260 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 28, 1890. 



walls of the house. A walk, leading from the street on the 

 south to the house, crosses this ravine upon an arch of field 

 stone connecting with the stone of the retaining wall. Mosses, 

 fern and creepers dress all this stone work, and the banks of 

 the ravine are planted with shrubbery that will nowhere grow 

 so high as to obstruct the outlook from the windows. Win- 

 dows of the three principal rooms of the ground tioor and the 

 little terrace shown on the diagram all command the import- 

 ant view to the south-east. The upper windows look over the 

 stable. 



All these plans have been carried out with satisfactory 

 results, and a more detailed account of the work on some of 

 them may be given in a subsequent paper. 



Brookline, Mass. -F. L. O. 



[It is to be remembered that these diagrams illustrate 

 simply the solution of the fundamental problems presented 

 in each case. And yet the determination of the frame- 

 work of the design is, of course, a matter of controlling im- 

 portance, and the special training of the landscape-archi- 

 tect is needed at this point, if it is required at any; If his 

 assistance is not invited until after the house has been 

 located and perhaps built, he may find it impossible by the 

 most skillful after-treatment to correct the fatal mistakes 

 already made. — Ed.] 



Notes on North American Trees. — XVII. 



THE West Indian Birch, or Gum Elemi, one of the trees 

 of tropical America which reach the shores of south 

 Florida, has long been known to botanists as Bursera 

 gummifera, the name given to it by Jacquin in his " Selec- 

 tarum Stirpium Americanum Historia," published in Vienna 

 in 1763, who there established his genus Bursera, or Bur- 

 seria, as he wrote it, for this plant. It was well known 

 to earlier botanical writers like Hermann, Plukenet, 

 Browne, Sloane and Catesby, having been one of the 

 first of the American trees to attract the attention of Euro- 

 peans, who fancied that its resinous juices possessed 

 special medical virtues. It was this plant, probably, 

 which Linnaeus, in his "Materia Medica" published in 

 1749, called Simaruba, considering it, perhaps, identical 

 with the Simarouba of the Caribs and the inhabitants of 

 Guinea (the Simaruba antara of Aublet), as not many years 

 later he refers the Simaruba of that work to the Bursera of 

 Jacquin. But previously to the publication of Jacquin's 

 genus, Linnaeus had described our plant in the first edition 

 of his "Species Plantarum," published in 1753, as Pistacia 

 Simaruba, and it was not until the publication, in 1762, of 

 the second edition of the "Species" that he adopted Jac- 

 quin's genus, changing Jacquin's orthography to Bursera. 



It may be mentioned in parenthesis that curiously 

 enough the published date of Jacquin's work is 1763, and 

 that that of the second edition of Linnaeus' " Species " is 

 1762 ; still Linnaeus quotes there correctly Jacquin's figure 

 of Bursera gummifera, published a year later. The date 

 of the publication of one of these books as printed must 

 be wrong, therefore, unless, as is more probable, Jacquin 

 submitted his figure and description of Bursera to Linnaeus 

 before they were actually published. This, however, is 

 unimportant, and what I want to call attention to is the 

 fact that the authors who have written of our Bursera since 

 Linnaeus have overlooked the description in the first edi- 

 tion of the "Species Plantarum," and the fact that Sima- 

 ruba is the earliest specific name of the species, antedating 

 by ten years Jacquin's name ; and that the principle of 

 using the earliest Linnsean specific name being adopted, 

 our plant must become Bursera Simaruba. There can be 

 no doubt concerning the identity of the plant Linnaeus de- 

 scribed as Pistacia Sima?-uba, for he quotes under his de- 

 scription the unmistakable figures of Sloane in the " Natu- 

 ral History of Jamaica," and of Catesby in the "Natural 

 History of Carolina," while in the second edition of the 

 "Species" he quotes as a synonym of Bursera gummifera 

 his Pistacia Simaruba of the first edition. The case is a 

 perfectly clear one, therefore, and the change of name is 

 unavoidable if the principle, which seems correct, is 

 adopted. C. S. Sargent. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



MAY has brought sunshine with the showers which ought to 

 ^*-*- have come in April, and the gardens are now delightful. 

 Cherries, Plums, Pears, Barberries, Magnolias, American 

 Azaleas, Laburnums and even Horse-Chestnuts are in all their 

 flowery glory, beautiful to look upon and deliciously fragrant. 

 In spite of a dry April and undue prevalence of east wind, the 

 trees and shrubs are as luxuriant in new leaf and flower as one 

 could wish. On the ground beneath the trees there are car- 

 pets of Bluebells extending as far as the eye can see in many 

 places. Nothing could be more charming than the rich blue 

 of the flowers of this plant used for covering naked places 

 under trees or to give color to long sweeps of green lawn. 

 Anemones of various kinds, including the brilliant scarlet A. 

 fulgens, are largely employed for purposes of this kind at 

 Kew. The effect of what is termed a natural arrangement of 

 such plants is infinitely better than anything produced by 

 planting them in formal beds. Tulips also are largely used 

 for spring effect, and they may be made to add a wonder- 

 ful amount of color and life to large gardens by planting them 

 in positions where they can be seen at a distance. Arranged 

 in set beds with an attempt at color design Tulips are stiff as 

 ninepins and almost as ugly; but used with judgment and not 

 too freely they are most effective. On a sloping, grassy bank 

 on the sunny side of what is called the Wild Garden, a large 

 number of Tulips have been planted in the grass, irregularly. 

 The flowers amid the grass as tall as they are have a charming 

 effect. Besides the best of the garden Tulips, including "Par- 

 rots" and " Darwins," some of the most beautiful of the species 

 are largely planted at Kew. T. Greigii, grandest of all Tulips, 

 its large, elegant cups of the richest poppy scarlet, ought to 

 become as popular in the garden as "Emperor" and "Em- 

 press " Daffodils. It is a native of Turkistan, comparatively 

 new, and as easy to cultivate as any Potter or Due van Thol. 

 T. retroflexa has tall stalks and a cup formed of long, pointed 

 segments which are slightly twisted and recurved, whilst in color 

 they are canary-yellow. ■ T. elegans is similar in form to the last 

 named, but deep crimson in color. T. acuminata is another 

 of the same stamp, but the flowers are yellow with a tinge of 

 red on the ends of the segments. T. Kolpakow skiana has a 

 regular cup-shaped flower, rich cardinal in color, with a black 

 eye-like blotch at the bottom of the cup. 



Caraguata angustifolia is one of the prettiest of the 

 smaller Bromeliads. It forms a compact tuft of short stems 

 and short, narrow, dark green leaves, from amongst which 

 the flower spikes spring. These are five inches long, curved, 

 as thick as a man's finger at the base, thickening upward, 

 owing to the overlapping of the boat-shaped bracts, which are 

 brilliant scarlet. The flowers are about two inches long and 

 colored rich yellow. Several plants of it are now in flower at 

 Kew, one with four spikes, although the plant is not a foot 

 through, and nothing could be prettier. The species is a 

 native of the Andes of New Granada, from whence it was in- 

 troduced by the Messrs. Veitch, and distributed from their 

 nursery in 1886. Most of the Caraguatas have large bright- 

 colored flowers and bracts, and they are easy to cultivate. To 

 any one in search of a distinct, beautiful, little flowering 

 plant I would strongly recommend C. angustifolia. 



Solanum Wendlandii.— This is by far the handsomest in 

 flower of all the Solanums known to me ; indeed, it is so su- 

 perior a plant that one almost wishes it were called by some 

 other name than Solanum. It is a stout growing climber, with 

 fleshy, tubercled stems, large, entire or laciniated leaves, and 

 enormous trusses of large, purplish blue flowers. A plant in 

 one of the stoves at Kew has a stem thirty feet long, with short 

 lateral branches, from which hang the flowers, the largest 

 truss of which measures over a foot through. The flowers are 

 not fugacious, as those of most Solanums are, and the plant will 

 continue to develop bloom all the summer through. For this 

 grand species we are indebted to Herr Wendland, of Hanover, 

 who introduced it from Costa Rica. It revels in rich soil and 

 plenty of water when growing, but during winter it should be 

 kept dry. For large stoves there are not many plants that 

 equal this as a flowering climber. There is a figure of it in the 

 Botanical Magazine, t. 6914. 



Rhododendron Kewense. — This is a hybrid obtained at Kew 

 by crossing R. Hookeri with R. Aucklandia, where it flowered 

 for the first time in 1878. A plant of it now flowering in a posi- 

 tion where it has been slightly protected in frosty weather is a 

 magnificent picture.. The flowers are in loose, erect heads, 

 about ten in each head. When in bud they are a bright rose- 

 crimson; when fully expanded they are blush white, cup-shaped 



