288 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 173. 



Cape of Good Hope and in certain isolated spots in Europe. 

 The whole plant has a strong, penetrating and notably aro- 

 matic odor, and, as it acts temporarily on the nervous system 

 and in subduing cramps, it is useful as a mild medicine and 

 tonic. 



The statue of Mr. James S. T. Stranahan, which had been 

 placed near the main entrance of Prospect Park, was unveiled 

 on the 6th of June. It is the work of Mr. W. Frederick 

 M'Monnies, a young artist who was born in Brooklyn and has 

 lived for some years in Paris, and is the gift of the citizens of 

 Brooklyn. Statues to living men are not often erected, but 

 the exceptional honor was, in this case, well deserved, and, of 

 course, it was fitting that Mr. Stranahan's figure should be 

 placed where it would typify the greatest of his many services 

 to his native town — the leading part he played in the establish- 

 ment of Prospect Park. 



A figure is published in the issue of the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle of May 3d of a hybrid Sweet-brier Rose, with bright crim- 

 son flowers. This interesting plant was raised by Lord Pen- 

 zance, and was described by him in a paper on the hybridization 

 of species of Rose published in the eleventh volume of the 

 Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. It was raised 

 from the Austrian Brier, fertilized with the pollen of the Sweet- 

 brier, and is said to be intermediate between the two parents, 

 its foliage having the fragrance of the Sweet-brier, while the 

 flower, which is two inches across, is pale crimson, flushed 

 on the under-surface with fawn-colored tints. 



Few people know, perhaps, that any article of food is im- 

 ported into this country from Egypt, but, according to the 

 New York Tribune, that country sends us large quantities of 

 onions, as many as 50,000 bushels often arriving in a single 

 week. The onions, which are shipped from Alexandria to 

 Liverpool, and thence to New York, are small and yellow, and 

 not so good as those grown in this country, while they natu- 

 rally deteriorate somewhat during their long voyage ; but they 

 are readily sold, because the price asked in Egypt is so low 

 that, after adding freight charges and a duty of forty cents per 

 bushel, a bag, containing nearly two bushels, is sold here for 

 two dollars or two dollars and a half. 



We have received a copy of the " Flora of New Bedford 

 and the Shores of Buzzard's Bay," which is a careful revision 

 of "A Catalogue of Plants found in New Bedford and its Vicin- 

 ity," published thirty years ago. The author, E. W. Hervey, 

 has made corrections in the nomenclature, and has added to 

 the earlier list of plants such as have since come to his notice. 

 An important part of this work is the "Procession of the 

 Flowers," the object of which is to show the precise time of 

 the year when each plant begins to flower. In this list the 

 more conspicuous of the cultivated trees, shrubs and vines are 

 included, and the dates will be found to answer fairly well for 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Inasmuch as 

 the flowers of the. same locality bloom every year with sur- 

 prising regularity as to time, if we except some variations in 

 the season of early spring flowers, one in search of a particu- 

 lar flower, if informed as to the time of its appearance, does 

 not make a fruitless search by going too early or too late. 



The Vossische Zeitung recently gave an interesting account 

 of a gardener named Adophe Vard, living at Aubevage, near 

 Gaillon, in Normandy, to whom a decoration had just been 

 awarded by the French Academy. It seems that for thirty 

 years Vard was employed as an oiler at the railway station in 

 Vernon, and devoted himself to gardening only after he had 

 earned the right to retire on a pension. But during many pre- 

 vious years he had spent his leisure hours in self-instruction 

 to such good purpose that, without a teacher, he learned to 

 read Greek and Latin as well as gained an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the classic writers of France. Later in life he es- 

 sayed poetical composition himself. His chief work is a 

 charming story in rhyme, called " Le Rfive de Muguette," in 

 which the taste which turned him toward gardening is clearly 

 evinced. Vard was too poor to publish this work, but the cost 

 was borne by one of his friends, a neighboring inn-keeper ; 

 and it is the success of " Le Reve de Muguette" which has 

 brought him the purple ribbon bestowed for distinguished ac- 

 complishment in letters or the arts. 



A writer in Gartenflora declares that if the present love for 

 Chrysanthemums, which, almost everywhere in the north of 

 Europe, hasbecomealmostacraze, everspreads through theex- 

 trem esouth.it will prove that there is nothing that Dame Fashion 

 cannot accomplish, for, he says, in southern Italy the Chrysan- 

 themum is the "Flower of Death," and is rarely grown except 

 in graveyards, or near by, for the purpose of decorating graves 



at the feast of All Saints. If it is seen in a garden the place is 

 pretty sure to belong to a foreigner ; no native would stick a 

 Chrysanthemum in his button-hole, and the writer doubts 

 whether ladies will ever fill their vases with them, and declares 

 that he has seen an Englishwoman stared at by a wondering 

 crowd in the streets of Naples because she was carrying an 

 armful of these " unlucky death-flowers." At All Saints, how- 

 ever, the cemeteries become perfect "seas of Chrysanthemum- 

 blossoms," other flowers seldom being mingled with them, 

 and they are profusely planted near graves and along the bor- 

 ders of the cemeteries. In no part of Europe, continues the 

 author, could the Chrysanthemum be grown to better ad- 

 vantage than in southern Italy, for it is green all the year 

 round, and blooms from July to January. It often occurs wild, 

 even in good old varieties with double flowers, although 

 these" seem to ripen seeds only now and then, and one form is 

 entirely naturalized — a single yellow-flowered form — which 

 grows in a somewhat ragged way, but is well covered with 

 pretty green leaves which retain their freshness even in times 

 of great drought. 



On Thursday evening, June nth, the students of the 

 College of Agriculture of Cornell University held a grand 

 jubilee and banquet to celebrate the prosperity of the 

 college, and in honor of the graduating class, which is the 

 largest in the history of that department of the university. 

 President Adams, of the university, Ex-president White, 

 Hon. O. B. Potter, of New York, and other distinguished 

 guests were present, and made admirable speeches on the 

 history and aims of agricultural education. The elaborate 

 banquet was quite unique, in that everything on the tables, ex- 

 cept the sugar and spices, was supplied by the farm and gar- 

 dens of the department of agriculture. The farm furnished a 

 large variety of breads, meats, and dairy products ; the horti- 

 cultural grounds and forcing-houses, fruits and vegetables; 

 while the conservatories of the botanical department, in 

 addition to a splendid display of decorative plants, sup- 

 plied some very beautiful specimens of tropical fruits, 

 including bananas, oranges, lemons, and figs. In an ad- 

 joining room the various departments of the College of 

 Agriculture had also contributed to a very attractive exhibi- 

 tion of implements, products and appliances for laboratory 

 study. With strong men at the head of all its departments, 

 the College of Agriculture now seems to be entering upon 

 an era of great promise. Several of the highest honors of the 

 university have this year been awarded to students of the 

 college, and work is soon to be commenced upon a new 

 building, which is to be equal to the best of those occupied by 

 other departments of the university. 



Walter Baker & Co. , of Dorchester, Massachusetts, have issued 

 a handsome volume, entitled "The Chocolate Plant and its 

 Products," in which is given a full and very interesting outline 

 of the early history of the Chocolate-plant, with a sketch of 

 the primitive methods employed in cultivating it and in utiliz- 

 ing the seeds, with an account of the introduction of the 

 beverage into Europe, to which are added a botanical de- 

 scription of the plant and its commercial relations, with micro- 

 scopic and chemical characters of the seeds as they appear in 

 commerce, an estimate of the value of chocolate as an article 

 of food, with suggestions relative to the cooking of chocolate 

 and cocoa and receipts for using it in different forms. The 

 historical value of the publication is very much enhanced 

 by the introduction of a number of fac-similes of engrav- 

 ings taken from early European works. The first of these, 

 from a rare volume by Bontokoe, shows the Chocolate-plant 

 bearing its large fruit from the main stem and growing under 

 the shade of a larger tree. This is interesting, showing the 

 fact, now generally recognized, that the Chocolate-plant can 

 only be grown successfully in the shade was realized more 

 than three centuries ago. Interesting, too, is the photograph 

 of the flat mortar used by the natives of tropical America for 

 grinding the seeds of the Chocolate. This was done by means 

 of a roller, or short thick stone of cylindrical shape, which 

 could be used with both hands in the same way that the com- 

 mon rolling-pin is used. A fact which will be surprising to 

 most readers certainly is brought out in the history of the 

 Chocolate-plant, that is, that chocolate was used as a beverage 

 in Europe before either tea or coffee was employed anywhere 

 in western Europe. The volume is avowedly an advertise- 

 ment of the firm whose name appears on the title-page. As 

 an advertisement, however, it is a model of its kind, beauti- 

 fully printed and illustrated, and full of curious and interest- 

 ing information which is not accessible to one person in a 

 hundred thousand of those who use the seeds of the Choco- 

 late-tree in some form or other nearly every day of their lives. 



