January i6, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



25 



warm sunshine in summer and a minimum winter temper- 

 ature of about twenty-tive degrees, Fahrenheit, are the 

 conditions most essential to success. 



London. W. WalSOtl. 



Plant Notes. 



LoNiCERA Standishii AND L. Fragrantissima. — We place 

 these two Bush Honeysuckles together because they are 

 both of Asiatic, probably Chinese, origin, and are so closely 

 allied that they may ultimately be classified as varieties of 





I "' 





.S* 



Fig. 4.— Pinus latifolia.— See page ; 



a single species. Lonicera Standishii, which was intro- 

 duced into England by Fortune, who found it a common 

 garden-plant in Shanghai, is somewhat the hardier of the 

 two, and its deciduous leaves indicate that it is of more 

 northern origin. Both plants hold their leaves well into 

 the autumn, but L. fragrantissima is nearly evergreen in 

 Philadelphia, and, perhaps, entirely so not far south of 

 that latitude. Both species open their flowers very early 

 here, before the appearance of their leaves, and sometimes 

 flowers appear quite abundantly in autumn before all the roots of the plant, which was a seedling three years ok 



leaves have fallen. Fortune's plant was used quite gen- 

 erously in the original plantations of Central Park, and its 

 white flowers are often seen in warm days in February, 

 while their abundant bloom in April makes this Honey- 

 suckle a feature of the park shrubberies. The flowers of 

 both species are white, although there is a tendency toward 

 rose-color in some individuals of L. Standishii. Some of 

 the buds on both plants seem ready to open almost any 

 warm day in winter, and if the twigs are cut off and placed 

 in water in a warm room they will soon fill it with their 

 fragrance, which resembles that of violets. 

 It is noteworthy that this fragrance is 

 quite as marked in the precocious flow- 

 ers which appear in autumn as in those 

 which wait until their regular season. 

 Both these Honeysuckles are tall, stout- 

 growing, twiggy shrubs with yellow- 

 brown branches. Occasionally, after a 

 mild winter, in which the buds have 

 swelled more than usual, they are blasted 

 by very cold weather in the spring, but 

 there are usually enough remaining to 

 open later and give a fair amount of 

 bloom. In a good season it is not un- 

 common to find ripe berries among the 

 open flowers in JMay. 



Acacia pubescens. — We have often spoken 

 of this old plant, which was introduced 

 into cultivation more than a century ago, 

 but it is worth repeating here ; that for 

 certain purposes it is one of the very best 

 of this large genus, and a well-grown 

 specimen can hardly be excelled in grace 

 of form. Seedling plants are the strongest. 

 They make roots rapidly, and should be 

 shifted on until the specimens occupy a 

 large tub. When trained to a single stem 

 they will attain the height of about ten 

 feet, and the head will expand into as 

 great a breadth, with drooping branches 

 thickly hung with racemes of small globu- 

 lar sulphur-colored flowers, which appear 

 to the best advantage among the delicate 

 Fern-like foliage. These flowers, too, are 

 delightfully fragrant. The plant is not par- 

 ticular as to soil. After the flowering sea- 

 son, which begins in February and lasts 

 for about six weeks, the branches should be 

 cut back, so that a specimen can be kept 

 within the limit of convenient size for 

 many years, and if the soil is well top- 

 dressed it will always be in first-rate flow- 

 ering condition. The natural habitat of 

 the plant is southern Australia, and it can 

 be kept in any house where the tem- 

 perature does not fall below fortv. The 

 best treatment for young plants is to 

 plunge them out-of-doors somewhere 

 under a lath shelter, as they prefer a par- 

 tial shade. 



Clem.\tis recta. — This is a well-known 

 herbaceous perennial, making a compact 

 plant three or four feet high, and largerstill 

 when it has become well established, which 

 is covered in June with many-branched clusters of small, 

 densely crowded flowers, which are creamy white, and 

 fragrant. Old plan-ts which have remained undisturbed for 

 years are quite effective in a herbaceous border among tall 

 Delphiniums and other plants w'hich flower at this season. 

 It is a native of southern Europe and has been cultivated 

 for its flowers in English gardens for three hundred years. 

 We make mention of it at this time, having recently seen a 

 plant which soon promises to bloom imder glass. The 





