456 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 187. 



Notes. 



Immense tracts of the Pine-forests which cover the sandy 

 shore regions called the Landes in the vicinity of Bordeaux, in 

 France, were recently destroyed by tire, the (lames spreading 

 so rapidly that at least ten persons — wood-cutters, hunters and 

 charcoal-burners — arc known to have perished. 



Under the title " Berlin ct son Exposition Horticole dc 1890," 

 Monsieur Ernest Bergmann has reprinted from the pages of 

 the Journal dc la Societc Nationals d' Horticulture dc France 

 his account of this important exhibition, in which he took part 

 as a member of the jury for awarding the prizes. 



A new edition of Gray's " Manual of Botany" has just been 

 issued for the special use of the working botanist. The plates 

 are the same as those from which the larger volume was 

 printed, but this is reduced to i2ino size, printed on thin, yet 

 tough, paper, bound in limp leather covers, and is sold for $2. 



We rarely see the Sweet Birch, Betula lenta, planted for 

 ornament, but if allowed room to develop into its full propor- 

 tions it is one of the most graceful of trees. In Laurel Hill 

 Cemetery, in Philadelphia, there is a specimen which stands 

 by itself and has formed an open spreading head of great size, 

 and among the many noteworthy trees in that place this is 

 universally considered one of the most beautiful. 



The variety of Solaimm jasminoides , which has been largely 

 distributed under the name of Grandiflorum, is certainly an 

 admirable summer climber for the garden. The racemes arc 

 much larger and more open than those of the type and often 

 carry as many as twenty flowers ; while the flowers themselves 

 are larger, some of them being an inch and a quarter across. 

 Its foliage is clean and healthy, and of the deepest green, 

 and forms an admirable Ixickground to the pure white flowers 

 which are borne in abundance. 



A fountain covered by a large stone canopy, ornamented 

 with a bronze figure of Hebe, has recently been erected in 

 Tompkins Square in this city. The name of its giver has not 

 been made public, but his gift passed through the hands of 

 the New York Moderation Society. The fountain will supply 

 ice-water to all comers free of charge, and will be adminis- 

 tered by a keeper who will open the faucets at eight in the 

 morning and close them at midnight. It is estimated that in 

 this poor and densely crowded district fully 5,000 persons will 

 daily avail themselves of the luxury thus supplied. 



According to the Popular Science Monthly, there are in Hun- 

 gary about 22,000,000 acres of forest, the Government owning 

 some 3,500,000 acres, while the rest is divided between public 

 corporations and individual owners. "The Government does 

 not sell any part of its forests, but buys more each year. In 

 some parts of the country, as in the eastern region of the Car- 

 pathians, woods are found of several thousand acres in extent, 

 consisting for the most part of Red Beech. This is used for 

 fire-wood, carriages, staves and agricultural implements, and 

 in the manufacture of bent wood. There are few fires, and 

 they seldom permanently damage the woods. There are large 

 resinous forests in Transylvania, but they are not very accessi- 

 ble ; and there are also some in the district of Marmarps, in 

 the north-east of the country." 



The Government report on the condition of the crops notes 

 that the condition of the Potato crop has never been so uni- 

 formly good since the Department of Agriculture began to 

 issue these bulletins. This shows the continued prevalence, 

 in all parts of the country, of favorable conditions. Last year 

 there was a decline of twelve points, during August, in the 

 condition of this crop, which followed the drought in the cen- 

 tral and trans-Mississippi states. This year the rainfall has 

 been distributed, generally, in accordance with the needs of 

 the crop, although there has been some local excess in sec- 

 tions of the country lying east of the Alleghanies, and deficien- 

 cies over small areas in the Ohio Valley. The crop, however, 

 is not entirely out of danger, since the blight appeared during 

 the closing days of August, and the weather conditions since 

 then have been favorable to the development of this disease. 



A law was passed during the last session of the California 

 Legislature making it the duty of the County Board of Horti- 

 cultural Commissioners to inspect orchards, nurseries, or 

 other places in their jurisdiction where they shall deem it 

 necessary, and if such places are found infested with the 

 scale insect, the codlin moth, or other pests injurious to 

 plants or trees, that they shall notify the owner of such a fact, 

 and that they shall request such owner to eradicate or destroy 

 the said pests within a time specified. Such orchards or nur- 

 series are adjudged to be public nuisances, and when their 



owners shall refuse to abate the same within a specified time 

 it shall be the duty of the County Board to destroy said insects, 

 and the expense thereof shall be a county charge. All such 

 sums shall be a lien on the premises from which said nuisance 

 has been removed, and may be recovered by an action against 

 the property, in the name of the county making such payment, 

 and when the property is sold, enough from the proceeds 

 shall be paid into the county treasury to satisfy the lien and 

 costs, and the overplus, if any there be, shall be paid to the 

 owner of the property. 



No. 7 in the "Evolution Series" of pamphlets, published to 

 give permanent form to the lectures and discussions organ- 

 ized by the Brooklyn Ethical Association, is written by Mr. 

 Frederick J. Wulling, and is called " The Evolution of Botany." 

 Its title is somewhat misleading, for it is simply a brief history 

 of the progress of botanical research and knowledge, which 

 closes with a rather forced attempt to prove that this history 

 establishes the truth of the doctrine of evolution. But in 

 itself the pamphlet is an excellent one, supplying an account 

 of the development of the science which, for combined clear- 

 ness and brevity, we do not remember to have seen equaled. 

 The only faults we have to find with it are, that the exact char- 

 acter of the " natural system " of classification, now univer- 

 sally adopted by botanists, might have been more definitely 

 explained, and that the list of American botanists and explorers 

 might have been drawn up with a keener regard for their 

 relative degrees of distinction. For instance, the value of the 

 labors of Rafinesque, Michaux and Pursh should have been 

 more clearly pointed out than by the including of their names 

 in a list of some dozen persons who have " contributed papers 

 on botany to the various scientific journals." 



Mr. C. Wolley Uod contributes to a recent issue of The 

 Garden an account of the Madeira Orchis (Orchis foliosa), 

 which he finds succeeds well in his English garden, where it 

 is growing even more vigorously than the allied British spe- 

 cies, as it is easy to believe from the illustration made from a 

 photograph, and which seems to us to be about as perfect and 

 delightful an illustration of its kind, both in composition and 

 in the exquisite detail with which the wood-engraving has 

 been executed, as we remember to have seen. In speaking 

 of this plant Mr. Dod, who is one of the most skillful culti- 

 vators of hardy plants in England, recommends that "it must 

 be planted in a sheltered place in good, moist, open loam or 

 peat, where the soil does not dry up in summer. The shade 

 of trees is not bad for it, provided their roots do not drain the 

 ground too much, but the food of trees and the food of 

 Orchises seem so different that I have seen this plant growing 

 very fine within the limits of the roots of Lime-trees, espe- 

 cially near water where the subsoil is never dry. It seems to 

 like rich feeding, and, though manure is generally forbidden 

 for bulbs of this kind, I find a top-dressing of leaf-mold, mixed 

 with well-decayed stable refuse, very beneficial to growth. 

 August, when the annual growth is completed but before the 

 leaves have changed color, is the best time for separating the 

 bulbs, when they have increased into a mass and want replant- 

 ing. Neither this nor any other plant ought to be moved when 

 resting. 0. foliosa does very well in large pots, wintered in 

 a cold frame and moved into the greenhouse to flower, as 

 they are there protected from the very injurious spring winds. 

 Among the variable native Orchises included under the names 

 of 0. maculata and 0. latifolia, individuals may be found 

 well -worth cultivating, especially amongst those intermediate 

 forms which are not uncommon where these two species 

 grow together." 



Catalogues Received. 



The Dingee & Conard Company, West Grove, Pa. ; Bulbs, Hardy 

 Shrubs and Plants, etc. — B. A. Elliott Company, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; 

 " Fall Garden Work," with a List of Plants for Fall Planting-. — Peter 

 Henderson & Co., 35 and 37 Cortlandt St., New York, N. Y. ; Bulbs, 

 Plants and Seeds for Autumn Planting.— George S. Josselyn, Fredonia, 

 N. Y. ; American Grape Vines, Small Fruit Plants, etc. — Jacob W. 

 Manning, Reading, Mass. ; Trade List of Hardy Florists' Flowers. — 

 John R. & A. Murdoch, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; Trees, Bulbs, Flowers. — 

 Phcenix Nursery Company, Bloomington, III. ; Wholesale Catalogue 

 of Trees, Plants, Shrubs, Roses, Bulbs, etc. — Pitcher & Manda, 

 Short Hills, N. J. ; Special Offer of the Entire Collection of Orchids 

 brought together by Mr. B. Onorato, New Orleans. Price List of 

 Stove and Greenhouse Plants. Descriptive Bulb and Seed Catalogue. 

 — Rea Brothers, Norwood, Mass. ; Trade Offer of Hardy Herba- 

 ceous Perennials. Appendix to Descriptive Catalogue. — Vilmorin, 

 Andrieux & Co., Paris, France, Theo. Pabst & Co., Sole Agents, 

 26 Barclay Street, New York, N. Y. ; Electrotypes of Original Designs 

 of Flowers, Fruits, Vegetables, etc. — C. B. Whitnai.l & Co., Mil- 

 waukee, Wis. ; Bulbs. 



