January 2, 1S95.] 



Garden and Forest. 



made as efficient as the perpendicular form now prevail- 

 ino-, it might be practicable to give it a design good in 

 proportion, perhaps tower-like in character, and in har- 

 mony with the landscape of which it must necessarily be 

 a conspicuous feature. Possibly much may be done to 

 improve the perpendicular form ; but it must evidently be 

 developed upon quite different lines from the old-fashioned 

 windmill, for lightness and simplicity in construction are 

 required in order to secure the greatest amount of energy 

 at a minimum of cost. The circular form is, of course, 

 essential to efficiency, and must be retained. In lightness 

 and strength great advances have been made by the sub- 

 stitution of steel for wood. Still greater advances would 

 seem possible by the use of aluminum, which, being ex- 

 tremely malleable, would seem to be the most suitable 

 substance for very thin wind-surfaces. Being non-corrosive 

 in nature the metal could be used in its natural color, and 

 its light and silvery appearance might produce an agree- 

 able, though novel, effect, not unlike the gleaming of white 

 sails on the blue water. Again, much may perhaps be done 

 to give the supporting structure a more graceful and at- 

 tractive form, and a pleasing effect might be produced by 

 the training of climbing plants over it. At all events, in 

 view of the increasing prominence of the windmill in our 

 landscapes, the subject seems worth the attention of com- 

 petent artists. , 



Boston. 



Sylvester Baxter. 



Christmas in the Pines. 



THE Pines just now remind one of Florida rather than 

 of New Jersey. I never remember to have seen as 

 much freshness in a ramble here at Christmas-time as now 

 appears, and I can hardly realize that these are winter days. 

 The foliage is so green and the berries so bright and plump 

 that it is difficult to associate them with shriveling frosts. 

 Not a flake of snow has fallen, and many warm rains have 

 served to keep up the illusion that somehow this is a be- 

 lated section of summer. The woods are always fragrant, 

 but now they do not exhale the rich odor of fallen leaves, 

 but the subtle, living aroma of growing Pine-trees, and the 

 spice of shrubs and herbs, which is always so refreshing. 



The creeping plants have taken on some of the most 

 brilliant hues. The slender Running Blackberry, Rubus 

 hispidus, is a study ; some of its leaves are a brilliant scar- 

 let, others purple and crimson, while many still retain their 

 deep green hue. The low Sand Blackberry, R. cuneifolius, 

 is also holding its leaves, but these are mostly green. The 

 Swamp Rose, too, is green and full of bristly fruit ; the 

 Dwarf Wild Rose is conspicuous with its abundant smooth 

 red hips and its persistently green leaves, and the Wild 

 Strawberry covers the ground in places with a carpet of 

 such varied color as to defy description. Some of the Thorns 

 are holding their foliage as well as their fruit, especially 

 Crateegus uniflora, which looks much like an evergreen 

 with its thick shining leaves. 



But the crowning glory of the Pines at this time is found 

 in the Heath and HoUy families. The deep green, glossy 

 foliage of the Laurel was never more handsome than now. 

 Cassandra is showing its flower-buds in all the axils of 

 the small evergreen leaves. The Sand Myrtle, Leiophyl- 

 lum, another pretty little shrub among the Heaths, has an 

 abundance of dark shining leaves, and when not too 

 crowded it has the aspect of a much-branched miniature 

 tree. Gaylussacia dumosa is still covered with its thick 

 glossy leaves, quite like an evergreen, and so are many of 

 the Andromedas and Leucothoes. Possibly the long drought 

 of summer has something to do with the unusual persis- 

 tence of the leaves of the deciduous shrubs. When the 

 early autumn rains came, many of the spring-ilowering 

 species blossomed, and new leaves put out, which are 

 not yet ready to loosen their hold. But many of the old 

 leaves, too, still remain on the branches as if they had 

 determined to become evergreen or had forgotten to ripen 

 and fall. 



The trailing plants in the Heath family are no less 

 attractive. The Cranberry, with its red fruit and lustrous 

 little leaves running through beds of moss, has a sprightly 

 look that harmonizes well with the wild flavor of its ber- 

 ries. The Trailing Arbutus is showing its clusters of 

 buds, all ready for blossoming next spring. The ber- 

 ries of the Creeping Wintergreen were never larger than 

 they now are and never glowed with a deeper scarlet, and 

 the leaves of the running Chimaphilas were never more 

 thick and substantial. The ever-welcome Holly displays 

 its brilliant berries in clusters of unusual size, and its rela- 

 tives. Ilex verticillata and i. tevigata, with fruit equally 

 bright, have never carried a heavier Christmas crop, while 

 the shining leaves and black fruit of I. glabra are quite as 

 attractive. 



Cone-bearing sprays of fragrant Pine, and the Cedar, 

 with its small blue-gray cones, and the fruit of the Sweet 

 Gum in handsome round heads on long stalks, can be 

 arranged so easily into beautiful combinations that one is 

 tempted to carry them away by the armful for Christmas 

 decorations. The Mistletoe, with its yellowish green 

 leaves and white berries, is here, too, and has a fascination 

 for most people, but I must confess that many of the other 

 evergreens in the Pines are far superior to this in my 

 esteem. Some of the Lycopodiums are highly ornamental, 

 especially L. obscurum, which is so like a little tree, and 

 L. alopecuroides, with its more stout and thicker stems, 

 can be woven with good effect into almost any arrange- 

 ment of Christmas green. The long, curved, grass-like 

 leaves of Xerophyllum are effective, too, when mingled 

 with other evergreen leaves, and so are the infinitely 

 varied seed-vessels in their sober colors, the cones of the 

 Pine family, Rose hips and other fruits, in bright tints, all 

 of which the Pines now offer in unstinted measure. 



vineiand.N.j. Mary Treat. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



ScHOMBURGKiA RHINODORA, var. KiMBALLiANA. — This plant 

 was named by Reichenbach in 1888, in compliment to Mr. 

 W. S. Kimball, of Rochester, New York, in whose collec- 

 tion it first flowered, producing "a long-branched raceme 

 bearing numerous light purple flowers." A plant of it was 

 shown in flower last week by :Messrs. H. Low & Co., at 

 the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society and received 

 an award of merit. It has narrow pseudo-bulbs eight 

 inches long, hollow, as in all Schomburgkias, and the 

 leaves are six inches long, thick and leathery. The scape 

 is erect, two feet long, in this case bearing only one short 

 branch. The flowers are clustered about the apex of the 

 scape and each one is two inches across, with narrow 

 oblanceolate segments colored bright purple, with a dark 

 crisp margin on the front of the folded lip. It belongs to 

 the same section of the genus as S. Tibicinis, and is prob- 

 ably as difficult to flower. 



Serratostylis modesta. — This is a new genus of Orchids, 

 which first flowered in the collection of Sir Trevor Law- 

 rence, at Burford Lodge, in February of last year, and was 

 first described in the Keiv BuUelin. 1894, p. 158- It was 

 sent to Mr. O'Brien from the Andes of New Granada by 

 Mr. F. C. Lehmann. Mr. Rolfe, who described it, places it 

 next to Brassia, although in some of its characters it re- 

 sembles Trichopilia and Ornithocephalus. It has linear- 

 oblong smooth pseudo-bulbs two inches long, each bear- 

 ing a single, broadly lanceolate leathery leaf, seven inches 

 by two inches. The'^scape, which is developed from the 

 base of the mature pseudo-bulb, is nodding, seven inches 

 long, crowded with flowers in which the segments are 

 equal, spreading, forming a star an inch across, colored 

 light red-brown, margined with pale yellow, the small 

 narrow lip being whiti'sh yellow, with a few purple lines. 

 The column has a pair of wing-like auricles and hmbriated 

 top and an elongated beak-like rostellum. The linear front 



