5o 



Garden and Forest. 



January 29, 1890. 



tree found in them both ; and a tree, in spite of the long 

 period of its cycle of existence, would be expected, from 

 its greater exposure to climatic changes, to undergo greater 

 modifications than a smaller plant. The presence of the 

 same tree in Asia and in America is remarkable, perhaps, 

 but it is not remarkable that Tulip-trees should grow in 

 these two remote regions. It would be remarkable if one 

 was not found in Asia in view of the similarity of the two 

 floras, and of the fact, that Tulip-trees of many species were 

 at one time in the world's history widely distributed over 

 its surface. The chief significance at this time, therefore, 

 of Dr. Henry's discovery is that the climatic conditions of 

 eastern North America and central China are so nearly 

 identical that the descendants of a common tertiary ancestor 

 — one in America, the other in China — have not become 

 sufficiently altered during all the centuries they have existed 

 to furnish to the eye of the systematic botanist differences 

 sufficiently marked to enable him to separate them speci- 

 fically. But we will refer our readers to the following 

 acfcount of the Chinese Tulip-tree, contributed to the col- 

 umns of the Gardeners Chronicle by Mr. W. Botting Hems- 

 ley, the author of the exceedingly valuable catalogue of 

 Chinese plants now being published in the Journal of /he 

 Linncean Society : 



It is just thirty years ago that the late Dr. Asa Gray pub- 

 lished his memorable essay on the close degree of relation- 

 ship between the Moras of Japan and eastern North America 

 respectively, as compared with the relationships between the 

 floras of eastern North America and Europe, and between 

 those of western North America and eastern Asia. I allude 

 now to the vegetation of the temperate zone as distinguished 

 from that of the arctic zone, in which there is a greater con- 

 tinuity of land and a much more uniform flora. The results 

 of Gray's investigations showed that a considerably higher 

 percentage of allied species inhabit Japan and eastern North 

 America than inhabit western North America and Japan, or 

 Europe and Japan. The number of identical species known 

 at that date to be native both of Europe and Japan was rather 

 greater than the number of identical species in eastern North 

 America and Japan, but these consisted largely of species 

 ranging from western Europe to eastern Asia. 



The late Professor Miquel sought to minimize the import- 

 ance of Dr. Gray's deductions, on the ground that many of 

 the assumed identical species were different ; but, whichever 

 way we view it, there is no disputing the fact of the existence 

 of numerous genera in the floras of both eastern North 

 America and eastern Asia (China and Japan) that are not rep- 

 resented in the present flora of Europe, though there is evi- 

 dence that some of these genera, at least, formed part of the 

 pre-glacial vegetation of Europe. 



Since the appearance of Gray's essay the flora of Japan has 

 been more exhaustively investigated, and the immense botan- 

 ical collections made in central China by Dr. Augustine Henry 

 and others have revealed the existence of many other con- 

 necting links between the temperate floras of eastern Asia and 

 eastern North America. 



Among these discoveries none is of greater interest than 

 the Chinese Tulip-tree. Almost everybody in England who 

 is fond of trees is familiar with the North American Tulip- 

 tree, which has no counterpart in its curiously truncated 

 leaves among the trees hardy in Britain. Indeed, this type of 

 foliage is not very closely imitated in any other genus of 

 plants throughout the world; most nearly, perhaps, in some 

 species of Passiflora. 



In 1875 Dr. Shearer sent leaves of a Tulip-tree from China 

 to Kew, collected on the mountains near Kiukiang, in the 

 province of Kiangsi, in about the latitude of Ningpo, but be- 

 tween five and six degrees westward. Mr. Le Marchant 

 Moore published an account (Journal of Botany, 1875, P- 22 5) 

 of Dr. Shearer's collection of Chinese plants in which these 

 leaves were found, and we learn therefrom that Dr. Shearer 

 regarded it as a native of the region where he collected it. 



In 1878 Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, presented to the Kew 

 Herbarium a collection of dried Chinese plants made for them 

 by Mr. Maries. This collection contained one small specimen 

 of the Chinese Tulip-tree. It is quite young, neither the leaves 

 nor the flowers being fully developed. Mr. Maries collected 

 it near Kiukiang, from a tree growing near a temple ; and in 

 a note accompanying the specimen, he states that it was a 

 fine spreading tree with green flowers, but he regarded it as 

 inferior to the American. With regard to the color of the 

 flowers, that was probably due to their very young state, and 



the same may be said concerning their small size. Still the 

 material was insufficient to decide whether it was specifically 

 different from the American, and I accordingly published it as 

 a doubtful variety under the name of Chinense in the Index 

 Flora Sinensis (Jotir. Linn. Soc, xxiii., p. 25). 



Early in the present year Dr. Henry sent to Kew copious 

 completely developed specimens, confirming the view that it 

 is the same species as the American, and not distinguishable, 

 even as a variety. Judging from the specimens, the Chinese 

 Tulip-tree presents exactly the same kind of variation as the 

 American ; the foliage of young or vigorous trees being much 

 larger and more deeply lobed. Dr. Henry collected speci- 

 mens on the mountains both north and south of the River 

 Yangtze, in the province of Hupeh. At Paokang he found it 

 forming a spreading shrub, six feet high, at an elevation of 

 6,000 feet. At Chienshih lie collected flowering specimens 

 from a tree thirty feet high, and leaves from a young tree in 

 the same locality are a foot across in either direction. It bears 

 a Chinese name signifying goose-foot-leaved Catalpa. The 

 localities where Dr. Henry collected the Tulip-tree are be- 

 tween 300 and 400 miles westward of Kiukiang, a region pre- 

 viously all but unknown, botanically, beyond the banks of the 

 Yangtze River. 



French Parterres. 



HTHE Luxembourg palace, one of the finest and most famous 

 -^ buildings in Paris, was begun by Marie de Medici in 

 161 5, her architect being Jacques de Brosse. A smaller palace, 

 razed to make room for it, had been owned for a time by the 

 Duke of Piney-Luxembourg, and hence the name of the exist- 

 ing building. For many years during the present century it 

 contained the State collections of modern art ; but these have 

 been removed to a new museum in the gardens near by, and 

 the palace is now the Senate House. Our present object, how- 

 ever, is not to describe the palace itself or the large and beau- 

 tiful gardens which surround it, but simply to call attention to 

 the method of planting shown in the foreground of our pic- 

 ture (see page 55). 



We spoke not long ago (vol. ii., p. 590) of the bad taste 

 displayed in many French parks where bright, formal flower- 

 beds and isolated tropical plants are profusely scattered about, 

 with no regard to the main lines of the design or to the gen- 

 eral effect which these were intended to produce. But such 

 mistakes, frequent though they are, should not be taken as 

 representative of the current level of gardening-art in France. 

 Especially where the design is itself formal or semi-formal in 

 character, the most perfect good taste and a keen feeling for 

 harmonies of line and color are constantly revealed ; and 

 strangely enough, it may seem, the treatment is then apt to be 

 less strictly formal and mechanical than in the essays of other 

 nations. 



The chief features in many of the small parks of Paris, 

 and in those parts of larger grounds where there is close con- 

 tact with architectural forms, are straight narrow paths and 

 rectangular grass-plots, kept free from all scattered plants or 

 beds, but encircled by long beds planted with a great variety 

 of hardy flowers and shrubs. Such are the small spaces which 

 surround three sides of the Louvre at the end where it faces 

 the church of St. Germain, and many parts of the gardens 

 attached to the royal suburban palaces as well as to the Lux- 

 embourg. The chief point with regard to the arrangement of 

 the flower-beds is that, while symmetrical, it is not formal, 

 either as regards the selection and arrangement of the plants 

 or the method of their cultivation. Shrubby perennials — 

 standard Roses, dwarf and low Standard Althasas and 

 Persian or Chinese Lilacs being the favorites — are set 

 at regular intervals along the centre of the bed, its 

 ends being commonly marked by rather taller specimens. 

 Between these, conspicuous annuals are set, and then the 

 bed is filled to its edge with a varied mass of more lowly- 

 growing flowers. In August and September there might 

 be noted among the taller annuals Dahlias of different 

 heights, Gladioli, Cannas, Asters and Bush-Daisies; and, 

 among the others, Geraniums, Tuberous Begonias, Lobelias 

 and Lantanas, with Centaurea, Coreopsis and Gaura Lind- 

 heimeri. These last were not mingled heterogeneously as 

 isolated specimens, and neither were they clipped and re- 

 strained to make formal patterns. A little clump of each was 

 carefully placed with due regard to the habit and the color of 

 its neighbors, and then the whole mass allowed to grow in free 

 luxuriance. Particularly pretty effects were produced by 

 mingling red with white Geraniums, or by contrasting the red 

 ones with a clump of white Centaurea; and, again, by allowing 

 a pale Heliotrope and a yellow Lantana to interlock their 



