March 9, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



.47 



THE 



No. 1,315— SATURDAY, March 9, 1912. 



CONTENTS. 



Ant plants 156 



Apples from Australia 156 

 Big bud, spraying for ... 158 

 Birds, essay competi- 

 tion on 156 



Blickling Hall, Norfolk 157 

 Brambles, Chinese ... 147 

 Carnations, perpetual- 

 flowering 158 



Charlock, spraying for 157 

 Cucumber canker ... 155 

 Dairy - Research In s ti- 



tute, a 154 



Flora of the Upper Gan- 



getic Plain, the ... 156 

 Flowers in season ... 156 

 Foreign correspondence — 

 The Avocado Pear in 



California 150 



Forest and ornamental 



trees in 1911 158 



Forestry- 

 Raising Conifers from 



seeds 158 



Fruits, the artificial 

 ripening of ... ... 156 



Fuel, trees for 159 



Gardeners' R :>yal Bene- 

 volent Insritution ... 156 

 International Horticul- 

 tural Exhibition ... 154 

 Ireland, notes from ... 157 

 Kew Gardens, visitors 



to, during 1911 ... 155 



Lettuce Petite Noire 



for a winter supply 151 

 Lilies and sunshine ... 159 

 Market fruit garden, the 148 

 Newstead, Prof. R. ... 155 

 Obituary- 

 Adams, Herbert J. ... 162 



Orchid notes and glean- 

 ings— 

 Hybrids of Lselia 

 superbiens 151 



Papaw in Queensland, 

 the 156 



Plants for a dry border 159 



Pope, Mr. Samuel, pre- 

 sentation to ... ... 155 



Potassium in plants ... 157 



R.H.S. examination of 

 public parks' em- 

 ployees 155 



Rosary, the — 

 Cultural notes for 



March 151 



Roses under glass ... 151 



Rothamsted experimen- 

 tal station, grant for 157 



Rubber pest, the ... 157 



School of Agriculture, 



Cambridge 155 



Scotland, notes from ... 15d 



Societies — 

 Durham Botanical 



andHort 162 



Linnean 161 



Manchester Botanical 16'J 



National Chrys. ... 155 



Royal ... ... .. * 155 



Royal Horticultural. . 159 

 Southampton Royal 



Hort K5 



Surveyors' Institution 155 

 United Hort. Benefit 



and Provident 155 



Soil fertility, some fac- 

 tors of 150 



Soil, poisons in the ... 154 



Solanuin jasminoides... 158 



Weeks work, the 152, 153 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Blickling Hall, Norfolk, views in the gardens at 156, 167 

 (and Supplementary Illustration) 



Brambles, some Chinese 140 



Cattleya Brenda .*. 155 



Lettuce, a good crop of winter 151 



Rubus, a new species of white-stemmed 147 



Rubus bambuBarum, a fruiting spray of ... 148 



CHINESE BRAMBLES. 



FOR SHRUBBERIES, PERGOLAS, AND 



PLEASURE GROUND. 



HE newer Chinese species of Rubus include 

 several handsome plants suitable for the 

 embellishment of the pleasure grounds, 

 wild garden, and woodland. Their beauty 

 lies chiefly in their ornamental foliage and 

 coloured stems, which are very attractive in win- 

 ter. Several are evergreens. The plants of the 

 various species vary considerably in the shape of 

 their foliage and habit of growth, whilst certain 

 of them have agreeably-flavoured fruits of fair 

 size, and may prove of use to the hybridist. 

 Rubus biflorus var. quinqueflorus (see fig. 63), a 

 plant of particularly vigorous growth, produces 

 rich, golden-yellow Raspberry-like fruits, of 

 pleasant flavour and good size. 



were collected by Wilson during those two introductions from China are at least half-a- 



years. Of this number more than 40 are in 

 cultivation at Kew, where a border near to the 

 Pagoda is planted exclusively with them. They 



dozen worth growing for their coloured stems in 



winter. 



The members of the Rubus family thrive in 



were planted mostly in the autumn of 1909, most soils and positions, but they do best in 

 and after two seasons' growth it is possible to well-cultivated, rich loam. It is worth while re- 

 form some idea of their value for garden decora- cording the fact that the two evergreen species, 

 tion. Their flowers, of no great beauty, are R. irenaeus and R. tricolor, judged by their be- 



inferior to those of several of the North American 



haviour during the summer of 1911, apparently 



species. The leaves, however, are very beautif ul require a moist, half-shaded position. 



Species growing in close proximity will, in all 



inter-cross 



freelv 



Although 



and far superior to those of any of the American 



or European species. In habit of growth and leaf probability, 



variation the Chinese Brambles provide valuable Brambles are raised readily from seeds, layers 



root freely, and this is the best method of pro- 

 pagating the plants true to kind. Only re- 

 cently, whilst tying up some of the long, slender 

 shoots made by the plants last summer at Kew 



garden plants. A number form large, straggling 

 bushes with stout stems and more or less arching 

 branches varying in different species from 5 feet 

 to 12 feet or more in height. Plants of this type 



are suitable for grouping in the shrubbery border, we found the ends which were lying on the 

 or for massing in the wild garden and wcudland, ground had commenced to pu.<h out young shoots. 



The aim of the cultivator should be to en- 

 courage the development of vigorous growths, 

 for these have the most attractive stems in 

 winter, and flower and fruit best the succeed- 

 ing year. The beauty of the deciduous kinds is 

 improved by cutting out the old growths in 

 autumn. R. Lambertianus and R. Thunber^ii 

 var. glabellus were killed to the ground 

 level in the winter of 1910 at Kew, but pushed up 

 growths freely the following spring, and at the 



[Photograph by C. P. Raffill. 



Fig. 6i. — an unnamed species of white- 

 stemmed RUBUS. 



whilst several, notably R. thibetanus (Veitchii) 

 and R. biflorus var. quinqueflorus, are worth 

 planting in beds on the outskirts of the pleasure 

 grounds. In public parks they may be employed 

 either as ornamental subjects or to form im- 



Mr. A. Henry collected many specimens of penetrable fences and masses along the shrub- 

 Rubi in China, and he has described how rich the bery borders 

 country is in Brambles. He sent home seeds 

 of several species, notably R. lasiostylus, which 

 was figured in the Botanical Magazine, tab. 

 7426, from specimens raised at Kew from Mr. 

 Henry's seeds. To Mr. E. H. Wilson, however, 

 belongs the credit of introducing by far the 

 larger number of species, first when collecting on 

 behalf of Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, during 



The species with long, slender, trailing shoots, 

 most of which are evergreen, are admirably 

 adapted for clothing arches, pergola*, pillars, 

 verandahs, old tree stumps, or as a change from 

 Ivy to cover sloping banks. 



The Himalayan R. biflorus, the " white- 



present time are equal in vigour to their asso- 

 ciates. As, however, R. Lambertianus passed 

 through the winter in other gardens unharmed, 

 the dying-back of the shoots may not have been 

 due to frost. 



The following evergreen species are ttie best 

 for clothing pillars, pergolas, and verandas :- — 

 R. bambursarum (see fig. 62), R. chroosepalus, 11. 

 flagellirlorus, R. Parkeri, R. Playfairii, and R. 

 Swinhoii. 



A selection with attractive stems in winter 

 should include : — R. biflorus var. quinqueflorus 



(see fig. 63), R. GiraldianoJB* R. lasiostylus, R. 



adenophorus, R. thibetanus (see fig. 63), and R. 

 trianthus. 



The best for their fruit are : — R. adenophorus. 

 R. biflorus var. quinqueflorus, R. corchorifolius 

 (see fig. 63), R. ichangensis, R. innominatus, and 

 11. Kuntzeanus. 



In addition to the evergreen species, R. thibet- 

 anus and R. biflorus var. quinqueflorus have par- 

 ticularly attractive foliage. 



New Species. 



A more detailed description of some of the 

 newer introductions may be useful. 



R. adenophorus, Rolfe.— This new species was 

 introduced bv Mr. E. H. Wilson, and resembles 

 R. phcenicolasius. The glandular hairs, to which 

 tha plant owes its name, occur thickly on the 

 stems and on the veins of the undersides of the 

 leaves. Young growths at Kew last summer ^rew 

 7 feet to 8 feet in length. The more exposed parts 

 of the stems and petioles are dark-red, the former 

 having red prickles |th inch in length. The 

 leaves are pinnate, generally consisting of three 

 leaflets, but occasionally five, the terminal one 

 being the largest ; they are dull-green, pubescent 

 beneath, up to 12 inches in length, and two 

 thirds as wide as they are long. The flowers 

 are borne on short terminal panicles ; the fruit 

 is of the size of a small Raspberry, the drupes 



being red with black tips, 

 able flavour, and 



They are of an agree- 



The 



in September. 



stems in 



ripen 

 plant is worth cultivating for its red 

 winter, and the ornamental foliage in 

 The growths require no support. 



washed "-stemmed Bramble was, until within the Focke, is a synonym. 



summer. 

 R. sagatus, 



last two or three vears, the only species culti- 



R. bambusarum, Focke (see fig. 62). — This 



1907 and 1908, then for Harvard University, and vated for its showy winter stems, but several of species is a very distinct and elegant evergreen 



again in 1910. Wilson's 1907-1908 expedition 

 yielded the largest number of new species. Ac- 

 cording to Plantce Wilsoniance, published in 

 July, 1911, seeds of 51 species and varieties 



the new-comers have a white bark, as, for 

 example, the new species represented in fig. 61. 

 R. lasiostylus has a purplish bark that turns 

 almost white in winter, whilst amongst the newer 



plant. The long, trailing shoots are from 10 feet 

 to 15 feet in length, and furnished with a few 

 spines, also, when young, with a dun-coloured 

 tomentum. The leaves consist of three, rarelv 





