o 



84 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 181. 



substance identical in its qualities has been procured from 

 other sources also, as from Beet-sugar, Asparagus, Asafcetida 

 and the ashes of Olive-wood ; and it is now stated in the 

 Illusirirte Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, that the seeds of Rosa 

 canina contain it in such large quantities that they will soon 

 " rival the Vanilla-bean in the trade." 



In the last number of The American Florist, Mr. Edwin Lons- 

 dale comments on the fact that there are so few clear yellow 

 flowers among the new sorts of dwarf French Cannas, and so 

 many which arc spotted and freckled. Mr. Lonsdale tridy re- 

 marks that the public taste favors self-colors, and he wisely 

 counsels the raisers of new Cannas to turn their attention to 

 the production of such varieties. 



We have received from the American Economic Association 

 Part Three of the sixth volume of- their publications. This con- 

 tains the papers by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Mr. Edward A. Bowers, 

 and Mr. B. E. Fernow, which were read last winter before the 

 American Forestry Association. All three of these essays will 

 be found to have great interest and value to every one who is 

 giving any thought to the subject of Forestry in America. 



We have observed that the hybrid Clematises are blooming 

 with remarkable freedom in many places this year, and a pho- 

 tograph of a specimen of Clematis Jackmanni, on the grounds 

 of Mr. Charles Mead, of Goshen, New York, has been sent to 

 this office, which shows a remarkable plant. It spreads over 

 a trellis more than twenty feet high and almost as wide, and 

 seems literally covered with large and perfectly formed flow- 

 ers. 



To show the abundance of oranges in Paraguay, Mr. Theo- 

 dore Childs, writing recently in Harper's Magazine, cites the 

 case o£ a plantation owned by an Englishman where there are 

 20,000 Orange-trees, but for want of means of transportation 

 the fruit has no market value. " Under the trees the oranges 

 lie on the ground a foot deep, and the cattle eat them and fat- 

 ten well." As the people have oranges in this abundance and 

 a plenty of mandioca, too, " they need not work, and they will 

 not work." 



The published programme of the meeting of the Society of 

 American Florists, to be held in Toronto next week, shows 

 that the subjects to be discussed are of the highest practical 

 interest. The different members of the Committee on Nomen- 

 clature, each of whom is giving attention to a particular 

 flower, have been actively at work, and there is promise that 

 much good will be done in the way of bringing about some- 

 thing like uniformity of names in the catalogues of garden- 

 plants in commerce. 



In an article on " American Roses," published in the Illus- 

 irirte Gartenzeitung for July, it is stated that "the possibility 

 of growing Roses so that cut flowers may be had from them 

 at all seasons of the year is the result of American methods of 

 culture" ; and that " thus far the Americans have, in all, pro- 

 duced thirty new Roses." These are then named and de- 

 scribed at considerable length. The article concludes by say- 

 ing that " as Waban is the last in our list of American Roses, 

 so it will probably prove, with The Bride, to be the best of 

 them all." 



As to the connection between the density of timber and the 

 rapidity of growth, Dr. Schlich, in his manual, states that in 

 the case of broad- leaved species, which have the pores in the 

 spring-portion of the wood, a large annual growth, indicated 

 by wide rings, shows high quality ; and narrow rings show 

 low quality. It is probable that the same rule holds good for 

 species which have the pores distributed uniformly over the 

 ring. In conifers, however, the reverse is the case, broad 

 rings representing inferior quality and narrow rings the 

 opposite. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle recently announced that a Rose 

 with variegated leaves has been obtained from a branch of 

 the Charles Lefebvre Rose, the foliage of which was richly 

 marked with golden spots, and, when young, was of bron/.e 

 color with a carmine tinge. In commenting upon this nov- 

 elty a German journal says that it will " meet a deeply felt 

 need " ; but all true lovers of Roses and all those who have a 

 keen sense of what constitutes beauty and harmony in a plant 

 will continue, we think, to prefer Rose-trees with old-fashioned 

 foliage of simple green. 



A few shrubs which flower abundantly early in the season 

 have the merit ot producing blooms occasionally all summer 

 long. There is hardly a day from early June until frost comes, 

 for example, when a well-grown specimen of Rhodotypus ker- 

 rioides will not give a few sprays with a single flower at their 



extremities. The pure white blossom among the light green 

 leaves is very attractive, and a half-dozen of these sprays will 

 help to add lightness and grace to a vase of the highly colored 

 flowers which usually prevail at this season. It is also a point 

 in favor of Rosa rugosa that, even in this hot August weather, 

 it is rarely altogether without bloom. 



The twenty-third biennial session of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society will begin at the hall of the National Museum, 

 in the city of Washington, on the 22d of September, at 10 a.m., 

 and will continue for three days. The preliminary programme 

 shows that more than the usual attention will be given to 

 scientific pomology, while the commercial aspects of fruit- 

 growing will by no means be neglected. Judging from the 

 titles of the essays and the standing of the men who are to 

 prepare them, it may be safely predicted that the meeting will 

 be one of more than ordinary interest. The society offers no 

 premiums, but there will be an exhibition, as usual, and the 

 Wilder medals will be awarded to fruits of special merit. 



It has been for many years a current newspaper item that 

 one of our well-known weeds, the Mullein, is a common gar- 

 den ornament in Europe, where it is called the American Vel- 

 vet Plant. The same statement has been recently made in an 

 article in one of our leading magazines ; but the fact is, that 

 our way-side Mullein grows as commonly by European way- 

 sides as by our own, and any traveler can see it from the win- 

 dows of his railway carriage without searching for it in 

 gardens. Further than this, it is not an American plant at all, 

 but one of those exotics which followed the white man across 

 the sea, and has now become firmly established here. A ref- 

 erence to Gray's Manual will show that, although it is now a 

 common weed, it is said to be naturalized from Europe. 



An interesting feature of the methods by which Paris is so 

 profusely supplied with flowers at all seasons of the year is 

 the localization of their culture. Almost all the Azaleas come 

 from Versailles ; Neuilly is devoted to Lilies-of-the- Valley, 

 Fontenay to Roses, and Fontenay-sous-bois to Parma Violets 

 (which are also grown at Clamart and Verrieres in large quan- 

 tities) and to Cinerarias and Chinese Primroses. From Vitry- 

 sur-Seine come chiefly Lilacs, and Roses from Jory, Bourg-la- 

 Reine and Brie Comte Robert, while Montreuil, famous for its 

 peaches, also produces Camellias, Gardenias, Narcissuses, Hya- 

 cinths, Hydrangeas and Cyclamens. Between 400 and 500 

 gardeners give themselves up to supplying the Paris trade, 

 and at Vitry, in addition to twenty gardeners who cultivate 

 Lilacs, there are ten who make a specialty of Orchids, fifteen 

 who grow Ferns, and one who grows Orange-flowers only. 



A report on the cultivation of Sisal Hemp in the United 

 States, made by Mr. Charles Richard Dodge as special agent, 

 has just been published under the authority of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. It has been proved beyond question that the 

 Sisal Hemp-plant will grow in this country, for it was intro- 

 duced into Florida more than fifty years ago, and it is now 

 growing wild in many portions of that state. Much is to be 

 learned, however, concerning the growth of the plant and the 

 best means of extracting the fibre, and this report, which em- 

 bodies a very thorough investigation regarding the industry 

 in general, seems to be a timely one. More than 60,000 tons 

 of this hemp, amounting in value to some $10,000,000, have 

 been imported into this country during the last two years, and 

 this does not include the imported articles manufactured from 

 the hemp, which are considerable. The hemp is used in 

 America largely for the manufacture of rope, binding-twine 

 and similar cordage, and is regarded as one of the most valu- 

 able of the commercial fibres. 



Mr. J. J. Thomas, in the Country Gentleman, remarks that 

 the Baldwin, which once stood far above all other winter ap- 

 ples for marketing, has lately failed in western New York. It 

 is not improbable that the trees of this variety may again bear 

 abundantly, and yet, although successful apple-growers must 

 depend in the main on a few varieties, every grower should 

 have a knowledge of a more extended list. It is a good plan, 

 therefore, to select a dozen or twenty kinds for a trial orchard, 

 which in a few years will give its owner the information he 

 wants. Mr. Thomas gives the following list of Apples which 

 are easily procured of reliable nurserymen, and with which he 

 thinks every one who grows apples should be acquainted : 

 Baker, Belmont, Buckingham, Canada Reinette, Chenango 

 Strawberry, Cogswell, Cole's Quince, Danver's Sweet, Dyer, 

 Evening Party, Fanny, Grimes' Golden, Lawyer, Mcintosh 

 Red, Mother, Richard's Graft, Smokehouse, Shiawasse, Shock- 

 ley, Sutton, Wealthy, and such common varieties as Peck's 

 Pleasant, Jonathan, Lowell, Hubbardston and many others. 



