181QJ 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



121 



new tidal basin at the Surrey Commercial Docks. 

 On penetrating some six feet below the surface, 

 the workmen everywhere came across a subter- 

 ranean forest bed, consisting of peat with trunks 

 of trees, for the most part still standing erect. 

 All are of the species still inhabiting Britain : 

 the cak, alder, and willow are ai^parently most 

 abundant. The trees are not mineralized, but 

 retain their vegetable character, except that 

 they are thoroughly saturated with water. In 

 the peat are found large bones, which have been 

 determined as those of the great fossil ox (Bos 

 primogenius) . Fresh-water shells are also found. 

 No doubt is entertained that the bed thus ex- 

 posed is a continuation of the old buried forest, 

 of wide extent, which has on several recent occa- 

 sions been brought to the day-light on both sides 

 of the Thames, notably at Walthamstow in the 

 year 1869, in excavating for the East London 

 Waterworks ; at Plumstead in 1862-3, in making 

 the southern outfoU sewer; and a few weeks 

 since at Westminster, on the site of the new 

 Aquarium and Winter Garden. In each in- 

 stance the forest bed is found buried beneath the 

 marsh clay, showing that the land has sunk be- 

 low the tidal level since the forest flourished. i 



QUERIES. 



DiERViLLA. — A Flushing correspondent asks : 

 " May I trouble you to tell me where the name 

 of Diervilla was given to Weigela, and when ?" 

 [Diervilla was never given to Weigela. It is just 

 the other way. The original name is Diervilla ; 

 Weigela is a newer name. It was thought to 

 constitute a new genus, and was sej)arated from 

 Diervilla, but as our knowledge of the genus in- 

 creased, it was found that there was not sufficient 

 character to found a separate genus and so the 

 name Weigela has to be dropped, and the indi- 



viduals composing it go back to Tourneforts 

 older name of Diervilla, in accordance with 

 botanical laws of priority in nomenclature. — Ed. 



G. M.] 



Rocky Mountain Silver Spruce. — Mr. J. T. 

 Lovell says : "says Permit me to say the Eocky 

 Mountain Silver Spruce and Abies Menziesii are 

 one and the same. Some years ago Messrs. Hargis 

 and Sommer, Quincy, 111., who were the first I'no- 

 ticed to advertise or offer for sale " Rocky Moun- 

 tain Silver Spruce,' sent us a few specimens, sta- 

 ting they knew the tree by no other name. They 

 since collected for us, among the mountains of 

 Colorado, 1,000 plants of the same, and are all 

 precisely the same as the Abies Menziesii received 

 from different European nurseries, answer the 

 descrijDtion of Abies Menziesii, and I know are 

 Abies Menziesii." 



"If your correspondent has collected other 

 plants than A. Menziesii for Eocky Mountain 

 Silver Spruce, I am very sure he has made a 

 mistake." 



[There seems no doubt but that the tree 

 meant by the "celebrated writer" is the Men- 

 zies Si^ruce. It is a pity he had not a little more 

 knowledge of these common things, or took 

 some pains to find out, before he published his 

 book. It would have sav^d us and our correspon- 

 dents much trouble in finding out his meaning. 

 But now that it is found, we trust the misleading 

 name of " Rocky Mountain Silver Spruce " will 

 be dropped. There are firs and si^ruces in the 

 Eocky Mountains quite as "silvery" as this, and 

 then this particular one is not confined to the 

 Rocky Mountains, but is far better known in 

 connection with the Pacific coast. Above all it 

 is already well known in all the nurseries of the 

 world as the Menzies Spruce, a name short and 

 convenient. — Ed. G. M.] 



JTERATURE, ^^RAVELS & pERSONAL ^J OTES. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Horticulture in New Orleans. — Last fall the 

 writer chanced to get to New Orleans, and the 

 temptations to visit that section again when the 

 spring should start vegetation into new life was 

 so great that he took another run in February 



last especially to look at things. The most 

 striking horticultural feature on entering the city 

 is the use of the Stillingia sebifera as a shade tree. 

 It is called here tallow tree. The leaves are very 

 much like those of the common aspen, but the 

 dense, twiggy growth is very peculiar. It is very 

 much valued for its rapid growth when young, 



