33^ 



Garden and Forest. 



(July 9, 1890. 



the stone. The fruits, like many others among the Passi- 

 floraceae, are edible, though not specially pleasant in flavor. 



Tacsonia Exoniensis is also a very handsome sort, and re- 

 sembles the preceding in foliage and habit, but the flowers are 

 of a different shade, being inclined to magenta. It is also a 

 good grower and the flowers hang down in the same graceful 

 manner as those of T. Van Volxemi. 



T. Buchanani is another excellent species, and produces 

 large and showy bright scarlet flowers in great profusion after 

 the plant has attained considerable size. 



It is rather a rampant grower and is consequently not so 

 well adapted for planting in a small conservatory as the varie- 

 ties above mentioned, but where sufficient space can be given 

 for its full development it will prove a remarkably effective 

 creeper. It has large, dark green leaves, which are somewhat 

 tomentose, and divided into three or five lobes, and reminds 

 one quite strongly of some of the strong-growing Passifloras; 

 in fact, this plant has also been named Passiflora vitifolia in 

 some catalogues. 



The Tacsonias are easily reproduced by means of cuttings 

 or by seeds when the latter are procurable, but cuttings of 

 moderately soft wood and two or three joints in length are 

 readily rooted in a propagating frame. The advantage of using 

 cuttings of three joints in length is found in the fact that 

 they often start away quicker than those which are made with 

 only one or two eyes, as the latter sometimes fail to start on 

 account of the buds being defective. 



Stigmaphyllon ciliatum is an admirable summer-flowering 

 creeper from Brazil that deserves a much wider distribution 

 than it has yet received. It is a rather slender-growing plant 

 with medium-sized cordate leaves of a grayish green color and 

 ciliated around the margins. The flowers are produced in 

 rapid succession along the stems and last for a considerable 

 time, being of peculiar form and orange-yellow in color. 

 This plant used to be considered a proper subject for stove 

 treatment, but of late years it has been found that it flour- 

 ishes in an average greenhouse temperature, and in fact it has 

 proved a beautiful addition to the out-door climbers, at least 

 as far north as Washington, District of Columbia. I saw at the 

 Botanic Garden in that city some years ago a plant against a 

 fence, over which it ran wild, and being well clothed with its 

 bright blossoms, was a truly charming sight. Stigmaphyllon is 

 also propagated by cuttings, and will flourish under similar 

 general treatment to that recommended for Tacsonias. 



Holmesburg, Pa. IV. H. Taplin. 



Notes on Shrubs. 



ONE of the most useful and valuable shrubby plants for use 

 as an undershrub in waste places, or on embankments 

 where not too sterile and dry, is our native Rubus odoratus, 

 better knowm as the Purple Flowering Raspberry, or in some 

 districts as the Thimbleberry. The last popular name, how- 

 ever, is more properly applied to the Black Cap or Black 

 Raspberry (R. occidentalis). The Purple Flowering Raspberry 

 is more suited to be planted in free places, where it may 

 spread, than it is in small well- trimmed garden-beds or shrub- 

 beries, because of its habit of spreading from the roots and 

 occupying much ground to the exclusion of lower and less 

 robust vegetation. The foliage, although not of such a hand- 

 some green as that of some other equally hardy plants, is yet 

 very attractive by its large size and density, and also for being 

 usually little injured by leaf-eating insects. This plant is 

 naturally at home in hilly districts or further north, where it 

 delights in more or less stony, but fertile, soils. The fruit is 

 usually considered almost worthless, yet it is often of quite a 

 pleasant but peculiar flavor, and in some parts of Canada is 

 sometimes collected and sold by the habitants. But it is so 

 thin and flat, and so soft when fully ripe, that collecting it is 

 not profitable, and it does not bear keeping or much handling. 

 In cultivation here it is usually after the middle of June before 

 the large, handsome, purple flowers appear, and the plants 

 continue to bear some flowers even after the fruit begins to 

 ripen early in August. 



The first flowers of this species, however, are preceded two 

 or three weeks by those of the White Flowering Raspberry 

 (R. Nutkanus), which is found at home from northern Michi- 

 gan westward through the Rocky Mountains. Although a 

 native of pretty high latitudes, this species has not been hardy 

 enough at the Arboretum to withstand the cold of our winters 

 when growing side by side with the Purple Flowering Rasp- 

 berry. Owing to a mild winter and careful covering, the 

 stems were not killed last season, and flowers have been 

 freely produced for the first time. It is possible that the lack 

 of hardiness may be obviated by procuring seed from the ex- 



treme northern limits or most severe climate where the plant 

 grows naturally. The seed of those in the Arboretum was 

 collected in Washington Territory. In most of its characters 

 this species is almost equal to a white R. odoratus. The silky 

 white petals are not quite so large and long, but the flowers 

 expand from an inch to an inch and a half across. They have 

 a sweeter and more delicate fragrance than the purple flow- 

 ered species, and, as in the latter, a pleasant resinous quality, 

 which, emanating from the sticky glandular hairs covering the 

 young shoots and sepals, is mingled with the odor of the 

 flowers. 



The beautiful white flowered Rocky Mountain Bramble 

 (Rubus deliciosus) chiefly differs in habit from both of the pre- 

 ceding species in not spreading over the ground by new shoots 

 from its roots. It is perfectly hardy when growing beside the 

 more tender R. Nutkanus, which it far surpasses in beauty of 

 blossom. The flowers are flat and about two inches across, 

 and are usually mistaken for large Wild Roses or the Cherokee 

 Rose by people who have seen the latter. The odor of the 

 blossoms is slight and rather pleasant, although it has been hap- 

 pily compared with the smell of bleaching cotton. It is an early 

 flowering species, and here it is usually in its finest condition 

 of bloom about the twentieth of May. In warm situations the 

 first blossoms appear in the first week of the month. The 

 plants in this region do not appear to produce much fruit, and 

 that only rarely. As they do not spread by suckers or great 

 enlargement from the original shoots they are not easily 

 propagated by root division ; and cuttings from the wood do 

 not readily form roots and grow ; nevertheless the last is the 

 best method of increasing the stock, unless it is by seed. 



Few trailing plants combine a prettier effect of foliage and 

 flower than the Running Swamp Blackberry (Rubus hispidus) 

 when in good condition. Although its common name sug- 

 gests wet places as its natural haunts, it will grow well in any 

 good garden soil, and is especially valuable for planting in 

 rockeries. The flowers are borne throughout most of the 

 month of June. They are effectively set off by the dark ever- 

 green looking foliage, which has an added value in the bright 

 colors assumed in autumn. 



The Dewberry {Rubus , Canadensis) often makes a pretty 

 covering over the ground, but the leaves are not of such a 

 handsome dark green as those of the last species. The Dew- 

 berry was long neglected by horticulturists, and has only 

 within a very few years received much attention as a fruit- 

 bearing plant. In a wild state the fruit is very variable in size 

 and flavor, but by selection and under cultivation it is possible 

 to produce berries which, for size and flavor, cannot be distin- 

 guished from some of the best blackberries. 



The earliest ripe fruit on any of the genus is that borne by 

 the herbaceous Dwarf Raspberry (R. triflorus), which in culti- 

 vation ripens the first of its amber-colored berries before the 

 middle of June. The fruit is small and of a pleasant acid 

 flavor, but is not abundant. This species, though pretty and 

 delicate, has no peculiar characters which make it of much 

 ornamental or economic value. In flower, foliage and fruit it 

 appears to have closer affinities with the Blackberries than the 

 true Raspberries. 



Arnold Arboretum. J • G. J. 



The Rock Garden. 



A BLUE variety of Viola cornicta, known as Perfection, and 

 ■*"*• the white variety, Alba, are being extensively used this 

 season by landscape-gardeners in the vicinity of Boston for 

 summer bedding. These Violets are intended to supplement 

 the blue and white Lobelia erinus, which seldom blooms well 

 during wet seasons. Both are free and persistent bloomers, 

 and being quite hardy are fit subjects for the rock garden. 

 Rock Roses, Helianthemum vulgare and its varieties, are, if 

 not exactly showy, very pretty and interesting. These are 

 easily propagated, either from hard wood cuttings placed in a 

 cool frame in the fall, or soft cuttings in propagating-beds 

 during spring. Campanula Carpatica in variety, and C. ro- 

 tundifolia, the true Bluebell of Scotland, are well established 

 with us, sowing themselves freely, and needing to be carefully 

 thinned out to prevent their becoming weedy. Geranium san- 

 guineum, bright purple, and G. Endressi, bright pink, are the 

 hardiest and best of all these kinds to grow, inasmuch as they 

 take care of themselves, and continue well in bloom through- 

 out the summer. 



The double Lychnis vespertina is a very old-fashioned plant. 

 It is not common, however, being rather hard to propagate. 

 It can best be increased by cuttings, as the root-stock does not 

 bear division. It is very difficult to get anything but flowering 

 stems for cuttings, and these root very slowly and take a long 

 time to make plants. It is, however, a very desirable plant. 



