November 27, 1909 



HORTICULTURE 



741 



Notes From the Arnold Arboretum 



Next to Vitis and its allies the most important genus 

 of vines is Clematis of which already several new spe- 

 cies have been mentioned in previous issues. The most 

 beautiful of all the new forms of this genus is undoubt- 

 edly Clematis montana var. ruhens differing from the 

 type of the species which has been in cultivation since 

 a long time in its larger and rosy red flowers produced 

 in great profusion during the summer; also the leaves 

 and the stem are tinged more or less purplish; the 

 leaves are trifoliate with ovate, long-pointed leaflets fur- 

 nished with a few large teeth. Another new variety is 

 C. montana var. Wilsoni, distributed first by Veitch as 

 C. repens, but the true C. repens is quite different and 

 not in cultivation. The var. Wilsoni has pure white 

 flowers, like the type, but they are much larger, meas- 

 uring two to three inches in diameter, and it flowers in 

 August instead of in spring, which much enhances its 

 value, a^ not many shrubs are in bloom at that time. 

 Another new variety is C. montana var. sericea with 

 pubescent leaves and large white flowers. A very strik- 

 ing and distinct new species is the evergreen Clematis 

 Arrnandi with long-stalked dark green trifoliate leaves 

 and white flowers, rosy pink on the back and nearly two 

 inches in diameter, borne in large axillary panicles; the 

 leaflets are ovate-lanceolate, from four or five inches in 

 length and quite entire. Clematis Oouriana has pionate 

 leaves with five ovate leaflets from two to three inches 

 long, entire or with a few teeth and green on both sides ; 

 the petioles and the young stems are purple; the white 

 flowers are small, but appear in great profusion in large 

 panicles. In regard to Clematis eriopoda mentioned in 

 the issue of July 3 I may add here that its correct name 

 is C. tangutica and C. eriopoda only a synonym of it. 



A very handsome and ornamental vine is Polygonum 

 muUiflorum figured in the issue of October 23; it is 

 very similar to the better known P. baldschimnicum. 

 Another closely related species is Polygonum Auberti 

 from Tibet with smaller leaves and slenderer panicles of 

 white flowers. 



An interesting new climber is Schizandra Henryi 

 closely related to S. chinensis which, though in cultiva- 

 tion since some time, is still little known; it is particu- 

 larly handsome in autumn with its drooping elongated 

 clusters of bright scarlet fruits. Schizandra Henryi dif- 

 fers in its larger leaves, from three to five inches long 

 and of thickish texture, and in the longer fruiting 

 racemes. 



With the large white bracts surrounding the flower- 

 ing corymbs Schizophragma integrifolia presents a strik- 

 ing picture when in bloom ; it is chiefly distinguished 

 by its entire leaves from the Japanese S. hydrangeoides 

 which is still rare in gardens, the plants found under 

 this name in cultivation being usually Hydrangea peti- 

 olaris. The large bract-like sepals of the sterile flow- 

 ers which surround the broad corymbs of S. integri- 

 folia are from two to three inches long and the ovate 

 leaves measure from four to seven inches in length. 

 1 Of more botanical than horticultural interest seems 



> the new Aristolochia hetcropinjlla with rather small flow- 

 ers similar to those of our native A. macrophylla (A. 

 Sipho) and with variable, partly three-lobed, partly en- 

 tire and ovate leaves from three to six inches in length. 



A number of other new Chinese Tines have already 



> been mentioned in previous issues as: Actinidia, Cle- 

 matocleihra, Pcriploca, Paederia, Celastrus, Lonicera 

 and Rubus. 



The East and the West 



As Horticulture is becoming a national paper and 

 will soon liave a wide circulation in the west as well as in 

 the east, it is well to note the conditions of the two sec- 

 tions and the class of stock adapted to different locations. 

 The climate of the Atlantic states is entirely different 

 from that of the great middle west, and many things 

 which can be successfully grown in Massachusetts are 

 utterly worthless in Nebraska. I think at times, after 

 repeated failures, that there is a sort of aristocracy in 

 some plants. They had rather die than live in "the wild 

 and woolly west." At any rate, many of them do die. I 

 have spent thousands of dollars in finding out what I 

 could not do, and the record of my failures ought to be 

 a valuable asset to the public. 



Now let us examine into the causes. The air of 

 Massachusetts is much more humid than that of the 

 Middle West. Added to this, in the summer we will 

 have the mercury up to 100 and over and the south 

 wind blowing like a blast of a furnace. I have had 

 beautiful white pines scorched to death by these Ameri- 

 can siroccos, and at times you could smell the prairie 

 grass as it was cooked and dried by the fierce heat. We 

 do not have these hot winds every year. But they are 

 sure to come — perhaps once in five or ten years they 

 are sure to wipe out the "tenderfoots." We have not 

 only the summer drouth but that of the winter also. 

 While your atmosphere registers 90 degrees of moisture, 

 ours on beautiful clear days will go but 5.5 or 60. Now 

 when trees and plants are frozen and the dry air is 

 pumping away at the tops it is hard on tender things. 

 I have watched a fine strong Concord grajie vine in 

 beautiful February weather kill down an inch a day, 

 and the condition which gives strength and joy to the 

 people is death to many plants. So it is that millions 

 of dollars in the West have been wasted by following 

 instructions taken from Eastern publications. The 

 most beautiful catalogues, garden manuals and nursery 

 books are published in the East. They are all right for 

 the Atlantic States, but their directions are of little use 

 west of the Missouri river. 



Most of those beautiful publications are so winning 

 and fascinating that they are taken in as the true and 

 only gospel of beauty. Every spring orders for impossi- 

 ble things pour into our western nurseries and the pro- 

 prietors are snubbed because they are so behind the 

 times and don't keep up with the procession. Alas, 

 they have been there before and have found to their cost 

 what cannot be done. Nevertheless people are bound 

 to have these things, and send for them to celebrate 

 their funeral within a year. For instance the broad- 

 leaved evergTeen azaleas, rhododendrons, kalmias and 

 hollies must have a moist climate. Planted out on our 

 prairies the tops are sucked dry and they are killed to 

 tlie ground. In sheer desperation, not to be whipped, I 

 bought one thousand of these beautiful shrubs and built 

 a good screen over them to save them from the drying 

 sun and hot winds and then I irrigated them when 

 needed, and everyone under the best of care was dead 

 in a year. Nevertheless the pictures in eastern cata- 

 logues are as alluring as ever and people will send on 

 just the same. 



York, Neb. 



(^ ifivyryvTr^ 



