JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
THE SEARCH FOR
THE DOVE TREE
SOME ASPECTS OF
THE NEW YORK
BOTANICAL GARDEN
— also —
ITS INTEREST IN
TROPICAL AMERICA
< AMATEUR ROSARIAN'S
PROBLEMS
' RING FESTIVAL — 1950
A TRIBUTE TO
IN HENDLEY BARNHART
REVIEWS AND NEWS
PAGES 153— 180
VOL. 51 No. 607
; NTS Si. 50 A YEAR
THE CHINESE FRINGE TREE
in full bloom at The New York Botanical Garden
THE CHINESE FRINGE TREE
The magnificent specimen of the Chinese fringe tree, Chionanthus retusa, appearing as
our cover illustration, was in full bloom at the New York Botanical Garden during the
week of June 5, 1950. It is one of the most beautiful of all the small flowering trees.
From a distance, the gently arching branches look like snowy white ostrich plumes, so
dense are the lacy panicles of flowers. Closer examination reveals that each flower is com­posed
of four ribbon- like petals.
Reliably hardy— the tree was planted at the Garden probably some thirty years ago—
the Chinese fringe tree has a much more shapely form of growth and is more floriferous
than its little known relative, the American fringe tree, Chionanthus virginica. The flowers
of the latter are greenish white and, therefore, not as distinctly showy as those of C. retusa.
A REMINDER— that throughout the year the keen plantsman, amateur or professional,
will always find something of interest at the New York Botanical Garden
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JULY 1950
" A TREE GROWS IN YONKERS"
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN and
THE PLANTS OF TROPICAL AMERICA
" AN- I LEARNED ABOUT ROSES FROM THEM"
SPRING FESTIVAL— MAY 1950
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART— An Appreciation
REPORT FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT
T. H. Everett
illiam ]. Robbins
H. A. Gleason
Floyd F. Eldred
H. A. Gleason
153
158
162
165
169
173
174
176
179
The Journal is published monthly by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York 58,
N. Y. Printed in U. S. A. Entered as Second Class Matter, January 28, 1936, at the Post Office
at New York, N. Y., under the Act of August 24, 1912. Annual subscription $ 1.50. Single copies
15 cents.
JOURNAL
of
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
DOROTHY EBEL HANSELL, Editor
VOL. 51 JULY 1950 No. 607
" QA Tree Qrows in Yonkers"
Davidia involucrata, which initiated E. H. Wilson in plant
exploration, is represented by a superb specimen
in Westchester County, New York
T. H. Everett
WHAT must surely be one of the largest and most perfect dove trees
in the eastern United States is flourishing in Yonkers, N. Y. It
measures fully thirty feet high and has a spread at least equalling its height.
It is located on a piece of privately owned property just south of the
spot where " Greystone", the mansion of the late Samuel Untermyer,
stood on the same side of North Broadway and not many yards inside
the wall that divides North Broadway from the property.
I came upon this tree by chance on Memorial Day. It was in full
bloom. A light breeze caused the thousands of pure white " doves" that
depended from its branches to flutter gaily — and the sight brought
back memories.
I recalled the first time that I saw Davidia involucrata in bloom —
at Kew in 1925. At Kew we knew this species as the " ladies' handker­chief
tree", and in some ways I think this is a more descriptive name
than " dove tree" for, from a little distance, it is not difficult to imagine
the snowy bracts to be dainty bits of cambric. I have never been able
to see that they bear any very strong resemblance to doves.
I thought also of another Memorial Day, twenty- two years ago, when
the late E. H. Wilson first saw this tree in bloom in America and of it
wrote, " It was a glorious sight and one for which I had waited twenty-eight
years."
I reflected upon how much we owe indirectly to the dove tree and
how much poorer our gardens might be today, were it not for it. Gardeners
who have never seen the dove tree nor even heard of it likely have
brighter and more satisfactory gardens because of its existence. For it
was the dove tree that launched E. H. Wilson on his distinguished career
as a plant collector— a mighty endeavor that gave us the regal lily, the
153
156
before and the trunk and branches formed the beams and posts of the
house." Wilson further records simply, " I did not sleep during the
night of April 25, 1900."
By the first of May Wilson was back in Ichang. He had made up his
mind to set out the following winter to the region, a thousand miles away,
where Father David had found his dove trees in 1869, and there start
a fresh search. In the meantime he would collect what other plants he
could in western Hupeh. Imagine his joy when botanizing some five
days' journey from Ichang on May 19th, he unexpectedly came upon a"
fifty foot specimen of the dove tree in full flower. Later he found ten
more in localities varying from fifty to a hundred miles apart. He
watched these eleven trees anxiously through the summer of the Boxer
rebellion and in November collected a great quantity of seeds which he
sent promptly to England. In the following year Wilson discovered other
Davidia trees until he knew of a hundred growing in various locations
— but he says that from the entire hundred he was not able in 1901 to
gather a hundred seeds, and that never in all his subsequent visits to China
did he see the dove tree fruit as profusely as it did in 19C0!
In considering the specimen of the dove tree thriving in Yonkers, I
reflected upon the amazing adaptability of some plants under cultivation.
Father David discovered Davidia near Moupine, in western China at
elevations between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. William Bottling Hemsley in
1907 wrote, " Some of the Abbe David's notes respecting the climate of
Moupine are worth repeating for the information of the cultivator.
Moupine itself is at an elevation of 7,100 feet — it is surrounded by
loftier peaks, the highest being nearly 17,000 feet and wooded up to
11,500 feet, with beautiful pastures above, without perpetual snows. A
curious fact in the climate is that the snows and fogs of winter usually
cease lower down in the forest zone, leaving the upper zone dry and severe.
The climate of Moupine is very rigorous and unpleasant; the winter cold
with much snow, which lies in the sheltered valleys till May or June.
During the rest of the year there is almost daily rain and the atmosphere
is always fully charged with moisture. Davidia grows in partial shade
of larger trees." A position in full sun, near sea level, off North Broad­way,
Yonkers, N. Y., is strangely different from Moupine, China!
Although the dove tree has bloomed in Massachusetts and at other
places north of New York, even in this region it needs a sheltered spot
to ensure its satisfactory development, and shelter is particularly necessary
during its early years. It apparently is not exacting as to soil, provided
it is drained, deep, and reasonably fertile, but it is important that the soil
does not dry out excessively during the summer. Propagation has been
effected by means of seeds, cuttings and layers, with seeds probably
producing the most satisfactory trees.
157
Botanically the dove tree is related to our native tupelo and to the
dogwoods, but in its general landscape value it has much more the quality
of a linden. It is rather too regular and soft in appearance to have strong
character — except by way of contrast. Its best use is as a lone- standing
specimen in a cultivated landscape rather than as an associate of the
woodlanders in a natural landscape. One factor to keep in mind, however,
is that the foliage, especially when young, and particularly after rain, gives
off an offensive odor — not an odor that spreads any great distance —
but nevertheless it is not a tree to set close to the dining room window
or near the sitting out terrace or porch.
As can be clearly seen in the photograph, the showy part of the " flower",
like that of our native flowering dogwood, consists of bracts. In the case
Davidia involucrata, fully thirty feet high and with equal spread, as it appeared on
Memorial Day, May 30, 1950, in Yonkers, New York.
158
of the dove tree, these number two ( or occasionally three) and are of
unequal size. The larger may measure nearly six inches long and half as
wide and the smaller bract is about half as big as the larger.
From 1869 to 1950 is but a long lifetime. Yet within that span our
entire knowledge of this curious native of mountainous western China has
been gained. As living specimens our gardens have known the dove tree
but a little over half a century and in busy Yonkers a specimen, that is
undoubtedly one of the finest in the country, flourishes. It is a fine
memorial to the famous men who played a part in its introduction — the
good Abbe David, Pere Farges, Vilmorin, Augustine Henry, Veitch and
Wilson. And in a way it commemorates also an era that has passed
with the men. An era when men, not afraid of hardship and sometimes
danger, could roam the world with comparative freedom, seeking new
plants to adorn our gardens. Who would hazard a guess when next it will
be possible to travel through western China on such peaceable missions?
The New York " Botanical Qarden *
William J. Robbins, Director
THE Act of Incorporation of the New York Botanical Garden originally
passed by the Legislature of the State of New York in 1891 created
a body corporate, by name, The New York Botanical Garden, to be located
in the City of New York for the purpose of establishing and maintaining
a Garden and Museum and Arboretum therein and elsewhere, within or
without the State of New York, for the collection and culture of plants,
flowers, shrubs and trees, the advancement of botanical science and knowl­edge,
and the prosecution of original researches therein, and in kindred
subjects, for affording instruction in the same, for the prosecution and
exhibition of ornamental and decorative horticulture and gardening, and
for the entertainment, recreation and instruction of the people.
1 The late Colonel J. E. Spingarn, notable horticulturist and public figure,
and for many years a member of the Board of Managers, once said that
he believed no better statement of the purposes of a botanical garden could
be devised than the one I have just quoted from our Act of Incorporation.
You will note that the purposes of the Garden may be classified into two
general major objectives. One purpose is that the Garden should be a place
of pleasant resort for the entertainment, recreation and instruction of the
* Excerpts from the talk Dr. Robbins made at the Annual Meeting of the Board
of Managers and Members of the Corporation on May 10, 1950.
159
general public. The other states that it should be an institution to preserve,
disseminate and extend our knowledge about plants, and our ability to grow
them and make use of them.
Most visitors to the New York Botanical Garden, and perhaps many of
you, too, think only of the first of these. This is not surprising, for we
Bookplate especially designed for the bequest of approximately 300 books from
Mrs. Robert H. Fife, incorporating Mrs. Fife's own bookplate as the center and border
from the bookplate of the Library of the New York Botanical Garden.
have here, in 230 acres, one of the most lovely sections of New York City.
More than 12,000 species of plants grow in our greenhouses and on our
grounds.
The second of the major purposes of the New York Botanical Garden
is equally our concern. The New York Botanical Garden is a scientific and
educational institution and has been since its origin, though its activities in
160
this direction are less generally known than its function as a place of
public resort.
The New York Botanical Garden has one of the best and most effective
libraries devoted to botany and horticulture. It includes nearly 56,000
bound volumes and many thousand unbound volumes and pamphlets.
During the last year there have been added to the library, by bequest,
the botanical and horticultural books from the library of Mrs. Robert H.
Fife, and that of Mrs. Sarah V Coombs, and from the library of Mrs.
Eleanor C. Marquand. In addition, notable gifts have been received from
Mrs. Helen M. Fox, Mrs. Amy Spingarn, Mrs. T. A. Havemeyer, Miss
Mabel Choate, Miss Harriet Louise Britton.
By your association with the New York Botanical Garden, you are
participating in a program of research which is concerned with the study
of the fundamentals of abnormal growth, with special reference to the
general problem of cancer. Dr. R. S. de Ropp, supported in part by the
American Cancer Society, is occupied with a study of plant tumors which
in many of their characteristics resemble cancer in animals.
Dr. Asheshov and several assistants are involved in an extensive project,
supported by the National Infantile Paralysis Foundation, on a study of
virus inhibitors. Diseases caused by viruses are common and serious for
plants and animals. The viruses with which Dr. Asheshov and his asso­ciates
are working are those which attack bacteria; they are known tech­nically
as bacteriophages.
Dr. Asheshov has discovered chemical substances which prevent the
bacterial viruses from overcoming and destroying the bacteria. Of course,
we recognize that it is a long way from the virus diseases of bacteria to
the virus disease of infantile paralysis, and we are not so foolhardy as to
believe that our research will turn up the substance effective in controlling
poliomyelitis. We think it is possible that our study may disclose new
knowledge of viruses which may open fresh information aiding in under­standing
the polio virus and other virus diseases. We hope that out of
these efforts, and those of many others in other institutions, there may
eventually come a discovery by someone which will block the activity of
the polio virus.
For some years we have had a program aided by the financial assistance
of various foundations and individuals, and directed toward the discovery
and study of antibacterial agents, substances similar to but different from
penicillin. This program, conducted with the assistance of Dr. Frederick
Kavanagh, Dr. Annette Hervey, Dr. Marjorie Anchel and others, has
resulted in the discovery, isolation and study of ten new antibacterial
substances.
Up to date, none of these shows therapeutic promise. They are active
in a test tube but inactive in an animal, or too poisonous to be used in an
161
animal. Nevertheless, our studies have contributed to this important
field and we hope to be able to continue our investigations on new sub­stances
of this type.
We also conduct investigations on nutrition, not the nutrition of animals
but the nutrition of lower plants. We investigate substances which are
not only important for the growth of these simple creatures but which
are important for us, too. At the moment, for example, we are concerned
with the anti- anemia vitamin, vitamin B12 which is required by higher
animals for the production of their red blood corpuscles. Strange as it
may seem, there are simple plants which will not grow unless they are
supplied with minute quantities of this anti- anemia vitamin.
One of the miscroscopic primitive plants which requires vitamin B12
is called Euglena gracilis. Euglena was first observed by the great Dutch­man
Leuwenhoek in 1674 in water which he collected from an inland
lake in Holland, called the Berklese Meer. Leuwenhoek described
Euglena in a letter he wrote to Henry Odenberg, Secretary of the Royal
Society of London.
Others, including Harris of England in 1696 and later Joseph Priestly,
observed this microscopic plant but it was not named until 1830 when the
German botanist Ehrenberg described and named two species of Euglena.
In 1838 Ehrenberg described and illustrated in a folio volume, which is in
our library, eleven species of Euglena. In 1883 Klebs, one of the greatest
of German botanists, recognized thirteen species and eleven varieties. At
present about fifty species of this microscopic plant and many varieties
are known to occur.
Euglena grows in hog wallows, ponds and other quiet bits of more or
less fresh water. In such locations, innumerable numbers of this micro­scopic
plant may form in the late summer a greenish coating over the
water, often called water- bloom. One species, in addition to the green
pigment, develops a reddish one and makes the water reddish. This has
been said to have been the cause for the red color of the Nile as reported
in Moses, Book II, Chapter 7.
In the 250 years since Leuwenhoek saw Euglena under his microscope,
a good many men have spent a good deal of time and effort accumulating
information about a small group of plants which were of no apparent
importance.
One can never predict, however, when information which is apparently
useless may become of value, because within the last year it was found
that Euglena gracilis will not grow unless it is supplied with a minute
amount of the anti- anemia vitamin, vitamin B12.
Euglena serves as a tool for detecting and measuring the amount of
this important vitamin. By the growth of this minute plant, we can learn
162
where this vitamin originates in nature, what other living things besides
Euglena at one end of the evolutionary sequence and man at the other
require it, how it really functions in the body, and much more important
information.
The New York Botanical Garden from the very beginning of its organ­ization
has been concerned with learning as much as possible about the
earth's plant resources, especially of Pan- America, North America, South
America and the Caribbean. Many members of this staff, beginning with
Dr. Britton, the first director, have explored tropical America, studied
the plants there and reported their results for the information and guid­ance
of others. Dr. H. A. Gleason, Head Curator, of the New York
Botanical Garden, will tell you something about the past and the present
interests of the New York Botanical Garden in tropical America.
The New York ' Botanical Qarden
and
The ' Plants of Tropical oAmerica
H. A. Gleason
I SHOULD not be exaggerating if I told you that the first inspiration
for the New York Botanical Garden arose from a botanical expedition
to South America. This is how it happened. Through most of the nine­teenth
century scarcely any botanists from the United States had visited
the tropics. They had learned a great deal about the plants of North
America and that task had been enough to keep them busy. In 1885 Dr.
Henry H. Rusby, later curator of our economic collections, made his first
trip into the mountains of Bolivia. He brought back many botanical speci­mens,
which he handed to Dr. N. L. Britton for study. Dr. Britton was
then Professor of Botany at Columbia College down on Forty- ninth street.
Britton could not name those plants from Bolivia. He had no personal
knowledge of tropical plants; he had very few specimens in the herbarium
at Columbia with which he might compare them; he had very few books
in the libraries from which he might learn about them. All previous work
on the plants of South America had been done in Europe, and all Britton
could do was to take the specimens and go to Europe.
While working on them at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, just out­side
of London, he and Mrs. Britton decided that there should be a similar
163
scientific institution in the United States. In due time their dream came
true, the New York Botanical Garden was organized, Britton became its
first director, and we are all part of it today.
Britton chose as a task for the new Garden the thorough investigation
of the plant life of North America, including Mexico, Central America,
and the West Indies. For his own personal share in the program he took
the West Indies and devoted himself to it, with all his remarkable energy,
for some thirty years. More than forty expeditions from this Garden
covered nearly all parts of the islands, from Jamaica and Cuba at the west
through Puerto Rico and Haiti and all the smaller islands as far as Trini­dad.
Year by year our collections grew, until he had built up the largest,
the finest, the most comprehensive collection of West Indian plants in the
world.
Accumulation of knowledge and botanical material is not our only func­tion,
however. We must make our knowledge easily available to others by
publication. Our West Indian work resulted, during the thirty years of
Britton's activity, in the printing of the Flora of the Bahamas, the Flora
of Bermuda and the Flora of Puerto Rico. A monumental Flora of Cuba
was almost completed before Britton retired in 1930, and a Flora of Trini­dad,
in cooperation with the British, had been started. All of this work
ceased in 1930 and for the last twenty years we have done very little more
on the plant life of the West Indies.
Britton had his troubles, of course, in studying the plants of the West
Indies. These plants are often closely similar to those of tropical South
America, and it was often difficult to decide whether or not a West Indian
plant, growing in Grenada or St. Kitts or some other island, was the same
as one growing in Surinam or Venezuela. It became necessary for us to
add northern South America to our field of activity. It was far too much
for us to undertake alone, and in 1917 Britton organized a cooperative
effort with the National Herbarium at Washington and the Gray Her­barium
of Harvard University.
The same problems faced us as had faced Britton in 1886. American
institutions still had very few plants from tropical South America in their
collections. Only a few American botanists had ever collected plants there.
The great majority of the collections were in Europe. We Americans had
to start at the bottom and work up, just as Britton had done twenty years
before in the West Indies. I came to the Botanical Garden in 1919 and
the South American work was immediately assigned to me. I was appalled.
It was a task for a Hercules, not for a poor botanist who had never even
seen tropical America. But I pitched in and for twenty years all my
research was done on South American plants.
The work obviously consisted of two parts, the first to accumulate large
collections of plants, the second to develop men with knowledge about the
plants, and the two had to go on simultaneously. Collecting began in 1917,
164
when Pennell, of our staff, and the veteran Rusby spent several months in
Colombia. It has continued ever since.
With every expedition into South America, our collections grew in size
and scope and now are far better than those of Europe. We lack only the
earliest collections, made a century or so ago by European botanists and
preserved in European institutions only, and these are often of great his­torical
value. We have even been able to pick up some of these by lucky
bargains. In 1930 we secured from Cambridge University in England more
than three thousand plants collected by Richard Spruce, one of the pioneer
botanists along the upper Amazon and its tributaries. Just last week we
received from Switzerland more than seven thousand specimens, represent­ing
one of the basic collections in Paraguay.
I do not mean to convey the idea that our Botanical Garden is ahead of
every one else in the study of Latin American botany. South America is
too large and the funds of every American institution are too limited to get
a monopoly. But I am proud to say that we at this Garden have in our
collections a representation of the plants of French Guiana second only
to that at Paris; of the Dutch colony of Surinam second only to that
at Utrecht in Holland; of Venezuela and Colombia second only to that of
the National Herbarium at Washington; of Bolivia, Ecuador, British
Guiana, and those strange mountains of southern Venezuela probably sec­ond
to none ; of Amazonian Brazil we have a splendid collection but I can
not say how it ranks comparatively.
In this connection, I must speak very briefly about those unexplored
mountains in southern Venezuela, to which we have recently been giving
much attention. They stretch more than four hundred miles east and west
across Venezuela and re- appear to the east in British Guiana and even in
Surinam, while other outliers rise above the plains of eastern Colombia.
They are poorly known geographically, geologically, and botanically. In
fact, they are the least known part of all the western hemisphere. It is the
area in which Conan Doyle located his story, " The Lost World", and he
could not have chosen a better place.
The first two or three contacts with these mountains were at the famous
Mount Roraima, and we have some of the plants collected then. Roraima
has since been visited by the German Ule, and we have many of his collec­tions,
and still later by Tate and Pinkus and we have all those plants.
Next came the ascent of the fabulous Mount Duida by Tate, and we have
all of his collections. A few years later Tate ascended Auyan- tepui, famous
for the highest waterfall in the world, dropping from its flat top over the
vertical sides, and we have that collection. Lastly came Maguire's expedi­tion
to Sipapo and Marahuaca and, of course, we have those plants. You
should see some of the beautiful orchids of those mountains which bloom
( Continued on page 169)
165
" aAn' I JQearned oAbout Roses From Them"
By Floyd F. Eldred
THRIVING roses mean a continuous battle against disease and pests —
some much more serious than others — and this battle involves spray­ing
or dusting, according to whichever school you belong. The pros and
cons of the two methods of application are many. I prefer spraying on
the theory that spray, with a good spreader in it, gives more thorough
protection to the surface of the leaves than particles of dust.
Spraying then is probably the most important single factor of rose
culture. I shall admit that in my neophite years, I was inclined to think
its importance was over emphasized and that so much spraying or dusting
was the " perfectionist's ideal" rather than a matter of practical operation.
However, when I learned from American Rose Society articles and other
sources that foliage wet for six hours or more supplied favorable con­ditions
for the spread of black spot, I took the job more seriously.
Now I spray on an average of every ten days to two weeks. When
the leaves are growing fast and the weather is rainy — even more often.
In midsummer dry spells — less often. I do try to get it in ahead of rain,
if possible, in order to give the foliage protection during the coming wet
period.
Certainly nothing is more unsightly, takes the strength of a bush more
quickly, and nullifies the value of one's other efforts more completely,
than a good dose of black spot! And in this climate with high humidity
much of the season ( often from mid- June to mid- September), black
spot, as far as I am concerned, is Public Enemy Number One! However,
the spray program which I have followed has kept my garden virtually
free from black spot for the last few years.
Souv. de Jean Soupert
is rated among the " finest".
This very fragrant yellow
rose was one of the out­standing
varieties given to
the rose garden of the
New York Botanical Gar­den
this year by Bobbink
& Atkins, Rutherford,
New Jersey.
166
The clean healthy foliage and
beautiful flower of rose Pink
Satin testify to the excellent con­ditions
under which it grows in
the rose garden of the New
York Botanical Garden.
I mix my own spray. This is,
of course, somewhat less expen­sive,
but mainly it allows me to
modify the formula to meet vary­ing
conditions. For example, when
no aphids are present, I omit nico­tine
sulphate. During the very hot
weather, I cut down on sulphur
which tends to burn foliage at high
temperatures. After using DDT
for two or three times in the spring,
I skip it until the Japanese beetles
arrive. After three applications
of DDT, I use Hexatox once or twice as a protection against red spider
mite which often increases after using DDT.
My basis spray follows:
Fermate
Sulphur
DDT ( 75%)
Nicotine sulphate
Dupont spreader
Two Gallons General Spray
( sufficient for fifty to sixty bushes)
2 tablespoons — level )
3 tablespoons — rounded ) *
2 tablespoons — level
2 teaspoons ( only when aphids are present)
10 to 15 drops ( add last while stirring)
If you use Fermate, you know that it goes into solution very slowly.
Watching me one day, my wife said, " Why don't you mix it with the
wettable sulphur? That's the sort of thing I do, when I'm cooking." I
took her advice and it worked like a charm!
I must admit that I have had little success against Japanese beetles.
" They" say that DDT is effective, but I am unable to confirm this and
can see little difference in the number of beetles before and after spray­ing.
Whether new ones fly in to replace those killed, I don't know.
My reason for using DDT is primarily to counteract what I believe to
be midge, though I am not sure this diagnosis is correct. In fact, I am
not positive that I have ever seen a midge. The damage fits the descrip­tion
of their damage, namely, a " blasting" of the terminal or " bud" shoot
167
when it is very small. When the tip of the shoot, which will produce the
bud is anywhere from % to yi inch long, it turns brown and shrivels.
This means that the plant has to produce another lateral before that bud
can be replaced. If there is a great deal of such damage, the bush will
appear thick with foliage but have very few buds. However, upon close
examination, it will be found that this thick foliage consists of a large
number of short shoots which have been " blasted" — with the result that
many new laterals are started.
I have submitted samples of this damage to several of " them" without,
for various reasons, securing positive identification of the cause. I use
DDT on the assumption that if it is not midge, then it must be some
other pest. Whatever it is, the DDT seems to hold it in check, although
I have never succeeded in eradicating it completely.
I have had another serious problem the last few years. Again through
ignorance, it was well established before I realized that I had a problem.
I refer to brown or " stem" canker which is a fungus disease of the canes
and is most prevalent and active in damp weather, especially in spring.
It occurs as a brown or purplish brown blotch of irregular shape, often,
in the beginning, on only one side of the cane. At first the foliage above
it seems unaffected. However, as the canker spreads, the growth slows
down, the color fades and the foliage finally wilts and dies.
Again I took my problem to " them" — this time to my friend, Dr. P.
P. Pirone who has always been more than helpful and generous. He
quickly diagnosed the trouble and prescribed an amazingly simple remedy.
" Just cut out all the infected canes, at least an inch below the infection."
Simple! But — for many of my bushes, pretty brutal treatment because
it left hardly any bush at all! Usually, I cut the canes back until the
center is green and alive. The pith of infected canes is a brownish color.
The diseased canes which are cut out should be completely disposed of.
I'd like to be able to report that I eliminated all signs of canker with
that one surgical job. But the fact remains that I still had quite a little
of it this spring. Last year it was much less serious and, by midseason,
only a few of the bushes showed the effects of the severe pruning. I hope
the effects will be still less this year for the necessity to cut out strong,
heavy canes does take its toll of growth and bloom.
When the last rose has finally come and gone and Thanksgiving Day
rolls around, it's time to put the rose garden away for the winter. I have
read much about winter protection — the need to bring in soil from out­side
the garden for hilling up around the bushes — then to get salt hay
or marsh grass, to cover up the canes. " They" all warned against the
use of leaves which hold moisture and invite moles. Some advocated
enclosures for each bush, such as peach baskets with bottoms out, or low
chicken wire around each bush or bed, to retain the winter covering. One
168
of " them" even reported digging up all of his 200 or 300 bushes each fall,
burying them in a trench over the winter and replanting them in the spring!
Well, this is where I parted company with some of " them." I had no
soil to bring into the garden, I didn't even know what salt hay or marsh
grass was and had no place to keep it — and even if I had had the
energy, time and money for that last operation, I wouldn't have done it.
It seemed to me that uprooting bushes every fall could not help but be a
serious setback. So, I hill up all I can with the soil from between the
rows, and then partly fill this trench with well rotted cow manure. Next
I shorten the taller canes, or any damaged and diseased ones, but other­wise
do not prune until spring.
For several years, when the garden was smaller, I covered the beds
with Christmas trees which my neighbors donated. Then, for a couple of
years after that, I got a truck load of trees from dealers who had them
left over after Christmas. However, it was a chore to locate the trees,
get them delivered, put them on the beds and, in the spring, take them
off and dispose of them. Also, I could not help wondering whether there
was any relation between these trees and my canker troubles, despite the
assurance from tree experts that this was unlikely.
Last year I omitted trees or any other form of covering. Probably I
ought to knock on wood, but I didn't lose a single rose over the past
winter! It should be remembered that in my section ( I live within a
couple of hundred yards of Long Island Sound, probably about twenty
feet above high tide) we have relatively few days where the temperature
goes below 15° above zero, with the coldest days of the winter being an
occasional zero to 5° below.
Well, this is the story of my rose growing! Perhaps I should end it
the way Kipling does his poem :
" So be warned by my lot, which I know you will not,
An' learn about roses from them."
The above is based upon Mr. Eldred's experiences and practices in
his rose garden at Old Greenwich, Conn., as related to the members
of the New York Botanical Garden, of the American Rose Society
and other visitors attending Rose- Growers' Day at the Garden on
June 15.
The report of Rose- Growers' Day and excerpts from the talks by
Dr. Charles Glen King, Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University,
and Dr. P. W. Zimmerman, of Boyce Thompson Institute, will appear
in the August issue of the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden.
169
The New York Botanical Garden and
the Plants of Tropical America
( Continued from page 164)
for us from time to time, most of them without names, unknown to
science, and all sent back by Dr. Bassett Maguire from his expeditions.
A hundred and fifty years ago, European botanists knew more about
the plants of the United States than we did. A hundred years ago, they
knew more about the plants of Canada than the Canadians. Fifty years
ago, they knew more about the plants of Latin America than we Americans
knew. Now that is all changed. Americans, North Americans and South
Americans, are fully capable of handling their own botanical problems.
During the past thirty years or less, we have developed in the United
States a dozen or twenty persons who are now the international authorities
on particular groups of plants. Three, possibly four, of them are at our
Botanical Garden. The botanists and the botanical institutions of the world
turn to these men for accurate information about these plants from all
parts of tropical America. Because of the reputation of these men, the
most important existing collections of half a dozen groups of plants are
housed in this building.
We need still more such concentrated knowledge in this country. We
should have a great body of knowledge constantly on tap, constantly ready
for use whenever an emergency arises. And if we do plan for such an
increase in knowledge, the New York Botanical Garden must be included
in the plan.
Dr. Robinson, for many years a director of the Gray Herbarium at
Harvard University, had a favorite motto which I have often heard him
repeat: " Strengthen the strong." To strengthen ourselves in the strong
position which we now occupy and have occupied for fifty years in the
investigation of the plant life of Latin America, we need more money for
exploration, more money for trained botanists to evaluate the results of
the exploration, more money to publish the results of their study for the
ultimate benefit of mankind.
Spring Festival — cjfttay 1950
THOUSANDS of spectators milled around the New York Botanical
Garden during the five days of the Spring Festival, May 10 14,
entranced by the unusual fruits and exotic plants flown in from Pan-
American countries, the rare and fascinating plants in the conservatory,
the beautiful rock garden, the gay and colorful tulip plantings. They
were keenly interested in the events which had been carefully planned
for their enjoyment and pleasure.
170
Mr. Charles B. Harding, President, stated at the annual meeting of
the Board of Managers and Members of the Corporation, held on the
afternoon of May 10, that the New York Botanical Garden exists for
three reasons, one of them being to give pleasure and enjoyment to
people — millions of them — from New York and surrounding com­munities.
The things for the enjoyment of the public are, he said, largely
physical — the greenhouses, the rock garden, the hemlock grove, the
plantings of perennials, annuals, bulbs and the notable plant collections,
such as the azaleas from Mrs. Harold I. Pratt, the conifers from Col.
Robert H. Montgomery, the lilacs from Mrs. Theodore A. Havemeyer.
Also The Floral Flyer presented by Mrs. Pratt, the shelter house in the
rose garden, presented by Mrs. Elon Huntington Hooker, and the sitting
area in the same garden presented by Mr. Henry F. du Pont.
The other two reasons for the existence of the Botanical Garden are
to explore and search for knowledge in the plant kingdom and to spread
that knowledge through education. In both these spheres of action, Mr.
Harding reported that satisfactory progress had been made.
Lest anyone labor under the slightest misapprehension that the Botanical
Garden, while operating under a balanced budget and financially solvent,
does not need money, Mr. Harding made known that the Garden very
definitely needs money. Speaking for himself, he listed the objectives
for which money is needed in the following order of priority:
To put the salaries of that portion of the staff not paid by the city on a
basis comparable to that paid by similar institutions; to reestablish curator-ships
which have been abandoned for lack of money; to provide for ad­ditional
curatorships and fellowships; to construct a laboratory for the
scientific staff, making the space now occupied in the basement of the
museum building available for a restaurant; to complete the azalea col­lection,
rebuild the perennial border, improve the annual plantings, hold
more exhibitions in the greenhouse.
Mr. Harding ended his report with the announcement that in coopera­tion
with the City of New York some very necessary repairs will be
made to the museum building and the library will undergo a general
modernization.
The remarks of Dr. William J. Robbins, Director, appear in part on
page 158 of this issue of the Journal of the Nezv York Botanical Garden.
The talk which Dr. H. A. Gleason, Head Curator, gave on the " New
York Botanical Garden and the Plants of Tropical America", is also
published, in part, in this issue.
May 11th was Garden Club Day and representatives of the federated
garden clubs from the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,
the Garden Club of America, and the Men's Garden Club attended. Mrs.
Hermann G. Place, President of the Garden Club of America, was hon­ored
at luncheon.
171
Dr. Robbins, in addressing the garden clubs, said in part: " In October,
1948, a capital fund was established by the Board of Managers known
as the Special Garden Club Fund, the income of which is to be used to
aid in supporting the program of scientific research, to furnish financial
aid for botanical and horticultural exploration and plant introduction, and
to provide for lectures and instruction in the field of botany and horti­culture.
" The income from this fund was used in the first year to support a
student who cooperated in our program of antibiotic research. The second
year the income was devoted to supporting an expedition by Kingdon
Ward along the Burma- India border. This year we are utilizing the in­come
to assist in a study of the genus Strophanthus,* the plant from
which a precursor of that important substance cortisone has been obtained."
In appreciation of the gift of tulips from the Associated Bulb Growers
of Holland in 1949, May 12 was designated as Netherlands Day. The
National Tulip Society arranged an exhibit of specimen tulips in the
museum building.
That afternoon, Dr. Willem Cnoop- Koopmans, Consul General of the
Netherlands, presented to the Garden, on behalf of the Associated Bulb
Growers of Holland, " Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport; De Geschiedenis
van den Bloembollenhandel en der Hollandsche Bloembollen tot 1938"
by E. H. Krelage, published in S'- Gravenhage in 1946. This is a com­prehensive
and profusely illustrated work on the history and literature
of the Dutch flower bulb trade, written by the Honorary Chairman of
the Algemeene Vereeniging voor Bloembollencultuur.
The morning of May 12 was given over to the school children, 1000
strong from twenty- five of the City's public schools. Their keen interest
and their behavior was a pleasant surprise to the Garden staff.
Four trains, borrowed from the New York Zoological Garden, con­veyed
them to the greenhouses and around the Garden, after which G. L.
Wittrock, Assistant Curator of Education, introduced Dr. Marvin M.
Brooks, of the Nature Department of the Board of Education of the City
of New York, and T. H. Everett, Horticulturist of the Garden. Mr.
Everett delighted his young listeners with a humorous talk on how to
plant a tulip bulb. Mr. Wittrock explained to the audience what happens
to plant hunters who are lost in the woods, presenting Dr. Donald P.
Rogers, Dr. Harold N. Moldenke, and Mr. E. J. Alexander of the
Garden staff, as typical plant hunters.
Two representatives from each school received certificates, to be re­deemed
at a specified date, for two potsful of tulips in flower for their
classrooms. This arrangement was made possible by the generosity of
the Associated Bulb Growers of Holland.
* See the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden for February 1950.
172
Thus, in a way in which they could understand and appreciate, were
the children shown all that the Botanical Garden has to offer them now
and as they advance in years and knowledge.
In the words of a student of Public School 73, the Bronx: " Not only
did we enjoy the trip to the New York Botanical Garden because we
had a holiday from school, but because we have never before seen such
strange and fascinating kinds of plants and flowers. Speeches, which
we usually find boring, were made exceptionally interesting. We are all
greatly indebted to those who made the magnificent tour of our Botanical
Garden possible."
" While the Earth Remaineth", a motion picture in color, and square
dancing brought many residents from the Bronx and neighboring boroughs
together on Neighborhood Day, May 13. The program on the last day of
the Spring Festival, Sunday, May 14, provided special ceremonies with
music and a delightful talk by John Kieran on the historical aspects of
botany.
1,000 school children sang " The Star Spangled Banner" in front of the Administra­tion
Building of the New York Botanical Garden during the Spring Festival.
173
John Hendley ^ Barnhart
. . . An Appreciation
By H. A. Gleason
f \ F the present staff at the New York Botanical Garden, no one had
^-^ known John Hendley Barnhart, former Bibliographer, as long as Dr.
Gleason, who has composed the following tribute to his career.
An earlier note and appreciation of Dr. Barnhart's 39 years at the Garden
appeared in the Journal for February 1942, one month after he retired with
the title of Bibliographer Emeritus.
Dr. Barnhart died at his home at Southampton, N. Y., Nov. 11, 1949, at
the age of 78.
A complete account of Dr. Barnhart's career, with a list of his publications,
has been prepared by his successor as Bibliographer of the New York Botani­cal
Garden, Dr. H. W. Rickett, for the May- June issue of the Bulletin of
the Torrey Botanical Club.— C. H. W.
THE hundreds of botanists who from time to time turned to Dr. John
Hendley Barnhart for botanical information appreciate that he was a
man of remarkable ability in unusual directions, but none has had a better
opportunity to understand the fact than his colleagues at the New York
Botanical Garden.
Dr. Barnhart started his career with a medical degree from Columbia,
but he never practiced medicine. He was from early manhood interested in
plants; first in the local flora about New York City and later in the one
small family of the bladderworts. From these he gradually passed into a
deep interest in botanists and botanical writings. With his photographic
memory he never forgot a bladderwort, but he gave less and less time to
the group and more time to his biographic and bibliographic work.
He knew what was in the large library of the New York Botanical
Garden as thoroughly as did the catalog itself and, what was often more
important, what was not in it. In the latter case he knew just where the
book could be consulted in some other library. Actual dates of publication
are often important in taxonomic research and scores of our books bear a
note by Barnhart rectifying in some way the date on the title page. This
information could be committed to writing, but in addition he often knew
all the circumstances connected with the publication through which the date
was incorrectly stated. How he learned them will never be known.
His catalog of botanists is another remarkable achievement. From books
and magazines of all sorts, from membership lists in societies, from various
other sources, he secured the name of every botanist possible, and from all
sorts of bibliographies, histories, obituaries, and the like and from exten­sive
personal correspondence, he added the dates of birth and death. In
later years this catalog became almost an obsession. He was never satisfied
174
until he had dates, places, and full names for every botanist, and he went
to any length to get them, even resorting to wiles and strategy with some
of the coyer members of the profession. Up to possibly twenty years ago
his list was practically complete for the Americas and for much of Europe,
including not only those who had written on plants but also those who
had merely collected them. Needless to say, such a catalog is invaluable to
anyone concerned with botanists or the history of botany.
In his later years, Barnhart was never interested in identifying a plant
unless it was one which had already baffled every member of the staff.
Such a plant was an immediate challenge to him. All other work was
dropped; he plunged into the task with extraordinary zeal and energy,
and he eventually named the plant.
The American Code of Nomenclature was another of Barnhart's inter­ests,
and it may not be generally known that he, more than any other
person, was chiefly responsible for it. Although this Code was bitterly
opposed by many, even its staunchest enemies had to admit its precision.
It left nothing to chance, to personal opinion, to " usage." It was based
on a rigid application of the fundamental principle of priority. It invali­dated
all homonyms and stabilized the fixity of application of botanical
names to a degree far superior to the current International Code. Several
of its most important provisions were in 1930 incorporated into the Inter­national
Code, to its great improvement. The development of the type
method in determining the application of botanical names now used by
every conscientious taxonomist, was also largely the product of Barnhart's
fertile brain.
By the inactivation of Dr. Barnhart ( first due to failing health and later
to retirement), and recently by his death, botany has lost a man of unusual
talents and great usefulness.
Ronnrt { mm Crf> rhnv] ni) n] fin Prof- Dr- Vladimir Krajina was during
l\ epOri jrum l^ ZecnOilOVaiiUl the occupation the head of the Underground TTTT-. , , r . . . Czech Patriotic Movement: at first he lived
H t . t r e n d of s c i e n c e in some p a r t s Of in Prague and when Gestapo persecuted his
central Europe is shown in a long- colleagues . . he escaped into the region
delayed volume of Preslia, publication of ?£ Cesk. y . Ri'-. " here lie was arrested and
., r- L I i n . • i c • . 1.- 1 then put m prison. After the revolution in
the Czechoslovak Botanical Society, which May 1945 lie was elected a Member of
h a s reached the d e s k of D r . H . A . Parliament of the Chechoslovakian Republic.
Gleason at the New York Botanical Gar- In t h e ,; st of C z e c h o s ] o v a k b o t a n i s t s,
den. Ihe volume, published in Prague in T-.,. -, 7-, A-. - is- •• • j • ^ j
1948, is numbered XXII - XXIII, 1943 - 5r ' c
V, lid'mlr
J Krajma is designated as
I947 Professor and Chief of the Department
After the book was prepared, events in for Geobotany of the Botanical Institute
Czechoslovakia, and with them official ° f Charles University, with an interest in
opinions, took a left- about- face. Accord- taxonomy, especially the flora of Czech-ingly,
some formerly respected members oslovakia and of the Sandwich Islands
of the society were expelled, and a state- ( by which is meant Hawaii),
ment to that effect was made on a sepa- • .... , „ . , , , ,
rate page inserted in the front of the Miroslav Fulchart, a teacher who had
volume. A photograph of this page ap- one . or m o r e botanical publications to his
pears opposite. Meanwhile, however, the credit during each of the war years, is
wartime records of these men were in listed as especially interested in the plants
print. For example: of Czechoslovakia, in the protection of
175
Czechoslovak Botanical Society,
Benatska 2,' Praha II, CSR.
During the printing of our yearbook » PRESLIA « ( vol.
XXII.— XXIII.), it took place some changing, which are in
connection with the text of this book.
I"- Dr Vladimir K r a j i n a, formely professor of botany of
the Charles University, according to the investigation of the
j government office, was during the German occupation the trai-
I tor to the country, to associate with organs of German » Ge-heimniss
Staatspolizei « ( Gestapo), and was giving to the German
I office the informations about the National revolt of Czecho-
| Slovaks against Germans. By this treason many Czechoslovak
patriots were decapitated or hanged by German occupants.
1 After the Czechoslovak deliberation Mr Krajma entered into
i the communication of the spy- head- quater of foreinger govern­ment
and gave some important informations. Therefore, he was
I condemn in absency to the forced labour, degraded from the
p degree of professor of Charles University and expelled from the
i Czechoslovak Botanical Society.
i II"' Dr Karel D o m i n, formely professor of botany of the
". Charles University was expelled from the Czechoslovak Botani-
; cal Society and by the common consent by all the professors
of a faculty he was degraded from the degree of professor of
I Charles University, because Mr Domin was the leader of the
: Czech fascistic students and propagated the fascistic ideas be-
; fore the occupation.
i IIId- Mr Miroslav P u l c h a r t was expelled from the Czecho-
| Slovak Botanical Society, because he is in close contact with
I Mr K. Domin.
Rudolf Vanik m. p.
President of the Action Committee
of the Czechoslovak Botanical Society
Praha, November 1948 J I
nature, and in systematic botany, especi- atic botany, geobotany, and pharmaco-ally
Kubus. botany. Dr. Domin, who is now 68 years
Ur riarel Domin, who was once Direc- old, had 185 papers published between
tor ot the Botanic Garden at Prague, was 1940 and 1946. Many of these however
at the time of his expulsion Professor at were not botanical treatises ' but were
Charles University, interested in system- obituaries of his colleagues.
176
REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS
We shall continue to publish authoritative
book reviews in the Journal of the
New York Botanical Garden
Soil Systematics
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOIL SCIENCE.
Alexius A. J. de Sigmond. 362 pages,
illustrated, indexed. Translated from
the Hungarian by Arthur B. Yolland.
Macmillan, New York. 1948. $ 5.50.
The main value of this book lies in its
third part, comprising about 200 pages
and dealing with soil systematics: the
characterization and classification of soil
types. On this subject, the author is a
recognized authority, and his rather orig­inal
ideas are highly interesting and very-significant.
Not only is the author's soil
system based on geological formation and
physical composition, but the dynamic
forces acting in the soil are likewise fully
considered. The three main groups: or­ganic
soils, soils of mixed origin and
purely mineral soils, as well as the various
subgroups, were established through
leaching experiments ( soil analysis) and,
therefore, take chemical soil properties
into full account. Since methods of soil
analysis vary considerably not only in
different countries but even from lab­oratory
to laboratory, while different
methods give very different results, it
would have been of great interest to
know what methods the author has em­ployed.
The fact that the zonal, azonal
and intrazonal soils are included in the
book's dynamic soil system, the author
emphasizes as of particular advantage.
He points out furthermore that even
the great soil groups are complex in that
the main soil types are generally accom­panied
by others. Soil maps, therefore,
must be based soley and exclusively on
soil surveys and can not be simply com­piled
from climatic and phenological
charts.
There can be no doubt that this third
part of the book is extremely worth
reading for anyone interested in soil
mapping. The translator deserves our
thanks for having made these highly
stimulating ideas available to English
readers.
The first two parts of the book dealing
with the formation of soil and the chem­ical
properties of soil should in this
reviewer's opinion have been greatly
shortened and used merely as an intro­duction.
As they stand, they are quite
unsatisfactory, because no conclusions
have been drawn from the various state­ments
which are made. In consequence
the practical value of the first two parts
of the book ( together 146 pages) appears
to be rather doubtful.
HENRY TEUSCHEK,
Montreal Botanical Garden.
Evaluation of Goethe
GOETHE ON NATURE AND ON SCI­ENCE.
Sir Charles Sherrington. 54
pages. Cambridge University Press,
New York. 2nd edition 1949. 75tf.
This little book by Sir Charles Sher­rington,
Nobel Laureate in medicine,
should be read by everybody interested
in arriving at an accurate evaluation of
Goethe as a scientist, for it represents
the extreme in the steady stream of ac­counts
beginning with Haeckel and per­sisting
to the present day. Sherrington
analyzes the philosophical- religious as­pects
of Goethe's Nature— for ", . . with
him . . . Nature was usually Nature with
a capital N." Much emphasis is placed
on Goethe's studies on optics, or more
properly, on light in relation to color,
admitted by all to be Goethe's one great
misinterpretation and the least of his
contributions; but all of Goethe's con­tributions
to natural science are ac­counted
for— and rather quickly disposed
of on the basis that " those who want can
read the facts." To botanists it may be
somewhat of a revelation to learn that
the doctrine of homology — that cotyle­dons,
foliage leaves, stamens, pistils, and
petals are homologous organs, and, fun­damentally
leaves ( coming directly from
Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants)—
lias, as a result of botanical progress
been found untenable, and has therefore,
in Sherrington's words, fallen . . . " into
the doleful category of unlucky guesses."
All in all, Sherrington's essay is a lesson
177
t ion
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the large selection of choice, test proven,
meritorious new things or such " down- tt
earth" information for the gardener.
& cit « np Je„> MID- CENTURY S& iiei
The foolproof, hardy lilies everyone has been waiting for. They
will grow, multiply and flourish in any garden. Sturdy plants
bear huge, exquisitely colored flowers whose luminous radiance
seems to glow from within. Our catalog lists 12 superb, distinct,
easily grown varieties. Outstanding is Enchantment, first Amer­ican
lily ever to win the coveted British Lily Society Award.
SSUrn- feMed TULIPS
As America's largest importer of fine
tulips, Wayside is years ahead of the field
in presenting superior new varieties. See
our " Special Collections" of giant size,
long blooming tulips at tempting prices.
Mm DAFFODILS
Duke of Windsor and Green Emerald
are but two of the many sensational new
daffodils listed on catalog pages 30 to 4 1 .
' These superb varieties surpass in beauty
and stamina any daffodil yet introduced.
Ma, SHRUBS
In our Fall Catalog is a splendid array of
handsome all purpose shrubs. There are
exquisite flowering crabs, superior rho­dodendron
hybrids, new 7' high scarlet
flowered cydonia and many other worth­while
new shrubs. See Clarke's Giant,
the largest and best lilac in existence and
Esther Staley, the only true pink lilac.
and THE WORLD'S LARGEST SELECTION OF TULIPS, DAFFODILS
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Mm ROSES
Planning a new rose garden— then by all
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the more than 150 outstanding varieties
offered are several " Special Collections"
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140 pages of glorious true color j
illustrations ana complete descrip- j
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subjects. Gardeners everywhere "'
have come to rely on this valuable
book as their source of ideas and the finest
worthwhile new plants. Explicit cultural direc­tions
for each item. To be sure you get your
copy, it is necessary to enclose with your re­quest
504, coin or stamps, for postage and
k handling.
178
in critical analysis; but the non- Euro­pean
reader will have difficulty in divorc­ing
the date of the original lecture
( 1942) from the general demeanor of the
t realm cut.
CHARLES J. ENGARD,
University of Hawaii.
Science With a Touch of Humor
BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH METHODS.
Edited by Fred M. Uber. 667 pages,
illustrations, subject index. Intersci-ence
Publishers, London and New York,
1950. $ 9.50.
In this book of 17 chapters by 16
authors are discussed a number of phys­ical
procedures of value to the physio­logical
biologist. The topics covered are
indicated by the chapter titles: Avoid
fruitless experiments, Osmotic pressure
measurements. . . In many ways, the
first chapter is the most interesting if
only for the humor, not usually asso­ciated
with such serious works, expressed
in it. If the good advice given in chap­ter
one were taken by many scientists,
the quantity of their output would re­duce
with, perhaps, an improvement in
quality.
FREDERICK KAVANACH.
Potatoes in World History
THE HISTORY AND SOCIAL IN­FLUENCE
OF THE POTATO. Red
cliffe N. Salaman. 685 pages, illustra­tions,
index, bibliography; with a chap­ter
on industrial uses by W. G. Burton.
Cambridge University Press, New
York. 1949. $ 12.50.
In this book, which is the result of
nine years of exhaustive research and
study, Dr. Salaman traces the history of
the potato, its uses and its effect on the
people, the economy, the wealth or lack
of it and, last but not least, the politics
of each country where it has been intro­duced.
He tells how it was first the means of
preventing starvation in Ireland and later
the cause of a severe famine there. The
chapters covering the history of Ireland
should interest anyone, whether or not
he is interested in potatoes.
The author flounders somewhat in en­deavoring
to show how the potato first
came to be grown in the Peruvian high­lands
and how it was brought to Europe,
but from that time on, he has done a
superb job.
The cultural practices followed in
various areas through the last four hun­dred
years, including the present time,
should make good reading for anyone
who loves the land.
The worse scourge facing the future
of potato growing throughout the world
today, namely, the golden nematode, is
only briefly mentioned. Perhaps Dr.
Salaman does not consider it as great a
pest as the nematologists who are trying
to combat this minute but persistent
organism.
The chapters covering the part potatoes
played in helping to win the last two
World Wars contain much food for
thought.
One finishes the book with the feeling
that his education has been vastly en­riched.
GEORGE C. STRONG,
Water Mill, L. I., N. K
When to Plant
THE VEGETABLE CALENDAR. Wil­liam
H. Eyster. 96 pages, illustrations;
decorations by Karl Manahan; maps,
tables. Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa.
1949. $ 1.
The information for planting and
growing given in this paper- covered
volume is reasonably correct for the
areas known to me, yet I do not consider
it practical for an amateur. The book
has too many charts and tables. It be­comes
confusing.
Weather maps shown are only approxi­mate
for, after all, temperatures within
the same zone vary considerably — as
for instance Rye and Mount Kisco, or
my place in a cold valley and someone
else's on a high spot that does not get
the frost I do. Within that small area
there can be a difference of as much as
six weeks as far as killing frosts are
concerned.
JAMES S. JACK,
Brookside, Rye, N. Y.
For Old- Timers and Beginners
DAHLIA CULTIVATION. N. Gerard
Smith. 96 pages, illustrated, indexed.
Pellegrini & Cudahy, New York. 1949.
$ 3.50.
Here is a book which can be just as
interesting and educational to the old-time
amateur as it would be to the be­ginner.
The amateur needs a little guid-
179
ance and enough encouragement to show
him that, after a few years' experience,
he will be able to delve deeper into the
phases of raising dahlias, and in that
way the book will broaden his knowledge
as he goes along. The information given
will be found useful to anyone growing
dahlias for home decoration or exhibition
purposes. Mr. Smith's illustrations are
very helpful to the beginner.
ALEXANDER EDGAR NASH,
Verona, N. J.
To Whet the Appetite
SIMPLE ROCK GARDENING. A. J.
Macself. 120 pages, illustrated, index­ed.
Transatlantic Arts, Inc., Forest
Hills, N. Y. First American edition
1949. $ 1.80.
This elementary treatise on rock gard­ening
is intended for the beginner who
is about to explore this extensive phase
of horticulture. Although a small vol­ume,
its scope is rather broad, covering
various types of rock gardens, their con­struction,
planting and maintenance, as
well as plant propagation. Consequently,
most of the subjects are rather super­ficially
covered and serve only to whet
the appetite of an enthusiastic amateur
for more detailed information.
Inasmuch as this British publication
was originally written for English gard­eners,
it is necessary to caution those,
particularly in New York and New Eng­land
region, from applying literally all
the information in this climate, which is
so different from that in England.
HAROLD EPSTEIN
American Rock Garden Society
Prize Flowers Lithographed
ROCK PLANTS. SPRING FLOWERS.
( 2 books). Arlette Davids. 32 full-color
lithograph plates in each. Mac­millan,
New York. 1950. $ 3.50 each.
The folio volumes containing magnifi­cent
full- color plates by the French bo­tanical
artist Arlette Davids, are now
being distributed by the Macmillan Com­pany.
The " Spring Flowers," inciden­tally,
consist of tulips, hyacinths, and
narcissi, according to the title, but also
include various lilies, cyclamens, amaryl-lis,
tuberous begonias and gloxinia — in
all a collection of 32 exciting color plates.
The title of " Rock Plants," from the
American point of view, is a misnomer,
for this book consists of 32 paintings of
cacti and other succulent species.
The artist, who became a war casualty
in France, did this work in the late
1930' s, selecting prize- winning exhibition
material from the Bagatelle Flower
Shows of that period in Paris.
Cultivating and Using Herbs
THE HERB GROWER'S COMPLETE
GUIDE. A. M. Mathieu. 88 pages,
bibliography. Published by author,
3744 Section Road, Cincinnati 36,
Ohio. 1949. $ 2.
Among the features of this new herb
book, which has been reproduced by off­set
from typewritten copy, are historical
notes on the various herbs treated, me­thods
of culture and means of preparing
and using them. There is an extra sec­tion
for recipes and for the use of herbs
for their fragrance alone. A list of herb
nurseries is given as well as a list of
books and pamphlets, magazine articles
and cook books on herbs. Another sec­tion
treats the commercial growing of
herbs and a table gives concise informa­tion
on herbs under cultivation. For an
additional dollar one may obtain with
the book a packet containing a manual,
five packets of seeds to sow, five varie­ties
of herbs with which to experiment
in the kitchen, and an envelope with in­teresting
commercial literature.
Notes, News and Comment
Appointment to Garden: J. Mark
Kerans, of Glen Ridge, N. J., assumed
the position of Administrator at the
New York Botanical Garden on June 1,
1950. Mr. Kerans came from Rockefeller
Center, Inc., where he served as a Man­agement
Consultant. Before joining the
latter staff, he was Executive Vice- Presi­dent
and Treasurer of Protexall Chem­icals,
a chemical manufacturing concern
in Miami, Fla. Prior to that he was
Executive Assistant with the Rockefeller
Inter- American organization, operating in
the trade promotion and development
fields.
For approximately five years, Mr.
Kerans was in the U. S. Government
service on the staffs of the Interior and
Commerce Departments, respectively. He
180
also practiced law for several years in
Washington, D. C, and has been a Man­agement
Consultant to various organiza­tions.
Gold Medal: Leonard J. Buck, newly
appointed member of the New York
Botanical Garden's Board of Managers,
is the recipient of the gold medal of the
National Association of Gardeners for
his outstanding contribution to horticul­ture.
Mr. Buck, who has a very beauti­ful
rock garden, among other plantings
on his estate, " Allwood," at Far Hills,
N. J., is the sixth person to be awarded
this honor since the first medal was
awarded in 1926.
Herb Society: The annual meeting of
the New York Unit, Herb Society, was
held in the Members' Room of the New
York Botanical Garden on June 16. Pre­ceding
the business session, an auction
was held, the proceeds of which will sup­port
four new herb borders at the Gar­den.
Meetings: On May 5, Dr. William J.
Robbins attended the meeting of the Ad­visory
Council, Dept. of Biology, Prince­ton
University, and on the 24th of the
month, the annual meeting of the Boyce
Thompson Institute. On June 2, Dr.
Robbins attended the meeting of the
Research Committee of the American
Philosophical Association in Philadelphia.
F. W. Kavanagh attended the 50th anni­versary
meeting of the Society of Ameri­can
Bacteriologists in Baltimore during
the third week in May.
Field Trips: Dr. H. N. Moldenke led
a field trip for the Torrey Botanical Club
and for the John Burroughs Memorial
Association to " Slabsides", rustic retreat
of John Burroughs, at West Park, N. Y.,
on May 6; and on May 28 another field
trip of the Torrey Botanical Club to
Springdale, N. J., to see the rare Trollius
laxa, three species of Cypripedium, etc.
Dr. Moldenke was also guest leader of
the New York Biology Teachers' Asso­ciation
at its annual field trip at Belmont
State Park, N. Y., on June 3.
Lectures: G. L. Wittrock showed the
film, " Activities and Scenes of the New
York Botanical Garden" to the Garden
Club of Cresskill, N. Y., on June 8.
On May 8, E. J. Alexander lectured at
the Garden Club of New Haven, Inc., an
affiliate of the New York Botanical Gar­den,
on " Wild Flowers for our Gardens".
On June 7, Frank C. MacKeever lec­tured
at the Phillipstown Garden Club,
another affiliate, on " Plant Propagation."
Visitors: Dr. Asger F. Langlykke, Di­rector
of the Research and Development
Laboratories of E. R. Squibb & Sons,
New Brunswick, N. J., visited Dr. Wil­liam
J. Robbins early in May and toured
the laboratories of the New York Bo­tanical
Garden. James F. Bell of Min­neapolis,
Minn., and Joseph R. Swan,
Chairman of the Board of Managers,
also lunched with Dr. Robbins and toured
the laboratories in May. On June 5, Dr.
Rupert J. Best, of the Wake Agricultural
Research Institute, Adelaide, South Aus­tralia,
called on Dr. Robbins and was
shown through the laboratories. Dr.
David D. Keck and Mrs. Keck, their
daughter Carol, and Dr. Keek's assistant,
Robert Vickery, visited the New York
Botanical Garden en route to Europe.
Other visitors to the Garden included
William Randolph Taylor, University of
Michigan; Robert T. Clausen, Cornell
University; and Lyman Benson, Pomona
College.
Bobbink & Atkins
" GARDEN GEMS"
tor your Garden Library
Build your garden with the help of this out­standing
catalog. In it are described and il­lustrated
in color the best of the New and
Old- fashioned Roses; Unusual Evergreen
Shrubs and Vines; Azaleas and Rhododen­drons
; Magnolias; Lilacs and many other
Flowering Shrubs; all the novelty and old
favorite Perennial Flowers and Ground Cov­ers,
and a host of other rare and unusual
" Garden Gems" ; designed to help you plan
and plant your garden.
Free east of the Mississippi; 35 cents
elsewhere. Customers of record receive
their copies automatically.
Visitors are always welcome at our nur­series
located about nine miles from the
New Jersey side of the Lincoln and Holland
Tunnels and George Washington Bridge.
Less than thirty minutes from central New
York.
Bobbink & Atkins
Rose Growers and Nurserymen
401 Paterson Ave., East Rutherford, N. J.
#
THE N EW Y O R K BOTANICAL GARDEN
Officers
JOSEPH R. SWAN, Chairman
CHARLES B. HARDING, President FREDERICK S. MOSELEY, JR., Vice- President
ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, Treasurer HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, Secretary
Elective Managers
DOUGLAS H. ALLEN REV. R. I. GANNON, S. J. ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY
SHERMAN BALDWIN MRS. ELON HUNTINGTON FRANCIS E. POWELL, JR.
WILLIAM FELTON BARRETT HOOKER MRS. HAROLD I. PRATT
HOWARD BAYNE SIDNEY LANIER WILLIAM J. ROBBINS
EDWIN D E T. BECHTEL MRS. ALBERT D. LASKER EDMUND W. SINNOTT
LEONARD J. BUCK CLARENCE MCK. LEWIS CHAUNCEY STILLMAN
HENRY F. DU PONT THOMAS LEWIS OAKLEIGH L. THORNE
E. D. MERRILL *
Ex- Officio Managers
' WILLIAM O'DWYER, Mayor of the City of New York
MAXIMILIAN MOSS, President of the Board of Education
ROBERT MOSES, Park Commissioner
Appointive Managers
By the Torrey Botanical Club: RUTHERFORD PLATT. By Columbia University:
MARSTON T. BOGERT, CHARLES W. BALLARD, SAM F. TRELEASE.
THE STAFF
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS, P H . D . , SC. D. Director
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE Assistant Director
J. MARK KERANS Administrator
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D . Head Curator
P. P. PIRONE, P H . D . Plant Pathologist
THOMAS H. EVERETT, N. D. HORT. Horticulturist
H. W. RICKETT, P H . D . Bibliographer
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, P H . D . Curator and Administrator of Herbarium
BASSETT MAGUIRE, P H . D . Curator
DONALD PHILIP ROGERS, P H . D . Curator
E. J. ALEXANDER, B. S. Associate Curator
G. L. WITTROCK, A. M. Assistant Curator of Education
F. W. KAVANAGH, P H . D . Associate Curator of Laboratories
IGOR NICHOLAS ASHESHOV, M. D. Bacteriologist
ROBERT S. DE ROPP, P H . D . , D. I. C. Assistant Curator
MARJORIE ANCHEL, P H . D . Research Associate
ROSALIE WEIKERT Technical Assistant
MARY STEBBINS, M. A. Technical Assistant
RICHARD S. COWAN, M. S. Technical Assistant
JOHN J. WURDACK, B. S. Technical Assistant
ELIZABETH C. HALL, A. B., B. S. Librarian
DOROTHY EBEL HANSELL Editor of the Journal
FRANK C. MACKEEVER, B. S. Custodian of the Herbarium
JOSEPH MONACHINO, B. S. Associate Custodian of the Herbarium
OTTO DEGENER, M. S. Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany
ELMER N. MITCHELL Photographer
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D . Plant Pathologist Emeritus
A. B. STOUT, P H . D . Curator Emeritus
FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D . , SC. D. Curator Emeritus
INEZ M. HARING Assistant Honorary Curator of Mosses
JOSEPH F. BURKE Honorary Curator of the Diatomaceae
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections
A. C. PFANDER Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
To reach the Botanical Garden, take the Independent Subway to Bedford Park Boulevard
station, use the Bedford Park Boulevard exit and walk east. Or take the Third Avenue
Elevated to the Botanical Garden or the 200th Street station, the New York Central to the
Botanical Garden station, or the Webster Avenue bus No. 41 to Bedford Park Boulevard.
mica] Garden station, or the Webster Avenue b
{ Membership in
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
and what it means
TO THE INSTITUTION, membership means support of a program that
reaches several hundreds of thousands of persons annually.
Briefly, this program comprises ( 1) horticultural display, ( 2) education,
( 3) scientific research, and ( 4) botanical exploration. To further this work and
to disseminate useful information about plant life to the public, the Garden issues
books and periodicals, both scientific and popular, and presents lectures, programs,
radio broadcasts, and courses of study in gardening and botany. The laboratories
and large herbarium and library serve the staff in its research and educational
work, while the extensive plantings at the Garden give the public vistas of beauty
to enjoy the year around. The public is also free to use the Botanical Garden's
library, and, under direction, to consult the herbarium.
TO THE INDIVIDUAL, membership means, beyond the personal gratification
of aiding such a program, these privileges:
Free enrollment in courses up to the amount of the annual member­ship
fee paid.
A subscription to the Journal ( published monthly) and to Addisonia
( issued irregularly).
Admission to Members' Day programs and use of the Members' Room
also at other times.
A share of plants when made available for distribution. ( These
plants may include the Garden's new introductions into horticulture.)
Personal conferences with staff members, upon request, on problems
related to botany and horticulture.
Free announcements of special displays, lectures, broadcasts, pro­grams,
and other events.
A membership card which serves as identification at special functions
at the Botanical Garden and also when visiting similar institutions in
other cities.
* * * *
Garden clubs may become Ajfiliate Members of the Neiv York Botanical
Garden, and thus receive certain privileges for the club as a unit and others for
individual members. Information on Garden Club Affiliation will be sent upon
request.
Business firms may become Industrial Members of the New York Botanical
Garden. Information on the classes of Industrial Membership and the privileges
of membership will be sent upon request.
* * * *
Classes of membership in the New York Botanical Garden in addition to
Industrial Memberships are:
Annual Member
Sustaining Member
Garden Club Affiliation
Fellowship Member
Annual
Fee
$ 10
25
25
100
Member for Life
Fellow for Life
Patron
Benefactor
Single
Contribution
S 250
1,000
5,000
25,000
Contributions to the Garden may be deducted from taxable incomes.
Contributions to the Garden are deductible in computing Federal and New
York estate taxes.
A legally approved form of bequest is as follows:
/ hereby bequeath to The New York Botanical Garden, incorporated under
the Laws of Neiv York, Chapter 285 of 1891, the sum of - .
Gifts may be made subject to a reservation of income from the gift property
for the benefit of the donor or any designated beneficiary during his or her
lifetime.
All requests for further information should be addressed to The New York
Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, Neiv York 58, N. Y.