112 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 6, 1889. 



Maples to drink the sweet sap which flows so freely at that 

 time, and, after growth begins, they eat great quantities of the 

 buds of some deciduous trees, especially of Maples, but with- 

 out seeming to affect the trees very seriously, probably because 

 there are plenty of the small accessory buds remaining to 

 replace those destroyed and repair any injury d&ne. 



Arnold Arboretum. /• G. Jack. 



Agaves. 



PERSONS familiar only with Agaves, or, as they are popu- 

 larly, although improperly, called, Aloes and " Century 

 Plants," grown in pots, can have a very slight idea of their 

 massive strength and beauty when planted out permanently in 

 a region whose climatic conditions are favorable to their full 

 and perfect development. Our illustration vipon page 1 1 5, from 

 a photograph taken in an Algerian garden, shows how these 

 plants look under such conditions. For producing certain 

 effects in gardening, especially where plants are needed in 

 immediate connection with buildings or other structures, in 

 moderately warm or dry countries, like those which surround 

 the Mediterranean, where, although natives of the Mexican 

 plateau, some species of Agave are now perfectly naturalized, 

 or like southern California, where some of the small species 

 grow spontaneously, the Agave is immensely A^aluable. 

 Even in countries where it is necessary to protect them from 

 the cold in winter, and therefore to grow them in pots or tubs, 

 these plants are better suited to decorate dry and sunny ter- 

 races, or the entrances to large buildings, than any others, as 

 they can support heat and dust and continue to grow and im- 

 prove for many years, or until the development of the flower- 

 stem ends their existence ; for these plants flower only once, 

 and as this does not occur until they are fully grown, they 

 early acquired the name of " Century Plants," because, con- 

 fined in pots, the plants first introduced into Europe grew so 

 slowly that they did not flower for many years. It is now 

 known, however, that in a state of nature the largest species 

 reach maturity at the end of fifteen or twenty years, or, per- 

 haps, even in a shorter time ; and their tall, branching 

 flower-stems, often more than thirty feet high, are familiar 

 and exciting objects to all travelers in northern Mexico. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Fendlera rupicola. 



FENDLERA RUPICOLA,* of which a figure appears on 

 page 1 13, is a lov7 shrub peculiar to the dry south-west- 

 ern portions of the United States, being found growing m the 

 crevices of cliffs or among rocks from the valley of the 

 Guadaloupe, in western Texas, to the western borders of 

 New Mexico and south-western Colorado. Although 

 scarcely known in gardens yet, it promises to become so, 

 as it possesses many qualities which will make it a most 

 desirable addition to the number of small shrubs suitable 

 for cultivation in the rock-garden or along the margins of 

 small shrubberies. 



Fendlera attains a height of from two to four feet. The 

 branches are upright or somewhat pendulous, slightly 

 angled or grooved, pale gray, and covered with small, 

 entire, opposite leaves, which are revolute on the margins, 

 prominently three-ribbed, and densely covered on the 

 lower surface with pale tomentum. The bluish white 

 flowers, with their conspicuous yellow stamens, are very 

 showy, and are produced in the greatest profusion from 

 the extremities of short lateral branches, which spring 

 from the main stems of the plant. 



Fendlera has been cultivated in the Arnold Arboretum 

 for several years ; it is perfectly hardy, fiowering the mid- 

 dle of June and ripening its seed in September. It is 

 growing in ordinary, good garden soil, and requires no 

 special care or cultivation. 



The genus Fendlera, of which but a single species is 

 known, commemorates the services to botany of the late 

 Augustus Fendler, a German naturalist, long a resident of 

 the United States, and, after Wislizenus, the first botanist 

 who visited New Mexico, where he made large and im- 

 portant collections of plants. It belongs to the Saxifrage 



* Fendlera rupicola, Engelm. and Gray; Gray, PL Wright., i. 77, /. 5; PL Thurber. 

 300. — Baillon, Hist. PL, iii. 349. 



family and to the tribe of the Hydrangeas, which consists of 

 sixteen genera of woody plants all natives of eastern Asia, 

 the Pacific islands and North America. Among them are 

 Hydrangea, Deutzia and Philadelphus, and several North 

 American genera, which, like Fendlera, are monotypical, 

 Jamesia of Colorado and Carpenteria of California being 

 its closest allies. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



PROFESSOR MacOWAN, director of the Botanic Gardens at 

 -'- Cape Town, has recently discovered wild plants of a very 

 distinct and remarkable Scrophulariad, which is likely to prove 

 a useful garden plant. It was first found by Ecklon in Tul- 

 bagh, about loo miles to the north-west of Cape Town, and 

 was described by Bentham in 1836 under the name of Ixianthes 

 retzioides. Dr. Harvey figured it soon after in his "Thesaurus 

 Capensis," and recommended it to the notice of English horticul- 

 turists. Till now, however, its introduction has not been pos- 

 sible, owing to the extreme scarcity of the plant in a wild state. 

 Professor MacOwan, who has sent seeds of it to Kew, writes : 

 "I beat over nearly every square yard of the mountain side 

 wherever there was oozing water every time I went to Tul- 

 bagh, and last October dropped on to five large plants, almost 

 trees for size, most splendidly in flower. The long floriferous 

 branchlets were just one mass of sulphur-yellow bells, as close 

 as they could well stick. I have since secured seeds, a por- 

 tion of which I send to Kew ; the rest goes to Vilmorin, An- 

 drieux & Co., Paris." The plant is of shrubby habit, five feet 

 high, with densely crowded leaves two and one-half inches 

 long, one-quarter inch wide, toothed, dark green. The flow- 

 ers are bell-shaped, one-half inch deep, with five spreading 

 segments measuring one inch across and of a bright yellow 

 color; they are produced in pairs or threes on short peduncles 

 from the axils of the leaves. The plant grows in wet places. 

 Many of the Cape Scrophulariads are remarkable for the 

 beauty of their flowers, but, owing to their being semi-para- 

 sitic on the roots of other plants, they cannot be cultivated. 

 Such plants are Cycnium, Buttonia, Gerardia, Harveya and 

 Melasma, of which we have obtained seeds again and again 

 for trial at Kew. At present we have young plants of Cyc- 

 nium, Buttonia and Malasma, but they grow very slowly. We 

 have also lately sown seeds of Harveya on soil containing a 

 plant of Barosma fatidissima, which is said to be the host plant 

 of this species. 



The Cape flora is exceptionally rich in plants of great beauty 

 and interest both for gardener and botanist. No country in 

 the world has contributed so largely to English plant-houses, 

 and although many of the plants which were cultivated here 

 with so much delight fifty years ago are out of fashion now, they 

 are certain to come into favor again. From 1775 to 1835 Cape 

 plants were quite the rage; English gardens were filled with 

 Ericas, Pelargoniums (the species), Proteas, and such like 

 beautiful shrubs, while the Iris, Amaryllis and Lily families were 

 represented in thousands. The survivors of this reign of the 

 Cape flora are principally such bulbous plants as Nerine, 

 Vallota, Clivia, Ixia, Lachenalia and Gladiolus. Freesia was 

 lost entirely till about five years ago, when Professor Foster 

 drew attention to it, whilst even Lachenalias and Nerines have 

 come into notice again only within the last ten years. The 

 Ericas have almost gone, if we except a very few of the soft- 

 wooded kinds. No one grows Porteas except, perhaps, at Kew. 

 Nor are the delightful species of Pelargonium, Oxalis, Wat- 

 sonia, many Gladioli, Cyrtanthus and Crinum known in gar- 

 dens, save in a very few. Mr. Endicott, of your country, is, I 

 perceive, doing good work in growing and calling attention to 

 some of these lost plants. In like manner a few specialists in 

 England are striving to popularize many of the best of the 

 least known Cape plants. Nor have all the good plants of the 

 Cape been introduced yet. Witness the discovery of the glori- 

 ous Poppy-flowered Sun-dew by Miss North when she went on 

 a sketching visit to the Cape in 1885. This plant has flowers 

 as large and bright-colored as those of the field Poppy. It is 

 safisfactory to be able to add that there are living examples of 

 it at Kew. There are many grand garden-plants at the Cape 

 of which we know practically nothing. 



In England, with our dull, wet, foggy winters, the cultivation 

 of the more delicate Cape plants is surrounded by great diffi- 

 culties. In America you have only the cold to overcome; 

 light you have in abundance all through the winter. I imagine 

 that Cape plants, if taken well in hand, would prove a far 

 greater success with you than in England. 



