July i, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



3ii 



$120,841.93, an income which ought to enable the managers to 

 develop in time the most important botanical establishment 

 in the world. 



Professor Trelease has, very wisely we think, devoted much 

 attention to building up a great library and to placing the her- 

 barium on a good working basis. These two are always the 

 important departments in a garden of this nature. Without 

 them a scientific garden cannot be maintained or operated, 

 and its fame and usefulness will be great or small in propor- 

 tion as these departments are largely or imperfectly developed. 

 The garden is fortunate in possessing the herbarium which 

 was formed by the late Dr. Engelmann, and which is especially 

 rich in those families of plants which he studied specially, 

 such as the Cactacecc, the Conifers, the Oaks, the Gentians, etc. 

 It contains the types of many species, and must always be 

 consulted by persons who desire to learn everything that there 

 is to be known about these plants. 



The library, it appears, has received constant additions 

 during the year, no less than $6,000 having been expended for 

 the purchase of books. Numerous donations, all mainly in 

 the form of pamphlets, have been made to it. Little attention 

 has been paid to the purchase of recent works, the available 

 funds being used in securing rare old works and in completing 

 the necessary sets of serials. This is as it should be, for the 

 older books on botany are every year becoming scarcer and 

 more expensive, and good judges of such matters believe that 

 at the end of another fifteen or twenty years many standard 

 works will have entirely disappeared from the market, many 

 public libraries now buying them, not only in the United 

 States, but in Australia and other English-speaking colonies. 



We venture to congratulate Professor Trelease on the sub- 

 stantial progress he is making in building up an institution 

 which Mr. Shaw's liberality has made possible. That his suc- 

 cess is real, and that he is working on the right lines, this hand- 

 some volume abundantly indicates. 



7?. viscosa, Cercis Canadensis , Gymnocladus Canadensis (the 

 staminate flowers only being shown), Gleditschia triacanthos , 

 Primus Americana, P. Chicasa, Cerasus Pennsylvanica, C. Vir- 

 giniana, C serotina, Pyrus coronaria and Cornus alternifolia. 



The Forest-trees of I^orth Ainerica. By Asa Gray. Plates 

 prepared between the years 1849-1859. Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, Washington, 1891. 



When the Smithsonian Institution was established, the first 

 secretary, the late Professor Joseph Henry, proposed to pub- 

 lish a series of contributions to knowledge consisting of 

 memoirs on different branches of sciences, as well as a series 

 of reports on the progress of knowledge to be of a more popu- 

 lar nature and intended for wider distribution than the contri- 

 butions. The second of the latter series undertaken by the 

 Institution was announced in the secretary's report of 1848, 

 and was to consist of a report on the forest-trees of North 

 America, by Dr. Asa Gray. It was intended in the work to 

 give figures from original drawings of the flowers, leaves, 

 fruit, etc., of each principal species in the United States proper, 

 for the most part of the size of nature, and so executed as to 

 furnish colored or uncolored copies, the first being intended 

 to give an adequate idea of the species, and the second for 

 greater cheapness and for general diffusion. It was pro- 

 posed to accompany this report with an introductory disserta- 

 tion giving the present state of the knowledge of the subject, 

 divested as much as possible of all unnecessary technical 

 terms, of the anatomy, morphology and physiology of the 

 tree, tracing its growth from the embryo to its full develop- 

 ment and reproduction by the formation of the fruit and seed. 

 A number of plates of this work were made, but Dr. Gray's 

 absence in Europe, and the many calls made upon his time 

 while at home, prevented him from ever preparing any text to 

 accompany them. The work was found to be an expensive 

 undertaking, and after about ten years had been devoted to 

 preparing a number of plates it was finally suspended, and the 

 whole matter was allowed to rest until some more favorable 

 opportunity should present itself for carrying it on. This time 

 never came, and the stones engraved from beautifully colored 

 drawings by Isaac Sprague, with a number of imprints from 

 them, remained in Dr. Gray's custody at Cambridge until after 

 his death, which occurred three years ago. They were then 

 sent to Washington, and the present secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Professor Langley, has determined to dis- 

 tribute them to the principal botanists and museums of the 

 world "as mementos of the distinguished man who gave so 

 much of his life and labors to this department of knowledge." 

 They are now issued in pamphlet form. The species which 

 are illustrated are Magnolia grandiftora, M. glauca, M. Fraseri 

 (which to our mind is the most attractive picture of the series), 

 Liriodendron Tulipifera, Tilia Americana, Acer ritbrum, A. 

 spicatum, AZsculus glabra, sE. discolor (that is, JE. octandra 

 hybrida of the new Silva of North America), JE. parviftora 

 (which can hardly be considered a tree), Robinia Pseudacacia, 



Exhibitions. 

 The Massachusetts Horticultural Show. 



HPHE Rose and Strawberry Show of the Massachusetts 

 -*- Horticultural Society, held in Boston on Tuesday, Wednes- 

 day and Thursday of last week, fell far behind similar exhi- 

 bitions in late years, both in the number and quality of the 

 exhibits. This was due to the unprecedented weather of the 

 previous month. A dry spring with late frosts was followed 

 in early June by a period of exceptional drought, with 

 three or four days of intense heat, followed in the week pre- 

 ceding the show by a cold rain-storm of several days' dura- 

 tion. Nothing could be much worse for the production of 

 good Roses, as the exhibition showed. 



The local exhibitors made a poor show, and if it had not 

 been for the large collections of flowers sent by Mr. Joseph S. 

 Fay, of Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, there would hardly have 

 been a Rose show at all. The effect of climate was clearly 

 shown in Mr. Fay's flowers, which have been subjected to less 

 trying conditions than those grown in the eastern part of the 

 state. Mr. Fay took no less than eight first prizes for Roses, 

 besides making a good show of vegetables, for which he took 

 also several prizes. Among individual Roses shown none, 

 perhaps, were better than the pure white Gloria Lyonaise, 

 a rather tender Rose usually, but this year seen in unusual 

 perfection. Very fine, too, were Prince de Portia and Thomas 

 Mills. Unusually good specimens of Her Majesty, a very miffy 

 subject usually, were shown by William Patterson, of Quincy. 

 The special prize for the Ulrich Brunner Rose, offered by 

 Dixon & Sons, of Belfast, brought out some good examples of 

 this fine Rose — Joseph S. Fay being awarded the first and 

 John L. Gardner the second prizes. 



Mr. E. W. Gilmore, of North Easton, staged a collection of 

 small, well-grown and well-flowered Orchids, taking the first 

 prize for six, the second going to John L. Gardner. The prize 

 for the best specimen Orchid was also awarded to Mr. Gil- 

 more for an excellent plant of Phala:nopsis grandiftora. A 

 remarkable specimen of Ouvirandafenestralis was shown by 

 R. Gardner, gardener to Cornelius Vanderbilt, Esq., of New- 

 port. This is a curious aquatic plant from Madagascar known 

 as the Lace-leaf, or Lattice-leaf-plant, with long narrow leaves 

 composed of a net-work of vascular tissue resembling lace or 

 a window covered with lattice-work. It has to be grown in 

 water in a high temperature. Mr. Gardner's plant was admira- 

 bly grown, and was shown in a large tub of water placed im- 

 mediately under an electric light, so that visitors in the 

 evening could see and enjoy the peculiar structure of the fo- 

 liage. Benjamin Gray, of Maiden, showed a tub with a flow- 

 ering plant of the always attractive and interesting Japanese 

 Nelumbium, and the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop sent pots of 

 Gloxinias and of tuberous Begonias, besides a large collection 

 of Gloxinia-flowers of an excellent strain. 



The Strawberries, like the Roses, showed the effects of the 

 dry season. The first prize was taken by Mr. Joseph S. Cowles, 

 the gardener of Fairman Rogers, Esq., of Newport, for Sharp- 

 less. The second and third prizes were taken by Belmont, now 

 a great favorite in eastern Massachusetts, as judged by the 

 number of exhibits of this variety. Among newer kinds, the 

 Haverland seemed to be the most deserving. 



Mr. Fay showed specimens of Blonde Blockhead Lettuce of 

 enormous size, surpassing, it is said, anything ever seen be- 

 fore in Massachusetts, although inferior to the Deacon Lettuce, 

 sent by the same contributor, and which took the first prize. 



Notes. 



The third and final part of the "Provisional Host-Index of 

 the Fungi of the United States," by William G. Farlow and 

 A. B. Seymour, has appeared. 



Mr. H. W. S. Cleveland, of Minneapolis, has associated with 

 him, as an active partner in the professional work of land- 

 scape-gardening, his son, Mr. Ralph D. Cleveland. 



Our correspondent, Mr. George Dawson, the assistant 

 director of the Geological Survey of Canada, has been ap- 

 pointed a commissioner on the part of Great Britain to settle 

 the Behring Sea controversy. 



