September 23, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



383 



them. R. copallina is also common, and the Staghorn 

 Sumach occasional. 



The Sweet Viburnum, V. Lentago, does well in quite 

 exposed positions, and grows to a goodly height when pro- 

 tected by the brow of a hill or a wind-break of trees. The 

 Maple-leaved Viburnum and the round-leaved Cornel, 

 C. circinata, are often encountered in the shelter of the 

 woods, being shrubs of similar habits. With them grows 

 the Witch Hazel, but less abundant. The Hop Tree, Ptelea 

 trifoliata, and an arborescent Hackberry, Celtis occiden- 

 talis, van pumila, grow near the shore of the lake. 

 The Hackberry has straggling, subspinescent branches 

 and ascending or spreading stems, which are sometimes 

 fifteen feet or more in length. They form dense clumps 

 with the aspect of a scraggy Thornbush, and a general 

 appearance so unlike that of the common Hackberry as to 

 be hardly recognized as the same species. In the fall they 

 are sparsely provided with dark brown or purplish drupes, 

 the thin sweet flesh orange-colored within. The common 

 Juniper, though more abundant on the lower dunes, is 

 equally at home upon the higher. Its prostrate stems and 

 dense ascending branches, thickly covered with leaves, 

 form one of the best protectors for the underlying sand 

 when it has once become established. 



Rosa blanda and R. humilis are among the first of the 

 smaller shrubs to appear on the dunes, and can be found 

 growing in sands where other kinds of vegetation are quite 

 scanty. They blossom when but six or eight inches high, 

 and the common height in these dry localities scarcely 

 exceeds a foot. The stems also are very apt to be sup- 

 plied with prickles. The Huckleberries and Blueberries 

 are in great abundance. Gaylussacia resinosa and Vacci- 

 nium vacillans require more protected spots for their suc- 

 cessful starting than the Roses, but when established cover 

 extensive areas of open land upon the hills or their sloping 

 sides, and are spread abundantly throughout the less 

 densely wooded tracts. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum is less 

 common on the high sandhills, as it takes more naturally to 

 the lower sand ridges or skirts the bases of the hills nearer 

 the supplies of water. New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus Ameri- 

 canus, grows promiscuously with the Huckleberries, and 

 sometimes appears in plots which are handsome and effec- 

 tive, both for their numerous racemes of white flowers and 

 bright green foliage. They also preserve their leaves 

 very late in autumn, looking fresh and green after 

 most of the deciduous shrubs have yielded to the frost. 

 All of these small shrubs have a stoloniferous habit, and 

 when fires sweep over them and destroy their exposed por- 

 tion the subterranean shoot-axes at once renew their stems, 

 which quickly reclothe the ground. They are among the 

 most effective agencies in maintaining the fixity of a dune. 

 Diervilla trifida is another pretty little shrub which mainly 

 hugs the bases of the trees or keeps in sheltered spots. To 

 these must be added the humblest shrub of the sand dunes, 

 Hudsonia tomentosa, whose prostrate stems, densely cov- 

 ered with fine gray leaves, delight in the most exposed 

 positions in the sand, just as they elsewhere take to the 

 rocks. 



Chicago, 111. -£• J- nlll. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Climbing Plants for Tropical Houses. 



THE value of climbers for furnishing plant-houses, 

 apart from the attractiveness of the plants themselves, 

 is recognized in many good gardens. They drape the 

 rafters, clothe the pillars and afford shade most effectively 

 when employed with an eye to their habit of growth. The 

 difference between a plant-house devoted to decorative 

 gardening, the roof of which is clothed with elegant climb- 

 ers, and one in which they are not used is too striking to 

 call for comment. I have seen most picturesque improve- 

 ments made in conservatories by the mere addition of a 

 few roof-climbers, the shoots ot which were allowed to 

 hang loosely. The ugliness of a conservatory roof unfur- 



nished with some drapery of this sort is unpardonable. 

 Climbers are sometimes so cribbed and confined by 

 close tying and severe pruning that they do compara- 

 tively little toward roof embellishment. Even those 

 plants whose stems are stiff and require to be allowed to 

 grow near the glass to induce them to flower maybe made 

 more interesting and useful by releasing the stems and 

 even adding small lead-weights to pull them down while 

 in bloom. Solanum Wendlandii, Allamandas, Cleroden- 

 drons, are cases in point. If allowed to grow their own 

 way their flowers develop close to the glass where they 

 are scarcely to be seen from below, whereas an ounce or 

 so of thin lead neatly coiled round the stalk of the raceme 

 when in bud causes it to hang so that when the flowers 

 expand they are in full view. These are details, but their 

 observance makes all the difference between good and bad 

 effect. 



Pruning also requires to be done with an eye to the pecu- 

 liar nature of the plant, and especially to its season and 

 method of flowering. Plants which flower on the young 

 shoots of the current year should be pruned immediately 

 after the flowers have faded. Such plants are the Bigno- 

 nias, Clerodendrons and Hexacentris. On the other hand, 

 plants which flower on the ripened wood of the previous 

 year's growth should be thinned rather than pruned, and 

 the strongest shoots cut out annually. Of course, many 

 climbers practically prune themselves, or their stems are 

 deciduous. 



Almost every one of the tropical climbers named here 

 enjoys a liberal allowance of sunshine. At Kew in the large 

 houses they get no shade whatever, and they grow well 

 and flower freely. Climbers naturally make for the tops of 

 trees where they can enjoy the sunshine. One might say 

 they are climbers because they want sunshine, which in a 

 state of nature they can only obtain by scrambling up and 

 over whatever happens to keep the light from them. 



Climbers are a special feature in the large houses at Kew, 

 and this year, owing, no doubt, to the excessive amount of 

 bright sunshine experienced during the summer months, 

 they have flowered profusely, giving the roofs of some of 

 the houses a pleasing and interesting appearance. Many 

 of the plants grown in a botanical establishment are defi- 

 cient in decorative characters, and this is true of a large 

 proportion of the climbers to be seen in the houses at Kew. 

 But they are all interesting in a botanical sense, and a list 

 of all the climbers grown at Kew would, no doubt, be of 

 some value. Here, however, I propose to name only those 

 plants which are easily grown, flower freely, and when in 

 flower are decidedly ornamental. Some of them are popu- 

 lar favorites, while others are as yet grown only by the 

 few ; they are all plants that merit a place among select 

 climbers for tropical conservatories. 



Aristolochias. — The best of these are Aristolochia gigas 

 Sturtevantii, which for the last month has been a source of 

 as much interest and enjoyment to visitors as the Victoria 

 regia, over which the Aristolochia stems have festooned 

 themselves and now develop their enormous flowers half a 

 dozen or more at a time. A. elegans is a delightful little 

 plant for a pillar or a rafter in a small house, and A. hians, 

 with its bright green kidney-shaped leaves and elegant 

 bird-like flowers colored creamy white, with purple-brown 

 veins, is a more useful plant than its near and more robust 

 ally, A. Brasiiiensis. 



Allamandas. — In addition to the forms of Allamanda 

 neriifolia, of which A. Hendersoni, Chelsoni and Williamsii 

 are the best, there is the thin-stemmed, small-leaved A. 

 grandiflora, which bears elegant trumpet-shaped flowers 

 of the richest canary-yellow color. It grows weakly when 

 on its own roots, but is robust anil healthy when grafted 

 on A. neriifolia. 



Anemop.egma racemosum (Bignonia Chamberlainii) is a 

 stout, vigorous grower, its stems attaining a length of twenty 

 or thirty feet in a few months, which in the autumn are 

 clothed with axillary clusters of soft yellow Bignonia-like 

 flowers. A. denocalymna nitidum and A. comosum are near 



