2Q4 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 272. 



just above the last tunnel, and mto openings among ledges 

 streams not rarely disappear and are lost to human knowl- 

 edge. From the Choy, past the hacienda of LasPalmas to 

 Tampico, there is little of interest along the road. There are 

 seen a few natural meadows and a few lagoons ; hut only a 

 few clearings have been made, and we see few people. I was 

 disappointed to find the forest-growth comparatively small ; 

 but the cause of this may be found in a lighter rainfall than 

 occurs above. On the banks of the great rivers, the Panuco 

 and the Tamesi, there are heavy growths not to be seen from 

 the train. As the day is closing, Tampico, with its tiled roofs 

 and white walls, overtopped by Palms, comes in view, and 

 our journey is ended. „ _ _ . , 



Charlotte, vt. C. G. Prmgle. 



Plant Notes. 



The Table Mountain Pine (Pinus pungens). 



THIS notable Pine, discovered by the elder Michaux in 

 North Carolina on the mountain from which it gets 

 its common name, was thought by him so rare as to be in 

 danger of extinction by the vv^oodman's axe and forest-fires, 

 but in this opinion the famous explorer w^as mistaken. We 

 now know that the territory over which it is spread is far 

 larger than he had imagined. Not confined to the Carolinas, 

 it extends much further northward along the Appalachian 

 ranges, and has been observed in Virginia on the Blue Ridge 

 near Charlottesville, and on the Massanuttan chain west of 

 Luray, and in Pennsylvania, on the eastern slopes of the 

 Blue Mountain at Two Top, close to the Maryland line, 

 and on the SchuylkiU River at Port Carbon, where it still 

 flourishes, as it did a century ago, in the place referred to in 

 his Journal (page 104) by Michaux himself, who does not 

 appear, however, to have then recognized it as his Table 

 Mountain tree. In the central counties of the state, it is 

 more abundant and grows on the flanks of the Tussey and 

 Stone Mountain ranges in the counties of Blair, Huntingdon, 

 Centre, Mifflin and Union. Here it attracted the attention 

 of the late Frederick Noh, of Lewisburg, and was described 

 and published by him as a new species under the name of 

 Pinus montana. 



There are also three other outlying stations worthy of 

 special notice — one, about midway between Washington 

 City and Fredericksburg, Virginia, chronicled by Michaux 

 in his Journal (page 104) ; another at McCall's Ferry, Lan- 

 caster County, Pennsylvania, just discovered by Mr. A. A. 

 Heller; and a third, reported a few years ago by Dr. G. N. 

 Best, near Rosemont, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The 

 existence of this mountain Pine in such limited patches on 

 the lowlands, distant one or two hundred miles from any of 

 its kindred, can only be explained by the supposition that a 

 storm-wind wrestled with some sturdy mountaineers, the 

 scales of whose cones were just ready to open, and, whirling 

 aloft a mass of winged seeds, carried them to these remote 

 points and dropped them there at a time when the con- 

 ditions were favorable for their germination and early 

 growth. That currents of air do perform similar feats is 

 beyond question. The two-lobed pollen-grains of the long- 

 leaved southern Pine (P. palustris) have been thus rapidly 

 transported some four or five hundred miles from South or 

 North Carolina, in the middle of the month of March, and 

 deposited in considerable quantities, along with snow, at 

 sundry places in eastern Pennsylvania, and Dr. Engelmann 

 has recorded the occurrence of the same thing at St. Louis 

 and explained it in the same way. 



A native of the Atlantic sea-board, and hence at home in 

 our climate, the Table Mountain Pine thrives wherever it is 

 planted in the northern states, and certainly deserves more 

 favor from the landscape-gardener than it has yet received. 

 Although surpassed in breadth and altitude by other species 

 of the genus, the sight of it, when fully developed, leaves 

 upon the mind an impression of massiveness and dura- 

 bility by reason of the unusual stoutness of its spreading 

 horizontal limbs. The wood is solid, heavy and rich in 

 turpentine. But its chief glory lies in its cones, which are 

 of a goodly size, with very thick, hard, shining scales, tipped 

 with strong prickles. The largest and finest are produced 



on young trees six or seven feet high, or even less. On the 

 branches of the full-grown trees they are smaller and occur 

 in clusters- of three or four (sometimes seven or eight), and 

 these clusters are persistent one after another in succession 

 for a number of years. None of our eastern Pines possess, 

 at least in the same degree, this habit, which, in connection 

 with the beauty of the cones, renders it an object of peculiar 

 attraction in a park or arboretum. 



Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. TllOS. C. Porter. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



-pi 



*HE Ghent Exhibition took place this week and ap- 

 J_ pears to have been as great a success as on previous 

 occasions. Although held in Belgium every five years, this 

 great exhibition of plants is of almost cosmopolitan impor- 

 tance, and, in England, at any rate, excites as much in- 

 terest among horticulturists as if it were an English show. 

 This is, of course, partly due to the fact that Belgium and 

 England have, for many years, been in the van of horti- 

 cultural progress, and have been of considerable aid to 

 each other. The Belgians are gardeners of the first rank, 

 and the beautiful old town of Ghent contains many nurs- 

 erymen, some of whom have a famous place in the history 

 of horticulture, and their establishments are as rich in 

 interest for botanists as they are for horticulturists. 



The Quinquennial at Ghent has, for many years, stood 

 unrivaled as a plant exhibition. There were Palms, Cy- 

 cads, Ferns, Orchids and stove-plants of all kinds. The 

 Azaleas at Ghent are always exceptionally well grown and 

 abundantly represented. The enterprise and zeal of the 

 exhibitors are extraordinary, some of them bringing huge 

 specimens, tons in weighty to compete for honors merely, 

 the medal or cup awarded as a prize being of sentimental 

 value only. It is the same with new and rare plants. In 

 this division exceptional interest was added this year, ow- 

 ing to an arrangement between Messrs. Linden, of Brus- 

 sels, on the one hand, and Messrs. Sander & Co., of St. 

 Albans, on the other, to try conclusions in the class for six 

 new plants. It was generally known that this contest 

 would be keen, and the event had acquired almost a sport- 

 ing flavor. Messrs. Sander & Co. won the premier prize 

 with the following plants, described by me in my last let- 

 ter : Alsophila atrovirens, Strobilanthes Dyeriahus, Dra- 

 caena Godsefifiana, D. Sanderiana, Alocasia Watsoniana 

 and Ludovia crenifolia. The plants exhibited by Messrs. 

 Linden were a selection of those shown by them last year 

 at the Temple Show of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 and noted by me in a letter last May. They were Trades- 

 cantia reginae, T superba, Stenandrium Lindeni, Haeman- 

 thus Lindeni, Smilax argyraea and the new Orchid, Eulo- 

 philla Elizabethse. This last is a plant of extraordinary 

 interest and beauty. It was named by Mr. Rolfe, at Mon- 

 sieur Linden's request, in compliment to Carmen Sylva, 

 the Queen of Roumania, and a fine figure of it was pub- 

 lished in Lindenia last year, t. 325. It is like a large Eylo- 

 phia, with white flowers, a yellow lip and rich crimson 

 purple scapes, the same color being conspicuous on the 

 back of the flower segments. The plant exhibited at Ghent 

 this week was called by a competent judge "one of the 

 most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, in the whole 

 show." Among the other new plants which won honors, 

 were the grand new Oreocyclus Iris Lorleti ; Hypolytrum 

 Schraderianum, a fine stove Cyperus-like plant, recently 

 noted by me ; Richardia aurata, sent out last year as a hy- 

 brid between R. hastata and R. albomaculata, and which 

 has hastate leaves, green, with white spots and creamy 

 yellow spathes. It has nothing to do with R. Elliottiana, 

 with which it was stated to be identical, being really an 

 inferior plant. Nicotiana colossea variegata, with large 

 white variegated leaves, was awarded a silver medal. An 

 interesting Gesneriad, from the Kilmanjaro, in east Africa, 

 was exhibited by Herr Wendland, Director of the Hanover 

 Botanical Garden. It bears the curious nameof Saintpaulia 



