February 20, i88g.] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



itself, which town lies on the eastern side of the Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia, in the State of Sonora, in latitude 28° N., and 250 miles 

 south of the United States boundary. It is hemmed in closely 

 by very rocky hills and low mountains (of 1,200 to 1,500 feet al- 

 titude), intersected by narrow valleys. The artificially watered 

 gardens, with their irrigating ditches and brush fences, protect- 

 ing and favoring the growth of numerous native plants, the 

 rocky islands in the harbor, and the valleys and mountains 

 around, were all alike searched." 



"Muleje, upon the western side of the Gulf, ninety miles from 

 Guaymas, is described as in a dry, barren and mountainous 

 region, where, except in the very short, rainy season, the only 

 green vegetation to be seen is along the banks of a small 

 creek. This place was visited early in June, and again late in 

 December. Of the forty-nine species collected there, twenty- 

 four occurred elsewhere, mostly at Guaymas. Los Angeles 

 Bay, also on the peninsula, about 200 miles north-west of 

 Guaymas, was visited at an unusually favorable time, after a 

 rain which was the first that had fallen in twenty-two months, 

 and when vegetation was in full bloom. The surrounding 

 country is very mountainous, some of the ridges having an 

 altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 feet. About a month was spent 

 here (from November 22d to December 20th), and 112 species 

 were collected, of which twenty-three had been found pre- 

 viously by Dr. Palmer. The remaining station was the island 

 of San Pedro Marfin, lying about eighty miles north-west from 

 Guaymas, of which a view has already appeared in this 

 journal. 



" The characteristics of the flora of the region bordering the 

 Gulf of California, so far as shown by this collection, are for 

 the most part those common to the flora of the whole arid 

 region of the interior, from south-eastern California, Arizona 

 and New Mexico southward into Mexico, distinct in a great 

 measure from that of California proper on the one side and 

 that of the Gulf States on the other. Nearly or quite two-thirds 

 of the species range northward beyond the Mexican boundary. 

 In the mountains about Guaymas we find a considerable num- 

 ber that are identical with or allied to species that have re- 

 cently been collected by Pringle and Palmer in the mountains 

 of Chihuahua. We have here also probably the northern 

 limit on the Pacific coast of the tropical or sub-tropical genera 

 Rhizophora, Haematoxylon, Portlandia, Citharexylum, Pedilan- 

 thus, Ficus, etc. The proportion in which the several orders 

 are represented in the collection is remarkable. Of the 415 

 species, one-fourth are equally divided between the Granimea; 

 (50) and the CoinpositcB (50). Another fourth includes only the 

 four orders, Legiiminosce (44), Eup/iorbiacece\{2,2), Malvaceceiij), 

 and Solanacece (15). These are followed by the Nyctaginacece 

 (15), ConvolvtilacecE (13), AsclepiadacecE (10), and fifty-three 

 other orders with still fewer species. The important orders, 

 Ranunculacea, Rosacea, Saxifragacece, UmbelifercE, EricacecF, 

 CiipulifercE, Coniferce and OrchidacecE, are wholly imrepre- 

 sented. Excluding the Cyperacece and Graminece, there are 

 only five endogenous species in the entire collection." 



Mr. Watson proposes the new genera for plants collected 

 by Dr. Palmer : Malperia in Ageratece, for an erect annual 

 near Hafmeisteria; Pelucha in PelucheniecE, a shrubby plant 

 related to Pelucha ; and Pattalias, an Asclepiad of the Metas- 

 telma group. Among the new species are apparently several 

 plants of very considerable interest. Among these are three 

 species of Figs, one with edible fruit, and a new Pahn, referred 

 to the small genus Washingtonia, of which the type is the now 

 well-known Fan Palm of southern California. A few of Dr. 

 Palmer's new plants which seem to possess real horficultural 

 value have already been drawn, and will be figured from time 

 to time, as opportunity permits, in the pages of this journal. 



Mr. Watson's paper ends with the description of a few new 

 species of plants lately found in the United States, chiefly in 

 California. 



Periodical Literature. 



The January issue of Hooker s Icones Plantaruin, being Part 

 I. of the nineteenth volume, is of more than usual interest to 

 American botanists, containing, as it does, the portraits of a 

 number of plants of the Bahama Islands, which in their flora 

 are closely united with the southern extremity of Florida. 

 The Bahama plants figured are Pkiala7tthus myrtilloides, a 

 representafive of a Rubiaceous genus confined to the Island 

 of Cuba, with the exception of the present species, which is 

 found also in the Bahamas ; Mimosa Bahaniensis, one of the 

 few plants endemic on the Bahamas, the fruit now first madt 

 known by Eggers' collecting ; Acacia acnifera, another 

 endemic Bahaman species, which, as Mr. Baker points out, 

 is closely related to the now widely-distributed A. Farnesiana 



of our Texano-Mexican region ; Acacia choriophylla, a small 

 tree, now only known from these islands ; Salniea petro- 

 bioides, a Helianthoid Compositae, a Bahaman representative 

 of a large West Indian and Mexican genus ; Buxus Bahatnen- 

 sis, a Bahaman species, now first described, and related to the 

 Jamaican B. Vahlii and the Cuban B. retusa and B. gonoclada; 

 and Pi7tus Bahaniensis , a tree forty feet high, and described 

 by Baron Eggers as forming dense woods on the Island of 

 New Providence. P. Bahaniensis was first described by Gries- 

 bach from a cone preserved in the Kew Museum, which Dr. 

 Engelmann suggested (" Revision of the genus Pinus," p. 25), 

 should, perhaps, be referred to Pinus Cubensis, a view which 

 the present figure abundantly sustains. Indeed, judging from 

 this figure, the Bahama plant, with the exception of the some- 

 what stouter mucros on the scales of the cone, is exactly iden- 

 tical with specimens of Pinus Cubensis from the Florida Keys, 

 in which the leaves are in threes, while on the trees on the 

 mainland of the North American continent they are often in 

 twos. 



This part contains figures of a number of Indian species of 

 Liparis, and a continuation of the new Chinese plants now in 

 course of elaboration in the Kew Herbarium. There is an 

 excellent figure also of the great Peruvian Ranunculus (P. 

 macropetaliis), which sometimes attains a height of four feet, 

 with large, globose-campanulate flowers, which are believed 

 to be red. This is the species which M. Raimonde says is 

 given by the Indians to their children "pour les faire parle- 

 plus promptement." 



In the February number of Scribner's Magazine Mr. Austin 

 Dobson writes a charming gossipy article on "Old Vauxhall 

 Gardens," the famed resort of English fashion during the latter 

 half of the eighteenth century. The pictures from old prints 

 which accompany his word's assist them in showing that, 

 while Vauxhall was undoubtedly an admirably designed place 

 of recreation, it had little of the character which we usually 

 associated with the name of garden. Miss Burney called it 

 " formal," and so, in the extremest sense, it was. The garden 

 covered about ten acres, and was divided by a Grand Walk, at 

 the end of which stood a statue of Ain-ora, afterwards replaced 

 by a " grand Gothic obelisk." "Beyond the end of this walk 

 was a ha-ha, which separated the gardens from the hay-fields 

 then adjoining it. Parallel to the Grand Walk ran the South 

 Walk, with its triumphal arches ; next to this again was the 

 covered alley known indifferently as the Druid's, or Dark Walk 

 . . . and last came a fourth walk open at the top. Other walks, 

 the chief of which was the Cross Walk, traversed the garden 

 from side to side, and in the quadrangle formed by the Grand 

 Walk, the Cross Walk, the South Walk and the remaining side 

 of the grounds was a space of about five acres. This, which 

 lay to the right of the entrance, was known as the Grove." 

 The Grove was furnished with an elaborate music-stand, a 

 building called a " Turkish Tent," and upon occasion, with 

 supper tables in the open air. Colonnaded arcades flanked 

 many of the walks; pavilions and statues were everywhere 

 scattered about, and at one end of the Cross Walk stretched a 

 large picture representing ruins and running water. Many 

 other details are given by Mr. Dobson, but these may suffice 

 to show the general lines upon which this famous garden was 

 formed. As a garden, we repeat, it is not very interesting to 

 read about, but the many notable persons whose footsteps can 

 be traced within its borders, and the many mentions made of 

 it in last-century literature — all these collected and gaily anno- 

 tated by the author, serve to provide a most entertaining 

 chapter. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Streptocarpus parvifolia, Botanical Magazine, January, 

 /. 7036; a native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Macodes JAVANICA, Botanical Magazine, January, t. 7037 ; a 

 scarlet-flowered, terrestrial Orchid, the beauty of which "re- 

 sides in deep green, velvety leaves, the light-green, longitudinal 

 nerves of which are united by groups of transverse, snow- 

 white, irregular streaks, much like those of Dichorisandra 

 niosaica, but more delicate." 



Scutellaria alpina. Revue Horticole, January ist. 



Capparis SPINO.SA, Revue Horticole, January 1st. 



Sobralia zantholeuca, Gardeners' Chronicle, January sth. 



Jachiadenus carinatus. Gardeners' Chronicle, January 

 1 2th; " this is a pretty stove annual of the Gentian order. . . . 

 The flowers are produced in autumn, and last over a month 

 without fading. The corolla tube is white, from two to three 

 inches long, the color of the lobes being bright purple. The 

 plants like a well drained soil and plenty of moisture at the 

 root always." 



