Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tarts and pies, and sometimes as a dessert. The Missouri Currant, R. aureum, has been introduced on account of the luxuriance of its growth, and the beauty and fragrance of the flowers; and another from California, R. speciòsum, which has been erected into the genus Robsònia, deserves to be introduced."-p. 419.

The Round-leaved Gooseberry, (Ribes rotundifolium, L.)

"No native gooseberry promises so much as this. The introduced species often refuses to flourish in our gardens, even with careful cultivation. It is not perfectly adapted to our soil and climate. But this native one is ; and, if the art of cultivation can make as great a difference in it as has been made in the wild European gooseberry, the fruit will be the finest of the kind in the world. The cultivated species, on its cold, northern, native mountains, is small, hard, hairy and acerb. Cultivation points at its large, beautiful, firm, sweet, delicious fruit, as the triumph of art. This change has been produced by long and careful culture. What may not be made, by similar efforts, of a fruit perfectly suited to our climate, which, in its natural state, is pronounced delicious!

"Found in mountainous and rocky places from Massachusetts to the mountains of North Carolina, and west to beyond the Rocky Mountains.”—p. 421.

Of fine, wild, native species and varieties of the Raspberries, we are informed that

"The wild RED RASPBERRY, R strigòsus, not inferior to the cultivated, and very nearly like it, and the HIGH BLACKBERRY, R. villòsus and R. frondosus, and some varieties of the Low BLACKBERRY, R. Canadénsis, of Torrey and Gray, are delicious and wholesome fruits. They differ much in different localities. This circumstance is worthy of consideration with those who mean to attempt to improve these fruits by cultivation. The variety of High Backberry found at Fall River and around Buzzard's Bay, is superior to any that I have tasted, in the vicinity of Boston."-p. 429.

We have already alluded to the practical value of the Common Locust tree; beside this, it is an universal, and deservedly so, favorite of all, whether we take into consideration the delicacy of its foliage, or the snowy grace of its pendent blosOf late years, its cultivation has been much checked in consequence of the extensive ravages of the locust borer, an insect of insidious habits, and of destructive tendency. Premiums, we believe, have been repeatedly offered for certain and sure preventives of its fatal evil:

soms.

"An unexpected remedy has, however, been suggested by the success of Joseph Cogswell, Esq., in the cultivation, some years ago, of a large plantation of the locust. He found that, when it forms a wood, those trees only are attacked by the worm which form the outskirts, exposed to the Isun and free air. Whether it is that the insect parent of the worm delights, as many do, in the sun light, and avoids the shade of the woods, or from whatever cause, it was found that all the interior of the plantation was free from its attacks. If this conclusion should be confirmed by further experience, it will be best, whenever the tree is cultivated for its timber, to plant it in masses of several acres in extent, and to substitute, in the sunny and exposed situations which it has usually held, some of those numerous trees which flourish best in them."-p. 463.

Some promise of future valuable results may be anticipated by experiments on our native grapes by seed-sowing, to a greater extent than has already accrued. Of the Common or Fox grape, (Vitis Labrúsca, L.,) we are told of a remarkable variety, the Summer White Grape :

"One of the most remarkable varieties is the Summer White Grape or Early White. In appearance, it presents some peculiarities. The leaves are on rather long, bristly and downy footstalks, with a rusty down closely covering the under surface. The fruit is two thirds or three quarters of an inch in diameter, round, pale green, or of the translucent color of the Malaga grape, when just ripe, afterwards turning red. It is, in some varieties, very agreeable to the taste. It ripens in the last of July, and in August and September. I have gathered some of this variety in the woods, decidedly superior to the Isabella grape.”—p. 468.

We confess ourselves wholly unacquainted with such a superior wild variety, or, indeed, of any such kind, which even approaches to a well ripened Isabella: and doubtless here the old adage applies, de gustibus non, &c.; yet how far hardier or better varieties may not be artificially produced, no one can affirm without previous experiment.

The peculiar charm of some happy blending of species of flowering shrubs by the accident of Nature is pleasantly set off in the following description of what every admirer of the rural must have noticed in this vicinity:

"On some lanes in Brookline and other places in the vicinity of Boston, a natural hedge of barberry, sweet briar, wild rose and privet has formed a most graceful border for the road-side. This, which gives an air of wildness and retirement perfectly suited to the purpose for which much of this

suburb is used, has, in several places, been made to give place to the stiff, puddingstone wall; and the change is called improvement.

"If the suckers and lower branches are removed, and only the upper branches allowed to grow, the barberry forms a very beautiful little tree, and sometimes shoots to the height of ten feet. At times we find such a tree by the road-sides, surprising us by its gracefulness and the beauty of of its bright yellow flowers in June, and of its rich scarlet berries and its fading orange-scarlet leaves in autumn."-pp. 523, 524.

We have thus presented to our readers a more than usually long notice of this remarkable document, of which every page seems replete with interest, both of things old and new, rare and well known. Accompanying the text of five hundred and thirty-four pages, are seventeen copperplate prints of specimens of the following trees in outline, done with a beauty and accuracy as creditable to the artist as is the subject matter to the author. These plates consist of figures of the White Oak, Quercus álba, leaf and acorns, &c.; the Overcup Oak, Q. macrocarpa, leaves and fruit; the Rough or Post Oak, Q. stellàta, leaves and fruit; the Swamp White Oak, Q. bicolor, &c.; the Chestnut Oak, Q. castanea; the Rock Chestnut Oak, Q. montana; the Black Oak, Q. tinctoria; the Scarlet Oak, Q. coccinea; the Red Oak, Q. rùbra; the Bear Oak, Q. ilicifòlia; the Shellbark Hickory, Cárya álba; the Mockernut Hickory, C. tomentòsa; the Pignut Hickory, C. porcina; the Bitternut Hickory, C. amára; the Nettle Tree, Céltis occidentàlis ; the Tupelo Tree, Nyssa multiflòra.

We cheerfully recommend such a treatise as this to the friends of Horticulture, feeling that the style and manner in which the subject is treated will be peculiarly interestingespecially to the floriculturist, who engages in a love for beautiful native shrubs and forest flowers; and to the arboriculturist will it prove a useful companion and guide, to furnish him with important hints, or to serve as a pleasant source of instruction. R.

March 10, 1847.

ART. II. The New England Book of Fruit; containing an Abridgment of Manning's Descriptive Catalogue of the most valuable Varieties of the Pear, Apple, Peach, Plum and Cherry, for New England Culture: to which are added the Grape, Quince, Gooseberry, Currant and Strawberry ; with outlines of many of the finest sorts of Pears drawn from Nature; with Directions for Pruning, Grafting, and General Modes of Culture. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. By JOHN M. IVES. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 144. Salem. W. & S. B. Ives.

THE increasing interest in the subject of Pomology, and the eagerness to procure information, may be, in some measure, perceived by the recent publication of works treating upon the subject. Almost every individual who possesses a spot of ground is desirous of planting a few trees, but a want of some information upon the subject often deters them from their object. The larger and more complete works are too expensive for those who have but little space for gardening purposes, and a manual like the New England Book of Fruits comes very opportune to the many who wish for something more than a mere catalogue of names.

In the preface to this edition, the author informs us he has brought together "the experience of practical cultivators in a condensed form and at low price." The original descriptions of Mr. Manning, as they appeared in his Book of Fruits, (Vol. IV. p. 185,) are retained, and many additions have been made to his list. The present edition contains a descriptive catalogue of 69 varieties of pears, 55 of apples, 24 of peaches, 29 of plums, and 19 of cherries; also currants, gooseberries, strawberries, quinces and grapes. The outline engravings which appeared in the second edition also accompany this volume. Some few fruits have been added by Mr. Ives and addenda to those originally described; and some of the original descriptions struck out, in order, we presume, to have the book contain about the same number of pages.

It is unnecessary for us to again recommend a work containing a great portion of the experience of Mr. Manning for twenty-five years; for, although many new and fine fruits

have been brought to notice since the volume first appeared the descriptions which were made by him are exceedingly valuable, as they were the result of many years' careful observation. We therefore commend the work to the attention of all who need a manual to aid them in the selection of a few choice fruits for their gardens.

We have only to regret that the size and form of the work have been reduced: if the present edition had been uniform with the last, it would have, we think, been preferable to its present form, in which the pages are so reduced as scarcely to admit of the largest engravings. The title-page is accompanied with a colored vignette.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

ART. I. General Notices.

Destruction of Insects by Hot Water.-Foremost among universally troublesome insects, stands the SCALE, of various species. This gentleman shelters himself beneath his flat shield so securely, that there is no getting him to move, or if he is dislodged it is only to leave behind a brood yet worse than himself. Hitherto he has baffled everybody. It has been proposed to glue him down by a wash of paste or gum water, to grind him to pieces by incessant rubbing, to kill him with poisons more subtile than those provided for her friends by Sir EDWARD LYTTON'S "Lucretia;" but somehow he always reappeared, and not unfrequently seemed to be invigorated by the applications in question. At last it has been ascertained by Mr. GORDON, the Superintendent of the Ornamental Department, in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, that the Scale may be dealt with effectually by means of-hot water, which seems to dissolve him. Water of the temperature of 140° will annihilate the Scale, and all his young ones, eggs included, and will not injure the bark of trees on which he feeds. It may be applied by a syringe or a sponge; all that is indispensable is, that it shall come in contact with him. It may be urged, that if water at the temperature of 140° will not injure bark, it will leaves. But, in the first place, it is possible to attack the Scale when plants have no leaves; in the second place such water will not hurt hard leaves; and thirdly, if the leaves are killed, they will grow again, so that the worst consequence of this application to plants is a temporary loss of beauty instead of a permanent and increasing loss of health.

It is not improbable that this method will be found applicable to other in

« AnteriorContinuar »