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VOL. XXXIII APRIL, 1932 No. 388 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN SOMETHING OLD AND SOMETHING NEW ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM BEGONIAS T. H. EVERETT HOUSE PLANT EXHIBIT FORMAN T. MCLEAN PRACTICAL GARDENING FORMAN T. MCLEAN A BOTANISTS RAMBLES THROUGH THE WEST INDIES ROBERT HAGELSTEIN A GLANCE A T CURRENT LITERATURE CAROL H. WOODWARD NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN AT LIME AND GREEN STREETS, LANCASTER, PA. THE SCIENCE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY Entered fit the post- office in Lancaster, Pa., as second- class matter. Annual subscription $ 1.00 Single copies 10 cents Free to members of the Garden THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BOARD OF MANAGERS HENRY W. DE FOREST, President ADOLPH LEWISOHN HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice President HENRY LOCKHART, JR. JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice President and Treas. D. T. MACDOUGAL E. D. MERRILL, Secretary KENNETH K. MACKENZIE RAYMOND F. BACON H. DE LA MONTAGNE, JR. CHARLES P. BERKEY J- PIERPONT MORGAN MARSTON T. BOGERT LEWIS RUTHERFURD MORRIS GEORGE S. BREWSTER g- HoBA? T R P ° R Tf v r n„. » ™ „ HENRY H. RUSBY N. L. BRITTON GEORCE J R y A N NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER MRS A E T H U R H . SCRIBNER THOMAS J. DOLEN EDMUND W. SINNOTT CHILDS FRICK F. K. STURGIS R. A. HARPER SAM F. TRELEASE CLARENCE LEWIS WILLIAM H. WEBSTER JAMES J. WALKER, Mayor of the City of New York WALTER R. HERRICK, President of the Department of Parks SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS R. A. HARPER, P H . D„ SC. D., Chairman D. T. MACDOUGAL, P H . D., LL. D. RAYMOND F. BACON, P H . D , SC. D. HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D., SC. D. CHARLES P. BERKEY, P H . D., SC. D. r„ , D r l f T p „ » T T n MARSTON T. BOGERT, SC. D., LL. D. GEORGE J - R y A N ' L U U" NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, P H . D., EDMUND W. SINNOTT, P H . D. LL. D., LITT. D. SAM F. TRELEASE, P H . D. DIRECTOR EMERITUS N. L. BRITTON, P H . D., SC. D., LL. D. GARDEN STAFF E. D. MERRILL, SC. D Director- in- Chief MARSHALL A. HOWE, P H . D., SC. D Assistant Director JOHN K. SMALL, P H . D., SC. D Head Curator of the Museums A. B. STOUT, P H . D Director of the Laboratories H. A. GLEASON, P H . D Curator FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D., SC. D Curator ARTHUR HOLLICK, P H . D Paleobotanist BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D Plant Pathologist FORMAN T. MCLEAN, M. F., P H . D Supervisor of Public Education JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D Bibliographer PERCY WILSON Associate Curator PALMYRE DE C. MITCHELL Associate Curator SARAH H. HARLOW, A. M Librarian H. H. RUSBY, M. D Honorary Curator of'the Economic Collections ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Honorary Curator of Mosses FLEDA GRIFFITH Artist and Photographer ROBERT S. WILLIAMS Administrative Assistant E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator ALBERT C. SMITH, A. B Assistant Curator CLYDE CHANDLER, A. M Technical Assistant MARJORIE E. SWIFT, A. M Assistant Pathologist ROSALTE WEIKERT Technical Assistant KENNETH R. BOYNTON, B. S Head Gardener G. L. WITTROCK, A. M Docent H. M. DENSLOW, A. M., D. D Honorary Custodian of Local Herbarium ROBERT HAGELSTEIN Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes E. B. SOUTHWICK, P H . D Custodian of Herbaceous Grounds ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM. Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections WALTER S. GROESBECK Clerk and Accountant ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. XXXIII APRIL, 1932 No. 388 SOMETHING OLD AND SOMETHING XEW1 The adage, " Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," used to be applied to weddings, but there is no reason why we should not use it in connection with gardens. The oldest thing most of us perpetrate is a joke and not the worst of them was that supposed to be started in the Garden of Eden. We have a habit of calling something that does not work properly a " joke " and we look scornfully on old gardening tools and appliances and methods; but there are many of these that are better than some of the new- fangled things made only to draw pennies ( and often more) out of people's pockets. We have an idea that the bathtub is an American institution and that it is new to show people in the comic papers seated in a tub enjoying some delicate repast, receiving their friends, or making startling remarks over the telephone. Ablutions in full view of a theatre audience, slipperiness of soap, etc., are really old things, and so are receptions in bathtubs in gardens with only a simple, low fence about to keep the main crush of guests off the performer! A picture in a very ancient book shows a lady reclining in such a tub, guests promenading about outside the wattle fence, a table laid out with appetizing things to eat, and a retainer in Eastern dress working a small coffee- roaster such as one still sees in general use in old French towns. The title of this charming scene is " The Joys of Life! " I know of a Roman cistern at least two thousand years old, still serving the purpose originally intended for it— that of collecting 1 Abstract of an illustrated lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, March 19, 1932. 69 70 and tempering the water from cold mountain streams to the warmer air of the valley, so delicate plants may be encouraged to grow in the best and quickest way. Among other things still worth using are good old garden designs and plans, for a well- laid- out garden will always be satisfactory. Even if the flowering plants should gradually disappear because of neglect, the ground- plan of trees, shrubs, hedges, etc., being properly placed and spaced, will hold the pattern. We often see in old pictures gardeners doing something we recognize as a perfectly necessary operation each year in our gardens of today. We see men grafting, we see them pruning, and we often see them holding the knife or shears wrongly, too, just as most people do today! The man who sells us secateurs at the flower- show knows they are good tools that will cut well, but he rarely is a skilled primer, so he never tells the amateur the best way to use them, nor do lecturers; and I suppose artists, lecturers, salesmen, and hired men are the same today as they were hundreds of years ago, with the same varying value and the same old faults. Sometimes we notice a combination of the very ancient with the most modern, and nowhere is it better emphasized than in Italy, where good telephone and trolley service go hand in hand with ancient Roman structures, and where young plants clamber over old, old ruins. In France we see it also in hundreds of ways but especially in the way olive- oil is made and in the type of baskets used for packing fruit, both dating back two thousand years or longer. Then we come to borrowed things— plants borrowed from other countries, deliberately or inadvertently: cocoanut palms on southern shores, floated there by stormy seas; Rosa rugosa on islands off the Maine Coast, brought there either by waves or birds; foreign weed- seeds brought with crops or in the soil of ballast, dozens of ways. Perhaps things went from us to other climes also, such as the famous " domus pyramidalis," a sort of tepee- like' summer- house or support for climbing plants. This " domus pyramidalis " was apparently unknown in the Old World until Columbus brought the idea back with him, after which it became very popular. It seems to be used here more now by Italians ( who again reintro- 7i FIGURE I. " The Joys of Life.'' " Receptions in bath- tubs in gardens are really old things." duced it to this part of America) than by the descendants of the early settlers, though one would think it would have remained here all the time, as it was most certainly learned by the Spaniards from the Indians. I have noticed this is used a great deal in Louisiana, and it is possible that the training of climbing plants has always been carried on here in this manner without interruption. There is another kind of borrowing, the use of something for another purpose than that for which it was made. Some think it wonderful to be ingenious in the garden and in houses, too, and, with restraint, good things are sometimes accomplished— but what frightful effects are usually obtained! How about leaky boats sprouting nasturtiums or, again, water- boilers set in the middle of small front lawns and bursting with scarlet sage and magenta petunias? On the other hand, we have a sensible substitution to which even the most esthetic may not object. In France they use " cloches," bells of glass, to protect early planted lettuce, etc., 72 from frosts; here we may use cheese- covers for the same purpose if cloches are not to be obtained or are too costly, or we may use glass battery- jars of the largest size in the same way. In hot countries we see lath covers made in slat fashion to shade young plants. We can borrow the method of bracing them and we can use the skeleton to cover with cheese- cloth and put these screens along our newly set out tomatoes if a wind should come up and threaten to whip them about. We come now to the blue part of the adage. Some people run to blue gardens. They can even make blue fields or woods, if they wish, by planting Scillas, as has been done at Kew, or they can have blue rock- gardens or they can often just be blue in their own garden, and they are likely to be so if they use for a ground-cover a plant that dies away shortly after blooming, such as Mer-tensia virginica, which I heard recommended by a well- known landscape architect as a cover for tulips ! In ancient tomes we see woodcuts of plants, many of which we can identify as old favorites. Thus, in John Parkinson's works of the early sixteen hundreds we can see a page of crocuses, several of daffodils, of irises, and so on. Some of these plants we still use, some we have neglected, many have been improved, new hybrids have been made from them, or special culture has made them larger or more floriferous. Mr. E. Augustus Bowles has been working for a number of years with crocuses and has produced some lovely new varieties which are now coming on the market. Some of these are Copenhagen Blue ( light and dark blue), Mrs. E. A. Bowles ( pale yellow), Kittywake and Bunting ( mauve), Sun Bird ( blue with glow of yellow), Herbert Edel-sten ( red- purple and white), and many others. The narcissi we see pictured in Parkinson can, many of them, be found in old gardens today and one or two wild species can be easily recognized. Narcissus triandrus is certainly there and N. Bulbocodium also, and these, while rare in cultivation, can be procured. N. cyclamineus is another known over three hundred years ago, lost for most of that time, rediscovered, and now much used in hybridizing. Charming hybrids from these old species are Harvest Moon, Golden Ingot, Mrs. L. Harrison, and Trewirgie. Wonderful things are being done abroad in the breeding of daffodils and a few people are starting here but we are far behind. 73 There are one or two collections now in this country that have fine modern daffodils in them; one is that of Mr. Mead at Fort Wayne, another that of Mrs. Foote of Grand Rapids. Mr. Wister has a good collection, Mr. Morrison a very choice one, also Miss Beirne of Ashland, Va., and one of the best is, I hear, that of Mrs. Davis of Nashville, Tennessee. There are some fine commercial collections, of course, but I am speaking of those being used for breeding. All these people have been allowed permits to import FIGURE 2. ilen grafting and pruning in 1625. " The same today." good varieties, because they are doing breeding or are going to sell. It seems sad to think that the rest of us who merely want to improve our gardens and horticulture in general are prevented from having our own particular choice from the good foreign varieties. If we have a discriminating taste that will not let us grow Will Scarlett because of the wingy perianth, and, if we have money to spend, why should we not be allowed Fortune, Fortune's Gift, Fortune's Cheer, Coverack Gem, Coverack Perfection, and many others? If we desire a new and clear white double daffodil, may we be allowed to have Daphne? 74 But, to go back to Parkinson, among his irises we see old friends, old enemies too, and, should we look in Redoute at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we will see the dwarf bearded irises, several of them, both /. pumila and /. Chamaeiris looking just as in Parkinson and also as in our gardens. We are still recommending Iris cvanea, which is a form of Chamaeiris, as one of the best to be had among blue- purple dwarfs, and the American Iris Society is still trying to get Swertii out of our gardens, for there are flowers to be had in the same color that are far, far better. Not only do we have old things still in use but we have new theories about plants, and we still have botanists who are switching the same old plant about from one genus to another! And then, besides old varieties improved we have new hybrids made between different groups such as the Oncocyclus irises and Regelias that have been crossed to form the Regelio- cyclus group, the so- called Intermediate irises, first made by crossing dwarf bearded forms with tall ones, and then we have new colors in plants. And sometimes we do find new plants too, although one would think the world had been adequately explored. Such was the case with irises in Louisiana, where Dr. John K. Small has discovered so many new species and hybrids of colors not known in that type of iris before. And with all this there is little reason for having one's garden exactly the same as everybody's. Why is it that gardeners have to be sheep and do everything on the flock system? Let us be original, restraining ourselves just enough so that we use material that will hold its own through the ages with good contemporary taste. ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM. 75 BEGONIAS1 The Begonia family is one of the most interesting and important tender- plant groups in cultivation today, comprising as it does a vast number of hybrid forms in addition to almost 500 species which are found growing naturally throughout the most tropical and subtropical regions of the earth, being especially abundant in India and in South America. From this number the gardener can select kinds to provide a succession of bloom throughout the whole year and varieties adapted to such varied purposes as greenhouse and conservatory decoration, window or sun- room cultivation, window- box embellishment, and bedding- out in the summer garden. As greenhouse plants, various kinds can be grown in pots or hanging baskets or trained up pillars; in the open garden wre have the choice of the fibrous- rooted semperfiorens group or the larger- flowered and more exotic- looking tuberous varieties. Botanically the Begonias form a natural group, and although widely variable, their chief characteristics are so constant that a Begonia can usually be recognized as such even by a novice in things horticultural. The flowers vary in color from pure white to scarlet and deep crimson and through every shade of yellow to richest orange. Several kinds ( as Begonia Rex) possess very handsomely colored foliage. The first species to be introduced to cultivation was Begonia nitida, which came to England from Jamaica in 1777. From then on new species were introduced from time to time until shortly after the middle of the 19th century the discovery and introduction of B. Rex excited great interest among horticulturists. But the great impetus to Begonia- growing came a few years later when the tuberous- rooted species began to come from South America, commencing with Begonia Pearcei from Bolivia in 1865. In the hands of the hybridists these species soon gave rise to magnificent large- flowered single and double forms in a rich assortment of colors, culminating in the splendid kinds we cultivate in our gardens and greenhouses today. The year 1880 marked a most important milestone in the history of Begonias under cultivation, for in this year B. socotrana was 1 Abstract of a lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, January 30, 193^ introduced to cultivation by Prof. Bayley- Balfour, of Edinburgh Botanic Garden. This species proved to be of the greatest value to the hybridist and was the forerunner of the two important classes of winter- flowering hybrids grown today, namely, the Gloire de Lorraine types and the so- called large- flowered section, of which such varieties as Optima and Mrs. Heal are representatives. These large- flowering winter- blooming varieties resulted from crossing Begonia socotrana with the tuberous- rooted species and their hybrids, while Gloire de Lorraine was a result of hybridizing B. socotrana with the fibrous- rooted B. Dregei. The " Christmas Begonias," which are so popular about the festive season, belong to the Gloire de Lorraine section. The culture of Begonias presents but few difficulties, the large winter- flowering hybrids being most exacting in this respect. The tropical species succeed best in temperatures of from 55 to 60 degrees at night during the winter months with a few degrees rise in the daytime permitted. In summer a night temperature of 7$ is not too high, and this may be permitted to rise during the daytime. Other species thrive in temperatures five or ten degrees lower than these. All enjoy moist atmospheric conditions with some shade from the strong summer sunshine but full exposure to all available light from mid- October to mid- February. Begonias are particularly impatient of drafts and sudden changes in temperature, either of which will quickly cause the leaves to fall. A plentiful supply of humus in the soil is essential and extremely good drainage should be provided, for, while Begonias require moist soil conditions, stagnant moisture spells disaster. The fibrous- rooted species and varieties are especially well adapted to the requirements of the amateur. Of these, Begonia Haageana, B. Thurstoni, B. semperfiorens and such rhizomatous kinds as B. manicata, B. conchaefolia and B. Fcasti are to be recommended. All are easily propagated by means of cuttings of the young shoots taken in the months of April or May and inserted in moist sand, the atmosphere being kept " close," and the cuttings shaded until such time as roots are emitted. When a good root system is developed, pot the young plants into a mixture of loam, leaf- mold ( or humus) and coarse sand. Do not press the soil firmly at this time. Even at subsequent pottings 77 Begonias should be potted fairly lightly. Water with care, endeavoring to maintain the soil always moist but never overwet, and on the mornings of bright days lightly spray the foliage overhead with clear water. As the plants grow they must be moved into larger pots, the size of the receptacles being increased a little at a time. In these subsequent transfers use a soil similar to that already advised except that fertilizer in the form of some old, rotted manure and Scotch soot at the rate of a six- inch pot- full to each bushel of compost may be added with advantage. When the final pots are filled with roots, systematic feeding may be commenced, using dilute liquid cow- manure alternated with weak soot- water and varied occasionally by the use of an approved commercial fertilizer. The Wax Begonia ( a common name applied to all varieties of B. semperfiorens) in addition to being an excellent house plant is also fine for use in the summer garden and will withstand sun better than any other. It is usually grown from seed, although cuttings root readily. The seed should be sown in January or February in pots or flats containing a mixture consisting of loam, sharp sand and leaf- mold ( or humus) in about equal proportions, the whole having been passed through a sieve having a quarter-inch mesh. Provide plenty of drainage in the receptacles and fill to within a little way of the top, surfacing off with a light covering of the same compost passed through a piece of fine screen- meshing, making the surface perfectly level. Water well with boiling water and allow to drain for fifteen minutes before sowing the seed. Sow thinly and evenly. As the seed is extremely fine it should not be covered at all but merely lightly pressed into the surface with a piece of smooth, dry board, the pot or flat then being covered with glass and a piece of strong paper and placed in a warm, moist atmosphere. Examine carefully every day and as soon as the first signs of germination are apparent remove the paper and glass and gradually accustom the young plants to the light, later transplanting to other flats and then potting as advised for cuttings. These Begonias may be planted out in the garden after all danger of damage from frost is passed. Rex Begonias can be readily propagated by taking a leaf and nicking through the junctions of the main veins with a keen- bladed 78 knife, the leaf then being pinned down on moist sand under similar atmospheric conditions advised for stem- cuttings. A young plantlet will arise from each incision, and when a leaf or two and a fair mass of roots is developed these may be detached and potted. Tuberous Begonias are summer- bloomers and will succeed well in a sheltered sunny spot in the garden if the soil is moist. The amateur should purchase tubers in the spring, for raising seedlings requires much care and greenhouse facilities. The tubers may be started into growth indoors by placing them upside down in flats containing moist moss or leaf- soil ( this method prevents water from collecting in the hollow crown and causing rot), and inverting them as soon as growth is well started, later potting them into three- or four- inch pots. They may be planted out in the open garden in early June or may be potted on and utilized as pot plants. A simpler method is to plant the tubers where they are to flower a week or ten days after the date when the last frost may visit the locality. If this plan is followed, they will not bloom quite so early but will produce a magnificent show through the late summer and fall. The Christmas Begonias of the Gloire de Lorraine section do not make satisfactory house plants and should not be purchased if a permanent subject is required. They are, however, among the most decorative of all Begonias. These are usually grown from leaf- cuttings taken in November or December and many growers are of the opinion that this method is decidedly the most satisfactory, but my personal experience shows that equally good results are obtained from stem- cuttings taken in March or April and these latter are far less troublesome to root. Plants of the larger- flowered, winter- blooming section are perhaps the choicest of all Begonias, but these test the skill of the professional gardener with every greenhouse facility at command and are quite hopeless unless they can be accorded the specialized conditions they demand. They are usually grown from basal cuttings taken in spring. After flowering is the most critical period and at this time every effort must be made to keep the foliage green as long as possible, yet only the minimum amount of water must be given, for the plants are inactive and in a resting condition at this time. T. H. EVERETT. 79 HOUSE PLANT EXHIBIT Special exhibits of plants recommended for house culture are now on display at the Museum Building, at Conservatory Range i, and at Conservatory Range 2. These were arranged by Mr. Becker and include some of the most dependable plants for the living room. House plants must be resistant to dry air, to rather high temperatures, and to shading. It takes more sunlight to produce flowers than to keep foliage plants in good health. Accordingly, there are more good house plants among the foliage plants than among those that are grown especially for their flowers. The foliage plants in the exhibit include two species of Sansevieria, Pandanus, Begonia Rex, Zebrina pendula, Codaeums ( Cro-tons), Wax Palm ( Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), English Ivy, Rubber Plant ( Ficus elastica), Curculigo recurvata, Gasteria, Cotyledon, Creeping Nettle ( Helxine), Billbergia, Sedum, Forked Boston Fern, Hoya carnosa, Aloe, and Coleus repens. Two cacti, Opuntia and the Night- blooming Cereus ( Selenicereus), are included, and Christmas Cactus ( Zygocactus) and Phyllocactus might well be included. These, the South African Aloe and Gasteria, and the Cotyledon may all be regarded as desert plants; and the Sansevierias are also quite drouth- resistant. Others, like the Billbergia and Boston Fern are in their native haunts tree- dwellers or epiphytes, and so must be inured to occasional drouths, between rains. In contrast, the Rex Begonias, Coleus repens, and Wandering Jew ( Zebrina pendula) belong to the moist tropics. Among the plants grown for their flowers are " Amaryllis " ( Hippeastrum), Geranium, Hoya carnosa or Wax Plant, and the Everblooming Begonia, which is probably the most dependable flowering plant for the average home living- room. The Amaryllis is now in full bloom, before the leaves appear, and it can be so managed that it will make its main growth of foliage during the summer outdoors, in which case it can be bloomed indoors with comparatively little sunlight during the winter. FORMAN T. MCLEAN. PRACTICAL GARDENING The course under the above title, announced in the JOURNAL for March, started March 2, 1932, with thirty- four people enrolled. Seed flats were prepared and seeds of annuals started in them. These will be grown on the bench at Conservatory Range 2 until planting time. The following topics were discussed: SEED FLATS The usual flat used for growing seedlings is four inches deep and a convenient size is about 12 x 18 inches. The best of them are made of cypress wood and will last for three or four years. Ordinary packing boxes can be cut down and used for seed flats, but the pine wood, from which most of them are made, rots out in one or two years. The bottom boards of the flat should be spaced about one quarter inch apart to allow for drainage. If these chinks are too wide it will be necessary in filling the flats to cover them with bits of broken crocks, leaves, or coarse leaf mold. A soil suitable for growing most seeds consists of two parts fibrous garden loam, one part sharp sand, and one part humus or leaf mould. The best loam for use in seed flats is old sod which has been piled up and rotted for about six months. This contains enough well- decayed organic matter to make it loose and friable. Ordinary field or garden soil may be used, but will not be nearly so good. The sand should be good and sharp so that it will pack reasonably well. The leaf mold or humus used should be about half decayed, a part of it still being fibrous and showing some leaf structure. Each of these three ingredients should first be sifted through a one- fourth- inch sieve and mixed thoroughly. If the mixing is done with the sifting, it will be easier than to mix separately. Then fill each flat a little over- full of this material, tap the flat down on the floor once or twice to settle the soil, but not pack it, then run a board along the top to level the soil even with the top boards of the flat. Then use a small board as a tamper and pack the soil down until it is evenly firmed and about one half inch below the top. There should be no low spots or humps in it. For sowing the seeds, make furrows of suitable depth one and one half inches apart. The depth will depend on the size 82 of the seed, the usual rule being to put the seeds in the soil two and one half times their thickness at a distance about equal to five times the thickness of the seed. The distance apart will depend upon how long the plants will remain in the flats and whether the particular kinds are especially subject to damping off. Sow seeds that are subject to damping off much more thinly than the average. If the seeds are chaffy and known to be of low germination they may, of course, be sown thickly. After sowing, all except the very finest seeds should be covered and the soil again packed down. For very fine seeds, such as Begonias, Lobelias and Petunias, sow them on the surface and cover with a light dusting of soil from a sieve of wire mosquito netting. After sowing, water thoroughly with a very fine spray or, if dealing with exceedingly small seeds that are liable to be disturbed by watering, cover the flat with one layer of newspaper, turn in the corners so the newspaper rests directly on the soil with edges turned up, then fill the hollow thus made with water and let it soak in through the paper. After this the paper can be left on for four or five days until the seeds begin to develop. This method of watering was demonstrated by Mrs. Lockwood at our last meeting and proved most effective. SOILS AND FERTILIZERS Practically all soils can be benefitted by regular fertilizing. The amount and kind of material to use will depend not only on the past history of the soil, but on its texture and character. A loose loamy soil containing a small amount of sand is the easiest to handle. A stiff clay may prove more fertile, but is harder to keep in good condition and is liable to become acid and for many garden crops to need liming. Sandy soil is the easiest to work, is apt to be the least fertile, and requires the most attention in fertilizing and manuring. While plants require, in varying amounts, a large proportion of the ninety- two chemical elements now recognized, and while we are constantly learning more about their needs for minute quantities of the rarer substances, we need now to consider only three chemical aids. These are nitrogen ( N), phosphorus ( PX),), and potash ( KX>). § 3 Of these three the most constantly needed is nitrogen. Next to carbon and water, which form the real basis of all living material, nitrogen is used in the greatest amount. This used to be supplied as ammonia in manures and organic wastes. Nowadays, since we depend more and more on machinery and less on livestock, manures are becoming scarce and gardeners must depend on chemicals for fertilizer. There are certain advantages, particularly in nitrogenous fertilizers, even where manure is plentiful. For instance, in early spring and during cool seasons, manure does not decay rapidly enough to supply an optimum amount of nitrogen for plant growth. Then nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia or some other immediately soluble nitrogen compound will give immediate and beneficial results even on soil heavily manured. Phosphorus, the next most important fertilizer, is specially important in cell- building and so is most useful in encouraging flower and seed production. The old- fashioned source of this was bone, supplied as ground bone, steamed bonemeal, or acid- treated bone. Bone in the natural state decays very slowly and even finely ground bone takes six or seven years to become fully available, so it is both slow- acting and very safe to use. A quicker source of phosphorus is acid- treated rock phosphate from our eastern states. This is sold in the trade as superphosphate and the greater part of the phosphorus in it is soluble and immediately useful. Manure is normally very poor in phosphorus, so either bone or superphosphate should be used to supplement it at the rate of about one hundred pounds or somewhat more per ton of manure used. The third important fertilizer, potash, is abundant in manures. It may also be supplied from sources such as wood ashes, the ash from hardwood being much superior to that from pine or other conifers. A good grade of wood ashes, not too much leached by the weather, contains from ten to fifteen percent potash. The commercial source of potash is now the salts produced by the French and German potash mines. The raw material from these is muriate ( chloride) of potassium which contains about forty percent potash. The purified potash, which is sulphate of potassium, contains fifty percent potash. The amounts of these used on the soil is approximately as follows: nitrate of soda— about one pound per hundred square 84 feet; superphosphate— about two pounds per hundred square feet, or bonemeal at nearly the same rate; muriate of potash— not more than one half pound per hundred square feet; one third pound would be better. MIXED FERTILIZERS The law in New York State and in most states requires that fertilizer dealers print the analysis of their fertilizers on the package as sold. This analysis is usually given as three percentages, the first number representing the amount of nitrogen in percent of the total; the second, the amount of phosphorus; and the third, the amount of potash. Thus, a good fertilizer nowadays will have approximately the formula about 5- 10- 5, that is, five percent nitrogen, ten percent phosphorus, and five percent potash. Since this contains only about one third as much strength of nitrogen as nitrate of soda, it can be used at the rate of three pounds per hundred square feet with advantage. A mixed fertilizer of such moderate concentration usually contains some immediately available material and some that is slow- acting, so that one or two applications per year of such material is sufficient. For gardens that are worked intensively and from which quicker results are demanded, a more concentrated and highly soluble material may be required. To meet this demand some dealers are putting out fertilizers of highly soluble material of formula 15- 30— 15 or thereabouts. This should be used frequently and in small amounts, since it is highly soluble and liable to " burn." A good rule is to use concentrated fertilizers in about the same way you would nitrate of soda; that is, about a pound per hundred square feet at a time, repeating the dose every month or so. For dahlias and show flowers, a still smaller application every ten days may prove successful. In my own garden I have made no effort to secure any organic manure at all and have used only decaying leaf moulds, different kinds of commercial humus, and chemical fertilizers. The results have been entirely satisfactory; and at the agricultural experiment stations, fields have been fertilized chemically for half a century with good production, with no use of manure at all. FORMAN T. MCLEAN, Supervisor of Public Education. A BOTANIST'S RAMBLES THROUGH THE WEST INDIES1 The West Indian tropics have a peculiar charm for those who have been there. It may be due to the dense vegetation, the gorgeous flowers, birds, and insects, or the blue skies and the azure Caribbean. The many people, of different race and color, and the odd customs and dress add to the interest. Combined, they cause a yearning to go again and this yearning inspired the wanderlust during the cold days of the winter of 1930. The West Indies stretch in a long chain of over two thousand miles from east of Yucatan to within a few miles of Venezuela. The four large western islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti- San Domingo, and Porto Rico are called the Greater Antilles, and the smaller ones, in a curved chain southward from Porto Rico, the Lesser Antilles. It was to the latter that our journey carried us. In these Lesser Antilles are several hundred islands, but aside from those to be mentioned, there are only four or five large and important enough for steamers to stop at, the others being very small or mere uninhabited rocks. A few of the islands are of the so- called coral formation, Barbados being the largest. The others are of volcanic origin, the tops of a high range of mountains which in past geologic time was the rim of a stagnant marsh, and which marsh by later subsidence became the Caribbean Sea. There are said to be eleven volcanoes in the Lesser Antilles, several of which have been violently active within historic time. Numerous other evidences of volcanic activity also exist. All of the islands are within the tropics, lying between about ten and eighteen degrees of north latitude. Our first stop was made at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and later ones ranging in duration from a few hours to a full day, were made at St. Croix, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Martinique. All these islands appear to be much alike when observed superficially, but the close observer will note many differences between them, in their geology, their flora and fauna, and their people. We have pleasant recollections of Dominica, a botanist's paradise, and Martinique, with its great volcano Mont Pelee. 1 Abstract of an illustrated lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, November 21, 1931. 86 After Martinique we arrived at Barbados, where we had planned to stay a week, so that I could study the famous deposits of infusorial earth that are located there. They are in the northeastern part of the island, in a hilly section called Scotland because of its resemblance to the crags and valleys of old Scotland. The deposits are composed principally of the fossil, siliceous remains of microscopic organisms called Radiolaria, which are animals, but among them are numerous beautiful diatoms, a low group of microscopic plants in which I am particularly interested. I was fortunate in making the acquaintance of an English gentleman resident on the island, who also is a student of these organisms and from him obtained much information. Barbados is of " coral" formation. It is low, without forests or jungles, and not as interesting from a botanist's standpoint as the other islands visited. A night's run brought us to Trinidad, the largest and probably the most interesting of the Lesser Antilles. Port of Spain, a city of 70,000 inhabitants, many of whom are coolies, is the capital and numbers among its people many cultured scientific men and women. I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with many of them during our three weeks' stay, and this afforded opportunities for seeing much of the island. There are vast forests, jungles, and marshes in which wild animal life still abounds. The luxurious growth of tropical plants and flowers is everywhere. The oil fields and the famous pitch lake from which New York City's streets have been paved are interesting sights. My interest here was in the Myxomycetes, a low group of living organisms, lying in the border- land between the animals and the plants. Many interesting collecting trips into the cocoa plantations and the Mora forest yielded sufficient specimens to indicate their probable abundance at the proper season. Arrangements made with local collectors to continue the work have so far yielded good results. Our stay in charming Trinidad came to a close. We returned on the same vessel that brought us down, and after ten days, stopping again at all the islands to say adieux to friends, we arrived at New York, filled with glorious memories. ROBERT HAGELSTEIN. 87 A GLANCE AT CURRENT LITERATURE1 How observation of natural forms is stimulating to the designer's sense of beauty, and why observation of natural processes is essential to stability and success in the work of the landscape architect are told in an article by the late O. C. Simonds in the first quarterly issue of Landscape Architecture for 1932. But, warns the author, the designer must be careful to make the proper selection of the material and arrangements that nature offers. A new botanical publication, Leaflets of Western Botany, by Alice Eastwood and John Thomas Howell made its appearance on January 16, 1932, in San Francisco. It contains " The Pittosporums in California Garden and Parks" by Miss Eastwood and " A New California Baeria" by Mr. Howell. * * * * " Hellebores in Folk- lore and Fact" in The Gardeners' Chronicle for January 9, cites curious myths and early beliefs surrounding this poisonous root, more than one of which bestows upon it the power to cure insanity. Its original name was Melampode, in honor of the shepherd Melampus, who was first believed to have used it. * * * * Three new patents which have been granted for plants are described in the December Journal of Heredity. The recipients are Joseph Spanbauer, for a variety of rose produced by hybridizing; Otto A. Mueller, for an improved fragrant white carnation; and Elmer L. Pollard and Jubal E. Sherrill, for a thornless young dewberry. * * * * H. O. Evans writes of his experiences with thrips in The Gladiolus Review for February. In telling how they can best be controlled, he advises, among other steps, fumigating bulbs and spraying the plants every ten days after they are six inches high. 1 All publications mentioned here— and many others— are available in the library of The New York Botanical Garden in the Museum Building. 88 Trees in and around the city of Washington, and trees associated with the life of George Washington, fill most of the pages of American Forests for February. Many fine photographs adorn this issue, and there is also a horticultural map of Lafayette Park in the National Capitol. New books reviewed by Willard N. Clute in his January number of The American Botanist include, besides his own " Swamp and Dune," " The Garden of the World" by Janet McGill ( technical botany for younger readers) ; " The Modern Nursery" by Alex. Laurie and L. C. Chadwick; " Adventures in a Suburban Garden" by Louise Beebe Wilder; " Fieldwork for the Local Botanist" by A. S. Hitchcock; " Modern Herbal" by Mrs. M. Grieve ( first published in England, but now brought out in the United States) ; and " Trees in Winter" by A. F. Blakeslee and C. D. Jarvis. * * * * How mosses can be used effectively in landscape gardening is revealed in the September issue of The Bryologist. Give them abundant moisture, keep them clear of dead leaves and other coverings, and select suitable species for each location, advises A. J. Grout, the author. Romaine B. Ware writes of garden pools in Nature Magazine for March, illustrating in words and pictures how to install pools, what to plant in and around them, and how to care for such a garden. Horticulture for February i also has an article on " The Place of Pools in the Garden Picture." * * * # There is an excellent gardening guide in House and Garden for March, prepared by F. F. Rockwell. It gives, in tabulated form, suggestions for planting vines, trees ( both evergreen and deciduous), shrubs, perennials, and annuals in the Northeast, Northwest, and Middle West, giving the color, size, character, uses, requirements, and season of each plant. * * * * Many cypress stumps, all upright, and one of them seventeen feet in circumference, have been found in a recent excavation in downtown Philadelphia, Bartonia tells in its issue of February 13. The excavation uncovered 2800 cubic feet of swamp sod 38 feet below the street and ten feet below sea- level. It is believed the trees grew there prior to the last glaciation of the region. The small garden becomes a fairyland when trees with showy flowers are used. C. F. Greeves- Carpenter tells which ones to plant in the Gardeners' Chronicle of America for February. Cacti and other succulents used in interior decoration are featured in the Cactus and Succulent Journal for January. Among the wall decorations and table ornaments shown is an exquisite Echeveria moulded in enameled copper. * * * * American Forests for January contains some magnificent photographic studies entitled " The Garden in Winter"; also a tempting sketch of Dominica as a botanical paradise by Paul Griswold Howes. Snapdragons for the garden and how to care for them, and " hollow- wall" gardening, in which a brick enclosure is filled with flowers and hanging vines, are two of the interesting gardening features in Nature Magazine for February. * * * * The American Home for February offers among other articles, " Embowered Beauty in Vines," " Flowering Plants for the Shaded Nook," and " Modern Fashions in Old- time Flowers." * * * * How grass has formed the foundation for civilization and wealth throughout all ages the world over is the fascinating story unfolded in the book called " Grass," written by A. S. Hitchcock and Agnes Chase of the United States Department of Agriculture and recently published by the Smithsonian Institution. " Man's first attempt to control his fate, to provide for future need instead of remaining the victim of droughts or other untoward circumstances, must have been on grasslands where the young calves, lambs, and kids he caught and tamed could find forage," the authors say. " It was on grasslands, too, that primi- 9o tive man, after he had reached the food- producing as distinguished from the food- gathering stage, developed most rapidly." And thus is the history of man traced from country to country, and from lower to ever higher levels of civilization, always with grass— that is, with feed for animals and grains as food for man himself, as the basis of his changing life. * * * * A new- illustrated manual of the flora of Quebec, written by Pere Louis- Marie under the title of " Flore- Manuel " has just been issued in French. It is designated as Contribution 23 from the Tnstitut Agricole d'Oka. * * * * The Proceedings of the Americal Society for Horticultural Science for 1930, recently published, contains a host of material of value to flower, fruit, and vegetable- growers. There are nearly 600 pages of text, with abundant illustrations and an index, containing about 150 authoritative articles on horticulture done in readable language. * * * # Chrysanthemums are a feature of The Gardeners' Chronicle for January 16. One especially noteworthy plant illustrated is a small- flowered Sho- Rin from Hibiya Park in Tokyo, where it is grown in the Ken- gai style— that is, " hanging over a precipice." There is another photograph of this " cascade" chrysanthemum, as it is generally known, in the Gardenej- s' Chronicle of America for February, and still another in the Bulletin of the Missouri Botanical Garden for January. Those interested in the discussions of the International Botanical Congress in Cambridge, England, in 1930, will find a com' plete report of them in the volume of Proceedings which has just been issued. * * * * The centenarv of Robert Brown's discovery of the nucleus of plant cells is described, with excerpts from his notes, in The Journal of Botany for January. A centenary exhibit was shown in the British Museum, where the discoverer was once Keeper of Botany. 9i Horticulture for February i mentions a new double sweet-scented nasturtium known as " Golden Gleam." * * * * " Pitch Pine in Pennsylvania" is the title of Research Bulletin 2 of the State Department of Forests and Waters in Pennsylvania. The authors. Joseph S. Illick and John E. Aughanbaugh, point to Finns rigida as an important tree of many uses, the most widely spread tree in the state and the most fire- resistant evergreen. * * * * So entrancing are the pictures in The National Horticultural Magazine for January that one hesitates to recommend one article more than another. Among the offerings are a series of photographs from Berlin, some special material on saxifrage, and many pictures from exquisite rock gardens in bloom. CAROL H. WOODWARD. NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT Dr. J. H. Faull, Professor of Forest Pathology in Harvard University, spent a day in the Garden recently, looking over specimens of plant rusts in connection with the monograph of the genus MUesia occurring on ferns and firs. The Economic Museum is in receipt ( October 7) of a specimen of Asimina triloba, or paw- paw, consisting of four fruits and a leaf- bearing twig, and representing a variety that is generally recognized in the Ohio Valley under the name " White Paw- paw." The donor is Mr. William H. Rudder, a valued correspondent, a pharmacist of Salem, Indiana, and a keenly observant local botanist. Mr. Rudder submits the following remarks concerning this variety: " They are not looked on with favor by the lovers of the yellow paw- paw, which grows larger and longer, with a deep cream to golden yellow meat, and also ripens earlier. The only other difference I have observed is in the size of the bushes. I have never found the two growing together. The white bushes are five to fifteen feet high and the yellow eight to thirty feet or more." 92 The variability of this species is well- known, but most of its variations are inconstant and accidental, whereas the one here considered is so constant and well- characterized as to be generally recognized among country people and to have a definite name. As stated by Mr. Rudder, the fruit characters as to size, form, and color of pulp are accompanied by a smaller habit of growth and it would appear that it should be recognized as a definite variety in botanical literature. [ H. H. RUSBY] Meteorology for February: The maximum temperatures recorded at The New York Botanical Garden for each week or part of a week were: 560 F on the 7th; 60° on the 8th; 48° on the 17th; and 580 on the 26th. The minimum temperatures recorded were: 19° F. on the 1st; 21° on the 15th; 14° on the 21st; and 160 on the 24th and the 25th. The total precipitation for the month was 2.45 inches. This includes a half inch of snow figured as .05 inches of rainfall, which fell on the 17th of the month. Traces of snow fell on the 4th, the 24th, and the 29th of the month. Meteorology for March. The maximum temperatures recorded at The New York Botanical Garden for each week or part of a week were: 590 F. on the 5th; 460 on the 12th; 54° on the 19th; 630 on the 26th ; and 57° on the 31st. The minimum temperatures recorded were: 29° on the 5th; 13° on the 10th; 140 on the 15th; 24° on the 21st; and 31" on the 29th. The total precipitation for the month was 4.43 inches. Traces of snow fell on the 7th, the 14th, and the 21st. PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Journal of The New York Botanical Garden, monthly, containing notes, news, and non- technical articles. Free to members of the Garden. To others, 10 cents a copy; $ 1.00 a year. Now in its thirty- third volume. Mycologia, bimonthly, devoted to fungi, including lichens; $ 5.00 a year; single copies not for sale. [ Not offered in exchange.] Now in its twenty-fourth volume. Addisonia, quarterly, devoted exclusively to colored plates accompanied by popular descriptions of flowering plants; eight plates in each number, thirty- two in each volume. Subscription price, $ 10.00 a year. [ Not offered in exchange.] Now in its seventeenth volume. Bulletin of The New York Botanical Garden, containing reports of the Director- in- Chief and other official documents, and technical articles embodying results of investigations. Free to all members of the Garden; to others, $ 3.00 per volume. Now in its fourteenth volume. North American Flora. Descriptions of the wild plants of North America, including Greenland, the West Indies, and Central America. Planned to be completed in 34 volumes. Roy. 8vo. Each volume to consist of four or more parts. 71 parts now issued. Subscription price, $ 1- 5° Per part; a limited number of separate parts will be sold for $ 2.00 each. [ Not offered in exchange.] Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden. Price to members of the Garden, vols. I- VI, $ 1.50 per volume; to others, $ 3.00. Vol. VII, $ 2.50 to members; to others, $ 5.00. Vol. I. An Annotated Catalogue of the Flora of Montana and the Yellowstone Park, by Per Axel Rydberg. ix + 492 pp., with detailed map. 1900. Vol. II. The Influence of Light and Darkness upon Growth and Development, by D. T. MacDougal. xvi + 320 pp., with 176 figures. 1903. Vol. III. Studies of Cretaceous Coniferous Remains from Kreischer-ville, New York, by A. Hollick and E. C. Jeffrey. x i i i + 138 pp., with 29 plates. 1909. Vol. IV. Effects of the Rays of Radium on Plants, by Charles Stuart Gager. viii + 478 pp., with 73 figures and 14 plates. 1908. Vol. V. Flora of the Vicinity of New York: A Contribution to Plant Geography, by Norman Taylor, vi + 683 pp., with 9 plates. 1915. Vol. VI. Papers presented at the Celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of The New York Botanical Garden, viii + 594 pp., with 43 plates and many text figures. 1916. Vol. VII. Includes New Myxophyceae from Porto Rico, by N. L. Gardner; The Flower Behavior of Avocados, by A. B. Stout; Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley, 1921- 1922, by H. H. Rusby; and The Flora of the Saint Eugene Silts, Kootenay Valley, British Columbia, by Arthur Hollick. v i i i + 464 pp., with 47 plates, 10 charts, and II text- figures. 1927. Brittonia. A series of botanical papers. Subscription price, $ 5.00 per volume. Now in its first volume. Contributions from The New York Botanical Garden. A series of technical papers written by students or members of the staff, and reprinted from journals other than the above. Price, 25 cents each. $ 5.00 per volume. In the fourteenth volume. THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Bronx Park, New York, N. Y. GENERAL INFORMATION Some of the leading features of The New York Botanical Garden are: Four hundred acres of beautifully diversified land in the northern part of the City of New York, through which flows the Bronx River. A native hemlock forest is one of the features of the tract. Plantations of thousands of native and introduced trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. Gardens, including a beautiful rose garden, a rock garden of rock- loving plants, and fern and herbaceous gardens. Greenhouses, containing thousands of interesting plants from America and foreign countries. Flower shows throughout the year— in the spring, summer, and autumn displays of narcissi, daffodils, tulips, lilacs, irises, peonies, roses, lilies, water- lilies, gladioli, dahlias, and chrysanthemums; in the winter displays of greenhouse- blooming plants. A museum, containing exhibits of fossil plants, existing plant families, local plants occurring within one hundred miles of the City of New York, and the economic uses of plants. An herbarium, comprising more than one million specimens of American and foreign species. Exploration in different parts of the United States, the West Indies, Central and South America, for the study and collection of the characteristic flora. Scientific research in laboratories and in the field into the diversified problems of plant life. A library of botanical literature, comprising more than 41,700 books and numerous pamphlets. Public lectures on a great variety of botanical topics, continuing throughout the year. Publications on botanical subjects, partly of technical, scientific, and partly of popular, interest. The education of school children and the public through the above features and the giving of free information on botanical, horticultural, and forestal subjects. The Garden is dependent upon an annual appropriation by the City of New York, private benefactions, and membership fees. It possesses now nearly two thousand members, and applications for membership are always welcome. The classes of membership are: Benefactor single contribution $ 25,000 Patron single contribution 5,000 Fellow for Life single contribution 1,000 Member for Life single contribution 250 Fellowship Member annual fee 100 Sustaining Member annual fee 25 Annual Member annual fee 10 Contributions to the Garden mny be deducted from taxable incomea. The following is an approved form of bequest: / hereby bequeath to The New York Botanical Garden incorporated under the Laws of New York, Chapter 285 of 1891, the sum of . Conditional bequests may be made with income payable to donor or any designated beneficiary during his or her lifetime. All requests for further information should be sent to T H E NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BRONX PARK, NEW YORK, N. Y.
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Contributor | New York Botanical Garden |
Date | 1932-04 |
Description-Table Of Contents | Something Old and Something New; Begonias; House Plant Exhibit; Practical Gardening; A Botanist's Rambles through the West Indies; A Glance at Current Literature; Notes, News, and Comment. |
Format | application/pdf |
Format-Extent | 51 v. : ill. ; 25 cm. |
Identifier | 0885-4165 |
Language | eng |
Publisher | Bronx : New York Botanical Garden, 1900-1950 |
Relation-Is Part Of | Journal of the New York Botanical Garden : v. 1, no. 1-v. 51, no. 612 |
Relation-IsVersionOfURI | http://opac.nybg.org/record=b1104879 |
Rights | http://www.nybg.org/library/ |
Subject | Plants--Periodicals; Gardening--Periodicals; Plants, Cultivated--Periodicals; New York Botanical Garden--Periodicals. |
Title | Journal of the New York Botanical Garden |
Volume, Number | Vol. 33, no. 388 |
Type | text |
Transcript | VOL. XXXIII APRIL, 1932 No. 388 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN SOMETHING OLD AND SOMETHING NEW ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM BEGONIAS T. H. EVERETT HOUSE PLANT EXHIBIT FORMAN T. MCLEAN PRACTICAL GARDENING FORMAN T. MCLEAN A BOTANISTS RAMBLES THROUGH THE WEST INDIES ROBERT HAGELSTEIN A GLANCE A T CURRENT LITERATURE CAROL H. WOODWARD NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN AT LIME AND GREEN STREETS, LANCASTER, PA. THE SCIENCE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY Entered fit the post- office in Lancaster, Pa., as second- class matter. Annual subscription $ 1.00 Single copies 10 cents Free to members of the Garden THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BOARD OF MANAGERS HENRY W. DE FOREST, President ADOLPH LEWISOHN HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice President HENRY LOCKHART, JR. JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice President and Treas. D. T. MACDOUGAL E. D. MERRILL, Secretary KENNETH K. MACKENZIE RAYMOND F. BACON H. DE LA MONTAGNE, JR. CHARLES P. BERKEY J- PIERPONT MORGAN MARSTON T. BOGERT LEWIS RUTHERFURD MORRIS GEORGE S. BREWSTER g- HoBA? T R P ° R Tf v r n„. » ™ „ HENRY H. RUSBY N. L. BRITTON GEORCE J R y A N NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER MRS A E T H U R H . SCRIBNER THOMAS J. DOLEN EDMUND W. SINNOTT CHILDS FRICK F. K. STURGIS R. A. HARPER SAM F. TRELEASE CLARENCE LEWIS WILLIAM H. WEBSTER JAMES J. WALKER, Mayor of the City of New York WALTER R. HERRICK, President of the Department of Parks SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS R. A. HARPER, P H . D„ SC. D., Chairman D. T. MACDOUGAL, P H . D., LL. D. RAYMOND F. BACON, P H . D , SC. D. HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D., SC. D. CHARLES P. BERKEY, P H . D., SC. D. r„ , D r l f T p „ » T T n MARSTON T. BOGERT, SC. D., LL. D. GEORGE J - R y A N ' L U U" NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, P H . D., EDMUND W. SINNOTT, P H . D. LL. D., LITT. D. SAM F. TRELEASE, P H . D. DIRECTOR EMERITUS N. L. BRITTON, P H . D., SC. D., LL. D. GARDEN STAFF E. D. MERRILL, SC. D Director- in- Chief MARSHALL A. HOWE, P H . D., SC. D Assistant Director JOHN K. SMALL, P H . D., SC. D Head Curator of the Museums A. B. STOUT, P H . D Director of the Laboratories H. A. GLEASON, P H . D Curator FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D., SC. D Curator ARTHUR HOLLICK, P H . D Paleobotanist BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D Plant Pathologist FORMAN T. MCLEAN, M. F., P H . D Supervisor of Public Education JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D Bibliographer PERCY WILSON Associate Curator PALMYRE DE C. MITCHELL Associate Curator SARAH H. HARLOW, A. M Librarian H. H. RUSBY, M. D Honorary Curator of'the Economic Collections ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Honorary Curator of Mosses FLEDA GRIFFITH Artist and Photographer ROBERT S. WILLIAMS Administrative Assistant E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator ALBERT C. SMITH, A. B Assistant Curator CLYDE CHANDLER, A. M Technical Assistant MARJORIE E. SWIFT, A. M Assistant Pathologist ROSALTE WEIKERT Technical Assistant KENNETH R. BOYNTON, B. S Head Gardener G. L. WITTROCK, A. M Docent H. M. DENSLOW, A. M., D. D Honorary Custodian of Local Herbarium ROBERT HAGELSTEIN Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes E. B. SOUTHWICK, P H . D Custodian of Herbaceous Grounds ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM. Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections WALTER S. GROESBECK Clerk and Accountant ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. XXXIII APRIL, 1932 No. 388 SOMETHING OLD AND SOMETHING XEW1 The adage, " Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," used to be applied to weddings, but there is no reason why we should not use it in connection with gardens. The oldest thing most of us perpetrate is a joke and not the worst of them was that supposed to be started in the Garden of Eden. We have a habit of calling something that does not work properly a " joke " and we look scornfully on old gardening tools and appliances and methods; but there are many of these that are better than some of the new- fangled things made only to draw pennies ( and often more) out of people's pockets. We have an idea that the bathtub is an American institution and that it is new to show people in the comic papers seated in a tub enjoying some delicate repast, receiving their friends, or making startling remarks over the telephone. Ablutions in full view of a theatre audience, slipperiness of soap, etc., are really old things, and so are receptions in bathtubs in gardens with only a simple, low fence about to keep the main crush of guests off the performer! A picture in a very ancient book shows a lady reclining in such a tub, guests promenading about outside the wattle fence, a table laid out with appetizing things to eat, and a retainer in Eastern dress working a small coffee- roaster such as one still sees in general use in old French towns. The title of this charming scene is " The Joys of Life! " I know of a Roman cistern at least two thousand years old, still serving the purpose originally intended for it— that of collecting 1 Abstract of an illustrated lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, March 19, 1932. 69 70 and tempering the water from cold mountain streams to the warmer air of the valley, so delicate plants may be encouraged to grow in the best and quickest way. Among other things still worth using are good old garden designs and plans, for a well- laid- out garden will always be satisfactory. Even if the flowering plants should gradually disappear because of neglect, the ground- plan of trees, shrubs, hedges, etc., being properly placed and spaced, will hold the pattern. We often see in old pictures gardeners doing something we recognize as a perfectly necessary operation each year in our gardens of today. We see men grafting, we see them pruning, and we often see them holding the knife or shears wrongly, too, just as most people do today! The man who sells us secateurs at the flower- show knows they are good tools that will cut well, but he rarely is a skilled primer, so he never tells the amateur the best way to use them, nor do lecturers; and I suppose artists, lecturers, salesmen, and hired men are the same today as they were hundreds of years ago, with the same varying value and the same old faults. Sometimes we notice a combination of the very ancient with the most modern, and nowhere is it better emphasized than in Italy, where good telephone and trolley service go hand in hand with ancient Roman structures, and where young plants clamber over old, old ruins. In France we see it also in hundreds of ways but especially in the way olive- oil is made and in the type of baskets used for packing fruit, both dating back two thousand years or longer. Then we come to borrowed things— plants borrowed from other countries, deliberately or inadvertently: cocoanut palms on southern shores, floated there by stormy seas; Rosa rugosa on islands off the Maine Coast, brought there either by waves or birds; foreign weed- seeds brought with crops or in the soil of ballast, dozens of ways. Perhaps things went from us to other climes also, such as the famous " domus pyramidalis," a sort of tepee- like' summer- house or support for climbing plants. This " domus pyramidalis " was apparently unknown in the Old World until Columbus brought the idea back with him, after which it became very popular. It seems to be used here more now by Italians ( who again reintro- 7i FIGURE I. " The Joys of Life.'' " Receptions in bath- tubs in gardens are really old things." duced it to this part of America) than by the descendants of the early settlers, though one would think it would have remained here all the time, as it was most certainly learned by the Spaniards from the Indians. I have noticed this is used a great deal in Louisiana, and it is possible that the training of climbing plants has always been carried on here in this manner without interruption. There is another kind of borrowing, the use of something for another purpose than that for which it was made. Some think it wonderful to be ingenious in the garden and in houses, too, and, with restraint, good things are sometimes accomplished— but what frightful effects are usually obtained! How about leaky boats sprouting nasturtiums or, again, water- boilers set in the middle of small front lawns and bursting with scarlet sage and magenta petunias? On the other hand, we have a sensible substitution to which even the most esthetic may not object. In France they use " cloches," bells of glass, to protect early planted lettuce, etc., 72 from frosts; here we may use cheese- covers for the same purpose if cloches are not to be obtained or are too costly, or we may use glass battery- jars of the largest size in the same way. In hot countries we see lath covers made in slat fashion to shade young plants. We can borrow the method of bracing them and we can use the skeleton to cover with cheese- cloth and put these screens along our newly set out tomatoes if a wind should come up and threaten to whip them about. We come now to the blue part of the adage. Some people run to blue gardens. They can even make blue fields or woods, if they wish, by planting Scillas, as has been done at Kew, or they can have blue rock- gardens or they can often just be blue in their own garden, and they are likely to be so if they use for a ground-cover a plant that dies away shortly after blooming, such as Mer-tensia virginica, which I heard recommended by a well- known landscape architect as a cover for tulips ! In ancient tomes we see woodcuts of plants, many of which we can identify as old favorites. Thus, in John Parkinson's works of the early sixteen hundreds we can see a page of crocuses, several of daffodils, of irises, and so on. Some of these plants we still use, some we have neglected, many have been improved, new hybrids have been made from them, or special culture has made them larger or more floriferous. Mr. E. Augustus Bowles has been working for a number of years with crocuses and has produced some lovely new varieties which are now coming on the market. Some of these are Copenhagen Blue ( light and dark blue), Mrs. E. A. Bowles ( pale yellow), Kittywake and Bunting ( mauve), Sun Bird ( blue with glow of yellow), Herbert Edel-sten ( red- purple and white), and many others. The narcissi we see pictured in Parkinson can, many of them, be found in old gardens today and one or two wild species can be easily recognized. Narcissus triandrus is certainly there and N. Bulbocodium also, and these, while rare in cultivation, can be procured. N. cyclamineus is another known over three hundred years ago, lost for most of that time, rediscovered, and now much used in hybridizing. Charming hybrids from these old species are Harvest Moon, Golden Ingot, Mrs. L. Harrison, and Trewirgie. Wonderful things are being done abroad in the breeding of daffodils and a few people are starting here but we are far behind. 73 There are one or two collections now in this country that have fine modern daffodils in them; one is that of Mr. Mead at Fort Wayne, another that of Mrs. Foote of Grand Rapids. Mr. Wister has a good collection, Mr. Morrison a very choice one, also Miss Beirne of Ashland, Va., and one of the best is, I hear, that of Mrs. Davis of Nashville, Tennessee. There are some fine commercial collections, of course, but I am speaking of those being used for breeding. All these people have been allowed permits to import FIGURE 2. ilen grafting and pruning in 1625. " The same today." good varieties, because they are doing breeding or are going to sell. It seems sad to think that the rest of us who merely want to improve our gardens and horticulture in general are prevented from having our own particular choice from the good foreign varieties. If we have a discriminating taste that will not let us grow Will Scarlett because of the wingy perianth, and, if we have money to spend, why should we not be allowed Fortune, Fortune's Gift, Fortune's Cheer, Coverack Gem, Coverack Perfection, and many others? If we desire a new and clear white double daffodil, may we be allowed to have Daphne? 74 But, to go back to Parkinson, among his irises we see old friends, old enemies too, and, should we look in Redoute at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we will see the dwarf bearded irises, several of them, both /. pumila and /. Chamaeiris looking just as in Parkinson and also as in our gardens. We are still recommending Iris cvanea, which is a form of Chamaeiris, as one of the best to be had among blue- purple dwarfs, and the American Iris Society is still trying to get Swertii out of our gardens, for there are flowers to be had in the same color that are far, far better. Not only do we have old things still in use but we have new theories about plants, and we still have botanists who are switching the same old plant about from one genus to another! And then, besides old varieties improved we have new hybrids made between different groups such as the Oncocyclus irises and Regelias that have been crossed to form the Regelio- cyclus group, the so- called Intermediate irises, first made by crossing dwarf bearded forms with tall ones, and then we have new colors in plants. And sometimes we do find new plants too, although one would think the world had been adequately explored. Such was the case with irises in Louisiana, where Dr. John K. Small has discovered so many new species and hybrids of colors not known in that type of iris before. And with all this there is little reason for having one's garden exactly the same as everybody's. Why is it that gardeners have to be sheep and do everything on the flock system? Let us be original, restraining ourselves just enough so that we use material that will hold its own through the ages with good contemporary taste. ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM. 75 BEGONIAS1 The Begonia family is one of the most interesting and important tender- plant groups in cultivation today, comprising as it does a vast number of hybrid forms in addition to almost 500 species which are found growing naturally throughout the most tropical and subtropical regions of the earth, being especially abundant in India and in South America. From this number the gardener can select kinds to provide a succession of bloom throughout the whole year and varieties adapted to such varied purposes as greenhouse and conservatory decoration, window or sun- room cultivation, window- box embellishment, and bedding- out in the summer garden. As greenhouse plants, various kinds can be grown in pots or hanging baskets or trained up pillars; in the open garden wre have the choice of the fibrous- rooted semperfiorens group or the larger- flowered and more exotic- looking tuberous varieties. Botanically the Begonias form a natural group, and although widely variable, their chief characteristics are so constant that a Begonia can usually be recognized as such even by a novice in things horticultural. The flowers vary in color from pure white to scarlet and deep crimson and through every shade of yellow to richest orange. Several kinds ( as Begonia Rex) possess very handsomely colored foliage. The first species to be introduced to cultivation was Begonia nitida, which came to England from Jamaica in 1777. From then on new species were introduced from time to time until shortly after the middle of the 19th century the discovery and introduction of B. Rex excited great interest among horticulturists. But the great impetus to Begonia- growing came a few years later when the tuberous- rooted species began to come from South America, commencing with Begonia Pearcei from Bolivia in 1865. In the hands of the hybridists these species soon gave rise to magnificent large- flowered single and double forms in a rich assortment of colors, culminating in the splendid kinds we cultivate in our gardens and greenhouses today. The year 1880 marked a most important milestone in the history of Begonias under cultivation, for in this year B. socotrana was 1 Abstract of a lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, January 30, 193^ introduced to cultivation by Prof. Bayley- Balfour, of Edinburgh Botanic Garden. This species proved to be of the greatest value to the hybridist and was the forerunner of the two important classes of winter- flowering hybrids grown today, namely, the Gloire de Lorraine types and the so- called large- flowered section, of which such varieties as Optima and Mrs. Heal are representatives. These large- flowering winter- blooming varieties resulted from crossing Begonia socotrana with the tuberous- rooted species and their hybrids, while Gloire de Lorraine was a result of hybridizing B. socotrana with the fibrous- rooted B. Dregei. The " Christmas Begonias," which are so popular about the festive season, belong to the Gloire de Lorraine section. The culture of Begonias presents but few difficulties, the large winter- flowering hybrids being most exacting in this respect. The tropical species succeed best in temperatures of from 55 to 60 degrees at night during the winter months with a few degrees rise in the daytime permitted. In summer a night temperature of 7$ is not too high, and this may be permitted to rise during the daytime. Other species thrive in temperatures five or ten degrees lower than these. All enjoy moist atmospheric conditions with some shade from the strong summer sunshine but full exposure to all available light from mid- October to mid- February. Begonias are particularly impatient of drafts and sudden changes in temperature, either of which will quickly cause the leaves to fall. A plentiful supply of humus in the soil is essential and extremely good drainage should be provided, for, while Begonias require moist soil conditions, stagnant moisture spells disaster. The fibrous- rooted species and varieties are especially well adapted to the requirements of the amateur. Of these, Begonia Haageana, B. Thurstoni, B. semperfiorens and such rhizomatous kinds as B. manicata, B. conchaefolia and B. Fcasti are to be recommended. All are easily propagated by means of cuttings of the young shoots taken in the months of April or May and inserted in moist sand, the atmosphere being kept " close," and the cuttings shaded until such time as roots are emitted. When a good root system is developed, pot the young plants into a mixture of loam, leaf- mold ( or humus) and coarse sand. Do not press the soil firmly at this time. Even at subsequent pottings 77 Begonias should be potted fairly lightly. Water with care, endeavoring to maintain the soil always moist but never overwet, and on the mornings of bright days lightly spray the foliage overhead with clear water. As the plants grow they must be moved into larger pots, the size of the receptacles being increased a little at a time. In these subsequent transfers use a soil similar to that already advised except that fertilizer in the form of some old, rotted manure and Scotch soot at the rate of a six- inch pot- full to each bushel of compost may be added with advantage. When the final pots are filled with roots, systematic feeding may be commenced, using dilute liquid cow- manure alternated with weak soot- water and varied occasionally by the use of an approved commercial fertilizer. The Wax Begonia ( a common name applied to all varieties of B. semperfiorens) in addition to being an excellent house plant is also fine for use in the summer garden and will withstand sun better than any other. It is usually grown from seed, although cuttings root readily. The seed should be sown in January or February in pots or flats containing a mixture consisting of loam, sharp sand and leaf- mold ( or humus) in about equal proportions, the whole having been passed through a sieve having a quarter-inch mesh. Provide plenty of drainage in the receptacles and fill to within a little way of the top, surfacing off with a light covering of the same compost passed through a piece of fine screen- meshing, making the surface perfectly level. Water well with boiling water and allow to drain for fifteen minutes before sowing the seed. Sow thinly and evenly. As the seed is extremely fine it should not be covered at all but merely lightly pressed into the surface with a piece of smooth, dry board, the pot or flat then being covered with glass and a piece of strong paper and placed in a warm, moist atmosphere. Examine carefully every day and as soon as the first signs of germination are apparent remove the paper and glass and gradually accustom the young plants to the light, later transplanting to other flats and then potting as advised for cuttings. These Begonias may be planted out in the garden after all danger of damage from frost is passed. Rex Begonias can be readily propagated by taking a leaf and nicking through the junctions of the main veins with a keen- bladed 78 knife, the leaf then being pinned down on moist sand under similar atmospheric conditions advised for stem- cuttings. A young plantlet will arise from each incision, and when a leaf or two and a fair mass of roots is developed these may be detached and potted. Tuberous Begonias are summer- bloomers and will succeed well in a sheltered sunny spot in the garden if the soil is moist. The amateur should purchase tubers in the spring, for raising seedlings requires much care and greenhouse facilities. The tubers may be started into growth indoors by placing them upside down in flats containing moist moss or leaf- soil ( this method prevents water from collecting in the hollow crown and causing rot), and inverting them as soon as growth is well started, later potting them into three- or four- inch pots. They may be planted out in the open garden in early June or may be potted on and utilized as pot plants. A simpler method is to plant the tubers where they are to flower a week or ten days after the date when the last frost may visit the locality. If this plan is followed, they will not bloom quite so early but will produce a magnificent show through the late summer and fall. The Christmas Begonias of the Gloire de Lorraine section do not make satisfactory house plants and should not be purchased if a permanent subject is required. They are, however, among the most decorative of all Begonias. These are usually grown from leaf- cuttings taken in November or December and many growers are of the opinion that this method is decidedly the most satisfactory, but my personal experience shows that equally good results are obtained from stem- cuttings taken in March or April and these latter are far less troublesome to root. Plants of the larger- flowered, winter- blooming section are perhaps the choicest of all Begonias, but these test the skill of the professional gardener with every greenhouse facility at command and are quite hopeless unless they can be accorded the specialized conditions they demand. They are usually grown from basal cuttings taken in spring. After flowering is the most critical period and at this time every effort must be made to keep the foliage green as long as possible, yet only the minimum amount of water must be given, for the plants are inactive and in a resting condition at this time. T. H. EVERETT. 79 HOUSE PLANT EXHIBIT Special exhibits of plants recommended for house culture are now on display at the Museum Building, at Conservatory Range i, and at Conservatory Range 2. These were arranged by Mr. Becker and include some of the most dependable plants for the living room. House plants must be resistant to dry air, to rather high temperatures, and to shading. It takes more sunlight to produce flowers than to keep foliage plants in good health. Accordingly, there are more good house plants among the foliage plants than among those that are grown especially for their flowers. The foliage plants in the exhibit include two species of Sansevieria, Pandanus, Begonia Rex, Zebrina pendula, Codaeums ( Cro-tons), Wax Palm ( Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), English Ivy, Rubber Plant ( Ficus elastica), Curculigo recurvata, Gasteria, Cotyledon, Creeping Nettle ( Helxine), Billbergia, Sedum, Forked Boston Fern, Hoya carnosa, Aloe, and Coleus repens. Two cacti, Opuntia and the Night- blooming Cereus ( Selenicereus), are included, and Christmas Cactus ( Zygocactus) and Phyllocactus might well be included. These, the South African Aloe and Gasteria, and the Cotyledon may all be regarded as desert plants; and the Sansevierias are also quite drouth- resistant. Others, like the Billbergia and Boston Fern are in their native haunts tree- dwellers or epiphytes, and so must be inured to occasional drouths, between rains. In contrast, the Rex Begonias, Coleus repens, and Wandering Jew ( Zebrina pendula) belong to the moist tropics. Among the plants grown for their flowers are " Amaryllis " ( Hippeastrum), Geranium, Hoya carnosa or Wax Plant, and the Everblooming Begonia, which is probably the most dependable flowering plant for the average home living- room. The Amaryllis is now in full bloom, before the leaves appear, and it can be so managed that it will make its main growth of foliage during the summer outdoors, in which case it can be bloomed indoors with comparatively little sunlight during the winter. FORMAN T. MCLEAN. PRACTICAL GARDENING The course under the above title, announced in the JOURNAL for March, started March 2, 1932, with thirty- four people enrolled. Seed flats were prepared and seeds of annuals started in them. These will be grown on the bench at Conservatory Range 2 until planting time. The following topics were discussed: SEED FLATS The usual flat used for growing seedlings is four inches deep and a convenient size is about 12 x 18 inches. The best of them are made of cypress wood and will last for three or four years. Ordinary packing boxes can be cut down and used for seed flats, but the pine wood, from which most of them are made, rots out in one or two years. The bottom boards of the flat should be spaced about one quarter inch apart to allow for drainage. If these chinks are too wide it will be necessary in filling the flats to cover them with bits of broken crocks, leaves, or coarse leaf mold. A soil suitable for growing most seeds consists of two parts fibrous garden loam, one part sharp sand, and one part humus or leaf mould. The best loam for use in seed flats is old sod which has been piled up and rotted for about six months. This contains enough well- decayed organic matter to make it loose and friable. Ordinary field or garden soil may be used, but will not be nearly so good. The sand should be good and sharp so that it will pack reasonably well. The leaf mold or humus used should be about half decayed, a part of it still being fibrous and showing some leaf structure. Each of these three ingredients should first be sifted through a one- fourth- inch sieve and mixed thoroughly. If the mixing is done with the sifting, it will be easier than to mix separately. Then fill each flat a little over- full of this material, tap the flat down on the floor once or twice to settle the soil, but not pack it, then run a board along the top to level the soil even with the top boards of the flat. Then use a small board as a tamper and pack the soil down until it is evenly firmed and about one half inch below the top. There should be no low spots or humps in it. For sowing the seeds, make furrows of suitable depth one and one half inches apart. The depth will depend on the size 82 of the seed, the usual rule being to put the seeds in the soil two and one half times their thickness at a distance about equal to five times the thickness of the seed. The distance apart will depend upon how long the plants will remain in the flats and whether the particular kinds are especially subject to damping off. Sow seeds that are subject to damping off much more thinly than the average. If the seeds are chaffy and known to be of low germination they may, of course, be sown thickly. After sowing, all except the very finest seeds should be covered and the soil again packed down. For very fine seeds, such as Begonias, Lobelias and Petunias, sow them on the surface and cover with a light dusting of soil from a sieve of wire mosquito netting. After sowing, water thoroughly with a very fine spray or, if dealing with exceedingly small seeds that are liable to be disturbed by watering, cover the flat with one layer of newspaper, turn in the corners so the newspaper rests directly on the soil with edges turned up, then fill the hollow thus made with water and let it soak in through the paper. After this the paper can be left on for four or five days until the seeds begin to develop. This method of watering was demonstrated by Mrs. Lockwood at our last meeting and proved most effective. SOILS AND FERTILIZERS Practically all soils can be benefitted by regular fertilizing. The amount and kind of material to use will depend not only on the past history of the soil, but on its texture and character. A loose loamy soil containing a small amount of sand is the easiest to handle. A stiff clay may prove more fertile, but is harder to keep in good condition and is liable to become acid and for many garden crops to need liming. Sandy soil is the easiest to work, is apt to be the least fertile, and requires the most attention in fertilizing and manuring. While plants require, in varying amounts, a large proportion of the ninety- two chemical elements now recognized, and while we are constantly learning more about their needs for minute quantities of the rarer substances, we need now to consider only three chemical aids. These are nitrogen ( N), phosphorus ( PX),), and potash ( KX>). § 3 Of these three the most constantly needed is nitrogen. Next to carbon and water, which form the real basis of all living material, nitrogen is used in the greatest amount. This used to be supplied as ammonia in manures and organic wastes. Nowadays, since we depend more and more on machinery and less on livestock, manures are becoming scarce and gardeners must depend on chemicals for fertilizer. There are certain advantages, particularly in nitrogenous fertilizers, even where manure is plentiful. For instance, in early spring and during cool seasons, manure does not decay rapidly enough to supply an optimum amount of nitrogen for plant growth. Then nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia or some other immediately soluble nitrogen compound will give immediate and beneficial results even on soil heavily manured. Phosphorus, the next most important fertilizer, is specially important in cell- building and so is most useful in encouraging flower and seed production. The old- fashioned source of this was bone, supplied as ground bone, steamed bonemeal, or acid- treated bone. Bone in the natural state decays very slowly and even finely ground bone takes six or seven years to become fully available, so it is both slow- acting and very safe to use. A quicker source of phosphorus is acid- treated rock phosphate from our eastern states. This is sold in the trade as superphosphate and the greater part of the phosphorus in it is soluble and immediately useful. Manure is normally very poor in phosphorus, so either bone or superphosphate should be used to supplement it at the rate of about one hundred pounds or somewhat more per ton of manure used. The third important fertilizer, potash, is abundant in manures. It may also be supplied from sources such as wood ashes, the ash from hardwood being much superior to that from pine or other conifers. A good grade of wood ashes, not too much leached by the weather, contains from ten to fifteen percent potash. The commercial source of potash is now the salts produced by the French and German potash mines. The raw material from these is muriate ( chloride) of potassium which contains about forty percent potash. The purified potash, which is sulphate of potassium, contains fifty percent potash. The amounts of these used on the soil is approximately as follows: nitrate of soda— about one pound per hundred square 84 feet; superphosphate— about two pounds per hundred square feet, or bonemeal at nearly the same rate; muriate of potash— not more than one half pound per hundred square feet; one third pound would be better. MIXED FERTILIZERS The law in New York State and in most states requires that fertilizer dealers print the analysis of their fertilizers on the package as sold. This analysis is usually given as three percentages, the first number representing the amount of nitrogen in percent of the total; the second, the amount of phosphorus; and the third, the amount of potash. Thus, a good fertilizer nowadays will have approximately the formula about 5- 10- 5, that is, five percent nitrogen, ten percent phosphorus, and five percent potash. Since this contains only about one third as much strength of nitrogen as nitrate of soda, it can be used at the rate of three pounds per hundred square feet with advantage. A mixed fertilizer of such moderate concentration usually contains some immediately available material and some that is slow- acting, so that one or two applications per year of such material is sufficient. For gardens that are worked intensively and from which quicker results are demanded, a more concentrated and highly soluble material may be required. To meet this demand some dealers are putting out fertilizers of highly soluble material of formula 15- 30— 15 or thereabouts. This should be used frequently and in small amounts, since it is highly soluble and liable to " burn." A good rule is to use concentrated fertilizers in about the same way you would nitrate of soda; that is, about a pound per hundred square feet at a time, repeating the dose every month or so. For dahlias and show flowers, a still smaller application every ten days may prove successful. In my own garden I have made no effort to secure any organic manure at all and have used only decaying leaf moulds, different kinds of commercial humus, and chemical fertilizers. The results have been entirely satisfactory; and at the agricultural experiment stations, fields have been fertilized chemically for half a century with good production, with no use of manure at all. FORMAN T. MCLEAN, Supervisor of Public Education. A BOTANIST'S RAMBLES THROUGH THE WEST INDIES1 The West Indian tropics have a peculiar charm for those who have been there. It may be due to the dense vegetation, the gorgeous flowers, birds, and insects, or the blue skies and the azure Caribbean. The many people, of different race and color, and the odd customs and dress add to the interest. Combined, they cause a yearning to go again and this yearning inspired the wanderlust during the cold days of the winter of 1930. The West Indies stretch in a long chain of over two thousand miles from east of Yucatan to within a few miles of Venezuela. The four large western islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti- San Domingo, and Porto Rico are called the Greater Antilles, and the smaller ones, in a curved chain southward from Porto Rico, the Lesser Antilles. It was to the latter that our journey carried us. In these Lesser Antilles are several hundred islands, but aside from those to be mentioned, there are only four or five large and important enough for steamers to stop at, the others being very small or mere uninhabited rocks. A few of the islands are of the so- called coral formation, Barbados being the largest. The others are of volcanic origin, the tops of a high range of mountains which in past geologic time was the rim of a stagnant marsh, and which marsh by later subsidence became the Caribbean Sea. There are said to be eleven volcanoes in the Lesser Antilles, several of which have been violently active within historic time. Numerous other evidences of volcanic activity also exist. All of the islands are within the tropics, lying between about ten and eighteen degrees of north latitude. Our first stop was made at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and later ones ranging in duration from a few hours to a full day, were made at St. Croix, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Martinique. All these islands appear to be much alike when observed superficially, but the close observer will note many differences between them, in their geology, their flora and fauna, and their people. We have pleasant recollections of Dominica, a botanist's paradise, and Martinique, with its great volcano Mont Pelee. 1 Abstract of an illustrated lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, November 21, 1931. 86 After Martinique we arrived at Barbados, where we had planned to stay a week, so that I could study the famous deposits of infusorial earth that are located there. They are in the northeastern part of the island, in a hilly section called Scotland because of its resemblance to the crags and valleys of old Scotland. The deposits are composed principally of the fossil, siliceous remains of microscopic organisms called Radiolaria, which are animals, but among them are numerous beautiful diatoms, a low group of microscopic plants in which I am particularly interested. I was fortunate in making the acquaintance of an English gentleman resident on the island, who also is a student of these organisms and from him obtained much information. Barbados is of " coral" formation. It is low, without forests or jungles, and not as interesting from a botanist's standpoint as the other islands visited. A night's run brought us to Trinidad, the largest and probably the most interesting of the Lesser Antilles. Port of Spain, a city of 70,000 inhabitants, many of whom are coolies, is the capital and numbers among its people many cultured scientific men and women. I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with many of them during our three weeks' stay, and this afforded opportunities for seeing much of the island. There are vast forests, jungles, and marshes in which wild animal life still abounds. The luxurious growth of tropical plants and flowers is everywhere. The oil fields and the famous pitch lake from which New York City's streets have been paved are interesting sights. My interest here was in the Myxomycetes, a low group of living organisms, lying in the border- land between the animals and the plants. Many interesting collecting trips into the cocoa plantations and the Mora forest yielded sufficient specimens to indicate their probable abundance at the proper season. Arrangements made with local collectors to continue the work have so far yielded good results. Our stay in charming Trinidad came to a close. We returned on the same vessel that brought us down, and after ten days, stopping again at all the islands to say adieux to friends, we arrived at New York, filled with glorious memories. ROBERT HAGELSTEIN. 87 A GLANCE AT CURRENT LITERATURE1 How observation of natural forms is stimulating to the designer's sense of beauty, and why observation of natural processes is essential to stability and success in the work of the landscape architect are told in an article by the late O. C. Simonds in the first quarterly issue of Landscape Architecture for 1932. But, warns the author, the designer must be careful to make the proper selection of the material and arrangements that nature offers. A new botanical publication, Leaflets of Western Botany, by Alice Eastwood and John Thomas Howell made its appearance on January 16, 1932, in San Francisco. It contains " The Pittosporums in California Garden and Parks" by Miss Eastwood and " A New California Baeria" by Mr. Howell. * * * * " Hellebores in Folk- lore and Fact" in The Gardeners' Chronicle for January 9, cites curious myths and early beliefs surrounding this poisonous root, more than one of which bestows upon it the power to cure insanity. Its original name was Melampode, in honor of the shepherd Melampus, who was first believed to have used it. * * * * Three new patents which have been granted for plants are described in the December Journal of Heredity. The recipients are Joseph Spanbauer, for a variety of rose produced by hybridizing; Otto A. Mueller, for an improved fragrant white carnation; and Elmer L. Pollard and Jubal E. Sherrill, for a thornless young dewberry. * * * * H. O. Evans writes of his experiences with thrips in The Gladiolus Review for February. In telling how they can best be controlled, he advises, among other steps, fumigating bulbs and spraying the plants every ten days after they are six inches high. 1 All publications mentioned here— and many others— are available in the library of The New York Botanical Garden in the Museum Building. 88 Trees in and around the city of Washington, and trees associated with the life of George Washington, fill most of the pages of American Forests for February. Many fine photographs adorn this issue, and there is also a horticultural map of Lafayette Park in the National Capitol. New books reviewed by Willard N. Clute in his January number of The American Botanist include, besides his own " Swamp and Dune," " The Garden of the World" by Janet McGill ( technical botany for younger readers) ; " The Modern Nursery" by Alex. Laurie and L. C. Chadwick; " Adventures in a Suburban Garden" by Louise Beebe Wilder; " Fieldwork for the Local Botanist" by A. S. Hitchcock; " Modern Herbal" by Mrs. M. Grieve ( first published in England, but now brought out in the United States) ; and " Trees in Winter" by A. F. Blakeslee and C. D. Jarvis. * * * * How mosses can be used effectively in landscape gardening is revealed in the September issue of The Bryologist. Give them abundant moisture, keep them clear of dead leaves and other coverings, and select suitable species for each location, advises A. J. Grout, the author. Romaine B. Ware writes of garden pools in Nature Magazine for March, illustrating in words and pictures how to install pools, what to plant in and around them, and how to care for such a garden. Horticulture for February i also has an article on " The Place of Pools in the Garden Picture." * * * # There is an excellent gardening guide in House and Garden for March, prepared by F. F. Rockwell. It gives, in tabulated form, suggestions for planting vines, trees ( both evergreen and deciduous), shrubs, perennials, and annuals in the Northeast, Northwest, and Middle West, giving the color, size, character, uses, requirements, and season of each plant. * * * * Many cypress stumps, all upright, and one of them seventeen feet in circumference, have been found in a recent excavation in downtown Philadelphia, Bartonia tells in its issue of February 13. The excavation uncovered 2800 cubic feet of swamp sod 38 feet below the street and ten feet below sea- level. It is believed the trees grew there prior to the last glaciation of the region. The small garden becomes a fairyland when trees with showy flowers are used. C. F. Greeves- Carpenter tells which ones to plant in the Gardeners' Chronicle of America for February. Cacti and other succulents used in interior decoration are featured in the Cactus and Succulent Journal for January. Among the wall decorations and table ornaments shown is an exquisite Echeveria moulded in enameled copper. * * * * American Forests for January contains some magnificent photographic studies entitled " The Garden in Winter"; also a tempting sketch of Dominica as a botanical paradise by Paul Griswold Howes. Snapdragons for the garden and how to care for them, and " hollow- wall" gardening, in which a brick enclosure is filled with flowers and hanging vines, are two of the interesting gardening features in Nature Magazine for February. * * * * The American Home for February offers among other articles, " Embowered Beauty in Vines," " Flowering Plants for the Shaded Nook," and " Modern Fashions in Old- time Flowers." * * * * How grass has formed the foundation for civilization and wealth throughout all ages the world over is the fascinating story unfolded in the book called " Grass," written by A. S. Hitchcock and Agnes Chase of the United States Department of Agriculture and recently published by the Smithsonian Institution. " Man's first attempt to control his fate, to provide for future need instead of remaining the victim of droughts or other untoward circumstances, must have been on grasslands where the young calves, lambs, and kids he caught and tamed could find forage," the authors say. " It was on grasslands, too, that primi- 9o tive man, after he had reached the food- producing as distinguished from the food- gathering stage, developed most rapidly." And thus is the history of man traced from country to country, and from lower to ever higher levels of civilization, always with grass— that is, with feed for animals and grains as food for man himself, as the basis of his changing life. * * * * A new- illustrated manual of the flora of Quebec, written by Pere Louis- Marie under the title of " Flore- Manuel " has just been issued in French. It is designated as Contribution 23 from the Tnstitut Agricole d'Oka. * * * * The Proceedings of the Americal Society for Horticultural Science for 1930, recently published, contains a host of material of value to flower, fruit, and vegetable- growers. There are nearly 600 pages of text, with abundant illustrations and an index, containing about 150 authoritative articles on horticulture done in readable language. * * * # Chrysanthemums are a feature of The Gardeners' Chronicle for January 16. One especially noteworthy plant illustrated is a small- flowered Sho- Rin from Hibiya Park in Tokyo, where it is grown in the Ken- gai style— that is, " hanging over a precipice." There is another photograph of this " cascade" chrysanthemum, as it is generally known, in the Gardenej- s' Chronicle of America for February, and still another in the Bulletin of the Missouri Botanical Garden for January. Those interested in the discussions of the International Botanical Congress in Cambridge, England, in 1930, will find a com' plete report of them in the volume of Proceedings which has just been issued. * * * * The centenarv of Robert Brown's discovery of the nucleus of plant cells is described, with excerpts from his notes, in The Journal of Botany for January. A centenary exhibit was shown in the British Museum, where the discoverer was once Keeper of Botany. 9i Horticulture for February i mentions a new double sweet-scented nasturtium known as " Golden Gleam." * * * * " Pitch Pine in Pennsylvania" is the title of Research Bulletin 2 of the State Department of Forests and Waters in Pennsylvania. The authors. Joseph S. Illick and John E. Aughanbaugh, point to Finns rigida as an important tree of many uses, the most widely spread tree in the state and the most fire- resistant evergreen. * * * * So entrancing are the pictures in The National Horticultural Magazine for January that one hesitates to recommend one article more than another. Among the offerings are a series of photographs from Berlin, some special material on saxifrage, and many pictures from exquisite rock gardens in bloom. CAROL H. WOODWARD. NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT Dr. J. H. Faull, Professor of Forest Pathology in Harvard University, spent a day in the Garden recently, looking over specimens of plant rusts in connection with the monograph of the genus MUesia occurring on ferns and firs. The Economic Museum is in receipt ( October 7) of a specimen of Asimina triloba, or paw- paw, consisting of four fruits and a leaf- bearing twig, and representing a variety that is generally recognized in the Ohio Valley under the name " White Paw- paw." The donor is Mr. William H. Rudder, a valued correspondent, a pharmacist of Salem, Indiana, and a keenly observant local botanist. Mr. Rudder submits the following remarks concerning this variety: " They are not looked on with favor by the lovers of the yellow paw- paw, which grows larger and longer, with a deep cream to golden yellow meat, and also ripens earlier. The only other difference I have observed is in the size of the bushes. I have never found the two growing together. The white bushes are five to fifteen feet high and the yellow eight to thirty feet or more." 92 The variability of this species is well- known, but most of its variations are inconstant and accidental, whereas the one here considered is so constant and well- characterized as to be generally recognized among country people and to have a definite name. As stated by Mr. Rudder, the fruit characters as to size, form, and color of pulp are accompanied by a smaller habit of growth and it would appear that it should be recognized as a definite variety in botanical literature. [ H. H. RUSBY] Meteorology for February: The maximum temperatures recorded at The New York Botanical Garden for each week or part of a week were: 560 F on the 7th; 60° on the 8th; 48° on the 17th; and 580 on the 26th. The minimum temperatures recorded were: 19° F. on the 1st; 21° on the 15th; 14° on the 21st; and 160 on the 24th and the 25th. The total precipitation for the month was 2.45 inches. This includes a half inch of snow figured as .05 inches of rainfall, which fell on the 17th of the month. Traces of snow fell on the 4th, the 24th, and the 29th of the month. Meteorology for March. The maximum temperatures recorded at The New York Botanical Garden for each week or part of a week were: 590 F. on the 5th; 460 on the 12th; 54° on the 19th; 630 on the 26th ; and 57° on the 31st. The minimum temperatures recorded were: 29° on the 5th; 13° on the 10th; 140 on the 15th; 24° on the 21st; and 31" on the 29th. The total precipitation for the month was 4.43 inches. Traces of snow fell on the 7th, the 14th, and the 21st. PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Journal of The New York Botanical Garden, monthly, containing notes, news, and non- technical articles. Free to members of the Garden. To others, 10 cents a copy; $ 1.00 a year. Now in its thirty- third volume. Mycologia, bimonthly, devoted to fungi, including lichens; $ 5.00 a year; single copies not for sale. [ Not offered in exchange.] Now in its twenty-fourth volume. Addisonia, quarterly, devoted exclusively to colored plates accompanied by popular descriptions of flowering plants; eight plates in each number, thirty- two in each volume. Subscription price, $ 10.00 a year. [ Not offered in exchange.] Now in its seventeenth volume. Bulletin of The New York Botanical Garden, containing reports of the Director- in- Chief and other official documents, and technical articles embodying results of investigations. Free to all members of the Garden; to others, $ 3.00 per volume. Now in its fourteenth volume. North American Flora. Descriptions of the wild plants of North America, including Greenland, the West Indies, and Central America. Planned to be completed in 34 volumes. Roy. 8vo. Each volume to consist of four or more parts. 71 parts now issued. Subscription price, $ 1- 5° Per part; a limited number of separate parts will be sold for $ 2.00 each. [ Not offered in exchange.] Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden. Price to members of the Garden, vols. I- VI, $ 1.50 per volume; to others, $ 3.00. Vol. VII, $ 2.50 to members; to others, $ 5.00. Vol. I. An Annotated Catalogue of the Flora of Montana and the Yellowstone Park, by Per Axel Rydberg. ix + 492 pp., with detailed map. 1900. Vol. II. The Influence of Light and Darkness upon Growth and Development, by D. T. MacDougal. xvi + 320 pp., with 176 figures. 1903. Vol. III. Studies of Cretaceous Coniferous Remains from Kreischer-ville, New York, by A. Hollick and E. C. Jeffrey. x i i i + 138 pp., with 29 plates. 1909. Vol. IV. Effects of the Rays of Radium on Plants, by Charles Stuart Gager. viii + 478 pp., with 73 figures and 14 plates. 1908. Vol. V. Flora of the Vicinity of New York: A Contribution to Plant Geography, by Norman Taylor, vi + 683 pp., with 9 plates. 1915. Vol. VI. Papers presented at the Celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of The New York Botanical Garden, viii + 594 pp., with 43 plates and many text figures. 1916. Vol. VII. Includes New Myxophyceae from Porto Rico, by N. L. Gardner; The Flower Behavior of Avocados, by A. B. Stout; Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley, 1921- 1922, by H. H. Rusby; and The Flora of the Saint Eugene Silts, Kootenay Valley, British Columbia, by Arthur Hollick. v i i i + 464 pp., with 47 plates, 10 charts, and II text- figures. 1927. Brittonia. A series of botanical papers. Subscription price, $ 5.00 per volume. Now in its first volume. Contributions from The New York Botanical Garden. A series of technical papers written by students or members of the staff, and reprinted from journals other than the above. Price, 25 cents each. $ 5.00 per volume. In the fourteenth volume. THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Bronx Park, New York, N. Y. GENERAL INFORMATION Some of the leading features of The New York Botanical Garden are: Four hundred acres of beautifully diversified land in the northern part of the City of New York, through which flows the Bronx River. A native hemlock forest is one of the features of the tract. Plantations of thousands of native and introduced trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. Gardens, including a beautiful rose garden, a rock garden of rock- loving plants, and fern and herbaceous gardens. Greenhouses, containing thousands of interesting plants from America and foreign countries. Flower shows throughout the year— in the spring, summer, and autumn displays of narcissi, daffodils, tulips, lilacs, irises, peonies, roses, lilies, water- lilies, gladioli, dahlias, and chrysanthemums; in the winter displays of greenhouse- blooming plants. A museum, containing exhibits of fossil plants, existing plant families, local plants occurring within one hundred miles of the City of New York, and the economic uses of plants. An herbarium, comprising more than one million specimens of American and foreign species. Exploration in different parts of the United States, the West Indies, Central and South America, for the study and collection of the characteristic flora. Scientific research in laboratories and in the field into the diversified problems of plant life. A library of botanical literature, comprising more than 41,700 books and numerous pamphlets. Public lectures on a great variety of botanical topics, continuing throughout the year. Publications on botanical subjects, partly of technical, scientific, and partly of popular, interest. The education of school children and the public through the above features and the giving of free information on botanical, horticultural, and forestal subjects. The Garden is dependent upon an annual appropriation by the City of New York, private benefactions, and membership fees. It possesses now nearly two thousand members, and applications for membership are always welcome. The classes of membership are: Benefactor single contribution $ 25,000 Patron single contribution 5,000 Fellow for Life single contribution 1,000 Member for Life single contribution 250 Fellowship Member annual fee 100 Sustaining Member annual fee 25 Annual Member annual fee 10 Contributions to the Garden mny be deducted from taxable incomea. The following is an approved form of bequest: / hereby bequeath to The New York Botanical Garden incorporated under the Laws of New York, Chapter 285 of 1891, the sum of . Conditional bequests may be made with income payable to donor or any designated beneficiary during his or her lifetime. All requests for further information should be sent to T H E NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BRONX PARK, NEW YORK, N. Y. |
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