November 18, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



547 



So do I, with some qualifications which experience demands. 

 There are certainly no objections to whole-root grafts — if you 

 can get them. So far as I know they are not really made ; for 

 although a seedling may be used for each graft it is always 

 more or less trimmed. The question is also complicated as 

 regards the iron-clad varieties, by the fact that these root- 

 grafts must be deeply planted to protect them from winter- 

 killing; and it is widely believed, especially in the north-cen- 

 tral states and Canada, that it is better to use a short root and 

 a long cion — the grafts in nursery and the trees in orchard 

 being deeply planted in order to get roots from the cion. 

 That this can be done with the Apple, as it is done with the 

 Pear on Quince roots, is unquestionable; and I should ask 

 those gentlemen who prescribe piece-roots whether they have 

 not seen many vigorous old standard Pear-trees which were 

 originally dwarfs on Quince, but are now on roots of their 

 own. I can point to a whole orchard of such trees, some forty 

 years old, in the city of Gardiner, Maine. 



President Berckmans will find no man of experience taking 

 issue. with his statement that in nurseries and orchards crown- 

 grafts will, as a rule, take the lead in growth, other things be- 

 ing equal. The more root there is to a root-graft at first (if 

 the work is well done) the more vigorous will be its growth in 

 nursery ; and if the tree is properly transplanted this lead in 

 the nursery will be maintained in the orchard. I have grown 

 nearly all the trees in my orchards from the root-graft, and 

 such has been my experience. But it is also my expe- 

 rience that grafts with smaller roots make quite as thrifty 

 trees, and the difference seen in the nursery does not increase 

 in the orchard. I have always, when root-grafting, taken pains 

 to choose stock and cion of equal size, so that there should be 

 a chance for union all around ; and I would like to suggest 

 that a poor growth upon a medium or small root is as likely 

 (and indeed much more likely) to be due to a bad fit between 

 root and cion than to the mere size of the root. It should be 

 understood that all the stocks should be carefully assorted at 

 digging and all weaklings rejected. Difference in the size of 

 healthy roots, within limits, is due chiefly to a more or less 

 good chance in the seed-bed. Even with careful thinning this 

 will be true. If all these .points have due and careful attention 

 a moderate difference in the size of roots makes no practical 

 difference in the size and productiveness of the orchard tree. 



I think there is one fallacy which has fixed itself in the minds 

 of some very intelligent men. It is that there is something 

 specially vital in the point of junction between root and stem. 

 Some seem to think it as vital as the heart in an animal, or 

 something analogous to it, but I have no experience to confirm 

 that idea, and a great deal against it. A tree may be planted 

 with this point of union considerably above or below the sur- 

 face without injury. If a root-graft is made with a cion a foot 

 long, and set out so that only a few inches is above ground, 

 this neck will be formed at the surface and the young tree have 

 a perfectly normal appearance afterward. As a reverse expe- 

 rience I may mention that several years ago I noticed that a 

 number of Apple-seedlings which had been left in the ground 

 over winter had been thrown out so that about three inches of 

 the root was above the surface. As an experiment I merely 

 trod the earth firmly to the plants as they stood. They grew 

 and formed perfect new necks at the surface, while the por- 

 tion of root above ground assumed the color and look of the 

 wood above. The same thing happened at the same time to 

 a young Russian Pear-tree, which was also left untouched. It 

 made a growth last season of over four feet on the main shoot, 

 and the new point of junction has the normal appearance. I 

 may add that. in experimenting with a collection of root- 

 grafted Siberian Crab-hybrids some fifteen years ago I found 

 one variety that absolutely refused to unite with the root on 

 which it was spliced ; but several of these sent out roots from 

 the bottom of the cion and made a vigorous growth of top, 

 forming perfect and well-balanced trees, which I have often 

 shown to visitors as specimens of Apple-trees grown from 

 cuttings. 



Newport, Vt T. H. HoskltlS. 



The Propagation of Ferns. 



A^fHEN Ferns are propagated by means of spores, which is 

 * * the usual way, the first matter to be attended to is the 

 collection of the spores, and this requires the exercise of some 

 judgment, for if the fronds are cut before the spores begin to 

 ripen they will be of little value. The usual practice is to col- 

 lect the fronds as soon as a majority of the fruit-dots appear to 

 be opening. The fronds should then be wrapped up in a clean 

 paper and put away in a warm, dry place for a week or two, 

 after which it will be found that many of the spores have been 

 shed from the sporangia into the paper. In order to secure 



the remaining spores, the fronds may be rubbed between the 

 hands and then passed through a very fine sieve (a No. 40 

 mesh answers the purpose very well), to free the spores from 

 the fragments of the leaf. If not sown immediately, the best 

 method of storing the spores is to put them in small vials, such 

 as are used for homoeopathic medicines, and in which they may 

 be tightly corked and put away in a dry place for future use. 



Where Ferns are raised in large quantities for trade pur- 

 poses the sowing of the spores is usually done during the fall 

 and early winter, so that the seedlings may be ready for pot- 

 ting off in the spring or summer, the majority of such Ferns 

 being sold in small pots within a year or eighteen months 

 from the time the seed was sown. This raising of crops of 

 seedlings at certain seasons is not, however, so necessary in 

 private establishments, and consequently the spores may be 

 sown at the convenience of the cultivator, though it should be 

 borne in mind that in most cases fresh spores are preferable to 

 those that have been stored for a long time. 



The compost best suited for Fern spores in general is an 

 open mixture consisting of equal portions of peat and loam, 

 with enough sand to keep it porous, the various ingredients 

 being passed through a fine sieve. Either pots or pans may 

 be used to contain the soil, but in either case abundant drain- 

 age material should be provided, and about five or six-inch 

 pots, or pans six inches square, are convenient sizes. The 

 pots should be filled firmly with the soil and thoroughly 

 watered, after which the spores should be thinly scattered on 

 the damp surface of the soil and should not be covered. The 

 seed-pots should then be placed in a propagating frame or 

 covered with panes of glass, to prevent the soil from drying 

 out rapidly, but in either case should be ventilated each morn- 

 ing, so as. to avoid too great an accumulation of 'moisture on 

 the glass. 



The time required for germination varies with different Ferns. 

 Some species of Pteris are among the quickest to germi- 

 nate, and the young plants often appear in a week or ten days. 

 As soon as this growth becomes visible more air should be 

 given to the seed-pots or the minuter plants may be attacked 

 by fungus, and the prothalli are so tender and so close to- 

 gether that it is exceedingly hard to arrest any such disease. 

 It is under such conditions as these that the wisdom of sowing 

 in small vessels is seen, from the fact that when the prothalli 

 begin to " damp off," the entire contents of the seed-pot is 

 often lost. Probably the best method of checking such dis- 

 ease is to give plenty of air to the seedlings and to keep the 

 affected pots rather dry. I have tried sulphur, lime-water, sul- 

 phate of lime, dry sand, and some other remedies that have 

 been suggested for this fungus from time to time, but with 

 little success, and the cultural care above recommended has 

 proved the most satisfactory remedy. 



As soon as the seedlings are ready to throw up their first 

 leaf they may be pricked out into other pots or pans, transfer- 

 ring them from one pot to the other in small patches or 

 clumps, and as soon as these are large enough to handle they 

 may be divided again into single plants and thus potted into 

 two-inch pots. After potting, the seedlings should be kept 

 moist and well shaded until they have begun to root afresh, 

 and after this the culture of most species is easy. As new 

 varieties are frequently found among Fern-seedlings addi- 

 tional interest is thus given to what is at all times a most fas- 

 cinating branch of the gardener's art. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Tafilin. 



Thorpe's Pedigree Seedling Chrysanthemums. 



TT has often been doubted, even by competent cultivators, 

 *■ whether it be possible to hybridize the Chrysanthemum 

 with any certainty. Not only are the composite flowers with 

 difficulty preserved from the visits of the fly prevalent during 

 their season of bloom, but they are also likely to be self-fer- 

 tilized. Those who have watched carefully the productions of 

 a few of our most noted growers can have had little doubt that 

 they at least were working on lines of some certainty. It is 

 unnecessary to say to the readers of Garden and Forest that 

 John Thorpe is one of our most ingenious and accomplished 

 hybridizers, and those who have had some hint as to his opera- 

 tions on the Chrysanthemum were not surprised to see his 

 offering early in the year of a set of plants with parentage 

 given. This was a notable event, it being the first time that 

 any grower has offered plants with male and female pedigrees. 

 At the most we have been given one parent, probably often 

 determined by the shape of the seedling. 



Mr. Thorpe's seedlings of the year were produced in an en- 

 deavor to supply early-blooming plants with the good qualities 

 as to foliage of Gloriosum, Nichols (October Beauty), to- 

 gether with some range of color, and, if possible, of more pre- 



