532 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 6, 1889. 



Mr. Dawson has tried various experiments in his attempts 

 to cultivate this plant. He finds that when it is grafted 

 upon Viburnum dentatuiii it grow$ much more vigorously 

 than it does upon its own roots, but that it will not imite 

 with V. Lanlana. Grafted plants two years old are already 

 larger than wild plants taken from the woods live or six 

 years ago. C. S. S. 



Holiday Notes in Southern France and Northern 

 Italy.— IV. 



MILAN, the principal city of Lonibardy, and one of the 

 wealthiest manufacturing towns of Italy, stands near the 

 centre of a plain which owes its unusual fertility to a system 

 of irrigation more thorough than exists in any similar area in 

 Europe. Indeed, but for its artificial supply of water the 

 region would be scarcely capable of cultivation, for the sum- 

 mer there is hot and almost rainless. As it is, an unusually 

 cold sumnier is the only thing which affects the crops to any 

 extent. 



Close to the central railway station passes a broad avenue of 

 Horse-chestnuts, a fashionable drive, which follows the line of 

 the old ramparts. The public gardens lie on the south side 

 of this boulevard, and they are, as a whole, well laid out and 

 contain a number of very fine trees. In the neighborhood 

 of the Municipal Museum, however, the ground is too much 

 cut up, and a number of flower beds, arranged carpet fashion 

 and otherwise, look paltry and mean. The bedding generally 

 seemed poor, the only combinations noted as good being four 

 large beds bordered with Ivy and filled with Musa Ensete, 

 Canna Ehenianni, flowering freely, Colocasia antiquorum, the 

 Papyrus {Cyperus Papyrus), Panicum plicatiim and Eidalia 

 Japonica zebrina. Perhaps the most striking feature of which 

 the gardens can boast — certainly the best from a purely orna- 

 mental point of view — were the groups of Erythrina crista- 

 galli growing in the grass. The plants were evidently very 

 old, eight to ten feet or more in height, with thick, branched 

 stems and fine heads, the long, erect racemes of richly colored 

 flowers contrasting well witJFi the deep glossy green of the 



leaves. 



Noble groups of Magnolia grandiflora, some of the trees 

 laden with fruit, and here and there one bearing a second 

 crop of flowers, filling the air with fragrance, challenged 

 attention. This splendid evergreen never attains such size or 

 luxuriance in England, even under the most favorable circum- 



. stances. A rather unlikely companion to the Magnolia, but 

 one, moreover, thriving under the same conditions at Milan, 

 is the Norway Spruce (Picea excelsa). A few Deodars [Cedrus 

 Deodara) were also noted as being better than an)' hitherto 

 seen by us in our journeyings. An interesting feature was a 

 group of Albizzia Julibrissin, a handsome low tree with flat 

 head and horizontally spreading branches, their loose habit 

 and light green feathery leaves forming a striking contrast to 

 the formal growth and dark green needles of the Spruces and 

 Pines near them. Here and throughout southern France 

 Albizzia (or, as it is frequently called, Acacia) Julibrissin, 

 with its erect, brush-like racemes of pink flushed, longstamened 

 flowers, is one of the most graceful and ornamental of flower- 



• ing trees. Planted at the tongue of one of several sheets of 

 water, a fine group of the deciduous Cypress (Taxodium disti- 

 chuni) forms a striking effect in this part of the park. Some of 

 the stems were actually surrounded by water, and they had all 

 attained a considerable height. At one end of the group 

 Bamboos offered excellent cover for the water fowl. Here and 

 there on the broad expanse of well kept turf were groups or 

 single specimens of trees. A number of Sweet Gums {Liqiiid- 

 anibar styraciflua), bearing a crop of their curious fruits, had 

 stems from two to three feet in diameter and about seventy 

 feet in height ; these beautiful trees afforded a grateful shade 

 by one of the main thoroughfares. The Kentucky Coffee-tree 

 and American Beech also appeared to thrive well ; neither my 

 companion nor myself had ever seen examples in England to 

 compare with them in any way. A group of the fern-leaved 

 variety of the European Beech — clothed to the ground with 

 foliage, with the sunlight playing on the leaves — was most 

 picturesque. Fine Maidenhair trees {^Ginkgo biloba) were ob- 

 served, and large bushes of YuXsin {Magnolia conspicua). Here, 

 too, were huge Chiinonanthus bushes and trees of Cercis Sili- 

 quastruvi, conspicuous by reason of the innumerable red- 

 brown pods which covered the stem and large branches. 

 Among the best of the ornamental shrubs were Abelia rupes- 

 tris, a very handsome plant with small glossy leaves, and a 

 profusion of trumpet-shaped flowers, white, faintly tinged with 

 purplish red ; Lager strcemia Indica of tree-like proportions in 



full flower ; Hibiscus Syriacus (a long sloping bank facing the 

 Via Palestro, planted thickly with this shrub and kept cut in 

 to one level, produced a novel efl'ect); and Spircea TImnbergi 

 of surprising size and vigor. Except near the Municipal Mu- 

 seum, the lawns were not defaced by meaningless flower-beds, 

 though in a sort of angle we noticed a line mass of a deep red- 

 leaved Amaranthus about four feet high. Desmodiuni pe7iduli- 

 florum was remarkably attractive, both planted singly and in 

 groups, on the tm'f, the long, slender flowering stems being 

 allowed to droop naturally. The correct name of this plant is 

 Lespedeza bicolor, but a plant widely different (of erect habit, 

 with much shorter racemes and greatly inferior from a garden 

 standpoint) is grown in nurseries under this name. 



A broad flight of steps at one end, and a steep gravel path at 

 the other, ascend from the grounds just described to the older 

 portion of the gardens, in the centre of which is situated the 

 Art Museum. The difference in level is skillfully utilized for 

 rough, natural looking rockery and climbing plants. Here and 

 there the slope is clotlied with Savin {Juniperus Sabina), with 

 the edges of the mass irregularly broken ; a few plants scat- 

 tered singly away from the general mass give a pleasing, 

 because natural, effect. Other shrubs are used in a similar 

 manner, but the Juniper mentioned made the most pleasing 

 impression. 



Behind the Brera, formerly a Jesuit college, now used as a 

 picture gallery, museum, library and observatory, is a small 

 botanic garden of about two acres in extent. It is well kept, 

 and wortliy of a visit from those who love trees. Here are to 

 be seen the first Maidenliair tree introduced into Italy, said to be 

 about 200 years old and thirty-eight metres high. A fine White 

 Oak was about seventy feet in height. The Brera Botanic 

 Garden, too, claims to have the first Black Walnut {Juglans 

 nigra) planted in Italian soil. It is now a very fine, perfectly 

 healthy tree. A good specimen of Celtis australis, and 

 another of a peculiar form of Magnolia grandiflora, with nar- 

 row, wavy edged leaves, almost complete the list of remark- 

 aljle trees. The Magnolia was named M. Hartwicus, but it is 

 practically identical with forms grown in Continental nurseries 

 under the name of M. angustifolia and M. salicifolia. 



The central portion of the gardens — the trees were princi- 

 pally crowded round ends and sides — was laid out in six-feet 

 beds, divided into squares of a yard in size by bricks set on 

 edge and half buried in the soil. In these beds herbaceous 

 plants were systematically arranged. A small basin for aquatic 

 plants contained the best mass of Scirpus Taberncemontani 

 zebrinus I have yet seen. To most gardeners this plant, which, 

 when thriving properly, is as handsome as it is curious, is 

 perhaps better known as Juncus zebrinus, the name under 

 which it was first exhibited and distributed. A fine Pome- 

 granate, laden with beautiful fruit, occupied a good position 

 close to the Brera. After seeing what is done by the Botanic 

 Garden authorities in so restricted an area, one could not but 

 wish that a larger piece of ground, better situated with regard 

 to soil, exposure and other conditions, could be placed at their 

 disposal. 

 Kew. George Nicholson. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Gymnogramme schizophylla. 



OUR illustration upon page 533 of this issue is made 

 from a specimen plant of the robust form (var. 

 gloriosa) of this fine ornamental Fern, which was exhibited 

 by Mr. John L. Gardner, of Brookline, at the Rose and 

 Strawberry Show of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society last June and received the first prize in its class. 



This variety, which is of garden origin, differs from the 

 type plant in its more vigorous habit of growth, and in its 

 somewhat larger and stouter fronds, which are from one 

 and a half to two feet long, gracefully arching from 

 above the middle. They are finely cut with very minute, 

 ultimate divisions, bright light green on the upper, and 

 pale or nearly white on the lower surface. 



Gyin7iogravime schizophylla is a native of Jamaica, 

 whence it was introduced into European gardens as late as 

 1880. It should be grown in a warm, moist house in order 

 to develop all its beauty. The plants are found to do well 

 when the pots in which they are grown are suspended 

 from the rafters or raised on the benches out of the way of J 

 neighboring plants. The ends of the long, drooping fronds '5 

 are preserved in this way from contact with the benches ; 



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