514 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 303 



On the slight bluffs of "washes" and elsewhere the dainty 

 growing and handsome climbing Antirrhinum maurandioides 

 grows. The whole plant is attractive, and especially its light 

 blue Snapdragon-flowers. It is often cultivated. Clematis 

 Drummondii also does well in the salt air. The little Xan- 

 thoxylum Pterota and Leucophyllum Texanum come to the 

 coast and mingle with Rubus trivialis and Cissus incisa. 



Tropical Ipomoea fistulosa has rarely obtained a foothold in 

 the salt-sands. Two or three other species of Ipomoea are 

 saline plants. I. sinuata, bearing handsome white waxy flow- 

 ers, witii a purplish centre, ventures to the coast in its range. 

 Its flowers expand for only two or three hours during the mid- 

 dle of the day, and it is therefore known as "Noon-flower." 

 Low-growing Eustoma silenifolium is often seen here, and 

 rarely Malvaviscus Drummondii grows five to six feet tall 

 when salt-water may lave its roots. 



On thehighlands two shrubby species of Aster are common — 

 A. Palmeri and A. spinosus. The shrubby Salvia ballotseflora 

 is very common in rocky places. It is strongly scented with 

 the peculiar odor of the officinal species. 



Acacia feliceria reaches the coast in its range southward. In 

 its growth it is the humblest of our Acacias. It has a more 

 extended northern range than any other species of the genus. 

 Cuscuta exaltata grows luxuriantly within reach of high tide. 



Kansas City, Kansas. E. N. Plank. 



New or Little-known Plants, 



Chrysanthemum, Pitcher & Manda. 



THE new Chrysanthemum illustrated on page 515, and 

 which would be classed among the reflexed Japanese 

 varieties, has attracted much attention at the principal ex- 

 hibitions this year, and has received a number of prizes and 

 certificates. It was originated by Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, 

 of the United States Nurseries, Short Hills, New Jersey. 

 The seed-parent was D. S. Brown, a variety with lemon- 

 yellow flowers, which show the centre to some extent, 

 and the pollen-parent is unknown. Seed was sown in 

 the spring of 1892, and it flowered last autumn. This 

 is, therefore, the second year that it has been grown, and 

 it has proved to be of sturdy habit and excellent foliage, 

 while the flowers are quite distinct in form and unique in 

 color. As shown this year it was not a deep flower, but a 

 very solid one, of large diameter. The head is composed 

 of a great number of tubular corollas, of which the outer five 

 or six rows, grooved toward the end, are a creamy white, 

 sometimes showing a tint of yellow just at the edges. The 

 most striking feature of the flower is the suffusion of the 

 inner corollas with a deep chrome-yellow, which, in contrast 

 with the cream-white rays surrounding them, is very taking. 

 A correspondent, who saw this flower in Boston, wrote : 

 " It seems a pity that a starry flower, with a golden heart 

 and silver rays, which might well be named Planet, or 

 Aldebaran, or Sirius, should be doomed to wear such a 

 prosaic title as Pitcher & Manda." The name has the one 

 merit of commemorating its originators, and it has been 

 the fashion for a long time to name Roses, Carnations, 

 Chrysanthemums and other flowers after men and women. 

 This is the first instance, to our knowledge, however, in 

 which the name of a firm has been utilized in this way. 

 Perhaps other firms will see the advantage of such a nomen- 

 clature, and another year we may have the variety " Hoopes 

 Brothers & Thomas," or "The Andorra Nursery Company, 

 Limited." This is not a matter of vital importance, and 

 new varieties are increasing so rapidly that names are only 

 useful for purposes of identification, and yet we think the 

 flower is sufBciently distinct and individual to deserve a 

 characteristic name. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Rosa gigantea. — It is now five years since this Rose was 

 introduced into cultivation from Burma, where it had been 

 discovered by Major General Collett, who sent seeds of it 

 to Kew and elsewhere. It has very thick stems, reddish 

 spines, and bears large single white flowers, five inches in 



diameter. It grows very freely in a cold-house at Kew, 

 and it stood out-of-doors without protection for two years, 

 but succumbed to the severe frost of last winter. No doubt, 

 the plants grown under glass will flower when old enough, 

 Roses raised from seeds being, as a rule, slow to flower. 

 Meanwhile, the following information respecting it, from a 

 correspondent in Burma, will be read with interest by all who 

 possess this Rose : " Rosa gigantea grows in profusion imme- 

 diately opposite the window I am now writing at, and for a 

 hundred yards or more away. The boles of some of the 

 plants are as thick as a man's thigh. It is a creeper and 

 does not flower until it gets over or beyond the tree it 

 climbs. These specimens are on large evergreen trees, and 

 their roots are in limestone and vegetable mold, through 

 which run innumerable springs of pure water. The boles 

 of the Roses never get the sun, and they are always in the 

 neighborhood of spring water, which their roots, no doubt, 

 find. The whole of a large group of trees on the southern 

 and western side is covered up to fifty or eighty feet in 

 height with the Roses, and when in full bloom they look 

 like a sheet of white, and the air all round is most beauti- 

 fully scented. It is certainly a glorious sight. The ground 

 all round is strewed with the seeds of the Rose in July." 



Freylinia cestroides is a shrub about which I knew 

 nothing until this week, when a friend sent some flowering 

 branches of it from Cannes, on the Riviera, where he says 

 it forms a handsome bush and flowers freely in October. 

 The branches are erect and clothed with opposite linear- 

 lanceolate, smooth, green leaves, four or five inches long, 

 and bearing long, erect, crowded terminal racemes of 

 creamy yellow tubular flowers, not unlike those of Ces- 

 trum aurantiacum. Freylinia is a genus of three or four 

 species, all natives of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a near 

 ally of Scrophularia and Ixianthes, the latter also a native 

 of the Cape, and a handsome-flowered shrub, which has 

 lately been introduced to Kew. Phygalius is another near 

 relation to Freylinia. F. cestroides is apparently the hand- 

 somest as a garden-plant. Possibly it is in cultivation 

 under one or other of its synonyms, which are F. opposeti- 

 folia, Buddleia glaberrima, Capraria lanceolata and C. sali- 

 cifolia. It is a shrub worth looking after. 



Flora of South Arabia. — Mr. Theodore Bent, the well- 

 known archffiologist and traveler, having arranged an ex- 

 pedition to Hadramant, in south Arabia, the Director of 

 Kew has obtained permission for a plant-collector to ac- 

 company him in the interests of Kew. Hadramant is one 

 of the four ancient kingdoms of southern Arabia which 

 formerly supplied the world with its more important luxu- 

 ries. It is practically unknown, but is reported to be rich 

 in ruins and inscriptions. Frankincense, the product of 

 Boswellia Carteri, is obtained almost exclusively from this 

 part of Arabia. There are good reasons for believing that 

 the flora of that part of Arabia is exceptionally interesting, 

 both botanically and horticulturally. The small island of 

 Socotra, off the coast of south Arabia, proved a rich mine 

 both to botanists and horticulturists when visited by Pro- 

 fessor Bayley Balfour thirteen years ago. Mr. Bent's party 

 starts next week, and will be away about six months. 



Orchid Culture. — Monsieur Lucien Linden announces a 

 book on Orchids, written b.y himself, in which he publishes 

 the details of the cultural methods adopted in the establish- 

 ment at Brussels over which he presides, and where 

 Orchids generally are cultivated with exceptional success. 

 The book will contain about 800 pages, and treats upon 

 the classification and distribution of Orchids, in addition to 

 their history in gardens and other matters of interest con- 

 nected with this popular family of plants. Monsieur Lin- 

 den and his father have had so much experience in the 

 collecting, establishing and distributing of all kinds of 

 Orchids, and have introduced so many of those species 

 which are most popular in gardens, that this book cannot 

 fail to interest growers and admirers of Orchids. It is 

 promised for January, 1894, the price being twenty-five 

 francs. An English edition is, I believe, in contemplation. 



