1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



121 



rather in the plants propagated from them. It 

 is not probable that Dionfea will difter ma- 

 terially from Drosera, the species experimented 

 with by the younger Darwin. 



SCIADOPITYS AND OTHER JAPAN 

 PLANTS. 



BY PROF. C. S. SARGENT, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



Mr. Thomas Hogg has placed me mider no 

 small obligation for the information he has 

 given in regard to the first introduction of Cerci- 

 dophyllum. I failed to notice this plant in 

 his brother's exceedingly rich and interesting 

 collection of Japanese plants, and if I had 

 ever heard of its introduction the fact had en- 

 tirely escaped my memory. Mr. Hogg will add 

 to the obligation I already feel if he will publish 

 some details of the growth and hardiness of his 

 brother's plant, and whether it can be expected 

 to realize the expectation which have been 

 formed in regard to this tree. 



" Thanks to Col. Clark, President of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, I received 

 some years ago, a supply of seed of Schizo- 

 phragma," is the sentence in which I am made to 

 claim " by inference " that Col. Clark first in- 

 troduced this plant. How I imply it is not ex- 

 plained, and certainly nothing was further from 

 my thoughts than to claim that Col. Clark had 

 first introduced a plant of which I had seen a 

 specimen in the Parsons' nursery at least a year 

 before Col. Clark ever went to Japan. 



As for Sciadopitys, it was introduced, if I mis- 

 take not, by Mr. Fortune in 1861, and when I 

 urged on Col. Clark, before his departure for 

 Japan, the importance of securing a large sup- 

 ply of seed of this tree for general introduc- 

 tion over the country, we were looking at a 

 specimen in my garden over five feet high. 



[Seeds of Sciadopitys verticillata were intro- 

 duced by Commmodore Perry's expedition to 

 Japan, during President Fillmore's administra^ 

 tion, and plants from these seeds raised by Mr. 

 William Saunders of the United States Experi- 

 mental Grounds were widely distributed. A 

 plant from this lot is now in view from the 

 window wliile writing. — Ed. G. M.] 



NOTES FROM WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



BY FANNIE E. BRIGGS. 



We have now been nearly a year in this new 

 land, and of course have observed all changes 

 with interest. We found the spring like those 



of the East, a fickle season, permitting the sow- 

 ing and planting of hardy grains and vegetables 

 somewhat earlier, but affording no like advan- 

 tange to tender things. The summer was de- 

 lightful. Excepting a few days in June when a 

 hot wind prevailed, there was no uncomfortable 

 heat. The nights are always cool, and such 

 mornings! So calm and soft, yet so bright and 

 fresh and invigorating. I have breathed the air 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but I never 

 knew anything like them elsewhere. Who is it 

 that says of a clime, that we live 



" Where simply to feel that we breathe 

 Is worth the best joy that life elsewhere can give." 



It may be a low kind of enjoyment, but these 

 lines reciu-red perpetually as the sun rose in 

 glory above the dark firs and a new, bright day 

 began. 



I'he autumn was not so pleasant. There w\as 

 no frost till October 22, but rains began early 

 in September and continued with little intermis- 

 sion until December. The winter is said to be 

 an unusual one. Colder, with less rain, more 

 bright days and more snow, but there has not 

 been more than three or four inches of snow at 

 any time, and many days are warm and spring- 

 like. 



The soil is poor in comparison with the rich 

 prairies of Iowa, but probably as good as much 

 of New England, and improves with proper cul- 

 tivation. The fine wheat of this region is too 

 well known to need mention. All ordinary vege- 

 tables are satisfactory in quality and quantity ; 

 but tomatoes and such heat-loving things failed 

 entirely this year. I have seen a few good 

 patches of corn, but the soil must be well pre- 

 pared, the location favorable, and the variety an 

 early-ripening one. 



Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and all small 

 fruits are excellent, and peaches very fair. The 

 plums are especially fine, and we hear nothing 

 of curculio, or any insect-pests, but a curious 

 aphis-like insect burrows in the skin of some of 

 the best apples. 



Of wild fruits the first to ripen is the "Salmon- 

 berry," a Rubus with trifoliate leaves, crimson 

 flowers, and large amber-colored berries. Ru- 

 bus Nutkaensis abounds, its berries like the mul- 

 berry, R. odoratus of New England. There is 

 a Vaccinium, bearing scarlet berries, more acid 

 and lively in flavor than most huckleberries. 

 Gaultheria Shallon is a beautiful little shrub, 

 and grows everywhere, but its fruit is not equal 

 to the black or blue huckleberries of the moun- 



