468 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 188. 



The bush is of low spreading habit, densely clothed with foli- 

 age, and it comes into bearing as quickly as a Red Currant. Its 

 yield is simply wonderful, the berries being literally crowded 

 upon the under side of the branches. The fruit is borne upon 

 blender stems about an inch and a half long, of cinnabar color, 

 with numerous small light gray dots, and about three-quarters 

 of an inch long by half an inch in diameter. It is tender and 

 juicy, with one large, long, shapely pointed seed in each berry, 

 but so acid as to render it unlit for use as a dessert-fruit, but 

 useful for tarts — in fact, for all the purposes for which the 

 Cranberry is used. 



Notes. 



The latest reports indicate that the raisin-crop of California- 

 which has been estimated as high as 2,000,000 boxes, will fall 

 considerably short of that figure. 



It is reported that the presence of troops in the Yosemite 

 this year has kept the sheep and shepherds away from the 

 Reservation, and, as a result, there have been but two or three 

 small forest-fires. Such fires are usually numerous in August 

 and September. 



It is probably an unusual thing for Ficus elastica, the so- 

 called Rubber-tree, grown as a pot-plant, to produce fruit. 

 The fact is worthy of notice, therefore, that a plant in the gar- 

 den of the Honorable M. P. Kennard, in Brookline, Massachu- 

 setts, which has stood out-of-doors all summer, is now covered 

 with its miniature figs. The same plant has produced fruit in 

 previous years. 



It is recorded of the isolated Andaman Islands, which have 

 been scientifically observed since 1858, that, between that year 

 and 1866, fifteen intentionally introduced plants and sixty-one 

 " weeds of cultivation " were added to the six hundred species 

 of indigenous origin ; and that by 1890 twenty-three additional 

 plants had been wittingly introduced and fifty-six additional 

 ones had established themselves, while four of the foreigners 

 noted in 1866 had disappeared. 



Last week the Board of Health in this city seized some 

 grapes because the stems were discolored by one of the 

 copper mixtures used as a preventive of Black Rot. Of course, 

 this caused something like a panic in the market, and the 

 grape-growers on the Hudson, who were already receiving 

 low prices, have suffered severely. We shall be disappointed 

 if investigation does not show that the alarm was groundless. 

 The Bordeaux mixture is certainly harmless when taken in such 

 minute quantities as adhere to the skins of grapes which have 

 been sprayed. 



One of the most striking proofs of the advantage which may 

 result to science from the earnest efforts of even "amateur," 

 or partially instructed investigators, is supplied by the history 

 of Leeuwenhoek. At the time of the invention of the micro- 

 scope, in the seventeenth century, he was book-keeper and 

 cashier in a clothing house at Amsterdam. Fascinated by 

 the attractions of the new instrument, he devoted himself to 

 its manufacture and use, and, despite the deficiencies of his 

 education, made many important discoveries in plant anatomy, 

 as well as in that of human beings, and was the first to point 

 out that difference in the structure of stems upon which the 

 first great division of flowering plants into monocotyledonous 

 and dicoteyledonous is based. 



In a book on the " Useful Plants of Australia," written by 

 Mr. Maiden, we read that, with the exception of such as pro- 

 duce timber, these plants are not of extraordinary value. Al- 

 most all Australia's medicinal plants come from the northern 

 regions, where species from the Malayan Islands and from the 

 south of India mingle with those that are strictly indigenous. 

 The Eucalyptus, with its 130 species, are the most valuable trees, 

 supplying certain food-products as well as oil and timber. 

 Next in value seem to be the Acacias, the leaves of which 

 furnish fodder, while the bark is extensively used in tanning. 

 The trees are being so rapidly destroyed for these two purposes 

 that efforts are now being made for their systematic planting. 

 Few Australian trees supply good fibres. 



At die exhibition in connection with the meeting of the 

 Pomological Society in Washington last week the superior 

 brightness in color of northern fruits was very clearly_shown. 

 The apples from Wisconsin could be distinguished from those 

 of the middle states as far as they could be seen, and it would 

 baidly be a figure of speech to say that they fairly illuminated 

 the part of the ball where tbey were placed. It is fair to say, 

 however, that the season in Wisconsin has been exceptionally 

 unfavorable to the growth of fungi, and this may partly account 

 for the entire absence of all specks and discolorations on the 



fruit. But, after every allowance is made, the fact remains 

 that apples of such perfect smoothness, clearness of color and 

 delicacy of marking are rarely seen in our eastern orchards. 

 It was remarked by more than one of the visitors that they 

 never before realized how beautiful a perfect apple can be. 



Hardy shrubs which are in full bloom during the first week 

 of October are not common in our northern garden. The 

 Sea-shore Groundsel-tree (Baccharis halimifolia) is just now 

 in full bloom, and, although not very often cultivated except 

 by the curious, is well worth a place in the shrubbery. It is a 

 tall resinous, or glutinous, shrub, growing sometimes to the 

 height of ten or twelve feet, with dark yellow-green, abundant 

 foliage, and small heads of yellow or white flowers. Baccharis 

 is a genus of Composites, and its individual flowers are minute 

 and are gathered together in small heads without the conspic- 

 uous ray-ilowers which make the inflorescence of Asters, Sun- 

 flowers and so many other plants of this family conspicuous. 

 The heads are not large, and, individually, not very showy ; 

 but they are produced in such great profusion in leafy pan- 

 icles at the end of the branches, that the plants make a good 

 show at this season of the year. This is especially the case 

 with the fertile one, for in Baccharis the male and female 

 flowers are borne on distinct plants. The tufts of long pure 

 white hairs give to the females an entirely different appear- 

 ance from that of the yellow-flowered males. Plants of Bac- 

 charis grown in good garden-soil will be a surprise to many 

 people who have only seen it in its native sea-beaches, and 

 once seen under good condition its cultivation, no doubt, will 

 become more general. 



" We do not realize," says the American Architect and 

 Building News, "how imperatively necessary a supply of 

 wood is, or how little we have left to satisfy our increasing 

 needs. The forest-producing area of the United States has 

 long ago been settled as thickly as it is likely to be, and the 

 tendency of population is now strongly toward the treeless, 

 though fertile lands of Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado and 

 Montana. The people who settle in those states must have 

 houses, and must have timber to build them with, and the 

 railroads which serve them must have perennial supplies of 

 ties. For all these needs wood must be had, even if it is 

 brought from the ends of the earth. We have known build- 

 ing timber to be sent from Boston to Zanzibar, and from New 

 York to Buenos Ayres, and we may rest assured that when our 

 stock is exhausted we shall have to buy more, and shall have 

 to pay the people who have it whatever price they choose to 

 ask for it. So far, the steps which have been taken by the 

 public authority to check the annihilation of the forest-wealth 

 of the country have been hardly more than the feeblest dem- 

 onstrations of a consciousness of the evil against which they 

 were directed. Something was done to encourage tree- 

 planting by settlers, under the so-called Timber-Culture laws, 

 which provided that a settler who cultivated trees on one-six- 

 teenth of his homestead claim should receive his patent in three 

 years instead of five ; but this is a mere trifle, and the unwill- 

 ingness of Congress to do anything of serious practical signifi- 

 cance is curiously shown by the law adopted at the last session, 

 in which it was declared that it is 'important to reserve all 

 public lands bearing forests, or covered with timber or under- 

 growth, on which the timber is not absolutely required for the 

 legitimate use and necessities of the residents of the state or 

 territory in which the lands are situated.' It need hardly be 

 pointed out that ' the legitimate use and necessities of the 

 residents' in the neighborhood of Government timber-lands 

 have generally required them to plunder and denude the lands 

 to their hearts' content, and will be likely to continue to do so 

 until some much more forcible language than this is used in 

 the public statutes, and officers are assigned to see that the 

 statutes are complied with ; and even then, in our opinion, 

 little will be accomplished toward restoring the balance be- 

 tween the production and consumption of timber until private 

 plantations, as well as natural forests, are brought under offi- 

 cial supervision." 



Catalogues Received. 



Currie Bros., Milwaukee, Wis.; P'lowering Bulbs, Plants, etc. — 

 Frederick W. Kelsey, 145 Broadway, New York, N. Y. ; Choice 

 Trees, Shrubs and Hardy Plants. — Samuel C. Moon, Morrisville, 

 Bucks Co., Pa. ; Circular of Exochorda grandiflora. — Schlegel & 

 Fottler, 26 South Market Street, Boston, Mass. ; Bulbs for Autumn 

 Planting. — Dr. II. Sciirceder, Bloomington, 111, ; Fruit-trees, Grape 

 Vines, Small Fruits, Roses, etc. — Thomas S. Ware, Tottenham, Lon- 

 don, England; Select Collection of Bulbs and Perennials for Autumn 

 Planting. Complete Collections of Narcissus, Lilies and Irises. 

 Autumn Catalogue of Carnations, Pasonies, Phloxes, Primroses, etc. 



