226 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Sept  niber  6,  1900 
CARDEMCJ^^NINCS 
VC* 
Flowers  under  Eclipse. — During  the  recent  solar  eclipse  in 
Spain  the  Sensitive  Plants  of  the  Madrid  Botanic  Garden  were  seen  to 
move  their  leaves  spontaneously,  and  Acacias  from  New  Holland  did 
the  like.  The  Oriental  Poppy  and  some  other  plants  closed  their 
flowers,  whereas  Calandrinia  discolor  and  others  opened  their  corollas 
during  the  darkness  and  shut  them  with  returning  day. 
Flora  of  Ohio. — The  present  flora  of  Ohio  is  found  by  Professor 
and  Mrs.  Kellerman  to  include  2060  flowering  plants,  of  which  430, 
or  a  little  more  than  21  per  cent.,  are  introduced  species.  Of  these 
foreigners  326  came  from  Europe,  thirty  from  Asia,  two  from  Africa, 
forty-six  from  southern  and  western  United  States,  twenty-one  from 
Central  and  South  America,  and  five  from  unknown  sources.  There 
are  forty-nine  weeds  among  imported  plants,  and  forty  among  natives. 
Hedysarum  multljugum. — This  is  a  plant  which  is  as  pretty  as 
its  name  is  awkward,  and  is  one  of  the  few  hardy  Leguminous  shrubs 
which  have  flowers  of  a  pink  or  purple  colour,  making  a  change  in  an 
order  which  has  yellow  for  the  prevailing  colour  of  its  shrubby  repre¬ 
sentatives.  It  forms  a  low,  much-branched  shrub,  3  to  4  feet  high,  with 
flowers  of  a  purplish-pink  hue,  which  are  borne  on  axillary  racemes 
a  foot  or  more  in  length.  The  leaves  are  pinnate,  each  consisting  of 
about  twenty-five  small  ovate  leaflets  of  a  greyish  colour,  as  are  also  the 
younger  stems.  It  is  thoroughly  hardy  in  this  country,  and  succeeds 
best  on  a  fairly  rich,  well  drained  soil.  The  growth  is  rapid,  plants 
two  years  old  from  seed  flowering  freely,  but  in  time  they  get  into 
what  is  generally  known  as  a  “  leggy  ”  condition,  when  most  of  the 
growths  should  be  pegged  down  immediately  after  flowering,  which  will 
cause  them  to  break  from  the  bases  of  the  shoots,  and  assume  a  more 
bushy  condition.  It  is  easily  raised  from  seed,  which  is  freely 
produced,  and  is  found  beneath  the  flowers,  which,  though  withered, 
are  persistent  on  the  plant  until  after  the  seed  is  shed. — C. 
The  Honey  Harvest  —  The  honey  year,  says  a  contemporary, 
may  best  be  characterised  by  the  single  word  “  irritating.”  It  has 
been  prodigal  in  promise,  poor  in  performance.  Such  a  show  as 
it  made  of  flower  and  fruit  is  almost  without  parallel,  so  that 
those  who  do  not  go  into  particulars,  but  merely  draw  the  inference 
that  a  wealth  of  blossom  ought  to  mean  a  full  hive,  have  been 
disappointed  in  their  expectations.  From  Easter  to  mid-July  summer 
marched  on  with  a  pageant  whose  beauty  it  was  good  to  behold. 
Masses  of  white  bloom  on  the  Hawthorn,  myriads  of  wild  flowers  on 
mead  and  lane,  fruit  trees  first  covered  with  blossom,  then  bent  low 
with  fruit,  wild  Roses  agleam  in  lane  and  on  thicket,  lines  odorous 
and  bountiful — did  industrious  insects  ever  before  enjoy  such  a 
chance  ?  Instead  of  a  great  honey  yield  there  is  but  a  half,  or  at 
most  a  three-quarter  crop.  And  the  cause  of  this,  as  of  so  many  ills, 
was  the  capricious  British  weather.  The  great  vexation  occurred  in 
June.  At  that  season  what  bee-keepers  call  the  Sainfoin  honey  flow 
was  at  its  flood— a  real  springtide  this  year.  But  suddenly  the  weather 
broke,  and  when  every  moment  should  ^ave  been  golden,  rain  and 
wind  kept  the  industrious  and  meritorious  insects  idling  at  home. 
Scraping  the  Bark  of  Fruit  Trees. — We  have  seen  old  trees  in 
an  orchard  scraped  to  remove  the  loose  bark  and  moss  from  the  trunks, 
and  have,  when  younger,  scraped  some  ourselves  without  any  very 
definite  idea  of  what  we  were  doing  it  for,  excepting  that  the  tree 
looked  better  to  us  with  a  smooth  bark.  But  we  did  not  like  to  scrape 
BO  hard  as  to  get  down  to  the  light  coloured  inner  bark,  and  leave  it 
spotted  or  streaked.  We  think  now  that  such  a  moderate  scraping  may 
be  beneficial  in  removing  hiding  places  for  many  insects,  some  of  which 
are  injurious  to  the  orchard,  like  the  codlin  moth  and  others  that  leave 
the  crops  on  which  they  feed  to  hide  on  the  trees  like  the  Asparagus 
beetle.  We  have  seen  some  people  whitewash  the  trunks  of  the  trees 
after  scraping,  and  even  when  they  were  not  scraped,  but  we  could  see 
no  benefit  from  that.  We  like  to  wash  them  down  with  a  strong  suds 
of  softsoap,  or  the  lye  of  wood  ashes,  and  thought  this  destroyed  insects 
and  their  eggs.  But  after  this  has  been  done,  says  an  American  con- 
temporary,  gather  and  burn  all  the  bark  scraped  off,  and  manure 
around  the  tree  if  the  bark  is  to  be  kept  smooth  and  soft.  When  it  is 
making  a  good  growth  an  Apple  tree  will  have  a  smooth  bark. 
Hrmles  as  Plant  Distributors. — Invading  armies  are  great 
agents  in  the  spread  of  plants.  Naturalists  twenty  years  hence,  writing 
on  South  African  botany,  will  date  many  a  weed  back  to  this  year  of 
war.  Enormous  quantities  of  forage  are  being  sent  up  country  from 
Cape  Town  every  day  to  the  front.  The  hay  comes  largely  from 
Canada,  as  well  as  from  England,  and  the  seeds  of  which  it  is  full  will 
germinate  and  spread  on  the  river  banks  and  veldt. 
The  Hop  Harvest. — The  Hop  harvest  in  East  Kent  has  been 
commenced.  There  are  numerous  plantations  in  which  the  Hops  look 
very  well  from  outside,  but  which,  on  close  examination,  are  found  to 
be  diseased  to  an  alarming  extent,  and  hundreds  of  acres  will  probably 
never  be  picked  at  all.  The  crop  throughout  Kent  will  be  an  excep¬ 
tionally  small  one,  the  ravages  of  red  mould  and  red  spider  being  of  a 
very  serious  character.  Similar  reports  come  from  Sussex,  Surrey,  and 
Herefordshire. 
Peaches  lu  Georgia. — In  many  sections  of  the  State  the  Peaches 
decayed  badly,  owing  to  the  excessive  amount  of  rain  during  the  latter 
part  of  May  and  almost  the  entire  month  of  June.  Many  of  the  early 
shipments  were  rushed  into  market  in  bad  condition,  consequently 
brought  no  returns  to  the  grower;  others  whose  fruit  was  in  good 
condition  received  remunerative  prices.  Some  late  consignments 
fetched  handsome  returns.  The  fruit  industry  in  Georgia  is  rapidly 
growing.  Heretofore,  when  we  have  had  a  large  fruit  crop,  the  market 
being  glutted,  enormous  quantities  of  Peaches  have  been  allowed  to  rot 
in  the  orchards.  This  in  a  measure  is  now  obviated,  as  a  number  of 
firms  are  running  canneries,  evaporators  and  distilleries.  One  cannery 
in  this  State  has  a  capacity  of  10,000  quart  cans  per  day.  Growers 
are  also  exercising  better  judgment  in  placing  their  consignments,  thus 
avoiding  glutting  the  markets. 
Basic  Slag  on  Clay  Soils. — A  writer  in  a  weekly  contemporary 
praises  in  generous  terms  the  beneficial  effects  of  basic  slag  on  the  stiff 
weald  clays  of  Sussex.  The  use  of  this  phosphatio  manure  on  the  Uckfield 
College  and  neighbouring  pastures  has  been  productive  of  extraordinary 
results,  grass  land  that  a  few  years  ago  was  scarcely  deserving  of  the 
name  having  been  rendered  productive  and  fertile  by  the  prudent 
application  of  this  substance.  The  basic  slag  answered  well  alone,  but 
it  was  most  effectual  when  employed  with  sulphate  of  ammonia,  the 
weight  of  yield  being  increased  by  the  addition  of  2  cwt.  per  acre  of 
nitrogenous  dressing,  while  the  quality  of  the  herbage  was  of  a  better 
order  than  when  nitrate  of  soda  was  the  accompanying  substance. 
The  writer  relates  a  striking  instance  of  an  incredible  farmer  in 
proximity  to  the  college  being  brought  a  convert  to  the  virtues  of  basic 
slag  through  practical  demonstration  of  its  effects.  After  much 
persuasion  he  was  induced  to  dress  part  of  a  grass  field  with  the  manure, 
and  so  clear  and  tangible  was  the  result  that  he  is  now  an  extensive 
user  and  a  strong  advocate  of  the  material.  For  clay  soils  there  seems 
to  be  no  more  serviceable  artificial  manure  than  basic  slag. 
Blackberries. — It  does  not  seem  to  matter  that  we  have  this  year 
an  immense  crop  of  cultivated  fruits,  which  can  be  purchased  very 
cheaply,  for  the  intense  desire  which  ordinarily  exists  to  have 
Blackberries  is  still  as  great  as  ever.  I  have  seen  in  all  directions 
persons  who  can  well  afford  to  purchase  good  fruit  going  long 
distances  to  range  the  commons  and  hedgerows  in  search  of 
Blackberries,  and  generally  pulling  the  fruits  even  before  they  were 
ripe.  That  fact  points  to  the  conclusion  that  whilst  due  allowance  has 
to  be  made  for  the  natural  desire  inherent  in  us  all  to  obtain  all  we 
can  without  cost,  yet  there  is  an  undoubted  fondness  for  Blackberries, 
which  is  manifested  in  childhood  and  adheres  to  old  age.  But  this 
passion  for  these  wild  favourite  fruits  points  to  the  fact  that  there 
should  be  in  their  culture  some  considerable  profit.  Wo  have  long 
known  the  value  of  Rubus  laciniatus  as  a  garden  fruit,  and  we  hope 
in  time  to  know  as  favourably  those  hybrid  berries,  the  Mahdi  and  the 
Logan  Berry.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  of  these  new  forma 
will  ever  attain  to  the  high  position  which  our  native  Blackberry 
occupies  in  public  estimation.  With  so  many  thousands  of  acres  of 
comparatively  wild  land  in  which  Blackberries  would  thrive  were  they 
properly  cared  for,  surely  after  only  a  few  years  if  the  area  was 
protected  the  produce  should  be  not  only  great  but  most  profitable. 
Were  the  finest  berries  to  be  found,  saved,  seeded,  then  the  produce 
sown,  and  stout  young  Brambles  raised,  and  these  the  second  year 
planted  out  3  feet  apart  in  rows  6  feet  apart,  and  as  growth  became 
strong  kept  to  solid  ridges  4  feet  wide,  the  ground  between  being 
kept  clean,  and  old  wood  occasionally  cut  out,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that  the  result  would  be  most  profitable  crops, — A.  D. 
