5 88 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 198. 





marsh, and the wren in the orchard, he has a genuine love, 

 which finds expression in felicitous epithet and picturesque 

 phrase, and in an inward correspondence of feeling which in- 

 terprets as well as observes the objects which attract his eye. 



The paragraphs that close The Bittern's Love Song and 

 Warbler Sunday are evidences of the meaning which he finds 

 in common sights, and prove him to be gifted with that poetic 

 sense which gives a value to the simplest and homeliest objects. 



Notes. 



During the last five years the importation of oils into India 

 has increased eighty-seven per cent., which means that min- 

 eral oil has almost altogether supplanted the vegetable illu- 

 minants of indigenous origin upon which for ages the popula- 

 tion had relied. 



Some years ago, when Hans Christian Anderson was visit- 

 ing Tennyson, he said to the poet that Ivy seemed to be his 

 favorite plant, to which Tennyson replied, "To tell the truth it 

 is. Ivy needs no nursing ; it knows neither cold nor heat ; it 

 is the plant of immortality." 



Messrs. E. H. Krelage & Son, well-known horticulturists of 

 Haarlem, in Holland, announce the introduction of a new 

 strain of self-colored Tulips, which they declare to be of sin- 

 gular excellence and which they have named Charles Darwin. 

 It is offered in many varieties. It would be interesting to 

 know how nearly black is the variety which is not only blacker, 

 they claim, than any Tulip previously produced, but presents 

 " the most absolute black in the vegetable kingdom." 



The Gardeners' Chronicle gives the picture of a new erect- 

 flowering Verbena which has been introduced by some of the 

 Erfurt seed-growers. This compact new type of Verbenas is 

 said to have branches and spikes arranged about the principal 

 stalk in a strictly upright position. There have been introduced 

 before this year three colors of the type, which are all various 

 shades of scarlet or lilac. The last one is said to have a vel- 

 vet-like dark blood-red color, and so nearly constant that when 

 grown from seed but few of the plants run back to scarlet. 



A specimen of Dichorisandra musaica in the group of 

 greenhouse-plants exhibited by Thomas Long, gardener to 

 A. J. Drexel, at the recent exhibition of the Pennsylvania Hor- 

 ticultural Society, was an excellent example of good cultiva- 

 tion. The plant was grown in a ten-inch pot, and formed a 

 perfect mass of shoots from twelve to eighteen inches in 

 height. Phrynium variegatu?n, in the same collection, was also 

 shown in admirable condition, the variegation being very clear 

 and distinct, while the Golden Livistona, which occupied a 

 prominent place at one end of the table, proved how effectively 

 this plant may be used, especially when under artificial 

 light. 



In the current number of the Gardeners' Magazine the new 

 Lilhim Henryi is figured, and the figure shows how aptly the 

 plant has been described as a yellow-flowered L. speciosum. 

 It grows between three and four feet high, and the flowers 

 have the same reflexing, lanceolate segments and the same 

 raised excrescences on the surface. What distinguishes the 

 plant is its color, which is a bright and decided yellow, relieved 

 by the bold red-brown spots near the centre. As L. speciosum 

 makes a good garden Lily in this country, it is not improbable 

 that L. Henryi will do the same. It was found in 1888 on the 

 slopes of precipices at an altitude of from one thousand to two 

 thousand feet above the sea, near the town of Ichang, in the 

 province of Hupeh, in China. 



As an effort is now being made to set apart a forest-res- 

 ervation about the wonderful and beautiful Crater Lake in 

 Oregon, it is important to note how rapidly that region is be- 

 ing turned into a desolation. Mr. E. W. Hammond, who was 

 there not long ago for the first time since 1875, reports that 

 where a forest of Firs and Spruces stood sixteen years ago, 

 with branches sweeping the abundant grass, which was knee- 

 high everywhere, he found the ground as bare as a public 

 road, the whole country having been pastured to death by 

 cattle and sheep. Hundreds of blackened trunks of once 

 beautiful Firs and Spruces now stand by the dried-up water- 

 courses to mark the track of fire. In the midst of this deso- 

 lation stands a great log corral, which was deserted because 

 all herbaceous vegetation had been stamped out for miles 

 around. Of course, it would be well if the entire region about 

 the lake should be put under proper control, but the imme- 

 diate approaches to it, at least, should be preserved from such 

 vandalism. 



Mr. John Thorpe, Chief of the Division of Floriculture in 

 the Columbian Exposition, has been in this city on business 

 connected with his work in Chicago. Mr. Thorpe speaks with 

 enthusiasm of the possibilities which the great Exposition 

 buildings and the broad grounds offer for a horticultural dis- 

 play which has never yet been equaled. He realizes, however, 

 that time is crowding the work and that every moment will be 

 needed to establish and develop the plants suitable for this 

 colossal enterprise. It is to be hoped that the managers of 

 the Exposition understand this point as thoroughly as Mr. 

 Thorpe does, and that they will afford him every facility for 

 hurrying forward the work in its earlier stages. It would be an 

 incalculable misfortune if Mr. Thorpe were compelled to say 

 at last: "What a magnificent exhibition I could have made if 

 the proper support had only been given me at the proper 

 time ! " We ought to add that Mr. Thorpe himself has no fear 

 that the enterprise will fail, in any particular, to justify the ex- 

 pectations of its most sanguine friends. 



Mr. Edward Whittall, writing in The Mayflower of his recent 

 discoveries in Asia Minor, says that a new Scilla was found on 

 the western spurs of the Taurus in the same location where 

 Scilla bifolia Taurica was said to have been discovered. This 

 is the variety, no doubt, which has lately been named by Mr. 

 Baker, of Kew, S. bifolia Whittalli. The Crocus family is 

 largely represented in these regions, a beautiful variety strik- 

 ingly like C. Sieberi being found on the Taurus, above the town 

 of Adalia, the ancient Attalia. The Fritillarias have been 

 found in great variety by Mr. Whittall. Previously he had 

 found F. Armena (yellow and green), F. aurea and F. acmope- 

 talis. This season's discovery is a Fritillary of checkered lilac 

 and yellow, and somewhat smaller than F. Meleagris. It is 

 peculiar in blooming in July, fully two months later than other 

 sorts in these parts. The Snowdrop seems to be represented 

 in Asia Minor only by Galanthus Elwesi, and this beautiful 

 plant is found growing abundantly over all the region from the 

 Straits of Mytelene to the heights over Samos. Mr. Whittall 

 has heard of a yellowish variety, which, if description is true, 

 will be welcomed by fanciers of the family. 



In the private gardens of the palace at Osborne, on the Isle 

 of Wight, where only, it is said, can Queen Victoria plant and 

 cut and arrange as she pleases without consulting the officers 

 of the Crown, she has a long array of memorial trees com- 

 memorating events which have occurred in her family circle. 

 In one spot stands a row set out in February, 1862, when each 

 member of the family dedicated a tree to the memory of 

 Prince Albert, who had died during the preceding December, 

 the one which the Queen herself planted being a Pine-tree. 

 In another place is a group each of which records the mar- 

 riage of one of her children, and it is under the shade of these, 

 we are told, that Victoria prefers to have her afternoon tea- 

 table set. Not far away is a large, luxuriant bush of Myrtle 

 which has grown from a sprig which the Queen took from the 

 bridal bouquet of her eldest daughter, the Empress Frederick. 

 Myrtle is always used at bridal ceremonies in Germany as 

 Orange-flowers are with us, and this bush now contributes to 

 the adornment of all the brides among the Queen's descend- 

 ants. Her grandchildren are now adding on various occasions 

 to her collection of historical trees at Osborne. 



In the last number of Insect Life we find a report of a new 

 branch of entomological commerce which has just been 

 started by a French firm — that is, the sale of culture tubes for 

 the destruction of the white grub. The circular which the 

 firm sends out explains that there has been discovered a spe- 

 cific vegetable parasite which destroys this grub. Following 

 the methods of Pasteur, the firm have undertaken the artificial 

 production of this parasite, and they offer to sell tubes con- 

 taining the spores. They guarantee their cultures to be capa- 

 ble of communicating the disease to several hundred worms. 

 The method of treatment advised is, to put about a hundred 

 grubs in a vessel containing some moist sand. The contents 

 of the tube are then sprinkled over the grubs, the vessel is 

 covered, and at the end of six hours the grubs will have the 

 disease. They are then taken out, one by one, and placed six 

 or eight inches deep in the ground in different parts of the 

 infested field and gently covered with earth. Of course, it 

 would be prudent to place the diseased grubs in the portions 

 of the field that are the most thoroughly infested. These 

 grubs, inoculated with the disease, will communicate it to 

 others, and if it spreads as rapidly and proves as deadly as the 

 malady which has destroyed so many silk-worms, it may prove 

 the most effective means of warfare against the white grub. 

 But, after all, it seems at first like an unfair advantage to take 

 of a worm. 



