Garden and Forest. 



[Number 35S, 



lobe of the lip and this elongated rostellum are the most 

 peculiar characters of the genus. A figure of it, prepared 

 from a second plant exhibited at a meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society a few weeks ago, is published in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle this week. It belongs to the modest 

 or purely botanical section of cultivated Orchids, and was 

 accordingly awarded a botanical certificate by the Orchid 

 Committee. 



Cymbidium Traceyanum. — Baron Schroeder again electri- 

 fied the Royal Horticultural Society by showing this week 

 a magnificent inflorescent from his unique specimen of ■ 

 this grand Cymbidium. It was about three feet in length 

 and bore twenty-one flowers. There is an opinion held by 

 some authorities that this plant is a natural hybrid between 

 C. giganteum and C. grandiflorum (Hookerianum), and 

 certainly the character of the flowers gives support to this 

 view of its origin. As the two supposed parents have, I 

 believe, already been successfully crossed, we shall know 

 in time. In any case, C.'Traceyanum is the king of all Cym- 

 bidiums. 



Klugia Notoniana. — This is a pretty greenhouse plant 

 which deserves to be better known. Probably it has hith- 

 erto failed to attract the notice of horticulturists because it 

 has always been treated as a stove plant and has proved 

 unsatisfactory. In a cool house, however, it behaves very 

 differently. There are plants of it at Kew now a foot across 

 crowded with healthy foliage, and the branches are termi- 

 nated with racemes of flowers something like Achimenes, 

 but the corolla has one large front lobe, a labellum, in fact. 

 The color is a rich gentian blue, with a blotch of yellow at 

 the base of the lip. In Ceylon this plant is common at an 

 elevation of 5,000 feet, occurring in great abundance in wet 

 places in gullies, and, according to Mr. Nock, of Hakgula, 

 it is always in flower. The natives eat the stems boiled, 

 and they are also used in making curries. K. Notoniana 

 is described in the Flora of British India as an annual with 

 small flowers. At Kew it is a perennial, and the corolla is 

 over an inch across. It is a Gesneriad and is allied to 

 Boea and Cyrtandra. 



Hardy Bamboos. — A series of articles on these plants is 

 appearing in llie Garden from the pen of Mr. A. B. Free- 

 man Mitford, C. B. , M.P. , who has a large collection of 

 his beautiful garden at Batsford, near 

 Mr, Mitford has been collecting and 

 for some years, and his observations 

 are rich in practical suggestions for the cultivator as well as 

 for the botanist. I believe it is his intention to republish 

 his articles in book form, with illustrations. Bamboos for 

 the outdoor garden in England have only lately received 

 attention, but already the number that can be grown out- 

 of-doors is extraordinary. At Kew there are between forty 

 and fifty species and varieties which have stood our climate 

 for two or three years. At Batsford the Bamboos are 

 planted in large groups in various positions in the land- 

 scape, and they promise to produce in a year or two an 

 effect such as has never before been seen in England. 



A Liberal Gift. — A winter garden, which is to cost ten 

 thousand pounds, has been offered by Mr. Henry Yates 

 Thompson (whilom proprietor of the Pall Mall Gazette), 

 and accepted by the Liverpool City Council for its largest 

 and handsomest park — namely, Sefton Park. The house 

 is to be octagonal, one hundred feet in diameter, with a 

 curvilinear roof and a central dome rising to a height of 

 seventy feet. The interior is to be planted with Palms, 

 Tree-ferns, Bamboos, Camellias, Rhododendrons, etc., and 

 the whole is to be planned with a view to its affording 

 convenient shelter to frequenters of the park in showery 

 weather as well as for a pleasant promenade in winter. 

 The only condition attached to this generous gift is one 

 which might be looked for from a man of Mr. Yates 

 Thompson's well-known advanced views — namely, that it 

 should be open on Sundays as well as week days. 



Hardy Trees and Shrubs. — The collection of trees and 

 shrubs grown in the open air at Kevi^ comprises some three 

 thousand species. A list of them has been in preparation 



hardy Bamboos m 

 Stratford-on-Avon. 

 studying Bamboos 



for some time, and the first part of it is now published as 

 " the first of a series of hand-lists of the collections of living 

 plants cultivated in the Royal Gardens, which it is intended 

 to issue from time to time. ... It is hoped that these lists 

 will be of value in establishing an approximate standard of 

 nomenclature, which is often much confused in gardens, 

 and too frequently erroneous." The part now published 

 contains all the Polypetalai (Ranunculacese to Cornacese), 

 and, with the index, fills 148 pages. It is published by 

 Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode, the price being eighteen- 

 pence. [A notice of this book appears on page 9 of this 

 issue. — Ed.] 



In 1768 there were 488 hardy trees and shrubs grown at 

 Kew, where, even then, an arboretum had been a feature 

 for some years. The collection gradually grew until in 

 1845 over one hundred acres of what was then known as 

 the "Wilderness" were added to the gardens with a view 

 to forming a national arboretum. In 1850 a nursery for 

 hardy trees and shrubs was formed, and in 1870 a new 

 pinetum was started. "The late Director, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker (1865-1885), spared no pains to amass the most 

 complete collection which could be formed of hardy 

 woody plants. These were obtained from public and 

 private correspondents and establishments at home and 

 abroad, partly by purchase, partly by gift and exchange." 

 The present Director, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, has continued 

 the work of planting and improving the collections, which 

 are now unquestionably unrivaled in regard to their com- 

 prehensiveness. Kew is not an ideal place for an arbore- 

 tum ; it is too near the bad influence of London smoke, and 

 the soil is poor, in some places mere gravel, with the thin- 

 nest crust of soil. Consequently some of the specimens 

 are not of the healthiest character, still, taken as a whole, 

 the collection is certainly without a rival. 



Some of the plants included in the list are only hardy in 

 sheltered positions, such as against walls, and a few, al- 

 though they are tried again and again, have invariably 

 perished in severe weather. Such, for instance, are Rosa 

 gigantea, R. berberifolia, Illicium floridanum and a few 

 others. Generally, however, it may be said of all the plants 

 included in the list that they are hardy at Kew. 



The nomenclature is, of course, that of the Genera Plati- 

 tarian and the Index Kewensis. It is to be hoped, novi' that 

 we have a standard list, all who are interested will adopt 

 it, and, by so doing, reduce the present woeful confusion 

 in the names of cultivated plants. Horticulturists want a 

 name only for a very simple purpose, namely, to identify 

 the plant by, and it is desirable that the plant should bear the 

 same name in every country the whole world over. This 

 IS asking a great deal, but it is certainly the end to be 

 aimed at. ■ 



In the list under notice there are 994 species and 640 

 botanical varieties, and these have no less than 2,127 

 synonyms. It has been a task of considerable difficulty, 

 entailing much labor and care, to bring this lot of names 

 into order, and Mr. Nicholson, the curator, whose knowl- 

 edge of trees and shrubs is unrivaled in England, deserves 

 the thanks of all who are interested in these plants for his 

 share, the principal portion, be it said, of the work. It is 

 only with the vast resources- of Kew that such an under- 

 taking could have been brought to a successful issue. 

 When complete, and it is to be hoped that the remainder 

 will soon be finished, the list will be of the greatest use. 

 Each name is followed by the authority, a reference to a 

 figure and the country of which the plant is a native. Then 

 follow the synonyms. The names are printed only on one 

 side of the leaves, this leaving space for additions. 



London. W. WatSOTl. 



The dry rustle of the withered Oak-leaves is the voice of 

 the wood in winter. It sounds like the roar of the sea, and is 

 inspiriting like that, suggesting how all the land is sea-coast t& 

 the aerial ocean. It is the sound of the surf of an unseen 

 ocean breaking on the forest like water on sand and rocks. It 

 rises and falls, swells and dies away with agreeable alternation^ 

 as the sea-surf does.^T/ioreaii's journal, January 2, 1859. 



