238 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 15, iS 



spreading bush, growing three or four feet high by exs much 

 through. The stems are long and wand-hke, and are now 

 covered from end to enti with pale pink flowers the size of 

 those of a common Cherry-tree, which appear just as the 

 young leaves, which are thickly clothed with tomentum (a 

 peculiarity of this species), are unfolding. The Mowers remain 

 open during several days, and are succeeded by bright scarlet, 

 almost transparent fruit, wiiich is ripe here during the month 

 of July. This is a very hardy shrub. It is easily raised from 

 seed or from cuttings, and when it is better known its value 

 will be appreciated, and it will be seen wherever shrubs are 

 cultivated for ornament. 



Ainelafichier oligocarpa was first figured in Garden and 

 Forest, i., p. 247. It has been in tlower in the Arboretum for 

 a week, and is tiie earliest of the genus, and a shrub of great 

 beauty in cultivation. A native of cold, northern bogs only, it 

 takes kindly to cultivation, which soon increases its stature 

 and the size and al)iuidance of the fiowers, which are the size 

 of a shilling, with Inroad, obovate, pure white petals. They are 

 borne on long peduncles along the entire length of the stems, 

 and are not fully open until the young leaves, which are bright 

 bronze-green, are more than half grown. The pure white 

 flowers in their setting of deep-colored leaves, the compact 

 habit and general appearance of thrift and vigor which the 

 plant displays in cultivation all commend it. It is one of the 

 native shrubs unknown or entirely neglected by cultivators 

 which the Arboretum is gradually calling attention to. The 

 flowers of Ribes saxatile, the first of the genus to open, now 

 cover the plants. They are yellow, produced in short, erect 

 racemes, and make an agreeable appearance in contrast with 

 the somewhat darker yellow of the foliage. This plant is a 

 native of Siberia, long known to botanists and in gardens, in 

 which it deserves a place, both for its pretty flowers and 

 because of all the shrubs cultivated in the Arboretum it is the 

 earliest to cover itself with leaves. 



Of the shrubs, however, which flower here in New Eng- 

 land during the last days of April, there are none which can 

 be compared with the Forsythias for splendor of bloom, or 

 with Spircea Thunbergii ior a profusion of pure white flowers. 

 There are three Forsythias in cultivation — the old F. viridis- 

 sima, a poor plant, comparatively, blooming fully a week later 

 than the others, and with smaller and paler flowers, more 

 erect branches, and less graceful habit. The others arei^ sus- 

 pensa and F. Fortunei, the latter a more upright growing va- 

 riety of F. suspensa, with rather larger flowers, and by far the 

 handsomest and most desirable of the three. It is hopeless 

 to undertake a description of a large plant of this variety — ten 

 or twelve feet high by as many through, with long, graceful, 

 arching stems ; a mass of brilliant yellow bells flashing in the 

 sunlight, as I write — or to imagine how any other plant of its 

 size can be more beautiful or give such an idea of marvelous 

 profusion of flowers. There is some confusion in gardens 

 in this country about the different species and varieties of For- 

 sythias, and clrawings have been prepared here to show the 

 difference in the flowers and fruit, for publication in a later 

 number of Garden and Forest. 



Spircea Thunbergii is handsome from the middle of April 

 until the middle of November. It blooms profusely ; the 

 flowers, although individually small, cover the plant ; the foli- 

 age is particularly graceful ; the habit of the plant is good, 

 and it is almost the very last in the autumn to change the 

 coloring of its leaves, which, when most deciduous trees and 

 shrubs are leafless, are brilliant with orange and scarlet tints. 



Cercidiphylliiin J aponicum is one of the introductions of 

 the Arboretum which, although little is really known with re- 

 gard to it yet, is a tree of so much promise that it may not 

 be out of place to call attention to it. Cercidiphyllum is a 

 Japanese genus of two species which is now considered to 

 be more connected with the Magnolia family than with any 

 other. C. Japoniciim is a large timber tree in its native 

 country, and, judging by the rapidity of its growth here, it 

 promises to become a tree of considerable size in this coun- 

 try. The seed was first sent to the Arboretmn in 1878 by Mr. 

 W. S. Clark, at that time President of the Agricultural College 

 at Sapporo, and the largest trees raised from that seed are 

 about sixteen feet high. They are as fastigiate in their man- 

 ner of growth as a Lombardy Poplar or a fastigiate Oak, and 

 all attempts which have been made here to induce the young 

 plants to assume a different habit by removing the lower 

 branches have resulted in their death, caused, apparently, by 

 the exposure of the stems to the sun. The young trees grow, 

 perhaps, in dense shade naturally, so that when transplanted 

 into the open, the lower branches are essential to protect the 

 tender bark of the stems. This, as well as the slender 

 l.iranches are covered with thin, red-brown bark hardly to be 



distinguished from that of the native Black Birch {Bettila 

 lento), while those of the ultimate branchlets are dull red. 

 The leaves appear here earlier than those of any other tree, 

 with the exception of those of the Manchurian form of the 

 Bird Cherry, figured upon page 295 of the first volume of 

 Garden and Forest. They are opposite ; round, or nearly 

 so, deeply heart-shaped at the base, crenately-toothed, and, 

 when they first appear, resemble, in color, the young leaves 

 of the Purple Beech, with bright red stalks and conspicuous, 

 narrow red stipules, halt an inch long. They gradually lose 

 their bronzed-red color, and later in the season are dark, 

 rather dull, green, turning bright, clear yellow in the auttnnn. 

 The flowers which have not yet been produced here are not 

 conspicuous, and it is for its habit and its handsome foliage, 

 so striking in the early spring, that the Cercidiphyllum will 

 prove valuable if, upon longer trial, it is found really suited to 

 this climate. Tlie plants seem to flourish, and to grow most 

 rapidly in peaty soil. The fact that it starts to grow so very 

 early in the spring will prevent its being successfully grown in 

 climates in which late spring frosts prevail. Here in New 

 England, where such frosts are of rare occurrence, this tree 

 is one which now seems to promise a good deal. It is worth, 

 at any rate, a careful and extended trial. 



May 2d, 1889. J- 



Periodical Literature. 



In Harper's Magazine for May, Dr. C. C. Abbott writes 

 pleasantly and instructively of "A Meadow Mud-hole," telling 

 liow charming are the things which Nattn-e often puts tliere, 

 and how many more may easily be added by the hand of 

 man. The greater part of his article is devoted to the Yellow 

 Lotus [Nehonbititn litteum) and its exotic cousin, the Rose or 

 Sacred Lotus {N. speciosiim). Of the former yjlant he tells the 

 familiar tale — that it is native to the waters of the Western 

 and Southern States and is occasionally found in the Middle 

 States, Ijut in the valley of the Delaware so rarely that it is 

 believed to have been introduced there, probably by the In- 

 dians ; but he then adds a fact less generally known. It seems 

 that this Lotus has not succeeded with the modern cultivator, 

 although he finds no difficulty with its foreign relative. Tlie 

 description given of a water-meadow in New Jersey where 

 the Rose Lotus and many other exotic Lilies now grow in 

 splendid masses, and the accompanying picture, indicate that 

 he refers to Mr. Sturtevant's plantation, recently described 

 at length in these columns. All this multitude of Lotuses, 

 he says, have sprung from a single tuber, planted in 1881 ; 

 and, he adds, a tuber set out a year ago in a " mud-hole " of 

 his own already overshadows all the native plants in its vicin- 

 ity. "For a time they are permitted to be co-occupants, but 

 not for long. The lusty Lotus is even now reaching out to a 

 wide stretch of marshy meadow ; and there, too, I doubt not, 

 it will flourish as at my neighbor's. It is a rightful ambition 

 to be able to sit down beneath one's own Vine and Fig-tree. 

 Let me add the Lotus, for it has come to stay." Selling 

 cheaply in our city streets, too, "this famous flower of other 

 lands must soon appear." Are not these words sufficient en- 

 couragement to the most humble of horticulturists to assist 

 in the happy task of spreading this lovely plant ? If a single 

 tuber will so quickly develop a numerous progeny, and if a 

 mere meadow mud-hole will serve as its home, should it not 

 soon become as familiar an ol^ject as the white Water-lily, 

 with which it contrasts so well? Like the Water-lily, too, it 

 has the merit of being a persistent bloomer. " If not a joy 

 forever, it is at least one of a protracted season. Buds or 

 blossoms, they are alike beautiful. Among many that are 

 pale yet distinctively tinted there often stands oui one or more 

 with the loosening petals tipped with deepest crimson. Far 

 more are like gigantic Tea-rose buds that soon open like a 

 Tulip, creamy-Mdiite and rosy at the tips. Often these glorious 

 flowers measure ten inches across when fully open, and are 

 supported by stems extending far beyond the taflest leaves. 

 One such fliat I measured was more than eight feet high. 

 When the flower is fully expanded, the huge seed-pod ... is 

 of the richest yellow, and surrounded by a delicate fringe of 

 the same color. The seeds are seen imbedded in the flat, 

 upper surface — gems in a golden setting so lavish that their 

 own beauty is obscured." 



In turning over the pages of this number of Harpei'' s no 

 flower-lover will fail to pause at those where old Andrew Mar- 

 veil's beautiful "Thoughts in a Garden" are reprinted with 

 deliglitful illustrations by Alfred Parsons, the well-known 

 English landscape-painter. And to more practical minds Mr. 

 James K. Reeve's " Agriculture as a Profession " will give 

 food for serious thought. 



