September 6, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



377 



question, can Carnations be grown inside during summer to 

 an advantage ? The full result of this test cannot be given until 

 the plants outside have been compared the coming season with 

 those which have been housed all summer. From present ap- 

 pearances I should not hesitate to fill my houses with plants in 

 June for flowering the following season. 



Garden Notes. 



Centrosema grandiflora, introduced this year by A. Blanc, 

 of Philadelphia, proves to be a quick-growing vine, with very 

 attractive pea-shaped flower, having large standards, which 

 approach two inches in diameter. It bears fiowers freely, 

 forming one to three at each joint on short peduncles. The 

 flowers, however, are only attractive in the morning and close 

 in a few hours. The Centrosemas are classed with Clitorias 

 by Lindley and other botanists. The species are mostly South 

 American, and are not hardy. The one under notice is said to 

 be perfectly hardy here, and I understand is a native species, 

 in which case the specific name is more likely to be C. Ma- 

 riana than C. grandiflora. In any case, it is only claimed as an 

 attractive, long-known flower not previously introduced to cul- 

 tivation. It is readily grown from seed, which germinate 

 quickly in moderate warmth. 



Dwarf Dahlias are now beginning to luxuriate in the cool 

 night. Unless tall-growing plants are desired for some special 

 effect, the new strains of dwarf Dahlias are by far the most 

 satisfactory single-flowered ones for garden purposes. They 

 form compact spreading plants, only about eighteen inches 

 high, which require no staking and are covered with buds and 

 flowers in great profusion. The French strain grown here has 

 flowers of an infinite variety of colors — whites, yellows, pinks 

 and reds, in selfs and all possible combinations. Many of 

 them are blotched and striped. They are propagated readily 

 from old tubers, or a stock may be had very quickly from 

 seeds, which are produced only too freely. These it is not ne- 

 cessary to plant before April. At present some self-sown seed- 

 lings in the garden are forming buds and will be in flower in 

 a few days. I do not mean to assert that these plants are 

 hardy annuals, but under favorable conditions one often finds 

 in an undisturbed garden wild seedlings from plants which are 

 unmistakably tender. 



Harby Bulbs. — Now that the Dahlias and Sunflowers are 

 with us, it is time to prepare for winter and a new spring sea- 

 son. No time should be lost in securing all the bulbs desired 

 and in planting them as soon as received. In a warm locality, 

 where a bulb can make even slight progress during an ordi- 

 nary winter, early planting is possibly not of so much impor- 

 tance, but there is little doubt that in colder localities, where 

 the earth freezes hard and remains so during the season, late 

 planting has a very detrimental effect on many bulbs. This 

 may not be seen the first season after planting, for many bulbs 

 will flower very well without much root-growth on first plant- 

 ing. These bulbs, however, seldom mature their growth for 

 the next year, and will often be found diseased, if not killed, 

 when examined after the ripening of the foliage. 



Hardy Herbaceous Plants.— Many of the early-flowering 

 herbaceous plants may now be divided and replanted. Espe- 

 cial attention should be given to Pseonies and plants which pos- 

 sibly have exhausted their soil. The fall rains will soon start 

 up the hardy Poppies, whose roots may be cut up for increase 

 of stock. A sowing of Pansies may soon be made, and bare 

 places sown with seeds of hardy annuals. In fact, in whichever 

 direction one looks in the garden at this season, he is im- 

 pressed with the fact that vacation-time is over, and from this 

 time to December is the most pressing season of the year for 

 garden work. 



Elizabeth, N. J. J. N. G. 



Cassava for Bedding. — Those who desire plants for sub- 

 tropical bedding should try the Cassava. While the plant 

 may not be of much economic importance north of Flor- 

 ida, it, nevertheless, forms a conspicuous and handsome 

 specimen in our hot summers anywhere. Like many others 

 of the Euphorbiacece, it withstands drought well, but rejoices 

 in heat and moisture. A friend in Florida sent me a short 

 piece of stem last spring, which was buried in one of my 

 flower-borders. To-day the plant is five feet high and as many 

 broad. Its handsome palmate leaves somewhat suggest Ri- 

 cinus, but are more beautiful. Each of the seven-parted pal- 

 mate leaves is supported on an exceedingly long petiole, and 

 the entire petiole is bright red. These broad divided leaves 

 and long red petioles, combined with the symmetrical habit of 

 the plant, make it one of the handsomest objects on my 



lawn. Further north it may not develop into such rank luxu- 

 riance if started in the open ground, but as the pieces of stem 

 grow readily, it would be easy to start the plants in a green- 

 house in spring and transfer them to the garden when the 

 weather is warm. I would advise all who want a really hand- 

 some plant to add to their bedding of tropical foliage to try 

 Cassava. 

 Raleigh, N. c. IV. F. Massey. 



Correspondence. 



The Meehan Nurseries and the Trees of 

 Germantown. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A visit to Mr. Meehan's nursery, in Germantown, a 

 suburb of Philadelphia, will well repay a lover of trees. In no 

 other establishment are American trees and shrubs raised in 

 such numbers. Long ago Mr. Meehan recognized two facts — 

 that the climate of eastern America is particularly suited to de- 

 ciduous-leaved plants, which grow more satisfactorily here 

 than in any other country of the world, and that American 

 plants are the best for America ; so for years he has been busy 

 in raising American Oaks, Maples, Ashes, Dogwoods, and 

 scores of other plants which can only be obtained in large 

 quantities from his nursery. Cornus florida, which is one of 

 the most beautiful of all hardy flowering trees, is raised by 

 hundreds of thousands. Trees not often seen in nurseries, 

 like our Nyssa or Tupelo, the Sassafras, the Persimmon and 

 the Sycamore, are raised here in numbers, as are all our Mag- 

 nolias and the Tulip-tree. But the nursery is by no means ex- 

 clusively devoted to the cultivation of American plants ; many 

 exotic species are cultivated on a large scale, and it is certainly 

 within bounds to say that the stock of young plants of the beau- 

 tiful Japanese Viburnum plicatum is larger than can be found 

 in all other American and European nurseries combined. 



The Germantown nurseries contain a number of remarkable 

 and interesfing plants. Here is the original plant of the now 

 well-known weeping Cornus florida, discovered in the woods 

 near Baltimore, and the original plant of Halesia Meehani, a 

 chance seedling raised by Mr. Meehan, and figured in Garden 

 AND Forest (see vol. v., p. 535). I noticed, also, a beautiful 

 small specimen of a very distinct weeping variety of Prunus 

 serotina and a fastigiate form of Picea Engelmanni, produced 

 from a graft brought by Mr. Meehan from the timber-line on 

 Gray's Peak, in Colorado ; this is a compact, dense pyramid 

 eight feet high, with very glaucous leaves, and, altogether, one 

 of the most disfinct and interesting conifers of recent intro- 

 duction. 



One of the best plants in the United States or Europe of the 

 Japanese and northern China Ouercus dentata can be seen 

 here ; it is fully thirtyfeet high, with a stout, well-formed trunk 

 and spreading branches. The hardiness and value here of this 

 handsome and very distinct tree appear to be demonstrated. 

 Here, too, is the finest specimen of Cedrela Sinensis I have 

 seen, a shapely plant nearly thirty feet high, which has flowered 

 freely this year. A split in the trunk indicates, however, that 

 it is not destined to grow to a great age, and shows, what has 

 been noticed before, that Cedrela lacks the hardiness and con- 

 stitution which make the Ailanthus, from the same region of 

 northern China, one of the most valuable of all trees. In 

 general appearance the two trees are not unlike, but the leaves 

 of Cedrela are without the glands which characterize those of 

 Ailanthus, and the flowers are produced in long hanging ra- 

 cemes. Near the Cedrela stands one of the best plants of 

 Hovenia dulcis which can be seen outside of Japan. It is a 

 slender tree thirty feet high, with spreading branches and a 

 flat top, and has flowered profusely this year. There is a large 

 specimen, too, of Zizyphus vulgaris, the Jujube-tree, covered 

 with half-grown fruit ; this beautiful tree, a native also of 

 northern China, appears perfectly hardy in Germantown ; it is 

 well worth a place on every lawn for the beauty of its lustrous 

 pinnate leaves. A remarkable plant of Pterostyrax hispidum 

 is more than twenty-five feet high, with a tall straight trunk and 

 wide-spreading branches loaded with its ripening fruit. 



The great-leaved Oregon Maple, Acer macrophyllum, ap- 

 pears in three handsome specimens, twenty to thirty feet high, 

 covered with its dark green leaves which surpass those of all 

 other Maples in size. Two large plants of a peculiar and most 

 distinct weepingform of Ulmus Americana, found nearGalena, 

 in Illinois, show the value of this variety as an ornamental tree. 

 It is certainly one of the most distinct and beautiful of all weep- 

 ing trees, and deserves to be better known and more generally 

 planted. 



