240 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 15, 1889. 



Notes. 



An unusual niniil)t;r of forest fires liave been rag'ing for a 

 week past from the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains of 

 this state to the woods of northern Minnesota. The fires have 

 been exceptionally destructive in Michigan. 



In the plant collection of Monsieur Beaucai-ne, a Belgian 

 amateur, which was sold a few weeks ago, one of the most 

 remarkable things was a specimen of Vanda Lowii which 

 measured five feet and five inches in height. 



Mr. Goldring, one of our regular London correspondents, 

 who has been in India during several months engaged in 

 superintending the formation of some new gardens for the 

 Gaikwar of Baroda, has now returned to England for the 

 sunrmer. 



An English journal speaks of Rhododendron fragranlissi- 

 mum as one of the most attractive flowers offered this year at 

 Easter. "Plants in eight-inch pots have bushy, spreading 

 heads, and the point of every shoot is terminated by a cluster 

 of large, bell-shaped, blush-white and sweetly-scented flow- 

 ers. " 



"Chrysanthemum-Growing in America " (showing method 

 of protecting the plants) is the title of a larg"e illustration in a 

 recent number of the Garden (London). The picture repi-e- 

 sents a corner of Mr. Gerard's garden at Elizabeth, New Jersey, 

 although not the same one that was portrayed in these 

 columns last autumn. 



A plant of Rhododendron Veitchianiim recently exhibited at 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne is noted, by one of the English horticul- 

 tural journals, as " one of the finest specimens of this Rhodo- 

 dendron ever seen. ... It is a compact bush, is in excellent 

 health, and furnished with upwards of 300 of its large, white 

 flowers, which are crisped round the edges and quite five 

 inches across." 



Many of the political exiles who are wasting their lives in 

 Siberia are men of cultivation and scientific knowledge, and 

 one of the few industries or amusements with which they are 

 permitted to console themselves is the formafion of herbaria 

 of local plants. In the May number of the Century Magazine 

 Mr. Kennan speaks of having aided an exile whose term had 

 expired to secure the money needed to take him back to his 

 home by purchasing for a hundred rubles a collection which 

 he had made. 



The fourteenth annual meeting of the American Association 

 of Nurserymen will be held in Chicago on June sth and 6th. 

 The programme, which we have received through the cour- 

 tesy of the Secretary, Mr. Charles A. Green, shows that ad- 

 dresses on an unusually wide range of topics may be expected 

 from speakers well qualified to give instruction. These meet- 

 ings have proved of great value, both from an educational 

 and from a business point of view, and the nurseryman who 

 neglects to attend them fails to live up to his privileges. 



A correspondent from Germantown writes that the woods 

 about there, although much of their primitive character is lost, 

 still produce many wild flowers. A collection of eighty-four 

 kinds was gathered for the last meeting of the Germantown 

 Horticultural Society in four hours. Of Violets alone nine spe- 

 cies were shown. The collector of these flowers stated that 

 the Aspleniiun pinnatifidiun is quite abundant yet, in its locality 

 along the Schuylkill, where Nuttall first found the Ferns on 

 which lie bestowed the name. It grows on rocks that are not 

 easily reached, and hence will probably be safe from destruc- 

 tion for some time. 



The great Tulip-bed in the centre of Union Square was not 

 planted this year in as satisfactory a way as usual. Instead of 

 the splendid effect of reds and yellows which has often met 

 the eye, the dominant flower was a very dark, dull purple va- 

 riety, which had neither purity nor brilliancy of tint to recom- 

 mend it, and harmonized badly with the few more brightlv- 

 colored varieties that were associated with it. A Tulip-bed 'is 

 nothing if not gorgeous, and it seems strange that, with so 

 many effective sorts to choose from, this ugly one should have 

 been so highly favored. Doubtless, however, it was an exper- 

 iment which will not be repeated. 



Cercis Chinensis, often cultivated in this country as C. Ja- 

 ponica and introduced here from Japan several' years ago 

 through the Flushing Nurseries, is a" plant of great beauty 

 wherever it can be successfully grown. A very fine plant, no 

 doubt one of the relicts of the Centennial, may be seen in the 

 neighborhood of Horticultural Hall, in Fairmount Park, Phila- 

 delphia. It is there a broad bush four or five feet high, with 

 many erect, rather spreading, stout branches, which, last 



week, as the native species was just coming into bloom, 

 were completely covered from the very base of the stems with 

 flowers. These are considerably larger than those of the 

 other species and of rather deeper color than the flowers of 

 our common eastern Judas-tree. This plant is fairly hardv in 

 the neighborhood of this city, but it only does really well in a 

 rather milder climate. It may be seen in Washington in very 

 great beauty. North of this city it is killed almost every win- 

 ter. This Cercis is a native of northen and central China, and 

 it is believed to have been introduced into Japan with many 

 other Chinese plants. Seed gathered in the country of its most 

 northern range may be expected to produce plants which will 

 prove hardy in our northern states. The Chinese Judas-tree 

 is said to be an important timber-tree in China, growing to a 

 considerable height with a trunk several feet in diameter, so 

 that it is possible that the shrub of our gardens is only a dwarf 

 variety, produced or cherished by the Japanese, and that the 

 typical tree is still to be introduced. 



Mr. Douglas W. F"reshfield recently read before the Royal 

 Geographical Society in London an interesting paper on " The 

 Peaks, Passes and Glaciers of the Caucasus." Few persons 

 realize that the slopes of the central Caucasus are steeper than 

 those of the central Alps, and that they are clothed by splendid 

 draperies of ice and snow, amid which the freshness of the 

 loftiest snowless slopes stands out with singular vividness. At 

 a ^height of more than 13,000 feet Mr. Freshfield gathered flow- 

 ers, while at 10,000 feet above the sea, near the great Mestia 

 glacier. Rhododendron Caiicasicum was growing in great 

 clumps, and the grass was sprinkled with Poppies, Geraniums, 

 Veronicas, Ranunculuses, Gentians, Forget-me-nots and Cam- 

 panulas. "The steppe," says the abstract of the address 

 printed in The Garden, " except in the river-beds, was treeless; 

 but no sooner did the ground begin to rise than wild fruit-trees 

 appeared, soon to be succeeded by dense groves. The glades 

 were bright in summer with millions of wild Sunflowers. The 

 flora of the basin was wonderful. A horse laden with baggage 

 was entirely hidden by the growth of flowers ; the head and 

 shoulders of a mounted man only rose above them. Wild 

 Sunflowers and a species like Canterbury Bells grew to a 

 height of six feet and eight feet. There were no waterfalls, 

 and neither lakes nor tarns. Of late years the glaciers had 

 oscillated in a manner corresponding to the Alpine glaciers. 

 They were all in retreat in 1868; about 1875 they began to turn, 

 and last year were sensibly advancing. The humidity of the 

 summer climate was at once a charm and a vexation. The 

 atmospheric effects were beautiful and various; the sky of the 

 northern steppe was luminous and soft; the light was the light 

 of the east; the colors those of the Roman Campagna." 



At this writing (May 7th) the great display of Tulips in the 

 Public Garden in Boston is at its best, and surpasses that of any 

 previous year in good taste, in the arrangement of the different 

 varieties, in the beauty of the varieties themselves and in the 

 individual excellency of the plants. Mr. Doogue has reason to 

 be well satisfied. The display is specially marked by the ab- 

 sence of double and semi-double varieties, which are only 

 sparingly used. They are always inferior in beauty to the 

 single flowers. An exception may be made in favor of tlie 

 semi-double Couronne d'Or, a variety with very large, bold 

 flowers, orange streaked with red. Turban Violet, a double 

 flower of a dirty purple, will not probably sufficiently com- 

 mend itself to secure a place in the garden another season. 

 This last is the only really bad flower in the collection. If we 

 should venture a suggestion it would be that more of the 

 bright scarlet and yellow-striped varieties be used in place of 

 some of the self-colored flowers which predominate. The 

 interest and value of the display is greatly increased by cards 

 placed over each bed, on which the names of the varieties are 

 liandsomely printed. It is an open question whether the car- 

 pet of Pansies used to cover the ground in the Tulip beds adds 

 to their effect or not. The Tulip is such a stately and gorgeous 

 flower that it may lose something of its character if brought 

 into too immediate contrast with any humbler herb. In the days 

 when the Tulip played a greater part in the world than it does 

 now they were planted always alone, and it would be well to 

 contrast another year beds carpeted as they are this year with 

 others in which the Tulip was allowed to grow alone. But 

 nothing certainly could be more lovely in the way of a spring 

 flower-bed than some circles thickly covered with Daisies, 

 among which have been plunged pots of the Hoop-petficoat 

 Narcissus, and which can be seen near the Charles Street 

 entrance to the central walk. Large specimens of the double- 

 flowered white and of the double-flowered scarlet Peach, com- 

 pletely covered with blossoms, are objects of surprising 

 beauty. 



