568 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 27, iJ 



glass. Fitzroya Patagonica, fifteen feet high, a beautiful mass 

 of Podocarpits Chilina, with its long, narrow, dark green 

 leaves, and two small growing conifers which have originated 

 in the Pallanza establishment, must conclude my list of the 

 Pine and Fir tribes. One of these — here called Thiijopsis 

 nidifera — is a dwarf plant with gracefully curved branches, 

 suggesting a bird's nest ; it is said to be a hybrid between 

 Ciiainacyparis Niitkaensis and the Oregon Cedar (C Lawson- 

 iand). The other is Retinospora Trubetzkoyana, named in 

 honor of Prince Trubetzkoy, whose famous garden we, un- 

 fortunately, had no time to visit. 



Camellias are a great feature at Rovelli's ; they grow as 

 freely as do the Cherry Laurels in England, and are cultivated 

 in great numbers, from small stuff in pots to big bushes in the 

 open ground. A goodly proportion are exported to other 

 countries, the bushes selected for dispatch in autumn (as 

 early as the beginning of September), being transplanted in 

 spring. C. Sasatiqita and its varieties are the first to flower ; 

 they begin in November ; the others commence to blossom 

 in January and continue until April. Other members of the 

 Camellia family deserving of notice are Tea-plants, both 

 from Assam and China ; from his fine bushes of these 

 Signor Rovelli — who has traveled a good deal and knows 

 what tea is — told us that he had manufactured tea of fairly 

 good quality. 



The Camphor tree (^Cinnamomum Camphord) grows as freely 

 at Pallanza as a Willow or Poplar in many countries, and gives 

 some trouble in pruning to prevent its exceeding the limits 

 assigned to it ; the trunk measured between two and three 

 feet in diameter. The East Indian C. glandtilif era aXso thrives 

 equally well ; here, however, the name under which it is grown 

 is Latirus glandulifera, a title now incorrect and somewhat 

 misleading, as there are no true Laurels in India, the Sweet 

 Bay — the Laurel of the classical writers — -"being confined to the 

 Mediterranean region, and the only other species of Laurus 

 being a native of the Canary Islands. The California Olive 

 {Unibellula7'ia Californicd) also grows to tree size and is 

 everywhere known in the regions visited by us as Lauriis 

 regalis. In England it requires to be treated as a wall 

 plant — except, perhaps, in such favored spots as Cornwall, and 

 a few others. 



Palms were not represented by many species, and of all of 

 them much finer examples are to be seen along the Riviera. 

 Phanix Canariensis is hardier here than the Date Palni, and 

 the Japanese Fan Palm (Tr achy carpus \_Chamarops\ excelsus) 

 is more robust and hardy than Chamcerops humilis, which is a 

 native of the Mediterranean region. Cocos campestris, a grace- 

 ful species, is hardy, but it grows much more slowly here than 

 along the Riviera. A fine example of Jubcsa spectabilis, with 

 a trunk two feet in diameter, is the most remarkable Palm at 

 Pallanza. 



Cycas revohita is the only Cycad which thrives in the open 

 air here. Viburnum Aivafuki — met with in southern gardens 

 under the name of V. hccidum — thrives wonderfully well ; one 

 grand plant, at least twenty-five feet in height, was bearing a 

 crop of coral red berries. The most noteworthy Oak was the 

 Portuguese and north African Quercus Mirbecki,a.tr:ee upward 

 of fifty feet high, which bears acorns annually. Bamboos were 

 very beautiful and vigorous ; it is sad that the garden nomen- 

 clature of these graceful plants is in such a state of utter con- 

 fusion. Bambusa Simoni — more correctly, Arutidinari Shno7ii 

 — is worth particular mention, not only on account of its 

 merits as an ornamental plant, but because it does not die 

 after flowering, as do many of its relatives. The Climbing Fig 

 {Ficus repens), so popular in its small-leaved condition for 

 clothing bare walls of plant houses in England, had here over- 

 topped its wall, and developed large-leaved, rigid branches, 

 which bore a crop of fruit. 



Leaving Pallanza, where we had a fine view of the snow- 

 clad glaciers and peaks of the Simplon group, we sailed 

 past the far-famed Borromean Islands, which were con- 

 verted in the seventeenth century by Count Vitalio Bor- 

 romeo from barren rocks into gai'dens which now have a 

 world-wide reputafion. Unluckily, we had no time to go to 

 Isola Bella, which boasts of many fine American trees. 

 Gardening proper can, however, hardly be said to exist in this 

 beautiful spot, terrace upon terrace with bewildering array of 

 statues, vases, fountains and grottoes making a formal, un- 

 lovely combinafion, quite distressing to those who hold that a 

 garden should exist primarily for plants and that the work of 

 the sculptor should be a secondary consideration. Oranges 

 and Lemons clothed the terrace walls, and fine Oleanders and 

 other flowering shrubs somewhat relieved the monotony of 

 stone-work. 



Kew. George Nicholson. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Yucca elata. 



THE two large arborescent Yuccas of the valley of the 

 lower Rio Grande, F. Trecidiana and Y. filifera, were 

 figured in the early issues of this journal. The illustration 

 upon page 569 of the present number represents a plant of 

 the tail Yucca peculiar to the dry, desert region west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, situated on both sides of the boundary 

 between the territory of the United States and that of 

 Mexico. It is the Yucca elaia of Engelman, who, at the 

 time his classical monograph upon the genus Yucca was 

 written, considered this plant a southern, and arborescent 

 form of the stemless Y. angusiifolia of northern New Mexico 

 and Colorado [Y. angusiifolia, var. elata^. He was fortunate 

 enough to see it growing, however, during a journey which 

 we made together to the Santa Rita Mountains in southern 

 Arizona, during the autumn of 1880, and became convinced 

 that it had best be considered a distinct species.* The 

 Arizona plant may be distinguished from the aUied Colorado 

 species by the tall, stout trunk, ten to twelve feet high, 

 with a diameter of eight to ten inches at the ground, and 

 by its long flowering scape, seven to ten feet high, naked 

 below, and bearing a much branched panicle often five 

 feet long. The perianth is spreading, three and a half 

 to four inches wide when fully expanded (those of the 

 allied species are more globose), with oval-concave seg- 

 ments, which are waxy white and deliciously fragrant. 

 Young plants begin to flower before they form a trunk, 

 but even these ar-e easily distinguished by the tall, naked 

 scape and by the shape of the flowers. 



A full panicle of flowers of this Yucca is an object of 

 surpassing and surprising beauty. Our illustration is from 

 a photograph made by Mr. C. G. Pringle on the dry plains 

 between the town of Tufson and the Rincon Mountains in 

 Arizona. It shows an old plant with two flower-panicles, 

 the ends of the branches bearing green and living leaves, 

 while a third branch and the upper half of the trunk are 

 covered and armed with the reflexed dead leaves of many 

 previous years. 



Yucca elata was first detected by the botanists of the 

 Mexican Boundary Survey more than thirty years ago, but 

 it is probable that it has not been introduced into cultiva- 

 tion until quite recently. Seeds have now, however, been 

 distributed among several European gardens, through the 

 agency of the Arnold Arboretum. C. S. S. 



Acanthopanax ricinifolia. 



THIS great tree Aralia of northern Japan promises to 

 become one of the most striking and remarkable 

 ornamental trees which can be grown in the climate of 

 the northern states. It was introduced several years ago 

 into the Arnold Arboretum, where the largest of the two 

 specimens which the Arboretum possesses is now nine 

 feet high, having grown at the rate of about one foot a 

 year. Although planted in low ground and in an exposed 

 situation, they have shown no sign of suffering during the 

 most severe winter they have experienced here. Flowers 

 have not appeared yet, but the deeply divided and sharply 

 lobed leaves fully a foot across, and borne on petioles 

 nine or ten inches long, serve to give an idea of what this 

 tree will look like if it ever reaches in this country the size 

 which it attains in Japan. There is no plant in the collec- 

 tion which presents, even in its young and undeveloped 

 state, an appearance so dissimilar to our native vegetation. 



The following popular account of this plant, extracted 

 from Rein's "Industries of Japan," may interest the lovers 

 of rare trees who have not access to the work itself: 



" This beautiful tree is distinguished by its great, lobed, 

 shiny leaves, its white flower-umbels and black fruit of the 



* " Yucca, elaia. — Trunk, three to five feet, or more, high; leaves, linear, rigid, 

 sharp pointed, filamentose on the white margins ; with white, oval, acute or acu- 

 minate bracts as long as the pedicels; flowers white; segments, ovate-acute; ovary 

 attenuated into a whitish style; capsule, cylindrical-ovate, obtuse, short cuspidate ; 

 seeds, large, one-half inch wide, narrowly wing-margined." — Engelraan in Botani- 

 cal Gazette^ vii. 17. 



