1871.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



manni was not glaucous, but you wrote that 

 those you saw on Gray's Peak were very much 

 so ; therefore, you will have to assure me that 

 there is a difference in the construction of the 

 cone, or that you have climbed a sapling twenty 

 feet high without gloves ! If you can perform 

 the latter feat, I will be ready to make affadavit 

 that it is not a Menzies' Spruce. 



[What Mr. Douglas writes about the confu- 

 sion between the A. Engelmanni and A. Men- 

 ziesii applies to plants in cultivation. The English 

 nurserymen, with their usual luck when they 

 touch an American conifer, have mixed their 

 seed so that now they do not know " 'tother from 

 which," and it is about their confusion that we 

 write. 



In nature there is no confusion. Abies Engel- 

 manni, in Colorado, is wholly another thing 

 from A. Menziesii in Colorado, as Mr. Douglas, 

 who has been there and seen, truly says 

 No one who knows the trees will confuse them 

 for an instant. The smallest twig of A. Engel- 

 manni is sufficient to decide it at once if 

 you know it is IVodi Colorado. It is more 

 nearly allied to the Norway Spruce than to the 

 Abies Menziesii. The letters in the English 

 papers about their identity cannot come from 

 any who know about what they are writing. 



All of this discussion arises from a small 

 error, and it is a new illustraiion of how there 

 may be a great war about little things. It is this : 

 There were some fine specimens about Boston 

 from, or supposed to be from. Dr. Parry's early 

 seed. We all thought they were A. Engelmanni. 

 There was some mistake, perhaps, in the gar- 

 dener's labelling of the seed as the plants grew ; 

 such mistakes are made. Prof. Sargent, at length, 

 with Dr. Parry's aid, noticed these were not 

 A. Engelmanni, but A. Menziesii. They were 

 however, much more beautiful than the A. Men- 

 ziesii, of California, and this beauty deceived us 

 in the young plants. 



Now let us summarize the facts, so that there 

 shall be no mistake about them : — There are two 

 good varieties of Abies Menziesit; one inhabiting 

 the Pacific coast, the other, and the best for 

 horticultural purposes, Colorado ; but these are 

 in no way allied to Abies Engelmanni. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



sen APS AND QUERIES. 



Triteleia uniflora. — Some of this genus is 

 found in California, but not this species, as 



stated in our last. It is a native of South 

 America. 



Seeds of the Persian Lilac. — An old sub- 

 scriber, Beverly, N. J., writes : — "I see, by the last 

 number- of the Gardener's Monthly, that you have 

 never known the Persian Lilac to bear seed. 

 Enclosed you will find a sprig taken from a bush 

 of mine, which has borne seed for several years. 

 The branches bearing seed-pods, this season, 

 are chiefly low down, but last year they were 

 mostly near the top, and some of them still 

 remain on the bush, although, of course, they 

 have long since burst and shed their seed," 



[It was a rare treat to examine these seeds. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



EcHiNOCACTUS SiMPSONi. — Mr. Robinson, of the 

 Garden, writes: — "Echinocactus Simpsoni. This 

 colored plate (see No. 281, April 7th, 1877) was 

 drawn for us by Mr. Noel Humphreys (an old 

 friend of Loudon's and a long-experienced and 

 excellent artist), in Messrs. Backhouse's nurse- 

 ries, at York. We had no opportunity of com- 

 paring the plate with the living plant, but all 

 colored drawings of many other rock plants 

 made for us in the same garden, have been 

 greatly admired for their artistic beauty and 

 truth. Mr. Noel Humphreys being now abroad, 

 we cannot refer to him about the matter, all we 

 know is, it was drawn from nature for us, in the 

 only place where we knew it to grow at the 

 time." 



[There is no question of Mr. Humphreys 

 accuracy. The plant he so faithfully drew is 

 not Echinocactus Simpsoni, and the real ques- 

 tion is, what is the plant? Mr. Backhouse can, 

 perhaps, tell.— Ed. G. M.] 



AiLANTHUS. — R. B. H., Wilmington, Del., says : 

 — " I was looking over the last Monthly in which 

 the Ailanthus is alluded to, and some .doubt 

 expressed about there being two species in this 

 country. The staminate and pistillate trees of 

 the Ailanthus glandulos are growing at Forest 

 Hill, in West Chester. The pistillate bearing 

 profusely every year huge bunches of winged 

 fruit, that are quite ornamental. The female 

 tree has not the disagreeably odor of the stami- 

 nate one, and it does not grow so lofty, being 

 weighed down with its fruit. Perhaps Gen. W. H. 

 Noble alludes to the pistillate tree, when he 

 says, 'that in Autumn they tower into grand 

 bouquets.'" 



[Our correspondent mistakes sexes for species. 



