Vi' IN D FALLS. 



505 



as the catalogue descriptions are so conflicting, I cannot 

 place them ; but I am sure of Madame Chereau, white, 

 edged with blue, the best of all in my opinion. A 

 bright yellow, also a pale straw, both nettled with 

 black, and very satisfactory. A delicate lavender, a 

 beauty, has just come into bloom. The Spanish irise^ 

 are just blooming and will be a surprise to all who have 

 not seen them. The flowers resemble our common blue 

 flag, but the combinations of yellows, browns and blues 

 are indescribable. The English irises are ready to come 

 next; they are larger than the Spanish varieties; the 

 flowers are self colored, rich blues and purples predomi- 

 nating. A clump of Iris Sibeiica is now very lovely. 

 Iris Kicinpferi is ready to follow the English varieties. 

 I have about a dozen varieties, and they are a fitting 

 climax to the iris succession. Irises need all the water 

 they can have when growing, but must have a dry situa- 

 tion in winter. 



Aquilegias . A wretched big red grub has nearly ruined 

 the plants. This grub seems to affect the chrysantha 

 variety most. The chrysantha alba, catalogued as a 

 novelty, blooms now for the first time and is very satis- 

 factory. All the aquilegias are good. 



A new Campanula, white and red spotted, offered by 

 Henderson in 1890, is one of the best novelties in per- 

 ennials yet offered. 



In all respects, the most satisfactory new plant to us 

 has been the Iceland poppies. They began with the 

 tulips and are still a gorgeous sight with their yellow, 

 orange and white flowers. I call them Iceland poppies, 

 although they are offered under different names. They 

 should be grown by all lovers of hardy plants. They 

 flower late the first season, are perennials, and if the 

 seed IS not allowed to form will give a succession of 

 flowers the most of the summer. 



The Oriental Poppies are now magnificent. I have let 

 them grow at their own sweet will and they light up the 

 garden finely. A strange pink variety has appeared, 

 probably a sport. 



Lillies. Liliiim superbum is fine. I bought one bulb 

 of excelsum five years ago, and ten immense stalks came 

 from it this year. I have a good many varieties of L 

 uinbellaium, and they are very showy but not distinct. 

 L. Kraineri in my opinion is as lovely as any, but is not 

 quite hardy, and for that matter few lilies are strictly 

 hardy here. 



Clematis Davidiana proves to be a good garden plant, 

 not brilliant, but very fragrant. The habit of the flowers 

 growing at the axils of the leaves rather spoils it for 

 general cut-flower purposes. 



Hardy Asters. A few of the varieties are good, but 

 many are rather weedy, and being rank growers are not 

 suited to small gardens. Their blooming so late is a 

 good point, as the frost does not hurt them much. 

 — P. F. Blodgett, Vermont, June 22. 



Wild Oat Grass — A Pest {Danthonia spicata). — There 

 is in New England a species of grass known to botanists 

 as Danthonia spieata (Beauv), but commonly called 

 wild oats grass. When the country was new and there 



was more timbered land, this grass was confined to dry, 

 rocky and sterile soil, on the exposed terraces or ledges 

 of mountains, and sometimes in favored localities at 

 lower elevations. There it could not be called a trouble- 

 some plant and excited no special attention, being re- 

 garded, like many other grasses, as a not very widely 

 spread species. But, as the country became more and 

 more cleared of its forests and got dryer, this apparently 

 harmless plant went forth. Within the last thirty years 

 it has become a great pest. Being a grass, and grasses 

 generally being considered useful plants, it has made its 

 way over the country without opposition. Even now 

 after it has gained possession of thousands of acres of 

 valuable pasture lands, which are too rough or stony for 

 the plow, it is not generally known by the farmers as a 

 plague. By thorough cultivation and the liberal use of 

 manure, it can be kept out of meadow land, so long as 

 the clover, timothy, fescue, orchard grass, etc., stay, 

 but when these run out the wild oat grass creeps in with 

 such other pests as mouse-ear [Antennaria plantagini- 

 folia. Hook), and the white daisy . It has little or no value 

 as hay, and in pastures the cattle, in trying to eat it, pull 

 it up roots and all and spit it out as an unwholesome weed. 

 Its principal foliage is at the base of the stalk, close to 

 the ground, and consists of numerous short curly leaves, 

 while the stalk is wiry and brittle. It propagates itself 

 from seed. The seed of its small but well filled panicle 

 is not the only means it has of multiplying. In many 

 stalks, each joint contains a hidden head of flowers, 

 which bear good seed and help to spread the plant. 

 After the first snows the weak stalks are broken off by 

 the wind and spread about, and it makes little difference 

 whether a head with its seed or a well filled joint is left 

 to grow. It thrives on almost any soil that is not too wet 

 for timothy or clover and has gradually acclimated itself 

 to wetter localities, until it seems to prosper where it was 

 never seen thirty years ago, Mr, Pringle, of Vermont, 

 who has given it much attention, believes the only means 

 of eradicating it from land that can't be plowed is to 

 stock it again down to forest. 



Several years since, while spending a few days in Erie 

 Co. , N Y. , I saw, in the barns of a large stock farm, well 

 mixed in among the hay, a considerable quantity of Dan- 

 thomia spicata. Not having seen it growing in that lo- 

 cality, I inquired where the hay came from and learned 

 that it had been brought from the east. I carefully 

 searched for the plant after this, in the fields and by the 

 roadsides, but found none in that region. This was six or 

 eight years ago, but who can tell how much of Erie Co. 

 may now be infested with this scourge from that one im- 

 portation ! — F. H. HoRSFORD, Mass. 



Agapanthus umbellatus, or blue African lily.isafine 

 plant. It must have a good loamy soil, enriched with 

 well rotted manure. I frequently shift it into larger pots, 

 only a little larger than the preceding, till a ten inch 

 pot is reached just before blooming. The offsets, if any, 

 are removed from the parent bulb at each shift, until 

 after the flower-buds have formed. When ready to 

 bloom the roots may not be cramped for room. If 



