April 24, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



169 



wonder tliat it is the favorite weeping tree of Japan. Our sin- 

 gle specimen is about fifteen feet in height, and is now covered 

 witli buds of a fine shade of deep carmine, which a day of 

 warm sunshine will develop into delicate pink bloom. 



In a wild portion of the grounds ledges of limestone rock 

 adorn the sides and crown the summit of a little hill, and here 

 many Red Cedars have sprung up of their own accord. These 

 form a beautiful background tor the large-flowering Dogwood, 

 Cornus florida, and Red Bud, associated so generally in our 

 woods against just such a dark screen of evergreen foliage, 

 and surrounded, as here, by Columbine and lichen-covered 

 rocks. This is our natural rockery, and here we think culti- 

 vated plants would be out of place. This is the spot for Ferns 

 and our native wild flowers, such as Blood-root, Twin-leaf, 

 Hepaticas, Anemones, Dicentras and Violets. These are all 

 now in bloom. The only flower not found in our neighbor- 

 hood, which has here a place, is the single white, fragrant, 

 English Violet, and this is very charming, naturalized in the 

 grass, where it grows and increases rapidly. 



Following upon three early springs, this April of 1895 seems 

 abnormally late, but is not really so. For a number of years 

 I have noted the time of flowering of many plants at Rose 

 Brake. To take, for instance, the Forsythias, I And in my note- 

 book, that they began to open their golden bells in 1888 on the 

 17th of April ; in 1889 they commenced to bloom on the i6th ; 

 in 189Q they bloomed on the 14th of April ; in 1891 they were 

 beginning to flower on the 15th ; in 1892 I found their first 

 flowers on the 8th ; in 1893 on the 7th, and in 1894, that excep- 

 tional and treacherous spring, they were in full bloom by the 

 24th of March ! This year a few buds opened on the 13th of 

 April. At the date of this article, which is the 17th, they are 

 not yet in full bloom. 



Chimonanthus fragrans is the first shrub to flower in our 

 garden. Only one bud on a bush about three feet high sur- 

 vived the terrible cold of the past winter. One solitary bloom 

 opened early in March. This is with us the first fragrant 

 flower of the opening year. Almost all the earliest flowers are 

 scentless, such as Jasminum nudiflorum, the Forsythias and 

 many bulbs. But Violets, Hyacinths and fragrant Narcissus 

 follow quickly in their train. However, the earliest Narcissus 

 that blooms here is scentless, and is a few days in advance of 

 the fragrant varieties. I think it is N. princeps, and it blooms 

 a little later than the first Crocuses and Snowdrops. Chiono- 

 doxa Lucilise is now at its best, and so are many Hyacinths. 

 Peaches are venturing a few blossoms in this neighborhood, 

 but the nights are still cold, and we are not beyond the danger 

 of heavy frost. 

 Ruse Brake, w. Va. DciHske Dandridgc. 



Some Hyacinths and Grape Hyacinths. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It may help some of your readers to identify the plant 

 described in Garden and Forest for April lothas Hyacinthus 

 ciliatus (Muscari azureum), if they are reminded that it is more 

 commonly known in gardens as Hyacinthus azureus. It was 

 first described by Baker as Muscari lingulatum, under which 

 name it has been previously described in Garden and Forest. 

 It has the habit of Muscari, with the campanulate flowers of 

 the Hyacinth, and is evidently one of the hybrids common in 

 the Lily family, and Baker, in the Journal of the Linncen So- 

 ciety, vol. ii., page 427, named it H. azureus. It was figured 

 with a colored plate in The Garden. August loth, 1889. It 

 has been collected in the Caramanian and Cilician Taurus, 

 and is sometimes offered in trade-lists as Muscari azureurri 

 (Fenzl.) While its effect is that of a rich azure blue Grape 

 Hyacinth, a slight examination will show that the individual 

 flowers are dissimilar. It flowers here with the second early 

 Snowdrops, and is valuable for its earliness as well as its rare 

 color. It usually produces seeds, and with these and offsets a 

 stock should be worked up to form a good colony, as it will 

 require a lew score of plants to secure a good effect in the 

 border. 



There is a beautiful blue Muscari, M. Scovilzianum, which 

 will not flower for several weeks, which is rather prettier than 

 Hyacinthus ciliatus. It has a larger flowering spike, and the flow- 

 ers are light blue of the purest, daintiest shade. A collection of 

 Grape Hyacinths should always include the white variety of M. 

 botryoides, which now commences to expand its grape-like flow- 

 ers. It is difficult to separate the purple Muscari. A variety 

 from the Taurus, which has been established here a few years, 

 is very vigorous usually, and is an intense purple, shading to 

 a lighter color at the top of spike. It is generally a February 

 bloomer, but this season has flowered late and is much smaller 

 than usual. 



Hyacinthus amethystinus scarcely flowers until June. Its 

 small bell-like flowers are borne sparsely on graceful scapes 

 about three inches long. They are of a light amethyst- 

 blue. This is altogether a most charming plant. From Mr. 

 Wlfittall a few years ago came a few stray bulbs of H. lineatus. 

 This seems to be the smallest member of the family. It has 

 two lanceolate leaves, two to three inches long, and a short 

 scape with a raceme of small blue flowers. A dainty plant 

 for a rockery, it would be easily lost in an ordinary garden. It 

 flowers in June. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Recent Publications. 



The Land Birds and Ga??ie Birds of New England, with 

 descriptions of the birds, their nests and eggs, their habits 

 and notes, with illustrations. By H. D. Minot. Second 

 edition, edited by William Brewster. Houghton MifHin 

 & Co. 1895. 8vo. 



The new edition of Minot's Land and Game Birds 0/ New 

 England cannot fail to receive a warm welcome from all 

 students of our birds. The original edition appeared in 

 1S77. Considered as the work of a lad of seventeen, it may 

 fairly be called a remarkable production. Although show- 

 ing at times immaturity of judgment, its value as a record 

 of original field observation was generally recognized at 

 the time of its appearance, and the appreciation of its 

 mei^its in this regard has, perhaps, increased with the lapse 

 of time. The character of the work is in the main careful 

 and accurate, and no small skill is frequently shown in 

 conveying the delicate impressions received from out-of- 

 door study. The truth of a passage like the followino- 

 must be felt by every bird-lover accustomed to afternoon 

 walks in winter : 



From my acquaintance with the Tree Sparrows, I have almost 

 involuntarily learned to associate them with a winter's after- 

 noon drawing to its close, a clear sunset, with, perhaps, dark 

 clouds above, and a rising north-west wind which sweeps 

 across the fields to warn us of to-morrow's cold. Tlie almost 

 mournful chip of these birds, as they fly to their nightly rest, 

 has always seemed to me a fitting accompaniment for such 

 a scene. 



A second edition was always contemplated by the au- 

 thor, and after his untimely death the preparation of it was 

 intrusted to our most accomplished field ornithologist, Mr. 

 William Brewster, who has brought to his task the good 

 taste and ripe judgment that have made his editorial work 

 a model of its kind. The original form of the text has been 

 carefully preserved, and embodied in the notes the reader 

 is put in possession of much information as to the general 

 distribution of the birds treated of, together with such addi- 

 tional knowledge of their habits, notes, etc., as has been 

 acquired since the time when the book was written. Such 

 annotations must ensure for the work a fresh career of 

 usefulness. 



The book is handsomely printed. It is prefixed by an 

 excellent portrait of the author, together with a simple but 

 touching biographical notice by his father, and a judicious 

 introduction by the editor. 



Notes. 



Among the plants in flower for Easter decoration in this 

 city were a few examples of Dicentra spectabilis, and very 

 graceful they were. 



We have received from Mr. George Hanson, Jackson, Cali- 

 fornia, some flowers of the beautiful yellow Calochortus Ben- 

 thami, shovying that Sn the foot-hills of the Sierras the flower- 

 ing season is much in advance of ours, as here the leaves of 

 these plants are just appearing. 



During the months of May and June a series of lectures and 

 field-meetings will be conducted at the Arnold Arboretum by 

 Mr. J. G. Jack, for tlie purpose of giving popular instruction 

 concerning the trees and shrubs which grow in New England. 

 The instruction given is not technical, and a knowledge of de- 

 scriptive botany is not essential for students. Their purpose 

 is to indicate by comparison the easiest means of distinguish- 

 irig common native trees and shrubs and of recognizing for- 

 eign species. The different species and groups will be studied 



