i 7 o 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 2, 1890. 



plants thrive just as well in peat as when grown simply in 

 moss and fixed on a teak raft. Plenty of water must be given, 

 but the chief danger to be guarded against is letting the soil or 

 moss become sour or sodden by stagnant water. The winter 

 temperature should be kept up to about seventy to eighty de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, and this, in conjunction with plenty of 

 moisture as recommended, seems to be all that is of importance 

 to induce the plants to produce their flowers freely. No doubt 

 as this species gets more accustomed to the empiric art of the 

 gardener, it may thrive at a somewhat lower temperature and 

 under less exacting circumstances. 

 St. Albans, Eng. John Weathers. 



Heuchera sanguinea. — I am pleased to be able to record the 

 hardiness of this plant during the past winter, having left one 

 out without the slightest protection as a test plant. It may be 

 said that the last was not fairly a test winter ; but with such 

 plants as are evergreen and have their growing parts all above 

 ground, as in Heuchera sanguinea, the fluctuations of tempera- 

 ture are more injurious than a continued period of severe 

 weather, for under the one the plants are often incited into 

 premature growth, and thus more easily killed, while during 

 protracted severe weather the usual accompaniment of a coat 

 of snow is the best possible protection against both sun and frost. 



Aubrietia Leichtlini. — This new Aubrietia is now flowering 

 with us for the first time, and if proof were necessary of its 

 value as a garden plant other than that contained in the spe- 

 cific name the plant bears, it will be found in the decided 

 bright rose color of the flowers. As is well known, all other 

 Aubrietias have flowers of various shades of violet-blue, and 

 their value as spring decorative plantsforassociationwithsuch 

 plants as the varieties of the Moss Pink for spring effect can- 

 not be Overestimated. Aubrietias supply the one tint lacking in 

 the many varieties of Phlox subulata. They are easily raised 

 from seed ; but if it is desired to perpetuate any particular 

 variety, this must be done by division and cuttings in fall, as 

 seedling plants vary considerably, especially where more than 

 one variety is cultivated; so, taking into consideration this fact, 

 it is safe to advise that A. Leichtlini be propagated by division. 

 We once had a white Aubrietia under cultivation, but soon dis- 

 carded it, owing to the insignificance of its flowers, which were 

 no better than those of the common Chickweed. 



Passaic, N.J. O. 



Correspondence. 

 Some Practices in Grafting. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The art of grafting, like nearly all other arts, has had 

 much new light thrown upon it during the past generation, 

 and some of its abuses have already been pointed out and 

 corrected. There remains, however, something still to do in 

 calling attention to some misuses of the art, which, next to 

 that of the hybridizer, is the most fascinating of horticultural 

 processes. It is well to discuss its scientific side, and show all 

 that can be shown of the almost infinitely varied influences of 

 stock on cion and cion on stock. 



It is desirable also to keep in full view the practical, every- 

 day side of the matter. Some friends of gardening in England 

 have fallen into the belief that because many ill-assorted unions 

 of trees are sold and bring loss and disappointment, the whole 

 practice had better be abandoned. Not many will agree with 

 such a sweeping condemnation, but there is good reason to 

 look carefully into the misapplication of the art. When a 

 whole section of a country engaged in fruit-growing finds that 

 a certain fruit grafted on a given stock cankers and fails, we 

 cannot blame people if they try other stocks, and finally settle 

 down to the practice of growing this fruit on its own roots, if it 

 does better so. When a tree is so short-lived on another stock 

 as to be valueless in two or three years, it is folly for nursery- 

 men to continue its propagation in that way. A choice variety 

 of anything grafted upon a stock which is absolutely sure to 

 send up a multitude of suckers and overwhelm it, is a 

 delusion and a loss, and this loss falls heaviest, finally, on the 

 nursery trade. 



An instance of this is the budding or grafting of the new 

 varieties of Lilacs upon a stock of common Lilac, as are all 

 those sent out from European nurseries. An example of a 

 good plant on a stock where it will live but a very few years 

 is Primus triloba, the so-called Flowering Almond on Plum 

 or Peach stocks. A mere touch separates the plant from the 

 stock. Another is found in the working of the Rose Aca- 

 cia on Robinia Pseudacacia with precisely the same results. 

 So long has this sort of propagation been practiced that I know 

 of many nurserymen, both in this country and Europe, who 



have never seen either the Flowering Almond or the Rose 

 Acacia on its own roots, and some have even told me that 

 neither would grow in that way. I have had the pleasure of 

 sending specimens on their own roots to the unbelievers* 

 There are really many things that would be far better on their 

 own roots than grafted upon any other stock whatever, and 

 there exists no sound reason for grafting such things at all. 

 Some of this sort are the following : Wier's Cut-leaved Maple, 

 most varieties of Elm and every sort of grafted shrub on 

 stock which suckers, since they can all be layered so very 

 easily. The Plum on Peach stock may serve a useful purpose 

 on sandy soils, but the indiscriminate sending out of budded 

 Plum-trees is working untold harm to the general nursery 

 trade. 



The use of a tender stock for plants which must endure a 

 greater degree of cold than the stock can stand is illustrated by 

 the use of Rhododendron Ponticum as stock for R. Catawbiense 

 hybrids. It has caused considerable losses of this beautiful 

 plant in Massachusetts, and the best growers now see the de- 

 sirability of raising them all from layers on their roots. 



Another plant that is far better on its own roots is the 

 Quince. As grown now, the new sorts of Quince are budded 

 on the common sort, which, after a few years, send up 

 suckers on every side, and these are very difficult to distin- 

 guish. Why not grow these choice sorts from layers or 

 cuttings ? The double and also the white Wistarias are now 

 almost universally grafted on the common purple sort, and 

 they are often ruined by the more vigorous suckers of the 

 stock. Why do we graft such a plant at all, when by getting 

 them on their own roots by layering we can then multiply 

 them ad infinitum, by root cuttings, as easily as we can raise 

 Peas ? 



Much labor is applied to the grafting of such trees as the 

 Purple, Cut-leaved and Weeping Beeches, which are very 

 difficult to graft out-of-doors, when they might be far more 

 cheaply and better multiplied by layers. I was greatly inter- 

 ested in a well known, huge Beech, in Kew gardens, last 

 season, which has rooted the tips of its immense, horizontal 

 branches into the soil, and produced, at each of these 

 reinforced points, a large and finely formed tree, so that a 

 ring of these now surrounds the plant. The perfect success of 

 these layers showed what could be done by this method in 

 multiplying these fine trees. 



The evident truth is that we often take the worse and more 

 expensive way of propagating many useful plants simply 

 through habit. 



Cambridge, Mass. F. L. Temple. 



Longevity of the Elm. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — There are several of our eastern trees — the Sycamore 

 and the Tulip-tree, for instance — which attain much greater 

 size than the White Elm. But the finest specimens of original 

 growth — noble individuals, whose commanding stature re- 

 quired the lapse of many centuries — were ruthlessly swept off 

 in the times of early settlement ; and it happens now that in 

 most of the older parts of the country the champion trees for 

 size are Elms. 



Dr. Holmes, who, in his lively way, has "interviewed" va- 

 rious notable individual Elms of New England, gives it as the 

 result of his observations, that the species is not long lived, 

 and he doubts whether any last beyond two or three centuries. 

 Is this limit well substantiated ? Data pertaining to the age of 

 a tree are seldom obtainable. All its early years it is in no way 

 conspicuous among its fellows, as is so frequently the case with 

 the adolescence of centenarian claimants ; and in such cases 

 questions of longevity are difficult to decide. 



There is an Elm in this town whose trunk, in the smallest 

 place between roots and branches, girths nineteen feet three 

 inches ; this at five feet from the ground. At two feet six 

 inches high the circumference is twenty-two feet. In 1817 

 one half of the tree was killed by the burning of a house at 

 close quarters ; but the tree recovered, and the only trace re- 

 maining is a deep scar upon one sideof the trunk. A lady of the 

 vicinity used to tell of having seen in her childhood a pair of 

 oxen running away over the tree which passed under the yoke, 

 springing up behind them ! This occurred only ninety-five 

 years ago. This large tree is evidently in its old age, though 

 still possessing considerable vigor. 



The Sterling Elm is a notable tree in the pleasant village of 

 Sharon, Connecticut, on the grounds of Mr. W. O. Wheeler. 

 With a spread of no feet, the smallest girth of its trunk is 

 seventeen feet. The trunk is very solid and cylindrical, and 

 the tree is in full vigor. Sharon was first settled 150 years ago; 

 and the position of this tree indicates that it was planted. This 



