444 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 454. 



Outside, there are many rare plants happily provided for : 

 the hardy Cacti are well represented ; Gerbera Jamesoni has 

 leaves as large as Docks and flower-scapes two feet high, 

 bearing large, rich orange-colored flowers ; Anomatheca 

 grandiflora, Crinum crassifolium, Capparis spinosa, Anthe- 

 ricum Bowkeri and other reputed tender plants are here in 

 robust health in sheltered corners outside. Hardy Bam- 

 boos are well represented; indeed, Mr. Lynch was the first 

 to show how effective these plants are when planted in 

 groups in the neighborhood of water. Parrotia Jacquemontii 

 is doing well in a sheltered position. Hardy Fuchsias are 

 specially cared for ; a large collection of Willows, another 

 of Rubus (Brambles) and another of Roses are noteworthy. 

 All kinds of moisture-loving or bog-plants are grouped 

 about the margins of the lake orcozily set in a bog-garden, 

 surrounded by sloping banks upon which rare Ferns, Prim- 

 roses and select herbaceous plants are at home. An enor- 

 mous group of Tree Ivy, sprawling over the lawn, is a 

 picture at all times of the year, and the vigorous growth of 

 the Indian Dodder, Cuscuta reflexa, upon its stems gives it a 

 special interest for botanists. Ephedra distachya is here a 

 magnificent specimen twelve feet through. On one of the 

 walls a plant of Thladiantha dubia had grown very freely, 

 and for the last three months of the year it bears hundreds 

 of ovate fruits three inches long and colored scarlet to 

 crimson. This plant is worth growing for its decorative 



London. W. Watson. 



Entomological. 

 Another Plum Scale. 



PROFESSOR A. B. CORDLEY, of the Oregon Experi- 

 ment Station, has just sent me specimens of a Leca- 

 nium scale numerously infesting a twig of Plum. When I 

 opened the box and saw a Lecanium, I thought at once 

 that the New York Plum scale must have reached Oregon ; 

 but a second glance showed that I had before me an insect 

 not before found in the United States. This is, I think, 

 without any question, the European Lecanium bitubercu- 

 latum, named originally by Targioni-Tozzetti in manu- 

 script, and described by Signoret in 1873. The species is 

 a very peculiar one, and I cannot find that the Oregon 

 examples differ in anything from the European type. The 

 scale in size and shape is like the New York scale, but 

 there are two prominent nipple-like tubercles on the back ; 

 and sometimes two others, less prominent, in front of them 

 From each of the larger tubercles to the edge of the scale 

 runs a keel. All this can be seen with a lens of low power, 

 or, indeed, with the naked eye. A microscopical character 

 is found in the tibio-tarsal articulation of the legs, which is 

 thickened. The scales are often more or less marked with 

 white ; such examples Targioni-Tozzetti proposed to name 

 pictum. 



Curiously, this scale is not recognized as a Plum scale in 

 Europe, but is found upon Hawthorn, Crataegus oxyacantha. 

 It is not, surprising, however, that a Hawthorn scale should 

 attack the Plum. It is widely distributed in western 

 Europe. Signoret reports it as occurring in quantity at 

 Florence, Cannes and Hyeres. Mr. Sulc has found it in 

 Bohemia. Mr. Douglas records it from Exeter and Lee, 

 in England, and Mr. Newstead had it from Heacham, 

 Norfolk. 



Mr. Cordley's specimens are labeled "No. 18. C. L. 

 Dailey. Salem, Oregon, 1-28-96." Just how troublesome 

 this scale is going to be with us it is too early to predict, 

 but if it becomes abundant it may very likely rival the New- 

 York insect. 

 Mesiiia, n. m. *■ £>■ A. Lockerell. 



When the forest floor is covered with brown November 

 leaves, how cheerful is the unwithering Polypody, clothing the 

 rocks with perennial verdure, defying frost and full of life. 

 How strangely interesting the form of its small plumes, fit to 

 be a tuft about the base of a column. Why should not its 

 form be copied by our sculptors instead of the foreign Acan- 

 thus leaves and berries ? — Thoreau. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Aspidium cristatum x marginale, Davenport. 



THIS Fern, which was first published and described by 

 me * as a hybrid between Aspidium cristatum and 

 A. marginale, is now figured for the first time from draw- 

 ings made by Mr. Charles E. Faxon, and I avail myself 

 of the opportunity to give a brief resume of its history, 

 and to emphasize more strongly than heretofore the 

 essential characters by which it may always be distin- 

 guished from its congeners. 



Originally discovered by Mr. Raynal Dodge, of New- 

 buryport, Massachusetts, and sent by him to Professor 

 Eaton, who placed it in my hands for elucidation, this Fern 

 received a most thorough and careful investigation extend- 

 ing through a period of nearly two years before publica- 

 tion. Since its publication I have made frequent and 

 careful observations on the plants growing on my own 

 grounds, side by side, with Aspidium cristatum and A. 

 marginale, with the result that I reaffirm more strongly 

 than ever its right to recognition. Whether considered as 

 a hybrid or an independent species, the evidence here ad- 

 duced must establish beyond any reasonable question its 

 right to a permanent place among our Ferns, while the 

 fact of its having been found in six or seven different sta- 

 tions, wide apart, shows that it is not a mere transitory 

 freak, but a form that is likely to be found in many more 

 stations, if not, indeed, almost everywhere where its proba- 

 ble parents grow together, or near by, under favorable 

 conditions. 



Mr. Faxon's drawing (see page 445) was made from 

 specimens recently taken from a plant growing on my 

 grounds, but which originally came from Boxford, Massa- 

 chusetts, in 1893, and the frond drawn was selected as being 

 typical in character. A comparison of this frond with cor- 

 responding fronds of Aspidium cristatum and A. marginale 

 shows that this one combines characters belonging to the 

 other two, the upper portion being similar to A. marginale 

 in breadth and the long, acuminated lanceolate pinnae and 

 the lower portion, about one-third of the whole, resembling 

 A. cristatum in the shorter, broader and obtuse pinnae. 

 The texture and venation is nearly that of A. cristatum. 



The position of the sori in this Fern varies a little, being 

 sometimes nearly, or submarginal, or nearly medial, but 

 usually a little nearer to the margins than in Aspidium 

 cristatum, while the indusia are generally, before ripening 

 off, convex, as in A. marginale. The bases of the stalks in 

 this Fern are more densely clothed than in A. cristatum, 

 and with similar pale brown scales of two kinds — the lower 

 long linear, the upper ovate — as in A. marginale. But the 

 strongest argument for this Fern's position lies in the struc- 

 ture of the root-stock, that of A. cristatum lying horizontal, 

 with a lateral development of the crown, while in A. mar- 

 ginale and in this Fern the root-stock is a true caudex, 

 growing erect with a central development of the crown, as 

 shown in Mr. Faxon's figures of the root-stock of A. cris- 

 tatum, from a plant growing in the open, where it had 

 every opportunity to grow erect if so disposed, and the 

 root-stock of this Fern, the caudex being halved to show 

 the erect growth of the stipites which surround the grow- 

 ing end in a circle, exactly as in A. marginale. 



To sum up the result of my three years' observations on 

 these three Ferns, I can come to no other conclusion than 

 to consider the present Fern as a hybrid between the other 

 two, and as it may be looked for with every probability of 

 finding it under conditions similar to those under which it 

 has already been found, I append comparative descriptions, 

 giving the most essential characters and the stations from 

 which it has already been recorded : 



(A) Aspidium cristatum : Root-stock recumbent, crown late- 

 ral, crosiers thinly clothed with darkish brown scales. 

 Fig. 36 (5). Fronds (fertile) linear-lanceolate, narrowing 

 below ; pinnae obtuse, or slightly acute. Fig. 36 (4). Sori 

 medial, indusia flat. 



i: Botanical Gazette, vol. xix., p. 494, December, 1894. 



