June 12, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



287 



and are in every way desirable for street-planting. A row of 

 Pin Oaks, with perfectly straight trunks and shining strata of 

 foliage, leaves nothing to be desired. And Willow Oaks, 

 Chestnut Oaks, Over-cup Oaks are all equally good, each spe- 

 cies having special merit of its own. In some places Mr. Par- 

 sons planted White Maples between the Oaks for immediate 

 effect, with the intention of cutting them out as the trees began 

 to crowd. But some of the later owners lacked the intelli- 

 gence or nerve to remove the Maples, and now the beauty of 

 both Oaks and Maples is lost beyond recall. In one instance I 

 noted that an eccentric chopper had preferred the Maples, 

 and had actually slaughtered the Oaks to save them. 



In no commercial establishment in the country can a buyer 

 find a more comprehensive list of trees and shrubs for orna- 

 mental planting than at the Kissena Nurseries. If the busi- 

 ness has been directed towards any specialties, these have 

 been Rhododendrons, in the first place, and after them in 

 order, hardy Azaleas, Magnolias, Conifers and Japan Maples. 

 Many of the hardy Rhododendrons sold here are Flushing 

 seedlings, and the foreign varieties are propagated here — not 

 imported — all being grafted on stock of R. Ponticum. Mr. J. R. 

 Trumpy, the well-known propagator, who has spent a third of 

 a century in this nursery, grafted last year 10,000 plants with 

 his own hand. The Rhododendrons had largely passed their 

 blooming season when I saw them, but there were still flowers 

 enough to illuminate the broad acres where the larger plants 

 stood. After all, the almost interminable stretches of younger 

 plants closely set, of uniform size and perfect health, made 

 quite as brave a show. Many of the Azaleas were yet bright 

 with bloom, and these late-flowering sorts have a special value. 

 One of the most brilliant of them, a plant which fairly flamed 

 with orange and scarlet, is called Flushing Queen, and is a 

 home-raised seedling. Many of these seedlings are among the 

 best varieties, but the parentage of them all is unknown. It has 

 not been the practice here to make special crosses, but to sow 

 seed of the best, and then to select the best of the seedlings 

 until plants worthy of a name are found. The Hardy Azaleas 

 are grafted on stock of R. niidiflorum and R. viscosum. The 

 deliciously fragrant Magnolia Thompsoniana was in flower, and 

 so was the still more beautiful M. parviflora, and the large 

 number of young Magnolias of various kinds showed the 

 faith that an increase in the demand for these choice trees was 

 imminent. Mr. Parsons notes that there is a more intelligent 

 enquiry for trees of approved beauty, and the Magnolias are 

 among those sought for. Space would fail me to enumerate 

 all the select Conifers which are grown here in quantities. 

 The season had come when the young growth was just cover- 

 ing the trees with the softest green, and I could hardly feel 

 reconciled to the theory which rejects so generally this family 

 of trees because many of them are short-lived. It is true, urges 

 Mr. Parsons, that many of them are short-lived, but while they 

 do live they have characters of beauty which no other tree can 

 offer, and which no lover of Nature is willing to lose. If we 

 can plant a bed of Coleus for its brightness during a single 

 summer, why not plant conifers for their beauty in the heat of 

 summer and the snows of winter— a beauty which we can com- 

 mand with no other material — during the vigorous life of the 

 tree, whether that be ten or twenty or thirty or more years ? 

 Arguments like this are easily assented to at this season of the 

 year in the Kissena Nurseries when surrounded by scores of 

 specimens of as many species and varieties, every one of 

 which is a perfect picture. 



As we stood by long rows of variegated Japan Quince, with 

 foliage as bright as that of the Japan Maples which have been 

 sent out from here in such great numbers, I asked Mr. Par- 

 sons how many of these Japanese trees and shrubs had been 

 introduced through these nurseries. To this he was unable to 

 give a full answer without an examination of his books, but I 

 hope to furnish you at some time with a complete list of these 

 introductions, as the record would be worth preserving. The 

 catalogue would include many of our best and best-known 

 shrubs. From Dr. Hall, for example, came in 1862 : The 

 double form of Deutzia crenata, Hydrangea paniculata grandi- 

 flora. Magnolia stellata and M. Kobus, five varieties of Wis- 

 taria ; Acer polymorphuin, Quercus Dentata, Thuyopsis dolo- 

 brata, Sciadopitys verticellata and Liliuiii auraiujn, eight bulbs 

 of which were afterwards sold to a European firm at eighty 

 dollars, in currency, each. Besides these and others, these 

 nurseries received the seeds of many conifers from Dr. Hall. 

 Among them, of Picea Ayanensis, P. polita, Retinispora ob- 

 tusa and Pinus Koraensis. 



The consignments from Mr. Thomas Hogg were much 

 more important, including such prizes as twenty-five species 

 and varieties of Maples, the Japanese Chestnut, the Cercidi- 

 phyllum, two variefies of Benthamia, the Stuartia, whose 



flowering in Europe last year created some sensation; Daphne 

 Genkwa, Deutzia scabra, Elaagnus longipes, Hydrangea pani- 

 culata, Styrax Japonica, ScJiizophragina hydrangeoides, Di- 

 7norphanthus Mandchuricus ; many fine conifers, including the 

 Japanese Hemlock; nine varieties of Retinispora, Pinus Tkun- 

 bergii, P. densijlora and Taxus cuspidata. This by no means 

 completes the list of hardy plants for which the horticultural 

 world has to thank Mr. Hogg, not to speak of many kinds 

 adapted to green-house culture, which were also sent out 

 through the agency of these nurseries. If we add to these 

 importations such plants as the Weeping Hemlock, the Red- 

 flowered Dogwood and many others, besides the seedlings 

 raised here, we can begin to appreciate how large a place this 

 firm will occupy in the history of American gardening. 



Much of what was the original nursery-ground has been cut 

 up into building-lots, but about the old place are still found a 

 collection of noteworthy trees that cannot be matched else- 

 where in this country. The great Weeping Beech has already 

 been pictured and described in Garden and Forb:st — but near 

 it stands a Purple Beech with a trunk ten feet in girth and 

 branches spreading over a diameter of sixty feet. Near by is a 

 Cephalonian Fir, which is at least forty years old, with perfect 

 foliage and feathered to the very turf. The Pseudolarix here 

 has a trunk four and a half feet in circumference. On the 

 grounds of Mrs. Leavitt, a few rods distant, stands a charac- 

 teristic specimen of the Oriental Spruce, with its deep shadows 

 and rich green foliage. This tree is doubtless fifty years of 

 age, but shows no deterioration. An immense Magnolia Sou- 

 langeana is not far distant, and is probably of the same age. 

 It divides into four trunks close to the ground, which girth 

 respectively four, four and a half, two and three-quarters and 

 two and two-thirds feet. Its spread of branches altogether is 

 forty feet. Words and numerals give faint ideas, however, of 

 the charm which invests these trees and a score of others 

 equally attractive on the home grounds of Mr. Parsons. The 

 sum of the whole matter is that no one can say that he is 

 familiar with the finest collections of trees which this country 

 has to show until he has been at Flushing, where, for a hun- 

 dred years at least, have been located some of the foremost 

 establishments for propagating trees and shrubs for orna- 

 mental planting. 



Flushing, L. I. -S". 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Passiflora Eynsford Gem, Gardeners' Chronicle, April 

 20th ; a hybrid Passion-flower raised in England from Con- 

 stance Elliot, a white form of P. coeriilea crossed with P. race- 

 inosa. " The petals are a lovely shade of rosy-lilac, the threads 

 of the corona being ivory-white, tipped with violet. It is ex- 

 ceptionally beautiful, even among a genus famed for good 

 looks, and it has the advantage of being almost constantly in 

 flower." 



MuTisiA Clematis, Gardeners' Chronicle, April 20th; a free- 

 growing, climbing Composite from the high mountains of 

 Bogota, with deep, orange-colored flowers, and a capital plant 

 for the cool green-house. 



Skimmia Japonica (seedling male form ; S. fragrans of 

 gardens). Gardeners' Chronicle, April 27th. 



Skimmia Japonica (female ; .S". oblata of gardens), Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, April 27th. 



Skimmia Fortunei (6". Japonica of gardens). Gardeners' 

 Chrojticle, April 27th. Dr. Masters has been studying the va- 

 rious Skimmias grown in English gardens, with the result 

 that he finds that much confusion has existed among botan- 

 ists and cultivators about these plants, and that the plant uni- 

 versally known as 6". Japonica is not that species at all, and 

 that it is not even known to belong to Japan, but that the plant 

 described as 5. oblata is the true S. Japonica of Thunberg 

 and of Siebold and Zuccarini, or rather the female of that 

 species, in which male and female flowers are separated on 

 different individuals. The S. Japonica of gardens, so con- 

 sidered by Lindley, with whom all this confusion originated, 

 and afterward by Sir W. Hooker, when it was first introduced 

 by Fortune from China, in 1849, Dr. Masters now first properly 

 distinguishes under the new name of .S". Fortunei. This is the 

 common species in cultivation. Dr. Masters calls attention 

 to the interesting facts that this i^lant is not represented by wild 

 specimens in herbaria, and that its Chinese origin rests upon 

 Fortune's own statements witli regard to it, which he says 

 have been generally overlooked, although published in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle for 1852, p. 739, from which it appears 

 that Fortune found this plant in a nursery-garden at Shanghai, 

 to which he was told it had i)een brought from a high mountain 

 in the interior called " Nang Shang." It is certainly both in- 

 teresting- and curious that nothing more definite is known of 



