1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



263 



White Wistarias. — The American Agricul- 

 turist notices the existence of a white variety of 

 Wistaria fnitescens, the American Wistaria, 

 which is not regularly in the nursery trade. The 

 white Chinese Wistaria is. It makes a capital ad- 

 dition to the beauty of the common pui'ple kind. 

 The two growing together is a pretty sight. This 

 white growing with the American purple would 

 .also make a very agreeable picture. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



■Names of Plants — "A Lover of the Shrubs," 

 TBoston. — The names of your plants are, Xo. 1, 

 Spiraea callosa; No. 2, Spirtea Billardi. 



Belgian Honeysuckle.— T. M. P., An Old 

 Subscriber, Kingston, R. I. — Your Honeysuckle 

 is the Belgian Monthly, a variety of Lonicera 

 -Periclymenum, the Honeysuckle of the poets, 

 and of the Old World. 



Lawn Grass.— F. Frankford, Phila., writes : 

 " I am interested in the note which you made 

 to your other Philadelphia correspondent about 

 the Lawn Grass. I have what I thought a Blue 

 Grass lawn, but have noticed two shades of 

 color in patches, and some of the lighter (and 

 finer leaved,) patch getting near a shrub bush, I 

 allowed some to make stalks, one of which I 

 send 3'ou. It looks very much like the Blue 

 Grass stalks, but it seems to do better in the cool 

 and shade than the darker. Are there two kinds 

 ■ of Blue Grass ?" 



[It is really very hard to decide on kinds by 



these common names. Botanical names are 

 generally given by botanists, whose names all 

 the rest agrees to stand by, and thus tl ere is a 

 certain degree of uniformity ; but nobody knows 

 who gave common names, nor how many are at 

 naming the plants, and hence nobody can tell 

 what is the plant meant by any common name. 

 The grass sent is really Poa trivialis, or, as it is 

 given in botanical works, the " Rough Stalked 

 j Meadow Grass," though like what is known as 

 I " Kentucky Blue Grass," which is Poa pratensis, 

 and not P. campestris, as a slip of the pen made 

 us say in our late note, it is very distinct in some 

 respects. It seems more common than we sup- 

 posed in Pennsylvania, and as the lightness of 

 the color is referred to in distinction, it opens 

 up an old question whether what was origin- 

 ally known in Pennsylvania as Green Grass, 

 may not really have been Poa trivialis, and 

 that it was not the same as Poa pratensis, the* 

 Kentucky Blue Grass, as of late years has gener- 

 ally been believed. Not having the means to 

 decide this question, we merely put the sugges- 

 tion forward. If anyone can send us specimens 

 of what the old people knew as " Pennsylvania 

 Green Grass," we should be very much obliged. 

 It is also an important question how far the 

 Poa trivialis is really adapted to make good 

 lawns. When we get that Botanic Garden, 

 which the newspapers tell us the Commissioners 

 of Fairmount Park are about to inaugurate, 

 patches of all these grasses together will atford 

 valuable popular instruction.— Ed. G. M.] 



Green House and House Gardening. 



^OMMUNICA TIONS. 



EPIDENDRJM. 



BY C. H. S., BALTIMORE, MD. 



This genus of Orchids is a very large one, 

 ■containing several hundred species and varieties, 

 and had all the species that were formerly in it 

 been still retained, it would contain about one- 

 fourth of the Orchid" family. I have often 

 thought that the genus Polypodium among 

 Ferns, Amaryllis among bulbs and Epidendrum 

 with Orchids, were intended for the benefit of 

 agnorant plant collectors. Any newly discovered 

 (plant of either of these genus, that would not 

 ifit elsewhere, found a temporary home ; if a 



Fern, as a Polypodium; a bulb, as an Amaryllis, 

 or an Orchid, it was called an Epidendrum. 

 Though our modern botanists have done much to 

 clear up these generas, they are still very un- 

 wieldy and I think are capal)le of division. 



By the way, in the July number of the Gar- 

 dener's Monthly, some one writes of "Ama- 

 ryllis longifolia." There is no such plant as 

 "Amaryllis longifolia." It is Crinum capense 

 vide, Herbert on Amaryllidacea\ page 2C.U. A 

 mere glance at the plant should convince any- 

 one that it is not an Amaryllis, or as Herbert 

 has named the S. A. varieties Hippeastrum. 

 Though the genus Epidendrum is a very large 

 one, but a small percentage of the species are 



