132 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[March 2, 1912. 



scores of the beautiful gold-dusted trum- 

 pets standing up bravely to the sun in the 

 garden at Warley Place will not easily fade 

 from the memory. 



With August well into its stride, the 

 dews falling heavy night after night, and 

 seed of many of the earlier species already 

 in the pans, the lover of Lilies might well 

 be forgiven if his gratitude for all the de- 

 lights vouchsafed to him was tinged with 

 just a suspicion of regret that the wonder- 

 ful year was all but gone. 



NEW OR NOTEWORTHY 



PLANTS. 



THE GIANT CYPRESS OF FORMOSA. 

 The forests of Formosa have lately been de- 

 scribed* by Dr. Hofmann, who states that the 

 Conifers begin in the mountains at about 

 6,000 feet elevation, succeeding the zone of ever- 

 green Oaks and Laurels. The coniferous forest 

 between 6,000 feet and 8,600 feet is mainly corn- 



through the aid of Mr. Firth, excellent speci- 

 mens of this Cypress, and a living plant, which 

 is now about 3 feet high, and growing vigorously 

 at Bayfordbury. Mr. H. Clinton-Baker received 

 from Dr. Shirasawa, in 1911, a quantity of seed, 

 which has been distributed to various gardens in 

 England, Ireland, the Continent, and N\ 

 America, so that there is every chance of this 

 species having a fair trial at any rate as an 

 ornamental tree. "Young seedlings at Bayford- 

 bury, raised from seed sown last March, are 



posed of two species of Cypress, one of which is about 4 inches high, and very thriving. I con- 

 identical with the valuable Cupressus obtusa of sider it unlikely that the Formosan Cypress will 



True the Tiger Lily— an excellent vege- ^ while the other . g a gpecieg peculiar to be as useful in Britain for economic planting as 



table, by the way, and by no means a dear 

 one — L. Henryi, auratum and speciosum of 

 the many beautiful forms and the simplest 

 culture, were still in the heyday of their 



the island, and remarkable for its gigantic size, the Lawson Cypress. 



which has been named Cupressus formosensis. 



Cupressus formosensist was first described 



glory, while L. sulphureum, lone; and lank, , , , . \. u rt ° . -., -, 



P . Y i • -i. j. j i and nearly pure woods, in which occur isolated 



but lovely, was in its accustomed place, . , ., n j. m • T •„ n * mAA M 



, •" f ,, ii, » • specimens of the peculiar laiwama, a tree re- 



ready as ever for the annual duty of ring- i v • +u ~ ~ n + ™ •„ 



j , , . . , , T ., . , & sembling in appearance the common Cryptomeria. 



ing down the curtain on the Lilies year, & 



but with August merging into September, 



there comes to gardeners, and especially 



the early risers, that intangible feeling, 



born, no doubt, of dewy cobwebs, the wail 



of the peewit, and a subtle something in 



the morning air, that the year is on the 

 wane. 



It is time to take stock, turn to account 

 the many lessons an Italian summer and 

 an interminable drought provides, and 

 gather in the wonderful harvest of seed 

 to which, for once in a way, every hardy 

 species in cultivation has contributed its 

 quota, with the sole exceptions of L. 

 Leichtlinii and L. sutchuenense : if for this 

 alone, forgetful of all else, the Lily grower 

 will long remember the summer of 1911. 

 A. Grove, Henley-on-Thames. 



These two Cypresses in the lowermost coniferous under Chamaecyparis, by Matsumura, and was 

 zone are the dominant species, forming extensive briefly spoken of by me in my account of the 



genus Cupressus in the fifth volume of Trees of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. It may be described 

 as follows : 



FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



. NANNORHOPS RITCHIEANA. 



In your number for February 3 is figured 

 Nannorhops Ritchieana, and IF. TF. says : 

 " That it is doubtful if this Palm is in cultiva- 

 tion anywhere in Europe." In the Royal Botanic 

 Garden of Rome there is one large plant of this 

 species. It is a fine specimen, not growing tall, 

 but creeping, with large, well-developed foliage. 

 Prof. Tirotta informs me that it was raised from 

 seed 10 or 15 years ago. 



The Botanical Garden at Rome is very interest- 

 ing for the rare plants which are grown 

 in t lie open, including species which are 

 seldom seen growing outdoors in Italy. 

 Of the large numbers I mention only a 

 few of the more interesting. Kiggelaria 

 africana, a large, tall tree from Abyssinia; 

 the new Trachycarpus (Chameerops) Takil; 

 Pseudopanax crassif olium, a very fine specimen ; 

 Calliandra coccinea and other species ; Quercus 

 incana, the beautiful evergreen Himalaya Oak ; 

 Peumus Boldus, Maytenus Boaria, a fine, tall, 

 tree of Dammara Brownii; the very pretty 

 Pittosporum phyllyraeoides, with long, smail 

 lanceolate leaves and yellow, sweet-scented 

 flowers ; P. ferrugineum, with dark-brown, quite 

 blackish flowers ; Psiadia arabica, Tricuspidaria 

 dependens ; Corynocarpus laevigata ; Ficus ulmi- 

 folia ; Carissa and Gordonias in many species, 

 and Laurus sericea, a very beautiful tree. There 

 is, moreover, a fine collectiofi of typical Yuccas— 

 baccata, Schottii, and macrocarpa. Other note- 

 worthy collections include species of Phoenix 

 and other Palms and species of Bambusa. Of 

 Conifers, a complete series of Cupressus is re- 

 markable. 



Every visitor to Rome should spend some 



hours in this large garden, whence one of the best 



views of the Eternal City is obtainable. Willy 

 M tiller. 



3 



/?<JD 



Fig. 53. 



I, cupressus pisifera; 2, c. formosensis; 3, c. obtusa; showing the 

 folTage, seeds and cone scales of the three species. 



Above the Cypress forests other Conifers become 

 abundant, including peculiar species of Pine, 

 Hemlock (Tsuga), and Spruce. 



Cupressus formosensis attains enormous dimen- 

 sions, and deserves to rank with the great trees 

 of the Pacific coast of North America. Dr. 

 Hofmann reproduces the photograph of a tree 

 growing near Goten, at 8,000 feet elevation, 

 which is 195 feet high, with a stem 20 feet in 

 diameter, and containing 8,800 cubic feet of 

 timber. The best parts of the Cypress forest, 

 composed of smaller trees, 2 feet to 4 feet in 

 diameter, and very dense on the ground, mea- 

 sure, on an average, 34,000 cubic feet per acre. 



Mr. H. Clinton-Baker has kindly lent me a 

 photograph (fig. 54), taken by Mr. A. R. Firth, 

 H.B.M. Consul at Tamsui, which represents a 

 tree growing on Mt. Morrison, 125 feet in height, 

 with a stem 67 feet in girth, and giving off the 

 first branch at 45 feet from the ground. 



Lapt. -L. Clinton-Baker, R.N., obtained also, formosensis. Matsumura, in Tokyo Bot - *f *&£<,$.* & 



A tree with the flattened branchlet-systeni 

 characteristic of the section Chamacypan, 

 closely allied to Cupressus pisifera of J a P ! 

 and, like it, having the front and back leaves 

 the branchlet equal in length to the 1*" ? 

 leaves. Ultimate branchlets flattened, ft l j£ 

 wide. Leaves appressed, but free at 

 curved and shortly mucronate a P e *'/ a . es; 

 leaves conduplicate, as long as the faci al .,, ' 

 facial leaves ovate, ft inch long, flattened, ei« 

 keeled (as towards the apex of the branciue . 

 or depressed in the centre, with a lon #;?* 

 obscure gland. Foliage dull green on botn ^ 

 faces, or covered more or less on the * ** 

 face with an irregularly diffused, whitish t> w» 

 Cones ripening in the first year, elljP* ^ 

 £ inch in diameter; scales 10 or 11, vV1 ^ 

 outer surface wrinkled, brownish, depress 



a Henry 5 

 + Cupressus formosensis, Henry, in Elwes ana af fc 

 Trees of Great Britain, V., 1,149 (1910); Cham^)F^ 



* In Centralblatt fur Forstwesen (1911), pp. 1-18, figs. 4 



and 5. 



(1901); Matsumura and Hayata, Enum. P l ' IZ^ k 5 

 (1906) ; Beissner, in Mitt. Deut. Dendr. Gts. ^'{kfa. 













