394 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 291. 



inches, or even larger. He also states that C. alternifolia 

 of North America diifers very little, if at all, from this. 



PiCEA PUNGENS GLAUCA, the Blue Spruce of Colorado, was 

 represented by a group of beautiful examples about four 

 feet high, and colored perfectly, from the nursery of Mr. A. 

 Waterer, who possesses a large stock of this most orna- 

 mental conifer, which promises to be an exceptionally good 

 garden-plant. At Kew it grows well, which is saying a 

 great deal in its favor, the poor gravelly soil and smoke in 

 winter being unfavorable to Piceas generally. 



LiLiUM Henryi. — Although represented only by a plant 

 four feet high with a few flowers, this species was awarded 

 a first-class certificate. It is in flower still at Kew, some of 

 the plants being eight feet high, bearing twenty or more 

 flowers each. A new Lilium in the way of L. longiflorum, 

 but having narrower and more densely arranged pale green 

 leaves and hairy filaments, was shown by Messrs. Wallace, 

 of Colchester. It was suggested that it might prove to be 

 the L. myriophyllum of Franchet, one of the new Chinese 

 Lilies about which I wrote a short time ago. 



Helianthus rigidus, var. Miss Mellish, is a beautiful va- 

 riety of one of the most useful of all Sunflowers, the flowers 

 being nearly six inches across and of the clearest canary- 

 yellow color, with a well-formed purple-brown disk. It 

 obtained a certificate. 



China Rose, Duke of York, a new variety shown by 

 Messrs. W. Paul & Son, Waltham Cross, is a pretty addi- 

 tion to this charming section of garden Roses. Its flowers 

 are small, fragrant, well formed, pink flushed with red, and 

 most attractive. The Tea Roses shown were excellent, 

 and as they are now becoming very popular in England 

 for summer-bedding, I noted the names of some of the 

 most effective. Several large beds, each devoted to one 

 kind of Tea Rose on the lawns at Kew, have been greatly 

 admired this summer. They flower constantly, much 

 more so than the hybrid perpetuals, and they are both 

 graceful and fragrant, as well as effective in color. Those 

 noted at the exhibition were Madame Lambard, Viscountess 

 Folkestone, Homer, Christine de None, Madame Eugene 

 Verdier, Corinna, Jules Finger, L'ldeal, Laurette Messing and 

 Marie Van Houtte. Cuttings of these are struck in autumn 

 and kept growing in a frame till May, when they are 

 planted out in beds of good soil, where they soon grow 

 into nice plants, flower profusely all summer and on 

 until the frost comes. The effect is much better when a 

 quantity of each kind are used to fill each bed than when 

 a mixture of sorts is planted. 



Clerodendron trichotomum. — This old garden-plant forms 

 a large shrub or small tree out-of-doors in the south of 

 England, and flowers freely in autumn. The flowers are 

 in terminal clusters, white, with purplish calyces. It was 

 awarded a first-class certificate, presumably because it had 

 never been awarded one before. It is not as effective 

 a plant as C. foetidum, which is also hardy in England, but 

 dies down to the ground in winter. Both species are Japa- 

 nese. [Clerodendron trichotomum attains a large size in 

 Washington, where it is perfectly hardy, and it may live 

 farther north, as it is a native of Yezo, where the winter 

 cold is nearly as severe as it is in New England. — Ed.] 



Weigela Eva Ratke, shown by Mr. A. Waterer, is a bright 

 crimson-flowered variety, very free, and, according to Mr. 

 Waterer, a perpetual bloomer. It is certainly the best of 

 the dark red varieties, and it appears to flower at a late sea- 

 son, long after the others are over. A first-class certificate 

 was awarded to it. 



Agave Leopoldii II. — This is said to be a hybrid between 

 A. schidigera and A. filifera, and was raised by Mr. W. B. 

 Kellock, who showed a plant of it, which was awarded a 

 first-class certificate. It has rigid ensiform leaves eighteen 

 inches long and half an inch wide, the margins clothed 

 with long white ribbon-like filaments. It is very similar to 

 A. Taylori, which was raised by a Mr. Taylor, of High- 

 gate, and was distributed by Mr. B. S. Williams in 1874. 

 There is a good plant of it in the Kew collection. Its parents 

 were A. geminiflora (Bonapartea juncea) and A. filamen- 



tosa, a variety of A. filifera. I am a litttle skeptical in re- 

 gard to the parentage of A. Leopoldii II., which has much 

 narrower leaves and is otherwise different from both A. fili- 

 fera and A. schidigera. It is certainly a beautiful Agave. 



New Orchids. — These were few in number and not par- 

 ticularly striking in character. Habenaria carnea, figured 

 in Garden and Forest in vol. iv., p. 487, obtained a first-class 

 certificate, the plant shown by Messrs. F. Sander & Co. be- 

 ing ten inches high and bearing seven good flowers. Cypri- 

 pedium Edwardii, a hybrid between C. Faerrianum and C. 

 superbiens, and C. Sander-superbiens, a hybrid between 

 C. Sanderianum and C. superbiens, both obtained awards, 

 though it would be difficult to say why, unless for the rea- 

 son that they are hybrids. /EridesBallantineanum aureum, 

 a yellow tinted variety, also obtained a certificate. 



ExACUM macranthum, the beautiful gentinaceous plant 

 from the Ceylon hills, was shown in fine condition by Sir 

 Trevor Lawrence and obtained a certificate. Dahlias, 

 Gladioli, Carnations and a few other plants were awarded 

 certificates. The Gladioli from Messrs. Kelway, of Lang- 

 port, and from Messrs. Burrell & Co., of Cambridge, were 

 excellent. Nothing at the exhibition bore stronger testi- 

 mony to the skill of the breeder and cultivator than these 

 really wonderful Gladioli. 



London. 



W. Walson. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens. 



WE have more than once spoken of the value in our 

 northern gardens of this hardy shrub, and on page 

 17 of volume iii. a figure of a flowering branch of life-size 

 was published. In the present issue we have reproduced 

 a photograph of a plant in Mr. Olmsted's garden in Brook- 

 line, Massachusetts, made by Mr. F. L. Olmsted, Jr. It 

 well shows the habit and the free-flowering quality of this 

 useful plant, which is the most beautiful of all the Hydran- 

 geas which are absolutely hardy in New England, and the 

 earliest of all the species to flower in this climate. 



Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens, is a shrub four or five 

 feet high, with slender branches which form a dense broad 

 mass six or eight feet in diameter, ample pale green ovate 

 leaves acute at both ends, and large flat cymes of flowers 

 five or six inches across. The ray-flowers are numerous, 

 an inch or more in diameter, and are at first pure white ; in 

 fading they turn rose-color, and, although they begin to 

 open toward the end of June, remain quite fresh on the 

 branches until November. 



Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens, is a native of north- 

 ern China and Manchuria, and was one of a remarkable 

 collection of trees and shrubs raised several years ago in 

 the Arnold Arboretum from seed sent from Pekin by Dr. 

 Bretschneider, the learned botanist and physician for many 

 years attached to the Russian Legation in China. 



I 



Cultural Department. 



Timely Hints on Lilies. 



T is only too true that in this climate one is never quite 

 ready for frost, no matter how late it defers its first visit. 

 In our section it is never safe to leave tender plants out after 

 September has come round. This season frost visited this 

 town the first week of the month, though this is unusually 

 early. The bulb season has arrived, and no time should be 

 lost in obtaining those necessary for outdoor planting while 

 there is natural warmth in the soil ; there is nothing gained by 

 delay, and much is lost, for the sooner the bulbs are planted 

 the more growth they make before frost comes, and the better 

 display they are able to make next season. This especially ap- 

 plies to the Lily family. Lilium speciosum and other Japan 

 Lilies do not arrive here until after it is too late to plant in the 

 open ground, hence the advisability of obtaining good Ameri- 

 can-grown bulbs of such kinds as thrive well in this climate. 

 L. auratum, L. Harrisii and L. longiflorum are best obtained, 

 as newly imported bulbs, especially L. auratum, while L. tigri- 

 num, L. Batemannae and all the varieties of L. speciosum grow 



