Journal of the New York Botanical Garden

              JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
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VOL. 47
No. 557
M A Y
1 9 4 6
PACES
105— 132
JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
CAROL H. WOODWARD, Editor
MAY AND JUNE EVENTS AT THE GARDEN
Rose- Growers' Day
June 12
All- day meeting, with F. F. Rockwell as speaker in the morning, followed
in the afternoon by a clinic and demonstration on rose diseases and
culture. Registration free.
Members'' Days
May 1 Comments on the Living Plants Displayed T. H. Everett
June 5 Painting Wild Flowers in Westchester County Eloise P. Luquer
Saturday Afternoon Programs
3 p. m. each Saturday
May 4 Plants of Tropical Regions with scenes from Nassau Otto Degener
Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany
May 11 Journey to Ecuador— With a motion picture,
" Down where the North Begins" W. H. Camp
Assistant Curator
May 18 Mushrooms and other Useful Fungi F. ]• Seaver
Head Curator
Radio Programs
3: 30 p. m. on alternate Fridays over WNYC
May 3 fregetables for Late Spring Planting George H. Gillies
Head Gardener, Marshall Field Estate
May 17 The World's First Agricultural Crops Major LaVerne V. Johnson
May 31 Sixteen Centuries of Tea- Drinking William H. U\ ers
Editor, Tea and Coffee Journal
June 14 Your 230-^ cre Garden Mrs. Meluin Sawin
Member of Advisory Council, New York Botanical Garden
June 28 Sugar i. s the Foundation of All Life E. E. Naylor
Assistant Curator, New York Botanical Garden
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAY 1946
TULIPS AT THE N EW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN. SPRING 1946
Cover photograph by Elmer N. Mitchell
Prins Carnaval, one of 60 varieties on view, all presented by the people of the
Netherlands, through the Associated Bulb Growers of Holland, as a mark of
gratitude for their liberation.
A COMMUTER'S GREENHOUSE John H. Myers 10?
BEGONIA LITERATURE AND NOTES BEQUEATHED TO LIBRARY 111
ORCHID SOCIETY MEETS AT GARDEN 111
THE HUANITA Margaret Douglas 112
HALF- CENTURY OF WORK AT GARDEN OBSERVED BY JOSEPH W. SMITH 118
F. XHIBIT OF PLANTS WITHOUT FLOWERS WINS AWARD FOR BOTANICAL GARDEN 119
BROADCAST—" BUGS, BEWARE!" Louis Pyenson 120
NOTICES AND REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 122
CURRENT LITERATURE AT A GLANCE Harriet K. Morse 127
LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS 129
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT 130
The Journal is published monthly by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York 58,
N. Y. Printed in U. S. A. Entered as Second Class Matter, January 28, 1936. at the Post Office
at New York, N. Y., under the Act of August 24, 1912. Annual subscription $ 1.50. Single copies
15 cents.
JOURNAL
of
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
VOL. 47 MAY 1946 No. 557
cA Qommuter's greenhouse
By John H. Myers
yr HAT is a greenhouse?"
This was the opening question in the informal talk on " A
Commuter's Greenhouse" given by Mr. John H. Myers of
White Plains, a member of the Garden for many years, at the
Members' Day program March 6. He answered his own ques­tion
as follozvs:
" It is primarily a glass- enclosed building; in the case of the
amateur it may perhaps be better defined as a glass- enclosed
room. The glass allows the light and heat of the sun to enter
and at the same time retards the radiation of heat from within
the greenhouse to the great outdoors.
" The equipment of a greenhouse consists of some tools, a
supply of water, a source of heat, containers for the medium
in which the plants grozv, and the medium itself."
The article below has been adapted from his talk. Illustra­tions
show the plans and equipment of his own house.
A S a student and a young engineer, I was always more interested in
seeing the wheels go round than I was in a garden. However, when
I eventually acquired a home in White Plains and became interested in
improving its grounds, I began, probably unconsciously, to acquire an
avocation— an interest in gardening.
As some walks, a patch of grass and a driveway, then a vegetable and
cutting garden slowly came into being, my avocation took a stronger hold
105
106
on me and I began to realize, regretfully, that I could garden only about
seven- twelfths of the year. Where the idea came from I do not know, but
1 began to think about forcing vegetables in a greenhouse. I read, I
rubbered, I asked questions, and, after much scheming and planning, and
waiting for the high prices following World War I to subside, I plunged.
As a result, in the fall of 1921 a greenhouse came into being.
To use a feminine term, the greenhouse was " appliqued" on the
southeast corner of the dwelling, opening out of its cellar. It was heated
by hot water circulating through pipes running under the side benches and
coming at first from a coal- burning boiler in a pit below the cellar floor. The
dwelling at that time was heated by a similar but independent plant. Since
then an oil burner has been installed which furnishes hot water heat for
dwelling and greenhouse with thermostats governing each independently.
At the start I experienced much difficulty in acquiring knowledge about
the small greenhouse. Seed catalogues of that date, 1921, did not feature
greenhouse plants and did not, as most of them do now, offer lists of
" Greenhouse Flower Seed Specialties" or " House Plants From Seed"—
to quote two of them. What information there was was tucked away in
obscure places. Fritz Bahr's Commercial Floriculture— a worthy book—
became my guide and mentor, but the scale of it had to be reduced to fit
the needs of an amateur. Outdoor gardeners at that time— that is, the
amateurs— knew next to nothing about gardening under glass. The men
who did know were those who operated large greenhouses on private
estates, and with them I had few contacts. An entree to this botanical
garden such as I now enjoy would have been a grand help. And many
florists had little general knowledge, as they were one- crop men, but I
Plan of the property, showing the position of the greenhouse in relation to dwelling,
garden, and lawn.
Plan of the greenhouse, showing the raised benches down either side, the solid bed
in the center where sweet peas and snapdragons are grown for cutting, uiith smaller
plants along the edge and a hanging shelf from each side for an extra row of potted
plants. The carnation bench at the end is removable so that in summer the outside door
is usable.
cross- examined them and everyone else who seemed to possess any of the
information I was after. So slowly but surely I learned something.
For a few seasons vegetables were forced, lettuce and cauliflower in the
fall, tomatoes and English cucumbers in the spring. Perhaps I should be
careful about using the plural number because there were none too many
of them. And I realized as season succeeded season that while any num­ber
of people could get an eyeful of beauty from an artistically arranged
bouquet of well grown flowers, by no means could the same, or even a less
number, get a stomach full of fresh vegetables from the house which pro­duced
the bouquet. So the little greenhouse is now used to grow flowers,
although in spring a few tomatoes or cucumbers are sometimes ripened
in it and plants of tomato, pepper and eggplant are grown, to fruit later in
the outdoor garden.
Tools, Pots, Flats, and Benches
What sort of equipment is used in operating a greenhouse ?
Greenhouse tools are diminutives of garden tools. The trowel sub­stitutes
for the spade or shovel, the hand fork for the spading fork, and a
scratcher does the same work as a three- or five- prong cultivator in the
garden. They are used in the right hand whereas the use of the garden
tools requires both hands and sometimes, in addition, the right foot. A
hose- bib in the greenhouse generally furnishes the water. The source of
heat is very often a hot water boiler, and if the amateur's greenhouse
107
108
Rear of the house showing how the one- room greenhouse has been attached, opening
out of the cellar and connected with it through a jlat- roofed passageway which serves
as a potting shed. In the foreground are the author's coldframes. which supplement the
greenhouse in starting plants for the outdoor garden.
which I have defined as a glassed- in room is attached to garage or dwelling,
their heating plants may also serve the greenhouse. Pipes through which
the hot water circulates are generally placed along walls or under raised
benches.
Containers for the growing medium ( which for the amateur is generally
good suitable soil) are clay pots, flats and benches. Flower pots need no
description. " Flat" is the name used by gardeners for a plant box. Use it
always, or you lose caste. Say, " Two flats of petunias," " A flat of chry­santhemum
cuttings," etc. Flats are best made of cypress as it stands up
well under damp conditions.
Benches need somewhat more description. They may be divided into
two kinds, solid and raised. The solid bench consists of soil laid on the dirt
floor of the greenhouse and often confined by a low curb. Or the curbs
may take the form of walls about 2 feet 6 inches high and the space between
them, except for the top 12 or 14 inches, may be filled with broken brick,
pieces of concrete, stone and dirt not suitable for a garden. The top is
filled with suitable soil. The raised bench is in effect a table generally of
wood, preferably cypress, like the flats. The boards of its top are separated
by % or J4 inch to afford drainage and around its edges are boards about
109
6 inches high to retain soil or to keep pots from being pushed off and
broken.
Selecting the Plants to be Grown
The question is often asked, What may be grown in the small green­house?
The answer is, almost any plant that can get along with a night
temperature of 50- 55 and a day temperature of 60- 70. Plants of fine
foliage or fruit and plants with attractive flowers may be grown in pots.
This, by the way, is what our grandmothers did before the introduction of
steam heat robbed the air of our homes of most of its moisture content,
and many a sitting- room window looking to the south was, during winter,
a little greenhouse in itself. Often displayed there were beautiful speci­mens
of foliage and flowering plants. Grandmother tenderly cared for
her plants and on severe nights drew the curtains or even moved the plants
away from the glass.
Another use to which the small greenhouse lends itself is the production
of cut flowers. Many people are fond of bouquets in their living- rooms
and on occasion derive pleasure from sharing their flowers with friends
who from age or illness may be shut- ins. The flowers grown by florists
present no great difficulty.
A small greenhouse may, in the early part of the year, also furnish
seedlings of vegetables or annuals for setting in the garden where their
fruits and flowers will mature. Plants grown from seed sown in the
greenhouse, followed by those whose seed is sown later outdoors, will
afford a succession of vegetables and flowers. Bulbs may be made to
bloom in a greenhouse before they open outdoors in the spring. In fact,
greenhouse and garden are complementary and, used together, they broaden
and round out the pleasure of gardening.
Warning Word for the Beginner
Without meaning to pose as an expert, a few words of advice to the
amateur, culled from my own experience as one of them, may not be out
of place. We amateurs are prone to be enthusiastic, optimistic and am­bitious.
If we were not we would not be successful in gardening or in any
other avocation or hobby. Therefore it is well to solemnly warn the be­ginner
who has the ambition to possess a greenhouse that, in indoor
gardening as in any other work, one must creep before he or she can
walk. Furthermore, while many people understand and make a success
of their outdoor gardening, by far the greater number of them are tyros
when it comes to the operation of the amateur's greenhouse. Out of doors,
nature supplies the light, heat and moisture, while indoors she furnishes
only the light and during the short dull days of winter often not too much
of it. Gardening under glass is an entirely different operation, as I dis­covered
when I began some twenty years ago. And while I now grow
that are essential in the green.'
Wwo fiats for raising seedlings and
icuttings, with homemade devices for
Imaging straight furrows m them and
foffsetting plants or seeds placed
evenly.
:.:* t-: Cd,>: '.-* « -'"
THE COMMUTER'S GREENHOUSE^
AND SOME OF ITS EQUIPMENT
1. Looking down the right aisle to the ^
propagating cases at the farther end
2 A closer mew of the propagating cases.
some plants from all of the groups which I have referred to above, I by no
means did this when I began, but I have expanded my operations little
by little over a period of years.
If my experience counts for anything, the beginner is likely to have
rather vague notions as to what use he wishes to make of his greenhouse.
So my advice to him is not to bite off more than he can chew, and to make
an easy start in the fall of the year by procuring from friend or florist
a few potted plants which will flower in the greenhouse. Then let him pot
a few King Alfred narcissus bulbs and bury them in his garden and, after
the proper interval, bring into the greenhouse a pot or two of them at a
time. And, when spring is at hand, let him sow seeds of a few annual
flowers and a few vegetables, say lettuce and tomato. The chances are
110
I ll
that when the following fall arrives he will be eager to start another cycle
of growing, to avoid errors made the previous season and to widen some­what
the scope of his operations. Thus in time will he find himself and
realize to what use he wishes to put his greenhouse and, as season succeeds
season, and he perfects his technique, he will derive more and more satis­faction
and pleasure from gardening under glass.
Begonia Literature and Notes
Bequeathed to Library
T^ ORTY- FIVE notebooks containing a
•*• wealth of material on begonias have
become the property of the Library of
the New York Botanical Garden through
the will of Mrs. Albert H. Gere of
Merion, Pa. The collection, which as­sembles
much widely scattered material
on the subject, is looked upon as one of
immeasurable value for reference work
on begonias.
Of the notebooks, 42 quarto- size vol-
' umes contain photographic and photostatic
copies of literature and illustrations of
Begonia species and varieties, including
hand- painted reproductions of 83 plates
, from Curtis's Botanica! Magazine and of
six from Addisonia; also descriptions of
begonias as contained in the Transactions
of the Linnean Society, the Proceedings
of the American Academy of Science, the
Philippine Journal of Science, Botanical
Cabinet, Paxtpn's Magazine of Botany,
and other publications; photographic re­productions
of begonias listed in trade
catalogs; typed descriptions of begonias
from The Gardeners' Chronicle and other
periodicals; photographic reproductions
of " Les Begonias" by Charles Chevalier,
of " Die Begonien" by Karl Albert Fotscli,
and of " Be^ oniaceen- Gattungen und
Arten" by H. Klotzch.
In addition, one leather- covered note­book
provides an index to all the' ma­terial
contained in the 42 quarto- size
books, giving the contents of each book
and an alphabetical index to the litera­ture
on begonias that is reproduced. The
two other notebooks contain citations to
the literature on begonias, arranged alpha­betically
according to species or variety.
Orchid Society Meets at Garden
Members of the American Orchid So­ciety
from a dozen states assembled at
the New York Botanical Garden March
19 for the annual trustees' meeting.
Luncheon provided by Mr. and Mrs.
Rodney Wilcox Jones was served to 65
in the Members' Room, where others
joined the group for the meeting which
took place in the afternoon.
Immediately following lunch, the group
inspected orchid literature and publica­tions
of the Garden in the library, and
after the meeting they were taken on
tours of the building and of the main
conservatories.
From the Garden's propagating house
about 75 orchid species were selected to
be displayed in the Members' Room. Fif­teen
water- color paintings of Florida
orchids by Olivia Embrey Lay were also
shown.
Among the guests of the day were
R. H. Gore, Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
Mr. & Mrs. Clint McDade, Chattanooga,
Tennessee; Dr. Norman C. Yarian, Cleve­land,
Ohio; Dr. O. Wesley Davidson,
Rutgers University; Mr. and Mrs. George
H. Pring, Missouri Botanical Garden ;
Mr. and Mrs. George Butterworth,
Framingham, Mass.; E. T. Hammington,
Chestnut Hill, Mass.; Robert J. Tither-ington,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Mr. and Mrs.
Halle Cohen, Jacksonville, Florida; Dr.
H. O. Eversole, La Canada, Calif.; Louis
V. Dorp, Morristown, Pa.; Oliver Lines,
Elkins Park, Pa.; Alfred S. Knowlton,
Essex Fells, N. J.
Mr. Jones, who is President of the
American Orchid Society, has been a
member of the New York Botanical
Garden since 1919.
112
The Huanita
Rare Fragrant Tree of Mexico Found Blooming
In the Courtyard of a Ruined Chapel
By Margaret Douglas
EVEN before we entered the gate to the courtyard of the old monastery
in the little Mexican town of Santa Cruz de las Flores, which we
had come to the State of Jalisco especially to see, the fragrance of
flowers from within the high stone wall reached us as an overpowering
scent. Inside there grew a gnarled old tree, which, although the trunk
was hollow, still had sufficient vitality to produce a crown of foliage and
flowers. The shiny leaves of a clear green resembled those of a young
citrus tree. It was in full bloom when we were there in January. The
clusters of flowers were snow white and grew the way apple blossoms do.
The buds were white and waxy- looking, like those of orange blossoms, but
the texture of the open flower was not as heavy, and the five petals had a
slightly crinkled edge, reminiscent of a crepe- myrtle. The custodian
gathered flowers for us, and later as we left the gateway a passing Mex­ican,
seeing them in my hand, stopped and remarked, " That tree is very
rare."
An old priest, seeing us there, came to invite us into his house beside the
present church. That was just at the moment when the Mexican spoke to
us, and the priest listened with astonished interest, as he had never heard
the legend, while the villager told us the story of the tree.
The Legend of the Flowering Tree
Hundreds of years ago, he said, a pilgrim was passing through this town,
carrying a crate with two little pots in it. He was very weary and as he had
to continue his journey, he asked the woman who had given him shelter if
he might leave the crate with her, and get it on his return from his pilgrim­age.
The only thing he asked was that she would pour some water into
the crate occasionally, but not open it. This she did, and watered the
plants faithfully for years. The pilgrim never returned, and one day when
a heavy perfume issued from the box, she decided to open it. There were
two beautiful plants, covered with white bloom. She took them to the
church and planted them one on each side of the entrance. They grew
for years, then finally one died. The villagers, who had become super­stitious
about losing the last tree, attempted to take cuttings, also to grow
plants from seeds, but none ever succeeded. A few years ago, when repairs
had to be made to the wall around the church, a long root was evidently cut
through by the workmen, and to everyone's surprise, a shoot started up
about ten feet from the tree!"
113
The shoot has grown well and: the villagers hope that it will live. I took
some slips and I dipped them in hormodin, and they did sprout four small
leaves, but unfortunately the pot was tipped over and the roots dried before
I discovered the accident.
I wrote to the friend who drove us to see the hospice, for any particu­lars
she could glean about the unusual flowering tree. Below I am quot­ing
her reply:
Report from Mexico
" Senor Cornejo, Director of the Library at the University of Guadalajara, and
a most serious student on Hispanic and pre- Hispanic periods in Mexico, discouraged
me by admitting that practically nothing of authenticity is known here on the subject.
In his extensive perusal of old books and manuscripts, he has found no reference to
this tree other than the legend we heard of when we visited Santa Cruz.
" The ruins we visited are what remains of the chapel of an old Franciscan hospital,
meaning hospital in the sense of the Latin HOSPITAL, or guest house. This guest
house was originally intended for the accommodation of officials and priests traveling
from the main Franciscan establishment at Tlalcomulco to the outlying convents
throughout Nuevo Galicia.
" The legend of the tree as fostered by the Spanish priests is this*: An image of the
Virgin Mary was shipped from some unspecified port in Spain, cradled against
breakage with thin branches of an unfamiliar tree. Upon the arrival of the figure
at the hospital, a botanically curious priest placed them in the ground, where one took
root to become the tree we saw. Subsequent attempts to propagate the tree in this
manner having failed, the rooting of this branch is considered a miracle due to its
position over the heart of the image of the Virgin.
" Senor Cornejo called to my attention a significant and most interesting fact. The
village is now known as Santa Cruz de las Flores, supposedly from the fact that the
tree is still in full blossom on the third day of May, which is the festival of the Holy
Cross. But this village was known in Hispanic times as Santa Cruz Xuchitlan,
Xuchitlan being the Spanish corruption of the ancient Indian name of the village,
Xochitlan. We know that in the Nahuatl tongue xocm meant ' flower' and TLAN
' place of.' Senor Cornejo mentioned the known exactness of the Indian nomencla­ture
in identifying place names to some outstanding characteristic of the locality. He
cites Mazatlan, place of the deer; Zapotlan, place of the zapote; Aguacatlan, place
of the aguacate, et cetera. Therefore, he believes that when the Indians gave this
village the name of ' Place of the Flowers,' it was because of some unusual botanical
phenomenon occurring there which was not common to the surrounding country.
Therefore, Senor Cornejo, along with others interested in the subject, concludes
that this tree, with the smaller one we saw, is the sole remaining example in this
village of a tree surely indigenous to this part of the world and certainly pre-
Hispanic. He believed that the subsequent stories came into being not earlier than
the 18th century, when the tree had already become rare enough to have its origin
questioned, and pondered upon. He has heard reports of others of its kind in
different parts of Mexico, but although he has tried to find the exact location of these
specimens, has been unable to discover their whereabouts. There is no record of
the tree in Guadalajara."
Identification of the Tree
From a small branch which I sent to Dr. Robbins, Dr. H. A. Gleason
identified the tree as the HUANITA, known in most botanical writings as
* The legend here is slightly different from that related by the Mexican villager.
114
The huanita, rare flowering'tree of Mexico and southward, as depicted in W.
Hemsleys " Biologia Centrali- Americana" published in London in 1888.
115
Bourreria formosa, but more properly called, he said, by the older specific
name of huanita. It belongs to the Borage family and is native to southern
Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, but is apparently always excessively
rare. Most herbarium specimens have been taken from cultivated trees.£
Paul C. Standley, in " Trees and Shrubs of Mexico" ( Vol. 23, part 4,
page 1224), gives the following brief description of the genus:
" Shrubs or trees; leaves alternate, petiolate, entire; flowers rather large, white, in
terminal corymb- like cymes; calyx campanulate, 2 to 5- lobate, the lobes valvate;
corolla salverform, the limb usually 5- lobate; styles 2- cleft, the stigmas flattened;
fruit a drupe, containing 4 bony nutlets."
At the end of Standley's list of ten accepted species of Bourreria, B.
huanita is given as a " doubtful species." This is because no specimen was
known to the author from Michoacan, the type locality. Yet he gives a
number of vernacular names for the plant, such as HUANITA ( Michoacan),
IZQUIXOCHITL and JAZMIN DE TEHUANTEPEC ( Oaxaca), and YAGA
GUIEXOBA ( Oaxaca, Zapotec). f If B. huanita is identical with B. formosa,
as seems likely from the description, then, according to my informants
at the New York Botanical Garden, the tree should be known by its earlier
name of B. huanita; or, perhaps, if international rules are to be strictly
followed, the spelling should be in the original form of Beurrena, or
% A specimen in the herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, collected in
August 1938 by George B. Hinton at Acahuato in the district of Apatzingan,
Michoacan, came from a spreading tree 15 meters ( about 45 feet) high. It was found
in the plaza of the town, and a notation on the herbarium sheet states that " no
other exists in the region."
A letter in the folder for the species in the herbarium gives some additional informa­tion
about another specimen of the tree. Addressed to Dr. N. L. Britton, May 23,
1923, it is written by Sylvester Baxter of Maiden, Mass., a business man and writer
who did some botanical collecting while in Mexico. Mr. Sylvester writes:
" It was in April, 1899, that I went to Uruapam. I had picked up in a curio- shop
in Queretaro a history of the Bishopric of Michoacan, in Spanish. . . . It was printed
about 1840. In its account of Uruapam it told about a remarkable tree growing near
the old mill and quoted La Llave as naming it Huanita uruapensis, and pronouncing
it as unique in family, genus and species, and the only individual known to exist.
At Uruapam, a little city of rare beauty. I was told that the original tree was dead,
but that trees from three cuttings were in existence, one in the garden of the Gov­ernor
of Michoacan, and one in the garden of a lad)' in town. . . The [ latter] tree
was in full bloom and about 20 feet high. Flowers white and crape- like, and of
exquisite perfume. The leaves seemed something like an orange. . . I sent cuttings
to Prof. Sargent, but they spoiled in the mail; also some seeds, but Dawson could
not make them germinate. I think the flowers I sent for the herbarium were referred
to Dr. Goodale at Harvard. Probably the common name at Uruapam was TUANITA.
" It should be worth while for some botanical explorer in Mexico to go to Uruapam
and get cuttings, if possible. April is probably the best time, for it would then be
in full bloom. It would be a misfortune for such a rare and beautiful thing to be
lost to the world."
The tree described by Mr. Baxter, if alive today, stands within range of the dust
falling from the newly active volcano Paricutin.
E. J. ALEXANDER.
t In a later work ( Tropical Woods. 1931), Standley accepts the name of Beureria
huanita, as made by Hemsley.
116
even Beureria* The change to an o was authorized by de Candolle in the
Prodromus, Vol. 9, page 504.
In an extensive article on the huanita in the Anales del Instituto de
Biologia, 1931 ( Universidad Nacional de Mexico), A. R. Laguna describes
the genus, which he calls Beurreria, as containing only trees and shrubs
belonging to the extra- tropical regions of America. The huanita itself, he
says, was famous medicinally for many years in Michoacan as a cough
medicine, digestive, flavoring, astringent, and a perfume. In delving into
the history of the tree, Laguna cites the monumental work of Francisco
Hernandez, physician to Philip II of Spain, " Rerum Medicarum Novae
Hispaniae Thesaurus," published in Rome in 1649, where there is a
description with a magnificent wood engraving of a tree cultivated in
Cuernavaca and Huaxtepec and known by the indigenous name of
YZQUIXOCHITL. This agrees, in large part, with the plant in question.
The same description of the plant appears with slight variations in an edi­tion
of the work entitled " De Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae," pub­lished
in 1790. Laguna writes further :
" Worthy of special mention is the first description in Spanish of the ' yzquixochitl,'
published in Mexico in 1615, in the work entitled, " Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza
y virtudes medicinales de las plantas y animales de Nueva Espana,' by Brother
Francisco Jimenez, Dominican friar, who made the translation of the original work
of Dr. Francisco Hernandez, enriching it with numerous personal observations, before
it was published in Rome.
" In 1824, a work written by don Pablo de la Llave and don Juan Lexarza entitled,
' Novorum vegetabilium descriptiones,' first saw public light, and in this was found
the first botanical description of the ' huanita.' This description, done in Latin by
such illustrious botanists, is found in the first chapter of the work, and in it the
scientific name of Morelosia huanita Llav. and Lex. is given to the ' huanita.'
" Doctor don Nicolas Leon published in the Gaceta Oficial del Gobierno del Estado
Libre y Soberano de Michoacan, in 1866 two articles about this important plant, the
' huanita.'
" In the first article, Dr. Leon says that he tried to find the plant that Llave and
Lexarza were studying, but he was only able to find out that it was found near the
old capital of San Pedro, in the district of the same name, in the city of Uruapan,
and grafted to a cherimoya, and that it had died many years ago ' for lack of life be­cause
of old age/' Farther on he says that he had seen two individuals of this plant:
' one in the house of the estimable senora dona Lugarda Izazaga de Cano,' and the
other on the place called ' la cineraria'; he adds that both examples are notable for
* Johann Ambrosius Beurer ( 2 Mr 1716— 27 Je 1754), for whom this genus was
named, was a pupil of Trew and well known to contemporary botanists. Browne, in
1756, was the first to use his name for the genus, speaking of him as " Mr. Bourer, an
apothecary of Nuremberg." He spelled the genus- name Bourreria; in the index,
however, it appears as Beureria, which suggests that someone may have called his
attention to his wrong spelling.
Jacquin took up the name in 1763 ; his is the first legitimate publication. He spelled
it, unfortunately, Beurreria, correcting the first vowel but retaining the double r.
It would be possible to regard this as an unintentional orthographic error and change
it to Beureria.
De Candolle had no business changing it to Bourreria in any case. The name is
certainly not Bourreria; it may be Beurreria or Beureria as one interprets the inter­national
rules. I should favor the later, since the original intent is clear.
H. W. RICKETT.
117
their development and that they exceed the designation of ' shrub'* that was given
them by de la Llave and Lexarza; that he had news that another example of great
size existed in the village of Tacascuaro, and that in the beautiful village of ' Los
Reyes' there were also several. Finally, he points out that the Tarascan name of the
village of Jiquilpan, which is ' Vanimba,' signifies ' place of huanitas,' which might
indicate that in this place there existed at one time, some examples of the plant in
question, and that notwithstanding its Tarascan name, considering its rarity in
Michoacan, it is believed that this plant is not indigenous there, but imported."
I wonder if any of the one hundred fifty members of the Garden Club
of America who visited Uruapan with me in 1936 saw any huanitas in
the Botanic Garden there. It was the season of bloom. Some years ago
we visited President Cardenas at Jiquilpan. He is a great lover of flowers
and plants, and had I only known about the huanita at that time, might
have hunted for it there, with much helpful assistance from him.
In Mixteca the huanita is called YTAYUCUINE, which means " Flower of
the Tiger Mountain," according to Dr. Martinez Gracida, who says that
YUCUINE of TEHUANTEPEC means " Mountain of the Tiger," and that this
place is the plant's native habitat. In ancient times the historian monks
called the huanita FLOE DE YUCUAMA, surely a corruption of the name
YUCUINE— a type of change which often occurs when a name is difficult
to pronounce.
Genesis of a War
Historians consider this plant as the cause of a bloody war between two
of the oldest and most powerful villages. It took place in Tehuantepec in
approximately 1496, when an army of Mexicans, sent by the King of
Mexico, Ahiutzotl, were vanquished at Guiengola by the Zapotecas and
Mixtecas, allies, under the command of the King of Zaachila, Cozijoeza.
The Mixtecas, subdued by the King of Achiutla, on the return from the
campaign in the country of Tehuantepec carried a tree covered with beau­tiful
and fragrant white flowers, known to the Mexicans as YZQUIXOCHITL.
The Mixteca Cacique diligently cultivated it in his gardens and refreshed
himself with the beauty and aroma of the flowers. He felt proud to pos­sess
this tree belonging to the hot country, and reminding him of the lovely
country of Tehuantepec, for which reason he named it, in the Mixtecan,
idiom, YTAYUCUINE.
When the new king of Mexico, Moctezuma II, heard of it he craved to
possess it, and in the second year of his reign, therefore, sent a commission
to the Mixtecas to secure by peaceful means the object of his desires. But
the Mexican ambassadors were haughtily received by Mallinalli, the
Cacique of Tlaxiaco, who refused to give or sell his YTAYUCUINE. Thus
started the war— the troops of Moctezuma with their greater units invaded
the territory, and were victorious. Mallinalli and the Cacique of Achiutla
* The tree at Santa Cruz, growing at an altitude of about five thousand feet, is
more than thirty feet high and about eighteen inches in diameter, although described
as a shrub of about three feet high, in some other states!
118
were taken prisoners, their towns burned after practically all the in­habitants
were sacrificed. Then in the end, the Mexicans transported the
precious tree with great care to the gardens of Moctezuma II, at Huaxtepec,
near Cuernavaca in Morelos, where plants of all climates seem to flourish.
Some Indian monarch said of this tree that the flowers are not to be
found anywhere, the solitary specimen having dried out on the road to
the garden. Other authors affirm that seeds of this notable tree were care­fully
sown and cultivated by Moctezuma, and were studied there in the
beginning of the 16th century by Hernandez and Fray F. Jimenez.
Half- century of Work at Garden
Observed by Joseph W. Smith
T N tribute to Joseph W, Smith, gardener,
•*• on the 50th anniversary of his em­ployment
at the New York Botanical
Garden, a purse of more than $ 200 was
given to him on March 21. Presented
during the noon hour in the palm house
of Conservatory Range No. 1, it repre­sented
contributions from the entire roster
of the Garden's employees, who, with a
number of friends from outside the staff,
all attended the brief, informal ceremony.
Mr. Smith, who is now 71, was brought
up on a farm in the Bronx, and when the
new Botanical Garden was opened in
Bronx Park, he sought a job there and
began working March 21, 1896. It was
about five years before the conservatory,
where he has spent most of his half- cen­tury
at the Garden, replaced the wild
cherry trees and mountain laurel that had
overrun the old pasture north of Ford­ham
University. He can remember when
all the apartment- covered blocks of to­day's
populous borough of the Bronx
were rolling farm lands occupied by a
mere handful of families. And he can
remember when a visit to the new Bo­tanical
Garden meant, for most people, a
long trip with horse and carriage, with
a picnic lunch packed under the back seat.
Joe Smith has personally watched the .
growth of a large number of the plants
that have been cultivated in the Garden's
conservatory since the building was
erected in 1900. A sugar palm that he
planted grew in time to the top of the
90- foot dome; eventually flowered, died,
and was cut down in 1934. A seedling
from this tree has already shot up some
30 feet.
In addition to brief talks given by Dr.
William_ J. Robbins and T. H. Everett,
the anniversary ceremony included pres­entation
of a water- color painting, show­ing
Mr. Smith in the palm house, made
by one of the younger gardeners. The
margins bore the signatures of the
Garden's staff and employees.
At the Members' Day program May 1,
Mr. Smith was presented with a resolu­tion
of congratulation from the Board
of Managers.
H 111
%
$
119
•
Exhibit of ^ Plants Without Flowers
Wins cAward for < Botanical Qarden
A GOLD MEDAL was awarded to the New York Botanical Garden
for its exhibit of " Plants Without Flowers" presented at the Inter­national
Flower Show at Grand Central Palace March 16 to 23. This was
the first International Flower Show to take place since the war.
The Garden's exhibit featured seaweeds, yeasts, molds, and bacteria.
An aquarium containing seaweeds from the West Coast occupied the center
of the exhibit and a decorative border was made of some of the most
ornamental specimens of algae from the Garden's Herbarium.
Cultures of various molds, yeasts, and bacteria were shown in four- foot
test tubes. Descriptive labels told briefly of the usefulness of these forms
of plant life. Enlarged photographs of diatoms were shown at the side
as the public approached the exhibit. Flowering plants from the Garden's
conservatories occupied tables at either end.
A staff of volunteers recruited by the Garden's Manhattan office served
at the Flower Show each day, and a member of the staff was also present
to answer technical questions. Along with announcements of the Garden's
publications and activities, folders prepared by the Manhattan office—
" Through the Garden Gate," " See How It Grows" and other pieces of
literature— were distributed to all who stopped to view the plants without
flowers.
The exhibit is now temporarily placed on the main floor of the Museum
Building.
The New Tor\ Botanical Garden's Gold Medal Exhibit of Plants Without Flowers
at the International Flower Show. March 1946.
120
B R O A D C A S T
By Louis Pyenson
Bugs, Beware!
CONTROL MEASURES for a dozen common garden pests were given by Dr. Louis
Pyenson of the State Institute of Agriculture, Farmingdale, Long Island, on the
New Yor\ Botanical Garden's radio program over WNYC April 19. The information
on which his tal\ was based is given here.
Grubs
About the first pests that the gardener
will run across while digging up his plot
are the white, fat, half curled grubs that
represent the immature stage of such
beetles as the Japanese beetle, the Asiatic
garden beetle, and the June beetle. Re­gardless
of what beetle they will develop
into, they all may cause considerable
damage by feeding on the roots of vege­tables
and lawn grasses. Some lawns can
be rolled up like a carpet because the
grubs have chewed off the roots about
an inch below the ground.
I f you find numerous grubs in the
garden area that you are spading up,
mix up 2Vz tablespoonsful of ethylene
dichloride emulsion to each gallon of
water and apply it with a sprinkling can
to the prepared soil at the rate of 1 gal­lon
per square yard. Water the garden
well afterwards. The same method may
be used on turf, but an easier method
to kill grubs in turf is to apply a 10%
DDT dust at the rate of 5 pounds per
1,000 square feet, watering it in well after­wards.
The kill is spectacular, as the
grubs come to the surface of the ground
before dying.
to the tree trunks with sprayer or brush
in a 3- to 6- foot band in the proportion
of 4 tablespoonsful of a 50 percent
wettable DDT powder to a gallon of
water, which is twice the normal strength
used on foliage. One application should
be made about the middle of October
to get the fall canker worms and one
about the middle of February to get the
spring canker worms as they crawl up
the trunks to lay their eggs on the twigs.
Cutworms
Another early bird in the garden is the
cutworm, which seems to wait for the
unwary gardener to put out his cabbage,
tomato, or pepper plants to begin snip-ping-
off operations. The easiest way for
the average small gardener to protect
his plants is to put stiff paper collars
loosely around the stem of each plant
and push them about an inch into the
soil. These can be easily made from
milk containers. For gardeners with a
more extensive acreage, poison baits,
made up especially for cutworms, should
be scattered over the field a few days
before planting.
Canker Worms
More commonly known as inch worms,
these pests are beginning their annual
destruction of tree and shrub foliage
now. They can be easily disposed of,
however, if you are fortunate enough to
have a good sprayer. Either lead arsen­ate
or DDT can be used, but DDT ap­pears
to be the more effective material.
Next year you can do away with spraying
foliage for canker worm by using DDT
on the trunks of the trees in much the
same way as tanglefoot. Apply DDT
Flea Beetles
Nearly as quick on the trigger as the
cutworms are the minute black flea
beetles, which appear about the same
time as the tomato plants are set out
and proceed to pepper the leaves with
tiny holes. They can destroy small
plants with little foliage in a few days
unless something is done to protect
them. Pyrethrum, rotenone, or DDT
dust can be used effectively but a con­tinuous
film on the foliage is necessary
during the period of beetle abundance.
121
Aphids
Nearly every vegetable, fruit, and
ornamental appears to have a species of
aphid that is particularly fond of its
juices. In no time at all aphids can
breed up in tremendous numbers. They
are biological wonders, as they go through
one generation after another in the
summer time with a complete absence of
males. On trees and shrubs you must
get them . early or you don't get them
at all, since they are quite well protected
from sprays in the curled up foliage. The
fairly new DINITRO sprays sold under a
number of trade names are excellent for
killing aphid eggs on trees and shrubs
before the leaf- buds open. Of course,
it is too late for that now. Nicotine sul­fate
is still about the best material for
aphids beyond the egg stage on shrubs,
trees, and vegetables.
Cucumber Beetles
An uncanny judgment as to when to
come out of hibernation seems to be pos­sessed
by the cucumber beetles. They
generally pick a warm, sunny weekend
when no one is around to pounce on the
recently emerged cucumber, squash, and
melon plants, and simply cause them to
disappear by Monday. Even if they don't
destroy the plants, they may affect them
with one of two bad diseases— cucumber
wilt and encumber mosaic. The beetles
should be kept entirely away from the
plants if you wish to keep the plants
healthy. That means dusting from the
time the seedlings emerge until harvest­ing
time with a ro tenon e- copper or cryo­lite-
copper combination dust.
Boxwood Leaf- miner
One of the worst pests that the box­wood
grower has had to contend with is
finally on the verge of being conquered,
even wiped out. I am referring to the
boxwood leaf- miner, which has been
very difficult to keep down without con­siderable
labor. Recent experiments that
I have conducted on the grounds of the
State Institute of Agriculture show that
one DDT spray applied thoroughly to
all sides of the foliage just prior to any
adult emergence ( generally ekrly in
May) will destroy every single fly coming
out of the foliage for the entire emer­gence
period of 2 to 3 weeks. Rains do
not impair its effectiveness providing
suitable stickers are used in the spray.
Mexican Bean Beetle
We can always be sure of one pest
that will be with us in the garden— the
Mexican bean beetle. The beetles come
out of hibernation about the time the
earliest planted beans are getting their
second or third set of leaves. Both they
and their spiny yellow larvae do con­siderable
damage to bean foliage. We
still have to rely on pyrethrum or rotenone
dust to keep these pests under control.
Two or three dustings at weekly intervals
are essential— and remember, the under­side
of the foliage must be hit.
Chinch Bugs
In June some of our once beautiful
lawns will begin to show brown patches—
those chinch bugs again. But this year
you will be equipped to deal with them
more effectively than ever before. Two
new dust materials are available, both of
which are much better than the rotenone
or nicotine formerly recommended. They
are a 10% SABIDILLA dust and a 10%
DDT dust. Either of these materials
applied in early June and early August
at the rate of 2Vz pounds per 1,000
square feet and raked in well should
nearly eliminate chinch bug trouble.
Corn- Borer
We also have two new chemicals to
help conquer the European corn- borer
which attacks nearly all succulent
stemmed plants, especially sweet corn,
dahlias, and gladiolus. One of these
materials is known as RYANEX and is
obtained from a tropical shrub; the other
chemical is the well knowrn DDT, used
as a 3% or 5% dust. Either of these
materials applied in dust form at five- day
intervals during the hatching periods of
the corn- borer eggs ( June and August)
gives better control than rotenone.
Slugs
Many gardens in damp seasons or in
damp locations are troubled by slimy,
gray, spotted creatures that come out only
after dark and feed on vegetables and
122
flower foliage and in addition leave
slimy trails wherever they go. If you
suspect slugs, go out after dark with a
flashlight and inspect your plants. You
will see them all over the foliage, if they
are present. Small heaps of a prepared
poison bait containing methaldehyde
placed at intervals in the garden will
effectively curb these night prowlers.
Japanese Beetles
We must not forget the Japanese beetle,
which is sure to be with us again in July
and August, chewing on everything that
appears edible. So far the best protection
for foliage has been obtained with the
use of DDT, which will not only kill
them but seems also to keep them away
from foliage coated with it. DDT tends
to stay effective for about three weeks,
so that one application in early July and
another some three weeks later should
give ample protection to foliage for the
season. Remember, DDT is a poison and
should not be used on fruits or vegetable
parts that are to be eaten. Fruit trees can
be sprayed with DDT safely only if the
fruit is not to be harvested until twc
months later.
Notices and Reviews of Recent Books
{ All publications mentioned here may be consulted in the Library of The New
York Botanical Garden or may be purchased on order through the Library.)
Nine Experts Solve Dilemmas
For the Home Gardener
GROUNDS FOR UVING. Edited by
" Van Wie Ingham and Richard B.
Farnham. 323 pages, indexed, illus­trated
by George J. Baetzhold.
Rutgers University Press, New
Brunswick. 1946. $ 2.50.
The gay paper cover of this book was
its first attraction, depicting the enclosed
outdoor living- room which is essential to
my happiness; I have never understood
the American propensity for goldfish- bowl
existence, and have always loved the
European way of placing houses directly
on the street front, with gardens for
outdoor living behind, completely screened
from public view, and high walls even
shutting out the adjacent neighbor's rov­ing
gaze. So it was pleasant to find my
own desire for privacy, even slightly
emphasized by Charles H. Connors, the
first of the nine experts who have under­taken
this comprehensive and valuable
contribution to the solution of the many
problems besetting the small home owner
who is eager to use his limited grounds
to the best advantage.
The volume is full of charts, references
and helpful suggestions, some new and
most welcome even to those of us who
have done much reading and given much
thought to this engrossing subject. It is
particularly good to be reminded of the
many excellent government and college
bulletins available today; we are apt to
overlook the sources of information so
easily available to us. Landscaping in
miniature— lawns, shade trees, flowers,
vegetables, fruits, soil and outdoor con­struction
are all ably covered. The chap­ter
on flowers is particularly good, en­couraging
the amateur, reassuring and
giving confidence to the beginner with
common- sense observations and practical
instructions; with wise cautions against
undertaking too much— advice which the
over- ambitious would do well to heed, or
the pleasure which should be derived
from the outdoor living room will turn
to gall and wormwood!
I was surprised, in the section on fruit
trees, that their beauty when in flower
is not more stressed— that all too brief
moment of sheer, exquisite joy for which
one waits all winter; and that the
espaliered tree is not mentioned for its
highly decorative and space- saving qual­ities.
In the chapter on construction, the
type of wall preferred is not to my taste,
and I looked in vain for practical sug­gestions
for a watering system which
would save the poor householder hours of
tiresome toil which could better be
123
devoted to relaxation or other pursuits.
Was it not the Romans who used overflow
bath water for irrigation of their
grounds? To be able, with a turn of the
wrist, to attend to this most irritating of
summer chores, is a dream I wish our
nine experts had put their minds on caus­ing
to come true! A permanent, efficient
installation of some sort should not be too
difficult of realization these days of amaz­ing
modern improvements.
But in spite of this lack, more than
made up for in other respects, here is a
book which should be on every gardener's
bookshelf— the acid test being, that having
just read and enjoyed it, I have ordered
it to add to mine, and expect to turn often
to its pages for solutions to my own
dilemmas.
KATHERINE G. FENIMORE COOPER.
Nutrition from a New Food
THE USEFUL SOYBEAN — A
plus factor in modern living.
Mildred Lager. 295 pages, in­dexed.
McGraw- Hill Book Co.,
Now York. 1945. $ 2.75.
Miss Lager is a pioneer in nutritional
education and in introducing new foods to
the public. In this book she has given a
b<- ief history of soybeans and their uses.
Especially striking is the description of
their increase in importance as a food
product during World War II. Miss La­ger's
statements concerning the value of
( he soybean in nutrition are backed by
scientific facts coming from some of the
leading laboratories and nutrition experts.
She gives facts concerning the protein,
vitamin and mineral content of soybeans.
One chapter is devoted to the use of soy­beans
in industry. She includes 350 recipes
for preparing soybean foods.
ILDA MCVEIGH.
Manifold View
Of American Forestry
BEHOLD OUR GREEN MAN­SIONS.
Richard H. D. Boerker.
313 pages, illustrated, indexed.
The University of North Carolina
Press. Chapel Hill. N. C. 1945. ? 4-
A compendium of useful facts about
forestry in the United States, " Behold Our
Green Mansions," is written in a manner to
make a strong appeal both to the profes­sional
forester and the lay reader. One is
impressed particularly by the thoroughness
with which every phase of forestry is
treated and the reliability of the statistics
presented.
A wealth of excellent photographs illus­trate
the points brought out in the text. In
them certain minor errors were noted, as
follows: In the last page of photographs
following page 30, the bottom one should
be labeled " The Flowed Lands," instead
of " Blue Mountain Lake." The titles of the
two photographs on the fourth page im­mediately
following page 78 should be
transposed.
The preface enumerates the many ways
in which the forests of this country and
their products contribute to the national
economy. Next, forest fires and their de-structiveness
and provision for forest re­creation
are covered well. The discussion
of progress in wild life management is
comprehensive.
The book is particularly thorough in
treating the relationship of forests to stream
flow, soil conservation and flood control.
Particular mention is made of the value
of forestry on the upper watersheds of
streams to control floods. This is followed
by a summary of Federal legislation for
flood control which, as the author is very
careful to point out, is not a cure- all.
A thorough discussion of all forest prod­ucts,
with considerable statistical informa­tion
regarding production, is contained in
the chapter on lumber and its by- products.
In the chapter on the forest as a livestock
range, a most interesting picture of the
livestock history is given of the West in
relation to forestry, with especial mention
of what government control has accom­plished
in the West with regard to grazing.
The author points out the need of co- or­dinating
grazing and timber production in
the Northeast. He could well have em­phasized
more strongly how detrimental
grazing is to farm woodlands in this
region.
The relation of the farmer to forestry
and the importance of farmlands in pro­ducing
forest crops for both local use and
for sale are brought out rather well, and
the author points out how farmers can and
should support forestry.
In the chapter on " Fire, the Destroyer"
it is stated on pasre 149 that one fire in New
York State in 1903 burned 450,000 acres.
That was the total area burned that year,
rather than the area of a single fire.
A brief but excellent summary is given
of insect enemies and tree diseases, par-ticularly
the chestnut bark disease and the
124
white pine blister rust among the tree dis­eases,
together with a brief discussion of
wood rotting fungi and others.
The author devotes a chapter to the lead­ership
of the Federal government in for­estry,
taking a great deal of his material
from the so- called Copeland Report of
1933 and the report of the Joint Con­gressional
Committee on Forestry in 1941.
He shows an appreciation of the fact that
the burden of responsibilitv for developing
forestry on all but Federal lands lies upon
the states.
A complete chapter is devoted to the
forestry problems of the South, which the
author points out is particularly important
as a forest producing region.
Mention is made of successful European
community forests and the advantages of
this ' type of forest to American com­munities.
The last chapter covers economic fac­tors
in private forestry. The author feels
that privately owned forests cannot meet
future demands for timber crops. He re­commends
the increasing of publicly owned
forests from the present 196,000,000 acres
to 315,000,000 acres. It appears that he is
influenced in this recommendation by the
Report of the Joint Committee on Forestry
referred to above. He points out that - pub­lic
help is needed for private forests. Then
he tackles the extremely controversial
question of public regulation, Beginning
with the statement that " as long as the
private owner and the states cannot ef­fectively
handle the forest resources prob­lem,
public regulation is inevitable." How­ever,
Mr. Boerker evidently is not in en­tire
sympathy with the United States For­est
Service in demanding Federal regula­tion,
for he states that he favors " local
legislation and enforcement with a min­imum
of Federal supervision"— a position
with which most foresters and timberland
owners will agree.
WILLIAM G. HOWARD.
Director, Lands and Forests,
N. Y. State Conservation Dept.
Long- Needed Handbook
GUIDE TO SOUTHERN TREES.
E. S. Harrar and J. G. Harrar.
712 pages, illustrated, indexed.
Whittlesey House, McGraw- Hill
Book Co., New York. 1946. $ 4.50.
This is an excellent handbook of the'
trees indigenous to the region south of the
Mason and Dixon Line, the Ohio River,
and an extension of the Missouri- Arkansas
boundary to the western limit of southern
forests. Somewhat over 350 species are
discussed and more than 200 are illustrated
by excellent line drawings showing all im­portant
characters. There is a handy intro­ductory
portion giving the basic concepts
of nomenclature and taxonomy, an illus­trated
glossary of terms employed, and a
19- page key leading sometimes to genera,
sometimes to individual species. Genera
with more than one species in the area have
a key to species included after the generic
description. Common names, as well as
scientific names and authorities, are given
for each species. The specific descriptions
are quite complete, including in most cases
statements concerning the habit, leaves,
flowers, fruit, twigs, bark, habitat, distribu­tion,
and economic importance. There has"
long been a need for such a book as this.
H. N. MOLDENKE.
Beneficial Bacteria
MICROBES OF MERIT. Otto
Rahn. 277 pages, illustrated, in­dexed.
Jacques Cattell Press,
Lancaster, Pa. 1945. $ 4- 00.
It is indeed high time that someone
called our attention to the fact that not all
microbes produce disease, and no one is
better qualified to do so than Dr. Rahn,
• who has spent years working and teaching
in this field. His book emphasizes the
large number of harmless and beneficial
bacteria; he tells us that only one out of
every 30,000 bacteria produces disease. He
discusses briefly the characteristics of
micro- organisms and describes the various
types of beneficial ones, not forgetting the
yeasts and molds, in such a simple manner
that anyone can understand him. His illus­trations
are especially worthy of note; they
add greatly to the interest and clarity of
the book, and some of them are really
fascinating.
In spite of its simplicity, however, this
book is remarkably complete and accurate,
and should appeal to scientist and non-scientist
alike. It should prove especially
interesting to science students of high
school age.
JEAN E. CONN,
New Haven, Conn.
125
Rice- Planter's Tale
Of a Century Ago
THE SOUTH CAROLINA RICE
PLANTATION as revealed in the
papers of Robert P. W. Allston.
Edited by J. H. Easterby. 478 pages,
indexed. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago. 194S. $ 5.
Mr. Easterby has given us a painstak­ing,
intelligent study of rice planting in
the low country of South Carolina, more
specifically in the Georgetown district,
from 1820 to 1868.
The book has three divisions:— first in
fifty pages, an interesting account of the
life of Robert F. W. Allston, graduate
of West Point, engineer, lawyer, gov­ernor
of South Carolina, but above all
rice- planter.
Two hundred pages of the Allston
family letters follow, then come another
two hundred pages of overseer accounts,
slave documents and factors' correspond­ence.
At one time Robert Allston owned
seven rice plantations, all situated in the
tidal swamps of the Georgetown district
that lies along the neck of land between
the Peedee and Waccamaw rivers. Rice
planting was big business. One of the
Allston plantations one year produced a
crop of 20,000 bushels of rice.
The documents show men and women
doing honest but difficult work, day bv
day, year after year— a far cry from the
romance of the legendary South, or the
pigsties of " Tobacco Road."
We should be grateful to Mr. Easterby
for a job well done.
LEE WICKER KINARD,
Winthrop College
Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Conifers for Cultivation
THE FRIENDLY EVERGREENS.
L. L. Kumlien. 230 pages, indexed,
illustrated. D. Hill Nursery Com­pany,
Dundee, 111. 1946. $ 6.
Here is a beautifully illustrated volume,
worthy of inclusion in the library of
everyone interested in the horticultural
aspects of coniferous evergreens. The
abundant drawings, black- and- white
photographs, and colored pictures were
well made and are excellently reproduced.
And in the chapters are accounts, not
only descriptive of most coniferous ever­greens
in cultivation, but also covering
pruning, diseases, insects, landscape uses,
soils, fertilizers, transplanting, propaga­tion
and other relevant topics.
E. H. FULLING,
Editor, The Botanical Review.
Chromosomal Point of View
GENETICS. Edgar Altenburg.
452 pages, illustrated, indexed.
Henry Holt & Co., New York,
1945. $ 3.20.
This is a general text covering the entire
field of genetics. It approaches the subject
primarily from the chromosomal point of
view and includes more maten .1 on cnro-mosome
behavior and the chromosomal
basis of inheritance than do most elemen­tary
texts. A very helpful innovation is the
inclusion of a brief summary at the end
of each chapter, which should prove of
distinct use to the beginning student. There
are numerous problems, which will also
serve to increase his understanding of the
subject.
Many of the figures are new and some,
notably the chromosome map of Drosophila
on pages 194- 195, are interesting and in­genious.
No book of this sort can include every­thing,
but it seems to the present reviewer
that the author might well have added a
brief discussion of the remarkable studies
in physiological genetics which have been
made on Neurospora. Nothing is said about
plant chimeras, which have thrown a good
deal of light on the genetic basis of de­velopmental
problems. In general, the
chapter on development seems a little lim­ited.
The introduction of the student to the
chromosomal and genie mechanisms before
he has studied the genetic facts is perhaps
not as good pedagogy as taking up Men-delism
first and passing from it to the
physical basis of inheritance. This, how­ever,
is an arguable point. The author has
taken over into all his genotypic formulae
the use of the wild- tvpe symbol + , as has
long been done with Drosophila, With
plants this sometimes results in rather
awkward situations since the wild- type may
be unknown and the choice of a particular
trait as wild- type must therefore be ar­bitrary.
It might be simpler to give a
definite letter symbol for every pair of
alleles.
These are minor points, however, and
the text in general seems to be excellent.
It should prove a valuable addition to the
list of books available to the teacher of
introductory courses in genetics.
EDMUND W. SINNOTT,
Yale University.
126
A Pioneer Writes Again
On Begonia Culture
BEGONIAS AND HOW TO GROW
THEM. Bessie Raymond Buxton.
163 pages, illustrated, indexed. Is­sued
under the auspices of the
Massachusetts Horticultural So­ciety.
Oxford University Press,
New York. 1946. $ 2.25.
In 1939 the author published a book
under this same title and it answered a
long- felt need and reawakened lively
interest in begonias.
The new book embodies much of the
first volume— thus it is not exactly a new
book, but an old one with additions. New
species and varieties increase the list of
begonias and more photographs are both
helpful and interesting. There is a chapter
devoted to tuberous- rooted begonias, as
well as one which discusses begonia
shows. An appendix describes the Amer­ican
Begonia Society.
This book makes a subtle appeal to the
home grower; herein lies one of its high
values. It is so designed as to make a
delightful hobby workable for the many
who have but few leisure hours.
In spots there are accumulated bits of
information that are somewhat confus­ing,
as in the paragraph on hairy- leaved
begonias under Pests and Diseases. Also
one learns from experience and from
observation that the Calla begonia is not
alone as a contradictory plant among
begonias. The reviewer questions the
wisdom of such labels as " a difficult plant
to grow" and " the result is a sickly
plant."
With a wealth of good material scat­tered
through its pages, its usefulness
can scarcely be overestimated in the large
particular field in which it serves, and
in which the author is an outstanding
pioneer.
For those who have come further along
the road, one hopes for the more technical
book, one which will lay down definite
rules for begonia culture, such being the
result of purely scientific research.
RALPH P. SISSON,
Hopkinton, R. f.
C' TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL
FESTIVAL OF ROSES
to be held
June 15 to July 15
at the Rose Capital of America
PREVIEW the new Modern Roses developed and
tested by the J. 8C P. Department of Plant Research.
REVIEW the 3000 different varieties of Roses
growing in our display gardens.
Jackson & Perkins Co.
NEWARK, NEW YORK
127
Current Literature*
At a Glance
By Harriet K. Morse
Fuchsias in Color. The Fuchsia Book
for 1944, published last year by the
American Fuchsia Society, contains 22
handsome illustrations in color. A de­scriptive
check list of varieties introduced
since 1934 is of great interest, as is the list
of nurseries which furnish true- to- name
stock.
Seed Germination. The Missouri Bo­tanical
Garden Bulletin for March 1946
publishes a list of some 150 garden
flowers, vegetables and herbs with the
number of days required for their
germination. Radishes appear in two
days while among the slowest are Glox­inia
and Lychnis ( 21 days).
Delphiniums from Seed. Arnold
Zurawski, writing in the 1945 publication
of the American Delphinium Society,
presents an article of special appeal to
those who would like to grow choice
delphiniums from seed. Many other au­thoritative
articles also appear in the
book.
Novelty Tomatoes. Here is a story about
the growing of 22 kinds of miniature to­matoes
as a hobby. Wilma S. Soule ( in
Home Gardening for the South, March
1946) describes her collections and com­ments
on their uses as food and decora­tion.
Among them are red and yellow
* All publications mentioned here— and many
others-— may be consulted in the Library of the
Botanical Garden, in the Museum Building.
pear tomatoes, plum, cherry, strawberry,
peach, persimmon, green gage and apple
tomatoes. They are disease resistant and
prolific, she says, and they escape the com­mercial
markets because they do not en­dure
much handling.
Rubber. Under the title, " Rubber,
Heritage of the American Tropics," W.
Gordon Whaley in The Scientific Monthly
for January gives a concise history of
rubber from the 16th century on, when
the early Spanish explorers in America
first sent back reports of this curious
milky substance found in trees. The his­tory
is brought up to date with a descrip­tion
of current production problems, in­cluding
disease control, in different parts
of the world.
Postage Stamps. In Frontiers magazine
for February, stamps of the world have
been singled out for the story they tell
of the characteristic flora of the country
concerned. Costa Rica shows the fruit
of the chocolate tree; Bulgaria a full
blown rose beside a perfume flask; New
Zealand, the kauri tree; Madagascar, the
traveler's tree; Colombia, a banana, and
so on. The United Nations stamp car­ries
a laurel branch with berries. For
further pursuit of the subject, the fol­lowing
articles might be consulted:
" Plants on Stamps," Gardeners' Chronicle
of America, April 1945 ; " Trees and Post­age
Stamps," American Forests, October
1940; " Breadfruit Tree Stamps," Nature
Magazine, November 1939; " Things
Apothecary on Postage Stamps,'' Amer­ican
Druggist, Mav 1940; " Agriculture
in Stamps of the Pan American Repub­lics,"
Bulletin of the Pan American
Union, March 1939.
COSTA'S
Penthouse Landscapers
BArclay 7- 0764
196 Greenwich Street New York 7, N. Y.
128
£ PJ( m < jtfAead' , fok %/ ctek & ieeb
• Many, many trees have
become war casualties. Injuries,
diseases and insects have made
headway during years when ex­pert
care was scarce. More than
700 Davey Tree Surgeons have
been in the armed services. Now
they are coming back to the
work they love. They are good
men— skilled, reliable, diligent.
Soon the Davey organization
will be well along toward its
prewar ability to serve you. Plan
now to have our local represen­tative
examine your trees. Let
Davey Tree Surgeons minister
to their needs . . . restore their
health and vigor.
DAVEY TREE EXPERT COMPANY • KENT, OHIO
MARTIN I. DAVEY, PRESIDENT
TWO G E N E R A T I O N S OF TREE S A V I N G SERVICE
129
For the Blind. In a foreword to his
brochure, on " Gardening for Health and
Happiness," Dr. Hugh Findlay, the au­thor,
says, " This book is prepared pri­marily
for the blind who love nature and
gardens, and those who might add more
vegetables to the world's great store­house."
This informative little book
will, it is hoped, be produced in braille,
that the blind may read for themselves
how to Become vegetable gardeners.
Orchid Magazines. The Orchid Digest,
spring 1946, issued by the Orchid Society
of California, lists six periodicals on the
orchid in English, besides one in Portu­guese
and one in Spanish.
Library Acquisitions
Some of the Library's lately arrived
purchases are briefly described here.
Two early works on the camellia have
been reprinted by E. A. Mcllhenny of
Avery Island, Louisiana. One is the
Monography of the Genus Gamellia by
the Abbe Lorenzo Berlese, as it first
appeared in an English translation in
1838; the other, " New Iconography of
the Camellias" by Alexandre Verschaf-felt
( 1848- 1860), translated from the
French by Mr. Mcllhenny himself. Only
the texts of these two books are given;
not the illustrations.
Pioneer Settlement in the Asiatic
Tropics by Karl J. Pelzer. Studies in
land utilization and agriculture in south­eastern
Asia. American Geographical
Society Serial Publication No. 29. 1945.
Darwin on Humus and the Earthworm,
with an introduction by Sir Albert
Howard. A 1945 edition by Faber &
Faber of London of Charles Darwin's
volume of 1881 entitled " The Formation
of Vegetable Mould through the Action
of Worms with Observations on their
Habits."
Five illustrated volumes of Flora
Agaricina Danica, dated 1941, have been
received from Copenhagen. Prepared
by J. E. Lange, they are published by
the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural
College, Department of Plant Pathology.
Several volumes of the long- awaited
Flore General de Vlndo- Ckine have
lately arrived from abroad.
Startling New
DAHLIAS
ROYAL MINIATURES
Perfect small flowers of Formal Dec­orative
type . . . iV- i in. or less in
dia. on diminutive plants. Beautiful
colors— lovely for room decoration.
White— Yellow— Blue— Bronze-
Lavender
SPECIAL ROYAL COLLECTIONS
Collection E— 5 roots, 1 each of
above colors, ( Value 0 . ) $ 4.50
Collection F— 10 roots, 2 each of
above colors, ( Value # 10.) $ 8.50
Sensational Novelty
PINK REGALIA
Informal Decorative Type
Offered last Spring for the first
time. Blooms 7 to 9 in. across in
lively, intense pink. Sturdy bushes,
4V2 to 5 ft. high. Wonderful for
garden and cutting.
$ 3.50 each; 10 for $ 31.50
132- 138 Church St., Dept. BO N. Y. 8
Suburban Stores: Englewood, N. T.
White Plains, N. Y. Newark, N. J.
Stamford, Conn. Hempstead, L. I.
130
Notes, News, and Comment
A. A. A. S. At the meetings of the
American Association for the Advance­ment
of Science in St. Louis the last week
in March a paper was given by Dr. H. W.
Rickett on " Travels of Sesse and Mociiio
in New Spain" and by Dr. W. H. Camp
on " Biochemical Clin'es, Polymorphic
Populations, and the Problems of Spe­cific
Delimitation of the Cinchona Popu­lation
of Ecuador." Charles L. Gilly,
who was formerly botanical artist at the
New York Botanical Garden and who is
now teaching in Iowa State College after
spending several years in Mexico, pre­sented
a detailed paper on " Distribution
and Variability in Teosinte." These were
all given at sessions of the American
Society of Plant Taxonomists. Mr. Gilly
was co- author with Dr. Camp of an ex­tensive
article on " The Structure and
Origin of Species'' which appeared in
Brittonia in 1943.
Dr. Ilda McVeigh, Technical Assistant
at the Garden, was one of four authors
of a paper presented on the " Comparative
Studies on the B- Vitamin Content of
Wholesale
Seeds
Imported Grasses
Lawn Mixtures
Seaboard Seed
Company
Philadelphia 47, Penna.
Trisomic and Disomic Maize," represent­ing
work that she did while at Yale Uni­versity,
and also presented a paper pre­pared
in co- operation with William J.
Robbins on " The Effect of L— Hydroxy-proline
on Trichophyton mentagrophytes."
Dr. Margaret Fulford of the University
of Cincinnati, who has twice been a
recipient of the Marshall A. Howe Me­morial
Fellowship at the Garden, pre­sented
" A Discussion of Phytogeography
of the Hepatics of North and South
America."
Chairman. Dr. W. H. Camp was
elected chairman of the systematic sec­tion
of the Botanical Society of America
for the year at the meeting in St. Louis
at the end of March. He was also ap­pointed
chairman of the committee on
nomenclature for the American Society
of Plant Taxonomists, and was elected
a member of a committee for drafting a
constitution for the newly organized
Society for the Study of Evolution.
Lectures. Dr. Bassett Maguire went
to Hanover, N. H., March 19 to address
the Dartmouth Science Club March 20 on
his exploration of Table Mountain
( Tafelberg) in Surinam. He also talked
on his expedition before the Quarantine
Club in the New York City Federal
Building March 27 and the Science Club
at Columbia April 8.
Dr. A. B. Stout went to Boston last
month to address the Chestnut Hill
Garden Club April 2 on " Lilies for
Gardens."
T. H. Everett spoke before the John
Burroughs Garden Club of Yonkers, an
Affiliate of the New York Botanical
Garden, April 17 on " Garden Soils and
Composts."
Dr. William J. Robbins addressed the
Greenwich Garden Club April 16 and
gave demonstrations on " The Botanical
Aspects of Penicillin and Similar Sub­stances."
Dr. H. N. Moldenke talked on " Treas­ures
of the Watchung Mountains" before
the Garden Club of the Oranges April 2.
The Katonah Women's Club was hos­tess
in its club house to two clubs in
Bedford Township April 11 to hear a
talk by Elizabeth C. Hall on " The New
York Botanical Garden's Library and its
Services." Miss Hall illustrated her
lecture with books, booklets, lists, prints,
and other materials from the library.
131
On his return from St. Louis, Dr.
W. H. Camp on April 1 addressed a
group at Ohio State University, where
he had taught for ten years before join­ing
the Garden's staff in 1935, speaking
on " Wartime Experiences of a Botanist."
Field Work. Marjorie J. French of
Amherst, Mass., a graduate of Oberlin
and a student in the School of Library
Science at Simmons College, spent a
week at the New York Botanical Garden
last month doing library cataloguing as
part of the field work required in her
course.
Solidago. Dr. Arthur Cronquist worked
in the National Herbarium in Washing­ton,
D. C, at the Bureau of Plant Indus­try
in Beltsville, Maryland, and in the
Gray Herbarium at Cambridge, Mass.,
during part of February and March
studying specimens of Solidago. Before
he returned from the St. Louis meetings
the first of April he stopped at Notre
Dame and Ohio State Universities to
inspect additional specimens of Com­posites.
Conferences. Staff members who at­tended
the meetings of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science in St. Louis the last week in
March addressed the monthly conference
of the scientific staff and registered
students of the Garden April 10. They
were Drs. W. H. Camp, Arthur Cron­quist,
F. W. Kavanagh, Ilda McVeigh,
and H. W. Rickett.
At the previous conference, March 13,
Dr. H. A. Gleason spoke on " Trying to
Maintain some Well Known Names"
and Dr. H. N. Moldenke on " Some Little
Known Genera of Verbenaceae."
Groups. M. Truman Fossum, Assistant
Professor in the Department of Flori­culture
and Ornamental Horticulture at
Cornell University, brought a group of
22 students on a special trip to New York
March 16 to visit the New York Botani­cal
Garden. They were taken on a tour
of the Museum Building and Range I
and were shown the Garden's short mo­tion
picture film. Among other groups
which have recently made guided tours
of the Garden are a Boy Scout troop
from the Bronx and a sixth grade class
from P. S. 114.
Visitors. Dr. Albert Zeller of Basle,
who is working on a nutrition project
for the Swiss government, visited the
New York Botanical Garden in early
March. He was particularly interested
in Dr. Robbins' work on nutrition in
which fungi are used as the experimental
material.
Dr. Budd E. Smith of Coker College,
Hartsville, S. C, came to the Garden
last month to consult with E. J. Alex­ander
on his collection of South Carolina
plants.
Jeannette E. Graustein, Professor of
Plant Morphology at the University of
Delaware, spent part of her spring vaca­tion
working in the Garden's library on
a research project in the correspondence
of John Torrey.
Richard A. Howard, who has recently
been released from service with the
Armed Forces, came to New York from
the Gray Herbarium and worked April
10- 13 in the herbarium here on the flora
of the West Indies.
Among other visitors of recent weeks
have been Henry Teuscher of the Mon­treal
Botanical Garden; Olav Einset of
Lofthus, Norway; F. W. Went from the
California Institute of Technology; Ruth
Patrick, Pennsylvania School of Horti­culture
at Ambler; Edgar T. Wherry
from the University of Pennsylvania;
Robert T. Clausen, Cornell; C. V.
Morton, Smithsonian Institution; A. J.
Grout, on his way from Florida to Ver­mont
; George H. Spaulding, a former
student gardener who has been serving
with the Marines in the Pacific and who
is now returning to his nursery business
in California; William M. O'Sullivan,
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and
Stanley Smith, Cornell University.
Conference. Research carried on in
the Archivo General de la Nacion in
Mexico during the summer of 1943 by
Dr. H. W. Rickett formed the subject
of the monthly conference of the scien­tific
staff and registered students of the
Garden February 13, when Dr. Rickett
spoke on " The Royal Botanical Expedi­tion
to New Spain." This expedition,
headed by Martin de Sesse, began its
work in 1787 under the authority of
Charles I I I ; it did not return until 1803,
when the court at Madrid was completely
indifferent to the flora of New Spain.
Much of the work of this group of bo­tanists
was therefore lost, until Sesse
132
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NEW YORK 17, N. Y.
MAKERS OF
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and Mochio's works were published in
Mexico near the end of the 19th century.
The expedition, however, resulted * in
important botanical collections, now de­posited
in Madrid; these are of value in
our knowledge of Mexican botany. Dr.
Rickett deciphered and translated all of
the correspondence and records relating
to their explorations which he was able
to locate in the Mexican archives; for
the first time detailed dates and itineraries
of their travels are available. The com­plete
story will be published in a special
issue of Chronica Botanica.
Easter. Pre- war crowds invaded the
New York Botanical Garden on Easter
Sunday, where flowers were blooming in
abundance both outdoors and in. Ap­proximately
30,000 people were clocked
entering the grounds in automobiles and
on foot, and of these more than 7,000
visited the Easter display in House 6 of
the Main Conservatories. Among the
flowers arranged there in garden effect
were Darwin tulips, marguerites, butter­fly-
flowers ( Schisanthus hybrids), ciner­arias,
azaleas, and showy African daisies
of several genera.
Outdoors, the late flowering cherries
were at the peak of their bloom. The
first of the poet's narcissus came out in
time to blend with the earlier yellow
daffodils, which had remained in prime
condition throughout the long cool weeks
since they first opened. There were still
magnolias in flower at the edge of the
woodlands in the southeast section of the
grounds, and the many dogwoods gave
promise of flowering in another week.
The first of the massed azaleas were
showing color, and at the entrance to the
rock garden the Chinese redbud ( Cercis
chinensis) was brilliant with its deep
magenta flowers j ust opening. In the
rock garden itself, which had been opened
to the public for the first time this season
on the Sunday previous, many hundreds
of visitors enioyed the first of the pri­mulas,
epimediums, grape hyacinths and
other small bulbs, violas, Virginia blue­bells,
moss pink ( Phlox subulata) of
several colors, rock- cress, evergreen
candytuft, the lilac flowers of Daphne
Genkzva and the pink of Daphne Cneorum,
and many other flowers.
In several of the tulip beds adjacent to
the conservatories, early varieties had
come into bloom.
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
Officers
JOSEPH R. SWAN, President
HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice- president
JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice- president
ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, Treasurer
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, Secretary
Elective Managers
WILLIAM FELTON BARRETT MRS. ELON HUNTINCTON FRAX
EDWIN DE T. BECHTEL
HENRY F. DU PONT
MARSHALL FIELD
REV. ROBERT I. GANNON,
S. J.
E. POWELL, JR.
HOOKER MRS. HAROLD I. PRATT
MRS. ALBERT D. LASKER WILLIAM J. ROBBINS
CLAREKCE MCK. LEWIS A. PERCY SAUNDERS
E. D. MERRILL EDMUND W. SINNOTT
ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY CHAUNCEY STILLMAN
H. HOBART PORTER SIDNEY T. WEINBERG
Ex- Officio Managers
WILLIAM O'DWYER, Mayor of the City of Neiv York
MARY E. DILLON, President of the Board of Education
ROBERT MOSES, Park Commissioner
Appointive Managers
By the Torrey Botanical Club
H. A. GLEASON
By Columbia University
MAKSTON T. BOGEKT MARCUS M. RHOADES
CHARLES W. BALLARD SAM F. TRELEASE
THE STAFF
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS, P H . D . , SC. D.
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D.
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE
FRED J. SEAVER, PH. D., SC. D.
A. B. STOUT, P H . D.
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D .
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D.
H. W. RICKETT, P H . D.
BASSETT MAGUIRE, P H . D .
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, P H . D.
ELIZABETH C HALL, A. B., B. S.
ELMER N. MITCHELL
Director
Assistant Director and Curator
Assistant Director
Head Curator
Curator of Education and Laboratories
Plant Pathologist
Bibliographer Emeritus
Bibliographer
Curator
Associate Curator
Librarian
Photographer
E. J. ALEXANDER, B. S. Assistant Curator and Curator of the Local Herbarium
W. H. CAMP, P H . D . Assistant Curator
E. E. NAYLOR, P H . D . Assistant Curator
ARTHUR CRONQUIST, P H . D . Assistant Curator
F. W. KAVANAGH, P H . D . Assistant Curator
SELMA KOJAN, B. S. Technical Assistant
ROSALIE WEIKERT Technical Assistant
ILDA MCVEIGH, P H . D . Technical Assistant
MARY STEBBINS, M. A. Technical Assistant
CAROL H. WOODWARD, A. B. Editor of the Journal
THOMAS H. EVERETT. N. D. HORT. Horticulturist
G. L. WITTROCK, A. M. Custodian of the Herbarium
OTTO DEGENER. M. S. Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany
A. J. GROUT. P H . D . Honorary Curator of Mosses
TNEZ M. HARTNG Assistant Honorary Curator of Mosses
JOSEPH F. BURKE Honorary Curator of the Diafnmaceae
B. A. KRUKOFF Honorary Curator of Economic Botany
F. THEI. ANSON S. PECKHAM Honorary Curator, Iris mid Narcissus Collections
A. C. PFANPER Superintendent of Buildinas and Grounds
To reach the Botanical Garden, take tlie Independent Subway to Bedford Park
Boulevard station; use trie Bedford Park Boulevard exit and walk east. Or take the
Third Avenue Elevated to the Botanical Garden or the 200th Street station, the New
York Central to the Botanical Garden station, or the Webster Avenue surface car to
Bedford. P^ rlf " Bntilpwarrl... . __
Third Avenue Elevated to the Botanical Gar
PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
Books, Booklets, and Special Numbers of the Journal
An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, by Nathaniel
Lord Britton and Addison Brown. Three volumes, giving descriptions and illustra­tions
of 4,666 species. Second edition, reprinted. $ 13.50.
Flora of the Prairies and Plains of Central North America, by P. A, Rydberg.
969 pages and 601 figures. 1932. Price, $ 5.50 postpaid.
The Bahama Flora, by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Charles Frederick Millspaugh.
695 pages. Descriptions of the spermatophytes, pteridophytes, bryophytes, and
thallophytes of the Bahamas, with keys, notes on explorations and collections,
bibliography, and index. 1920. $ 6.25.
North American Cariceae, by Kenneth K. Mackenzie, containing 539 plates
of Carex and related plants by Harry C. Creutzburg, with a description of each
species. Indexed. 1940. Two volumes, 1 0 ^ x 13|/£ inches; bound $ 17.50: un­bound
$ 15.50.
Keys to the North American Species of Carex by K. K. Mackenzie. From
Vol. 19, Part 1, of North American Flora. $ 1.25.
Food and Drug Plants of the North American Indian. Two illustrated articles
by Marion A. &? G. L. Wittrock in the Journal for March 1942. 15 cents.
Vegetables and Fruits for the Home Garden. Four authoritative articles reprinted
from the Journal, 21 pages, illustrated. Edited by Carol H. Woodward. 1941. 15 cents-
The Flora of the Unicorn Tapestries by E. J. Alexander and Carol H. Wood­ward.
28 pages, illustrated with photographs and drawings; bound with paper. 1941.
25 cents.
Catalog of Hardy Trees and Shrubs. A list of the woody plants being grown
outdoors at the New York Botanical Garden in 1942, in 127 pages with notes, a
map, and 20 illustrations. 75 cents.
Succulent Plants of Netv and Old World Deserts by E. J. Alexander. 64 pages,
indexed. 350 species treated, 100 illustrated. Bound in paper. 1942. Second
edition 1944. 50 cents.
Periodicals
Addisonia, annually, devoted exclusively to colored plates accompanied by
popular descriptions of flowering plants; eight plates in each number, thirty- two in
each volume. Now in its twenty- second volume. Subscription price, $ 10 a volume
( four years). Not offered in exchange. Free to members of the Garden.
Journal of The New York Botanical Garden, monthly, containing news, book
reviews, and non- technical articles on botany and horticulture. Subscription, $ 1.50 a
year; single copies 15 cents. Free to members of the Garden. Now in its 47th volume.
Mycologia, bimonthly, illustrated in color and otherwise; devoted to fungi.
including lichens, containing technical articles and news and notes of general in­terest.
$ 7 a year; single copies $ 1.50 each. Now in its thirty- eighth volume.
Twenty- four Year Index volume $ 3.
Brittonia. A series of botanical papers published in co- operation with the
American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Subscription price, $ 5 a volume ($ 4 to
members of the Society). Now in its fifth volume.
North American Flora. Descriptions of the wild plants of North America,
including Greenland, the West Indies, and Central America. 94 parts now issued.
Not offered in exchange. Prices of the separate parts on request.
Contributions from The New York Botanical Garden. A series of technical
papers reprinted from journals other than the above. 25 cents each, $ 5 a volume.
Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden. A collection of scientific
papers. Contents and prices on request.