224 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 7, 1890. 



then came new streams of Turkomans, until the history of the 

 country almost disappears in a tangled web of conflict. 



But when we follow these same invaders into the Indian 

 peninsula, we find that, while apparently destroying Persia, 

 they had absorbed the life-blood of its art. From the eighth 

 to the thirteenth centuries there were constant Mahometan 

 inroads into northern Hindustan. But the existing " Pathan 

 dynasty " at Delhi was disturbed by the attacks of the great 

 Mongol conquerors, Gengis and Tamerlane, and was suc- 

 ceeded by a Mongol dynasty, under whose most famous 

 prince, Aureng-Zebe, Delhi rose to its highest pitch of splen- 

 dor. Now, these Mongol rulers, whose dominion spread over 

 a vast portion of northern India, were akin in blood not to the 

 Persians or Arabs, but to the Chinese. Yet in India they used 

 a thoroughly Saracenic art in their splendid buildings, and in 

 their beautiful gardens, too. Not a trace of " Tartar" elements 

 appears in their mosques, tombs or palaces ; and the stately 

 symmetry of their pleasure-grounds is utterly unlike anything 

 that we find in the Chinese empire. 



New York city. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Paulownia Fortunei. 



MR. HEMSLEY describes, in a recent issue of the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, a second species of Paulownia 

 — P. Fortunei. This plant, it appears, was first collected 

 by Fortune when he was in China, twenty or twenty-five 

 years ago. His specimens, however, had no leaves and 

 were confounded with P. imperialis. 



"Paulownia Fortunei is readily distinguished from P. im- 

 perialis by its much elongated, heart-shaped, long-pointed 

 leaves, glabrous and almost shining on the upper surface, 

 with a very short and very dense whitish tomentum on the 

 under surface. The flowers are longer and more curved, 

 but I have no definite information of the color. The seed- 

 vessel, too, is much larger than that of P. imperialis, as figured 

 by Siebold and Zuccarini, but I have not seen a ripe one of 

 the latter. So far as I know, P. Fortunei has only been ob- 

 served, or at all events collected, in the two distant provinces 

 of Kwangtung and Shantung, the actual localities being sep- 

 arated by about fifteen degrees of latitude. I have seen speci- 

 mens of P. imperialis from Ningpo, which is situated on the 

 coast about midway between the two places where P. For- 

 tunei has been found, and Dr. Henry collected it in the cen- 

 tral province of Hupeh, where, he notes, he observed it wild 

 in various mountain localities. It is surprising that these 

 two species should so long have been confused, though this 

 probably would not have been the case had the common one 

 proved a satisfactory ornamental tree in this country, and 

 developed its full beauty. P. Fortunei produces its flowers 

 early in the season, before or at the same time as the leaves ; 

 therefore we cannot hope that it will prove more suitable to 

 our climate than P. imperialis." 



In the neighborhood of this city P. imperialis is a famil- 

 iar object, growing to a large size and adapting itself per- 

 fectly to our soil and climate. Further south, especially 

 in some parts of Virginia and Carolina, it has become 

 sparingly naturalized and is now found growing sponta- 

 neously among the indigenous forest-trees. It is proba- 

 ble, therefore, that the second species may thrive in some 

 parts of the country at least. 



T 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



HE Daffodils may be classed with the Primrose, the Violet, 

 the Wood Anemone and Hyacinth as typical English spring 

 flowers. It is only within the last twenty years that the whole 

 genus Narcissus lias sprung into the very front rank as a popu- 

 lar garden plant, although Sir John Hill wrote in the year 1757 

 of the Poet's Narcissus: "The garden does not afford in its 

 kind a prettier plant than this ; nor do we know one that has 

 been so early or so honorably mentioned by all kinds of 

 writers." That the genus had attracted the attention of 

 specialists long before what may be called the present revival 

 of their culture is shown by Parkinson in his " Paradisus Ter- 

 restris," published in 1629, which contains figures and de- 

 scriptions of nearly 100 kinds of Narcissus. 



Although it is true that for a long time these plants were 

 neglected by horticulturists generally, yet there have always 

 been admirers sufficient to prevent their disappearance, and 

 even to raise new kinds, so that few of those which Parkinson 

 described have been lost. The attention of the present age 

 has been directed to them by exhibitions, illustrated mono- 

 graphs and popular treatises upon their character and culture; 

 probably also the fickle goddess Fashion has looked with favor 

 upon them. Be the cause what it may, the Daffodils are now 

 universal favorites, and where one grew them ten years ago a 

 hundred grow them now. 



The flowers rank second to none for decorative uses, and 

 there are thousands of acres devoted to the cultivation of 

 Daffodils for the supply of the London market alone. What 

 flowers are best for the embellishment of rooms is a question 

 which individual taste decides, but in my opinion there are no 

 flowers, neither in summer nor autumn, nor yet amongst ex- 

 otics, which excel the Daffodils as decorative flowers. They 

 are abundant, they travel well, last a sufficient length of time; 

 they are elegant, varied in color and in form, and many of 

 them are deliciously fragrant. 



If these plants are as popular in America as they are here 

 all this is superfluous, but I am told that the passionate love of 

 the English for Daffodils is peculiar to them. Messrs. Ware, 

 of Tottenham, sent last year to the Paris Exhibition one of the 

 finest collections of Narcissus-flowers ever shown, but, except 

 N.poeticus and its varieties, it attracted little attention, and the 

 exhibit was voted a failure ! 



The principal growers of these plants and the writers about 

 them are Herbert Leeds, Backhouse, Nelson, Barr, De Graaf, 

 Baker and Burbidge. Two of the very finest kinds — namely, 

 Emperor and Empress — were chance seedlings raised by Mr. 

 Backhouse. Leeds raised many beautiful crosses between the 

 Trumpet and Poeticus sections, " which rival the choicest of 

 all tropical Orchids in beauty, while at the same time they are 

 perfectly hardy in our gardens." De Graaf has given us some 

 magnificent seedlings, two of the very best being Beauty of 

 Leiden and Madame de Graaf. In our opinion this last named 

 is the most perfectly beautiful of all the Trumpet Daffodils. It 

 is large, regular and elegant in form; the trumpet has an even, 

 crisp, reflexed margin, whilst the color is soft, creamy white. 

 Another sensational kind is Sir Watkin, the history of which is 

 quite a pretty little romance. Its origin does not appear to be 

 known. Its flower is of gigantic proportions, and its color is 

 canary yellow with an orange-yellow trumpet. 



In the face of the fact that there are no less than about five 

 hundred named varieties of Narcissus, it is not easy to make 

 a selection of a few which can be called the best of the lot. 

 We have more names than distinctions ; that is quite certain. 

 The Royal Horticultural Society recognized this when they 

 appointed, in 1886, a select committee to deal with the nomen- 

 clature of the genus. This committee still exists and finds 

 plenty to do ; more, in fact, than it can manage. Recently it 

 has published a list of some fifty varieties of Narcissus which 

 it considers are sufficiently well marked to deserve distinctive 

 names. We had a great Conference and Exhibition of Daffo- 

 dils in 1884, and another has just been held at Chiswick, ex- 

 tending over four days (from April 15th to 18th). The pa- 

 pers read at the Conference treated the botany, history, 

 hybridization and crossing, the names and the cultivation of 

 Daffodils of all kinds. With respect to the botany, that may 

 be said to have been settled long ago by Mr. Baker, whose 

 latest revision will be found in his recently published work on 

 the Amaryllidacea. The history also has become an oft-told 

 story. The only additional information yielded by the confer- 

 ence relates chiefly to matters of cultivation and improve- 

 ment. 



A paper on the cultivation of Daffodils for the supply of 

 the London flower-market was read by Mr. James Walker, 

 one of the most successful of those who grow flowers on a 

 large scale. The gist of this excellent, practical paper was, 

 in regard to soil, that a representative collection could not be 

 grown well in the same soil. He planted a collection on a 

 strong loam in 1881, and whilst some kinds increased four- 

 fold in a year or two, others had died outright. He now 

 divides his plants into two lots according as they prefer a 

 heavy, well manured soil, or a lighter, less rich compost. He 

 replants his bulbs every year, lifting them as soon as the 

 leaves fade, drying and cleaning them, and replanting again 

 in August and September, planting first those kinds which 

 push new roots first. Mr. Walker insists on lifting, cleaning 

 and replanting annually if first-rate results are expected. The 

 kinds which he finds best for market purposes are : 



Trumpets. — Emperor (" best of all "), Maximus, Golden 

 Spur, Tenby and Spurius. 



