528 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 193. 



flower-shows have usually presented a makeshift and some- 

 what unsightly lot of hoards. In spite of the distance of 

 Short Hills from the city the exhibition was thronged by inter- 

 ested visitors. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



Notes. 



The forests of British Columbia will be represented at the 

 Columbian Exposition in a building composed of every variety 

 of native wood. 



Dr. J. H. Mellichamp, of Bluffton, South Carolina, sends us 

 fresh flowers of Gordonia Lasianthus, the Loblolly Bay, taken 

 from a tree covered with bloom. It is a young tree, fifteen to 

 twenty feet high, and last year it also produced flowers in the 

 autumn. 



Referring to the note in a recent number of Garden and 

 Forest relative to the absence of acorns this year, a corre- 

 spondent writes from South Lancaster, Massachusetts, that 

 there has not been so large a crop of acorns, chestnuts, shell- 

 barks and butternuts in that vicinity for many years. 



The Chrysanthemum Show at Madison Square Garden, in 

 this city, is just opening as we go to press, and promises to ex- 

 cel in richness and variety any exhibition of its kind ever held 

 in this city. Special features for each day will make a constant 

 change and a succession of fresh flowers. The late bright 

 weatlier has helped to open the blooms, so that nearly all the 

 choice varieties will be seen at their best. 



According to the Kew Bulletin there has been discovered in 

 the forest of Bonket-Timah, near Singapore, a supply of the 

 most valuable species of Gutta-percha-trees, which had been 

 supposed extinct, ignorant natives having exterminated all the 

 trees of which they knew in their eagerness to meet a demand 

 for this special . kind of gutta-percha, which was particularly 

 esteemed for the making of submarine cables. The Bulletin 

 deplores the fact that the location of the new find has been 

 irjade public, and urges the Government to provide for the pro- 

 tection of the trees. 



The frontispiece to Gartenflora in the issue for October 1st 

 is a colored plate which shows forty-six fine varieties of Hya- 

 cinths, Narcissuses and Tulips blossoming at once in the win- 

 dow-garden of Herr Von Pommer Esche, in Berlin. They 

 stand in pots in a slightly projecting glass bay thrown out from 

 an ordinary window facing south-south-east, which opens from 

 the living-room, and is heated only from this, and protected 

 only by a roller-shade of thin slips of wood. The plants had 

 been started in the house and removed to the window as their 

 flowering-time approached. 



We have received, through Mr. J.Wilkinson Elliott, of Pitts- 

 burg, Pennsylvania, a box of Tuberous Begonia flowers, raised 

 in Mr. T. Tiffin's nursery at Westboro, Long Island, where the 

 plants from which these flowers were taken have been grown 

 in the open air all summer. The flowers are large, several of 

 them measuring five or six inches across, of good substance 

 and brilliant colors — scarlet, yellow and white. They show 

 how well the Tuberous Begonia adapts itself to cultivation in 

 the open ground in this climate, and what a really beautiful 

 and valuable bedding plant it is. 



A correspondent of a London paper recently spoke with 

 emphasis of the wonderful development of the Cotton-planting 

 industry in Turkestan. It is but a few years since American 

 cotton was introduced into that country, and exportation be- 

 gan upon a considerable scale only in 1884, when the amount 

 exported did not reach 10,000 poods. Last year 2,700,000 poods 

 were exported, and it is expected that this year the amount will 

 be one-third greater still. Thus far the crops have all been 

 irrigated and cultivated by hand, and the cost of labor has 

 therefore been very large. So it is believed that, with the 

 coming introduction of improved machinery, the industry will 

 increase much more rapidly than during the last ten years. 



No more beautiful effect of color could be imagined than 

 that produced during the latter part of October by the creepers 

 which clothe the old reservoir on Fifth Avenue, in this city. 

 The long lower fields of wall were covered two-thirds of the 

 way to the top with thick masses of Wistaria, the still vivid 

 green of which contrasted charmingly with the stretches of 

 gray stone above them and the flat, close garment of Japanese 

 Ivy which covered the three projecting pavilions. On the cen- 

 tral pavilion this plant clung so tightly to the stone that the 

 modeling of the doorway and the tablet above it was perfectly 

 distinct. Its color was for the most part a deep warm red, but 

 was flecked with leaves and sprays of a lighter hue, while the 



terminal shoots were bright pink or still a clear light green. 

 The general tone thus produced was of enchanting richness 

 and softness just because it was nowhere uniform over a sin- 

 gle foot of the surface, but produced by varied blended tints. 



An illustration in The Garden, of London, published on the 

 17th of October, represents a garden urn, the base surrounded 

 by a bed of Clematis, which has been allowed to cover the 

 pedestal upon which it stands. The effect is charming, and 

 shows how well taken is the point made by our contemporary, 

 that " if some principle of draping with living plants was care- 

 fully considered before introducing stone urns, temples, ter- 

 races or fountains into rustic scenery fewer of the violent and 

 tasteless anomalies which so often disfigure our gardens and 

 parks, both public and private, would be seen." The French 

 for many years have covered the pedestals of out-door statues 

 and other works of art with Ivy and various climbing plants, 

 and in this way have succeeded in harmonizing such objects 

 with their surroundings of grass, shrubs and trees. 



As a result of the memorial recently laid before the Presi- 

 dent of the United States, asking that certain lands be reserved 

 from settlement, with a view of using them as forest-reserves, 

 the Secretary of the Interior has made the following appoint- 

 ments : Mr. M. J. Haley, of Helena, Montana, to examine the 

 proposed reservation at the head of the Flathead and Marias 

 rivers ; Mr. J. F. Majors, of Jadis, Minnesota, to examine the 

 proposed reservation in northern Minnesota ; Mr. B. F. Allen, 

 of Los Angeles, California, to examine the proposed reser- 

 vation on the Tulare River, embracing the forest of Big 

 Trees ; Mr. J. S. Stidger, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, to examine 

 the proposed reservation in western Texas at the head-waters 

 of the Pecos River. Friends of the movement to secure these 

 reservations can communicate directly with these agents in 

 case they have any suggestions to offer in the premises. 



A correspondent of the American Architect and Building 

 News recently described a miniature model, now on exhibition 

 in Chicago, which gives a bird's-eye view of the future aspect 

 of the World's Fair grounds and of the principal buildings thus 

 far determined upon. It has been constructed in the old ex- 

 position building, covers a space of 100 x 50 feet, and affords, 

 says the writer, " a better view of the structures in their en- 

 tirety than very likely will be possible on the exhibition grounds. 

 The relative positions and sizes of the buildings are correct, * 

 and the whole lay of the land is carefully imitated. Lake 

 Michigan is indicated by a stretch of running water, being, in 

 fact, a diminutive portion of the lake introduced into the build- 

 ing. Jackson Park, Midway Plaisance, all, are represented by 

 a clayey, paste-like substance painted green. Ground Hem- 

 lock is used in the place of the symmetrical Elm, and the 

 whole settlement in the night-scene is illuminated by the 

 smallest-sized electric lamps. When these shine across the 

 turbulent lake or are reflected in the quiet lagoon or shine 

 forth from the doors and windows of the miniature buildings 

 the effect is quite unique." 



The October bulletin of the Hatch Experiment Station of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College contains a report of the 

 result of experiments during last winter with special fertilizers 

 for plants under glass. For this purpose six plots were ar- 

 ranged in each of two greenhouses, and planted with the same 

 number and kind of Carnations at the same time in Septem- 

 ber. The soil, temperature, ventilation and all other condi- 

 tions were kept as nearly alike as possible, and the number of 

 blossoms produced by each plot was recorded. Observations 

 continued during thirty-one weeks showed that the plot fer- 

 tilized with nitrate of potash gave the best results, sulphate 

 of potash the next, and dissolved bone the poorest result. 

 This result differed from that of the previous winter, when 

 bone-black stood first and sulphate of potash second, and 

 is probably due to the insoluble condition of the bone-black, 

 which in previous tests did not give good results until the 

 latter part of the trial. In five experiments made in this 

 line three have been in favor of bone-black, one of sulphate 

 of ammonia and one of nitrate of potash. Sulphate of potash 

 has stood second in every test. The nitrate of soda and 

 muriate of potash, in every case where the crop has had a 

 tendency to mildew, have given poor results, owing probably 

 to their power of holding moisture near the surface of the soil. 

 In the growth of the Rose, Lettuce and Carnation a moist 

 atmosphere or a very moist soil in contact with the plants, 

 especially at night, must be avoided if success is expected, 

 and, therefore, such fertilizers as nitrate of soda and muriate 

 of potash would aggravate any such condition. The same 

 bulletin contains a chapter on "Experiments in Greenhouse- 

 heating." 



