528 



Garden and Forest. 



[OCTOBKR 30, 1889. 



Notes. 



An cver-blooining Rose of dwarf liabit, with bright pinlc 

 semi-double Howers, called J^osa semperflorens Fellenberg, is 

 used largely in Berlin for the decoration of flower-beds in pub- 

 lic squares and private gardens. It remains in bloom 

 throughout the entire season, and appears to be admirably 

 suited for the purpose for which it is used. 



The increase in the cultivation of the Chrysanthemum in 

 this country, of late years, is something almost fabulous. It 

 is certainly our most popular flower, and Crysanthemum 

 exhibitions to be held during the coming month are already 

 arranged for at Charleston, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, 

 Detroit, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Orange, Montreal, and at 

 several of the smaller New England cities, like Worcester, 

 Springfield and New Haven. 



A correspondent of The Garden (London) calls attention 

 to the beauty of a bed of the Hybrid Tea Rose, Grace Darling, 

 which he had seen blooming in the gardens at Kew during 

 the last week of September. Grace Darling is one of the most 

 beautiful Roses of its class, and was to be seen during the past 

 summer in great beauty and profusion in the flower markets 

 at Carlsbad, in Bohemia. It is a plant of robust habit, with 

 good foliage, producing clusters of fragrant flowers. These, 

 when well grown, are compact in habit, with bright peach- 

 colored petals, shaded to creamy white. 



Our attention has been called recently to a charming com- 

 l)ination of autumn colors, produced by a plant of the Chinese 

 Wistaria, running through and over a tall mass of the Stag- 

 horn Sumach. The dark rich green of the Wistaria serves to 

 bring out and intensify the scarlet tints of the Sumach. The 

 converse of this elTect may be produced by a Virginia Creeper 

 rambling over a Red Cedar-tree — a natural combination often 

 found in the woods and by the roadsides in our eastern states. 

 This natural minghng of scarlet and dark green produces one 

 of the most beautiful effects of autumn color which can be 

 seen in America. 



Shortia has long been regarded as one of the rarest plants 

 in the North American flora. Now, however, it is known to 

 be so common, in at least one region, that a long established 

 vernacular name for it is in common use among the few fami- 

 lies of mountaineers who inhabit the valleys at the head- 

 waters of the Savannah River, where Shortia is foimd. Galax, 

 the near relative of Shortia, is known almost universally to the 

 people of the southern Alleghany Mountains as Coltsfoot, from 

 a fancied resemblance of the leaf to that of a colt's foot. The 

 smaller leaf of Shortia, which resembles somewhat the leaf of 

 Galax, is called " Little Coltsfoot." 



A hybrid Rhododendron, raised several years ago in Mr. 

 John Waterer's nurseries at Bagshot, in England, is a plant of 

 much promise. It is the result of a cross between the Hima- 

 layan 7?. Dalhousianum, and the well known variety of Catavv- 

 baiense hybrids, R. album elegans. The hybrid has large, 

 deep green foliage ; it is a free bloomer; the flower trusses 

 are large, and the individual flowers, wliich are pure white, 

 faintly marked with small pink spots on the upper lobe of the 

 corolla, are large and possess great substance. This hybrid 

 is quite hardy at Bagshot and there is a chance that it may 

 prove so here in the northern states. It can, in any case, be 

 grown here in a cool house, or with winter protection in a pit 

 or cold cellar. 



Mar^chal Niel rosebuds, grown in the open air in southern 

 Austria, are sold in large numbers during the summer 

 months in some of the health resorts in Germany. They 

 are often fine specimens, and not infrequently are tastefully 

 arranged with the red and green foliage of the changing Vir- 

 ginia Creeper — a favorite arrangement being three buds on a 

 fan-shaped mass of leaves made to be held in the hand. The 

 beauty of the buds is often sadly marred, however, by the 

 custom which prevails in some places of tiu'ning back artifi- 

 cially the outer rows of petals for the purpose of increasing 

 the apparent size of the liowers. A combination of Mar^chal 

 Niel roses, with sprays of the foliage of the Purple Beech, is 

 a favorite one, and the contrasting of the two colors produces 

 an excellent effect. 



The death is announced of Mr. John Ball, the distinguished 

 English botanist. His studies were devoted largely to botan- 

 ical geography and to philosophical questions relating to the 

 origin and descent of existing floras. Mr. Ball's best known 

 works are "The origin of the Flora of the European Alps," 

 published in 1878, and his "Contributions to the Flora of the 

 Peruvian Andes, with remarks on the history and origin of the 

 Andean Flora," published in 1885, in the journal of the Lin- 



neean Society. He accompanied Sir Joseph Hooker, in 1871, 

 in his scientific mission to Morocco, publishing on his return 

 a catalogue of the plants discovered, with critical introductory 

 observations (his first attempt to explore the chain of the 

 Greater Atlas was made as early as 1851). Mr. Ball traveled 

 extensively and was a practiced and accurate observer, and 

 one of the very best books of recent travels is the one in 

 which he described his South American journey, which car- 

 ried him round that continent. Mr. Ball was in North Amer- 

 ica in 1884 at the meeting of the British Association at Mon- 

 treal, and of the American Association at Philadelphia, later, 

 accompanying his old friend and correspondent. Dr. Asa 

 Gray, on the last journey the Cambridge Professor made to 

 Roan Moimtain and other points of botanical interest in North 

 Carolina. Mr. Ball belonged to a school of botanists of which 

 only a few members remain ; and he was almost the last of 

 his associates and contemporaries. 



Death has ended, too, the long and brilliant career of Leo 

 Lesquereux, the Nestor of our botanists and the most distin- 

 guished student of palaeontology in the United States. He died 

 last week in his home in Columbus, Ohio, in his eighty-tliird 

 year. Professor Lesquereux was one of the Swiss naturalists 

 attracted to America by Agassiz, whose assistant he became at 

 Cambridge in 1848. Subsequently he removed to Ohio, and 

 devoted himself almost exclusively to the investigation of fossil 

 plants. His best known publications are a "Catalogue of the 

 Fossil Plants which have been named or described from the 

 Coal Measures of North Anierica," and the "Coal Flora," 

 which formed part of the Report of the Second Geological Sur- 

 vey of Pennsylvania. He contributed a large number of 

 papei's upon fossil botany to the reports of the different Gov- 

 ernment surveys of the western part of the continent. Pro- 

 fessor Lesquereux's principal contrilnition to present botany 

 was his "Catalogue of the Plants of Arkansas," joined to his 

 botanical and palseontological report to the geological survey 

 of that state. 



The growth in popularity in Europe of the Tuberous 

 Begonia can hardly escape the notice of the most casual ob- 

 server. The plants are now seen everywhere. They form 

 the most attractive feature in the flower-beds of city squares 

 in central Europe ; they decorate the most pretentious of the 

 ugly gardens of the great hotels, and they may be found grow- 

 ing and flourishing in pots on the window-sills of the smallest 

 cottages in remote Swiss villages. They are gradually driving 

 out the old Scarlet Geranium from cottage gardens. This 

 sudden leap into popularity is surprising because it is barely 

 a quarter of a century since the species from which this new 

 race of Begonias sprung were entirely unknown ; and in all 

 the history of floriculture there is not another case of a new 

 race of plants taking at once such a hold upon popular affec- 

 tion. There is danger, however, that the florists will spoil 

 these pretty plants as they have spoiled so many others in 

 their pursuit of novelties, and of new and startling forms and 

 varieties. The double flowered Begonias, which are just now 

 all the rage, are far less attractive than the single flowered 

 varieties ; and there is danger, too, that even the single flowers 

 may be made too big and ungainly for harmonious combination 

 with the plants which bear them. The charm of a Begonia 

 flower is in looking like a Begonia flower, and not like a small 

 Hollyhock or a deformed miniature Rose ; and yet the best 

 claim the advocates of these double flowers make is that they 

 look like something which they are not — a Rose or a Holly- 

 hock. Still, as long as the public continues to consent to pay 

 three or four times as much for the double flowered varieties 

 as for those with single flowers, the florists can hardly be 

 blamed for devoting their energies to their production. 



Catalogues Received. 



C. E. Allen, Brattleboro, Vt. ; Seeds, Plants and Small Fruits. — 

 J. A. I)e Veer, 183 Water Street, New York ; Choice Holland and 

 Miscellaneous Bulbs, Seeds, Plants, etc. — F. W. Kelsey, 208 Broad- 

 way, New York ; Hardy Trees, Shrubs, Roses, Bulbs, etc. — Harlan 

 P. Kelsey, Highlands Nursery, Highlands, N. C. ; Plants and Flowers 

 of the Southern Alleghany Mountains. — ^John Laing & Sons, Forest 

 Hill, London, S. E., England; Dutch, French and other Bulbous 

 Roots, Fruit Trees, Roses, Shrubs, Begonias, etc. — J. L. Normand, 

 Hill-Side Nursery, Marksville, La.; Oriental Plums, Peaches, Pears, 

 Viiit-s, etc. — Reasoner Brothers, Royal Palm Nurseries, Manatee, 

 Fla.; Tro|)ical and Semi-Tropical Fruit Plants, Bamboos, Aquatics, 

 Conifers, Palms, Cacti, etc. — E. W. Reid, Bridgeport, O.; Small 

 Fruits, Ap]3le, Pear, Plum, Peach, Quince and Deciduous Trees, etc. — 

 (jEOR(;e Richardson, Lordstown, O. ; Rare Water Plants. — G. L. 

 Taker, Glen St. Mary Nurseries, Glen St. Mary, Fla.; Fruit Trees. — 

 Joseph Tweddle, Vine Valley Nurseries, Stoney Creek, Ont. ; Grape 

 Vines. 



