May Ij 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



173 



Four Native Trees in the North-west. 



THE importance of proper selection of species for forest- 

 planting was not realized by the early planters on the 

 north-western plains, and to-day the picture of the decay- 

 ing trees in these early groves is one of the greatest dis- 

 couragements to forest-planting. The Cottonwood is pre- 

 eminently a tree of bottom lands, and even here it is never 

 crowded into compact groves, but rather spread out into 

 an open belt of varying width, according to the character 

 of the soil and water-supply. Since it is rarely found on 

 the high prairies, one would hardly expect to make lasting 

 groves in such situations, and yet this was the tree most 

 extensively planted at first, and it has proved a failure 

 everywhere except on the low plains. Its almost universal 

 use may be attiibuted to the facts that it was considered a 

 rapid-growing tree ; that it was comparatively abundant 

 and was easily propagated. But when we compare the 

 growth of this species with that of some better native trees 

 one is inclined to dispute the general belief that it grows 

 much more rapidly than other trees. 



In the college tree plats here on the high prairie, taking 

 the growth for every year since 1889, the average annual 

 growth of the Cottonwood has been 27.1 inches; that of 

 the Box Elder has been 24.2 ; of the White Elm, 24.1, and 

 of the Green Ash, 16 inches. It will be seen that the 

 annual growth of the Cottonwood has been only three 

 inches greater than that of the Box Elder and the White 

 Elm, which last tree is counted among those of compara- 

 tively slow growth. Of the trees planted in the spring of 

 I S89 the tallest Cottonwood is eighteen feet eight inches 

 high and seventeen inches in circumference at the crown, 

 vi'hile the largest White Elm planted in the same year was 

 sixteen feet high and ten and a quarter inches in circum- 

 ference. A Box Elder of the same age was fifteen feet 

 high, and the best Green Ash was only ten feet and a half 

 high. 



This shows some superiority in the Cottonwood in regard 

 to size, but when we examine the trees for hardiness or 

 vigor one of the plats shows that of 330 Cottonwoodtrees 

 planted, only fifty-eight per cent, are living, while of 243 

 Box Elders, ninety-seven per cent are living ; of 1 1 1 White 

 Elms, eighty-four per cent, are living, and of 131 Green 

 Ash-trees, eighty-five per cent, are living. Forty-two per 

 cent, loss in the case of the Cottonwood as compared with 

 fifteen per cent, loss in the case of the White Elm is 

 significant. 



In addition, then, to the extensive failures of early plant- 

 ings of Cottonwood, this comparison shows the fruitless- 

 ness of using this tree on high prairies. It shows also that 

 although the Box Elder leads the White Elm in average 

 annual .growth and in hardiness of constitution — that is, in 

 the percentage of trees that have survived the first six years 

 after planting — it must be remembered that when full-grown 

 the Box Elder is neither a shade-tree nor a timber-tree, 

 while the Elm is both. The Elm grows more rapidly than 

 the Ash, and, so far, it is less subject to insect pests, and, 

 therefore, deserves a higher rank, especially where shade 

 and protection is the object of the planter rather than valua- 

 ble timber. t n n 1 „ 



stale AgricuUural CulleKe, Brookin,-s, S, D, l^- 0. LOI bell. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Hippeastrums in Enghmd. 



AT the present time the Hippeastrums are among the 

 most showy and valuable of greenhouse decorative 

 plants. Yesterday I had the pleasure of going through the 

 houses devoted to the cultivation of these plants at the 

 Chelsea establishment of Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, and 

 was much struck with their wonderful variety and beauty. 

 I gather from Bulletin No. 107 of the North Carolina Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station that Hippeastrums, or, as they 

 are generally called in gardens, Amaryllis, are not grown 

 to any great extent in the United States. This seems to me 



a fact to be regretted, and I hope that some enterprising 

 grower will take up the subject seriously. I have little 

 doubt that success would follow a genuine effort to popu- 

 larize so gorgeous a flower, and one, moreover, which can 

 be well grown without too much trouble. 



The Parentage of Garden Hippeastrums. — The race of 

 Hippeastrums, as itnow exists in England, is a creation of 

 quite modern date. Some of the wild species or forms 

 which have contributed to make the Hippeastrums what 

 they now are — I am speaking, of course, of the purely 

 artificial products of the gardener's art — have been in culti- 

 vation in this country for upwards of a century. H. eques- 

 tre, from tropical America, and H. Reginse, from Mexico, 

 West Indies, etc. (introduced in 172S), have been the prin- 

 cipal factors in furnishing the rich, deep red and crimson 

 tints of the earlier hybrids ; their influence can even now 

 be discerned in some of the latest seedlings. H. aulicum, 

 from central Brazil — introduced in 1819 — and H. vittatum, 

 an Andean species introduced in 1769, have also played an 

 important part. H. Leopold!, collected in the Peruvian 

 Andes by Pearce and sent by him to Messrs. Veitch in 1869, 

 and H. pardinum, also first discovered in the same regions 

 as the last named, by Pearce and sent by him to the Chelsea 

 nursery in 1867, have been largely used by Messrs. Veitch 

 in the production of their later seedlings, H, Leopoldi much 

 the more extensively of the two. H. reticulatum, intro- 

 duced from south Brazil in 1877, a rather small-flowered 

 species well marked by the crimson veinings and reticula- 

 tions of the segments, has given rise to a set of beautiful 

 autumn-flowering hybrids, to which sufficient attention has 

 not yet been |3aid. H. solandriflorum, a species introduced 

 from Brazil in 1820, is remarkable for its long-tubed green- 

 ish-white flowers, closely resembling those of some of the 

 Lilies of Japan, the Philippine Islands, etc.; this has given 

 rise to some interesting hybrids, but it has played no part 

 in the production of the regularly formed almost tubeless 

 flowers, which at present so attract the attention of the 

 horticultural public at the spring meetings of the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society in London. In fact, the Hippeastrum has 

 become a florist's flower. The green bar in the centre of 

 each segment, perhaps derived from H. psittacinum, has 

 been eliminated, and even the base of the segments of 

 many of the dark-colored seedlings is altogether clear of 

 any trace of green. In the light-colored seedlings the green 

 is evident enough. What in England would be regarded 

 as a very great acquisition would be a race with white or 

 blush flowers of as good form and substance as the beauti- 

 ful rich red ones without the green eye which at present is 

 so conspicuous. Five years ago Mr. Harry Veitch read a 

 paper on the Hippeastrum at one of the meetings of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, and any one wishing to take 

 up the cultivation of this beautiful genus should not fail to 

 consult this paper, published in full in the society's jour- 

 nal. An extract of a few lines will show what has been 

 done from a .gardening standpoint : "Comparing the latest 

 actjuisitions with the original species in respect of size, we 

 find that the flowers of the latter range from two and a half 

 to five inches diameter, with segments from three-quarters 

 to one and one-fourth inches broad, and with tubes three 

 to four inches long ; that of H. solandriflorum seven to 

 eight inches, long. Our best recent types have a diameter 

 of nine to eleven inches, with segments three and a half to 

 four inches broad, and the tube almost obsolete. As regards 

 color, scarlet and red prevail in some of the natural species, 

 crimson-scarlet veins, streaks and reticulations in others, 

 and all with a larger or smaller green centre. . . . We have 

 now an uninterrupted range of colors, from deep maroon- 

 crimson through crimson, crimson-scarlet, pure scarlet, 

 orange-scarlet, carmine, rose and rose-pink, to almost pure 

 white, with striped and reticulated forms of all these shades 

 of color." The dimensions above given, I may say, are 

 now understated. 



Cultivation. — The plan adopted by Messrs. X'citch A 

 Sons is as follows : Two-thirds good fibrous loam and one- 

 third cow-manure are brought together about the end of 



