462 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number. 188. 



B. racemosa, etc., occur very frequently, though the Sand Bur 

 (Cenchrus tribuloides) is the most characteristic plant where 

 the soil has been plowed, or loosened by the winds. 



The calcareous soils occupy the tops of the hills, and are of 

 smaller extent, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, than Dubuque, Iowa. 

 Birches, especially the Canoe Birch (Betula papyri/era), are 

 a most marked feature of it, but this species is by no means 

 confined to soils of this character. Two other plants only 

 occur, so far as I have observed in this region, on the calca- 

 reous soils ; they are, Zygadenus elegans and Camptosorus 

 rliizopliyllus. 



Loamy soils are by far the most abundant ; they occur on the 

 slightly rolling ridges and in the valleys. The White Oak 

 (Quercus alba) grows excellently in such soil. Alluvial soil 

 does not occupy great areas, except at the mouths of some 

 rivers. The great bottoms of the Mississippi consist mostly 

 of a sandy soil, covered over in some places with a black, rich 

 soil. The White Elm, Box Elder and Soft Maple are com- 

 mon. 



The peaty soils are impassable during early spring and 

 summer. Few trees are able to grow — only an occasional 

 Willow or a Tamarack. The bulk of the vegetation consists 

 of species of Carex and Scirpus. Now and then Lilium Cana- 

 dense, Cypripedium spectabile, or, here and there, patches of 

 Drosera rotundlfolia and Pogonia ophioglossoides, where the 

 soil is very peaty and wet, appear. 



During the past thirty years some important changes have 

 taken place in the growth of timber along the river. The 

 pioneer settler found little timber on the hills, except those 

 with a northern slope. The timber standing on the sunny sides 

 was usually of poor quality, owing to numerous fires. Now 

 these lands are mostly fenced, and fires are kept out, at least 

 by the more enterprising farmers. The bleak hills are being 

 rapidly covered with a forest-growth. 



It is not an uncommon thing to observe patches of Hazel 

 (Cory lus Americana) beyond the outskirts of the timber; 

 here, in course of a few years, will be found Oaks, Birches, 

 Hickories and Poplars. The humus formed where Hazel 

 grows is extremely rich and fertile, and I doubt whether 

 trees could cover our treeless hills very fast without its help 



Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. L, H. Pammel. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



The following plants are figured in the September number 

 of the Botanical Magazine : 



Heritiera macrophylla (t. 7192), a large timber-tree of the 

 East Indies, which has long been known in cultivation as the 

 Looking-glass Plant, and forms a conspicuous feature in the 

 Palm-house at Kew with its' handsome leaves, bright green 

 above, and opaquely silvery beneath, like the silvering on the 

 back of a mirror. It is a large evergreen tree, a native of the 

 forests of Bengal, Silhet, etc. In India it does not, like H. lit- 

 toralis, with which this plant appears to have been usually 

 confounded, affect the sea-coast or tidal swamps ; and it differs 

 from the littoral species in the much larger size of more 

 acuminate leaves, which are also longer-petioled, and in the 

 fruit, which is nearly globose, and furnished with an abrupt 

 flattened beak. 



Tulipa Sintenesii (t. 7193); this pretty dwarf species, which 

 belongs to the Gesneriana group and is closely related to T. 

 undulatifolia and to T. Eichleri, was discovered by Sintenes 

 while traveling in Turkish Armenia to collect bulbs for Max 

 Leichtlin, by whom it has been successfully cultivated and dis- 

 tributed. The flower is two inches long, with nearly uniform, 

 oblong, acute segments, which are dull pale glaucous red out- 

 side, bright scarlet inside, with a large black blotch on the claw 

 with an obscure yellow border. 



Citrus Auraniium, var. Bergamia (t. 7194); this is the so- 

 called Bergamot, or Bergamotte Orange, which is believed to 

 be of a distinct race or variety of the common Orange, although 

 probably better distinguished by its properties than by botani- 

 cal characters, which are more or less variable. The Bergamot 

 resembles the Lemon in its large light-colored fruit, in the 

 elongated cells of the flesh and in its acidity. The tree, how- 

 ever, is less spiny, the young shoots are green, the petioles are 

 only slightly winged, and the smaller flowers are hermaphro- 

 dite, pure "white, and fragrant with a peculiar subaromatic 

 odor. " It is one of the three principal races of the Orange 

 proper as distinguished from the Lemons and Limes, the 

 others being the sweet Orange, which is found truly wild in 

 hot valleys of the eastern Himalaya and the Deccan Peninsula ; 

 the Bigaradia (bitter or Seville Orange), which, like the sweet 

 Orange, has larger convex surface-glands of the fruit, those of 



the Bergamot being convex or depressed. There is no record 

 or tradition of the origin of either the Bergamot or Bigaradia, 

 though they may probably have been differentiated in Persia, 

 where the passion for scents being universal, that of a variety 

 or shoot of the Orange differing so greatly in strength and 

 quality of odor as the Bergamot does from its allies, would be 

 sure to attract attention and lead to the propagation of the race. 

 It has been assumed by Gallesio to be a hybrid between the 

 sweet Orange and Lemon, but there are no definite grounds 

 for the assumption." 



We learn from Fluckiger and Hanbury that the Bergamot 

 Orange appeared in Europe toward the end of the seventeenth 

 century, and that its essential oil was included in a list of the 

 stores of a Giessen apothecary in 1688. The first precise notice 

 of it is contained in Le Parfumeur Francois, printed at Lyons 

 in 1693, where it is stated that the oil is obtained from the juice 

 of a Lemon-tree grafted on the stem of a Bergamot Pear. 



Oil or essence of Bergamot is the product for which the 

 Bergamot Orange is cultivated. It is used in perfumery and 

 confectionery, and is extracted by distillation or by sponging 

 the surface of the fruit, or by means of a machine which 

 crushes the skin and thus forces the oil from the glands. The 

 fruit is gathered when still green, in November and December, 

 and from two and a half to three ounces of oil are said to be 

 obtained from a hundred fruits. 



The Bergamot is principally cultivated in Calabria, and the 

 manufacture of the oil is chiefly carried on there, and also in 

 Sicily and on the Riviera. The name Bergamot, it appears, is 

 derived from the Italian Bergamotta, a pear ; the Bergamotte 

 Pear itself is from the town of Bergamo. 



Impatiens mirabilis (t. 7195). " It would be difficult to con- 

 ceive," Sir Joseph Hooker remarks, "a wider departure from 

 the habit of its genus than this remarkable plant presents. It 

 is an undoubted Impatiens, but, whereas the other species 

 of that large genus are weak, succulent annuals, or low- 

 branched perennials, /. mirabilis possesses an erect naked 

 trunk that attains, in its native country, to four feet in height 

 and the thickness of a man's leg, crowned with a tuft of many 

 large, long-petioled, fleshy, spreading leaves, nearly a foot 

 long, from the axils of which spring erect racemes of golden 

 flowers, larger by far than in most other members of the 

 genus known to me, but singularly uncouth in form." /. 

 mirabilis is a native of the Island of Langkawi, off the coast of 

 Sumatra, where it was discovered by Mr. C. Curtis, the super- 

 intendent of Penang Botanic Garden, by whom it was sent 

 to the nursery of James Veitch & Sons, at Chelsea, where it is 

 in successful cultivation. 



Phalcenopsis Esmeralda (t. 7196), a now well-known plant in 

 most of the large collections of Orchids, and a native of Cochin 

 China, whence it was introduced into cultivation in 1874. P. 

 Esmeralda differs from all the other known species of the 

 genus in its erect, many-flowered racemes, and in the struc- 

 ture of the lip, which is not clawed, and bears no cirrhi, either 

 at the apex or on the disk, but two narrow auricles on the 

 prominent claw, one on each side. The plants described by 

 Reichenbach as P. antennifera, P. Regnieriana and P. Buissoni- 

 ana are now believed to belong to this species, although 

 they vary a good deal in the size and in the coloring of their 

 flowers. 



Cultural Department. 



Plums and Plum-trees. 



'THE Plum crop has been unprecedented in size and quality. 

 -*- The curculio was not as abundant as usual, and I believe 

 that even those who wholly neglected to fight against this pest 

 have had a full crop. This is certainly true of the Lombard and 

 the Damsons. I took special precautions in the way of shaking 

 my trees twice a day, as the plums began to form, and have 

 had an astonishing harvest. The trees would all have broken 

 down but for a system of tying the limbs to poles which were 

 tied at the other end to the tree or to a fence, or rested on the 

 ground. We used all devices to aid the trees, and succeeded 

 in saving them. 



I have seventeen varieties in bearing : Magnum Bonum, or 

 Duane's Purple, ripening early in August and continuing to 

 the middle of September. These, in crates, sold so as to bring- 

 about three dollars a bushel. They are excellent plums, in 

 size, color and quality, and the texture is good for canning. 

 Their season is late, and they are only good for the table 

 when fully ripe. The Magnum Bonum, after beginning to 

 ripen, if in shaded places, is likely to rot, and one rotting will 

 infect others. Plant them in uplands and enrich the soil. My 

 trees were loaded with superb fruit. Green Gage ; this is 



