ArRii. 23, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



201 



experiments most valuable it would be necessary to test Palms 

 which have been grown from seed from the most northern 

 limits or from the highest elevation where the species is ever 

 found. 



The temperature in March was extremely high — eighteen 

 degrees of Fahrenheit above the normal. One day the normal 

 temperature of June 15th was attained, and, as a consequence 

 of the excessive warmth, spring flowers were so ambitious 

 and the development of the leaves of trees and shrubs so 

 rapid that spring here resembled those of the high north. 

 One was greatly reminded of the season at St. Petersburg, 

 where the spring runs its entire course in a few days. 



Amongst the shrubs the white and fragrant Mowers of Loni- 

 cera fragrantissima are already open in the botanical garden, 

 and near it are seen the rose colored flowers of L. Standishii. 

 Near these two plants stands the lovely L. Alberti from 

 Turkistan. When I ran over not long ago the species of 

 Lonicera in the Royal Herbarium I discovered that this Honey- 

 suckle had before been collected by Schlagintweitin the Hima- 

 laya, in whose herbarium it is preserved without a name, 



the nurserymen yielded the points in dispute. There are in 

 and near Berlin some 500 nurserymen, who employ some 

 2,000 gardeners. 



I should be greatly obliged if some of your western readers 

 would collect for me some seeds of Erigonums. These plants 

 are well suited for culture here, especially on rockeries, but 

 they are found in few European gardens. Their inflorescences 

 are of the highest morphological interest, and I should like to 

 study their development, but to do it I need the living plants. 



Berlin. Udo Dammer. 



Cultural Department. 

 Hardy Rhododendrons. 

 TT has been suggested that the experience of an old grower 

 ■*■ and lover of Rhododendrons might prove of interest and 

 possibly help to promote the cultivation of these beautiful 

 shrubs, and I therefore send a few notes of a general charac- 

 ter, based upon many years of labor and careful observation. 

 It must be admitted that thecultivation of the Rhododendron 



Fig- 35- — Cattleya SUinneri. — See page 200. 



and now Dr. Koehne, who is elaborating a revision of Loni- 

 ceras, finds that L. Alberti of Regel is a long known plant, L. 

 spinosa, Jacq. Corylopsis spicata, S. & F., allied to the Witch 

 Hazel, is another plant now flowering in the botanical gar- 

 den, and very beautiful it is and well worth growing in any 

 park or garden. Forsythias have become most popular here 

 of late years, and there is hardly a cottage-garden in which 

 there is not at least one of these shrubs covered now with its 

 bright yellow flowers. It is specially adapted to our climate. 



The strike of the under-gardeners was begun on the ist of 

 April, although it had been in preparation since last autumn. 

 At that time the gardeners demanded of the nurserymen a 

 change in their working hours, which was refused. This 

 spring they sent a demand to the nurserymen that their work- 

 ing time in vegetable and plant nurseries should be eleven 

 hours, while in tree nurseries and out-door garden work it 

 should be ten hours, and that their minimum pay should be $6 

 a month with board and lodging, or $4.28 a week without board. 

 Most of the nurserymen declared that those demands were 

 not exorbitant, and yet they refused to subscribe to the terms, 

 so the strike began. It seems, however, that at the last hour 



in this country has made comparatively slow progress, in spite 

 of liberal prizes offered by our horticultural societies and the 

 high appreciation in which the plant is held in England, where 

 it is a prominent feature in the decoration of all the fine places 

 and where those grand exhibitions under canvas excite so 

 much interest and admiration every year. The explanation of 

 this indifference is found to some extent in a general impres- 

 sion, in New England especially, that our winters are too 

 severe, or that the Rhododendron is so difficult of cultivation 

 that only a few can succeed with it, and then only at the cost 

 of much labor and money. That there is some foundation 

 for this belief cannot be denied, and it is true that the mild 

 and moist atmosphere of England is better adapted to its 

 special requirements than the extreme cold winters and the 

 hot, dry summers of this country. It is true also that many 

 of the very finest varieties can be grown there which are 

 tender here. But, on the other hand, it is equally true that a 

 sufficient number of very attractive hardy kinds remain to 

 satisfy the most ambitious horticulturist, and these, under 

 favorable circumstances, can be grown here without much 

 more care than is given to ordinary garden shrubs. 



