6 4 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 5, 1890. 



Pine, the White Fir {Abies concolor) and a few small speci- 

 mens of Lawson's Cypress which, previous to that time, 

 was not known except in the single locality discovered by 

 Jeffrey on the head waters of the Sacramento below Mount 

 Shasta and on the Oregon coast. 



Picea Breweriana differs from the other American Spruces 

 by its blunt, round leaves and by its larger cones, whose 

 thin, entire scales resemble somewhat those of the 

 White Spruce ; they are much larger, however, and some- 

 times almost as large as those of the Norway Spruce, 

 which this tree resembles, too, in the form of the leaves 

 and in its long pendulous branchlets. These long branches, 

 one of which, very much reduced of course, appears in fig- 

 ure 16, are the marked and striking feature of this tree. 

 They are six or eight feet long sometimes, thin and flexible 

 as a whip lash, and " give to the trees," to use Mr. Brande- 

 gee's expression, "the appearance of Weeping Willows." 

 The cones, instead of appearing near the top of the trees 

 as they do in the other American Spruces, are produced 

 from the lower branches also, as in the Norway Spruce, and 

 hang down from the ends of the long pendulous branchlets. 

 The largest tree measured by Mr. Brandegee was ninety 

 feet high, with a trunk diameter of thirty inches. 



Neither Howell, nor Brandegee, nor Lemmon, the only 

 botanists who have ever seen, apparently, Picea Breweriana, 

 visited the trees at seasons of the year when seeds were 

 ripe, and this species has not been introduced yet into 

 cultivation. Picea Breweriana, if it is fair to judge from the 

 habit in cultivation of several other California trees which 

 grow naturally only in small numbers and in very narrow 

 areas — Cupressus macrocarpa, Pinus insignis, Pinus Tor- 

 reyana, Chamcecy pads Lawsoniana— may be expected to 

 adapt itself to conditions very dissimilar to those in which 

 it is found on the Siskiyou Mountains and to thrive outside 

 the limits of its present restricted range. If this expectation 

 is confirmed and Picea Breweriana assumes in cultivation 

 anything like its normal habit of growth, it will certainly 

 prove one of the most striking and attractive American 

 conifers and a garden ornament of first-rate value. 



The specific name adopted by Mr. Watson for this tree 

 commemorates the services, in California, of Professor 

 William H. Brewer, of Yale College, who, more than any 

 man in his generation, has brought to light by explorations 

 in the forest the characters and distribution of the Pacific 

 coast conifers. C 0. S. 



T 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



WO new Irises are now flowering for the first time at Kew; 

 they are /. Bakeriana, a near ally if not a variety of /. 

 reticulata, which it resembles in habit, size and form of flower, 

 but differs most markedly in color from the known forms of 

 that species, and is superior to them all. It is pale hlue, with 

 white falls spotted and blotched with rich black velvety purple. 

 At Kew it thrives under the same treatment as /. reticulata. 

 The second one is /. Bommulleri, an Armenian species intro- 

 duced last year by Max Leichtlin. Its habit is that of /. Per- 

 sica ; the flowers are medium in size, and colored a deep 

 canary yellow, with a few brown spots on the outer segments 

 and slightly bearded. The inner segments are unusually 

 narrow and small for an Iris. Close to these two Irises is the 

 bed of spring flowering Crocuses, many of which are in. full 

 bloom already. Lately the weather here has been quite spring- 

 like. On Sunday, the eighteenth, for instance, the thermom- 

 eter stood about sixty all day, and the sun shone as brightly 

 as in May. The mildness of the weather so early in the year 

 is almost certain to have disastrous consequences. Loni- 

 cera Standis/iii and Hamamelis arborea are in full bloom, the 

 former a white flowered, very fragrant and free blooming 

 plant of semi-scandent habit; the latter a beautiful shrub, with 

 its twiggy branches thickly clothed with bright golden flowers. 

 Nepenthes.— A collection of pitchers of these plants, just 

 shown by Messrs. Veitch, was, perhaps, the most interesting 

 exhibit of the first meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. 

 The pick of this fine collection are N. Curtisii, N. hirsuta, 

 N. Northiana, N. Rafflesiana and N. sanguinea. Many hy- 

 brids were shown, the best of them being N. Mastersiana, N. 



Dicksoniana, N. Morgana and N. Chelsoni. As a rule, the 

 hybrids are very much easier to cultivate than the species. 

 Probably the very best garden plant in all the lot is N. Mas- 

 tersiana, raised by Messrs. Veitch from A^. sanguinea and N. 

 distillatorea, and grown by them into really marvelous speci- 

 mens. 



Hippcastrum aulicum, var. Prince Albert, is an old Chats- 

 worth favorite, and certainly the best of the several forms 

 known of this fine plant. Flowering at this time of the year, 

 this species is of special value, and it is one of the easiest to 

 manage of all Hippeastrums. The flowers are large and col- 

 ored deep crimson, strong bulbs producing scapes two feet 

 high, bearing three or four flowers. Dendrobium Macfarlanei, 

 shown by Messrs. Veitch, is a new introduction from Torres 

 Straits, with the pseudo-bulbs and foliage of its geographical 

 neighbor, D. superbiens, whilst the flowers, almost as large as 

 those of D. formosum, are snow white. The petals and sepals 

 are rhomboid, two inches long, the lip being almost as long, 

 with two acute folding lateral lobes, bearing a few streaks of 

 purple. 



Dendrobium Hybrids. — These are becoming abundant in 

 English gardens, and, unfortunately, some of them differ from 

 each other only in name, while not a few are inferior to the 

 commonest species. A hybrid should be a distinct gain, or it 

 should be destroyed. Of course there are hybrid Dendrobi- 

 ums which are both distinct and beautiful; such, for instance, 

 are D. Ainsworthii, andZ>. splendidissimum, var. grandiflorum, 

 the latter, however, very unfortunate in having a ridiculous 

 name. Sir Trevor Lawrence exhibited at the meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, held on Tuesday last, the follow- 

 ing hybrid Dendrobiums: D. Luna {Ainsworthii X Findlay- 

 anurn), like the last-named parent in habit and in the size of 

 the flowers, but having creamy-white segments with purple 

 tips, a large lip with a few purple lines in the throat, and a 

 tinge of yellow in front. It scarcely differs from D. chrysodis- 

 cus, a hybrid raised from the same parents, and it is slightly 

 better than D. xanthocentrum, which was obtained from D. 

 Fiiidlayanum X D. Wardianum. This has large flowers like 

 those of the last-named parent, but the lip is large, fiat and 

 yellow in the middle, as in D. Findlayanum. D. Juno {Ward- 

 ianum x moniliforme) is simply a good D. nobile, with the addi- 

 tion of a tinge of yellow on the labellum. D. chlorostele, from 

 the same parents, scarcely differs from D. Juno. The finest 

 of the lot was D. splendidissimum grandiflorum {aureum X no- 

 bile), which flowered for the first time some ten years ago. 

 The flowers are over four inches across, of good substance, 

 and like a gigantic D. Wardianum, except in the lip, which is 

 shaped like that of D. aureum, but larger, and colored rich velvety 

 purple, margined with white. This hybrid is remarkable on 

 account of its exceeding both parents in size. D. enosmum 

 {endocharis nobile), and its variety, leucopterum, have ele- 

 gant large fragrant flowers, the variety especially being a 

 charming Orchid, pure white, with a rich maroon-colored lip. 

 D. nobile, grandest of the race, beautiful even in its worst 

 form, a perfectly tractable garden plant, and possessed of end- 

 less variety in form and shade, was represented by some rare 

 forms from the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence. These were 

 D. Cooksoni, the three-lipped Dendrobium, its three inner seg- 

 ments, or petals, being alike in size and color, the lowest one 

 being less spreading than the others; it is an interesting and 

 beautiful Orchid. The Burford Lodge variety is even more 

 interesting morphologically, as the characters which nor- 

 mally belong only to the lip occur also on the lower half of 

 the two lateral sepals. D. Tolliana is a curious monster, the 

 flowers being inverted so that the lip is uppermost; the petals 

 are broad and less spreading than is usual in the species. If 

 we add to these the grand varieties known as nobilius, San- 

 derianum, pendulum, Wallichianum, etc., every one as easy 

 to manage as the commonest form of D. nobile, the value of 

 this species in gardens is plainly seen. Dendrobiums are not 

 general favorites; a few, such as the above, D. fimbriatum, D. 

 formosum, D. thyrsiflorum and D. Dalhousianum, are popular, 

 but there are dozens of first-rate garden plants in the genus 

 besides these, and many of them are just as easy to manage. 

 The species in bloom now at Kew are D. Wardianum, D. 

 nobile, D. speciosum, D. moniliforme, D. Ainsworthii x and D. 

 formosum. 



Mexican L^elias. — The gayest Orchids in (lower now arc 

 such Laslias as L. anceps in many varieties, L. albida, L. fur- 

 fur acea, L. Gouldiana and L. Craw shay ana. Better acquaint- 

 ance with these plants makes it clear that, as in the many 

 forms of Cattleya labiata, which once ranked as species, as in 

 the case of these Mexican Laslias, there are more species 

 recognized than can be easily maintained. The link connect- 

 ing L. albida with L. anceps 'is the rareZ. Crawshayana, called 



