August 28, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



417 



It appears to bloom very freely, producing dense-flowered, 

 erect racemes about eight inches long. The flowers are white 

 with all the segments heavily tipped with light blue, though 

 some varieties are much deeper colored than otiiers. It is an 

 attractive Orchid, a robust and free grower, and rapidly estab- 

 lishes itself with the usual treatment accorded this class of 

 plants. 



Trichopilia {Pilumna) nobilis. — This Orchid can hardly be 

 called a distinct species, as it is nothing more than a larger and 

 better form of the well-known T. fragrans, nevertheless it is 

 a choice Orchid, and by no means common. It is a native of 

 Peru, and grows very freely with the Odontoglossums, and, 

 like them, requires abundance of water, though a little less 

 may be given after growth is finished. The habit of the plant 

 is clustered, with oblong, compressed bull>s, terminated by a 

 large, broadly oblong, acute leaf. The radical scapes bear 

 four to five large, pure white flowers, excepting for a dash of 

 orange in the throat. These are very fragrant. ^ , , . 



Kenwood, N. Y. F. Goldring. 



The Hardy Flower-garden. — The garden looks especially gay 

 just now with the Phloxes, Tritomas, Lilies, Gladiolus and 

 many more all at their best. The double kinds of Delphinium, 

 too, are remarkably fine. The named French ones are very 

 double, and many are of good color, but they always seem to 

 lack constitution, never living long, nurse them as we will. 

 We are trying the plan of raising our own, and so far the 

 results are good, fully ninety per cent, of the plants raised 

 from the seed of double kinds producing double flowers, many 

 of them equal to the best named kinds, and the plants are 

 much more vigorous and produce longer and stouter spikes 

 than imported ones. When selecting varieties for seed, it is 

 best to pick off all the side branches and let the main stem 

 remain. This will give it additional vigor, and the laterals usu- 

 ally produce flowers less double than those of the main stem. 

 Our seed saved last year was sown in February, and the 

 plants have now spikes of bloom two feet long. This success 

 is, doubtless, due to sowing seed early and potting the plants 

 off as soon as jarge enough to handle, and planting in their 

 permanent places as soon as the weather becomes warm 

 enough. 



Of the Tritomas, John Benary, one of Lemoine's new ones, 

 is always the first to flower with us. It has an immense 

 flower of a bright crimson. The next best is T. corallina, 

 with the most compact flower of all and the freest bloomer. 

 The spikes are not so large as those of T. uvaria, but they 

 are much more useful and effective for cut-flower work. The 

 Hyacinth Lily, Galtonia candicans, is a valuable summer- 

 flowering bulb ; its tall spikes of pure white, pendent, bell- 

 shaped flowers, make it a very conspicuous plant. We find 

 it perfectly hardy ; in fact the bulbs winter better in the open 

 ground, provided it is well drained, than in the cellar. This is 

 a plant readily increased from seed, and the bulbs reach flow- 

 ing size the second year. Good bulbs produce as many as 

 four spikes during the season, if the old ones are cut off as 

 soon as they show signs of seeding, so that there is a contin- 

 ual show until frost puts an end to all out-door displays. One 

 of the best things of recent introduction is Platycodon Mariesi, 

 a dwarf form of the old P. grandifloriivi ; its distinctive quali- 

 ties are that the flowers are as large again as in the old one, 

 and that it does not exceed six inches in height. It is really a 

 most useful plant. The great objection to the original form 

 was that it was liable to produce flowers from the top only. 

 This variety produces its blooms in abundance even on young 

 plants ; we measured some blooms which were two and a 

 half inches in diameter. 



Passaic, N. J. O, 



The Dwarf Cannas raised by French hybridists are rapidly 

 gaining favor here. It is only a year or two ago that they 

 were first seen here at tlie exhibitions, but now they are 

 largely grown at all the best nurseries, and are becoming 

 widely known throughout the country. For several weeks 

 past they have been a great attraction in the conservatory 

 at Kew, where many visitors make their first acquaintance 

 with them. Their noble foliage is always handsonie, and, 

 when this is accompanied by the tall spikes of large and 

 richly-colored blossoms, as curious in shape as any Orchid, 

 they are extremely attractive ; in fact I do not know any Orchid 

 so brilliant in color as some of these Cannas. They can, 

 moreover, be grown by everyone who owns a green-house. 

 [In this country they grow perfectly well out of doors. — Ed.] 

 They require no attention in winter, as they die down to their 

 fleshy tubers or rhizomes, and when in full growth do not 

 occupy much space on account of their dwarfness which is 

 one of their chief merits. In one of our leading nurseries I 



made the following selections of sorts the other day after 

 comparing them one with the other. One of the most striking 

 kinds was Capricieux, flowers large, sepals broad, bright, 

 orange-scarlet, margined with yellow; Admiral Courbet, citron- 

 yellow spotted with scarlet, very showy ; Louis Thibaud, bril- 

 liant Vermillion ; Victor Hugo, scarlet ; Antonin Crozy, bright 

 crimson ; GeofTroy St. Hiliare, foliage stained with vinous 

 purple, flowers vivid scarlet ; Francisque Morel, crimson-red, 

 and Madame Just, flowers, rich orange-yellow. There were 

 several other sorts, but these, I thought, were the finest. All 

 were vigorous in growth, and carried an abundance of Ijloom 

 on spikes well overtopping the foliage. 



Kew. '___ G. 



Dwarf Herbaceous Phloxes. — There is a race of French her- 

 baceous Phloxes little grown in gardens, but which deserve 

 wider cultivation. The one great fault of the herbaceous 

 Phlox is its tall, ungainly and untidy habit, but in this newer 

 race we have a dense, bushy, spreading growth, the plants 

 rising but about two feet in height, and, in a few varieties, so 

 densely smothered with flowers as to hide the abundant rich- 

 green foliage. We made notes of a few good kinds in the 

 Broxbourne Nursery, among them Bacille, flowers large, 

 mauve-lilac in color, and the plant not more than two feet 

 high ; M. H. Jacotot, white shaded magenta towards the cen- 

 tre ; La Ville de I'Air, white, with a clear purple eye; Mars, 

 bright red ; Colibri, pink shaded rose ; and Foutcheau (what- 

 ever that may mean), pink with a carmine eye. The last- 

 mentioned is a good flower spoilt by a foolish name. Such a 

 race should become common in gardens. One clump was 

 clothed to the ground-line with foliage, and spreading out on 

 every side more like a shrub than a hardy, herbaceous peren- 

 nial. — The Garden. 



Correspondence. 

 Conifers for Planting on the Plains. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir.- — I use the time between the arrival and departure of 

 my freight-train to send a few notes made while passing 

 through Nebraska, stopping here and there. My object on 

 this trip has been to note the progress and promise of timber- 

 claim planting, and by the way to observe what coniferous 

 growth may be expected to do on these plains and prairies 

 when real timber-planting — not simply tree-planting for orna- 

 ment, shelter or shade, or for land speculation — shall begin. 



Men of broad views, and with no tree-seedlings to sell, 

 either nursery-grown or pulled at the river-side, begin to ap- 

 preciate that re-foresting the plains must become a national or 

 state affair ; at least that it cannot be done by private en- 

 terprise within this generation, and certainly not in such a sys- 

 tematic manner as is necessary to insure the best results in 

 climatic amelioration. Co-operation and concentrated efforts 

 alone will accomplish that. 



But these questions of more general nature are too fruitful 

 of argument to be discussed in a letter. Which conifers 

 promise well in this region can more briefly be treated, since 

 our experience, so far, is only very meagre. 



When I started from Washington I was almost ready, uncon- 

 ditionally, to urge American trees only for American planfing. 

 In fact, I had advocated, on theoretical grounds, the introduc- 

 tion into the plains of Rocky Mountain conifers, especially 

 Phizes ponderosa and Pseudotsuga Doiiglasii, which thrive 

 naturally under climatic conditions not dissimilar to those 

 prevailing here, and had not expected to speak of the Scotch 

 Pine again in connection with American forestry; but I am 

 compelled to say that at the first place where I had an oppor- 

 tunity to observe it side by side with eastern and western 

 forms, which was in Crete, seventy-five miles west of the Mis- 

 souri River, the Scotch Pine was decidedly the most promising 

 tree, and next to it the Austrian Pine. There were in nursery- 

 rows, four to five years planted, besides these two, P/n us S/ro- 

 bus, Picea Engebiiaiini, Abies concolor-Awd Pseitdoistiga Doiiglasi. 

 The Europeans were thrifty, while all the Rocky Mountain 

 tribe had lost their leaders ; their terminal buds had been 

 killed not this year only, but every year since they were 

 transplanted, giving the trees an unsightly, ragged appear- 

 ance. Only a few Picea pungens, which had been specially 

 cared for and coaxed imder shelter, had developed fairly. In 

 the same town are found many Pines of older growth, planted 

 in 1873. The Scotch and Austrian are perfect, with annual 

 shoots of two to three feet, as straight and well-proportioned 

 as the best in their native land, without a flaw, and it would be 

 difficult to tell which of the two to choose as regards thrifti- 

 ness. There was also one White Pine, grown in the shelter of 



