248 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 2i, 1890. 



There is, further west, in another part of the Atlas, a region 

 where the Cedar forms extensive and luxurious forests. This 

 is the Teniet-el-Had, near Affreville. The Cedars here cover 

 nearly 10,000 acres, and ascend to nearly 6,000 feet above the 

 sea level. In the lower part of this forest the Callitris quad- 

 rlvalvis, called "Thuya" by the Algerians, is found. It is a 

 charming little tree, the near relative of the Frenelas and the 

 Widdringtonias of the southern hemisphere, which supplied 

 the ancient Romans the precious wood called " Citrus," for 

 which they paid fabulous prices — as much as $50,000 for a 

 single table, and, according to Pliny, it was the great and wise 

 Cicero who paid it. This wood is cut from the lower part of 

 the trunk where there are numerous excrescences, and is 

 really beautiful. It is light rose colored, regularly marked 

 with" dark red spots which form a delicate design. The 

 great Pistacia Atlantica, the Pinus Halepensis, the most com- 

 mon Pine of Algeria, are found in this forest also. Many of the 

 Cedars have here twelve to eighteen feet circumference of trunk. 

 One of them, known as the "Sultana," measures nearly thirty 

 feet around the trunk. The " Sultan," which is no longer alive, 

 had a trunk circumference of nearly thirty-five feet. 



The Atlas is not the only station of this tree in Africa. Beyond 

 the Atlas and the grand plateaus of the interior, an immense 

 mass of mountains exists in the province of Constantine, 

 towering above the Atlas even at a height of nearly 7,500 

 feet. All this immense mountain region is covered with for- 

 ests of Cedars which have absolutely the effect of our Spruces 

 of the Alps, half covered in the snows of winter. From Bat- 

 na one ascends in a few hours to the centre of this region. 

 There are, at a lower elevation, forests of Pinus Halepensis 

 mixed with Juniperus Phcenicea, which attain here a large 

 size. Higher up the Cedars extend in all directions, and it 

 would require days to cross these forests. The flora of these 

 high mountains must be beautiful in summer. We only saw 

 the remains of that of the previous year, but were able, never- 

 theless, to distinguish two species of Saxifrage, and a Violet, 

 the Viola Munbyana, of which the seeds are now growing in 

 our Alpine garden. At a single place in these regions in the 

 Babor range to the east of Bougie, at an elevation of nearly 

 6,000 feet, M. Cosson discovered a small forest of an Abies 

 which he mistook at first for the A. Pinsapo of Spain. It is, 

 however, a distinct species — the A. Babarensis of Cosson or 

 the A. Numidica with obtuse leaves, and more closely related 

 to A. Cilicica than it is to the Spanish tree. It is a species 

 which succeeds well in the gardens of Europe, although it 

 never grows to any size. 



Bale, Switzerland. 



H. Christ. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Berberis Sieboldii. 



THE Japanese Barberry, of which a figure is published 

 on page 249, may perhaps be considered by botan- 

 ists an extreme form of the common Barberry, which 

 assumes very various aspects in the different regions over 

 which it ranges from western Europe to Japan. From a 

 garden point of view, however, it is abundantly distinct 

 from all the forms of the common Barberry in cultivation, 

 and Miquel's name of Berberis Sieboldii may therefore well 

 be maintained in garden literature at least. 



Berberis Sieboldii* is, in cultivation, a stout, compact 

 shrub, three or four feet in height, with angled branchlets 

 covered with pale gray bark, and slender three-forked 

 spines. The leaves have finely ciliate margins and are 

 obovate, rounded or rarely pointed at the apex, and are 

 gradually contracted below; into short, broad petioles ; they 

 are chartaceous,becoming somewhat coriaceous at maturity, 

 dark green and lustrous, rather paler below, two inches 

 or more long and an inch broad. They turn in the 

 autumn to the most brilliant shades of scarlet and orange. 

 The flowers, with pale greenish yellow ovate petals an 

 eighth of an inch long, are produced in racemes two and 

 a half to three inches long, and are larger than those of 

 the common Barberry. The fruit, which is bright scarlet 

 at maturity, is oval or obovate and half an inch long. 

 From the common Barberry this Japanese plant differs, 

 therefore, principally in the ciliate margins of the leaves, 

 which are never spinulose-dentate, except on very young 

 seedlings ; in their lustrous surface ; in the bright colors 



they assume in autumn ; and in the rather larger, paler 

 colored flowers and in the larger fruit. It is the most 

 ornamental of all the Barberries of the Vulgaris section, 

 and there are very few plants which equal or surpass it 

 in the autumn color of its foliage. 



Berberis Sieboldii appears to have been introduced into 

 cultivation by Mr. Thomas Hogg, of New York, who found 

 it near Hakodate, and who sent it to the Parsons nursery 

 at Flushing, New York. It had previously been collected 

 by Mr. Charles Wright, botanist of the North Pacific Ex- 

 ploring Expedition, at the same place. The plant has 

 been distributed by Mr. Parsons, who sent it to the Arbore- 

 tum several years ago under the name of "■Berberis Hako- 

 date." It is perfectly hardy, and one of the most orna- 

 mental and desirable of the Japanese shrubs which have 

 been introduced into American gardens. C. S. S. 



*Miquel, " Prol. Fl. Jap.," 1. — Franchet & Savatier, " Enum. PI. Jap.," I., 22. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Shrubs. 



THE Japanese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis Japonica) is com- 

 monly classed as spring-flowering in catalogues and 

 general descriptions, but this season it proved a winter bloom- 

 ing plant, and when spring opened the pleasing yellow flowers 

 of this shrub had been long past. It is extremely unlikely that 

 these winter flowers will be followed by fruit. 



But Corylopsis pauciflora, another dwarf plant of the Witch 

 Hazel family, and also of Japanese origin, if well protected 

 in winter, bears a profusion of flowers in the spring. It 

 is a rare plant in cultivation in this country, and is not 

 thoroughly hardy in all situations in the latitude of Boston ; 

 but it is well worth a little extra care and attention on account 

 of its abundant pale yellow bell-shaped flowers, which ap- 

 pear in short clusters long before the leaves. At the Arbo- 

 retum the first fully expanded blossoms were noted about 

 April 17th; ten days later the plants were in fullest bloom- 

 ing condition, and they continued to have a pleasing and 

 attractive appearance for a further period of ten days, or until 

 about the end of the first week of May. The leaves begin to 

 expand as the last flowers fade. Although flowering regularly 

 for several years at the Arboretum, no fruit has been borne on 

 the plants. The desirable qualities of this plant, however, 

 cannot approach those of the Forsythias with their loads of 

 bright yellow blossoms and large, free growing habit and 

 thorough hardiness. Among seedling plants of the For- 

 sythias there are sometimes slightly differing shades of yellow 

 noticeable, a circumstance which will probably be taken ad- 

 vantage of by nurserymen who at present propagate the plants 

 almost exclusively by cuttings or layers. The common, 

 upright growing F. viridissima blooms fully a week later than 

 those known under the names of F. suspensa and F. Fortunei, 

 and, as a rule, it is not nearly so handsome and satisfying as 

 the other species, which are better suited to those who have 

 small grounds and space for only one Forsythia. If left 

 unpruned a single plant of F. suspensa may in the course of 

 time attain very large proportions, because the ends of the 

 long, slender, drooping branches often take root when they 

 reach the ground, and send up new shoots. In this way the 

 original plant may spread over a large area and form a little 

 forest of additional stems all about it. 



Everybody has observed that the young, unfolding leaves 

 of most trees and shrubs are of a much lighter green color 

 than they are after they become fully expanded. The leaves 

 of a few species and varieties appear almost yellow when they 

 leave the buds. There is a form of the native Nine-bark 

 (Physocarpus opiilifolius, commonly known as Spiraa or 

 Neillia opiilifolid) which is esteemed by some people for the 

 yellow color of its foliage, and which is often sold by nursery- 

 men under the name of Spircea opulifolia aurea. When the 

 young leaves of this shrub are expanding they have a striking 

 effect of yellow blossoms, and at a little distance the plants 

 are not infrequently mistaken for Forsythias in full bloom. 

 This yellow-leaved' form of the species is sometimes met 

 with growing wild along the banks of streams, especially 

 northward. 



There is a noticeable difference in the yellow color of the 

 flowers of the Spice-bush (Lindera Benzoin) on different plants. 

 The stamens and pistils are usually produced in separate 

 flowers, and these staminate and pistillate flowers are gen- 

 erally found on different plants. The staminate flowers bearing 

 the small yellow anthers naturally give a brighter aspect to the 

 plants which produce them. 



