, and the 

 beds covered with white sand from one-quarter to half an 

 inch in depth. 



" Shades are made of lath put together in frames four feet 

 square, with the lath three-quarters of an inch apart ; and the 

 frames are put on the strips nailed to the top of the stakes, the 

 lath crossing the bed north and south. 



" When the evergreen leaves are taken off, the sand is put on 

 as fast as the leaves are removed. The leaves must be slightly 

 shuffled back and forth while being removed, to kill the 

 weeds that have started, and the little trees will have a per- 

 fectly clean bed to make their appearance on. The lath-frames 

 are put on as soon as the beds are covered with sand. We 

 never water the beds, and if cracks appear more sand is put on. 



" After the trees appear above the sand, and before the seed- 

 shells have dropped off, dry sand is sprinkled over the beds 

 in sufficient quantity to fill all little cracks and holes that may 

 appear. The beds should be carefully hand-weeded the first 

 season, and if a good stand is secured the first year the weeds 

 will trouble but little the second year. 



" We leave the lath-frames on until they are needed the next 

 season to cover new beds. In damp, cloudy weather we raise 

 them to an almost perpendicular position, thus giving the 

 plants all the air and light possible ; they should be replaced 

 as soon as the sun comes out. 



" Trees should not remain in the seed-beds longer than one 

 or two years. Yearling trees should always be bedded out ; 

 two-year-old trees may be bedded or planted into double 

 nursery rows ; in either case they require no shade. 



" The birds must be kept away from these beds, especially 

 from White Pine beds, or they will take every tree as fast as 

 it makes its appearance. The worst birds with us are the 

 blue-jay and turtle-dove." 



GEORGIA AS A FRUIT-GROWING STATE. 



Major Gessner, general agent of the Central Railroad of 

 Georgia, said : 



"Five years ago little serious attention was given to fruit- 

 growing for market in Georgia. Since that time, however, 

 railroad facilities have been increased, so that we can supply 

 fruits very early to northern markets and place them there in 

 good condition. As a consequence we have realized perhaps 

 the largest prices that were ever paid for peaches in the New 

 York market, which was twenty dollars a bushel for the earli- 

 est Alberta peaches. Usually the first shipments of peaches 

 are made about the 20th of May. They are expressed to 

 Savannah, and thence to New York by steamer — something 

 like two and a half or three days' journey. Year before last 

 the Georgia peach crop brought better prices and had a better 

 sale in the New York market than Delaware peaches. Grapes, 

 too, are proving profitable, and we have been receiving, for 

 our early ones, five cents a pound at the station. 



"Within the past two years the capacities of our state for 

 growing fruit has attracted much attention. Near the centre 



