64 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 259. 



compact plant of rigid appearance, from six inches to a foot 

 high. It produces large dark purple flowers in terminal spikes, 

 and remains in flower during a large part of the summer. It 

 is a perennial, and grows naturally in nearly pure limestone, 

 and will therefore be a good rock-garden plant. 



Marshallia ccespitosa, like the last, grows on limestone-rock, 

 and may also be found valuable in the rock-garden. It has 

 been useful with me for edgings. It is a little Composite with 

 a simple stem terminating in a solitary large white head, 

 looking very much like a Scabiosa ; it is a perennial withpmall 

 spathulate, reticulate leaves. M. ccespitosa blooms only in the 

 spring, and can be increased by root division and by seeds. 



Pentstemon Cobasa is a well-known species with large mag- 

 nificent flowers, shading very nearly from pure white or violet 

 to red-purple, with darker markings. This plant appears to 

 offer an opportunity for producing a new strain of garden- 

 plants by intercrossing the different varieties or by hybridizing 

 it with other species, several of which grow in Texas. P. Cobaea 

 is quite abundant on upland prairies, and never fails, when it 

 is in flower, to attract the attention of the most indifferent peo- 

 ple. It blooms during the spring, and occasionally also in 

 summer. 



Dalea frutescens is a small shrub; the upper part of the 

 stems, which are covered with elegant foliage, divides into 

 numerous branchlets, which are literally covered with loose 

 heads of pretty, bright violet-colored, pea-shaped flowers. The 

 great merit of this fine plant is that it blooms late in the au- 

 tumn. It grows naturally on rocky limestone prairies, but is 

 not very common in this part of the state. 



Yucca rupicola is a stately species with glaucous rigid 

 leaves without threads on the margins. The flower-stem is 

 branched, five to seven feet high, and sometimes bears as 

 many as seventy pure white flowers, which appear in May and 

 June. In several respects this species is superior as a garden- 

 plant to Y. filamentosa. It grows wild on rocky limestone 

 bluffs in western Texas. ^ _, , 



Dallas, Tex. 7- Reverchoit. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — IV. 



OF the true Magnolias three species grow naturally in 

 Japan ; two of these belong to the section of the 

 genus which produces its flowers before the leaves appear 

 and which has no representative in the flora of America ; 

 the third, Magnolia hypoleuca, bears some resemblance to 

 our Magnolia tripetala. This tree is seen at its best in the 

 damp rich forests which cover the low rolling hills of 

 Yezo, where it sometimes rises to the height of a hundred 

 feet and forms trunks two feet in diameter ; on the other 

 Japanese islands it is confined to the mountain forests, and 

 apparently does not descend below 2,000 feet above the 

 sea ; and it is only in Yezo and on the high mountains in 

 the extreme northern part of the main island that I have 

 seen it of large size. In central Japan it rarely appears 

 more than twenty or thirty feet high, although this can 

 perhaps be accounted for by the fact that all trees in the 

 accessible parts of the Japanese forests are cut as soon as 

 they are large enough to be used for timber. Magnolia 

 hypoleuca must in any case be considered a northern 

 species, requiring a cold winter climate for its best de- 

 velopment, and it probably does not thrive in regions 

 where the ground is not covered with snow during several 

 months of every year. 



Magnolia hypoleuca is one of the largest and most 

 beautiful of the deciduous-leaved Magnolias ; in the early 

 autumn when the cones of fruit, which exceed those of 

 any of our species in size and are sometimes eight inches 

 long, and are brilliant scarlet in color, stand out on the 

 branches, it is the most striking feature of the forests of 

 Hokkaido, which in variety and interest are not surpassed 

 by those of any other part of the world. Like Magnolia 

 tripetala, it is a tree of open habit, with long spreading 

 irregularly contorted branches covered, as well as the 

 trunk, with pale smooth bark. The leaves, however, are 

 not as much crowded together at the ends of the flowering 

 branches as they are in the American species, and are 

 placed rather remotely on the branchlets ; they are twelve 

 or fourteen inches long and seven or eight inches broad, 

 and on young vigorous trees are sometimes twice this 

 size. On the upper surface they are light bright green 



and pale steel blue, or sometimes almost silvery on 

 the lower, so that when raised by the wind they give the 

 tree a light and cheerful appearance. A flowering branch 

 of this species, obtained from a tree in Central Park, New 

 York, was figured in the first volume of this journal (Fig. 

 49), in which the flowers are described as six or seven 

 inches across when expanded, with creamy white petals 

 and brilliant scarlet filaments ; they appear in May and June, 

 after the leaves are nearly full grown, and are very fragrant. 



Magnolia hypoleuca is still rare in gardens, although it 

 was sent by Mr. Thomas Hogg to the United States as 

 early as 1865, and has been propagated in the Parsons' 

 Nursery at Flushing. For many years it has flowered in 

 the neighborhood of New York, and more recently in Mr. 

 Hunnewell's garden at Wellesley, Massachusetts, and it is 

 probable that it will thrive in any part of the northern 

 United States, although, like other Hokkaido trees, it may 

 suffer from summer and autumn droughts, which are un- 

 known in Japan, where the rainfall during August and 

 September is regular and abundant. As an ornamental 

 tree Magnolia hypoleuca is superior to Magnolia tripetala 

 in the fragrance of its flowers and in the coloring of its 

 leaves ; it is less desirable than Magnolia macrophylla, 

 which surpasses its Japanese relative in form and in the 

 size and beauty of its flowers and leaves, which are the 

 largest produced on any plant of the Magnolia family, and 

 larger than those of any other North American tree. 



As a timber-tree Magnolia hypoleuca is valuable. The 

 wood, like that of all the Magnolias, is straight-grained, 

 soft, light-colored, and easily seasoned and worked. It is 

 esteemed and much used in Japan for all sorts of objects 

 which are covered with lacquer, especially sword-sheaths, 

 which are usually made from it ; in Hokkaido it is also 

 used in the interior finish of houses and for boxes and 

 cabinets, although harder woods are generally preferred 

 for such purposes. 



In the forests of Hokkaido a second species, Magnolia 

 Kobus,* occurs. A figure, the first which has been made of 

 this species except by Japanese artists, appears on page 66 

 of this issue ; it is from a drawing of a specimen for which 

 I am indebted to Professor Miyabe, of the Agricultural 

 College at Sapparo. 



Magnolia Kobus sometimes grows in the neighborhood 

 of Sapparo to the height of seventy or eighty feet, and de- 

 velops a tall straight trunk nearly two feet in diameter, 

 covered with rather dark, slightly furrowed bark. The 

 branches are short and slender, and form a narrow pyra- 

 midal head, which only becomes round-topped when the 

 tree has attained its full size. The branchlets are more 

 slender than those of most species of Magnolia, and are 

 covered with dark reddish brown bark. The flowers ap- 

 pear near Sapparo in the middle of May, before the leaves, 

 from acute buds an inch long, half an inch broad, and pro- 

 tected by long thickly matted pale hairs. They are from 

 four to five inches across when fully expanded, with small 

 acute caducous sepals and narrow, obovate, thin, creamy 

 white petals ; the stamens, with short broad filaments, are 

 much shorter than the narrow acute cone of pistils. The 

 leaves are obovate, gradually narrowed below, and abruptly 

 contracted at the apex into short broad points ; they are 

 pubescent on the lower surface at first, especially on the 

 stout midribs and primary veins, but at maturity are 

 glabrous, or nearly so, and are bluish green, and rather 

 lighter-colored on the lower than on the upper surface ; 

 they are six or seven inches long, three or four inches 

 broad, rather conspicuously reticulate-veined, and are 

 borne on stout petioles half an inch to an inch and a half 

 in length. The fruit is slender, four or five inches long, 

 and is often contorted or curved from the abortion of some 

 of the seeds ; it is dark brown, the carpels conspicuously 

 marked with pale dots. 



* Magnolia Kobus, DeCandolle, Syst. i., 456. Miquel, Prol. Ft. Jap., 146. Maxi- 

 mowicz, Mil. Biol., viii., 507. Franchet& Savalier, Enum. PI. Jap.., i., 16. < 

 Magnolia tomentosa, Thunberg, Trans. Lin. Soc, ii., 336, in part. 

 Magnolia glauca, var. a, Thunberg, Fl. Jap., 236. 

 Kobus, Koempiier, Icon. Select., t. 42. 



