November 28. 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
'931 
novemb u erTi’ 903 . l£he Gardening World. 
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1 . ■ ■ 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
,ruit Culture in Hungary. 
In a pamphlet, entitled “ Continental State 
-ul fur Agriculture,” compiled by Mr. T. S. 
lytnond, of the Essex Technical Labora- 
|Ji’ies, we note that the climate of Hungary 
■ eminently suited for fruit culture. Pre¬ 
vious, to the nineties, however, the exports 
ad. imports of fruit about balanced one 
nother. Large tracts of the country consist 
t almost barren plains of a sandy character, 
od it. seems that they were planted with 
ineyards to replace those that were 
os troy ed by the phylloxera, on the moun- 
!“ s ; Steps were also taken to utilise these 
istncts for fruit culture of various kinds, 
ists of the more suitable varieties for each 
district were drawn up, and sent to the agri¬ 
cultural colleges and state farms. Nurseries 
were also, established for propagating the 
varieties fixed upon. In the course of nine 
years twenty-five state orchards were estab¬ 
lished. Fruit trees and seedlings, as weil as 
stocks, were propagated and sold at very low 
charges. Schoolmasters and clergymen re¬ 
ceived trees free of charge. In 19U1 two 
million seedlings a.s stocks were distributed, 
as well as 378,000 grafted trees. Not even 
these met the great demand for them, and 
prizes were offered to schoolmasters for the 
greatest number of grafted trees. Plums to 
the number of 600,000 were imported from 
Orleans and Antwerp for the benefit of poor 
farmers. Provision was also made for in¬ 
structing the rising generation in the theory 
and practice of fruit culture. 
—O'—• 
The White Lily Poisonous. 
It would seem that a Swiss doctor has been 
scandalising the good name of the old White 
Lily, which has been a favourite in our 
gardens since 1596, and possibly before that 
time. He describes it. as deadly poisonous, 
that it contains prussic acid, and that blood 
poisoning is brought about by the stems. 
He goes even further than that, and states 
that birds have lost their lives through visit¬ 
ing the flowers. We are afraid that many 
scientific doctors are wont to create alarm 
now and again by discovering - poisonous 
qualities about, favourite tiowers. Some little 
time ago it was the Lily of the Valley that 
was brought into undue prominence on 
account of its poisonous qualities. We 
think, if the White Lily was so poisonous 
as it. is stated to be, that we should 
have heard more of it before this 
time. It is well known, that the bulbs of 
several Lilies are eaten by the natives where 
they grow, -and if the bulbs do contain poison 
the above fact would indicate that the poison 
is easily dissipated by boiling or cooking n 
some way or other, so as to be subjected to 
heat. There are many other plants in 
gardens fully as common as the White Lily 
and quite as poisonous, but, unless they are 
actually ea.ten, the result of gross careless¬ 
ness, they cannot be productive of so much 
harm as the Swiss doctor would lead us to 
believe. 
-O'—- 
What is a Weed ? 
A correspondent of the “ American 
Botanist ” has been thinking over the subject 
of what is a weed, and he gives three different 1 
definitions!, according to the class of people to 
whom the question applies. According to 
the botanist, a weed is a plant out of place. 
According to the gardener - , a weed is a plant 
which grows unhidden, and insists on surviv¬ 
ing unler no matter what adverse conditions. 
The popular idea of a weed, according to 
this same writer, is that it is a plant of spon¬ 
taneous growth. In taking a view of these 
various definitions, we think the botanist’s 
one to correspond veiy closely with what it is. 
The gardener’s definition recalls the fact that 
a weed is a weedy one. There are plants 
which may be out of place, and yet give no 
trouble to the cultivator. There are others, 
however, which are extremely difficult to 
eradicate ; others are fairly easy, thoi gh we 
have seen cultivators take a very wrong way 
to go about it. We have seen some smJ| 
gardens and portions of large ones overrun 
with Sedurn Telephium, and for years the 
only attempt, to eradicate it was simply to 
dig it down. The plant, in no way discon¬ 
certed, proceeded to re-establish itself on a 
fresh basis. Such a plant as this is easily 
destroyed, or at least ousted from the ground, 
if one takesi the trouble to dig out the plants 
with a fork when in full growth, and wheeling 
them away without attempting to break 
them. We have seen Sedum acre thrown 
upon the walks and trod upon with the 'dea 
of destroying it As might have been ex¬ 
pected, this only multiplied the number ol' 
pieces that were capable of rooting upon the 
walk. 
-O'— 
The Maidenhair Tree- 
For some years after the introduction of 
Ginkgo biloba to North America the supply 
had to be kept up from the old country. 
When the trees grew to flowering size in 
America they seeded very abundantly, and 
the seeds being fertile, it was unnecessary to 
get more from abroad. A more important 
fact concerning the production of seed was 
that 'they did this so abundantly that the 
fruits falling upon the ground were disagree¬ 
able to the inhabitants of towns in which they 
might have been planted owing to the odour 
arising from the fruits when trod upon. 
Some American writers have recently been 
advocating the. culture of only one sex of the 
tree so as to avoid the disagreeable character 
of the fruits when planted in streets. We 
might state that it has frequently been put 
forward in the disfavour of Ailanthus gla-n- 
dulosa. that, the flowers emit a. disagreeable 
odour, and the tree was therefore unsuit¬ 
able for town planting. The Ginkgo is a 
beautiful tree, however, not so often planted 
as it might be in this country, where the 
seeds give no' trouble whenever, if indeed 
they are ever produced. Being a conifer, 
when grown under natural conditions, it has 
a beautiful pyramidal habit, and is fairly 
thickly furnished with branches to near the 
base. Our contemporary, “American Gar¬ 
dening,” gives an illustration of the Ginkgo 
avenue at Washington, which is said to Ire 
the most famous in the world. In America 
the spring foliage is liable to be destroyed by 
late spring frosts, but later on the trees re¬ 
cover their beauty. 
