1 84 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 376. 



Regarding the spelling of this word there is also some 

 doubt. The following are given : Cantaloupe, cantaloup, 

 cantaleiip, canteloup, canteloupe, cantalope, cantelope. 

 Nicholson, Vilmorin and De Candolle, who follows Nau- 

 din, agree in spelling it cantaloup, and the weight of 

 authority is certainly with this spelling. However, the 

 spelling is not ot so much importance to us as the correct 

 use of the word. r j iv -i 



Oklahoma Agricultural College. r.A. yVaugll. 



many respects the Agave applanata of Lemaire, and is 

 not readily separable from Engelmann's Agave Parryii, 

 which, in its young state at least, is not always distinguish- 

 able from the Agave Palmeri of the same author, or from 

 a species of western Texas into which, perhaps, this plant 

 also ranges. The name, however, is not important for our 

 purpose, which is to call attention to a very beautiful plant 

 which seems to be still little known in cultivation. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



An Arizona Agave. 



NO group of North American plants, with the excep- 

 tion, perhaps, of the Cacti, is more difiicult than the 

 Agaves to understand from specimens preserved in her- 

 baria ; and not much light is thrown upon these plants by 

 the occasional isolated individuals which drag out a more 

 or less miserable existence in the confinement of northern 

 glass-houses. Much confusion naturally exists in the iden- 

 tification of plants which have been named for the most 

 part from half-grown and often flowerless individuals in 

 European gardens, and it is more than probable that the 

 same species often appears in l>ooks under numerous 

 names. There are no plants, however, that are so well 

 suited to produce certain effects in the garden, especially 

 in countries warm and dry enough to enable them to 

 flourish in the open ground; and it is desirable from the 

 horticultural as well as the botanical point of view that 

 they should be studied under the most favorable conditions. 

 These can only be found when all the forms of the genus 

 planted side by side in some favorable region carefully 

 selected for the purpose are studied by a competent botan- 

 ist in all their stages of development. This is the only 

 way the limits of the species can be determined and their 

 synonymy satisfactorily settled. The astronomical observ- 

 atories of some of our universities establish posts of ob- 

 servation in remote countries in order to study certain 

 phenomena of the heavens under the best possible condi- 

 tions, and the great scientific gardens of the world might 

 in the same way increase their usefulness by establishing 

 in regions of peculiar climates collections of certain groups 

 of plants which cannot be studied in herbaiia, or under the 

 artificial conditions afforded by glass-houses. For example, 

 all tlie Agaves, Dasylirions, Beaucarnias, Yuccas, Nolinas 

 and Cacti would grow to perfection in a garden in southern 

 New Mexico or Arizona, and in such a garden a good 

 botanist would be able to learn, in the course of a few 

 years, more about these plants than has ever been learned 

 before. Agaves will never be known until this method is 

 adopted, and Cacti certainly will not, for a Cactus in a pot 

 rarely fruits, and often changes its appearance to a degree 

 that makes it unrecognizable. For the satisfactory eluci- 

 dation, therefore, of the flora of northern Mexico and the 

 adjacent parts of the United States, where such plants are 

 the conspicuous and most interesting features of the vege- 

 tation, a well-equipped local station is essential, and we 

 hope some day to see this plan put into operation. In the 

 mean time, labor expended in herbaria on the study of the 

 plants we have mentioned is practically thrown away, as 

 it can only be partial and never final. 



There are not many species of Agave that grow spon- 

 taneously in the territory of the United States, but some of 

 tliese are very beautiful. One of these species appears in 

 the illustration on page 185 of this issue, made from a pho- 

 tograph, for which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. 

 |. G. Lemmon, the well-known botanist of Oakland, Cali- 

 fornia, who secured it on the foot-hills of the Huachuca 

 Mountains, in southern Arizona, where this plant grows in 

 large masses, usually along the upper edge of the mesa 

 and below the forests of Live Oaks which clothe the lower 

 slopes of the mountains and appear in the background of 

 Mr. Lemmon's picture. We suppose the species to be 

 Agave Huachucensis of Baker. It resembles, however, in 



Plant Notes. 

 ■ Cercis Canadensis. 



THIS, our native Red Bud, is one of the most beautiful 

 of the small trees which enliven with brilliant flow'ers 

 the sylvan scenery of eastern North America. The flowers 

 of all the species of Cercis are rosy pink, and are produced 

 before the leaves in clusters or short racemes which cover 

 the branches, and sometimes appear also on the trunks, so 

 that when the trees are in flower they are masses of color. 

 West of the Mississippi River, especially in some parts of 

 Missouri, in the Indian Territory and southern Arkansas, 

 the Red Bud is so abundant that it lights up the whole land- 

 scape during the month of April, when a journey through 

 that region is a perfect delight for the lover of flowers. The 

 beauty of this tree, too, is often heightened by the contrast 

 of its rosy pink flowers with the pure white flowers of one 

 of the Hawthorns, Crataegus mollis, and with those of the 

 Flowerins^ Dogwood, these trees frequently growing and 

 blooming together. 



The Red Bud, although it does not grow north of the 

 valley of the Delaware River, in New Jersey, is perfectly 

 hardy in New England ; it is, moreover, an admirable gar- 

 den-plant ; and it can be used with the best possible effect 

 against a dark background of conifers, which serves to 

 bring out the beauty of its flowers. Although under favor- 

 able conditions it sometimes becomes a tree fifty feet high, 

 the Red Bud begins to flower when only a few years old, 

 and in good soil it grows with great rapidity. 



The Cercis Siliquastrum, of southern Europe, has rather 

 larger and more brilliant flowers, but, unfortunately, is not 

 hardy in the northern states. A Chinese species, Cercis 

 Chinensis, is a rather low shrub with large deep-colored 

 flowers, which is often cultivated in the neighborhood of 

 this city and Philadelphia, although farther north it is not 

 hardy. This plant is often found here under the name of 

 Cercis Japonica because it was first brought to this country 

 from Japan, where it has long been a favorite garden- 

 plant. The other species of Cercis, of which two are 

 American, one Texan and the other Californian, are not in 

 cultivation. But probably no other member of the genus 

 is as valuable in our gardens as the eastern American spe- 

 cies. It is one of a group of early-flowering small native 

 trees which ought to be generally planted in our parks and 

 large pleasure-grounds to brighten in early spring the bor- 

 ders of woods and give color and variety to the landscape 

 at the time when most deciduous-leaved trees are bare of 

 foliage and flowers are most appreciated. The Flowering 

 Dogwood is one of these trees and the native Crab-apple is 

 another ; all the Hawthorns and the arborescent Vibur- 

 nums can be used in this way. 



All these trees harmonize perfectly when planted to- 

 gether, and never appear out of place in the composition 

 of an American park picture. They belong to our flora, 

 and so do not produce a discordant effect when they are 

 used in the foreground of an American landscape, while an 

 exotic plant equally beautiful in color and habit, like the 

 Lilac, for example, gives, when used in this way, an effect 

 of unrest and unsuitableness which, although difficult, per- 

 haps, to explain, is, nevertheless, real. Fortunately our 

 American flora is so rich and varied that the makers of 

 park landscape who may desire to produce natural sylvan 

 effects here are not obliged to have recourse to foreign 

 lands for their material. Our woods can supply them with 

 all the plants they need, and the best compositions for 



