516 



HORTICULTURE 



AprU 21, 1917 



tried to burn down liis house but, 

 luckily, had failed. 



Leaving the priest to his work, his 

 gloomy forebodings on the future, and 

 the tragic memories of his lamented 

 companion, I took a cross-country road 

 and on the afternoon of the 25th reach- 

 ed the hamlet of Ma-huang-po and the 

 house where Dr. Henry had stayed 

 when he found the Davidia tree on 

 May 17, 1888. Did the people remem- 

 ber Dr. Henry? Did they know the 

 K'ung-tung (local name of Davidia)? 

 To these and similar questions they 

 pleasantly answered in the affirmative. 

 Would some one guide me to the tree? 

 Certainly. We sallied forth, I in the 

 highest of spirits. After w-alking about 

 two miles we came to a house rather 

 new in appearance. Near by was the 

 stump of Henry's Davidia. The tree 

 had been cut down a year before and 

 the trunk and branches formed the 

 beams and posts of the house! I did 

 not sleep during the night of April 25, 

 1900. 



On the first of May I was back at 

 Ichang with my mind made up to col- 

 lect all the plants I could in western 

 Hupeh during the year, and in the late 

 winter journey westward a thousand 

 miles, and there hunt for the Davidia 

 in the region where it was first dis- 

 covered by Pere David in 1869. With 

 this resolution made I let the subject 

 drift from my mind. On May 19th 

 when collecting near the hamlet of Ta- 

 wan, distant some five days southwest 

 of Ichang, I suddenly happened upon 

 a Davidia tree in full flower! It was 

 about fifty feet tall, in outline pyra- 

 midal, and with its wealth of blossoms 

 was more beautiful than words can 

 portray. When figuring Henry's fruit- 

 ing specimens in Hooker's "Icones 

 Plantarum" [XX. t. 1961, (1891) ] the 

 Keeper of the Kew Herbarium wrote: 

 "Davidia is a tree almost deserving a 

 special mission to western China with 

 a view to its introducton to European 

 gardens." On beholding this extra- 

 ordinary tree for the first time I no 

 longer marvelled at the Keeper's 

 strong language. And now with a 

 wider knowledge of floral treasures of 

 the Northern Hemisphere I am con- 

 vinced that Davidia involucrata is the 

 most interesting and most beautiful 

 of all trees which grow in the north 

 temperate regions. The distinctive 

 beauty of the Davidia is in the snow- 

 white connate bracts which subtend 

 the flower proper. These are always 

 unequal in size — the larger usually six 

 inches long by three inches broad, and 

 the smaller three and one lialf inches 

 by two and one half inches: they range 

 up to eight inches by four inches and 

 five inches by three inches. At first 

 greenish, they become pure white as the 

 flowers mature and change to brown 

 with age. The flowers and their at- 

 tendant bracts are pendulous on fairly 

 long stalks, and when stirred by the 

 slightest breeze they resemble huge 

 butterflies or small doves hovering 

 amongst the trees. The bracts are 

 somewhat boat-shaped and flimsy in 

 texture, and the leaves hide them con- 

 siderably, but so freely are they borne 

 that the tree, from a distance, looks as 

 if flecked with snow. The bracts are 

 most conspicuous on dull days and in 

 the early morning. 



Later. I found two other trees in the 

 same neighborhood and, in localities 



varying from fifty to one hundred 

 miles apart, eight others. These eleven 

 trees were carefully watched through 

 this anxious year of the Boxer 

 trouble: they fruited freely, and in 

 November I gathered a rich harvest of 

 seeds which were despatched to Eng- 

 land, where they safely arrived in due 

 course. In 1901, when on an experdi- 

 tlon through the northwest of Hupeh, 

 I discovered the Davidia in quantity 

 and more than a hundred trees became 

 known to me. From these hundred 

 trees I did not secure a hundred seeds, 

 and during subsequent visits to China 

 extending over a decade I never again 

 saw Davidia friiiting in the manner it 

 did in 1900. The fruit may be likened 

 to that of a walnut, but is more or less 

 ellipsoid, or, more rarely, roundish in 

 shape and about one and one fourth 

 to one and three fourths inches long. 

 The color is greenish russet and slight- 

 ly reddish on one side and the flesh is 

 very thin and gritty. The "nut" con- 

 sists of a number of seeds arranged 

 around an axis and embedded in 

 woody tissue as hard as flint and ab- 

 solutely unbreakable. On their arrival 

 in England in the early spring of 

 1901 the "nuts" were sown in various 

 ways — some in strong heat, some in 

 boxes and pots and placed in various 

 temperatures, others (and the larger 

 quantity) out of doors in a prepared 

 seed-bed. Some were soaked in hot 

 water, some in cold, others were flled 

 down — in short, everything that a 

 skilled and resourceful projjagator 

 could think of was put in operation. 

 Weeks passed, months passed, and 

 nothing happened. When I reached 

 England at the end of April, 1902, not 

 one seed had germinated and grave 

 fears were expressed — failure almost 

 anticipated. I made it my first busi- 

 ness to examine the seeds. Those in- 

 doors under various conditions, save 

 for being blackened, exhibited no ap- 

 parent cliange and no signs of ger- 

 mination. Those in the seed-bed out 

 of doors had been subjected to the win 

 ter's frost, and on digging out, a few- 

 signs of change were apparent. Some 

 of the "nuts" exhibited slight longi- 

 tudinal cracks from the summit to 

 about two thirds down; in others a 

 narrow valve-like shutter was forced 

 back slightly and the tip of a root 

 showed clearly. All was well. In a 

 month or so thousands had sprouted, 

 and from this bed an assistant and I 

 potted up more tlian thirteen thousand 

 plants, of which nearly every one grew. 

 Of the seeds sown indoors scarcely a 

 single one ever germinated. 



I brought home with me, in 1902, 

 three or four living plants and these 

 were planted in various positions in 

 the Coombe Wood nursery and in the 

 summer grew amazingly. So, too, did 

 the seedlings, and Davidia immediately 

 made itself at home in England. The 

 first to flower in England was a seed- 

 ling plant in the Coombe Wood nur- 

 sery in May, 1911, and a cut branch 

 was exhibited by :\Iessrs. Veitch at the 

 famous Temple Show on May 23rd, and 

 received a First Class Certificate — 

 the Royal Horticultural Society's high- 

 est award. Since that date many have 

 flowered in various places and fruit 

 was produced in 1915. In Kew Gar- 

 dens there are now trees nineteen feet 

 tall and thirteen inches in girth ol 

 stem. 



TWO WILSON LILIES 



During the year it has been possible 

 to set at rest all doubt as to the spe- 

 cific distinction between two Western 

 Chinese Lilies, L. Thayerae and Will- 

 mottiae, concerning the relationship of 

 which there has been a good deal of 

 doubt since Wilson put them into 

 Western hands some years ago. 



Though there has never been any 

 difficulty in distinguishing typical 

 plants one from the other, a general 

 and superficial family resemblance is 

 probably responsible for the notion 

 that the two plants are but forms of 

 the same thing. If all else failed, how- 

 ever, it seems clear l;rom an examina- 

 tion of the capsules that the two lilies 

 should be kept apart. 



L. Thayerae originally came into 

 cultivation from Messrs. Veitch's nur- 

 sery as L. sutchuenense (Francliet), 

 under which name it is grown at Kew, 

 and it has always been a little difficult 

 to understand how the robust and flori- 

 ferous plants one may see in bloom at 

 Kew ever came to be regarded as iden- 

 tical with Hooker's dwarf and lax- 

 stemmed L, sutchuenense of the Bot. 

 Mag., t. 7715. 



The identity of L. Willmottiae (Wil- 

 son) is even now not certain, and Wil- 

 son inclines to the view that it may 

 be the true L, sutchuenense of Fran- 

 chet, not to be confused with L. sut- 

 cliuenense of the Bot. Mag. around 

 which a fog of uncertainty and doubt 

 has gathered. The point will doubt- 

 less be cleared up ere long, and, how- 

 ever that may be, there is no question 

 but that L. Wilmottiae, as we must 

 continue to call it for the present, is 

 a remarkably fine garden plant, dis- 

 tinct from any others of the pseudo- 

 tigrinum section which have come 

 under our notice up to the present. 

 — A. Groi^e in Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 London. 



Plant Propagation, Greenhouse 

 and Nursery Practice 



B.v M. G. KAINS 



We have had many inquiries from 

 tlm© to time for a re]ial)le and up-t^ 

 date booli on plant propagation, but 

 were always at a loss to find any pub- 

 lication that we could recommend. The 

 subject has been dealt with in fragmen- 

 tary manner only in books that have 

 come to our notice. So it is well that 

 this new worli has been issued, especi- 

 ally as it is tioth comprehensive and 

 practical, and it should meet with a 

 ready sale among plautsmeu, nursery- 

 men and gnrdeners. There are nineteen 

 chapters cuverlug in detail topics of 

 germination and longevity of seeds, 

 propagating by buds. layering, cuttings, 

 grafting, etc., fruit tree stocks, cions, 

 etc., and there are eight pages of con- 

 densed cultural instructions in tabu- 

 lated form, covering annuals and peren- 

 nials from seed, woody iilants, eTer- 

 greens. vines, bulbs and tubers, green- 

 house and house plants, ferns, palms, 

 water plants, orchids and cacti. The 

 illnstrations are numerous, comprising 

 213 figures and halftone plates. There 

 are 322 pages well bound and on heavy 

 PMper, teeming with helpful InformatloB. 

 It is a book which no cultivator can 

 .nfford to do without. It is worth many 

 times Its price. Copies can be supplied 

 from the office of HORTICDLTUHH at 

 publisher's price, $1.60. 



Horticulture Publishing Co. 



147 BUmCEB. ST., BOSTON, MABS. 



