i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 8, 1890. 



The underwood beneath the Pines is almost entirely com- 

 posed of scarlet Pelargoniums — great bushes three or four 

 Eeet high — masses of bloom and growing as freely as 

 brambles in a thicket ; not even at the Cape of Good Hope 

 can they he more luxuriant or splendid. 



In the old garden nature has done much and art compara- 

 tively little ; in the Monte Carlo garden the aid of the land- 

 scape gardener has been invoked, and to some purpose too. 

 Near the Casino itself stately terraces have been made in har- 

 mony with the lines of (lie building erected nearly ten years 

 ago by Gamier, the architect of the new Paris opera house. 

 At the same time Monsieur Edouard Andre? remodeled all the 

 gardens, which are now said to be amongst the most beautiful 

 in the world. The combined attractions of roulette, the lovely 

 site and gardens and excellent music — the orchestra is world- 

 renowned — render Monte Carlo a very popular resort, and the 

 extensive additions, on which an army of men were employed, 

 did not, on the part of Monsieur Blanc, seem to indicate much 

 fear that the opponents of gambling would soon succeed in 

 their efforts to get the tables suppressed. 



Of course Palms play a great part in the Monte Carlo land- 

 scape ; the Date-Palm attains a large size, so does the Chusan 

 Fan-Palm [Trachy carpus [Chamcerops] excelsus). The Med- 

 iterranean Fan-Palm {Chamcerops humilis) is useful for mass- 

 ing, and varies greatly in size, length of leaf-stalk, the charac- 

 ter of the spines thereon, etc. During winter its mass of 

 orange colored fruits form a dense collar round the stem at 

 the base of the crown and produce a fine effect. Washing- 

 tonia ft/if era is abundant, and the Silver Palm — Erythrea arm- 

 ata, or, as it is everywhere called along the Riviera, Brahea 

 Ra'zlii — a Mexican species, makes a most beautiful object ; 

 it is, however, usually grown as a single specimen on 

 lawns, not yet being common enough to plant in groups. 

 Cocas ftexuosa, very fine plants, some thirty feet high, with 

 their splendid plume-like leaves and smooth stems, make a 

 most attractive feature. C. Jatai and C. Blumenavii are two 

 of the many names under which the Brazilian C. capitata is 

 grown. Sabals exist too under garden names, and Palm 

 nomenclature along the Riviera is, on the whole, in a very 

 sorry stale. It is quite impossible to clear up the confusion 

 surrounding the genera Phoenix, Cocos, Sabal and others un- 

 less some careful observer studies all the so-called species in 

 a living state under conditions favorable to their development; 

 and for this many spots along the Riviera supply a suitable 

 environment. 



Cvcads are not strongly represented at Monte Carlo. There 

 is on one of the lawns a fine Dioon edule, and elsewhere a big 

 specimen of the Caffer Bread, Encephalartos Coffer. Cycas 

 revolnta was the member of this family most frequently met 

 with both here and elsewhere. Bamboo-groups produce 

 beautiful effects ; many species of these noble grasses exist 

 under garden names only, and until they flower it is impossi- 

 ble, in many cases, to determine with certainty even the 

 genera to which they belong. Some of the Bamboo-masses 

 had a forest of stems thirty feet high or more. 



One pretty effect was produced by a Pine heavily draped 

 with the small-leaved climbing Polygonaceous plant (Alueh- 

 leiibeckia complexa). In the same way Trachelospermum 

 (Rhyncospermum) jasminoides was used to clothe the stems of 

 large Date Palms. Phytolacca dioica here makes a tree in a 

 remarkably short time, and is effective enough. A few years 

 ago a Cape dealer made a good hit— from his point of view 

 onlv— by selling young plants of this, as a timber tree of won- 

 derfully quick growth, to the south African-colonists. The 

 India rubber-tree {Ficus elastica) makes a huge specimen al 

 Monte Carlo and develops adventitious roots quite in a tropi- 

 cal manner ; the Australian F. macrophylla does equally well. 

 One of the handsomest flowering plants I saw was a Solatium 

 called S. Rantonetii, a species with round, shallow, saucer- 

 shaped flowers, with deep violet flowers and golden anthers ; 

 and S. glaucum, a dozen feet in height, was also finely in 

 flower. 



Grevillea robusta, so much used in a small state for room 

 and conservatory decoration in England, here makes a good 

 tree. Of course the names of a large number of plants pre- 

 viously noted by me in these columns are not repeated here, 

 and unfortunately; lack of space prevents my dwelling longer 

 on Monte Carlo. 



At the beginning of September the bush Roses had all been 

 cut back and some had already broken. The ground at 

 the same date had been roughly turned up previous to raking 

 and leveling, treading firm, etc., and sowing with English Rye- 

 grass ; in this hot, dry region it is next to impossible to keep 

 grass alive, and it is "only where labor and water supply are 

 abundantly and constantly employed that lawns can be kept 



green during the summer and autumn months. The"general 

 practice is to sow them annually. 



La Condamine, on the little plain between the promontories 

 of Monaco and Monte Carlo, connected with both places by 

 splendid roads, can boast of a very fine line of Nerium Olean- 

 der, the large double-flowered form. The trees have clean 

 stems of six or seven feet, and good heads, which were covered 

 with blossoms at the time of our visit. 

 Kew. Ueorge Nicholson. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens.* 



/ n _v HIS Hydrangea (Fig. 3, p. 17 of this issue) is one 



J_ of the handsomest of the numerous shrubs which have 

 found their way of late years from China and from Japan 

 into our gardens. A native of the mountains of northern 

 China and of Mongolia, it is not believed by M. Maximo- 

 wicz to be specifically distinct from the Himalayan H. ves- 

 tita, a small tree, of rather wide distribution. Here the 

 north China plant makes a graceful shrub, four or five feet 

 high, with slender branches covered with red-brown bark. 

 The leaves are pale green and rather velvety on the upper 

 surface, ovate-acute at both ends, or sometimes somewhat 

 rounded at the base, coarsely glandular-serrate, three and a 

 half to four inches long, borne on stout petioles, cinereous- 

 pubescent, and slightly rugose on the lower surface, as are 

 the young shoots, the petioles and the inflorescence. 



The cyme of flowers is flat and ample, with numerous 

 neutral ray flowers an inch or more across when ex- 

 panded. These open early in July, and are then creamy 

 white ; they gradually change to rose color, and remain 

 quite fresh upon the plants until November. 



This plant is perfectly hardy. It is the first of the Hy- 

 drangeas to flower, and the most desirable as a garden- 

 plant of all the species which ' are hardy in this climate, 

 with the single exception of the Oak-leaved Hydrangea 

 (H quercifolia) of our south Atlantic States. 



The specimens in the Arboretum were raised from seed 

 sent several years ago from Pekin by Dr. Bretschneider, to 

 whom we are indebted for a number of fine hardy plants. 

 C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



The New Plants of 1889.— I. 

 r PHE-new plants introduced into English gardens during the 

 *■ present year are few when compared with the record for 

 previous years. This is the more surprising when we recollect 

 that many more collectors are at work now than ever before. 

 Apparently these men are engaged in collecting and dispatch- 

 ing to England large quantifies of standard or favorite plants, 

 chiefly Orchids, for which there is a large and constant de- 

 mand. Few nurserymen, including even those who, until 

 recently, were identified with new plants of all kinds, appear to 

 pay much attention to the introduction of anything except 

 Orchids. Now and then a good plant finds its way to England 

 to be taken care of and afterward distributed, but this ap- 

 pears to be oftener the result of accident than of design. 



The botanical explorations of such men as Dr. Henry in 

 northern China, the Abbe" David in northern China and Mon- 

 golia, and the Abbe Delavay in the western province of Yun-nan 

 have resulted in the addition of a few good plants to our gar- 

 dens, of which more will be heard in the course of time ; but 

 these are mere scraps as compared with the riches revealed 

 in their botanical collections. The preparation, packing and 

 trouble necessarily attendant on the safe introduction of living 

 plants into Europe from such countries as those named must 

 deter many from attempting it, and yet to any one acquainted 

 with the many means, such as seeds, bulbs, tubers, etc., at the 

 disposal of those who are in unknown regions, the pity of missing 

 the opportunity is great. Even such a journey as that recently 

 accomplished by Mr. Stanley must have afforded a splendid 

 chance for a collector with his wits about him. That a great 

 deal can be done at such times has been proved again and 

 again, notably by Dr. Aitchison when with the Afghan Boundary 

 Commission, and before that, during the Afghan war; for, not- 

 withstanding his official work, the energetic doctor collected 



* Hydrangea vestita, var. pubescens, Mnximowicz, Mem. Acad. Sci., St. Peters- 

 burg, 7 s£rie, x., 10. — Franchet, PI. David, i., 124. 



H. pubescens, Decaisne, Fl. des Serres, iv., t. 378. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 1884, f. 107 



