May 15, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



237 



tall, bold scape and the cluster of white, hell-shaped, nodding 

 flowers, which do not appear until the early-flowering bulbous 

 plants have passed their blooming, all commend it to the 

 lovers of hardy flowers, among which there is none, I think, 

 which equals it in grace of carriage and in a certain charm of 

 dignity, if such a word can be applied to a humble herb, which 

 barely raises its head two feet above the groimd, and wiiose 

 annual appearance barely covers a quarter of the year. 



Viola ptibcscens and V. Canadensis 'AXe both just now con- 

 spicuous objects in the rock-garden, as they have spread 

 widely from self-sown seed, and the yoimg plants are bloom- 

 ing freely. They are both native species, the former with 

 yellow, the latter with larger white flowers, tinged with pur- 

 ple; and they are both easily cultivated, and improve both in 

 size of plant and of flower under generous treatment. The 

 Canadian Violet especially is an admirable garden plant, 

 vvith its tall, leafy stems, which are sometimes two feet high, 

 and its large and abundant flowers. It thrives, too, in the 

 densest shade, a valuable quality in almost any plant; and it 

 will flourish almost as well in an open situation in the full 

 glare of the sun. There are several other of our wild flowers 

 blooming here just now. Some of the showiest and some of 

 the most graceful plants which are cultivated in gardens are 

 found in the New England woods and fields, and there are no 

 plants, when they are transferred to a New England garden, 

 which give greater pleasure or cause greater admiration 

 among persons who are not botanists and whose knowledge 

 of flowers does not extend beyond the ordinary inhabitants of 

 the conventional gardens of the present day. 



The Wake Robbin {Trillium grandiflorum) is the showiest 

 in flower of these plants now blooming here. It is an excel- 

 lent garden plant, and if people who plant it are sometimes 

 disappointed in the result at first, it is only because this Trillium 

 requires three or four years in which to get fairly at home in 

 its new quarters; but when it is once established it will pro- 

 duce larger flowers than it produces in the woods, and spread 

 and multiply and flourish wonderfully. 



Uvidaria grandiflora is another inhabitant of northern 

 woods; a graceful and attractive shade-loving plant, which is 

 at its best just now. The common name of Bellwort is de- 

 rived from the slender, bright yellow, Lily-like flowers, which 

 nod two or three together from the summit of the slender, 

 leafy stems. No plant is more easily cultivated, and once 

 established it spreads rapidly, and will occupy all the space 

 which can be afforded to it. 



Boston, May 4th. C. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



'T^HE season is one of promise. It is still early, and plants 

 A are flowering eight to ten days before they did last year. 

 Few plants have suffered during the winter, and nearly all 

 those which bloom upon the wood of the preceding season — 

 that is, in early spring — are unusually full of flowers or of 

 flower-buds. 



The different species of Prunus are, of course, next to the 

 Asiatic Magnolias, the most conspicuous of the small trees 

 and shrubs which flower here in April. Prunus Davidiana, 

 from northern China and Mongolia, was, as last year, the 

 first to open its pale pink and rather small flowers, but it 

 preceded by two or three days only the Sweet Almond 

 {Prunus Amygdalus or the Amygdalus communis dulcis of 

 many authors). The Sweet Almond is one of the familiar 

 plants of European gardens and shrubberies, but for some 

 reason or other is rarely seen in those of tliis country — at 

 least in the Northern States. It is perfecfly hardy, nevertheless, 

 although, like most of the Almonds, Peaches' and Apricots, 

 often short-lived here, owing to the attacks of bores or of 

 fungus. An Almond-tree in full flower is a beautiful object. 

 The flowers are rather larger than those of the common 

 Peach, or almost two inches across. The petals are pink, 

 shaded towards the base to rose, while the calyx is purple. 

 They appeared here on the i8th of April, and the trees are 

 still covered with bloom, although many petals have, of 

 course, fallen. These flowers have experienced during the 

 past two weeks excessive summer heat, sharp frosts, violent 

 thunder-showers and two prolonged north-easterly rain- 

 storms. There are few flowers which can bear so much 

 hard treatment and look fresh and bright at the end of three 

 weeks. 



The Almond is a native probably of Mesopotamia, Persia 

 and the Trans-Caucasian countries, but it was early intro- 

 duced into Europe by the Greeks, and has now become fairly 

 naturalized in the countries of southern Europe and in Algeria. 

 It is a tree twenty to thirty feet in height, with a spreading 



head of rather sparse, uprig'ht branches, and it is only when 

 the tree is in flower that it is an object of great beauty, as it is 

 not remarkable in its foliage or in its habit or general appear- 

 ance, which are not very unlike those of the common Peach- 

 tree. The earliness and lasting (jualities of the flowers, their 

 large size, abundance and individual beauty are what make 

 the Almond such a desirable tree for the garden. There are 

 several varieties of the Almond in cultivation, but the varia- 

 tions are principally in the fruit. They are largely cultivated 

 in southern Europe, especially in Portugal, and in the Orient, 

 and recently somewhat in California, where the climate is well 

 suited for this tree. The varieties with sweet and with bitter 

 fruits were distinguished, according to A. De Candolle, by the 

 Greeks and even by the Hebrews. 



The plants found in nurseries are usually worked as tall 

 standards upon Plum stocks, as the Almond is found to grow 

 more vigorously and to last longer worked on the Plum than 

 when it is grown on its own roots. The variety with sweet, 

 hard-shelled fruit {Douce a coque dure) is much used in France 

 as stock upon which to work the Peach, which is found, when 

 treated in this way, more prolific in dry soils. According to 

 Charles Downing ("The Fruits and Fruit-Trees of America") 

 " the common Almond, the hard-shell Sweet Almond and the 

 Bitter Almond are hardy in the latitude of New York, and will 

 bear tolerable crops without care. The soft-shell Sweet 

 Almond, or Ladies' Almond, will not thrive well in the open 

 garden, as a standard, north of Philadelphia; but they succeed 

 well trained to a wall or on espalier rails in a warm situation, 

 the branches being slightly protected in winter." 



It is well to record, perhaps, that the flower-buds of the 

 Siberian Apricot (a wild form of Prunus Armeniaca, a com- 

 mon and widely-distributed tree through Siberia to northern 

 China and Manchuria) were killed during the past year. It is 

 a handsome, vigorous and perfectly hardy tree here, of rapid 

 growth, but it has never flowered freely or set fruit, and this is 

 the first fime that the flower-buds have been killed. 



The Japanese Prunus pendula, of which an illustration was 

 published in the first volume of Garden and Forest, p. 196, 

 flowered two weeks earlier than it did a year ago, but as usual 

 the plants have been covered with flowers. It is certainly one 

 of the most graceful of all small trees, and one of the freest 

 and most constant bloomers. There is no tree of northern 

 gardens with which it can be compared, and none when its 

 pale pink, nodding flowers cover the long, drooping branches 

 which possess its delicate refinement and peculiar charm. 

 Fortunately it is hardy and a rapid grower, flowering early, 

 and it is easy to multiply by grafting upon the common Cherry- 

 tree, so that there is really no reason why this little tree 

 should notbe seen wherever gardens are cultivated or beautiful 

 plants esteemed. And yet, strange to say, it is hardl_v known 

 yet in European nurseries, while in this country, although a 

 few plants have been cultivated for nearly twenty years, it is 

 rarely seen outside perhaps a dozen gardens. 



A variety of the cultivated Peach raised from seed sent to 

 the Arboretum by Dr. Bretschneider from Pekin, is now con- 

 spicuous with exceptionally large, abundant and deep-colored 

 flowers. It has some value as an ornamental tree. 



It is a curious fact, and one not very easily explained, that 

 the Myrobalan Plum is so rarely seen in our gardens, although 

 now that the purple-leaved Persian variety, the so-called Prunus 

 Pissardi, has been so generally propagated, we are going to 

 see more of it in one form at least. The green-leaved plant is 

 far the handsomer of the two, however, when the trees are in 

 bloom, and it is, moreover, one of the handsomest of the 

 Plums at this season of the year, as the leaves, which are about 

 half grown when the flowers are fully expanded, make a 

 charming and effective setting for them, and afford what most 

 "fruit-trees" lack in flower — a contrast of colors. The Myro- 

 balan is a small tree of good habit. It is perfectly hardy, not 

 particular about soil or exposure, and one of the freest bloom- 

 ers of the genus. It is one of the plants which has most puz- 

 zled botanists, as although it has been in cifltivation for cen- 

 turies it is nowhere known in a wild state. It is probably a 

 variety or form of the common Plum {P. domestica). The 

 fruit is small, depressed-globular, scarlet or yellow, and of 

 little value except for the handsome appearance which it pre- 

 sents as it hangs upon the branches. The Myrobalan is one of 

 the best of the early-flowering trees to plant in a small garden 

 or on a small lawn. Judged by the plants grown in the Arbor- 

 etum, it is longer lived and less liable to be injured bv borers 

 than the purple-leaved Prunus Pissardi. 



Prunus toiuentosa is in full bloom, and as usual, an object of 

 much beauty. It is a native of northern China, whence long 

 ago it was carried to the gardens of Japan, where it is gener- 

 aUy cultivated and highly esteemed. This little Cherry is a 



