62 Annals of Hortiadture. 



Forest,^ but I may supplement the information already given 

 by recording the fact of the bulbs having stood uninjured the 

 severe weather here of the past two months. L. Bolafideri is 

 another new lily, small-flowered, almost black in color and 

 likely to please those who cultivate this beautiful but some- 

 what refractory genus. Three new species of gladiolus, 

 namely, G. decoratiis, G. prwiulinus and G. Kirkii, flowered at 

 Kew last year, and were so distinct in color and size as to have 

 attracted the attention of breeders of these plants. These 

 three will no doubt eventually be heard of again. Thalic- 

 tnim Delavayi, a pretty hardy plant from south-western 

 China, completes the list of new, good, hardy, herbaceous 

 plants. 



"Trees and Shrubs. — Cytisus scopariiis, var. Afidrea?uis, is 

 the only beautiful new plant in this department. It is a seed- 

 ling variety of the common broom, the flowers large, rich yel- 

 low, with the wings colored velvety maroon. Grafted on 

 short stocks of the type it makes a presentable pot-plant and 

 flowers freely when small, so that it should prove valuable in 

 spring as a greenhouse plant." 



The fear expressed by Mr. Watson that we are giving our 

 attention too exclusively to the improvement of old plants is 

 no doubt well founded. The days of active and general in- 

 troduction of new species have passed away. It is but nat- 

 ural that our chief effort should be that of ameliorating the 

 rich and varied harvest of a few decades ago, but there must 

 still remain in foreign lands more plants worthy of introduc- 

 tion than we now have in our gardens. Even the most fam- 

 iliar countries still possess treasures for us. We have drawn 

 so largely upon Japan, for instance, for our fruit and orna- 

 mental plants that there is a common feeling that it holds 

 nothing more for us. I have therefore asked Professor George- 

 son, of the Kansas Agricultural College, who was for three 

 years connected w^ith the Imperial College of Agriculture in 

 Japan, to write upon the question, What more can Japan con- 

 tribute to our horticulture ? 



'' No other country of its size has contributed so much to en- 

 rich and beautify our gardens as Japan. There is not a pleas- 

 ure garden, scarcely a door yard, in the land, with a modest col- 

 lection of shubbery, which does not contain representatives 



*iii ([890), 428, 484, 525. 



