404 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 20, 1890. 



been expended in constructing the rockery its extent may per- 

 haps be realized. ' But, besides stone and money, a considera- 

 ble amount of art is needed ere a good rock- garden can be 

 formed. The best judges say that there is no liner arrange- 

 ment of stones and plants in England than this in the York 

 nurseries. Huge masses of stone are piled up cliff-like in 

 some places, and are backed by suitable trees, whilst from an- 

 other point the stones are arranged to represent a glacial slip 

 and their summit is clearly defined against the sky. The effect 

 is delightfully deceptive, for whilst theactual height of the stones 

 is only about twelve feet above the ground-level it appears to 

 be at least twice that height. Winding around and amongst 

 the piles of rock are streams, or small clear- pools of water 

 containing Nymplueas and other aquatic plants. In boggy 

 nooks one sees healthy examples of Darlingtonia, Sarracenia, 

 Rodgersia, Todea, and other moisture loving plants. Ferns 

 there are in abundance, whilst Cistuses, Campanulas, Ourisia, 

 Cotoneasters, dwarfed Pines, Ramondia, Daphnes, Genistas, 

 Bamboos, Pinks of all kinds, Veronicas, Saxifragas innumera- 

 ble, Eurybias, the North American Cypripedia, with many 

 other suitable plants, all combine to make a picture such as 

 cannot be seen elsewhere except in the Alps of Switzerland. No 

 plant that is suitable is omitted, and the consequence is that 

 visitors are enabled to see for themselves the position best 

 suited to each plant both as regards its safety and eifect in ar- 

 rangement. There can be no doubt that this rockery lias been 

 the cause of many other rock gardens being formed by English 

 horticulturists. The delights of this department of gardening 

 are supreme; no ugly pots, no stiff stages, very little of the 

 watering pot or abominable flower-stake, but instead every 

 plant looking quite at home in its nature-like surroundings, 

 and so happy as to require very little attention. Then there is 

 constant change, infinite variety and perfect enjoyment whilst 

 working amongst or inspecting them. A great deal may be 

 said in favor of the rock garden, but it must be properly made 

 and carefully planted at the outset. Mere heaps of stones with 

 a handful of soil here and there in the crevices and plants 

 stuck in anyhow are not rock gardens, but only a source of 

 disappointment and disgust. 



The rock garden at York is the show-room for the her- 

 baceous and alpine plants, of which the collection is exception- 

 ally rich in variety and extent. Whilst some nurserymen send 

 collectors to bring home Orchids, the Messrs. Backhouse send 

 annually to the European Alps their superintendent of the her- 

 baceous department, who collects and notes the natural con- 

 ditions of all the choicest and best plants. 



In the houses there are, of course, Orchids in endless va- 

 riety. Cattleyas and Laelias are grown in thousands, — well 

 grown, too, — and that in houses for which the thinnest muslin 

 shading only is used even in the sunniest weather. The Messrs. 

 Backhouse were among the first to prove that many Orchids 

 thrive much better when scarcely shaded even in midsum- 

 mer, than when shaded heavily, as is usually practiced. Mexi- 

 can Orchids were in splendid health, and the Cattleyas were 

 pictures of vigor at the time of my visit. 



Catasetum Bungerothii is largely and well grown in a moist 

 warm house. And hereby hangs a tale. Last winter a plant 

 of this Orchid was accidentally kept moist by a roof-drip, and 

 this plant wintered better, grew more vigorously and dowered 

 more freely than those which had been dried off. I have my- 

 self proved that some Cataseta grow and thrive if kept in a 

 moist house all the year round. It may be unnatural, but it 

 succeeds nevertheless. 



Cattleya gigas, C. aurea and C. Dowiana have flowered ex- 

 tremely well, the result of growing them in baskets suspended 

 close to the ventilators in die top of a span-roofed house and 

 scarcely shaded. There areCypripediums of almost every kind, 

 which is saying a great deal, seeing how very numerous th e kinds 

 are now. Dendrobiums are well grown and numerously repre- 

 sented; Ccelogynes, rare as well as popular species, were also full 

 of vigor. I might run through the whole catalogue of garden 

 Orchids and say with truth that they are almost all grown well 

 in the York nurseries. The best and rarest are represented. 

 Such fine Orchids as Odontoglossum Harryamim are grown in 

 large quantity. The Disas were mentioned in last week's 

 issue, but I may note here some good examples of D. racemosa. 



Hard wooded plants are in favor with Messrs. Backhouse, 

 whilst such choice greenhouse plants as Rogeria gratissima, 

 Litculia gratissima, Daphne Indica, Lapagerias, Asparagus 

 dectimbcns, a most elegant plant when grown in hanging bas- 

 kets, Javanese Rhododendrons, Pleroma elegans, are grown in 

 quantity. 



In the stoves one may find all the popular favorites, besides 

 many that are unknown in the majority of gardens — for Messrs. 

 Backhouse have a taste for other plants than the big flowered 



and the gaudy. Adamia versicolor, a cousin of the Hydran- 

 geas, was in flower ; treated as a stove plant it apparently 

 blooms freely, whereas in a greenhouse it grows well but does 

 not flower. It has large heads of bluish lilac flowers, not un- 

 like those of a Sonerila ; the plant is about a foot high. Com- 

 bretum purpureum was a cloud of bright crimson on the roof of 

 one of the stoves; Sonerilas, Bertolonias, Ouvirandra fenes- 

 tralis — these I noted as being unusually well managed. 



Ferns are a specialty in these nurseries. Nowhere, not even 

 at Kew, is there so rich a collection of Hymenophyllums, 

 Trichomanes and Todeas, collectively known as Filmy Ferns. 

 An underground rockery of considerable size is entirely 

 planted with them, and Fern connoisseurs enter it with feel- 

 ings of delight and admiration. Only the favored are allowed 

 to see it, but it is worth going a long way and taking a good 

 deal of trouble to see. There are besides two houses entirely 

 filled with these delicately beautiful Ferns, the rarest and 

 choicest species being represented by large, well furnished 

 specimens, some of which are at least twenty years old. Few 

 people grow these Ferns, because, as a rule, beginners fail 

 with them. An hour's neglect will probably work mischief 

 that it will take years to undo. But when once their require- 

 ments are understood they are very easy to cultivate. The 

 famous Cooper-Forster collection, now at Kew, was formed 

 by a surgeon, and cultivated by him for many years in a 

 house built against the window of his surgery in Grosvenor 

 Street, right in the heart of London. 



A large house is arranged inside like a natural fernery, with 

 rockery .and water, and is planted with all kinds of tree and 

 other Ferns. Gleichenias, beautifully grown and numerous in 

 kinds, almost fill another house, whilst others contain a large 

 collection of tropical Ferns in beautiful condition. 



York is a little out of the ordinary track of the visitor inter- 

 ested in gardening; but no American who finds delight in in- 

 specting a well kept garden, rich in rare and beautiful plants, 

 should visit England and not see the nurseries of the Messrs. 

 Backhouse at York. 

 London. Visitor. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Rosa multiflora. 



THIS species is an old inhabitant of the Arnold Arbo- 

 retum, where it was raised from seed sent by Max 

 Leichtlin in 1874. It was first made known by Thunberg, 

 who discovered it in Japan, and published the first de- 

 scription in his "Flora Japonica," printed in Leipsic in 

 1784. It has only been known, however, in a living state 

 in recent years, the earliest description of it as a garden 

 plant appearing in the Revue Horticole for 1876, where it is 

 stated to have been introduced into France about 1862 by 

 Andre Leroy of Anger, who obtained it from China. 



Rosa mullijlora * is a vigorous plant with stout branches 

 eight or ten feet long, recurved above the middle, and 

 forming a dense mass of brilliant foliage, which reaches, 

 when the plant is abundantly nourished and allowed free 

 room for full development, a breadth of twelve or fifteen 

 feet. The branches are stout, more or less zigzag, glabrous, 

 light green, destitute of prickles, and armed with stout, 

 flattened, recurved spines. The leaves are six or seven 

 inches long, unequally pinnate, with stout pubescent 

 petioles and conspicuous, deeply cut, comb-like stipules. 

 The leaflets are distinctly petiolulate, ovate or obovate, the 

 apex often contracted into a slender point, and are con- 

 spicuously and sharply toothed above the middle; they are 

 dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and 

 slightly puberulous on the lower, especially along the 

 stout midrib. The flowers are produced in axillary and 

 terminal widely-branched corymbs, composing a pyra- 

 midal, rather one-sided, terminal panicle eight or ten 

 inches long and four or five inches broad, the slender 

 branches covered with scattered hairs. Theflowersf are an 

 inch across when expanded, with ovate-lanceolate, entire, 

 pointed sepals, pubescent on the outer surface, deciduous 



♦Thunberg, "Fl. Jap.," 214. — Franchet et Sevatier, "Enum. PI. Jap.," i., 134. — 

 Ciepin, "Bull. Soc. Hot. Belg.," xiii., 250 ; xviii., 278. — Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. 

 Linn. Soc, xxiii., 253. — Bot.Mag., t. 7119. 



R. ftolyantJta, Siebold et Zuccarini, " Fam. Nat. PI. Jap.," i., 20. — Carriere, Rev. 

 Hart., 1876, 253, f. 49-53. 



t In the recent figure of this plrint in the Botanical Magazine the petals of some of 

 the flowers are represented as pink, and in others as faintly shaded with pink. In 

 all the plants raised in the Arboretum they are pure while. 



