68 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[^ March, 



flourishiiij:;, hy tiikiii-j; iiecessftry lroul)le and ex- 

 pense for peat, than to have cheaper culture and 

 poorer plants. 



RKTINOSPORA. 



I hnve proved all the kinds of retinosporas 

 cont.ained in the catalogues, in exposed position 

 and without special protection, I have never lost 

 one. With me they are as hardy as any plant 

 out of doors, and are of all evergreens the finest 

 for planting near the dwelling, and in small 

 grounds. The filifera and the obtusa seem des- 

 tined to rapid and large growth. The obtusa 

 when well grown resembles Lawson's cypress 

 and excels it, with the advantage of being per- 

 fectly hardy, which Lawson's is not. 



THE PIN us EXCELSA. 



Very beautiful, shrinks before our fierce sum- 

 mer 8un, and after a few years, becomes dilapi- 

 dated. But a comparatively new kind, P. aya- 

 cahuite, seems likely to equal it in its own line 

 of beauty, and to be perfectly hardy, aa well. 

 It deserves to be extensively tried. 



LILIUM PARVUM. 



BY W. C. L. DREW, EL DORADO, CAL. 



Lilium parvum was discovered by Kellogg 

 some years ago, and has been offered to the 

 flower loving public for several years. • 



It is a small lily, of upright growth, the stem 

 growing from two to three feet high, and bearing 

 from two to eight flowers. 



The flowers are of a clear yellow color, spotted 

 with dark red spots, the leaves are borne in 

 whorls around the stem like those of Humboltii. 



The parvum is of very easy culture, any good 

 garden soil suiting it; the bulbs, though small 

 should not be planted less than six inches deep; 

 fresh manure should not be placed in contact 

 with the bulb. 



THE LARGEST UMBRELLA PINE. 



BY F. W. KELSEY, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



Regarding the urging of the Editor of the 

 Gardener's Monthly in December number as to 

 the largest specimen of the rare evergreen Scia- 

 dopytis verticillata, would say that having made 

 some inquiries for the plant in diflferent sections 

 of the country, the largest I have been able to 

 find are two specimens formerly owned by Mr. 

 C. M. Hovey, of Boston. One of them hav- 



I ing been sold to Mr. Charles .\. Dann, of New 

 York, quite recently. The other I believe is still 

 retained by Mr. Hovey, who can give you a 

 more complete description of the plant. I be- 

 lieve the one sold to Mr. Dana was about 3 feet. 

 The price was $25, which was not considered 

 unrea.sonabie. 



I am in correspondence now with more par- 

 ties, in Europe, in regard to sr)ecimen plants of 

 this fine tree, and in the event of my getting any 

 information of general interest will advise. 



[We give thanks to our correspondent, and 

 should be glad to know' where the largest specie 

 mens of any rare trees are to be found.— Ed. G. 

 M.l 



EDUORIAL NOTES.. 



Frost and Hardiness. — We have all in Amer- 

 ica learned the lesson that it is not the degree of 

 temperature merely that kills plants. Conditions 

 alter the figures. Some of these are given in the 

 following paragraph which we find in the Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle : 



"A writer in the Wiener Gartenfreund, on ' The 

 Importance of Gardens for Acclimatization,' 

 gives some interesting particulars respecting the 

 hardiness of certain plants in Austria, especially 

 in the neighborhood of Vienna. Pinus Cembra, 

 which thrives in the botanic garden at Vienna, 

 is killed by frost at the Imperial villa at Ischl, 

 unless grafted upon P. Laricio, when it with- 

 stands the winter without injury. In the same 

 place, on the other hand, such subjects as P. 

 Nordmanniana, P. cilicica, P. cephalonica, Bam- 

 busa nigra and B. argenteo-striata are quite 

 hardy. Quercus rubra and coccinea are very 

 fine in the celebrated gardens of Duke Francis, 

 of Anhalt-Dessau, at Worlitz. Some of them 

 have trunks from 5 to 6 feet in diameter, and 

 rise to a height of 60 to 70 feet. Wellingtonia gi- 

 gantea is said to flourish in the vicinity of War- 

 saw, where there is often 45° of frost. Acer stri- 

 atum will not succeed in Vienna on its own 

 roots, but if grafted on A. Pseudo-Platanus it 

 does very well. Cupressus Lawsoniana, Pinus 

 Khutrow, and P. Pinsapo ripen seed in Bohemia. 

 At Erlacstein, in Syria, in a loamy soil 800 feet 

 above the sea, Paulownia imperialis, Aralia spi- 

 nosa, Lagerstroemia indica. Wistaria sinensis, Li- 

 quidambar styraciflua, and many others flourish 

 under 30° — 34° of frost, whgreas Koelreuteria and 

 Cercis siliquastrum perish." 



