492 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 301. 



richness of coloring and in variety of form, and they cannot 

 much longer remain in the background. The tightly 

 incurved varieties are evidently no longer esteemed as 

 they once were. Skillful growers who wish to show what 

 can be done by patient care will continue to present occa- 

 sional examples of their skill in this direction, for it requires 

 the highest art to grow one of these deep flowers to per- 

 fection. But it is plain that modern taste approves of 

 Japanese sorts with more flowing lines and a somewhat 

 wayward deviation from regular mathematical curves. 



Thetrained plants, which show on a perfectly symmetrical 

 busha hundred orso flowers all at their best on a given day, 

 certainly show the gardener's art at its best, and the plants 

 exhibited this year at Boston and Philadelphia have never 

 been excelled. No one can help admiring them, although 

 they are in a certain degree as artificial as possible, and 

 they must always be rarities. Quite as interesting to most 

 people were the small plants naturally grown shown in the 

 New York show in five-inch pots, each one with about a 

 score of blooms. These plants set a pattern to the ordinary 

 grower which is not at all discouraging, and, perhaps, the 

 amateur can get the most pleasure out of his Chrysanthe- 

 mums by growing them in rather larger pots, out-of-doors, 

 and sheltered somewhat from the wind, where they will 

 become sturdy and have a solidity and substance which no 

 plant which is tenderly nurtured under glass ever pos- 

 sessed. These plants may be carried through early frosts, 

 protected by a light cloth cover, and up to Thanksgiving 

 can be set on terraces and piazzas out-of-doors, where their 

 bright colors and bold carriage show to the best advantage 

 in the frosty air under which all other vegetation has with- 

 ered. It ought not to be forgotten that many varieties 

 whose flowers, when grown to enormous proportions on a 

 single stem, do not quite satisfy the taste, produce a singu- 

 larly good effect when grown in this way. Mrs. L. C. Ma- 

 deria offers, perhaps, the most perfect type of a solid glob- 

 ular flower, and it is always seen at a disadvantage among 

 the more graceful Japanese kinds. But when grown on 

 small plants, and the little golden balls are not more than 

 an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, they have a 

 beauty of their own which is quite distinct. The same is 

 true of many oddities like Cashmere, with its thread-like 

 florets. Among seedlings a large proportion of single- 

 flowered varieties are always found, and these are gen- 

 erally discarded. Some of the single flowers, however, 

 have a rare attractiveness in form and color. The plants 

 are usually strong, and a well-flowered specimen of such a 

 variety as Daisy, for example, always commands admira- 

 tion. In fact, there is almost an endless field for study 

 in this wonderful plant, and although new varieties are 

 produced so rapidly that no one can keep a record of 

 them, it would seem that there is hardly one which has not 

 something to commend it, or which cannot be made useful 

 by some method of cultivation. 



Slow-maturing Fruits of Trees and Shrubs. 



THE generally accepted idea of inflorescence and fruc- 

 tification seems to be that flowers are produced in 

 spring and summer, with mature fruits and seeds following 

 before winter sets in. Observing persons, however, although 

 not botanists, must have noted deviations from the com- 

 mon rule of annual fructification in some of our native 

 woody plants which do not mature their fruits in the same 

 season in which the blossoms are produced. Where it is 

 indigenous, perhaps one of the best-known examples of 

 this kind is the Witch-hazel, Hamamelis Virginiana, whose 

 conspicuous yellow flowers and simultaneously maturing 

 woody fruits must attract attention. After flowering in the 

 autumn the fruit-producing portion of the blossom prac- 

 tically makes no further growth, but remains dormant 

 until the following spring, and then develops rapidly, 

 maturing at the next flowering in the autumn. 



It is less generally known that the beautiful late-flower- 

 ing Franklinia, Gordonia Altamaha, h^s a similar habit. 



The plant at the Arboretum, which always requires protec- 

 tion in winter, matured some woody fruit capsules for the 

 first time, so far as observed, when the plant was in bloom 

 in October, these fruits resulting from last year's flowers. 

 No good seeds were found, however, and the embryo of 

 this plant is still unknown. The time of its fructification 

 was noted by Bartram in his Travels (1792), page 465, 

 where he says : "After my return from the Creek Nation I 

 employed myself during the spring and fore part of sum- 

 mer in revisiting the several districts in Georgia and the 

 east borders of Florida, where I had noted the most curious 

 subjects, collecting them together and shipping them off 

 to England. In the course of these excursions and re- 

 searches I had the opportunity of observing the new flow- 

 ering shrub, resembling the Gordonia, in perfect bloom, as 

 well as bearing ripe fruit." 



The Gordonia to which he likened this shrub was the 

 earlier-known Loblolly Bay, Gordonia Lasianthus of the 

 south. A third plant, having the habit of blooming in the 

 autumn and maturing its fruit in the following autumn, is 

 the Sea-side Alder, Alnus maritima. The pretty staminate 

 catkins elongate and shed their pollen in September, the 

 little-fertilized, cone-like fruits developing very slightly be- 

 fore frost, and only fully maturing in the following autumn. 



The fact that all Oaks do not ripen their acorns in one 

 season is more generally known, and yet many intelligent 

 persons hear the statement with surprise. All the native 

 White Oaks do mature fruit in the same season in which 

 the blossoms are produced ; but the Red Oak, Scarlet, 

 Black, Pin, Shingle and other Oaks belonging to the Black 

 Oak section, having bristle-points to .the lobes of the leaves, 

 do not fully develop their acorns until the autumn of the 

 second year after blossoming, the flowering of Oaks being 

 in May or early June. At the end of the first summer's 

 growth the little fruits appear to have made scarcely any 

 advancement, and much resemble very short spurs or 

 branches with a thickened tip, and do not bear much like- 

 ness to acorns. A cross-section of the fruit at this time 

 also fails to show any clear separation between the seed 

 and seed-coverings and cup. In the following spring there 

 is rapid development and distinction of parts. As a rule, 

 these Black Oaks blossom rather earlier in the season than 

 the White Oaks and the trees grow faster, and that they 

 should require twice as long to bring their fruits to maturity 

 seems a rather strange rule of Nature. 



The true Pines form another group of trees whose fruit 

 remains on the plants at least through two summers and 

 one winter before the seed is ripe. In some species the 

 cones do not make much growth during the first summer; 

 in others they grow to nearly one-half of their ultimate 

 size. One or two or more foreign or other species not 

 hardy in this climate, are said to require three seasons of 

 growth before the cones arrive at maturity. The ultimate 

 size of the cones of the species makes no difference as to 

 the length of time required for maturation. This is well 

 shown by the giant Sequoias of California, whose small 

 roundish cones are reported as not being ripe until the sec- 

 ond season. 



With the exception of the Junipers, the plants or genera 

 mentioned include the only American ligneous species 

 known to be biennial-fruited, or which do not ripen fruit 

 before winter from blossoms of the season. 



The various species of Junipers show within this genus 

 wide differences of time required before the fruit arrives at 

 perfect maturity, and a consultation of authors who have 

 referred to this point is likely to cause confusion, because 

 of apparently contradictory statements. Dr. George Engel- 

 mann, in classifying the American species of the section 

 Sabina, states that they are biennial-fruited. Other authors 

 have followed this statement or have called them annual- 

 fruited. We have three species of Juniperus east of the 

 Mississippi River in North America, and an examination of 

 them shows that each requires a different length of time 

 before the little berry-like fruits, or galbuli, are fully mature. 



The common Red Cedar, or Savin, Juniperus Virginiana, 



