January 9, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



23 



Sugar-cane under certain circumstances. It is stated by 

 Rumphius that the Sugar-cane ' never produces flowers or 

 fruit unless it lias remained several years in a stony place.' 

 He does not, however, say whether he ever saw the fruit, nor 

 does he cite any proof of the fact in the shape of seedlings, 

 self-sown or otherwise. The canes that would be likely to 

 produce fruit would be those varieties nearest the original 

 wild cane, and probably on that account they would be less 

 rich in sugar than the canes improved by a long course of 

 cultivation. 



"Without expressing a decided opinion on the subject, and 

 in the absence of the specimens themselves, the information 

 supplied by Professor Harrison is, so far, the most tangible of 

 any yet received to show that the cultivated Sugar-cane may 

 occasionally produce matui'e fruits." 



The December number of the English Illustrated Magazine 

 contains a charming article by Mr. Grant Allen on "Sur- 

 rey Farmhouses." Many Americans know the beautiful vil- 

 lage of Dorking, not far from London, and those who are 

 familiar with that delightful book, Cobbett's " Rural Rides," 

 have some idea of the surrounding country. But even among 

 Londoners there are few who have realized its loveliness for 

 themselves or seen its richness in examples of domestic arch- 

 itecture. It is one of the most primitive districts in all Eng- 

 land, despite its proximity to the capital ; for its heavy clay 

 soil has prevented agricultural advance. But in the sixteenth 

 century it had what Mr. Allen calls a temporary "boom "from 

 the discovei"y of iron-ore in its hillsides, and the consequent 

 enrichment of many families has left its trace in beauti- 

 ful manor houses, while nowhere have so many old farm- 

 houses escaped the hand of modern progress. The "Weald 

 of Surrey," as it is called, once formed part of the famous 

 "Andreaswald" — the impenetrable forest which withstood 

 the feet of the advancing Saxons and furnished a refuge 

 for the Britons whom they displaced ; and in the aspect of its 

 present population Mr. Allen thinks he can read patent signs 

 of Celtic descent. "The great characteristics of the Surrey 

 village," he writes, "are green and common. No county in 

 England, perhaps, except Yorkshire, Devonshire and the 

 Cumbrian shires, has so large a proportion of its area still un- 

 inclosed. As late as Queen Anne's day Holmwood was a 

 deer-forest, and . . . for miles even now one may. tra- 

 verse the open heather and bracken along the sandstone hills; 

 while on the plain itself the amount of open common always 

 surprises the stranger in a Surrey district. The fact is, till 

 very recently, land in Surrey had but a ridiculously small 

 value. The county remained very sparsely inhabited, and 

 the area for the most part was unfit for tillage. Hence every 

 hamlet had its corner of green, and it is the existence of these 

 universal cricket-fields at their very doors, with the conse- 

 quent practice from early childhood, that has made the Surrey 

 men the champions of England." But, interesting as is Mr. 

 Allen's text, we desire especially to call our readers' attention 

 to the numerous pictures which accompany it. Perhaps they 

 do not deserve, from the point of view of artistic execution, 

 the very enthusiastic praise which the author gives them ; but 

 they show, at all events, an exceptional feeling for the most 

 picturesque points of view and much skill in the rendering of 

 tree forms; and the subjects themselves are so charming, that 

 we should be glad to see them even though the pictures had 

 much less artistic merit than they possess. Most of the houses 

 are of half-timbered construction, with beautiful tall polygonal 

 chimneys and many gables ; and helpful lessons for our own 

 practice may be gained from them, as they show how a diver- 

 sified ground-plan need not give a disjointed, heterogeneous 

 look to a house, and how broken roofs and conspicuous 

 gables of different sizes may be brought into a result of the 

 greatest harmony and charm. Only, in studying such houses 

 as these, it must not be forgotten that time has added vastly to 

 their picturesqueness. If one of these gabled houses were to 

 be copied exactly, it would by no means have exactly the same 

 effect — great softness and grace having often been given by 

 such practically unfortunate facts as a sagging of the roof- 

 ridge and a slight inclination in the walls. Nor could one 

 immediately imitate the charming effects produced by the 

 trees and shrubs that grow so harmoniously up to the very 

 base-course, and by the mellowing mosses, grasses and 

 flowers that, in the damp English climate, have seized upon 

 every smallest foothold in brick or stone. Nevertheless there 

 is much to be learned from these pictures, as well as much 

 to be enjoyed by the mere casual observer. 



of a group of remarkable Oaks recently detected near Totten- 

 ville, on Staten Island, and containing plants of a supposed 

 hybrid between Quercus Phellos and Q. nigra, which has been 

 described by Dr. Britton as Quercus Rudkini, and of Quercus 

 heterophylla, the Bartram Oak, the range of which is now ex- 

 tended considerably further north than it has been known 

 before. This is the plant which has, for a century almost, Iseen 

 the subject of active discussion on the part of various botanists 

 who have studied our Oaks. It has been considered a species 

 by some, and by others a hybrid between Q. Phellos and one 

 of the other Black Oaks — Q. aquatica, Q. inibricaria, Q.falcata, 

 Q. coccinea, Q. tiiictoria and Q. paliistris, all being made to 

 serve in turn as the other parent. Mr. HoUick agrees with 

 those botanists who believe that Q. heterophylla is a hybrid 

 derived from Q. Phellos, but he discards all the species which 

 have been named as the other parent, and suggests that it is 

 Q. rubra, arguing that the shallow cup of the supposed hybrid 

 attaches it to that species, which, moreover, he believes is the 

 only Black Oak constantly found growing in the neighborhood 

 of Q. Phellos in the region occupied by Q. heterophylla. 



Every additional station of Q. heterophyila which is found — 

 and it is now known in many places between Staten Island 

 and Newcastle County, in Delaware, besides having been col- 

 lected in North Carolina by Curtis i^ide Herb. Canby), and by 

 Hall in Texas — would seem to confirm the ideas of those bota- 

 nists who have considered it a species of recent hybrid origin, 

 perhaps, but now fixed in its characters to the degree of being 

 able to reproduce itself exactly from seed. The important 

 thing, however, is that the tree exists, and that there is no con- 

 fusion in regard to its name, which is not obscured under a 

 mass of useless and annoying synonyms. Its origin and 

 parentage cannot be accurately determined, and must always, of 

 necessity, remain a matter of personal opinion. 



Mr. Arthur Hollick contributes to the December number of 

 the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club an interesting account 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



PiTTOSPORUM PHILLYROIDES, Bulletino de la R. Soc. Toscana 

 de Orticultura, November. 



Botanical Magazine, December : 



Begonia ScHARFFEi, t. 7028; a native of the Peninsula of Des- 

 tierra, in southern Brazil; and described by Sir Joseph Hooker 

 as "one of the most magnificent species of the whole genus." 



Iris Suwarowi, /. 7029; another distinct Iris recently discov- 

 ered in central Asia by Dr. Albert Regel. 



Pentapera sicula, t. 7030; alow, much-branched, Heath- 

 like shrub; a native of Sicily, Cyprus and Barca, and the only 

 representative of a genus distinguished from the true Heaths 

 by its pentamerous flowers (which Sir Joseph Hooker points 

 out is not a constant character), by its large sepals and pubes- 

 cent ovary. The flowers are larger than those of the other 

 European Heaths, and are pure white. 



Hexisia bidentata, a 7031 ; a small Central American 

 Orchid, with scarlet flowers, which possess a botaJiical rather 

 than a horticultural interest. 



Primula Rusbyi, t. 7032 ; a native of the mountains of 

 southern New Mexico and Arizona, already described in the 

 columns of Garden and Forest, p. 320. 



Arundina bambus^folia. Gardeners Chronicle, Decem- 

 ber 1st. 



DiSA LACERA, var. multifida, Gardeners' Chronicle, Decem- 

 ber 8th. 



DiSA GRANDIFLORA, Gardeners' Chronicle, December 8th. 



Nepenthes rufescens, Gardeners' Chronicle, December 

 8th; "this is stated to be a cross between N. Courtii x and 

 N. Zeylanica rubra. N. Courtii is itself a cross between an 

 unnamed Bornean species and N. Dominiana X, this latter 

 being a cross between N. Rafflesiana and the same undeter- 

 mined Bornean species." 



Phillyrea decora, Gardeners' Chronicle, December ; tin's 

 is the Phillyrea Vilinoraniana of many gardens ; a native of 

 the shores of the Black Sea, and a member of the Olive family. 

 It is a strikingly handsome shrub, with bright green, coria- 

 ceous leaves and axillary clusters of white flowers, which are 

 followed in the autumn by olive-shaped, reddish-purple fruit. 

 It is specially recommended for plantmg in cities, as smoke 

 and dust does not affect it seriously. Its hardiness in this 

 country, however, has not been established yet. 



Kalmia latifoma Pavarti, Revue Horticole, December ist; 

 a handsome variety of the common American Laurel, with 

 high-colored, almost red, flowers, obtained in the garden of 

 the Trianon by Monsieur Pavart. 



Quercus rubra. Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club, t. Z^,, 

 December. 



Quercus Phellos, Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club, t. 83, 

 December. 



