268 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 28, 1890. 



and economic properties and uses. This, under the title of 

 "The Botany of Bermuda," was republished in the Bulletin of 

 the National Museum of the United States, No. 25. 



Mr. F. H. Vaslett records the fact in Zoe that the European 

 Daisy {Bellis perennis) has succeeded in establishing- itself in 

 one of the glens of Mount Tamalpais, near San Francisco. 



Part XVI. of the "Flora of British India," by Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, completing the fifth volume of that great work, has 

 appeared. The Orchids are finished in it. 



Several well-rooted young Fig-trees lately arrived at Auburn, 

 California, from Smyrna. The trees, together with some cut- 

 tings, were in excellent condition. They came from the Aidin 

 district and are said to be the true Smyrna variety. 



A few of the fine dates which come from Africa attached to 

 the stalk on which they grew are still coming in, and among 

 the rarer fruits from the West Indies are a few Star Apples 

 (Chrysophyllum Cainito), the red and yellow Mammee Apples 

 (Mamea Americana) and Sapodilla Plums (Sapota Achras). 



Mr. Sereno Watson, the Curator of the Herbarium of Har- 

 vard University, and Dr. E. von Regal, Director of the Impe- 

 rial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, were elected foreign 

 members of the Linnyean Society at the meeting held on the 

 first day of May. The number of foreign members admitted 

 to the Society is small, and the honor of foreign membership 

 is considered one of the chief marks of consideration a 

 foreigner can receive at the hands of British naturalists. 



The flowers of Magnolia Fraseri, which have been open for 

 a week near Philadelphia, are of a light canary color, and 

 with almost the same exquisite fragrance which charac- 

 terizes those of the Swamp Magnolia. A large specimen of 

 this species still stands in Bartram's Garden, and Mr. Joseph 

 Meehan writes of two others in Germantown, one of which is 

 thirty-five feet high, and, although it flowers profusely every 

 year, it never perfects seeds. We have also received from the 

 Meehan Nurseries a flowering branch of a variety of Vibur- 

 num plicatum, known as Rotundifolium. It seems quite dis- 

 tinct, -with reddish twigs and tinted leaves, and comes into 

 flower several days earlier than the typical plant. 



Rhododendron Vaseyi, of which a figure and description were 

 published in the first volume of Garden and Forest, more 

 than sustains its promise as a garden plant. It has flowered 

 profusely this year in the Arnold Arboretum, where it proves 

 perfectly hardy, and where, with the exception of the Rhodora, 

 it is several days earlier than other plants of its class. The 

 bright pink color of the flowers, not very different, although 

 rather paler than that of a good La France Rose, is quite 

 unlike that of any other Azalea. It now seems safe to say 

 that this plant, long overlooked in the valleys of the Blue 

 Ridge, will prove a garden plant of the first class. It may be 

 expected, too, to exert considerable influence in the production 

 of a new early flowered race of Azaleas. 



Mr. C. L. Anderson describes in the second number of Zoe, 

 the new California monthly, a curious moncecious Willow 

 which he finds in his garden at Santa Cruz, and which, more- 

 over, is not uncommon among the trees of that part of Cali- 

 fornia. He first considered it a form of Salix lasiandra, but 

 having found several trees with male and female flowers on 

 the same ament, he reached the conclusion that it is a hybrid 

 between S. Babylonica and 6". lasiandra, the former having 

 been introduced early into California, where there are now many 

 fine, large specimens. The supposed hybrid trees have some- 

 times a weeping habit, so that they can hardly be distinguished 

 from the genuine Weeping Willow, and in others they closely 

 resemble in habit the California species. 



The large flowered form of the Scarlet Hawthorn (fJratcegus 

 coccinea, var. mollis) was a conspicuous feature in the middle 

 of May on the wooded banks of Westchester County. This is 

 the earliest of our native Thorns to flower and this year the 

 plants have been so covered with flowers as to light up the 

 landscape in every direction. This Thorn is not only the 

 earliest of our species to flower here, but it is the largest of the 

 Thorns of the northern states. Trees twenty to thirty feet 

 high are not rare. The flowers are large and handsome. The 

 fruit, which ripens early, is large and brilliantly colored and the 

 ample foliage turns bright before it falls in autumn. The habit 

 of the tree is excellent and it should be cultivated much more 

 frequently than it is. The only drawback to it is in its liability to 

 be attacked by a fungus which sometimes disfigures the 

 foliage and fruit late in the season. 



One of the most beautiful and effective plants which have 

 lately flowered in Central Park is the Black Haw {Viburnum 



prunifoliu/n), a large, tree-like shrub which is one of the 

 native plants of this vicinity, although much more common 

 further south. It was planted long ago, fortunately in large 

 numbers, in the park, where many specimens have now grown 

 to a large size; and this year they were unusually full of their 

 large, flat clusters of wdfite flowers, which, later in the season, 

 will be followed by bright blue-black berries. The Black Haw, 

 as it appears in the park this year, is another example of the 

 great value as ornamental plants of many of our little known 

 native shrubs, among which are to be found the safest and 

 therefore the best material for the decoration of parks and 

 pleasure-grounds in the region where they grow naturally. Our 

 flora contains some of the most beautiful trees and shrubs 

 known to man, but Americans, or those who plant gardens, 

 are only just beginning to realize the fact and to learn that 

 they must depend on the native products of the soil for the 

 best material for their plantations. A desire to imitate what 

 is done in other countries has certainly had some deplorable 

 results in retarding the development of American garden- 

 ing. 



The meeting held in Boston on Saturday last, at the invita- 

 tion of the Appalachian Mountain Club, to consider the best 

 means of preserving fine scenery and places of historical in- 

 terest, was attended by persons representing all parts of Mas- 

 sachusetts. Mr. George C. Mann, President of the Club, spoke 

 of the 400 cordial answers to the invitation which had been 

 received, and he mentioned especially the replies of Governor 

 Brackett, Mr. Whittier, Mr. Francis Parkman, Colonel J. W. 

 Higginson and other distinguished citizens. Addresses were 

 made by Mr. Charles Eliot, Mr. J. B. Harrison, Hon. Leverett 

 Saltonstall, Professor Norton and Judge Shurtleff. The chair- 

 man, President Sprague, of the State Senate, was authorized 

 to appoint a committee, with power to add to their number and 

 in such ways as may seem advisable to effect the establish- 

 ment of a Board of Trustees empowered to acquire land and 

 hold for the benefit of the public beautiful or historic spots in 

 any part of the commonwealth. The following persons were 

 appointed on the committee : President Francis A. Walker; 

 Miss Sarah H. Crocker, Miss Marian Talbot and Mr. George 

 Wigglesworth, of Boston; Dr. Henry P. Walcott and Mr. 

 Charles Eliot, of Cambridge ; Professor C. S. Sargent, of 

 Brookline ; Mr. Henry M. Lovering, of Taunton ; Hon. Henry 

 L. Parker, of Worcester; Judge William S. Shurtleff, of Spring- 

 field; and Dr. J. F. R. Adams, of Pittsfield. Subscriptions to a 

 working fund may be sent to Mr. George Wigglesworth, 89 

 State Street, Boston. 



The annual meeting of the City Parks Association of Phila- 

 delphia was held last week on the spacious grounds of Mr. 

 Justus C. Strawbridge, in Germantown, and a most encourag- 

 ing occasion it proved, with Colonel McClure in the chair 

 and admirable addresses by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and Mr. 

 Hampton L. Carson. The purpose of this association, which 

 was organized a few years ago under the name of "The Phila- 

 delphia Open Space Association," is to open up small parks 

 and squares in the thickly populated portions of the city, and 

 to secure for public use open spaces on the outskirts of the 

 city's built up area, which otherwise would soon be covered 

 over with buildings. The association under its present name 

 has been organized only two years, but with the active aid of 

 the public-spirited men and women who form its member- 

 ship the city authorities have located the following small 

 parks: Stenton Park, of about thirteen acres, including the 

 homestead of the Logan family, near Wayne Junction ; Wec- 

 cacoe Square, at the corner of Queen and Cobb Streets, the 

 only spot not built upon in the Third Ward ; Bartram's Gar- 

 den, the ground of the famous botanist of the last century, 

 with its collection of rare trees and shrubs still preserved ; 

 Northwood Park, with its picturesque brook and meadow, in 

 the neighborhood of Frankford ; Juniata Park, a wooded 

 height overlooking a creek, but immediately adjoining the 

 vast manufactories of the Twenty-fifth Ward ; and Riverview 

 Park, giving a view of the Schuylkill from the heights above 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad, near Thirty-second Street. In ad- 

 dition to this public action private beneficence has added to 

 the number of parks by the gift to the Association of the Starr 

 Garden, on St. Mary's Street, by Miss Anna Hallowell ; the 

 present to the city of a square of ground, in the southern sec- 

 tion, by Mr. Edward C. Knight ; and of a tract of about five 

 acres, near the junction of Haines Street with the Chestnut 

 Hill Branch of the Reading Railroad, to be known as Water- 

 side Park, by the heirs of the late Reuben Haines. The pub- 

 lic spirit and civic pride of Philadelphia have passed into a 

 proverb, but these qualities have never been more worthily 

 exemplified than in the work of this model organization. 



