464 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 24, 1890. 



states it is the Grasses particularly that are under investigation, 

 while in others the Clovers, Lucerne and other leguminous 

 crops are being considered. 



Next in order of importance comes the subject of weeds. 

 How best to check their spreading can only be determined by 

 a thorough knowledge of their habits; and their eradication 

 calls for a concerted action that can be brought about by wide- 

 spread information and an urgent appeal. 



Following the weeds is the consideration of the long neglect- 

 ed subject of our forests and forest-trees, and next comes the 

 question of plants for barren lands. This title is somewhat 

 obscure, as it may mean forests or Grasses or some other 

 plants of less intrinsic value to be used to prepare the way for 

 something better. 



But few of the botanists are engaging in the fertilization of 

 plants, including hybridization and all that is understood by 

 breeding. Three indicate this as one of the pressing subjects 

 for inquiry. It is here again that the line of the station horti- 

 culturist approaches close to that of the botanist, and very 

 likely a large part of the station cross-fertilization work will be 

 carried out by the former. 



Two have selected the relations of climate to vegetation, and 

 two more testing seeds somewhat after the methods of 

 the German seed-control stations. It has already been found 

 that our seeds are not as foul or our seedsmen as vicious as 

 had been alleged. In the far west two station botanists con- 

 template a study of the influence of irrigation upon vegetation. 

 And still farther west and north, where state-making is not a 

 thing of the distant past, the making of a state flora is con- 

 sidered one of the first things for the station botanist to do. 



To come down to a small ending of the list, in more ways 

 than one the returns show that at least one botanist considers 

 bacteria among the more important subjects for study. 



It is seen that the topics are broad and various, and for their 

 satisfactory study there needs to be a wide diversity of talent. 



Rutgers College. ByrOll D. Halsted. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 A New Cornus. 



AVERY puzzling Dogwood has been known for some 

 time to be growing in the region of the Great Lakes. 

 Occasional specimens received were referred to C. stoloni- 

 fera, but not without contradicting some of its most essen- 

 tial characters. In an early day it had been collected by 

 Bourgeau in the valley of Lake Winnipeg and along the 

 Saskatchewan, and much later by Dawson, in the same 

 region. It is also to be found among Garber's collections 

 from Presque Isle. Macoun collected it at Point Pelee and 

 Lake Nipigon, as well as in the Cypress Hills of the North- 

 west Territory. 



In 1886, however, during a botanical survey of northern 

 Minnesota, abundant material in fine condition was se- 

 cured by Professor L. H. Bailey, and distributed by him as 

 C. slolonifera, to which species Dr. Gray had referred it. 

 Professor Bailey was well acquainted with this perplexing 

 form about his early home in southern Michigan, and was 

 never satisfied that it could be really C. slolonifera. The 

 Minnesota material was collected along the north shore of 

 Lake Superior, at Vermilion Lake, and at Hunter's Island, 

 upon the British border. In a critical study of all the 

 North American species of Cornus it became apparent that 

 this perplexing form represented' a distinct species, which 

 was very naturally dedicated to Professor Bailey.* Its 

 range, as at present understood, is about the Great Lakes, 

 especially Lakes Michigan and Superior, and extending 

 northward and north-westward into Canada. Its occur- 

 rence in the mountains of Wyoming, near Fort Bridger, 

 suggests a possible southern extension in the mountain 

 region. + The species can be distinguished from C. sloloni- 

 fera by its erect habit, being not at all stoloniferous so far 



* Cornus Baileyi, Coulter & Evans. Erect shrub, not stoloniferous, reaching a 

 height of six or eight feet, with reddish brown, mostly smooth, branches ; branch- 

 lets and inflorescence pubescent to woolly ; leaves from lanceolate to ovate, acute 

 or short acuminate, appressed-pubescent to glabrate above, white beneath and 

 with woolly hairs variously intermingled with appressed ones; flowers in small, 

 rather compact, cymes; fruit white; stone decidedly compressed, fiat-topped, with 

 a very prominently furrowed edge, much broader than high. — Rcvis. of Com. Bot. 

 Gazette, xv., 37 and 87. 



t The Fort Bridger specimens were collected by the Hayden Survey, and named 

 C. pubescens by Professor Porter, a decision which really came nearer the truth 

 than C. stolonifera. 



as known, by its much duller and browner bark, its pearly 

 white fruit, with a large, flattened, square-shouldered stone, 

 and by the white woolliness of the lower leaf-surfaces. It 

 grows over the sand dunes about the lakes, " often in the 

 loosest, shifting white sands," as Professor Bailey writes, 

 and flowers continuously all summer, from June to Sep- 

 tember. As a handsome, long-blooming shrub, adapted 

 to the sandiest soil, Cornus Baileyi well deserves culti- 

 vation. 



Crawfordsville, Ind. J. M, Coulter. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



'HPHE fortnightly meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 *• have this year been exceptionally interesting and useful. 

 Every meeting produces collections of plants of special value 

 in some department of gardening, or some new introduction 

 of more than ordinary promise. There can be no question of 

 the important part such meetings play, or at any rate should 

 play, in the diffusion of horticultural knowledge, for even con- 

 noisseurs find them instructive and interesting. In a previous 

 letter I mentioned an exhibition of cut specimens of all kinds 

 of spring-flowering, hardy trees and shrubs, supplied from the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, and several nurserymen who are strong 

 in this department. Amongst these is the Messrs. Veitch, 

 whose collection in the Combe Wood Nurseries is rich in rare 

 and beautiful hardy trees and shrubs. Few meetings are held 

 at which there are not specimens exhibited from this nursery. 

 At the last meeting the exhibit consisted of a large collection 

 of handsome-leaved hardy trees and shrubs, with a few 

 autumn-flowering things amongst them. I noted the most 

 striking of the plants, which are as follows : 



Quercus dentata. — A Japanese Oak of extraordinary 

 character. The leaves are fifteen inches long by nine inches 

 in width, sessile, with large irregular lobes and almost leathery 

 in texture. In autumn they assume a rich amber and red 

 color. The young leaves are clothed with a soft down, which 

 falls off as they mature, leaving them smooth and green. At 

 present this plant is rare, but the size and beauty of its foliage, 

 and the fact that it is quite hardy and grows freely even in the 

 cold parts of Scotland, ought to make it a favorite. 



Salix rosmarinifolia. — This is an ornamental Willow with 

 linear leaves five inches long, deep green on the upper surface, 

 silvery beneath, the general appearance being that of a Rose- 

 mary, as indicated by the name. It is included by Hooker 

 among the forms of S. refiens, a British species, but he de- 

 scribes it as having leaves from two to three inches long. It 

 is supposed to have been found by Sherard in the last century in 

 bogs in Scotland. It is worth a place in every garden for the 

 sake of its pretty foliage. 



Hymenanthera crassifolia.— A New Zealand shrub which 

 has proved hardy in the south of England. It grows to a 

 height of about four feet and forms a dense bush, covered 

 with linear gray-green leaves, and in autumn with clusters of 

 pearly white berries. 



Aristotelia Macqui. — In the south of England this free 

 growing shrub becomes ornamented with a heavy crop of deep 

 crimson berries, which change to black-purple when ripe. It 

 is usually grown for the sake of its evergreen, handsome foli- 

 age. In sheltered places it forms a shrub about eight feet 

 high. Messrs. Veitch exhibited branches of a variegated form , 

 in which the leaves are partly bright, creamy yellow. If as 

 hardy as the green form this should prove a valuable shrub. 



Ligustrum Simoni, a distinct looking Privet in the way of 

 L. Japonicum. The leaves are coriaceous, elliptical, deeply 

 channeled and about five inches long. The inflorescence is a 

 terminal panicle of small white flowers. It is said to be the 

 same as L. compactum,& Himalayan species introduced in 1875. 



Cornus Spathii is the garden name for a variety of the 

 Siberian Dogwood (C. Sibiricd). It is one of the handsomest 

 variegated leaved shrubs we have seen, and if it proves as 

 hardy as the type it will be a most valuable acquisition. As 

 exhibited, it had leaves five inches long by three inches in 

 width, and at least two-thirds of each leaf was colored a rich 

 cream-yellow. It obtained a certificate in July of last year. 

 The type is one of the most useful undershrubs we have, the 

 crimson color of its stems, especially in winter, being particu- 

 larly bright and cheerful. We do not succeed with the Dog- 

 woods of America. C. florida we know chiefly from descrip- 

 tions and pictures of it, for it does not flower here. 



Stephanandra flexuosa, a monotypic genus allied to 

 Spiraea. It was introduced from Japan to St. Petersburg by 



