iSgs- 



' GARDENING. 



59 



TflE EDITOR.VISITS BOSTON. 



When in Boston on the 18th and 19th 

 of last month (October) we visited the 

 Aniold Arboretum, Bussey Institute, 

 Forest Hills Cemetery, Harvard Botani- 

 cal Garden and Botanieal Museum, and 

 in the foUoveing notes advise our readers 

 of some of our observations there. We 

 shall not burden you with a lot of de- 

 scriptive or technical matter, nor puff- 

 gush, but confine our notes to points of 

 practical general interest. 



THE .ARNOLD AKHORETUM 



Is at Jamaica Plain, a suburb of Bos- 

 ton, and it belongs to Harvard Univeis- 

 ity. It contains a larger variety of hardy 

 trees and shrubs than does any other 

 arboretum in the world, and it is the 

 most progressive institution of its kind 

 extant. Professor C. S. Sargent is at the 

 head of it, and Mr. Jackson Dawson isthe 

 superintendent. We have got to visit 

 there most every year to get posted. 



Berried Plants. — A prominent feature 

 in the Arboretum was the multitude and 

 variety of shrubs bearing ornamental 

 fruit. Chief among these were Thun- 

 berg's and common barberry, spice bush, 

 viburnums of several kinds, snowberry 

 and Indian currant, wild and exotic single 

 roses, bayberry, choke cherry, the black 

 ink berry and the scarlet winterberry, 

 several forms of spindle tree, privet, 

 Chinese and common matrimony vine, 

 common and Japanese climbing wax- 

 work, frangula, moiuitain ash, some cor- 

 nuses, aralias and others. 



Colored leaved shrubs.— So great is 

 the multitude of trees and shrubs in the 

 Arboretum that we cannot in a short 

 note even mention one in a hundred that 

 have claims for autumn tints. But we 

 couldn't help noting how prominently 

 Thunberg's spirjea, Thunberg's barberry. 

 Viburnum Lentago, Cornus iJorida, Rhus 

 aromatica and R. copallina stood out in 

 brilliance among the vast array. 



Carpeting plants.— In parts of the 

 Arboretum where the old large timber 

 trees are growing the ground is covered 

 with an underbrush of sumach, barberry, 

 viburnum and similar growth of native 

 shrubs and wild perennials studiously 

 grouped and massed for effect, and at the 

 same time intermingled so gracefully as 

 to suggest the work of nature rather than 

 the art of man. Particular kinds of 

 shrubs as lilacs, viburnums, cornus and 

 the like are planted in banks and spreads, 

 each genus hy itself, and the plants far 

 enough apart to allow room for their 

 future full development, and to prevent 

 the ground between the shrubs looking 

 naked it is covered over with some green 

 low-growing carpeting shrub or vine, a 

 very pretty and effective provision indeed 

 and one that should be carried out in 

 planting shrubberies in private gardens. 

 Among the plants used (or this carpet are 

 Hall's Japan honeysuckle, the strawberry 

 bush (Euonymus Ainericanus var. oho- 

 vatus), Pachysandra procumhens,a. little 

 evergreen from the Allegheny mountains, 

 and the Japanese rose Wichuraiana. 

 Calling Mr. Dawson's attention to the 

 thick mass of honeysuckle carpeting a 

 certain bed we asked him if it didn't grow 

 up into the bushes and bother him. "Oh 

 no," he replied, "a man with a stout knife 

 or shears can go around the shrubs there 

 once a year and cut away every vine 

 attempting to climb; it's only a few min- 

 utes' work and the job is done with for a 

 season. You see what a pretty bank it 

 makes. Grass wouldn't grow tlierewith- 

 out much trouble and attention, but the 

 honeysuckle needs scarcely any " In gar- 

 dens generally the common periwinkle 



and some forms of the evergreen ivies and 

 hypericum are what are most commonly 

 used for this purpose. 



Actinidia poLYGAMAis a slender woody 

 vine from Japan, where it is abundant in 

 the forests and mountains of the central 

 and northern islands. The vine com- 

 monly grown under this name in our gar- 

 dens and which we find to be so vigorous, 

 far reaching and hardy is not .4. polv- 

 gama at all, but A. arguta. The true A. 

 polygama is now at the Arboretum, 

 where it was raised from seed collected in 

 Japan; so far it promises well, but it has 

 got to be further tested before we can 

 say much about its desirability. As its 

 leaves turn yellow very early in the season 

 it is apt to have a value for fine autumn 

 foliage effect as well as for use as a hardy 

 vine. Both the above actinidias have 

 some reputation as edible fruit bearing 

 vines, and their fruits are sold in the 

 markets of Hakodate and other cities in 

 Japan, but they are not agreeable to the 

 American palate. Mr. Dawson called our 

 attention to a curious fact regarding .4. 

 polygama: "Now cover up that pfent 

 from the cats, for they are crazy for it, 

 they not on'y roll on it but they eat it, 

 and alter they have eaten up the leaves 

 and tops they scratch it out at the root 

 and eat it. They ate up a whole lot of 

 our seedlings of it." 



Magnolia salicikolia is a new species 

 from Mount Hakkoda in central Japan. 

 It has never been seen in bloom. But 

 Professor Sargent found it in fruit in its 

 native wilds and was fortunate not only 

 in bringing seeds of it home with him, but 

 in raising plants from those seeds, and we 

 were delighted to see several thrifty 

 young plants of this rare tree at the Ar- 

 boretum. 



Douglas's New Arbor Vit.e. "There 

 is a little arbor vitae we had from Robert 

 Douglas of Waukegan," remarked Mr. 

 Dawson as he showed us a very odd look- 

 ing form of this evergreen conifer. It 

 looked almost exactly like Retinospora 

 filifera pendula, with long thread-like 

 drooping branches. It is genuine too, for 

 it has the true arbor vitas smell. The 

 retinosporas, especially those like filifera 

 pendula that belong to the species pisitera, 

 are not thoroughly hardy in the northern 

 states, they often get injured in winter, 

 but as the American arbor vitas are per- 

 fectly hardy this new pendulous variety 

 is a very welcome addition to our garden 

 shrubs. 



A new type of roses. — Wewereshown 

 a lot of seedling roses raised from seeds 

 obtained from a missionary who had 

 gotten them from a practically unknown 

 (to Europeans) part of northwestern 

 China. Their stems were thickly covered 

 with moss hke spines, and their leaves 

 consisted of nine, eleven or more leaflets, 

 somewhat glaucous underneath; the 

 whole contour of the young plants, stems 

 and leaves instantly reminded us of young 

 sprouts of the rose acacia shrub (Robinia 

 hispid a). 



Are Rosa Luclb and R. Wichuraiana 

 the same? Botanists so regard them, 

 and Lucix having the right of priority is 

 retained as the proper name. But now 

 in steps the gardener to smash the bot- 

 anists' conclusions, he says that while R. 

 Lucise is a true species R. Wichuraiana is 

 no species at all, it is simply a natural 

 hybrid raised from R. Lucuc. In con- 

 firmation of this Mr. Dawson showed us 

 a lot of seedlings he had raised from R. 

 Wichuraiana, and they certainly display 

 a great variety of forms, many of them 

 having little or no resemblance lo the 

 parent; and he assures us that no other 

 rose whatever in the vicinity was in 



bloom when the R. Wichuraiana was in 

 flower, from which the seeds were gath- 

 ered that he raised these seedlings irom. 

 But seedlings raised from seeds of Rosa 

 Luciw obtained from Japan arc identical 

 with their parent. 



Rosa Lucl«,the influence of graft- 

 ing ON.—' Last spring I raised a lot of 

 .seedlings of R. Luciw, and while they 

 were tiny plants about two inches high I 

 grafted one onto a stock oiRosa multi flora 

 that I had established in a pot, and there 

 now is the grafted plant and there are 

 the seedlings on their own roots." So 

 spoke Mr. Dawson as he pointed out both 

 to us. The difference was almost incred- 

 ible. The seedlings were in boxes, one- 

 stemmed and from eight to eighteen 

 inches long, and looking fine; but the little 

 grafted plant had made a bunch of stout, 

 leafy branches or shoots that ran out 

 from five to thirteen feet long. There 

 was no gainsaying the fact, for we exam- 

 ined the plant closely and found all ot the 

 shoots to be this year's growth, and the 

 stock itself only second year's growth. 

 At the same time this is no proof that 

 ultimately the grafted plant would be 

 better than the own root plant. It 

 shows, however, what a good stock A'. 

 multifiota is lor working on, and what a 

 rapid means of propagation grafting is 

 when intelligently done. 



A DouBLEPiNKHYBRiDof Rosa Wichur- 

 aiana.— Mr. Dawson crossed A'. Wichur- 

 aiana with the common garden rose 

 General Jacqueminot, and among the 

 seedlings raised from this cross is one 

 with a somewhat general appearance of 

 the mother plant, but its blossoms are 

 exceedingly double, opening flat and of a 

 pale pink color; in fact, he assures us they 

 are almost an exact counterpart of the 

 lovely flowers of Souvenir de la Malmai- 

 son rose. 



Pyrus betul.sfglia as a stock for 

 pear trees.— This, the birch-leaved 

 pyrus, is a Chinese species, and when 

 seed can be obtained easily gotten up in 

 that way. As it stood in the nursery 

 rows it showed a free, sturdy, stocky 

 nature, rather than the tall growths of 

 ordinary seedlings of pear and apple 

 trees But Mr. Dawson has an idea that 

 it is going to be a great stock to graft or 

 bud pears on; the wood is supple and 

 workable, and it is a capital rooting 

 plant, making an abundance of fibrous 

 roots readily and "at home" instead of 

 spreading out in long thongs; more than 

 that it adapts itself bravely to light soils. 

 At any rate he is going to graft a lot of 

 the popular varieties of pears on this 

 stock this winter, and have the thing 

 tested practically. That's common sense. 



Lilacs grafted on Syringa villosa.— 

 Syringa villosa is a vigorous, one- 

 stemmed, Chinese species of lilac, that of 

 itself is an excellent and showv large 

 shrub, and it is about as easily raised 

 from seed as are lilacs in general (which 

 isn't an easy matter for an amateur); 

 more than that it is free rooting, hardy 

 and so far as we have experienced not 

 very subject to the ravages of borers. 

 Mr. Dawson having raised a large lot of 

 it from seed has used many of the seed- 

 lings as stocks to graft the finer varieties 

 of garden lilacs on. The grafts have taken 

 kindly and formed fine bushy heads. The 

 advantages of the villosa "stock are no 

 disposition to sucker, and as it forms a 

 quantity of roots all of these are at work 

 for the support of the one stem and its 

 head, rather than perpetually exerting 

 themselves in the production of suckers 

 as are common Hlac stocks. 



Lilacs for amateurs for outdoor 

 planting, however, had better be on their 



