468 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 298. 



quent syringing will be all that is necessary to keep them in 

 robust health during the growing period, which is the present 

 time, with a quantity of plants obtained last June, but those 

 obtained from an importation two years ago have already set- 

 tled down to growing in the summer, and are flowering now, 

 and will shortly be at rest. 



The decorative value of this plant can hardly be over- 

 praised. We use the flowers individually for boutonieres, or 

 they can be used as a spray if desired. They keep in good 

 condition for at least three weeks if not placed in a cooler tem- 

 perature than the house they grow in. A reduction of heat 

 seems to render them liable to spot and decay. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Garden. 



Agath.^a ccelestis. — Blue flowers are proverbially scarce, 

 and as Agathaea cffilestis yields these in large numbers, it is 

 well worth cultivation for this reason alone. It is sometimes 

 called the Blue Marguerite, and the name is apt, for in shape 

 the flowers bear a strong resemblance to those of the common 

 Marguerite, or Parisian Daisy. But here the likeness ends, for 

 the plants are quite distinct in other particulars. The Agathsea 

 is dwarf and shrubby, seldom more than twelve inches high, 

 and very neat and compact in growth. The numerous leaves 

 are small, rough to the touch, and of a deep rich green. The 

 flowers, proceeding singly from the base of the leaves, are 

 held erect above the foliage on slender, naked stalks, the outer 

 florets bright blue, and the disk an intense yellow. The plant 

 is almost constantly in bloom, out-of-doors in summer and 

 under glass in winter. Even when its flowers are not wanted 

 in winter, it still requires gentle greenhouse warmth, since 

 three or four degrees of frost will kill it. Cuttings from young 

 branches root readily in spring, and when grown on in small 

 pots until mild weather, they may be successfully used for 

 bedding ; and again, if taken up carefully and potted early in 

 autumn, the same plants will continue to bloom all through 

 winter and spring in the greenhouse. Although an old Cape 

 plant, introduced a century and a half ago, this Agathsea is not 

 so common as it deserves to be in this country. The genus is 

 near of kin to Cineraria, and this species was long known as 

 Cineraria amelloides. 



Crotolaria longirostrata.^ — Seeds of this excellent plant 

 were sent here some two years ago from Mexico by Mr. C. G. 

 Pringle. I am not aware that it was ever cultivated before, 

 though long known to botanists. The Crotolarias belong to the 

 Pea family, and the species hitherto in cultivation have a ragged, 

 straggling appearance, and although the flowers are undeni- 

 ably beautiful, the plants can hardly be commended for decora- 

 tive purposes. C. longirostrata, however, which flowered with 

 us last winter, and is now again in full bloom, has proved a 

 valuable exception and takes rank in abundant flower pro- 

 duction with the Cytisus racemosus. The plant has much of 

 the ungainly habit' of its congeners, but this can be improved 

 by occasionally pinchmg back the young branches early in 

 the growing season. The stems are well furnished with ter- 

 nate leaves, the largest four inches in length, and the deep 

 green obovate leaflets one and a half inches long. The flowers, 

 closely disposed in long terminal racemes, are about an inch 

 in diameter, and of a deep orange-yellow, with a pronounced 

 streak of red along the centre of the outer surface of the 

 standard.. The plant blooms all through the winter. It is 

 easily propagated by seeds or cuttings. The seeds should be 

 sown in spring and placed in heat, while cuttings of the young 

 wood root freely in spring or summer if kept in a close air 

 until they show growth. A winter temperature as low as forty 

 degrees, Fahrenheit, does not injure the plants in any way, and 

 in summer they thrive when the pots are plunged in the earth 

 out-of-doors in partial shade during the hottest part of the day. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



The Kitchen-garden.— Celery, when put away in winter 

 quarters, should have a place where plenty of air can be given 

 on all favorable occasions. A celery-pit such as the large 

 growers use is the most convenient place, and gives the best 

 results with the least trouble. Celery-rust has troubled us 

 more this year than usual, especially on the earlier crops, but 

 another year we shall grow only for first and second early two 

 sowings of White Plume, with Giant Paschal for storing away. 

 This last is practically rust-proof, and the White Plume is the 

 least liable to it of all early and mid-season kinds. Roots of 

 all kinds — beets, turnips, carrots and salsify — should not be al- 

 lowed to freeze severely in the open ground. Rather lift them 

 a little before winter comes in earnest, and store them in a cel- 

 lar, where they will keep plump if covered with sand. Ruta 



Baga, if the leaves are merely trimmed off and the crowns 

 left, start away freely if placed in a warm house in winter, and 

 if the tops are covered with soil to blanch them, they make ex- 

 cellent vegetables for winter use. All the strong flavor seems 

 to be lost in the blanching process. The earliest-made Mush- 

 room-beds are beginning to show now, exactly six weeks from 

 time of spawning, in a temperature of seventy-two degrees. 

 We expect to have mushrooms from now on until the early 

 spring months under the greenhouse benches. 



South Lancaster, Mass. 



E. 0. 0. 



Correspondence. 



Japanese Trees m Rhode Island. 



To the Editor of Garden and ^orest : 



Sir, — Four years ago there appeared in your columns (vol. 

 •'■I P- 537) an interestmg description of a plantation of Japanese 

 trees at Warren, in this state, rrillfde some twenty years ago by 

 Dr. George R. Hall, well knowt^ to American horticulturists 

 through his large and early intoaductions of Japanese plants 

 into this country. I have rece^ly visited the plantation and 

 am glad to report that most of "tjie trees described by your cor- 

 respondent are still alive and in good health, although they are 

 now so crowded that unless, some relief is given them at once 

 their beauty will be destroyed. 



Certainly the most interesting trees of the collection are the 

 Keakis (Zelkowa Keaki), of which there are seven or eight 

 specimens, the largest being now more than forty feet tall. 

 They are all remarkably clean, healthy and attractive trees, 

 with smooth bark like that of the Beech-tree, and foliage which 

 is still fresh and only just beginning to turn from bright green 

 to light yellow. Like the foliage of many other Japanese de- 

 ciduous trees, it survives until late in the season, and Dr. Hall 

 tells me that his trees are sometimes green until nearly the 

 end of December. It is significant of the adaptability of this 

 nobie tree to our climate that hundreds of self-sown seed- 

 lings spring up under Dr. Hall's plants and grow rapidly with- 

 out care. The Keaki is evidently an ornamental tree here of 

 the first class ; it ought to make an excellent street tree, as it 

 is inclined to branch high, and if it produces as good timber 

 here as it is said to in Japan, it may prove of great value in 

 economic planting. Altogether, it seems the handsomest and 

 most promising of the newer and little-known exotic trees 

 which have been brought into the northern states. [A figure 

 of Zelkowa Keaki was published on page 365 of the present 

 volume of Garden and Forest. — Ed] 



The largest of the Japanese Conifers in the collection are 

 three or four plants of Pinus Thunliergii, with their bright red 

 bark and long-spreading flat branches, which look as if they 

 might have served as a model for a thousand familiar Japanese 

 pictures. They are not handsome, but they have the true 

 Japanese feeling as we see it depicted on screens and fans. 

 The trees are producing seed at Warren, and the plantation is 

 full of seedling Pines of this species. Abies firma, which is 

 usually a miserable tree in this country, is exceedingly fine and 

 covered with dark green healthy foliage and abundant cones. 

 Overcrowding, however, has certainly hastened the death of 

 the lower branches, which are never very long-lived on this 

 tree. 



Picea Ajanensis, P. polita, in several very large, vigorous 

 and beautifully colored specimens, and Thuyopsis dolobrata 

 are still very fine. The last is a wonderful specimen, and one 

 of the best plants in the collection, although none of the Coni- 

 fers are as interesting as the Japanese Yew, of which there is 

 a large, broad-branched specimen of great beauty and peculiar 

 interest, as it seems to prove that in the Japanese species we 

 have an absolutely hardy Yew for the northern states, where 

 the English Yew does not flourish. There are many places in 

 the garden where no other plant can take the place of a Yew, 

 and when an American has seen English gardens he is never 

 quite satisfied if he cannot make a Yew-tree grow in his own. 

 We have always missed a good deal in not being able to grow 

 Yews successfully, so the fact that the Japanese species is 

 hardy is a matter for congratulation. 



Both the Japanese Retinosporas are at home in Warren, 

 where they have grown to a height of thirty to thirty-five feet, 

 and now look as if they would make real timber-trees. Retino- 

 spora obtusa is, when well grown, certainly an exceptionally 

 beautiful tree, although, unfortunately, it does not flourish 

 everywhere in this country ; indeed, except in this plantation, 

 I have never seen it in very good condidon. It apparently 

 needs protection while young, and a moist soil and atmosphere. 



Dr. Hall's noble plants of Abies Cilicica, probably unsur- 

 passed in America, are this year covered with cones. This is 



