3o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 26, 1889. 



soiitli of New York slioiild be graded accordingly. If estima- 

 ted by glass surface, about one foot in length of four-inch pipe 

 is necessary for every three and a half square feet of glass sur- 

 face, when the temperature is at ten degrees below zero, to 

 keep a temperature of fifty degrees in the green-house. A one 

 and a quarter inch pipe when heated by steam does almost 

 e.xactly the same amount of heating as a four-inch pipe heated 

 by hot water. 



Aster alpinus albus is probably the earliest species of this 

 genus to bloom. The flowers are produced with the early 

 summer, and, for this reason alone, the plant is worth cultivat- 

 ing, but the flowers are two inches in diameter, with bright 

 yellow discs and double rows of white ray-petals. It has 

 l:)een wriiten of this plant that, in comparison with the type, A. 

 alpinus albus, it is poor and difficult to cultivate. With A. alpi- 

 nus we have had no experience, having tried in vain to obtain 

 the true plant. But here in the open border the white form 

 thrives and increases rapidly, making bushy plants about six 

 inches high, which, in early summer, produce numbers of 

 pretty white flowers on stems just above the leaves. 



Gillenia trifoliata has recently been noticed in Garden and 

 Forest as a desirable border plant; and for cutting and deco- 

 rative purposes there can be no more useful one, the flowers 

 have such a light, graceful appearance, and blend so nicely 

 with other flowers for in-door decoration. The genus Gil- 

 lenia contains but two species, the other being G. stipulacea. 

 To the casual observer this plant, when in flower, appears to 

 be the same as G. trifoliata, but on close examination the spe- 

 cific difference is easily distinguislied. G. stipulacea, as the 

 name implies, has large and well-developed stipules, and com- 

 mences to flower when G. trifoliata is about done blooming, 

 and so makes a good succession. It is singular that, although 

 indigenous to this state, G. trifolicta never produces seed with 

 us luider cultivation, while G. stipulacea every year seeds 

 freely. The seeds, if sown as soon as ripe in a shady place, 

 germinate the second year after sowing. This may seem a 

 long dme, but, taking into consideration' the fact that this 

 genus is included in the family of Rosacece, it is not difficult 

 to comprehend. 



Silene Pumilio is one of the very best of the tufted Catchflys, 

 and is suitable alike for cultivation in the rock-garden or open 

 border. This plant has dense tufts of bright green foliage, 

 now almost hidden by the profusion of pretty rose-pink 

 flowers, the inflated calyxes of which are of the same rosy 

 hue as the flowers. S. Pumilio is a native of the Alps, and 

 succeeds well in the open border without protection. The 

 plant may be readily increased by division, but seeds are 

 freely produced, and these, when sown as soon as ripe, ger- 

 "minate the following spring, and soon form strong plants. 



' ■ 0. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



Celasirus scandens, the Climbing Bitter-Sweet or Roxbury 

 Wax-work, as it is known in eastern New England, is now in 

 flower. This plant should be so well known that even a bare 

 mention of it would be superfluous. It is a common native 

 species, climbing high over bushes and trees ; and although 

 the small white flowers are inconspicuous the foliage is good, 

 and the orange and scarlet fruit is so showy and hangs so late 

 in the autunm, that this is really one of the most desirable of 

 hardy climbing plants. It is well suited to plant where it can 

 display its brilliant fruit, either on trellises or in the wild gar- 

 den, where it will stretch over rocks or among trees and other 

 shrubs. 



Two other species in the collection are worth notice. They 

 are C. articulata, Thunb. (a misprint, no doubt, for orbiculata, 

 as M. Maximowicz has pointed out, Mel. Biol., xi. 200), a widely 

 distributed Japanese species, with broadly obovate, crenately 

 serrate, membranaceous leaves. They are three and a half to 

 four inches long, contracted at the base into a stout petiole an 

 inch and a half long, and usually terminated by a short, broad 

 point. The flowers are small and green, in short axillary clus- 

 ters, which are quite hidden by the ample foliage. The fruit is 

 smaller than that of our American species, but it is very bril- 

 liantly colored, and, as it is produced here in the greatest pro- 

 fusion along the whole length of the spur-like lateral branches, 

 it makes a great show after the leaves have fallen, remaining 

 fresh and bright until nearly the end of winter. C. articulata 

 is a hardy and vigorous plant, growing rampantly when once 

 established in rich soil, and then sometimes producing stems 

 twelve or fifteen feet long during a single season, and immense 

 masses of foliage. It is a good plant for covering quickly 



rocky slopes or walls, out-buildings and other structures. It 

 has inhabited the Arboretum for several years, having been 

 sent here from the Parsons' Nursery at Flushing. Orixa Ja- 

 ponica. No. 1,215 of the Kew Arboretum herbarium, is our 

 plant. 



It may be well to mention here that Orixa Japonica (often 

 known as Celasirus Orixa) is perfectly hardy here. It is a tall 

 shrub, already some six or eight feet high, with rather slender, 

 spreading branches, and lustrous dark green, obovate leaves. 

 The minute green flowers, which appeared a month ago, are 

 produced in axillary clusters. The male plant, unfortunately, 

 is the only one in the collection, so that fruit has not been pro- 

 duced here. The bruised foliage and the wood are pleasantly 

 and pungently fragrant with the odor of our Spice-bush or Ben- 

 zoin. This shrub is very generally used as a hedge-plant by 

 the Japanese of the central Island. 



The second exotic Celastrus in the collection, now in 

 flower, is one of the Himalaya species, in which the branches 

 are covered with pale lenticular warts, and the flowers are 

 borne in short terminal racemose cymes. The persistent style 

 crowning the fruit points to C. stylosa, to which our plant prob- 

 ably belongs, although I am unable to verify this determina- 

 tion by a reference to an authentic specimen or to a figure. 

 This plant was received from the Arboretum Segrezianum sev- 

 eral years ago as C. paniculata,a. tropical or subtropical Indian 

 species, with pendulous panicles of flowers. Our plant, al- 

 though perfectly hardy, is a less vigorous grower than either 

 the North American or the Japanese species, not climbing 

 here to a greater height than six or eight feet. The leaves, 

 when fully grown, are four and a half inches long, ellipti- 

 cal or ovate-oblong ; they are acute, crenately serrate, and 

 borne on rather stout petioles an inch long. The pale green 

 or nearly white flowers are produced in terminal racemose 

 cymes, which, in fruit, are about three inches long. The fruit 

 is orange, crowned with the style, and rather showy. This 

 plant, if our determination is correct, is widely distributed 

 through the Sikkim Himalaya, and in the Khasia Hills, ascend- 

 ing to an elevation of 6,000 feet above the sea level. It is the 

 least desirable of the species in the collection as an ornamental 

 plant. . ' - 



A handsome Japanese arborescent Euonymus received from 

 the Flushing Nurseries is now covered with flowers. M. 

 Maximowicz, to whom specimens were submitted last year, 

 pronounced it to be the Japanese form of the widely-distributed 

 E. Europcea — his var. Hamiltoniana — which is found also 

 from Cashmire through the Himalayas, Mongolia, northern 

 China and Manchuria, and which has been described by 

 botanists under a multitude of names. As it grows here it is 

 a bushy tree six feet high, with a stout trunk covered with 

 smooth gray bark, spreading branches, terete, or slightly 

 ^angled bright green branchlets, and abundant foliage. The 

 leaves are oblong, acuminate, serrate, two or three inches long, 

 and deep dark green. The cymes of small greenish-white 

 flowers are axillary and dichotomous, and these are followed 

 by four-lobed, wingless, yellow capsules, which are not par- 

 ticularly showy. According to Brandis ( Forest Flora of 

 India), whose figure {t. 16) represents a form with much nar- 

 rower leaves than those of our Japanese plant, this variety 

 is common in the forests of the outer Himalaya ranges up to 

 8,500 feet, growing, under favorable circumstances into a tree 

 thirty to thirty-five feet high, with a short, straight trunk four to 

 five feet round. The wood, he says, is beautifully white, com- 

 pact and close grained, and used for making spoons. The 

 Japanese plant is so hardy, it grows with such vigor, its foliage 

 is so abundant and of so rich a green, that it promises to be a 

 good addition to the number of small, hardy trees which 

 can he successfully cultivated in this climate. 



Spircea Cantoniensis (S. Reevesiana of many gardens) is 

 rarely seen in such great beauty in this climate as it has been 

 this season. This plant suffers generally from cold, losing 

 much of its wood, but thisyearthe mild winter has been favor- 

 able to it, and both the single and the double-flowered varie- 

 ties have bloomed in perfection. It is not only one of the 

 very handsomest of all the Spirteas which produce their flow- 

 ers in flat coryml)s at the ends of short lateral branches of the 

 year, being only surpassed in beauty of flowers, perhaps, by 

 S. Van Houttei, but it has the additional merit of flowering 

 considerably later than the other plants of its class. In cli- 

 mates less severe than that of New England, Spircea Canton- 

 iensis, especially the single-flowered variety, is one of the 

 most beautiful spring-flowering shrubs which can be planted 

 in the garden. 



Cotoneaster tomentosa is a hardy shrub of good habit, agree- 

 able foliage and rather pretty flowers, which are followed by 

 showy fruit, as is the case with nearly all the species of this 



