6l2 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 200. 



A Cocoa-nut tree that weighs six tons is to be transported, 

 it is said, from Honolulu to a public park in San Francisco. 



In Ferguson's " Information Regarding Ceylon," it is stated 

 that one of the Palms of the island, the so-called Palmyra 

 Palm, can be used for five hundred different purposes. 



A remarkable Orchid, says the Revue Horticole, could re- 

 cently be seen at the chateau of M. Pauwells, at Bosterlaer. 

 It was a plant of Oncidium divaricatum bearing a flower-stem 

 ten feet in length and no less than 784 flowers. 



The bark which annually scales off the thousands of Plane- 

 trees in Paris is carefully collected and sold, at one franc for 

 seventy-five pounds, to the manufacturers of colors and chem- 

 ical products. When boiled, it-also furnishes a very astringent 

 decoction, which is useful in compresses on wounds, burns 

 and chilblains, and even on the bites of venomous animals. 



At his recent visit to Philadelphia, Mr. John Thorpe secured 

 for the Columbian Exhibition the promise of some large speci- 

 men Palms from the collection of Mr. G. W. Childs, and also 

 some rare specimen plants from Mrs. Baldwin. Some of the 

 large Ferns and Palms in the park conservatory, which were 

 placed there during the Centennial Exhibition, will also be 

 forwarded to Chicago. 



A late number of the Gardeners' Chronicle contains a full 

 account of the Orchids to be found in the British branch of the 

 United States Nurseries at Hextable, Swanley, Kent. The 

 Cypripediums are accorded the place of honor, which they 

 also hold in the collection of Messrs. Pitcher & Manda at Short 

 Hills. A Chrysanthemum-house, one hundred feet long, was 

 reported as making a gorgeous show, and the white Carnation, 

 Lizzie McGowan, came in for special commendation. 



The Linnean Club, of whose good work in securing a park 

 for the town of Jamaica, Long Island, we have already spoken, 

 has arranged for a course of six illustrated lectures on plants 

 and vegetable life, to be given by Dr. Morong, of Columbia 

 College, under the University extension plan. The lectures 

 will begin in January, and they will be followed in the spring 

 by lectures on some branch of practical horticulture. These 

 lectures are open to the public at a nominal price, and it is 

 hoped that they will stimulate the growth of a public sentiment 

 favorable to the objects which the club was organized to 

 promote. 



We have received several letters from growers of Carnations 

 in various parts of the country in relation to the rust which was 

 referred to in our last number by Professor Halsted. In some 

 cases sulphate of copper has been used with good results, but 

 in other cases, where, perhaps, the solution was too strong, it 

 ruined the plants. There seems to be a great difference in 

 varieties as to susceptibility to the fungus. On some varieties 

 the fungus has not yet appeared at all, although they are grow- 

 ing by the side of infected plants. In one letter the varieties 

 Annie Webb and Florence are spoken as nearly rust-proof. It 

 would be interesting to have a list of the varieties which seem 

 to be the least easily affected. We hope to publish in an early 

 issue some further particulars in regard to this disease. 



" Few of our native trees," says a writer in Median's Monthly, 

 " have odoriferous wood like the sandal-wood of the islands in 

 the Pacific Ocean ; but a few of the coniferae of the Pacific 

 Slope have sweet-scented woods. The fine church at Metla- 

 katla, built by the civilized Indians of Alaska, is as fragrant as 

 if incense were continually floating through the air, from the 

 wood of the great Arbor-vitas {Thuja gigantea), of which it is 

 built. Libocedrus decurrens, found further south, is known 

 as ' Incense Cedar,' from its fragrance. The Yellow Cypress 

 {Cupressus Nukceensis) and the Monterey Cypress (C. macro- 

 car pa) have also scented wood." 



Writing of the great Banyan-tree in the Botanical Gardens at 

 Calcutta, Bishop Hurst says, in his "Indika," that the central 

 trunk is fifty-one feet in girth, and that many of the one hun- 

 dred and seventy smaller trunks have reached considerable 

 size. " The process of cultivating the tendency of the Banyan 

 to multiply itself," he adds, "is highly interesting. A slender 

 root-like shoot is thrown out from the lower side of one of the 

 branches and grows rapidly downward. Its lower end termi- 

 nates in a small tuft of delicate rootlets, ready to strike into the 

 ground as soon as they reach it, but, at the same time, pre- 

 senting a tempting morsel to any goat which may pass beneath 

 the tree. For the double purpose of protecting from the goats 

 the slender stem which is to develop into a large trunk in a few 

 years, and also of encouraging its growth, it is encased in hol- 

 low bamboo and fastened to the ground. It very quickly finds 



its way down the dark little cavity in the bamboo, and when 

 once it becomes rooted in the earth its career is fairly begun, 

 and it becomes the one hundred and seventy-first trunk in the 

 vast system called the Banyan-tree." 



The tenth annual meeting of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, to be held at Washington on the 29th and 30th of this 

 month, promises to be one of especial interest. Papers will 

 be read by Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Depart- 

 ment ; President Adams, of Cornell University ; Gifford 

 Pinchot, of New York, and J. D. W. French, of Massachusetts. 

 There will be a special meeting in the afternoon of the first 

 day, in which the Executive Committee on the Establishment 

 of National Reservations will report, and the Secretary of the 

 Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office will 

 be present and take part in the discussion. The meeting also 

 will be attended by Senators and Representatives who have 

 expressed an interest in the matter. President Harrison has 

 assured the friends of forestry that he will give the broadest 

 construction to the law which authorizes him to set apart these 

 reservations, but it is well known that the mere act of reserva- 

 tion will accomplish but little unless it can be followed by the 

 establishment of some rational administration of the territory. 

 It is therefore proposed to memorialize the President and 

 recommend further reservations, and also to recommend fur- 

 ther legislation for their future management. 



" If we were to make a suggestion independent of the archi- 

 tectural merit of the various buildings," said a recent editorial 

 note in the American Architect and Building News, referring 

 to the constructions proposed for the World's Fair at Chicago, 

 " it would be that the Horticultural Hall . . . would probably 

 be the most useful of all as a permanent structure. Even now, 

 all our large cities contain enthusiastic horticultural societies 

 which hold frequent exhibitions in the largest halls they can 

 hire, and -find their exhibitions crowded with people." The 

 great success of the recent Chrysanthemum show at the Madi- 

 son Square was then described, and the writer continued : "In 

 fact, all overthe country, Rose shows, Chrysanthemum shows, 

 fruit shows, Orchid shows, winter flower shows, summer flower 

 shows, spring bulb shows, Azalea shows and Rhododendron 

 shows, and so on, follow each other in rapid succession, and the 

 universal complaint made with regard to them is that no place 

 can be found large enough to show all the good flowers that 

 are offered, and accommodate, at the same time, the people 

 who wish to see them. For Chicago, the Columbian Horti- 

 cultural building would give exactly what is needed, and in 

 exactly the right place, and it would add very little to the cost 

 of the structure to make it permanent. It is to be remem- 

 bered, also, that a building of' this sort can be used for many 

 other purposes besides exhibiting flowers." 



Professor H. L. Bolley, of the North Dakota Experiment 

 Station, has just issued an interesting bulletin on the Potato- 

 scab, giving the details of experiments, which confirm his 

 previous work and that of Professor Thaxter in Connecticut. 

 There seems no longer room for doubt that the cause of the 

 disease is a bacteroid fungus. It also appears that seed-tubers 

 affected by this scab will produce a diseased crop, and that 

 seed-tubers free from the diseased germs will produce a 

 healthy product in any kind of soil, provided only that the soil 

 itself is free from the germs. The germs of the disease can 

 probably be killed without injuring the growth of the Potato, 

 if the seed-tuber is treated with a solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate of the proper strength. But, after all, the disease-germs 

 will remain in the ground, from crop to crop, for at least five 

 years. Of course, it follows that when seed-tubers free from 

 the disease are planted upon new ground the crop will be 

 healthy, but this land will only remain free from disease so 

 long as uncontaminated seed is planted there. Care also should 

 be taken as to the kind of manure used, for the refuse from 

 infested plants will certainly contaminate it, and implements 

 which have been used in infested soil should also be thor- 

 oughly cleansed before they are used in the uncontaminated 

 land. Professor Bolley has also discovered that Beet-roots 

 have been attacked, by a plant-parasite which is apparently 

 identical with that which causes the scab of Potatoes. The 

 affected Beets which were examined came to the station from 

 various parts of the state, but in every instance, so far as 

 could be ascertained, they had been planted on land where 

 potatoes had been a previous crop. The disease on the Sugar 

 Beets appears to be more extensive than it ever has been in 

 the Potatoes. It seems also that the Swedish Turnip, Carrot 

 and the roots of Cabbage are affected by the same disease. It 

 now becomes of interest to know whether this scab of Pota- 

 toes is a disease common to all root-crops. 



