May 22, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



207 



via argentea is making a good spread of its handsome silky 

 foliage for the third year, and is thus proving a good perennial. 



Nearly all the Narcissi are over. Jonquils and the old form 

 of N. poeticus are all that remain in bloom. The variety 

 Ornatus comes and goes with Horsfieldii, Emperor and Sir 

 Watkin. Usually the Poets' Daffodil stays with us until the 

 end of the month, when large quantities are used in the cere- 

 monies of Decoration Day. Siberian Squills, Chionodoxasand 

 Snowdrops, Galanthus, all low-growing, early-Howermg bulbs, 

 and splendid for massing, are now forming their seed-capsules. 

 It might be worthy of note that all these early spring bulbs 

 can be easily increased from seeds. The capsules will be ready 

 to gather in about three weeks, just as soon as the seeds turn 

 black. If left longer they burst, scattering the seeds all about. 

 They should be sown at once, but will not germinate until the 

 following spring. The young bulbs should be allowed to grow 

 one season in the seedling-box, and transplanted after the 

 ripening process in August. After another season's growth 

 they will be ready for permanent quarters. By being let 

 alone — that is, being simply weeded, instead of hoed — our 

 Siberian Squills have increased fourfold during the last five 

 years, seedlings coming up every spring, outside the original 

 patch, in batches like young Onions. 



Admirers of alpine plants, who can find time to weed instead 

 of hoe, will find their work quite full of interest. It will, how- 

 ever, often be our duty to weed out some beautiful plants. 

 We soon lose all affection and admiration for a plant, how- 

 ever beautiful, when once it becomes aggressive. Years 

 ago we had several species of Potentillas. AH had handsome 

 Stravvberry-like leaves and yellow or brown, saucer-shaped 

 flowers, but they spread so extensively that we have been 

 weeding them ever since. Alyssum saxatile and Dianthus 

 deltoides are other plants which need to be thinned considera- 

 bly to be kept within bounds. Viola cucullata, in white, purple 

 and striped, rapidly spreads. Whatever we find inspiring we 

 allow to bloom when they do not interfere with other plants, 

 and pull them out when summer comes. On the contrary, 

 there are others we can scarcely have too many of. Mertensia 

 Virginica is one of these. Just now its nodding cymes of in- 

 comparable blue are springing up everywhere between the 

 rocks and along the paths, where really they ought not to be. 

 The rock garden must not be artificial, so we leave them. 

 Periwinkles, now in splendid bloom, are growing out into the 

 paths, compelling one to make a detour ; most of us would 

 rather do this than cut it away. Campanula Carpathica, C. 

 turbinata and C. c;Espitosa are other plants which come up in 

 all sorts of places, and we are loth to disturb them. Oinothera 

 Missouriensis, once planted on the higher levels, is spreading, 

 step by step, down the slope. It is a handsome trailer, and 

 ought to grow so as to overhang a ledge, where it can lie seen 

 from below. The Japanese form of the Chinese Bell-flower, 

 Campanula pumila Maresii, whose clear blue flowers associate 

 so well with the dwarf Golden-rods in autumn, is another de- 

 sirable plant which we like to see spreading itself. Alpine and 

 Iceland Poppies, now hybridized, and with double forms, ap- 

 pear in the clear gravel paths, and grow there as vigorously as 

 anywhere. Our native Columbine, Aquilegia Canadensis, 

 though rather intrusive, is, nevertheless, one of the most wel- 

 come spring-blooming plants. Occasionally purple forms ap- 

 pear, showing that some late-blooming plant of the species 

 has been hybridized by some of the earlier-flowering plants of 

 A. ccerulea. I do not, however, think any beauty comes from 

 this cross, and feel disposed to weed them out, lest in time too 

 many of them appear. A. Skinneri takes care of itself fairly 

 well, but the Siberian, A. glandulosa, makes no headway, and 

 dies out after a year or two. 



Wellesley. Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



About Tulips. 

 T^HE ruin of the Tulips in flower last week by a few days of 

 -'■ hot weather, followed bv rains, is a thing to be expected 

 any year. The conditions should serve as a warning against 

 growing only one class of Tulips or those which flower at the 

 same time. Those who are tempted into making barbaric 

 masses of color by planting a bed of Tulips, all of which are 

 certain to flower at once, are apt to secure a short-lived, if 

 vivid, pleasure. When one has "Tulips of all sections he not 

 only has a display extending over a number of weeks, but a 

 storm or hot wave has only a temporary effect, and the pleasure 

 is never brought to a sudden stop by bad weather. 



According to the Tulip fanciers' standards there are very 

 many with bad form and worse color, but if one is not versed 

 in points, and simply enjoys color, there are not many very 

 ugly Tulips, though there seem to be many of flimsy texture. 

 Except Tulipa Greigii, which stands alone for beauty and dis- 



tinctness, the original species are not as handsome as many of 

 the Dutch hybrids, yet there is a character and distinction 

 about most of the species which makes them attractive and 

 pleasing garden-plants, and they often serve as a foil to the 

 regularity and formality of the hybrids. Of course, one must 

 except the Parrot Tulips from the formal ones. As a rule, I 

 think it will be found that the species, except, possibly, T. 

 Greigii, are more reliable and regular in flowering from year 

 to year than the hybrids, which, under rude treatment, soon 

 run out. One often finds Dutch hybrids with distinct traces of 

 T. sylvestris, but this species for a mass of yellow is unsur- 

 passed. It is of a good rich color, is pleasantly fragrant and of 

 rapid increase. An Italian form of this sent out by Dammann 

 last year was very good. T. Schamki is a beautiful Tulip, 

 white flushed rose, wiiich gives one the earliest flowers, though 

 it is said by Nicholson to be a synonym of T. Gisneriana, which 

 " is evidently the original stock of most of the late-flowering 

 kinds." 



Other species there are in the garden, but none so distinct 

 from the ordinary kinds as the small low-growing Asiatics, 

 which are so suitable for a rockery. These have small flowers 

 of various colors, sometimes with short scapes and broad 

 leaves, as in Tulipa ciliatula, and again taller scapes and nar- 

 row leaves, as in some forms lately collected by Mr. Whittall 

 on the Madcan and Naz Daghs. It is now the season of the 

 late-flowering Bybloems, Bizarres, etc., the old favorite garden 

 Tulips, which possess dignity of stature and richness of color- 

 ing of a quiet character. Mr. P. Burr has lately been busily 

 collecting some forms of these from old English gardens, 

 remnants mostly of English seedlings. A collection of these 

 at present in flower contains many fine forms ; on the whole, 

 rather brighter than the Dutch kinds, though among these are 

 colors which can be spared. ~ at ^ 



Elizabeth, N.J. /• ^- (^^rara. 



Narcissus Notes. 



THE flowering season of Narcissus is nearly past now, and 

 only the midseason and late varieties of N. poeticus re- 

 main to bloom. The experience of this year has not added to 

 the knowledge of the various kinds in cultivation. One thing 

 is certain, however, in this country, that if the climate or soil 

 does not suit any particular kind of Daffodil it will be surely 

 apparent the spring following the first summer's growth in a 

 weak start and sparse flowering, while hardly a trace of the 

 plants will be left the next vear. Of those tliat have disap- 

 peared I cannot call to mind a single kind that I would care to 

 have again, and the best sorts thrive and increase at a sur- 

 prising rate. Mr. Gerard said, in his last notes on this subject, 

 that a bad memory is a good thing to carry at times in the gar- 

 den, and this is forcibly brought home to me at times when 

 near the Daffodil beds. It has often been noted in these 

 columns tliat during summer these lieds are filled with an- 

 nuals such as Asters, Mignonette and others, and last fall when 

 these were piast a workman was instructed to clear off the 

 remains, and in his anxiety to clear away everything he pulled 

 up about seventy Narcissus labels. This will explain why a 

 detailed list of losses cannot be given. The better-known and 

 larger-flowered varieties can, of course, be identified, but the 

 bulbs belonging to the Burbidgei, Leedsi and incomparabilis 

 sections had better be lifted and naturalized in the Grass, as 

 has been done with surplus stock of the Poets' Narcissus. In 

 places where many spring-flowering bulbs are used there is 

 abundant room for planting the cheaper kinds in the sod 

 where the grass is not cut until midsummer. We have tried 

 this plan with success in an orchard under the Apple-trees. 

 No care was taken to prepare the soil or even disturb the sod ; 

 a spade was thrust into the soil and a bulb put in each place, 

 and I am inclined to believe that if the newer Spanish kinds 

 had been treated in this way they would have lived longer and 

 flowered well, while under the treatment given to the stronger- 

 growing garden varieties they soon died; perhaps from cold, 

 as we never cover the beds in fall unless the bulbs are planted 

 late; it may have been from too generous treatment, as has 

 been suggested. 



We have been particularly fortunate in having the so-called 

 white varieties live and do well. Albicans. Colleen Bawn, 

 Moschatus, Leda, Mrs. J. B. M. Camm, William Goldring, 

 have all done well and flowered each year, but we take care 

 not to manure them in fall as we do the others that are grown 

 for cut flowers. 



One of the gems of the border is the Irish form of the 

 doulile Jonquili with the astonishing name of Narcissus odorus 

 plenus Hibernicus. We have had it four years, and it never 

 fails to bloom, and increases each year. On the contrary, N. 

 capax plenus has disappeared. N. biflorus is another of the 



