1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



therefore they are now true leaves. This speci- 

 men furnishes the valuable lesson which we do 

 not know has ever been tauglit before, that in 

 the transformation of primordial leaves to flow- 

 ers, petals are formed before any steps are 

 taken to make the bud scales. We see here the 

 order in which the business is carried on. 



We have seen similar growths in the apple, 

 but tills is the first instance in a peach. 



Fruiting of the Arctostaphylos Uva- 

 URSI, — OR Bearberry. — Mrs. E. S. P., Nan- 

 taucket, Mass., writes : "In Floivers and Ferns of 

 the. United States in speaking of the common 

 Bearberry, Arbutus, Uva-Ursi, it is said that al- [ 

 thour,'h the flowers grow in clusters, the berries, ' 



so far as the author has observed, are single, but 

 one of the cluster coming to maturity. Now the 

 Bearberry grows profusely upon the sandy plains 

 of Xantucket, and a small party of botanical 

 students succeeded, with very little research, in 

 finding numerous , clusters of four berries, sev- 

 eral clusters of five, and even one of six. The 

 only difficulty here seemed to be to find any sin- 

 gle berries. Thinking you may like to know 

 the habit of the plant in a place where it is so 

 much at home we have concluded to send you 

 some specimens in support of our statement." 

 [These were four and five berried clusters, 

 and one collected by Miss L. Owen had six ber- 

 ries.— Ed. G. M.] 



Literature, Travels ? Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



RESPONSES AND NOTES. 



BY C. E. P., QUEENS, L. I., N. Y. 



In the July number of the Monthly I noticed 

 a few remarks on the double flowering Chinese 

 Cherry. I should like to have shown you a fine 

 specimen of the old pure white double flowering 

 Cherry that we had here in full blossom about 

 May 10th. Imagine a Cherry tree about forty 

 feet high and covered with millions of its pure 

 white double blossoms. Could any one wish for 

 anything more magnificent? Why is it not 

 planted more extensively ? You have done 

 3'^our readers a service by calling their attention 

 to these handsome ornamental trees. A tree of 

 the old variety should be found in every collec- 

 tion. Have any of the readers of the Monthly 

 flowered this rosy pink variety ? A full descrip- 

 tion of it, together with the size of their speci- 

 men, would be interesting to many of your read- 

 ers. 



Another rare tree, and one well worth}^ of 

 general cultivation, is Kolreuteria paniculata. 

 We have a few specimens here, about twenty 

 feet high, and it is now covered with its large 



j panicles of yellow flowers. This variety attains 

 to the size of a small tree only, and on this ac- 

 count can be planted in places where other trees 

 would occupy too much space. This tree de- 

 i serves much more attention than it receives, and 

 I should be more extensively planted. It is a 

 I native of China, and is perfectly hardy here. 



In a note to the Monthly, some time since, 

 I mentioned Magnolia macrophylla. I omitted 

 to state that it is perfectly hardy here. It flow- 

 ers about the first week in .June. The flowers 

 average when fully expanded thirteen to fifteen 

 inches in diameter and the leaves average over 

 two feet in length. This tree ripens a quantity 

 of seed every year. M. tripetala is another very 

 good hardy variety, but can in no way compare 

 with M. macrophylla. We have several speci- 

 mens here about twenty feet high. This variety 

 is rather a faster grower than M. macrophylla, 

 but does not form such a handsome tree ; it is apt 

 to grow rather crooked, and on this account 

 should be kept tied to a stake while young. M. 

 conspicua, a Chinese species, forms a tree of 

 superb beauty when in full blossom. I should 

 like to have shown you our tree of this variety 

 when it was in bloom ; it was the admiration of 

 all who saw it. Our specimen is about thirty- 



