37° 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 30, 1890. 



flowers, with a few purple-brown spots on the segments and 

 lines on the lip. — Lindenia, vol. v., p. 49, t. 215. 



Masdevallia Lowii, Rolfe, is a pretty little species belong- 

 ing to the Saccilabiate section, which was introduced from the 

 Cauca, New Granada, by Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., of Clapton. 

 It is readily distinguished from its allies by its shallow, maroon- 

 purple lip, which is unusually fleshy and almost filled up with 

 the keels so characteristic of this section of the genus. The 

 sepals are also narrower than usual below, and gradually at- 

 tenuated right to the apex. — Gardeners' Chronicle, April 5th, 

 p. 416. 

 Kew. R. A. Rolfe. 



Plant Notes. 

 Hypericum Kalmianum and Lobelia Kalmii. 



'"F'HIS is the season of Hypericum Kalmianum, whose yellow 

 J- blossoms seem more than usually profuse the present 

 year. Large patches of them maybe seen covering the ground 

 along the borders of the sloughs throughout the sand region 

 at the head of Lake Michigan, for it is under such conditions 

 that it flourishes here. The excellent figure and description of 

 it in Garden and Forest for March 5th leads me to send some 

 account of this plant and another one named after Peter Kalm, 

 both of which are common near the shores of Lake Michigan 

 in the sandy region just south and east of Chicago. One gets 

 the impression from the habitats assigned in most of the 

 hand-books of botany, that they are quite exclusively denizens 

 of the rocks; but they flourish equally well in the damp sili- 

 cious sands. The first named will also bear a considerable 

 amount of dryness. It is not confined to the lake shore, 

 though abundant in many places on the landward side of the 

 ridge of sand usually fringing the shore, and against which 

 the surf may beat when the waves run high. It sometimes 

 spreads two or three miles away from the shore, growing 

 along the borders of sloughs and sluggish streams. It may 

 be found in company wifli our only shrubby Potentilla, P. 

 fruticosa, though the latter can endure wetter conditions of 

 soil, the lower part of the stems being under water sometimes, 

 but not, apparently, as a permanent state. Such shrubs as 

 Pyrus arbutifolia, Cornus paniculate/, and C. sericea, and the 

 Willows Salix lucida, S. glaucophylla and S. adenophylla, often 

 accompany it. The last is quite peculiar to the shore, seldom 

 getting away from it, and is generally found higher up the slope 

 of the sand ridge or on its top. I have found Hypericum Kal- 

 mianum in the same situations as H Canadense and H gymnan- 

 thum. Other plants growing along with it are Linum Virginia- 

 mtm, and L. sulcatum, Castilleia coccinea, Tofieldia glutinosa, 

 the beautiful Gentian, Sabbatia angularis, and the two pretty 

 Orchids, Pogonia ophioglossoides and Colopogon — each, of 

 course, in its season. This partial list, which might be 

 considerably extended, will serve to show that it is not very 

 exclusive in its habits, for some of the plants mentioned are 

 usually regarded as wet or damp-ground and some as dry- 

 ground species. And it may also in a measure explain why 

 this Hypericum is so easily cultivated, as well as the other 

 species of the genus, since they readily adapt themselves to 

 varying conditions. I should think, however, that a light soil 

 kept reasonably moist would be nearest to their natural state. 

 Some years ago I came across a patch of this plant in one part 

 of the city that was at the time under improvement as a park. 

 It had evidently been brought by accident among the roots of 

 a White Pine which had been planted near by. The ground 

 was sandy and quite dry, but the shrub was strong and doing 

 well. I may add that H. Kalmiamnn is quite commonly dis- 

 tributed along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, probably 

 throughout its whole extent. The place where I have seen it 

 farthest from the lake was on the rocks at the sandy Portage 

 of the Menominee River, in the northern peninsula of Michi- 

 gan. This is a little below Iron Mountain, or about fifty miles 

 up the river from Green Bay, into which the Menominee flows. 

 The other plant named for Peter Kalm, Lobelia Kahnii, 

 probably gathered by him at Niagara Falls, where it grows 

 upon the rocks, as I have taken it from the Three Sisters 

 Islands, is also common here. It is not confined to the "wet 

 limestones," but does just as well in the damp sands, and 

 sometimes assumes neighborly relations to L. spicata, abund- 

 ant here in open sandy ground. A similar list of mingled 

 plants might be made out for this, as in the case of H. Kalmia- 

 num, though I find it a little more confined to the wetter 

 ground. In fact, an extended article could be prepared from 

 material furnished by the mixed character of the flora of the 

 upper lakes, especially that near the south end of Lake Michi- 

 gan, interesting to the botanist, meteorologist, and doubtless 

 profitable to the horticulturist, showing how plants in their 



wild state readily adapt themselves to changed conditions, 

 and I have often been surprised to find many strange neigh- 

 bors among plants. In Michigan the habitats of plants differ 

 widely from those set down in the books, especially when these 

 wet, sandy grounds are drained as they come to be by the de- 

 mand of the growing population of a large city. Having seen 

 this go on for nearly a score of years, the opportunity has been 

 very favorable to study this struggle for existence. While the 

 original soil is left undisturbed by the plow or spade, the wet- 

 ground and the dry-ground plants suit themselves to the 

 altered surroundings, the latter coming in among the former, 

 and as cosily occupying the same quarters as though they had 

 never lived apart. Some are devoid of the requisite flexibility 

 of constitution and yield to the inevitable, but many more soon 

 come into permanent relations with a new environment. 



Englewood, III. E. J. Hill. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Shrubs. 



"DROBABLY there is no species among the late flowering 

 *■ Spiraeas in cultivation which would rank higher as showy 

 ornamental shrubs than Spircea discolor and its varieties. This 

 species is a native of several of the states in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, and it extends from southern California into British 

 Columbia. Although long known it is seldom seen in gar- 

 dens in this country ; but, in the northern and New England 

 states, this may be partly due to the fact that the plants gen- 

 erally do not withstand the severe winters without some arti- 

 ficial protection. S. discolor, var. ariafolia, or, as it is more 

 often called, S. aricefolia, is very unequal in its behavior at 

 the Arboretum. It has seldom flowered so well as it has this 

 season, a circumstance partly due, no doubt, to the past mild 

 winter, and to the stems having been bent over and carefully, 

 though lightly, covered with soil. 



The tallest stems have attained a height of eight or nine feet, 

 and all have been well laden with numerous large, loose 

 spreading panicles of creamy white or straw colored flowers. 

 The panicles bear some resemblance to those of the common 

 Siberian S. sorbifolia of our gardens, but they are not so large 

 and have a more feathery and less stiff and formal appear- 

 ance. Besides this, they differ in being produced on a num- 

 ber of lateral branches along the main stems, whereas the pan- 

 icles on S. sorbifolia are erect, solitary and terminal. 



The two species bear no resemblance to each other in habit 

 or in general appearance, and if it was perfectly hardy 6". arice- 

 folia would be considered the most valuable, both for its blos- 

 soms, and because it may be very easily kept as a neat, trim 

 bush, and does not spread and encumber the ground by 

 suckers. 



Under cultivation at the Arboretum the panicles of flowers 

 average about six inches in length by four inches across, but 

 some are nine or ten inches long, with a diameter of from six 

 to eight inches. The individual blossoms are small, about a 

 fifth of an inch across, and they are light creamy white in 

 color. The odor has been described as like that of Sweet 

 Birch, yet to many people it is more strongly suggestive of 

 honey. There is also' a suggestion of the odor of Chestnut- 

 blossoms, which lends a slightly disagreeable quality. 



In its native habitat the shrub is said to grow from five to 

 fifteen feet high. In well sheltered situations in southern New 

 England it would probably rarely fail to blossom abundantly, 

 and some hardier strains than that grown at the Arboretum 

 may yet be procured. The flowers are of short duration, but, 

 as all the panicles do not develop their blossoms simultaneously 

 and some plants are a little later than others, a good show of 

 bloom is kept up for three weeks after the opening of the 

 earliest blossoms — about the 1st of July. 



Spircea Millefolium, which was figured on p. 509 of the sec- 

 ond volume of Garden and Forest, blossoms at the same 

 time as, or a little later than, the last species, and although 

 more interesting in many ways it has little merit as a conspic- 

 uous or decorative shrub. The specimens in the Arboretum 

 were produced from seed collected in Nevada and they 

 have proved very hardy without any protection. They are, 

 however, of straggling habit, though upright, and only three 

 or four feet in height. The foliage is not sufficiently abund- 

 ant to hide the naked lower portions of the branches and 

 stems. The narrow, finely twice-pinnate leaves distinguish 

 this species from all others of the genus. Another peculiarity 

 of the leaves is that a very well developed tuft of them re- 

 mains on the tip of each branch throughout the winter, and 

 these leaves continue their growth with the new shoots in the 

 spring. 



