194 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 271. 



it also inhabits Saghalin, Corea and eastern Manchuria 

 where it was discovered. 



The common Prunus Padus of Europe and northern 

 Asia reaches northern and central Yezo, where it is not 

 rare in low ground in the neighborhood of streams and 

 where it grows to a considerable size. A much more 

 common tree in Yezo and in the elevated forests of Hondo 

 is Prunus Ssiori, another Bird Cherry, always easily dis- 

 tinguished by its pale, nearly white bark. It is a hand- 

 some glabrous tree with oblong membranaceous leaves 

 and long graceful racemes of small flowers, well worth 

 introducing into our plantations as an ornamental plant. 

 It grows also in Saghalin, where it was discovered by 

 Schmidt, in Manchuria, and in western China. The wood 

 of Prunus Ssiori is very hard and close-grained, and is 

 used by the Ainos for numerous domestic purpcTses. 



Prunus Grayana, the third Japanese Bird Cherry, is com- 

 mon in all the mountain forests of Hondo and extends 

 across the straits of Tsugaru into southern Yezo. It is a 

 small tree twenty to thirty feet high, with a slender trunk, 

 ample membranaceous long-pointed setaceo-serrate leaves 

 bi-glandular at the base but without glands on the petioles, 

 a peculiarity which best distinguishes this species from 

 Prunus Padus, although the hair-like teeth of the leaves 

 are characteristic and apparently constant. 



Of true Plums there are in the flora of eastern America 

 no less than nine or ten indigenous species, of which six 

 are considered trees ; in some parts of the country these 

 plants are exceedingly common and in early spring en- 

 liven forest-glades, or the sea-coast of the north with their 

 profuse and fragrant flowers ; but Japan apparently pos- 

 sesses no indigenous Plum-tree, and although Plums are 

 sometimes cultivated in the neighborhood of Japanese 

 houses they are by no means common, and the fruit 

 which is offered for sale in the markets is not abundant or 

 of good quality. 



In recent years a good deal has been heard in this 

 country of Japanese Plums which are now successfully 

 cultivated in the southern states. Some of these varieties 

 have possibly been made in Japanese gardens, but the 

 original stock from which they have all been derived is 

 probably some southern China or Indian species of doubt- 

 ful identity — perhaps, as has been suggested, the Prunus 

 triflora of Roxburg, an obscure plant, which is possibly a form 

 of Prunus domestica. But the parentage of the so-called 

 Japanese Plums will not be satisfactorily settled until 

 competent botanists have explored western and south- 

 western China, where are to be solved many of the prob- 

 lems which relate to the origin and geographical distri- 

 bution of a considerable number of cultivated plants. 



c. s. s. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



New Plants. 



I SAW this week the collections of new and rare plants, 

 some of which are to be exhibited by Messrs. Sander 

 & Co., at the Ghent Quinquennial Exhibition next week, and 

 as some of them are of very exceptional merit and likely 

 to attract a good deal of attention, I propose to briefly de- 

 scribe them here. 



Strobilanthes Dyerianus. — A very beautiful foliage-plant, 

 introduced from Singapore and named in compliment to 

 the Director at Kew. It forms a compact herbaceous 

 plant, eighteen inches high, with opposite leaves six or 

 nine inches long, three to four inches wide, tapering at 

 both ends, smooth, and colored shining rose-purple. As a 

 foliage-plant it is likely to rank with the very choicest, hav- 

 ing all the attractions of a Bertolonia. It has terminal erect 

 flower-spikes six inches long, each flower being an irreg- 

 ular tube, nearly an inch long and colored dark blue. If 

 the leaves had no attractions, the plant would be worth 

 growing for the sake of its flowers. It requires stove 

 treatment. 



Dracaena Godseffiana. — This is a true Dracaena, and is a 

 near ally, if not a variety, of the anomalous D. surculosa, 

 which has thin stems six to ten feet high produced in tufts, 

 and whorls of short, oblong, pointed leaves ; its habit is 

 more like that of a Bamboo than a Dracaena. Mr. Sander's 

 new introduction came, I believe, from the west coast of 

 tropical Africa. Its stems and leaves are like those of D. 

 surculosa, but instead of the dull gray-green spots on the 

 leaves, which characterize the latter, it has numerous large 

 spots of bright yellow on a green ground, not unlike a good 

 spotted variety of Aucuba Japonica. 



Drac^na Sanderiana. — I do not feel certain that this is a 

 Dracaena, for I know no species at all like it. But, to what- 

 ever genus it really belongs, its merit as a garden-plant is 

 of a high order. It has slender, erect stems, which appear 

 to produce suckers freely, forming a cluster of the most 

 ornamental character. The tallest stems I saw were two 

 feet high, clothed to the base with leaves which are about 

 six inches long by one and a half inches broad, tapering 

 gradually to a point, the base spreading again into a clasp- 

 ing sheath. The slightly twisted recurved pose of the 

 leaves gives the plant a very elegant appearance, which is 

 greatly enhanced by the bands of creamy white running 

 from base to apex through the silvery-green ground color. 

 This plant is certain to be in great requisition with growers 

 of table plants. 



LuDoviA CRENiFOLiA. — A noble foliage-plant, very similar 

 to some of the Carludovicas, to which it is closely allied, 

 but differing in the form of its leaves, which again suggest 

 Cyclanthus or Cohnia ; they are semi-erect, rigid, thick and 

 leathery in texture, with prominent ribs extending from 

 base to apex. The largest leaves are a yard long, broadest 

 near the apex, which is blunt, and in some cases jagged ; 

 the lower part of the leaf is gradually narrowed to a petiole, 

 and finally to a broad sheathing base. For large stoves, 

 I expect this plant will prove a useful acquisition. It looks 

 like a free grower. Dr. Masters, who describes and fig- 

 ures it this week in the Gardeners' Chronicle, says that in 

 its fully developed condition it is said to be an epiphyte or 

 a trailer, with adventitious roots after the manner of an 

 Aroid. It is a native of Brazil. There is a figure and de- 

 scription of it in Martius' Flora Brasiliensis, by Drude, pub- 

 lished in 1 88 1. The plant is new to cultivation. 



Alsophila atrovirens.— This species was described by 

 Presl and has long been known to botanists, but, so far as 

 I know, it has never been in the trade till now. We have 

 had a plant of it at Kew since 1880, which was unnamed 

 until we received a specimen from Mr. Sander for deter- 

 mination, when the identity of the two was manifest. It is 

 a very elegant tree-fern, with a stem as thick as a man's 

 wrist,bearing a spreading head of broad tripinnate fronds, 

 two feet long and nearly as much broad, with the large, 

 glabrous dark green pinnae, crisped and undulated in such 

 a way as to give the plant a distinct and attractive appear- 

 ance. It is a native of Brazil. 



Oreopanax Sanderianum is a green, stout-stemmed plant, 

 with its near relationship to Ivy clearly stamped upon its 

 triangular foliage. It will be useful for the conservatory 

 or for subtropical gardening. It was described by Mr. 

 Hmesley last year in the Gardeners' Chronicle, from a plant 

 flowered by Messrs. Sander & Co., who introduced it from 

 Guatemala. 



Salmia Lauchiana is a provisional name for a very noble 

 stove-plant from South America, and which is now repre- 

 sented by a magnificent specimen in the Sander nursery. It 

 may be a Carludovica, of which, by the bye, Salmia is a 

 synonym, but it differs from all the cultivated species of 

 that genus. The leaves, which are distichous, are stout 

 and leathery, six feet or more long, six to eight inches 

 broad near the apex, which is curiously notched or trun- 

 cated, the lower part narrowed to a sheathing base. This 

 is a grand plant for large tropical houses. I would like 

 to see half a dozen such specimens as the one I saw at St. 

 Albans in the Palm-house at Kew. It deserves to rank 

 with Strelitzia and Ravenala as a noble foliage-plant. 



