52 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 29, 1896. 



sions, and some fine specimens still remain. One of the best 

 is in the grounds of Mr. T. H. Ramirez, in Los Angeles, and is 

 now fifty years old. A careful estimate of the height, made re- 

 cently by the Rev. J. C. Nevin, is as follows : Height of living 

 Leaves, 14 feet ; mass of dead leaves,* 10 feet ; trunk, 34 feet ; 

 total height, 58 feet ; circumference three feet from ground, 

 10 feet ios^ inches. 



The same tree was measured in 1880 by Dr. Engelmann, who 

 estimated the height as substantially the same, and found the 

 circumference to be only four inches less. 



A tree growing on Second Street in San Bernardino, twenty- 

 two years from the seed, measures: To the leaves, 22 feet ; 

 roof crown, 10 feet ; total height, 32 feet ; circumference 

 three feet from ground, 9 feet 2 inches. This tree has pro- 

 duced flowers and fruit for the first time the present year. 

 During the last fewyears many thousands of these Palms "have 

 been planted in southern California, which in time will become 

 notable features in the landscape. 



So far as is actually known, the Palm already described is the 

 only one indigenous in California, or, indeed, anywhere in the 

 United States west of the Atlantic and Gulf coast-regions. 

 There are, however, some indications that other species may 

 be waiting discovery. Two species of Erythrsea are near our 

 borders. E. edulis, Wats., inhabits the island of Guadaloupe.off 

 the coast of Lower California, while E. armata, Wats., comes 

 within thirty miles of the boundary on the Mexican side, and 

 may be found in some yet unexplored canon on the American 

 side. 



Ten years ago Mr. W. G. Wright obtained from the desert 

 Indians a few Palm-seed of two different kinds, which appear 

 to belong to no known species. They were represented to 

 have been procured in the neighboring desert, but the most 

 zealous efforts failed to lead to the discovery of the trees. 

 There is some reason to think that they may have been 

 brought from Mexican territory. 



Washingtonia robusta, described by Wendland in 1883, is 

 also supposed to be Californian, but its origin and character 

 are alike doubtful. It was founded on some young plants 

 raised in a Dutch nursery, the seeds of which were supposed 

 by the proposer of the species to have come from the "Valley 

 of the Sacramento River, in California " — an obvious error. 

 Again, " M. Roezel is said " (by E. Andre in the Revue Horti- 

 cole) " to have gathered the fresh seed in Arizona." It is 

 quite certain that no botanist is known to have seen an indige- 

 nous tree. Seed-collectors, however, are more fortunate, 

 and are able to supply abundantly the market with W. robusta 

 seed, which has no apparent difference from that of the com- 

 mon Desert Palm, except its higher price. The published 

 characters of the proposed species show no important 

 points of difference from the better known one, and, indeed, 

 are hardly sufficient for more than a garden variety. May not 

 the seed from which the original plants were raised have been 

 gathered from a W.filifera having individual peculiarities that 

 impressed upon its progeny the minorcharacteristics by which 

 they seem to differ from the ordinary form ? Greater varia- 

 tions are procured by seed selection by cultivators, and among 

 plants growing wild, marked individual differences are not un- 

 common. At best, this species is a very obscure one, and it 

 is to be hoped that more light may be thrown upon its true 

 character. . 



San Bernardino, Cal. <>• B. Bans II. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Kalanchoe carnea. 



THIS South American plant, f of which a figure appears 

 on page 53, although it has suffered, perhaps, like 

 most horticultural novelties, from over-praise, seems 

 really an important and valuable addition to winter-bloom- 

 ing plants. 



Like the Crassulas, to which Kalanchoe is very closely 

 related, K. ca?-nea is a very easy plant to manage. The 

 seeds sown in the early spring will produce plants which 

 will flower at Christmas-time. The seedlings may be 

 potted during the summer or may be planted in the open 

 ground and lifted and potted at the appearance of frost. 

 The temperature of a warm greenhouse, in which the 

 plants should get the benefit of as much sun as possible, 

 will bring them into flower by the middle of December, or 



*A11 the dead leaves were cut away two years ago, and these have accumulated 

 since, 

 t Gardeners' Chronicle, ser. 3, i., 211, f. 48, February 12th, 1887. 



they may be retarded in a cooler temperature. The habit 

 of this plant is fairly good, but it can be improved by 

 pinching the end of the main stem early in the season, 

 which will then throw up three or four flowering branches. 

 Kalanchoe carnea flowers freely, and the flowers, which 

 are pale pink, are so fragrant that a single cluster will per- 

 fume a whole house. Its blooming at a time of year when 

 flowers are more scarce and more in demand than at any 

 other season of the year makes it a desirable plant ; and 

 the fact that it can be treated as an annual or can be 

 propagated from small cuttings adds to its value ; as the 

 plants can be thrown away as soon as they are out of 

 flower — an advantage which will be appreciated by per- 

 sons with small greenhouses in which space cannot well 

 be spared for plants that have passed their productive 

 state early in the winter. 



Kalanchoe carnea is so easily raised and flowers so 

 freely that it is suggested that it may prove one of the best 

 flowering plants- for cultivation in rooms which has been 

 introduced for some time. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 The Gardens at Burford Lodge. 



T3R0BABLY some of your readers who are interested in 

 -"• Orchids will like to hear something of a garden which 

 has become famous wherever Orchids are grown. 



Among amateur Orchid-growers in England, Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence, President of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 has long been the acknowledged prince. He commenced 

 about fifteen years ago to collect and cultivate Orchids 

 in his delightfully situated garden under the lea of Box Hill, 

 Dorking, in the county of Surrey, twenty miles from Lon- 

 don Bridge. About five years later it was acknowledged 

 that no collection in England possessed as much interest or 

 testified to as much cultural skill as this ; the health and clean- 

 liness of the plants, the orderliness and convenience of the 

 houses being such as were scarcely ever met with elsewhere. 

 This may be said of Sir Trevor's garden to-day. There are 

 and have been collections of Orchids almost if not quite as 

 rich in number and rarity of species, but they have not lasted 

 long, and the only English collection which may be said to 

 rival Sir Trevor's at the present time is that of Baron Schrce- 

 der, at Egham, nearWindsor. The marked difference between 

 the two is that while the Burford Lodge collection contains 

 almost every Orchid that is popular and beautiful it also ad- 

 mits many plants which have only a botanical interest. Sir 

 Joseph Hooker recognized the exceptional services of Sir 

 Trevor to horticulture by dedicating to him in 1886 the hun- 

 dredth volume of the Botanical Magazine, and he associated 

 with Sir Trevor's name " that of the distinguished lady from 

 whom you directly inherit your love of plants and passion 

 for gardening, the late Mrs. Lawrence, of Ealing Park, whose 

 liberality and whose rich and beautiful conservatories were 

 well set forth by my predecessor in the dedication to her of 

 the sixty-eighth volume, published in 1842, of this work, and 

 whose kindness to myself when a very young botanist, I shall 

 ever hold in grateful remembrance." 



Ealing Park about fifty years ago was probably the richest 

 and most beautiful in England. Orchids, hard-wooded plants, 

 stove plants, hardy trees and shrubs were cultivated there 

 most successfully, as was proved by the place they took in the 

 great exhibitions which were then held by the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society. In a description of this once famous garden, 

 written at that time, mention is made of four houses, sixty-five 

 feet by seventeen feet, filled with New Holland plants, amongst 

 them magnificent specimens, four or five feet through, of such 

 plants as Leschenaultia, Boronia, Gastrolobium, Pultencea and 

 Chorizema. Another house, forty feet by sixteen feet, con- 

 tained nothing but Ericas, many of them large specimens of 

 species which are not now known in English gardens. Reared 

 in the midst of such surroundings, Sir Trevor could hardly 

 help acquiring a great love for plants and taste for horticul- 

 ture. When he succeeded Lord Aberdare as President of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society it was rapidly sinking into ruin, and 

 it had ceased to represent and lead English horticulture. 

 Thanks, however, to the new departure decided upon soon 

 after Sir Trevor's election to the presidency of the Society, it 

 has been restored to activity and usefulness, and the Society 

 is now rapidly gaining the respect and support of every one 

 interested in horticulture. 



