441 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 296. 



very shovvy g-olden-yellow flowers. The little Orchid, Ladies'- 

 tresses, with its spike of deliciously sweet-scented, pure white 

 flowers, is quite common in damp places. Two or three 

 species of Eriocaulon, which are almost entirely confined to 

 our wet Pines, are still in blossom on long scapes terminated 

 with a single head of dullish lead-colored flowers. 



Many Grasses and Sedges are now beautiful, as the long, 

 drooping umbels of Scirpus, Eriophorum and the Cotton 

 Grass, with its soft dense white or copper-colored heads. 

 These Sedges blend beautifully with some of the Grasses and 

 the seed-vessels of many plants now abundant in all the Pines. 



Vineland, N.J. -^«0' Treat. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Notes from Cornwall. 



I HAVE lately spent a fortnight in Devon and Cornwall, 

 chiefly walking about the moors and along the cliffs 

 of the north side, where the scenery and air are delightful 

 and health-giving. The moors are remarkable for the pro- 

 duction of good mutton and sturdy little ponies, and some 

 of them, at least, for a display of Heath and Furze. 1 have 

 never seen anything more beautiful than the moors about 

 Minehead, where one walks for miles through great 

 cushion-like masses of purple Heath and dwarf Furze, 

 both in flower. Ferns have had a bad time of it this year, 

 and the Devonshire lanes were therefore a disappointment. 

 The gardens- in the south of Cornwall have a special attrac- 

 tion for horticulturists, many plants thriving out-of-doors 

 there which in other parts of England must be grown un- 

 der glass. The following notes were taken during a three- 

 days' ramble in the neighborhood of Falmouth : 



Himalayan Rhododendrons are a feature of open-air gar- 

 dening in south Cornwall. In several gardens near Fal- 

 mouth, notably that of Mr. Shilson, at Tremough, there is 

 a large collection, and all the best-known species are rep- 

 resented by enormous specimens. Another fine collection 

 is that at Carclew, the residence of Colonel Tremayne, 

 where, also, very fine examples of rare Coniferae may be 

 seen. There are also many large specimens of Rhododen- 

 dron and other tender shrubs and trees in the garden of 

 Miss Fox at Penjerrick. Falmouth is exceptionally favored in 

 regard to climate, and, apparently, also in regard to good soil, 

 for these Himalayan Rhododendrons. I was informed by 

 Mr. Shilson's gardener that eight degrees of frost is about the 

 average maximum of cold experienced in the neighbor- 

 hood of Falmouth, and that heavy mists and rain are 

 common at all seasons of the year. He said the climate 

 of this town is remarkable for equability and mildness, in 

 proof of which exotic plants flourish the year round in the 

 open air. Mr. Fox, of Grove Hill, obtained the Banksian 

 medal about thirty years ago for acclimatizing upward 

 of two hundred foreign plants. 



The Rhododendrons at Tremough are nearly all veterans, 

 having been raised from seeds obtained from Kew soon 

 after their first introduction by Dr. Hooker, now forty years 

 ago. They are now almost the sole occupants of very large 

 shrubberies and spacious beds in various parts of a large 

 garden, and there are also numerous specimens among the 

 trees in the woods which partly surround the place. I 

 measured some of the largest specimens, the dimensions of 

 which may interest those readers of Garden and Forest who 

 are able to grow these glorious shrubs out-of-doors in the 

 southern states : R. arboreum, trees thirty feet high, with 

 trunks a foot in diameter ; R. niveum, a perfect, spherical 

 bush twelve feet high ; R. Falconeri, twelve feet high, a 

 grand specimen with large leathery leaves, a striking ob- 

 ject at all times, but a magnificent sight when bearing 

 scores of large trusses of flowers, as it does annually here ; 

 R. barbatum, ten feet high, and furnished with branches 

 down to the ground; R. campanulatum (Wallichianum), 

 abundantly represented by very large bushes ; R. ciliatum, 

 the largest plant I have ever seen, a bush six feet high and 

 at least twice as much in diameter ; R. arboreum roseum, 

 R. Shepherdii, R. cinnamomeum and R. Thomsoni, all 

 much larger than we are used to see them even under 



glass. -A hybrid between R. Thomsoni and R. barbatum, 

 raised in this garden, and named R. Shilsoni, is similar to 

 the former in leaf and habit, differing only in the size of its 

 heads, the color of the flowers and the shortness of the 

 flower-stalks, in which characters it is superior to R. 

 Thomsoni, which is saying a great deal. R. Aucklandii, 

 a delicate species as a rule, is in rude health and ten feet 

 in height. Seedlings are to be seen springing up in those 

 parts of the garden that escape the hoe. In all the species 

 there is considerable variety observable in the foliage and 

 habit of the many representatives. Azalea Indica is as 

 plentiful and large as the common Cherry Laurel is in 

 northern gardens, while Camellias occur frequently, and 

 always in good health. As a rule, perfect flowers are cut 

 from them for decorations at Christmas. At the time of 

 my visit, the Belladonna Lily was the glory of the garden. 

 Among the Rhododendrons, along the carriage-drive, 

 against the terrace-wall, and even in the kitchen-garden, 

 the flowers were as thick as Cowslips in an English 

 meadow. "We don't think much of the Belladonna 

 here," said the gardener; "it is too common." In the 

 same garden a great bed on a large open lawn was filled 

 with Yucca gloriosa and Y. recurva, about thirty plants 

 altogether, with rosettes a yard high, and each bearing a 

 spike another yard high, clothed with white waxy bell- 

 flowers. They were a real picture, and appealed to us as 

 a piece of good gardening. Against the entrance, with its 

 roots half-choking a stream beside which it had been 

 planted, stands a fine example of Aralia spinosa. It is 

 thirty feet high and thirty-five feet in the spread of its 

 branches, its stem nine inches in diameter, and its flowers 

 and fruit abundant. A few yards further on we saw a cot- 

 tage almost entirely enveloped in a thick cloud-like mass 

 of Solanum jasminiflorum, partially hiding the roof, and 

 even the chimney, with its healthy green leaves and thou- 

 sands of clusters of white starry flowers. This and the 

 hardy Fuchsias (F. globosa and F. coccinea chiefly) are 

 favorites with the cottagers in Cornwall, where we saw 

 many beautiful effects made by one or the other, and some- 

 times by the two combined, as they grew against the cot- 

 tages by the road-side. 



In Colonel Tremayne's garden. Rhododendron arboreum 

 is even larger than the largest at Tremough, having a stem 

 four feet in circumference, while R. Hodgsoni is a great 

 bush fifteen feet through. R. Falconeri is twenty feet high, 

 and this summer bore ninety-six trusses of flowers. I have 

 never seen a more charming garden than this at Carclew ; 

 indeed, I question if there is anything better in Cornwall. 

 The Coniferag are magnificent : Abeis Smithii, eighty feet 

 high ; Tsuga Albertiana, the same ; Pinus patula, a magnifi- 

 cent example ; Pseudolarix Kaempferi, the Golden Larch, 

 is thirty feet high and would have been much higher had 

 its top not been broken off by a storm a few years ago ; its 

 trunk is exactly eighteen inches in diameter. Phyllocladus 

 rhomboidalis, the Celery-topped Pine, is represented by a 

 handsome specimen fifteen feet high. An interesting fea- 

 ture of this garden is the Lucombe Oak, of which there are 

 numerous very large trees, ninety or a hundred feet high, 

 with trunks as straight as Pines and measuring twelve feet 

 in circumference. The Lucombe Oak (Lucombe was gar- 

 dener at Carclew) is an accidental hybrid between the 

 Cork Oak and Turkey Oak. There are also in this garden 

 a number of hybrids between other Oaks. Of the genus 

 Pinus there are rare species from Mexico, India and Califor- 

 nia. Loudon described many plants flourishing at Carclew 

 as either quite irregular or in a state of growth not to be 

 seen at other places. Enormous bushes of Leptospermums, 

 Embothrium coccineum, Azaras, Berberis Japonica, var. 

 Beali, a grand shrub, and Benthamia fragifera, a common 

 tree covered with its large strawberry-like fruit, are among 

 the many things I noted. A path bordered by clumps of 

 Himalayan Rhododendrons, White Azalea indica. Azalea 

 mollis and Embothrium must be a beautiful picture in May 

 or June when they are in flower. Among many features 

 of interest noted in the glass-houses two call for special 



