May 7, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



231 



P. Stellaria, dwarf in habit and not so compact in bloom. The 

 first flowers of the Iceland Poppy (Papaver nudicaule) were 

 just expanding. This dwarf Poppy is a gem, but it is apt to 

 exhaust itself by profuse blooming, so that it cannot be con- 

 sidered a true perennial. It is best treated as a biennial for 

 early bloom. If sown early in the year it will bloom in late 

 summer and again in the following spring. The single flow- 

 ers are white, yellow and orange. The well known white-flow- 

 ered Arabis Alpina is here growing finely in a level border, 

 though usually considered at home on the rockery. Hepatica 

 triloba rubra has a color effect similar to that of the reddish 

 Pink (P. subulata). Myosotis eleganlissivia, a variety of M. 

 alpcstris, is compact, with light blue flowers. M. sylvatica 

 compacta has the compact habit and the yellowish foliage dear 

 to the lover of variegated things. Varieties of Doronicums in 

 bloom show that D. plantagineum, var. excelsum, is far away 

 the best of the family and one of the best yellow Composites. 

 Harpur Crewe, before noted in Garden and Forest, is a 

 garden variety of this species. Dodecatheon Meadia and the 

 rose-flowered D. Jeffreyi, Anemone patens Nuttalliana, Viola 

 cucullata and its white variety, the lovely little Iris cristata, 

 and Stylophorum diphyllum, the Celandine Poppy, were a few 

 native plants worthy of any border. 



Lovers of Aquatics will be interested in a Caltha palustris 

 with a large, very double Ranunculus-like flower. Helonias 

 bullata is not one of the most attractive marsh plants ; but its 

 rosy purple spike of flowers is rather interesting. Among the 

 Primulas in bloom was a good strain of Polyanthus, P. Auri- 

 cular is, P.farinosa and P. Peyritschii, the latter a hybrid be- 

 tween P. auricula and P. viscosa, a deep rosy flower with a 

 white eye. Epimedium macranthum is a charming Barren- 

 wort, as seen blooming here in young plants ; the stems deli- 

 cate, foliage pleasing and white flowers very attractive. A 

 marked contrast is Geum triflorum, with its scapes bearing three 

 purplish red, closed flowers — a native curiosity. The white 

 Orobus vemus and violet-blue O. lathyroides are two good 

 spring Vetches. Other plants noticed in bloom were a double 

 Cardamine pratensis, the Cuckoo Flower ; Iberis Gibraltarica, 

 the perennial Candytuft (is this reliably hardy here as re- 

 ported lately in Garden and Forest ?) ; Corydalis nobilis ; 

 Stellaria Holostea (Satin flower), white flower, neat foliage ; 

 Veronica repens, dwarf, deep blue flowers ; Ajuga alpina, a neat 

 rockery plant ; Iris midicaulisy Pulmonaria ojficifialis and 

 Poletnonium reptans, two good old border plants ; Actcea 

 spicata j Wulfenia fragransj Arnebia echioides, with showy 

 yellow flowers ; Glechoma hederacea, var., a neat, creeping 

 plant with violet flowers, and useful in baskets, etc. 



It was a pleasure to find such a variety of good flowers 

 where, of course, no effort is made to show blooms, and to 

 hear that the demand for hardy flowering plants is increasing ; 

 but it is to be feared that the demand is not a tithe of what it 

 should be and must become when these attractive plants are 

 more generally made known ; and, it may be added, when the 

 average gardener ceases to turn over every border in April 

 and grub out all plant-life. The railroad to Short Hills runs 

 through miles of our most populous suburbs, and is lined with 

 handsome, detached villas, evidently the homes of country- 

 loving, prosperous people. I had the curiosity to look from 

 a not very fast running train for some color from hardy flowers, 

 but in all the distance from the city, with the exception of the 

 blossoming fruit-trees, a few shrubs and a patch of Phlox 

 subulata in a graveyard, not a glint of color from a hardy 

 plant could be seen, though miles of well kept grounds were 

 open to view. This seems to tell a pretty plain story about 

 the limited distribution of spring-flowering plants. 



New York. G. 



About Grafting. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I entirely agree with Mr. Burbidge when he says (page 

 158) that " Mr. Parsons does not go quite to the bottom of this 

 question of grafting." There are many aspects of the problem 

 which I should like to see illumined, and I was disappointed 

 because Mr. Burbidge did not think it worthwhile to throw any 

 new light upon the subject. He simply asserts that we do not 

 know that grafting fruit-trees is better than growing them on 

 their own roots, because the two processes have never been 

 tried side by side. Of course, by the same reasoning, we do 

 not know that the trees on their own roots are better, and until 

 Mr. Burbidge proves that they are, it might be prudent for him 

 to modify his absolute condemnation of grafting. If Mr. Bur- 

 bidge proves anything by the assertion that " Nature is ahead of 

 the most successful gardener, and she does not graft her pro- 

 ductions," he proves too much, because the same argument 

 would condemn layering, growing from cuttings, and even the 



transplanting of seedlings, for Nature does none of these 

 things. And what is the bearing of the statement that the 

 Seckel Pear was not grafted, but was a chance seedling ? Has 

 any one advocated grafting as a means of securing new varie- 

 ties ? If we assume that Nature produced the Seckel Pear this 

 means that out of the millions of natural seedlings one indi- 

 vidual has proved of supremely good quality. But how long 

 would it take Nature to produce an orchard full of Seckel 

 Pears ? If the variety had not been perpetuated by grafting 

 and budding, Mr. Burbidge would probably never have tasted 

 one. But as a matter of fact Nature did not produce the 

 Seckel Pear. The seed from which the tree sprang was un- 

 doubtedly produced from varieties which man had been im- 

 proving for centuries by selection and perpetuating by grafts. 

 Flushing, I,. I. S. B. Par sons. 



A Large Purple Beech. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir.— In your issue of May 8th, 1889, there was an interest- 

 ing article upon a noteworthy Purple Beech upon the Lyman 

 Place, Waltham. In that article it was said: "It would be 

 interesting to know if there are large or very fine specimens 

 of the Purple Beech in the neighborhood of this city or Phila- 

 delphia." A few days since I visited a Purple Beech on the 

 grounds of Mr. Wm. H. Dyer, of Johnston, Rhode Island, 

 which is certainly a fine tree. The tree was set in its present 

 location in 1829 by the father of the present owner, Mr. Daniel 

 P. Dyer, who was one of the pioneer tree-growers of this 

 state ; and he beautified his own grounds, as well as those of 

 many of the fine old estates of Providence and vicinity, with 

 some of the choicest kinds of trees which will grow in this 

 climate. 



The Beech alluded to is notable for its symmetry, present- 

 ing, in leaf, an almost perfect mound of dark purple foliage. 

 Its dimensions, as ascertained by careful measurement, are 

 as follows : Spread of limbs in two directions, nearly right 

 angles, seventy-four and sixty-eight feet respectively; height, 

 fifty feet, nearly; circumference of bole, three feet from the 

 ground, ten feet four inches. At five feet from the ground, 

 where the main stem divides into three parts, it is eleven feet 

 in girth. 



The tree is now in vigorous condition, and promises to grow 

 much larger if it does not split apart at the place of its triple 

 division, where it is now secured by iron bolts. 



Near by this tree is a beautiful Cut-leaved Beech of large 

 size, and a Cladrastis lutea, forty or more feet high, and of 

 wide spread. 



Providence, R. I. L. IV. Russell. 



Evergreens Destroyed by Fire. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — All persons do not realize that evergreen-trees are 

 very liable to injury from fire when grass, leaves or other litter 

 is permitted to burn in their vicinity during a dry time. Last 

 spring a fine Norway Spruce hedge on the farm of the Wis- 

 consin Agricultural Experiment Station was accidentally set 

 on fire from a mass of burning leaves in the neighborhood, 

 and before the fire could be extinguished several rods of the 

 hedge were totally destroyed. The heat created was sufficient 

 to seriously damage some fine shade-trees that were standing 

 near. Last October, while visiting the orchards of Mr. A. G. 

 Tuttle, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, I saw several fine groups of 

 evergreens on his grounds suffer total destruction from fire 

 through the ignorance and carelessness of some of his men 

 who had been instructed to burn some brush in the vicinity. 

 The fire ran through the partially dried grass that covered the 

 ground about the trees, and as it approached their trunks, the 

 dry needles beneath the trees, being resinous, burned so vigor- 

 ously that the lower branches were ignited, and in a moment 

 the fire crept up the trunk to the top of the tree, where tongues 

 of flame rose higher than the tallest shoots. Whole groups of 

 Norway Spruces, Balsam Firs and Scotch Pines, nearly or 

 quite twenty feet in height, were destroyed in a moment by a 

 roaring conflagration. 



University of Wisconsin. £•• "J- GOJJ. 



Notes. 



The shipment of California wines to New York for this year 

 amounts to 150,000 gallons. 



A winter-garden has recently been added to Craig-y-nos, 

 Madame Path's castle in Wales, at a cost of $20,000. 



The cable announces the death of Mr. Hugh Low, the senior 

 member of the successful London nursery firm of Hugh Low 

 & Sons, large importers and dealers in Orchids. 



