September 9, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



427 



a doubt. Another grand Lily now in flower is L. longi- 

 florum Takesima, the most dwarf of all the varieties, and 

 better and more certain than the Bermuda Lily. It grows 

 about eighteen inches high, and carries on the strongest 

 stems as many as six flowers. It is also grown in peat in 

 beds mixed with Kalmias and Heaths. It is one of the 

 finest plants we have for the greenhouse as well as the 

 open border. Rarer Lilies in flower are L. Henryi, a new 

 species from west China, which has the Habit of growth of 

 L. speciosum, and with flowers of similar shape and size, 

 but a pale orange-yellow like L. Leichtlini, a very choice 

 Lily, also in bloom now. Probably L. HenryiwiW develop 

 into a fine garden Lily, for one cannot judge of a new plant 

 the first season. Another new Lily is L. chloraster, which 

 Mr. W. Baker first regarded as a variety of L. longiflorum, but * 

 which he now considers as good a species as L. Brownii. 

 It is not unlike this last, except that on the outside it 

 lacks the claret-colored stainings. Inside it is a pale green ; 

 hence the name given to it. L. Formosanum, also a va- 

 riety of L. longiflorum, has an interest for the Lily special- 

 ist, but in no way rivals the older and commoner, varie- 

 ties. 



Among other bulbous plants in flower at Kew is a white 

 variety of Crinum Moorei, itself one of the loveliest of 

 greenhouse plants, but the white form of it is even more 

 beautiful, the great open flowers being spotless white 

 and delicately perfumed. C. Moorei flowers more or 

 less continuously throughout the summer, and grows into 

 a noble plant with massive foliage and with stems four or 

 five feet high. 



A beautiful species of Gladiolus in flower now is G. 

 decoralus, as it was named a few years ago by Mr. Baker 

 when received from south Africa. It is a slender plant 

 with medium-sized flowers, forming a loose spike. The 

 petals are a bright scarlet, the three lower ones being 

 adorned with large blotches of clear chrome-yellow, mak- 

 ing a striking contrast of color. It will, doubtless, be of 

 value to the hybridist, who seizes upon everything to 



create new combinations of color. TTT _ , , . 



London. W. Goldnng. 



Cultural Department. 

 Apples in Maine. 



IT is stated that of the forty-seven varieties of apples starred 

 by the American Pomological Society for Maine, only 

 seventeen varieties are double-starred, "to indicate great 

 superiority in that state.' But double-starring indicates only 

 great commercial value ; quality being indicated in the 

 Society's lists by letters — g., v. g. and b., for "good," "very 

 good" and " best." This does not seem to be so well under- 

 stood as it should be. When we come to examine the lists of 

 the Society, however, we at once see that comparatively few 

 of the very good and best sorts are double-starred ; while 

 many sorts of inferor quality, such as Ben Davis and Olden- 

 burgh, receive double stars on account of their commercial 

 value only. As Maine is too far north to grow some varieties 

 much valued in southern New England and the middle states, 

 it is quite easy to see why her double-starred list is not so large 

 as it otherwise might be. 



In this connection it is important to understand that the 

 rating of fruits on the American Society's lists is dependent 

 wholly upon the opinions of those fruit-growers who are 

 members of the Society, and attend and take part in its meet- 

 ings. No one else has any authority to modify the starring 

 or lettering, and it thus often happens that the larger portion 

 of a state is quite unrepresented as to the relative values of its 

 fruits. It is entirely safe to say that, as to the quality and 

 commercial value of the fruits of Maine, their status repre- 

 sents the opinions of fruit-growers south of forty-five degrees, 

 although quite three-fourths of the state is north of that 

 parallel. The same fact also applies to New Hampshire and 

 Vermont. 



It is worth noting which are the double- starred Apples of 

 Maine. They are : Early Harvest, Fameuse, Gravenstein, 

 Hubbardston, Jewett's Red, Minister, Mother, Northern Spy, 

 Oldenburgh, Porter, Red Astrachan, Red Canada, Rhode 

 Island Greening, Sops of Wine, Tetofsky, Tompkins' King 



and Williams. Of these only five, namely, Fameuse, Olden- 

 burgh, Red Astrachan, Sops of Wine and Tetofsky can be prof- 

 itably grown north of the latitude of Bangor. The Baldwin 

 is not on this list, although it is the most extensively grown 

 and most profitable apple of south-eastern Maine. Its profit- 

 able area, however, is limited to parts of five or six counties 

 only. 



It is understood that the Maine Pomological Society will 

 recommend, at the Washington meeting of the American 

 Pomological Society, two stars for the Milding, Rolfe and 

 Stark, and one star for Boardman, Dudley's Winter, Gloria 

 Mundi, Golden Sweet and Munson Sweet. But, very singu- 

 larly, the Wealthy, which is quite extensively planted in Maine, 

 and is very successful over nearly the whole state, gets no 

 mention, and the same has to be said' of Yellow Transparent 

 and Scott's Winter, which have proved successful over a large 

 part of the state. Of Dudley's Winter (which has been lately 

 renamed North Star) only the original seedling tree is yet 

 in bearing ; and although a promising sort (a seedling of Old- 

 enburgh) it is hardly yet in a position to receive any rating by 

 so conservative a society as the American Pomological. 



It is quite evident that middle and northern Maine cannot 

 have any very effective representation in the state society, and 

 that this matter of rating is entirely in the hands of persons 

 who, however well informed in the older pomology, are not 

 so well instructed in the newer, albeit the latter is of very 

 great importance to the larger part of that large and produc- 

 tive state. Northern Maine has nothing but its severe winter cli- 

 mate to prevent it from equaling western New York as an 

 orchard region. Its deep and rich limestone soil, and its gen- 

 tly rolling surface, eminently fit it for orchard culture of a high 

 type ; and the recent introduction to our continent of the very 

 distinct races of tree-fruits from eastern Europe, as well as 

 the production at home of several of that class of apples 

 known as the Iron-clads, opens up a great future for such 

 localities. 



It has been so often repeated, and is so widely believed, that 

 these newer fruits are of very slight importance in American 

 pomology, that a more than usual insistence upon, and repeti- 

 tion of, ascertained facts in regard to them is necessary. The 

 efforts of Professor Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, 

 in collecting and testing foreign tree-fruits of great hardiness in 

 the extensive grounds of that institution, are, as yet, hardly 

 estimated at their true value and importance. From my own 

 careful observation and experience I am convinced that it is 

 but a question of time, and not of very long time, when we 

 shall have collected and selected from these fruits a full list of 

 apples, pears, plums and cherries as well adapted to our 

 colder states as the present standard varieties are to the 

 middle states. 



But we are not shut up to these. We are, by selection and 

 the growth of seedlings, rapidly adding to the number of 

 sufficiently hardy native varieties, at least of apples. Our 

 wild native fruits, quite as promising as the originals of other 

 continents, are being developed by selection and culture, so 

 that it is fair to anticipate as successful a future for native 

 apples, cherries and plums as we already see in our native 

 grapes. I submit that it is a worthy and noble work, in which 

 the workers are entitled to respect and encouragement from 

 every well-wisher to his country. 



Newport, Vt. 



Sweet Peas. 



T. H. Hoskins. 



REV. W. T. HUTCHINS, who has made a specialty of these 

 plants, has written an instructive essay about them for 

 the Tolland County (Connecticut) Leader, from which we ex- 

 tract the following by permission : 



" There is some uncertainty as to how many so-called varie- 

 ties really deserve the name ; but they may be divided into 

 three classes : The first class includes those with the form of 

 the old-fashioned Sweet Pea. There are about thirty named 

 varieties of these, and cultivation is putting new blood into 

 them, so that they are now conspicuous for beauty of color and 

 size. These principally take their variety name from the color or 

 markings of the standard, that is, the single erect petal which 

 rises back of the wings. To this class belong the new Blanche 

 Ferry, which is a great improvement on the old Painted Lady, 

 and has a brilliant rose-pink standard and white wings ; Scar- 

 let Invincible, a dazzling scarlet, both in standard and wings ; 

 Invincible Carmine and Cardinal, both but slight variations 

 from the Scarlet ; Vesuvius, blue and violet, shading into' 

 white and dotted, with crimson spots ; Duchess of Edinburgh, 

 an orange-scarlet standard, margined with White ; Primrose, 

 with a suggestion of buff yellow ; Orange Prince, the finest of 



