124 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 12, 1890- 



growth as the Date. The Acacia Arabica, one of the sources 

 of gum arabic, was grown from seeds imported from India, 

 and was distributed both in the form of seed and plants. The 

 only place where it survived the severe winter of i887-'88 was 

 on the mesa land of San Diego County. 



The New Zealand Flax, Phormium tenax, has been distri- 

 buted throughout the state, and finds great favor with many 

 gardeners for tying purposes. It does not thrive in the hot 

 interior valleys, but in the Coast Range-region it is an entire 

 success. In fact, I have seen it growing in canons where 

 roots have been thrown from gardens, and it is likely to 

 become naturalized in some localities. 



The University has devoted a good deal of time and money 

 to experiments with new forage plants, medicinal plants 

 adapted to the climate, and new fruits. E. J. Wickson made 

 a valuable report on the grasses and forage plants in 1887, in 

 which he said that this department began in 1879 with about 

 fifty species of grasses, clovers and other plants, and had added 

 all the promising species that could be obtained. The seasons 

 of 1888 and 1889 were "dry years," and the conclusions of the 

 previous years were confirmed. Sorghum Halepense, the 

 evergreen millet, needs irrigation, will stand little frost, and 

 has generally proved disappointing. Two Brome grasses, 

 Ceratochloa unuloides and Bromus i?iermis, have been widely 

 distributed with great success on hill lands. Of the Austra- 

 lian Salt Bushes recommended by Baron Von Mueller, Atri- 

 plex vesicarhon and A. nwjimularium, the latter proves 

 superior. It grows on salt marshes and affords much fodder. 

 The Tegasate of the Azores, Cytisus proliferus, is a very 

 pretty shrub, six to ten feet high, but its value for live stock is 

 as yet unsettled. 



The native grasses, clovers and forage plants of the Pacific 

 coast are being tested under cultivation as fast as they can be 

 collected. This is probably the most promising field at present. 

 Only the old pioneers, who remember California and Oregon 

 as they were when first settled, can form any idea of the waste 

 wealth of pasturage. Intelligent cultivation ought to restore 

 the worn-out hill pastures of this region. In the years follow- 

 ing a great rainfall, such as the present winter, species of native 

 grasses and flowering plants that one seldom sees are abun- 

 dant on the California hill-sides. The coming summer will 

 afford an excellent opportunity to secure seeds and roots. 



Niles, Cai. Charles H. Shinn. 



Viburnum pubescens. 



Viburnum pubescens, figured on page 125, is one of the 

 handsome North American shrubs which is not at all new 

 from the point of view of science, but about which gardeners 

 know very little, and no portrait of it has been published 

 before except a small figure in a Danish scientific periodical 

 practically inaccessible to the great majority of students. 

 Viburnum pubescens is, nevertheless, one of the best gar- 

 den plants of its class. It is a compact shrub, growing in 

 cultivation to the height of three feet or a little more, with 

 rigid, erect branches covered with bright colored, reddish 

 brown bark. The leaves are ovate, taper pointed, remotely 

 and sharply serrate, except near the base ; they are con- 

 spicuously pinnate-veined, two to three inches long, an 

 inch or so broad, and are borne on short, broad petioles. 

 They are covered, on the under surface, as are the young 

 shoots, with a short and very soft pubescence ; and in the 

 autumn they turn to a peculiar dark and very rich purple 

 color. The small flat cymes of white flowers, produced in 

 great profusion, unfold in June, and quite cover the upper 

 branches of well cultivated plants. The fruit ripens early, 

 in September or even in August sometimes ; it is very dark 

 purple or nearly black. The drupe is oval, a third of an 

 inch long, and slightly flattened before it is fully grown. 

 The seed is slightly furrowed on the two faces with 

 narrowly incurved margins. 



Viburnum pubescens is widely distributed from Lower 

 Canada to the Saskatchewan country ; it is rather common 

 in northern New England, extends westward to Illinois, 

 and has been found as far south as Stone Mountain, in 

 Georgia. It is rare at the south, however, and is a real 

 northern plant. It resembles in general habit the better 

 known V. denfatum, except that it is smaller in all its parts; 

 and it was formerly considered a pubescent variety of that 

 plant, from which, however, it is now distinguished by its 

 flat drupes and seeds and by its short-petioled or nearly 



sessile leaves. The fruit, too, is much darker colored, and 

 it ripens earlier, while the color which the foliage assumes 

 in autumn is entirely different from that of all our other 

 Viburnums. 



The autumn coloring of the leaves of this Viburnum con- 

 stitutes its principal value as a garden plant, and makes it 

 a very desirable addition to the shrubbery, where the unique 

 tints it assumes in October make it always a most con- 

 spicuous and interesting object. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Fragrance in Ferns has lately been the subject of much 

 discussion in the London papers, largely by people who 

 appear to know little about it. We have not yet reached the 

 point of starting a limited liability company to turn this 

 property in Ferns to profitable account, although leader- 

 writers in some of the morning papers evidently think there 

 is a " good thing " in this — to them — new discovery. At a 

 meeting of the London Botanic Society, the Secretary drew 

 attention to the strong, hay-like odor of a Fern which he 

 called Polypodium Wildenovii, but which afterward proved to 

 be the commonly grown P. Phymatodes, the fragrance of 

 which is well known to pteridologists. The odor is emitted 

 by the fronds of this species when they are partially dried, and 

 even after they have been dried for years. A few of the 

 fronds, when placed in a room, impart to it a very pleasant, 

 hay-like odor ; or they may be used for placing among linen, 

 etc. The plant itself is not in the slightest degree fragrant ; 

 it is only after the leaves have begun to "flag" that the 

 odor is developed. There are several other species of 

 Polypodium belonging to the same section as Phymatodes 

 which also possess this peculiar character. They are 

 employed by the South Sea Islanders and by the Maories in 

 New Zealand to scent oils and various foods. It is possible 

 they may prove of some economic value here ; at any rate 

 they may be used in preparing pot-pourri. 



Other fragrant Ferns known here are Dicksonia pmictiloba 

 and Nephrodium fragrans, both natives of North America 

 and both sweetly scented, the latter resembling Primroses in 

 its odor. Then in England we have A^. cemulum, called also 

 N. Famisecii, or " hay cutter," on account of its hay-like 

 odor, and N. montanum, which smells like lemons. Another 

 fragrant Nephrodium and a well known greenhouse Fern 

 here is N. patens, the fronds of which when bruised emit a 

 strong odor like that of ripe apples. 



Although not fragrant, yet deserving of mention because of 

 its strong and peculiar odor, is a variety oiAnamia Phyllitidis, 

 a common Fern in South America and the West Indies. As 

 a rule this species is odorless, but I am informed that in 

 Jamaica a variety occurs with a strong and very disagreeable 

 odor. The development of this character in only a small 

 proportion of the plants of a species is very remarkable. 

 There is absolutely no other character by which the variety 

 here called Fcetida can be distinguished from the type, except 

 that of odor. 



Seeds of Sugar Cane. — Two years ago attention was called 

 to the question of how far it was possible to improve on the 

 saccharine qualities of the Sugar Cane by other means than 

 selection from bud variation, the plan invariably adopted by 

 cultivators of this plant. It was then stated that " owing to 

 the power of producing fertile seeds having apparently been 

 lost by the Sugar Cane, it was impracticable to deal with it by 

 means of cross-fertilization or by the ordinary course of 

 seminal selection." This statement now proves to be in- 

 correct, seeds and seedlings having been produced by 

 Sugar Canes in Dodd's Botanical Station at Barbadoes. A 

 quantity of the seeds have lately been received at Kew, 

 and young plants raised from them. Apparently, there- 

 fore, the Sugar Cane still possesses the power to flower and 

 mature seeds if placed under conditions favorable to its doing 

 so. The importance of this discovery cannot easily be exag- 

 gerated, and there is now a hopeful prospect of a considerable 

 improvement being made in the sugar-yielding qualities of 

 the Sugar Cane, which, if realized, will strengthen the pro- 

 ducers of cane-sugar against those of beet-sugar. That varia- 

 tion does actually occur amongst plants raised from seeds is 

 proved by a letter from Mr. J. B. Harrison, of Barbadoes, to the 

 Director of Kew (See Kew Bulletin, December, 1888, p. 294), 

 in which he states that " sixty [seedling] plants were success- 

 fully transplanted and are being cultivated. At present they 

 are not far enough advanced in their growth to speak with 



