1882. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



293 



nor any way to distinguish them from the com- 

 mon. 



I have grown many thousands of seedlings 

 from seeds of the oak-leaved mountain ash, and 

 in one sowing of at least twenty thousand trees 

 thought we had got something nice. I was so 

 selfish as to go and select every promising tree 

 out of the lot before digging them. These were 

 planted for shade trees along the inside of the 

 fence of one of our nurseries. They have stood 

 there nearly, or quite, twenty years, and stand 

 there now ; I have grown our mountain ash 

 seedlings from them for many years, yet 

 never raised a White Beam from them, nor a 

 mountain ash as good as the oak-leaved, or dif- 

 fering from the common type of the European 

 mountain ask enough to make it worthy of 

 propagation by grafting or budding. 



I am sorry to be compelled to confess that all 

 my attempts to produce something nice from 

 sports or hybrids have been absolute failures. 

 Whatever I have produced of value has been 

 produced by sheer accident, and in nearly every 

 instance from common seeds sown in the nur- 

 serj-^ beds or nursery rows. 



You may recollect a conversation I had with 

 you and promised to raise the green variety of 

 the black spruce to see if it would produce both 

 the green and glaucous varieties ; I have done 

 so several times, but in every case have the 

 green variety pure, although I saw the seeds col- 

 lected myself from trees standing near several 

 other kinds of spruces. I sent cones to Dr. 

 Engelmann several years ago, but although the 

 cones were larger and somewhat different from 

 the glaucous variety he could find no botanical 

 difference. By the green variety I mean the red 

 spruce of the nurseries. 



[A work "just issued," which should refer to 

 the Siberian arborvitse as a distinct species, or as 

 a native of Siberia, must be regarded as a work 

 of very poor standing. An author who, in these 

 days, could make such a statement should lay 

 aside his pen forever. — Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Mr. H. B. Ellwaxgf.r's Rose Crosses.— In the 

 editor's notes of his Rochester visit, the re- 

 markable crosses of Mr. EUwanger were noticed, 

 though the plants were not then in flower. The 

 County Gentleman quoting our remarks, adds : 

 " The flowers of some of these new sorts, which 



we have had an opportunity of examining, are 

 of great beauty ; one of them in particular is 

 fully equal to the famed Alfred Colomb, if not 

 its superior, while the growth of the bushes 

 shows much vigor." 



Flowering of the Victoria regia in the 

 Open Air. — Mr. E. D. Sturtevant, the well known 

 grower of aquatics at Borden town. New Jersey, 

 has flowered this famous water lily of the Ama- 

 zon in the open air this summer. So far as 

 known this has not been attempted since 

 Mr. Caleb Cope grew the plant in the open air in 

 a cement tank in the centre of his vegetable gar- 

 den, now over thirty years ago. Mr. Sturtevant, 

 however, seems to have been even more of a 

 success than Mr. Cope, as the leaves are six feet 

 in diameter, and has actually perfected flowers. 

 The flower opened first on the 3d of September, 

 and was twelve inches across. 



The flowering in this way has excited intense 

 interest in Bordentown, and we shall not be 

 surprised if the fact of its flowering in the open 

 air does not induce similar attempts at the cul- 

 ture of the queen of flowers. It ought to be more 

 easy South than here. 



EuoNYMUs RADiCANS. — This now well-known 

 evergreen creeping plant is decided by Maxi- 

 mowicz, in a recent paper published in St. 

 Petersburg, to be only a condition of the com- 

 mon Euonymus japonica. This decision is 

 startling at first thought, as the whole appear- 

 ance and character is so very different from the 

 common or broad-leaved Japan Euonymus. 



But when we remember that the creeping fig 

 of our greenhouses, Ficus repens, has recently 

 been proved to be a condition of a great, broad- 

 leaved form ; and that even our native burning 

 bush, Euonymus Americanus, has a slender 

 trailing condition, as well as makes a good sized 

 bushy shrub, there is good reason to believe 

 that Maximowicz is right. He says it will creep 

 up trees to the height of twenty feet. On the 

 grounds of the writer there is a plant which has 

 already ascended some ten feet of a large cherry 

 trunk. We endorse an opinion that it is an 

 admirable creeping evergreen. 



Budded Roses. — Speaking of the Niphetos 

 rose, Mr. Mansfield Milton, in an essay before the 

 Portage County (Ohio) Horticultural Society, 

 says : " I have often seen the buds of this rose 

 over three inches in length, but is not suitable 

 for planting out of doors. It is a weak grower 

 unless well protected and grown under glass. It 



