BEINQMATTER "mATDESERVES 

 To BE WIDELY KNOWN, 



The Demand for Flowers 

 Grows. — Twenty years ago 5,- 

 000 roses a day was possibly 

 the limit of supply for New 

 York City ; now as many as 

 50,000 a day can often be found 

 there, and in the spring the 

 number may reach 100,000. — 

 J. N. May, before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society . 



Grapes Grown in the Dark were submitted by the 

 Messrs T. Rivers & Son to the Scientific Committee of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society some time ago. The 

 portion of vine exhibited was furnished with a well- 

 shaped and good-sized bunch of white grapes. The 

 berries were pale in color, and evidently unable to ripen, 

 and the lateral appeared not to have formed any leaves, 

 the whole shoot having been developed in total darkness. 



Horticulture in Schools.— The culture of trees and 

 flowers develops a permanent love of the spot where they 

 grow. The man or woman is not living who can go 

 back to the dreamy days of childhood and call up the 

 scenes in that long ago, and not remember lovingly the 

 flowers his mother used to tend by the side of the path 

 that led to the front gate. We can help our own boys 

 and girls to appreciate the good, the true and the beau- 

 tiful, by teaching them to love plants and flowers. We 

 can do more than plant a tree, We can plant in the 

 school system of this nation a custom of tree-culture 

 and flower-culture and home-culture. — Prof. Chester 

 W. Smith, before the Wisconsin Horticultural Society . 



A Flower-Girls' Guild was established in London not 

 long ago by certain charitable ladies, with a view to im- 

 proving and cheering the lives of the many girls who sell 

 flowers in the streets at all times of the year. The first 

 step was to provide the often half-clothed girls with 

 thick warm dresses and bonnets. Water-proof cloaks for 

 stormy weather were also provided, and in a building 

 set apart for their use they find dressing and washing- 

 rooms, and a cool, well-ventilated place in which to store 

 their flowers at night. In the future a sick-relief fund 

 will be established, as well as evening classes and enter- 

 tainments. 



Carnation Disease.— At the last meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Florists' Association, L. Armstrong said that by 

 applying what is called a sulphur compound, he had 

 been successful in checking the disease. The compound 

 is made by boiling together sulphur and quicklime, or 

 rather, subjecting them to an intense heat. Use a gill 

 of this sulphate of calcium to two gallons of water, and 

 syringe the plants heavily with the solution twice a day ; 

 the sick plants revive and those nearly dead seem to re- 

 ceive new vigor. This compound seems to act directly 

 in the way of promoting healthy root-action. Incases 

 where it is stated that sulphate of ammonia gave good 



results in its use on plants, the good may be due to the 

 sulphur acting as a fungicide, and thus increasing the vigor 

 of the plants, instead of having much value as a fertilizer. 



Peach-Rosette in the South.— P J. Berckman, Presi- 

 dent of the American Pomological Society, and the most 

 experienced fruit-grower of the south, says that rosette, 

 that dreaded enemy to peach and plum trees, has of late 

 years appeared throughout many sections of the south, 

 and unless the utmost vigilance is practiced, disastrous, 

 results to the peach-growing industry will follow. The 

 disease appears in spring, and in affected trees the leaves 

 assume a yellow and sickly appearance, are small, and 

 crowded in a bunch. The trees seldom survive the first 

 summer, and to prevent the rapid contamination of 

 other trees, immediate uprooting and burning must be re- 

 sorted to. The disease is violently contagious, and no 

 preventive has yet been discovered. All wild plums 

 should be destroyed, as the disease first appears among 

 these, and rapidly spreads to cultivated trees. 



Hippeastrum aulicum.— To a recent meeting of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society the Harvard bo- 

 tanical garden sent a flowering specimen of Hippeastrum 

 aulicum. This species was introduced to cultivation 

 from Brazil in 1810, and is interesting chiefly as being^ 

 one of the plants employed to produce by hybridizing 

 and crossing the splendid varieties of this genus now in 

 cultivation. The flowers of Hippeastrum aulicum are 

 red, green aud purplish, between six and seven inches 

 across, with the edges of the segments more or less in- 

 curved. When compared with those of some recent 

 varieties they show clearly the improvement which has 

 been made in these plants. The flowers of the variety 

 John Ruskin, for instance, measure from eight to nine 

 inches in width, with broad, flat, imbricated segments. 

 The shades of color have been increased in recent forms 

 to a wonderful extent, and in most cases these shades 

 lack that coarseness which is found in many of the origi- 

 nal types. 



California Fruit Exhibits.— At a summer meeting of 

 the California State Horticultural Society some excellent 

 samples of fruit were shown. Mr. Coates exhibited a 

 dozen specimens of Elberta peach. He has fruited the 

 tree for several years, and regards it as a good variety. 



Mr. Onstott showed some large bunches of the Thomp- 

 son seedless grape, and a sample of raisins made from 

 this variety. Both the green fruit and the cured pro- 

 duct were of excellent quality and flavor. The only 

 apparent drawback to this grape is its small size, it being 

 but little larger than Sultana, though a richer grape, 

 making a sweeter raisin ; it is said to be very prolific. 

 The bunches exhibited would probably weigh 2 pounds 

 each, and were each about a foot in length. 



Professor Allen exhibited some red fall apples, a seed- 

 ling variety for which the name "Romie" (that of the 

 originator) was suggested. This is a beautiful apple, 

 unusually aromatic and of fine flavor ; it ripens in August. 



Mr. Chapin showed samples of Susquehanna peaches 

 dried ; one sample cured when fully ripe, the other when 

 in the condition in which fruit is usually picked for east- 



