328 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 442. 



access to tells to the contrary, but here was a new bushy va- 

 riety with large canary-yellow flowers produced from June till 

 frost. If we except the name, all of the rest promises to come 

 true, but I doubt if it is a Coreopsis. It has much greater 

 affinity with the Heleniums, so far as I can gather from Gray's 

 scholarly work on the North American Compositas. — [See 

 page 316 of our last number. — Ed.] 



South Lancaster. Mass. E. 0. Orpet. 



Correspondence. 

 An Interesting Sport. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — While passing through one of our principal Rose 

 nurseries lately I saw in a row of the Augustine Guinoisseau 

 (white La France) variety where a shoot the size of one's finger 

 had sprung up this season to the height of nearly three feet, 

 and there parted into four or five umbel-like branches. On 

 one of these was a well-developed flower of the true type and 

 on another an equally well-developed flowtr of La France. I 

 have seen a good many sports, but I believe none so well 

 defined as this in its primal condition. This, perhaps, may 

 be accounted for in the fact that Augustine Guinoisseau is 

 itself a sport from La France, and here it is sporting back to 

 the original sort. An effort will be made to propagate from 

 both the shoot and the stem on which the sport appeared, and 

 the result will be watched with much interest. Possibly we 

 may sometime know the reason for the production of these 

 sports, but it is certain we do not now. In the mean time we 

 can be thankful that Nature by this peculiar diversion has 

 given us some of her choicest benefactions. 



Fruitvale, Calif. H. G. Pratt. 



From the Missouri Botanic Garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The loss at the garden from the cyclone was not as seri- 

 ous as its friends feared, and since the removal of the wreck 

 one unfamiliar with the grounds might not note the vacancies. 

 The pile of cord-wood down beyond the arboretum is elo- 

 quent, however, to those who know its history ; for, after 

 burning the roots and waste branches, there remains about 

 100 cords of fire-wood, representing 450 trees of large or 

 fair size that were either uprooted, broken off, or so badly 

 mutilated as to be useless. Trees of tender or light root-growth 

 were torn from the ground, but by far the greater part were 

 snapped off at from five to six feet above the ground. A few 

 were broken off higher up, as, for instance, a splendid White 

 Pine at least sixty feet high (the best in the grounds) that stood 

 in the enclosure surrounding the old Shaw residence. It was 

 snapped off at about ten feet from the ground. 



The trunks were not twisted, and it is believed that the 

 damage done at this point was not due to the rotary motion of 

 the storm, but to the fierce gale that accompanied and followed 

 it. The moving storm-cloud seems to have come closer to 

 earth farther along on its course to the north-east, its main 

 fury being apparently reserved for the high ground around 

 Lafayette Park. The chief loss at the garden is among trees. 

 Catalpa and Osage Orange trees were practically exterminated. 

 The loss of the Catalpas is keenly felt by the garden authori- 

 ties, as there were some remarkably fine and large specimens 

 among them, several with trunks more than two feet in diam- 

 eter. Other trees whose loss is greatly deplored are two or 

 three of the best and largest specimens of Tilia heterophylla in 

 cultivation ; two of the best-grown and largest-known speci- 

 mens of Rhamnus catharticus, symmetrical round-topped 

 trees, from fifteen to twenty feet high, and with trunks eight to 

 ten inches in diameter. These were said by Mr. Nicholson, of 

 Kew, when he visited the garden a few years ago, to be the 

 largest he had ever seen. A Kentucky Coffee-tree, while not 

 so large (forty feet high), was particularly shapely and well 

 grown, and is greatly missed. Other noteworthy losses are a 

 picturesque English Hawthorn, about fifteen feet in height, 

 that was a noticeable feature of the Shaw dwelling-house 

 grounds ; a fine Corsican Pine that stood near the main en- 

 trance to the garden; the largest specimens of Magnolia 

 Fraseri and Copper Beech on the grounds ; and a number of 

 Tulip-trees, including a good one near the house and one in 

 the arboretum that Professor Trelease especially regrets as 

 being a tree that Mr. Shaw took pride in and pointed out to the 

 Professor as the tallest tree in the grounds when he assumed 

 the directorship of the garden some twelve years ago. The 

 tree was then 100 feet high. 



Neither time nor money can replace such features, but the 



loss that can be represented by figures reaches four thousand 

 dollars. This only covers the expense of removing debris 

 and repairing walks, fences and buildings. The damage to 

 buildings comprises the loss of the skylight of the Linnaean 

 house, the roof of one wing of the Gate house, part of the roof 

 of the herbarium and the demolition of an old stable. Iron 

 and other fences were injured in various parts of the grounds, 

 some shrubs were ruined, and walks and beds were wrecked, 

 but the feeling is that things might have been much worse. 

 This feeling is strengthened by the fact that a part of the unim- 

 proved ground is shortly to be reclaimed. 



Before the storm Messrs. Olmsted, Olmsted & Elliott had 

 been engaged to design the landscape work in the new part, 

 and in addition to plan for changes to be gradually made in 

 the old grounds, to bring them into harmony with the new. 

 The thinning out done by the tornado, or in consequence of 

 its mutilation, will result in greatly simplifying and liastening 

 the alterations in the old grounds, and increases the opportu- 

 nities for bringing them rapidly into relation with the land- 

 scape effects of the newly improved section. 

 Brighton, ill. Fanny Copley Seavey. 



The Water-garden at Willow Grove. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — No pleasure-ground is considered at the present time 

 complete without a water-garden, and the new park at Willow 

 Grove, fifteen miles from Philadelphia, on the Old York Road, 

 has this year included one in its attractions. The sheet of 

 water planted has pleasing shore lines, and it is spanned by a 

 graceful bridge at its narrowest part, the bridge being built of 

 red stone and covered by the Japanese Ampelopsis. The 

 piece of ground lying between the two main divisions of 

 water is planted with hardy Grasses, Bamboos and other sub- 

 tropical plants, including a large specimen of Li vistonia. Near 

 the shores are some effective flower-beds, although the scar- 

 let blaze of a great mass of Geraniums at one point is too near 

 the soft colors of the Water-lilies, which are now in bloom. 

 The water-garden is some five hundred feet long and averages 

 fifty feet wide, and here are planted, in groups, a large variety 

 of the hardy and tender Nymphaeas and Nelumbiums. The 

 hardy sorts were set out the last of April, and a number of 

 flowers opened in June. On the 28th of June the first flower 

 of Egyptian Lotus appeared, and early in July there was a pro- 

 fusion of these flowers and the plants were making luxuriant 

 growth. The tender Nymphaeas were planted the latter part 

 of May and some produced flowers the first week in July. 

 Until last October the site of the park was« farm in a high 

 state of cultivation, the natural soil being loam, with a tena- 

 cious clayey subsoil. In the construction of this section of the 

 park much grading was necessary. The top spit was valua- 

 ble and was utilized, after the grading was completed, as atop 

 soil for planting shrubbery, bedding-plants, etc. It also 

 afforded excellent soil for planting the aquatics. The soil in 

 the water-garden was excavated to the depth of three feet ; 

 afterward from fifteen to eighteen inches of the top soil was 

 placed in the bottom. The outline of the pond is laid in 

 masonry and is kept below the ground-level, which slopes 

 genlly to the edge, and the sod covers the masonry. Besides 

 this pond there is also a Victoria pond, fifty by sixty feet, which 

 is heated by steam from the adjacent power-house. 



The Egyptian Lotus is succeeding well. It bears transplant- 

 ing under proper conditions, but must not be set out too early. 

 Natural conditions and suitable locality should be provided, and 

 the tubers should show signs of starting. Among the early- 

 flowering Nymphaeas those of the Odorata type are noticeable. 

 A clump of variety Rosea fifty feet across is a charming sight, 

 as is also a mass of Sulphurea, the exquisite yellow flowers 

 lifted above the water on erect stalks. The southern variety, 

 Gigantea, is superb. If this is started in pots the flowers, as 

 well as the leaves, will be larger and stronger when the plants 

 are established. All the hybrids of the European species, N. 

 alba, are strong robust growers and free and continuous in 

 flowering until frost, and they are doing well here. N. alba 

 candidissima and N. albida are among the best white flowers ; 

 N. carnea is a soft pink ; Marliac's Rosea is the choice of the 

 hardy red ones, and N. chromatella is well known as a rich 

 yellow. These are all well represented, as are also a number 

 of the tender Nymphasas, embracing all the colors from pure 

 white, pink, red, crimson, blue, purple and yellow. 



Altogether this new garden well shows the advance in culti- 

 vating aquatic plants. Fortunately, those who desire to visit 

 it will find themselves traversing the most interesting trolley- 

 road that leads out of Philadelphia, winding through delightful 

 scenery, by rich fields, luxuriant pastures and wooded hills. 



