434 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 453. 



from which the following may be interesting to your read- 

 ers. The best of all Roses as an exhibition flower is Mrs. 

 John Laing, Hybrid Perpetual, which since its introduction 

 has held a first place among show Roses. Next to this are 

 placed Ulrich Brunner and Madame Gabriel Luizet, the 

 former standing first among crimson sorts. It is, I am 

 told, identical with your American Beauty.* La France is 

 given first place among Hybrid Teas, and this is, I observe 

 in Mr. E. J. Hill's interesting note, also a favorite with 

 you. The Teas and Noisettes are to me of more interest 

 than any others, and the following are the best dozen sorts 

 according to the analysis : Catherine Mermet, The Bride, 

 Comtesse de Nadaillac, Innocente Pirola, Maman Cochet, 

 Marie Van Houtte, Souvenir d'E. Vardon, Souvenir d'un 

 Ami, Ernest Metz, Souvenir de S. A. Prince, Niphetos and 

 Madame Hoste. The American variety, Bridesmaid,- raised 

 by May and sent out in 1893, stands twenty-eighth on the 

 list of favorites. The two best Teas introduced since 1890 are, 

 in the opinion of the leading rosarians, among nursery- 

 men and amateurs, Maman Cochet and Bridesmaid. I feel 

 certain that Tea and Noisette Roses are destined to take a 

 much more prominent place in gardens even than they 

 occupy now. Ever since the beginning of June our beds 

 of these Roses have been gay with flowers, and now, in 

 October, long after the Hybrid Perpetuals have ceased to 

 do more than develop an odd flower here and there, our 

 plants of Marie Van Houtte, Laurette Messimy, Souvenir 

 d'un Ami, Caroline Kuster and Comtesse Riza du Pare are 

 heavily laden with beautiful flowers and buds in all stages 

 of development, so that, unless severe frost comes, we shall 

 have a fine display of these Roses till well into November. 

 Many cultivators declare that Tea Roses are too tender to 

 be grown successfully out-of-doors, but, I say, do not be- 

 lieve it till you have tried them well. They were once 

 considered hopeless at Kew. 



Exhibition of Fruit. — The Royal Horticultural Society's 

 great exhibition of fruit grown in Great Britain has been 

 held again this year at the Crystal Palace, and, although 

 the number of dishes staged fell short by some hundreds 

 of those staged last year, the displayed lacked nothing in 

 variety and quality. It is surprising how the standard 

 varieties continue to occupy first place among the favor- 

 ites ; thus, in apples, the four that ranked first in popularity 

 with exhibitors are among the best six apples grown — that 

 is, Cox's Orange Pippin, Rebston Pippin, King of the Pip- 

 pins and Warner's King. No less than one hundred and 

 seventy-two varieties of pears were represented. There 

 was some wisdom in the observation made at the con- 

 ference that of this number one hundred and fifty could 

 well be dispensed with. The first quartet among the one 

 hundred and sixteen varieties shown was Pitmaston 

 Duchess, Marie Louise, Doyenne du Cornice and Beurre 

 Diel. Coe's Golden Drop was the best plum. At the con- 

 ference papers were read on Fruit as Food, The Cider and 

 Perry Industry and Gathering and Storing Apples and 



London. W. WatSO/1. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Restio subverticillatus. 



THE illustration on p. 435 is from a photograph of a 

 specimen of Restio subverticillatus, which has been 

 an object of interest in one of the greenhouses at Kew for 

 the last fifteen years. There is also a fine specimen of it 

 in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. It forms an elegant 

 mass of arching Bamboo-like culms from three to six feet 

 long and clothed with long filamentose branchlets, a well- 

 furnished culm suggesting a horse's tail. The plant is 

 perennial, and it produces its culms freely, the branchlets 

 remaining green upon them for several years. I know no 

 plant, either indoors or out, that presents anything like the 

 appearance of this. It might be described as a singular 



* Rosarians in this country consider American Beauty identical with the Madame 

 Ferdinand Jamin. 



combination of the characters of a Rush and a Casuarina. 

 Being a female plant, and the only one, it does not 

 mature seeds at Kew, although it produces the small 

 Triticum-like red spikelets on the apices of the branch- 

 lets in great abundance. It may be propagated by 

 means of division of the root-stock or from cuttings 

 formed of the branchlets which are borne in whorls 

 on the culms similarly to the branchlets on Bam- 

 boos. The Kew specimen is planted in a bed of gravelly 

 soil in a sunny position in an intermediate house; the 

 Edinburgh plant is grown in a large pot along with Cape 

 Heaths, etc. We find that it enjoys plenty of water always. 

 We are unable to find any record of the introduction of 

 this species. Thirty years ago Dr. Masters described it 

 under its present name in a monograph of the genus 

 Restio, published in the fournal of the Linncean Society, 

 vol. viii., where he says that at that time it was grown in 

 English gardens under the name of Willdenovia teres. It 

 is a native of south Africa. The order Restiacea; is related 

 to the Sedges (Cyperacea?) and comprises about twenty 

 genera and 250 species, all natives of either south 

 Africa or Australia. There are about a hundred species 

 of Restio, but so far as is known only that under 

 notice has any place in horticulture. In The Treasury of 

 Botany it is stated that none of the species of Restio are 

 "of any special interest or deserving of cultivation." We 

 should say that in gardens where R. subverticillatus can be 

 grown out-of-doors it would prove a highly ornamental 

 plant for the water-side, and that it is likely to find favoras 

 a pot-plant is seen in the fact that one of our leading nur- 

 serymen has acquired a stock of it to work it up for the 



market. 1Tr TTT 



London. ". Watson. 



Plant Notes. 



Calycaxthus lav/egatus. — The Sweet-scented Shrub, or 

 Carolina Allspice, Calycanthus floridus, grows wild in the 

 rich woods south of Virginia, and none of our native 

 shrubs is more frequently seen in gardens new or old. Its 

 deep wine-colored or lurid purple flowers are well known 

 for the exquisite strawberry fragrance which they exhale 

 when crushed. Occasionally it is killed in cold winter, 

 but C. lava^gatus, another native species, has a rather more 

 northern range, extending along the Allegheny region well 

 up into Pennsylvania, and it is altogether an admirable 

 shrub. Its large oval leaves, with a rather sharp apex, are 

 green on both sides, slightly roughened above, and its 

 flowers are rather smaller than those of C. floridus. The 

 leaves rarely show much autumn color, although just 

 now some of them about this city have turned to a 

 clear yellow, and so, by the way, have the leaves of C. 

 floridus in Central Park. C. lavaegatus is a shrub of excel- 

 lent habit, its outer branches arching to the ground in a 

 circle five or six feet across. For lawn or park planting its 

 abundant rich-colored, healthy foliage makes it most de- 

 sirable. 



Cultural Department. 



Utilizing- Coal Ashes. 



COAL ashes are gradually gaining for themselves a distinct 

 place in horticulture. It is usually removed to the dump- 

 heap, thrown upon the walks and drives, or used for filling 

 where it can be well covered with the surface soil, and yet it is 

 doubttul if a better material than coal ashes can be found for 

 certain purposes about the greenhouse. The method of pot- 

 ting bulbs and burying them deeply to exclude the light, so 

 that roots may be formed before the tops start into growth, 

 has much to commend it, and coal ashes is one of the best 

 materials for covering them. Their texture is such that good 

 drainage is obtained and more air admitted than would proba- 

 bly enter most soils. Moreover, the ashes, being direct from 

 the furnace, contain no form of life, either animal or vegeta- 

 ble, and insects do not thrive in it ; hence a comparative free- 

 dom from subterranean parasites is insured, and bulbs are less 

 liable to decay than when ordinary soil is used. A table or 



