220 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 8, 1889. 



broke off a t\vi.<;- of the little Cherry-like bush, which was then 

 new to me, antl found that, in its modest reserve, to be the 

 source of all the sweetness with which the air was laden. 



In the Foreig-n Correspondence of Garden and Forest I 

 have lately read with some interest the remark that while in 

 France the handsome fruits of Nuttallia are its chief attraction, 

 in England it bears no fruit. May not this possibly be ex- 

 plained by reference to the difficious character of the shrub ? 

 Have they in England, perchance, only the staminate flowers ? 

 Much the same thing- may be noted in some parts of Cali- 

 fornia. About Berkeley, for example, I have never found the 

 fruits, nor even any bushes with pistillate ffowers ; Init on the 

 opposite side of San Francisco Bay, in Marin and San Francisco 

 Counties, there are plenty of pistillate-flowered specimens, and 

 the fruits are produced in abundance. There is much more 

 dioecism in California plants and shrubs of the Rosaceous and 

 Pomaceous families than the authors of our books of botany 

 have known. 



Owing to inattention to this matter our common wild Black- 

 berry, or Bramble, has been published by botanists under at 

 least three different names, as if there were three species. The 

 oldest of these is Rtibiis vitifoliics. The type so named is 

 merely the pistillate shrub, and its flowers are commonly but 

 one-third as large as those of the staminate plants, and their 

 petals are rounded. These, growing as they do among the 

 staminate shrubs, the flowers of which latter are not only 

 thrice as large, but have narrow and elongated petals, look as 

 if they might indeed be of a distinct species. The fine figure 

 in Hooker's " Plora Boreali-Americana," under the name of 

 Riibus macropetaliis, represents simply the staminate or sterile 

 condition of what has commonly been called Rubus ursittics, of 

 which the prior name, and the one to be retained, is R. vitifoliics. 



I ought here to add that in Nuttallia, also, the staminate plant 

 produces rather larger flowers than the pistillate. 

 Oakland, Cai. Edward L. Greene. 



[Nuttallia cerasiformis was on the 2 2d of April in full 

 bloom in the Arnold Arboretum, where it has been grow- 

 ing for several years with a slight protection in winter. It 

 is a handsome and desirable shrub in cultivation, and the 

 first in the Arboretum collection to put out its leaves. The 

 strong perfume described by our correspondent is not 

 noticed in the flowers of the cultivated plant, which are, 

 however, delicately and faintly fragrant. — Ed.] 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 

 n^HE most popular hardy flower in England now is the Daf- 

 -^ fodil. It is grown in every garden ; thousands of bushels 

 of its flowei's are distributed daily by the costermonger and 

 flower-dealer, and everyone admires it. And yet we are told 

 by Mr. J. G. Baker, the botanist who has paid greatest attention 

 to Narcissi, that twelve years ago these plants were unknown 

 except by a few specialists and as wild flowers in the woods 

 and fields. Mr. Burbidge, whose writings on the Daffodils 

 have done so much to call attention to them as beautiful gar- 

 den-plants, added yet another contribution to the literature of 

 the Narcissi in the form of a paper which he read at the last 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. He told us that 

 the Daffodil was cultivated and valued for its medicinal prop- 

 erties a thousand years before Christ. Dean Herbert, the 

 champion of the whole order Amaryllidacece, grew and crossed 

 many species and varieties of Narcissi sixty years ago ; in fact, 

 he was the first breeder of these plants. After him came 

 Leeds and Backhouse, both noted breeders of Daffodils, and 

 the raisers of some of the best of those grown in gardens now. 

 All the forms cultivated are varieties of or crosses from tlie 

 following six species, the only true species recognized by bota- 

 nists — namely, N. poeticiis, N. Pseudo-Narcissus, N. triandrus, 

 N. Tazetta, N. Bulbocodiiim and N. Jotiquilla. Mr. Burbidge 

 believes that any careful breeder coifld obtain from these six 

 species all the many kinds of Daffodil now known in gardens. 

 The life-cycle of a Narcissus is from two to five years. The 

 seeds should be sown in boxes as soon as ripe, and they ger- 

 minate in the November or December following. The one- 

 year-old bulbs are the size of Wheat-grains, two-year-olds that 

 of Marrow peas, three-year-olds either flower, or if of the large- 

 bulbed kinds, are the size of Hazel-nuts. Others flower in 

 the fourth year, others in the fifth, but they are not at their best 

 till a year or two after this. Mr. Burbidge is of opinion that 

 crude manure of any kind whatsoever is harmful to Daffodils, 

 and recommends the use of burnt-earth, wood-ashes and road- 

 'scrapings instead of the strong manures generally used for 

 these plants. Indeed, Mr. Burbidge went so far as to con- 



demn the use of manin"e for all kinds of bulbous plants, l.iut on 

 what grounds he did not state. Certainly good manure, such 

 as cow-dimg or horse-droppings, has always proved a safe 

 and vigor-giving help to many bidbs under cifltivation. I have 

 in my mind just now several large specimens of Eucharis, 

 which have been under my eye ten years, and these liave 

 always been watered with liquid cow-manin"e when the flower- 

 scapes begun to develop, which occurs usually about three 

 times a year. These plants are perfectly healthy, and they 

 bloom well. Of course there are many other cases, equally 

 convincing of the fitness of good manure for bulb-culture. 

 What would the Dutch growers of bulbs do without manure in 

 their poor, sandy soil ? 



Mr. Englehart, who is well known as an amateur grower of 

 the Daffodil, also read a paper on the breeding of these 

 plants. He recommended certain crosses with a view to 

 finally obtaining larger flowers of greater substance and earlier 

 to expand than those we now have. He did not think that the 

 scarlet Daffodil would ever be obtained, notwithstanding Mr. 

 Burbidge's belief that by careful breeding it would come. We 

 do not want a scarlet Daffodil no more than we want a blue 

 Rose or a blue Chrysanthemum. 



There was a grand display of all kinds of Daffodils to illus- 

 trate Mr. Burbidge's paper. There was also a charming exhi- 

 bition of rare and beautiful Orchids. One of our oldest and 

 most esteemed horticulturists said to me, as we stood in front 

 of the superb collection sent by Baron Schroeder, "Can one 

 wonder at what foolish people call the 'Orchid mania' when 

 looking at plants like these ? Orchids are Nature's richest gifts 

 to the garden. They have no equals in form, in color, in fra- 

 grance and in variety." I disputed the claim of superiority in 

 fragrance, for no Orchid surpasses, andonly very few approach, 

 the Violet and the Rose in sweetness. I am afraid, too, that a 

 collection such as was shown by Baron Schroeder is quite 

 beyond the reach of all save a very few. They were of the 

 choicest and rarest, and they were perfect examples of good 

 culture. The Dendrobiums comprised large specimens full of 

 flower of the following : D. nobile, D. nobile Cooksoni, D. 

 nobile nobilius, D. nobile album, D. micans, D. splendidissi- 

 mum, D. Ainsworthii, D. Luchianum, D. euosmuin, D. aggre- 

 gatuvi and D. Brymerianuin. It would be impossible for me 

 to convey any idea in words of the beauty of these plants. 

 And this is true of Cattleya Lawrenceana, a richly-colored 

 variety, with twenty-one expanded flowers ; C. speciosissinia 

 Schroederiana, a large-flowered variety, with pure white sepals 

 and petals, and the broad lip rich crimson, with white veins 

 and a tinge of yellow in the throat. Mr. Sander sent beaudful 

 plants of the white variety of Trichopilia suavis, Oncidiiini bifo- 

 lium, a graceful little Orchid, with arching spikes of bright yel- 

 low flowers not unlike those of O. varicosum ; Dendrobiiun 

 marmoratuni, a mauve-tinted form of the old and beautiful D. 

 tra7tsparens. A fine example of Maxillaria Sa)ideria?ia, whose 

 large flowers are colored like the white Tigridia {T. Pavojtia 

 alba), was exhibited by Mr. Tautz, who also sent a plant in 

 flower of a very dark-colored variety of Miltonia vexillaria, 

 the flowers being a deep purplish-rose, with a white eye. 



From Low & Co., of Clapton, came a spike of Phalcenopsis 

 Schilleriana, var. alba, in which the flowers are large and piu-e 

 snow-white, save a few yellow dots on the lateral lobes of the 

 labellum. Kew sent a coUecdon of Indian Arisaemas in 

 flower ; Godivinia gigas, with an enormous, boat-shaped 

 spathe, two feet long ; Epidendrum bicorntctum, with eight 

 spikes of flowers ; a collection of species of Primula ; Coluin- 

 nea Kalbreyeri, with large, sickle-shaped leaves, olive-green 

 above, purple beneath, and numerous large, tubular yellow 

 flowers ; Rudgca macrophylla, a large-leaved stove-plant with 

 a large, round head of white fleshy tfowers. 



Forsythia suspensa {Fortunei) is the most beautiful hardy 

 shrub in flower here now. It has very few equals among 

 hardy, spring-flowering shrubs, its long, wand-like branches 

 being thickly set with hanging, bright yellow, bell-like flowers. 

 It is an exceflent plant for training against a house-side, a 

 specimen in such a position at Kew being now a large sheet 

 of bright yellow which catches the eye a mile away. In the 

 shrubberies it is equally at home. It may also be grown for 

 early forcing for the conservatory. F. viridissinia, the only 

 other species, is a greatly inferior plant, but, unfortunately, it 

 is sometimes sold by nui-serymen as F. Fortunei. There are 

 two forms of F. suspensa ; one in which the flowers have the 

 corolla-lobes twisted and the pistil twice as long as the sta- 

 mens ; the other in which the lobes are shorter, not twisted, 

 and the pistil is hidden beneath the stamens. I read lately, 

 in a book on Japan, that next to the " Mum6 " [Prtcnus Mu)ne), 

 which is the most universal favorite spring-flowering tree in 

 Japan, is this Forsythia, called "Rengyo " by the Japanese, and 



