158 



Garden and Forest, 



[Number 267. 



They are all forms of Cyclamen Persicum and its garden va- 

 riety, C. giganteiim. Or we may, with Bossier, take both as 

 garden varieties of C. latifolium, of western Asia and the 

 islands of the yEgean Sea. A plant which has been in cultiva- 

 tion for a hundred and sixty years has had ample time to de- 

 viate from the original type. The range of color is not as great 

 as that of the Primroses, being confined to white and shades of 

 red. Viewed in mass little but color is observed at first, for 

 the flowers are raised so well above the foliage that this is 

 scarcely noticed except when near at hand or the plants are 

 individually examined. An impression of great beauty of 

 form and color is made, not of brilliant, but of restful shades. 

 And the nearer view shows leaves of good shape and texture, 

 pleasingly varied with spots and bands of lighter green ; a 

 pretty root-stock, compact and cleanly looking, seeming to lie 

 on the surface of the ground, and bearing its ample stock of 

 leaves and flowers ; nodding buds, with the floral segments 

 neatly twisted in a spiral. All these lead us to admire the so- 

 called " Persian Violet," and pronounce it one of the best of 

 winter-blooming plants. 



A classified list of the various forms had been prepared by 

 Mr. Thorpe, ample enough for purposes of study and compari- 

 son, without going too far into unprofitable minutiae. Being 

 seedlings there was some variation in each group, mostly in 

 size and color of flower. They were placed under thirteen 

 "types." The sub-groups under Cyclamen Persicum were 

 Sanguineum, Rubrum, Album, "Wiggin's strain," and a 

 "mixed type" left for some not easily brought under other 

 heads. Under Cyclamen giganteum were Superbum, Atro- 

 purpureum, Magnificum, Roseum superbum. Crimson King, 

 Rosy Morn, Mont Blanc and Emperor William. 



Several of the exhibits are large, the specimens reaching 

 into the hundreds. That of R. & O. Farquhar & Co., Boston, 

 is one of the largest and makes the best impression as a whole. 

 The plants run pretty evenly, being well grown and thrifty. 

 Their Mont Blanc is the finest white in the exhibit, if not the 

 best of any strain. It is a pure snow-white, only an occasional 

 flower showing a trace of pink at the base of the petals, most 

 noticeable in the lot known as Dame Blanche. The flowers 

 are very large, some with segments more than an inch and a 

 half across, and from two to two and a quarter inches long. 

 They bear from six to twelve flowers on sturdy foot-stalks, 

 which are three to four inches high. The same strain is shown 

 in several of the exhibits and makes a good appearance in 

 nearly all. The Giganteum superbum of the same firm has 

 some individual flowers with petals two and a half inches long, 

 but not as wide as those of Mont Blanc. They are parti- 

 colored, the white ground splashed with red or colored with 

 pink, and the throat a purple-magenta. Other good examples 

 of the strain were in the exhibit of J. M. Thorburn & Co., New 

 York, but with the ground more apt to be of pink. The Rosy 

 Morn lot of Farquhar & Co. is also remarkable, ranging from 

 a light to a deep rose color, with a throat of purple or crim- 

 son. The flowers are large and the plants bloom profusely. 

 A fine lot of this type, of a very pure rose-pink, is shown by 

 James Carter & Co., London, whose exhibit is large and ex- 

 cellent. Rosy Morn, as seen in the collection from Haage & 

 Schmidt, makes fine, showy plants, but smaller-flowered ; in 

 that of J. C. Vaughn, Chicago, and of H. Cannell & Sons, 

 Swanley, England, the plants are all superior. Wherever seen, 

 the strain proved itself one of the best, being compact, thrifty 

 and holding its flowers well up. Crimson King appears in two 

 exhibits, Farquhar's and Carter's. They are handsome flowers 

 of a bright rose-crimson, with a more deeply colored base of 

 similar tints. Giganteum magnificum was shown by several 

 houses, a white flower with a purplish crimson base, the 

 ground not always pure, but blushed with pink. Fine exam- 

 ples of these are in the exhibits of Farquhar, Thorburn and 

 Vaughn. The large and attractive flowers are frequently quite 

 numerous, as many as twenty being counted in some stands. 

 Emperor William is also a good strain, the ground a deep rose- 

 pink, with magenta leanings and a purple or crimson base ; 

 flowers of good size. Those of Vaughn were quite noticeable, 

 the flowers on rather tall but sturdy scapes. In the Roseum 

 superbum class the ground is a light to an occasional deep 

 pink-magenta, blotclied with darker shades of purple or pur- 

 ple-magenta, the plants of good sturdy habit, as shown by 

 Thorburn & Co. and Haage & Schmidt. Thaugh not striking, 

 it is a type with variation enough to be rather pleasing. 



The Cyclamen Persicum strains did not appear in as many 

 lots, and were less noticeable on account of their smaller flow- 

 ers, but there were some choice plants among them. Persi- 

 cum sanguineum has a very rich color, a bright red-purple. 

 Some of this type, with velvety crimson petals, show the 

 richest-colored flowers in the exhibit. Not many such were 



noticed, the type generally being devoid of the velvety appear- 

 ance. Several of them were seen in a fair lot of very deep 

 crimson, shown by John Gardiner & Co. They were also 

 noted in a few cases in the lot of Farquhar & Co. and Carter & 

 Co. The Album type is as neat and pleasing in its way as the 

 Mont Blanc, though much smaller-flowered, the petals being 

 about an inch and a half long. It is a very pure white. But 

 two lots were shown, both by Philadelphia houses, Henry A. 

 Drew and J. Gardiner & Co. In the "mixed" or unclassified 

 sets quite a variety is discernible. Some come near the 

 original wild plants of the Levant, the flowers with segments 

 an inch and a half long and barely half an inch wide, the 

 corolla white, with a bright claret-purple throat. They served 

 well to indicate how far away from the type the gardener's art 

 has carried the plant in its variations, lor the contrast was 

 great between these small, but pretty flowers, and the large 

 ones of Mont Blanc and Rosy Morn, all of them being in the 

 exhibit of Farquhar & Co. Three or four stands of the 

 " mixed " type in a lot of Peter Henderson & Co. differed from 

 others observed, having the ground-color rose-pink, neatly 

 shading off by the thinning of the petals to a lighter tint at the 

 upper margin, with a very pleasing effect. 



Among so many seedlings some marked deviations from 

 given types, showing tendencies to new forms, which might 

 be fixed by careful selection, were to be expected. Some of 

 the most distinct of these were taken out and placed by them- 

 selves, being provisionally designated " World's Fair Collec- 

 tion." They made an interesting study, both as showing how 

 plants vary and how new forms originate. Some of these, 

 colored like others in the exhibit, had corollas much more 

 spreading, the petals being much less reflexed, in two or three 

 cases so little turned back as to have a surface nearly flat. 

 Such flowers presented a greater area when viewed in front, 

 thereby increasing the color-effect when they were separately 

 considered. But this was hardly a compensation for the loss 

 of that striking peculiarity which gives so much individuality 

 to the flowers of that group of Prim ulacea; comprising but two 

 small genera. Cyclamen and Dodecatheon. When a change 

 goes so far as to obscure or destroy the most original feature 

 of a plant, in itself desirable, it is obviously not an improve- 

 ment, however interesting it may be as a novelty. We some- 

 times feel like calling a halt to the gardener. The change in 

 this case was a kind of arrest in development, the petals having 

 been fixed at an angle which they must all pass through on the 

 way from the opening bud to the fully expanded flower, and on 

 looking through the greenhouse some might be seen in this 

 position. One of the most variable specimens of this kind, with 

 a corolla quite flat, or subrotate, had a diameter of nearly four 

 inches. It was of the purest cok)r, a delicate rose, and showed 

 this so efficiently by its attitude that one felt like forgiving it 

 for its abnormal shape. Another flower of ordinary form and 

 medium size was very distinct in its markings. The ground 

 was a somewhat dull rose, and was quite regularly penciled 

 with numerous narrow lines of varied length, running length- 

 wise of the petals, and of a darker shade of the ground tint. 

 Though the color was not of the best, the markings gave it a 

 character differing from anything seen elsewhere. 



Englewood, Chicago, 111. -E. y. Hill. 



The Forests of the South. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Under the heading of " Hardwood Timber in the 

 South," Garden and Forest for January iith had an extract 

 from an mteresting article by Dr. Mohr, of Mobile. The writer 

 was quite correct in his statements as to the vast quantities of 

 timber in West Virginia, Arkansas and the Yazoo delta of Mis- 

 sissippi, but I think his estimates of the quantity of hardwoods 

 in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee are too high. It is a well- 

 known fact, for instance, that the yellow variety of the Tulip- 

 tree, Liriodendron Tulipifera, only grows well in cool, well- 

 watered ravines. The tree can grow on the hard, gravelly 

 soil.of the Trenton limestone and Cincinnati or Hudson River 

 group, which forms the principal part of the highland rims 

 and Hickory barrens of central and eastern Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee, but it is of the white variety, small in size, stringy in 

 quality, and inferior to good Cottonwood. In the same way, 

 Oak, Ash and Hickory deteriorate in quality and decrease in 

 quantity on these dry, often gravelly uplands, of which so 

 large a part of these two states consists. East of the Cumberland 

 range in Kentucky, and of its continuation, Walden's Ridge, 

 in Tennessee, the broken, well-watered calcareo-siliceous soil 

 forms the finest possible land for luxurious tree-growth of all 

 kinds. Still further east, between the Smoky Mountains and 

 the Blue Ridge, the soft limestones and clays of the Quebec 



