552 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 13, 1889, 



Lydia W. Shattuck, who recently died at an advanced age, 

 had been teacher of botany in Mount Holyoke Seminary for 

 no less than forty-one years. To the interest attracted by her 

 teaching- was largely due the foiuiding of Williston Hall and 

 its scientific collections. 



In the article entitled " A Destructive Cornel Saw-fly," on 

 page 521 of this volume, at the fourth line of the second 

 column, the phrase "in the imperfect and mature stages" 

 should be transposed so as to read "which, in the imperfect 

 and mature stages, attacked and destroyed many larvee." 



A new variegated form of the east Asian Hercules' Club 

 [Aralia Chinensis), the leaves broadly blotched with yellow, 

 in the exhibit of the Associated Nurserymen of Boslcopp, will 

 be prized by people who are interested in plants with abnor- 

 mally colored foliage — a class with which our gardens seem 

 already sufficiently supplied. 



A correspondent in California sends us a specimen of cork 

 two inches thick, taken from a Cork Oak planted at San Ga- 

 briel twenty-eight years ago. The specimen is a part of the 

 third crop produced l)y this tree. The prospect that the culti- 

 vation of the Cork Oak will l)ecome a large and profitable in- 

 dustry in some parts of California is excellent. 



Abies siibalpina, a native of the forests of the Rocky Moim- 

 tains, where it is found growing only at high elevations, still 

 remains one of the rarest of the American conifers in cultiva- 

 tion. It may interest the cultivators of such plants to know 

 that a considerable stock of well grown yoiuig specimens of 

 this species can be found in Mr. John Waterer's Nin^sery, 

 Bagshot, England. 



A personal letter from the Director of the gardens of the 

 Villa Thuret calls attention to the value of Lippia canescens 

 as a permanent lawn plant for California and similar dry re- 

 gions. This plant spreads by means of prostrate stems, and 

 is not affected by the hot, dry summers of Provence. M. Nau- 

 din will distribute a few seeds to Californians who may desire 

 to experiment with it. 



Mr. S. B. Parsons writes that no shrub on his grounds 

 excels our native Itea Virglnica in the splendor of its autumn 

 colors. Even now, after the leaves have fallen from nearly 

 every other shrub, they are still abundant on the Itea, and of 

 a solid crimson color. This shrub also has the merit of 

 blooming in late June and July after the mass of shrubs have 

 passed their season of flowers. 



Secretary Rusk, in his report just issued, urges upon the 

 government the duty of assuming a more definite supervision 

 over the forests of the country, or, at least, over such forest- 

 areas as are owned by the government, and occupy positions 

 of importance in the regulation of the water-flow and other 

 climatic conditions. At present, he adds, we are without de- 

 finite knowledge of the extent, location, condition and value, 

 direct or indirect, of the forest property now in the hands of 

 the general government ; much less do we know of the for- 

 est condition of the country. 



Plants of the European Spindle-tree {^Eiionymus Eiiropcea) 

 are remarkably fine this year in the neighborhood of Boston. 

 This species, of which a number of varieties are in cultiva- 

 tion, attains the size of a small tree. It is perfectly hardy, the 

 habit is good, the fruit is abimdant and conspicuous, and the 

 leaves late in autumn assume a brilliant scarlet color, which 

 contrasts agreeably with the red and rose-colored fruit. The 

 European tree far excels its American relatives in the bril- 

 liancy of its autumn coloring, which, perhaps, is not surpassed 

 by that of any other European plant. 



It is not, perhaps, generally known that Parrotia Persica, a 

 tall shrub from the Orient, related to our Witch Hazel, is per- 

 fectly hardy in the northern states. This plant has long been 

 valued in European gardens for the brilliant yellow tints the 

 foliage assumes in winter, and in this country, even where 

 bright-colored autumn foliage is the rule rather than the ex- 

 ception, Parrotia is well worth cultivating for the display of 

 color it makes during the first week of November. There is a 

 second species, P. J acquemontiana, a native of Cashmere, 

 which has probably not been introduced into the United 

 States. 



Lincoln Park, in Chicago, contains St. Gaudens' admirable 

 " Lincoln," and not far away from it stands Mr. Boyle's group 

 of Indian figures called "The Alarm," an interesting if some- 

 what immature work, far above the average of the figiu'es 

 which people our eastern parks. To these has recently been 

 added a third statue, said to possess unusual artistic merit. It 



was given by the Honorable Lambert Tree, formerly our 

 minister to Belgium, and was executed by the Belgian sculp- 

 tor, Jacques de Lalaine. It represents La Salle. The figure 

 is bronze, of heroic size, and shows the explorer in travel- 

 worn garments, standing with one foot on the prostrate trunk 

 of a tree and gazing earnestly toward the south-west. 



Gardeners rarely select herbaceous plants on account of the 

 autumn colors of their foliage, and there are not many plants 

 which belong to this class which are distinguished in this par- 

 ticular. A notable exception is the Japanese Lysimachia 

 clethroides, the leaves of which are colored during the first ten 

 days of November bright orange and scarlet. This is a hand- 

 some and a perfectly hardy plant, well worth a place, too, in 

 the garden for its long, one-sided, curved spikes of white 

 flowers, which are nearly half an mch across. It grows to 

 a height of two to three feet, and its only drawback is that it 

 grows too vigorously and spreads too rapidly by its imder- 

 ground stems. It is not easy to eradicate it from a garden 

 when it is once fairly established. 



All the monstrosities in the way of " floral decorations " 

 with which our pleasure-grounds are deformed, we too com- 

 monly credit to the gardener in charge, forgetting that he is 

 employed by others, and may possibly but execute their defi- 

 nite l)iddings. According to a letter in i\\& American Architect 

 and Biiilditig Ne%vs, great injustice is done to one executive at 

 least. Speaking of Jackson Park he says : " Here Garfield, 

 made entirely of Cacti, reposed one year ; here the lamented 

 Jumbo, made of exactly the same material as the President, 

 bristles each summer ; and not far off, a gentleman on a 

 bicycle, a loving couple in a boat, a sun-dial, a calendar, etc., 

 bloom and flourish. The head gardener has very recently 

 published a protest in an agricultural paper against these 

 abominations ; but how can he dispense with them when 

 people enjoy them, children cry for theni, and the Park Com- 

 missioners insist on having them ? " Undoubtedly the same 

 influences control many other parks all over the country, and 

 it is time that the gardener should be relieved of a portion of 

 the obloquy and that the public should be told where the re- 

 sponsibility rests. 



Robert Douglas & Sons, of Waukegan, Illinois, have just 

 signed a contract with Mr. George Vanderbilt to make a plan- 

 tation of trees on his estate near Ashville, in North Carolina. 

 About 1,000 acres are to be planted eventually, although the 

 present contract is for not less than 300 acres, to be planted 

 within twenty-four months. Twelve hundred trees are to be 

 planted to the acre, the planters agreeing to cultivate them 

 during two years, and to deliver at the end of that time not 

 less than 1,100 trees to the acre. White Pines {Pinics Strobus) 

 are to be planted principally, with four per cent, of Douglas 

 Fir, as an experiment, and a few deciduous trees will be 

 mixed through the conifers. Plants from twelve to eighteen 

 inches high will be used. Mr. Douglas, who is on the groimd 

 giving his personal supervision to preparing the ground, pro- 

 poses to plant fifty or a hundred acres this autumn for the 

 purpose of testing the possibility of late autumn planting. 

 Mr. Vanderbilt's experiment is an important one, and will be 

 watched with interest. This is, without doubt, the first 

 attempt at tree-planting on so large a scale which has been 

 made in the southern states. 



Monsieur Andre describes in a recent number of the Revue 

 Horticole the new hybrid, Hypericum Moseriannni, which 

 attracted much attention this summer at the Paris Exposition, 

 where it was one of the most interesting of the newer hardy 

 plants shown. It was obtained by Monsieur Moser, of Ver- 

 sailles, by crossing Hypericum paiulum with H. calycinum. 

 The hybrid unites the qualities of the two parents and is con- 

 sidered superior to them both. It is a shrub three to four and 

 a half feet high, with numerous upright branches gracefully 

 arching above the middle. They are round, at first red, but 

 eventually turn green, and are covered with oposite, entire, 

 subsessile, oval, obtuse, opaque leaves, which are dark green 

 above, paler and glaucous on the lower surface, and from one 

 to two inches long by half an inch wide. The inflorescence is 

 terminal, simple, or with three flowers which are an inch 

 across, with a spreading, slightly cup-shaped corolla, of bright, 

 clear yellow, concave petals, and purple stamens. The hybrid 

 might be described as a tall growing, large flowered Hyperi- 

 cum patulum, resembling H. calycinum in the size of its 

 flowers and in the texture and arrangement of the foliage. 

 Hypericutn Moserianiim, if it proves hardy in this country, as 

 there is every reason to believe that it may, will make an 

 interesting and valuable addition to our list of hardy summer- 

 blooming shrubs. 



