352 



Garden and For&st. 



[July 24, li 



collected on the Island of New Providence by William 

 Cooper in 1859, i^ preserved in the Herbarium of Columbia 

 College. This plant is apparently widely distributed 

 through the West Indies. 



Helietta parvifolia, Benth. — Dr. V. Harvard detected 

 this plant growing very abundantly as a shrub on the bluffs 

 of the lower Rio Grande, on the Texas side of the river 

 {Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., viii. i., 515); and I found it near Seralvo, 

 south of the river, where it is a slender tree, twenty or 

 twenty-five feet high, so that it should find a place in our 

 Silva in Rutacece, immediately after Xanthoxylum. 



KcEBERLiNiA spiNOSA, Zucc. — This plant, which- is widely 

 distributed from the valley of the lower Rio Grande to San 

 Luis Potosi and to Chihuahua, must be included among 

 the North American trees. It is often shrubby in its habit 

 of growth, especially in Texas, but sometimes becomes 

 truly arborescent, with a straight, erect trunk, six or eight 

 feet long, and a round, compact head. Its place in the 

 Catalogue is in Simarubece, immediately before Simaruba. 



30. Amyris sylvatica, Jacq. — I follow Professor Gray 

 (/. c.) in referring our south Florida tree to A. marilima of 

 Jacquin. The exposition of the confused synonymy of 

 this plant will be found in the paper cited. 



32. XiMENiA Americana, L. — I have never , seen this plant 

 growing as a tree; It is common on all the south Florida 

 Keys as a spreading shrub, sometimes with stout, nearly 

 prostrate stems ten or twelve feet long, and eight or ten 

 inches in diameter at the ground. I propose, therefore, to 

 omit it from the Silva. 



Ilex monticola. Gray. — This species was not included in 

 the Census Catalogue. It is a widely-distributed plant 

 through the Appalachian Mountains from New York to 

 Alabama, generally as a low shrub, but I have seen it on 

 the slopes of the Blue Ridge, both in North and South 

 Carolina, especially near Highlands in Macon County of 

 the former state, growing as a tree thirty or forty feet high, 

 with a clean, straight trunk ten or twelve inches in diam- 

 eter. It should find a place in the Silva immediately fol- 

 lowing Ilex decidua, Nutt. (No. 36). 



38. Cliftonia ligustrina, Spreng. — Mr. Watson has 

 pointed out {Bulleiin Torrey Botanical Club, xiv., 167) that 

 the oldest name for this plant is Cliftonia nitida, Gasrtn, 

 fil. (Fruct. iii., 247, t. 225, / 5). 



40. Myginda fallens, Smith. — This, it now appears, is a 

 shrubby species, and should therefore be dropped from the 

 North American Silva and replaced hj Myginda iniegi-ifolia, 

 Lam, as I have pointed out in the Botanical Gazette (xi. , 313). 

 This last is the M. latifolia of Chapman's ' ' Flora of the South- 

 ern States," and was early confounded with M. pallens in 

 American herbaria. M. integrifolia is truly arborescent 

 upon Key West, where it is abundant and reaches a height 

 of twenty or twenty-five feet, with a straight, slender 

 trunk, often six inches in diameter. The fruit is two-celled, 

 although sometimes one-celled by abortion. C. S. Sargent. 



Platanus occidentalis. 



OUR western Plane {Platanus occidentalis) is the largest 

 deciduous tree of the American forests. It rises 

 sometimes from the deep, alluvial soil deposited over the 

 margins of streams in the valley of the Mississippi, to a 

 height of a hundred and forty feet by actual measure- 

 ment, with a tall, straight shaft, fourteen or fifteen feet 

 in diameter. One of these large trunks appears in our 

 illustration upon page 354. Such trees were common 

 many years ago, in the valley of the lower Ohio and in 

 those of its tributaries. Now they are rarely seen. The 

 disturbances of natural conditions which always follow 

 iTian into the wilderness are bringing to the forests in 

 all our western country their inevitable consequences. 

 When the surroundings of an old tree, which may have 

 grown undisturbed through centuries, and which left un- 

 disturbed might have continued to grow through other 

 centuries, are once invaded by man, its subsequent history 



is generally short. The picture of another old Plane-tree 

 and its characteristic surroundings, on page 355, shows 

 what the fate of these forest giants is likely to be. An old 

 tree which has grown always among other trees, and has 

 been supported by its fellows, when suddenly deprived 

 of this support, must soon die. Either the first severe gale 

 will blow over the tall, badly-balanced trunk with all its 

 weight of branches at the summit, or it will die gradually 

 as the tree in the second picture is dying from the sudden 

 exposure to the full sunlight of thetrunkandbranches, which 

 were developed in the shade of other trees. The danger from 

 wind is increased in the case of the Plane-tree, by the fact 

 that these very large specimens, like the individual which 

 appears in our illustration on page 354, are entirely hollow 

 for a long distance above the ground. It is probable that 

 these very large Plane-trees will disappear entirely, and that 

 at the end of another century, and perhaps much sooner, such 

 great trees as excited the wonder and fired the imagination 

 of the early travelers on the Ohio, the Cumberland and the 

 Illinois will be entirely unknown, The specimens which 

 are now large will have died naturally, or prematurely 

 through the interference of man, and younger trees must, 

 in the future, be sacrificed to the demand for the wood 

 which this tree yields, and which has lately become es- 

 teemed and is already largely used for many purposes. 



Our two illustrations are made from photographs taken 

 by Mr. Robert Ridgway in the valley of the White River, 

 in southern Indiana — a region once famed for the beauty 

 and varied character of its forests and for the great size 

 attained by its individual trees. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



AT the last meeting of the committee of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, new Roses were the leading features of 

 the exhibition, Mr. William Paul having a dozen or more nov- 

 elties. Only two of them, however, were commented upon — 

 Pink Rover and Duchess of Albany. The first is a climbing 

 Bourbon, with flowers of the size and form of the old Souvenir 

 de Malmaison and with the habit of Gloire de Dijon, vigorous 

 and of a decided climbing habit. The delicate pink of the large, 

 full bloom is very pleasing, but as the committee are very cau- 

 tious in certificating new Roses before their true character is 

 known, Pink Rover must be seen again and again. The 

 Duchess of Albany is simply a sport from La France, differing 

 from it only in color, being several shades darker, and some 

 rosarians do not think this a desirable variation, as one 

 charm of La France is its delicate pink hue. For all that the 

 Duchess has its admirers. The best of the other novelties 

 from William Paul included Magenta Queen, a bright magenta 

 flower of good form and substance ; Hero of Waltham, simi- 

 lar to but lighter than Beauty of Waltham ; Spenser, in die 

 way of Baroness Rothschild, but with more substance in the 

 flower ; Salamander, a good, deep crimson, and Marchion- 

 ess of Lome, a very free bloomer, said to be a capital garden 

 Rose. There was also a lovely little Moss Rose called Wal- 

 tham Pet, with white flowers and pink centres, a suitable com- 

 panion for Little Gem. Sappho, the fine Tea Rose certificated 

 some tiine ago was shown well, the singular nankeen-yellow 

 tint being fully developed in the open air. Medea, a new Tea 

 in the way of Madame Caroline Kuster, may be heard of later 

 on as a good addition to the pale yellow group. 



The chief among the other exhibits shown at this meeting 

 were hardy flowers, as on the last occasion, the Pasonies, 

 Pyrethrums and Delphiniums from Kelway, of Langport, and 

 the Lilies from Ware & Barr being remarkable. Orchids are 

 dropping off now conspicuously, and yesterday there were 

 only half a dozen shown, the most noteworthy of these being 

 two new hybrids from Messrs. Veitch, raised by their indefa- 

 tigable foreman, Mr. Seden. One of these was Zygocolax 

 leopardi7ium, raised between Colax jugosiis and Zygopetalimi 

 maxillare. It is, therefore, a bigeneric hybrid, assuming 

 that the Colax is a true genus. The hybrid resembles the 

 Zygopetalum, both in habit of growth, in size and form of 

 flower, but differs in color. The lip is of a very deep plum- 

 purple, the sepals olive-green copiously spotted with cinna- 

 mon-brown. Though interesting to Orchid fanciers, it posesses 

 no special merit to the general cultivator. The other hybrid 

 was Masdevallia Ellisiatta, a cross between M. Harryana 



