May S, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



185 



study, and if they study Nature faithfully they should be 

 able to produce the best results that are obtainable in this 

 country. Exotic plants are often very beautiful, but the 

 best of them, whether they come from Japan or China, 

 Europe or the Orient, look strange and out of place in a 

 truly American sylvan scene such as the park-maker, vi'ho 

 makes the most of his opportunities, should try to produce 

 for the weary workers in American cities. 



Saux CANDIDA. — As yct little attention seems to have 

 been paid to the cultivation of Willows for the commercial 

 value of their flowers. It is well known, however, that 

 bunches of Willow-catkins are sold in great quantities in 

 our cities every spring. The supply is usually drawn from 

 wild natural plants, but it is possible that a well-man- 

 aged plantation would yield a fair profit from soil that 

 would be otherwise of little value. The earliest-flowering 

 and largest and most showy-flowered varieties ought to be 

 selected, of course, and for this purpose Salix Candida 



white tomentum which covers the ovaries, the latter being 

 tipped by dark red stigmas. The twigs and the under sur- 

 face of the leaves, and the upper surface when young, are 

 covered by a dense white tomentum, giving the plant a 

 grayish or hoary aspect, on which account the common 

 name of Hoary Willow, or Sage Willow, has been given 

 to it. 



Andromeda speciosa. — A few well-flowered examples of this 

 species were on sale in the leading florists' establishments 

 of New York at Easter, and although these Andromedas 

 are native shrubs found on borders of ponds all through 

 the coast country, from Florida to North Carolina, they 

 were novelties to most people who saw them. A. spe- 

 ciosa certainly rivals many of the finest Heaths when 

 it is forced, with its pure white, bell-shaped flowers, some- 

 times half an inch long, borne on the naked branches 

 formed the year before. When plants have been once forced, 

 if they are kept in pots during the summer they will flower 

 more freely the next year than they did the first season 



iic -^ 



f ..■ 



-S., 





Fig. 28. — A View of the Foot-lulls of the Hu.icluica Mountains, Arizona, with Agave Huachucensis in the foreground.— See page 1S4. 



might not prove so profitable as some others, like S. dis- 

 color or S. humilis, compared with which it is a very small 

 and much less vigorous plant. On account of the peculiar 

 beauty of its blossoms, however, it is worth having in any 

 collection of shrubs. Ordinarily, in its native cool bogs 

 and swamp ground, this Willow is a straggling-stemmed 

 plant from two to four or five feet high. Transferred 

 to the drier ordinary ground of gardens it thrives 

 very well, although not inclined to assume the neat, 

 compact, bushy habit desired by many planters. The 

 peculiar interest possessed by this species over its nu- 

 merous congeners lies in the pretty pink or rosy red 

 color of the stamens in the male plant.' These sta- 

 mens are tipped by red anthers, which, as they open to 

 shed pollen, are changed to a bright light yellow color. 

 The catkins are from half an inch to an inch in length 

 and rather globose in outline when in full flower. On the 

 female plants the catkins are more slender and they have 

 a hoary white appearance, on account of the soft and dense 



after they were taken from the open ground. But, although 

 the natural home of this plant is in the south, it will sur- 

 vive the winters as far north as New England. .Since the 

 buds are formed in the autumn on the terminal shoots the 

 wood does not always get well ripened in moist seasons, 

 and, therefore, it is well in exposed situations to peg down 

 the branches and cover them up. It is practically hardy, 

 however, and one of the very best of our dwarf-flowering 

 shrubs. It grows from two to four feet high, has a neat 

 and compact habit,"^with shining light green leaves, which 

 hold their color late into autumn, although they sometimes 

 change to yellow, brown or purple. It was a poinilar plant in 

 England early in the century, and we see comi)laints in the 

 English horticultural papers that it has of late years been 

 neglected, but it is doubtful whether it is any more rare in 

 England than it is here. There is a variety known as Pul- 

 verulenta, which is a still more dwarf plant and somewhat 

 neater, with bluish gray or chalky white leaves, which are 

 covered with a dense bloom. Although Andromedas are 



