332 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 9, 1890. 



to be a natural hybrid, but now, perhaps, best considered a 

 species, as it is found occasionally in widely separated 

 regions, is not yet in the collection. The other Oaks are 

 still doubtful California species, of which comparatively 

 little is yet known. 



The following- species are contained in Mr. Sharpies' 

 new investigation: 



Helietta parvifolia. Wood hard, very heavy, dose-grained; 

 layers of annual growth marked by several rows of minute 

 open ducts; medullary rays numerous, very obscure; color 

 light orange-brown, the sap-wood rather lighter colored; 

 specific gravity, 0.8785 ; ash, 1.83, 1.90, average 1.S7 ; 

 weight per cubic foot, 54.75 pounds; fuel value, 0.8621. 

 Collected by C. G. Pringle in the valley of the lower Rio 

 Grande. 



Koeberlinia spinosa. Wood very hard, heavy, close- 

 grained; layers of annual growth faintly marked with 

 numerous minute open ducts; medullary rays thin and ob- 

 scure; color dark brown more or less streaked with orange, 

 turning nearly black with exposure, the sap-wood clear, 

 pale yellow or nearly white; specific gravity, 1.1062, 1.1344, 

 average 1.1201; ash, 0.16, 0.25, average 0.21; weight per 

 cubic foot, 69.80 pounds; fuel value, 1.1177. Collected by 

 C. G. Pringle in the valley of the lower Rio Grande. 



Ilex monticola. Wood hard, heavy, close-grained ; lay- 

 ers of annual growth hardly distinguishable ; medullary 

 rays numerous, thin; color creamy white; specific gravity, 

 0.6746, 0.6379, average 0.6562; ash, 0.41, 0.56, average 

 0.49; weight per cubic foot, 40. 90 pounds; fuel value, 0.6631. 

 Collected by F. H. Boynton, near Highlands, North Carolina. 



Ceanothus velu/inus, var. arboreus. Wood heavy, hard, 

 close-grained; layers of annual growth clearly marked 

 with broad bands of minute open ducts with irregular 

 groups of ducts between them; medullary rays thin, very 

 obscure; color light reddish brown, the sap-wood nearly 

 white; specific gravity, 0.7781; ash, 2.05; weight per cubic 

 foot, 48.49 pounds; fuel value, 0.7622. Collected by T. S. 

 Brandegee on Santa Cruz Island, California. 



Rhus integrifolia. Wood heavy, hard, containing num- 

 erous scattered open ducts; layers of annual growth dis- 

 tinctly marked with broad, open ducts; medullary rays 

 thin, numerous, very conspicuous ; color bright clear red ; 

 specific gravity, 0.7500, 0.8160, average 0.7830; ash, 0.20; 

 weight per cubic foot, 48.80 pounds; fuel value, 0.7815. 

 Collected by C. R. Orcutt in Lower California. 



Cercidium floridum. Wood light, soft, close-grained, 

 satiny, susceptible of a good polish; layers of annual 

 growth marked by one to three rows of open ducts; medul- 

 lary rays numerous, thin, conspicuous; color pale yellow 

 faintly tinged with green, the sap-wood rather lighter colored; 

 specific gravity, 0.5217, 0.5149, average 0.5483; ash, 2.66, 

 2.21, average 2.44; weight per cubic foot, 34.17 pounds; 

 fuel value, 0.5348. Collected byC. G. Pringle in the valley 

 of the lower Rio Grande. 



C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Ptelea aptera. 



THIS plant, a native of Lower California, is interesting 

 from the structure of the fruit, which differs from 

 that of the other species of this small North American 

 genus. In other Pteleas the indehiscent fruit is surrounded 

 by a broad reticulate-veined wing, while in Ptelea aptera it 

 is turgid, nut-like and glandular, and quite wingless, or 

 with a narrow rudimentary wing only. 



Ptelea aptera is a densely branched, pungently aromatic 

 shrub, with slenderstems growing toaheight of five to fifteen 

 feet and forming dense clusters. It is quite similar in habit 

 and in general appearance to the common Ptelea angusti- 

 folia of the southern and south-western states, and, except 

 for the fruit, might almost be mistaken for that species. 



The fruit is broadly ovate, lenticular, and slightly keeled ; 

 it is wingless or nearly so, a quarter to half an inch long, 

 and a quarter of an inch broad ; slightly emarginate at the 



base, tipped with the remnants of the persistent stigmas, 

 and conspicuously glandular. It is two or rarely three- 

 celled. The seeds are oblong and corrugated, with a shin- 

 ing black testa. 



Ptelea aptera was discovered in January, 1883, on dry 

 gravelly slopes near the shore at Punta Banda, at the 

 southern end of Todos-Santos Bay, by a party of botanists 

 under the leadership of the late Dr. C. C. Parry. Flowers 

 and remnants of the fruit of the preceding year were found 

 at this time. Dr. Parry read an excellent account of the 

 plant with diagnostic characters before the Davenport 

 Academy of Science in December, 1883. This was after- 

 ward published in the proceedings of the Society (iv., 39), 

 the ripe fruit, in the meantime, having been collected by 

 Mr. C. R. Orcutt, of San Diego. 



Our illustration (see page 333) is from specimens col- 

 lected by Messrs. Parry and Orcutt and preserved in the 

 Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. C. S. S. 



Plant Notes. 



Some Recent Portraits. 



"THE most interesting plant, from a garden point of view, 

 *■ figured in the June number of the Botanical Magazine, 

 is the Japanese Rosa multiflora (t. 71 19), one of the most beau- 

 tiful of all hardy flowering shrubs. It was first made known 

 more than a century ago, but only found its way into gar- 

 dens very recently, a fact which adds to its interest, especially 

 as some of its double forms have been for years familiar gar- 

 den ornaments. A figure of this Rose, from a drawing made 

 by Mr. Faxon, has already been prepared for Garden and 

 Forest and will be published during the present summer with 

 a fuller account of it than it is now desirable to give. 



The same number of the Botanical Magazine contains a 

 figure of a beautiful warm-house climbing plant — Allamanda 

 violacea (t. 7122). This species, which is a native of Brazil, 

 differs principally from the other Allamandas known in gar- 

 dens in the color of the flowers, which are rich rosy purple. 

 Allamanda violacea was cultivated in England as long as thirty 

 years ago. It was soon lost, however. Fortunately, the plant 

 was kept alive in the Botanic Garden of Natal, whence it has 

 been sent to England again, where it flowered at Kew last 

 autumn. It is a very desirable and beautiful plant, demand- 

 ing the treatment under which the other species flourish, and 

 well worth growing with them on account of the color of the 

 flowers. 



There are figures also of a Carludovica (t. 71 18) of un- 

 known origin, for which the editor proposes the name of C. 

 Caput Medusa; of Hemiorchis Burmanica (t. 7120), representing 

 a genus of Scitaminea, of which only a single species is now 

 known and which possesses little value as a garden plant; and 

 of Tillandsia amethystina (t. 7121), from southern Brazil. 



Monsieur Carriere describes in the Revue Horticole of June 

 1st a curious semi-prostrate form of the Norway Spruce 

 under the title of Picea excelsa reflexa (f. 73). This was one 

 of the interesting plants shown by Croux & Co. at the Paris 

 Exposition of last year. It forms a bush only a few feet high, 

 with irregularly pendulous branches, a habit which particu- 

 larly fits it to spread over rocks or to plant in rocky situations. 



The Gardeners' Chronicle of the 31st of May contains the 

 reproduction of a view taken in a Garden of the Scilly Isl- 

 ands, in which is growing a splendid mass of Puya Chilensis 

 (f. 115), one of the most beautiful of all Bromeliads. The 

 leaves form a great Agave-like cluster, from the centre of 

 which rises a tall flower-stalk, terminated by a dense head of 

 bronze-blue flowers of exceeding beauty. This would cer- 

 tainly be an admirable plant for California, although it is 

 hardly probable that it would thrive in any part of the eastern 

 states. 



There is in the same issue a figure (672) of the male flowers 

 of Abies bracteata, here figured for the first time from a speci- 

 men grown in the gardens of Eastnor Castle. This tree, an 

 inhabitant of a few sequestered valleys only, in the very heart 

 of the Santa Lucia Mountains in California, is the most limited 

 in its range as it is one of the handsomest of all the Silver Firs. 

 The long, remarkably broad leaves are very striking, and the 

 cones, with their long exserted bracts, are quite unlike those 

 of any other species. Abies bracteata is one of the most 

 tender of all the Firs, and there are only a few sheltered situ- 

 ations in Great Britain and in the south of Europe where it has 

 been found entirely satisfactory. It is, unfortunately, quite 

 tender in all parts of the eastern states where it has yet been 

 tried. 



