April 9, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



181 



deep, rich soil. The foliage when the tree is in ordinary sit- 

 uations is not over dense, and when on dryish ground it is quite 

 thin. It is only when in deep soil that the great beauty of the 

 tree is developed. It is then that the different colors of the 

 foliage and leaf stalks are best displayed. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped, dark green above and silvery green beneath, 

 while the leaf stalks and veins are of a dark red. It has a 

 well formed pyramidal habit. I am not aware that any trees 

 have flowered as yet in this country. Seeds, however, can be 

 imported which germinate readily, so that the slower way of 

 layering and rooting cuttings will not be necessary. 



Germantown, Pa. - Joseph Median. 



Foxgloves.— It is not generally known that Digitalis purpurea 

 and D. lutea (ambigua) force well. By potting good plants in 

 ten-inch pots during the autumn, and by keeping them in a 

 frost-proof pit, well lighted and aired when the weather per- 

 mits it, they grow a little all winter, and come nicely into 

 bloom by the first of May. Along with these appear Canter- 

 bury Bells and Spirwa palmata if treated in the same way. 

 Add to the above a few plants of Astilbe Japonica or Deutzia 

 gracilis and a very charming group can be formed. For 

 vases or ornamental jars Auriculas and Viola cornuta Per- 

 fection, can be used with good effect until the time comes for 

 ordinary summer-blooming plants. 



Japanese Anemones.— For entrance-steps, porch or piazza 

 decoration few plants excel well-grown specimens of Anemone 

 Japonica. Ours are grown in twelve-inch pots, started in a 

 frame during March, which advances them sufficiently in this 

 latitude to bloom toward the end of September. Further south 

 this would be unnecessary. We place five to six strong crowns 

 in each pot, in good loam. As soon as the flower-stems ap- 

 pear in August liquid manure is given. Abundance of water 

 is essential throughout the season ; just sufficient staking is 

 done to get good specimens. The best varieties are the white 

 Honorine Joubert and the hybrid Pink. H. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



Perpetual Carnations. — Carnations to flower in the open 

 ground this summer should be planted early in this latitude — 

 any time after the 10th of April if they have been growing in 

 a cool place. Carnations are better without fire-heat at this 

 season. It is important that the soil in which they are to be 

 planted be rich in potash, and a liberal dressing of wood ashes 

 is, perhaps, the best means of supplying this element. If the 

 plants are ordinary spring-struck cuttings they should be 

 planted about a foot apart each way ; plants that have been 

 wintered over in five-inch pots require more room, and, of 

 course, give more flowers ; yet, if the same amount of money 

 is expended in small plants, the additional number should pro- 

 duce the same amount of bloom. The varieties of Carnations 

 are so numerous, and so large a proportion of them are ex- 

 cellent, that it is hardly worth while to name a select list. Un- 

 fortunately there are but very few thoroughly hardy varieties 

 of the class known as Border Carnations. Seedling plants will 

 go through the first winter safely, as a rule ; afterward, how- 

 ever, whether the plants are layered or stock is obtained by 

 cuttings, the losses are heavy and the plants badly crippled. 

 Unfortunately, we cannot grow the Clove Carnation here as 

 they are grown in England, and where they are among the 

 most satisfactory of garden plants. , 



Pearl River, N. Y. John Thorpe. 



Correspondence. 

 An American Arboretum in Germany. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It may interest your readers to hear something of 

 an Arboretum formed by a distinguished German horti- 

 culturist, Dr. G. Dieck, in northern Germany, on that great 

 level plain which sinks gradually toward the North Sea, 

 where the winters are rigorous and the summer climate is 

 often marked by excessive droughts. It is a severe climate, 

 of course, for delicate plants, but the more difficult it is to 

 form a collection, the greater the honor attached to it. Plants 

 which can support a climate like that of northern Germany 

 have passed, so to speak, a severe examination ; and can 

 therefore be planted in regions of less rigorous climates with- 

 out danger of their succumbing to the first exceptionally severe 

 winter, as is often the case with plants propagated in a mild 

 climate or in an exceedingly rich soil. 



Dr. Dieck's Arboretum, situated not far from Miersberg, on 

 the line from Halle and Leipsic, in the village of Zoeschen, is 

 rich in trees and shrubs from America, and especially in those 

 Of the remote and still little explored regions of the north-west 



coast. Dr. Dieck, at a considerable sacrifice, sent recently 

 several intelligent collectors into the northern part of Oregon, 

 Washington and British Columbia to explore the rich Cascade 

 Mountains and those of the Fraser River, and his Arboretum 

 now contains a number of rare plants which would be looked 

 for in vain in the richest gardens of the United States. The 

 special merit of Dr. Dieck's methods is to have had seeds of 

 trees, especially of conifers, of an extended north and south 

 range gathered at the most northern or the most exposed 

 station where the particular species grows, in order to make 

 sure, if possible, that the seedlings would be able to resist the 

 climate of the eastern states and of Europe. 



Dr. Dieck explains in his Catalogue that all his plants are at 

 the free disposition, gratuitously, if necessary, of botanists 

 who may need them for scientific investigation ; secondly, he 

 offers them to botanical gardens and other scientific insti- 

 tutions, and also to private collections, if these have any 

 scientific character ; thirdly, they are put in commerce. To 

 have an idea of the value of the plants Dr. Dieck has obtained 

 from the Pacific coast, it is only necessary to examine the list 

 of 120 species, mostly newly introduced, contained in the sup- 

 plement of his Catalogue for September, 1889. I will add, in 

 passing, that this list contains, also, all the varieties of Roses 

 used in Turkey and Asia Minor in the manufacture of ottar of 

 Roses, which Dr. Dieck has had collected in their native coun- 

 tries. But to return to the novelties from the Pacific coast 

 contained in Dr. Dieck's Catalogue, where are found Acer 

 glabrum in three varieties, Alnus rhombifolia. Rhododendron 

 albiflorum, the beautiful Alpine Rose of the Cascades ; Men- 

 ziesia glabella, and M. ferruginea, Celtis reticulata, Fendlera 

 rupicola, Jamesia Americana, Fatsia horrida, that beautiful 

 Aralia of the Columbia River, which is hardy in our coldest 

 climate; Lonicera flavescens , a new species from the Cascades, 

 a new Opuntia from the Fraser River, Pinus ponderosa scopu- 

 lorum, the dwarf Alpine form of the Yellow Pine, Pachy stigma 

 myrsinites, a pretty evergreen shrub from the cold region of the 

 Columbia, the equal of the Japanese Euonymus ; Pentstemon 

 Menziesii, var. Scouleri; Populus trichocarpa, an elegant Pop- 

 lar-tree; Quercus agrifolia, a semi-evergreen California species; 

 Rhus aromatica trilobata, Rosa Engelmanni, which is probably 

 a variety of R. acicularis; Rubus ursinus, Sambucus arbor- 

 escens, a good and very beautiful species of vigorous growth, 

 and not a variety of S. racemosa. There is a collection, too, of 

 fourteen Willows from the mountains of the Pacific, which 

 probably no one has cultivated before ; on account of its 

 beauty, Salix tristis, var. pallida, is worthy of mention, and 

 so are S. Barclayi, S. Hookeriana, and the new S. Flogeriana, 

 an ally of S. pyrolcefolia of Siberia, an Alpine species with 

 stems spreading on the ground like a green sod over which 

 the roller has just passed; Spirea betulifolia and S. corymbosa 

 in dwarf Alpine forms ; Symphoricarpus Floyeri, S. acutus, 

 and two new found varieties, one of which, S. pauciflorus, 

 makes a compact little Alpine shrub. 



I suggest to all botanists or lovers of trees who happen to be 

 in northern Europe to stop and see this Arboretum and its 

 enthusiastic creator; they will find there much to interest and 

 instruct them. Dr. Dieck, and this is in my eyes his prin- 

 cipal merit, does not imitate a great number of commercial 

 cultivators, who only devote themselves to plants which find 

 ready sale. On the contrary, his passion is for difficult genera, 

 often the "common things" of amateurs, which have only 

 a purely scientific interest. For example, he has brought 

 together 350 forms of Wild Roses, and the astonishing num- 

 ber of nearly 450 forms of Salix. To increase his Salictum he 

 stops at nothing, and I permit myself in the interest of science 

 to beg the botanists of the United States, who are in a position 

 to procure rare or curious forms of Willows, to send them to 

 Dr. Dieck, whose address is simply Arboretum, Zoeschen, 

 near Miersberg, Germany. Cuttings and plants can be sent 

 easily and cheaply by sample post. H. Christ. 



Eale, Germany. 



[Nearly all the plants mentioned as novelties by Dr. 

 Christ have been cultivated tor years in the United States. 

 Some of them, like Rhododendron albiflorum and Pachy- 

 stigma, are difficult to manage, and the right way to 

 cultivate them successfully has not been discovered yet. 

 The handsome Aralia of the north-west has refused, too, to 

 remain alive for any length of time in gardens. There are 

 still many North American plants to introduce into cul- 

 tivation, and a few good ones, and the more people there 

 are who make collections of our plants the better. We 

 venture to suggest, however, that some knowledge of what 

 American gardens contain would be useful information to 



