May 22, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest 



209 



wood is a good non-conductor; slate or earthenware will 

 heat in the sun sufficiently to damage the roots in hot 

 weather. Great care is necessary in the culture of plants 

 in tubs to prevent the ingress of earth-worms. If the tubs 

 be placed on the ground the moisture will attract them for 

 a great distance, and the drainage will soon become clogged 

 and ill health will follow. Wherever it is possible, as, for 

 example, on terraces, it is best to place the tubs on ma- 

 sonry. If not, they should be elevated on bricks to give a 

 circulation of air, and if earth-worms have already made 

 an entrance they may be driven out by the application of 

 clear lime vv-ater ; it is possible to use the same lime to 

 make several applications of lime water, as water will 

 hold only a certain quantity of lime before becoming satu- 

 rated. Of course, Ericaceous plants cannot be treated in 

 this way. Lime water would be fatal to Rhododendrons, 

 Kalmias, Androniedas, Leucothoes, and all plants that have 

 the tine hair-like roots characteristic of the Ericaceae. 



If the foregoing essentials are carefully regarded there 

 should be no difficulty in wintering any of the shrubs 

 named b}^ your correspondent. It is possible that some 

 one of these, either in construction or treatment, has been 

 lacking, and if it is supplied no further trouble will be expe- 

 rienced. For terraced gardens these shrubs are almost 

 indispensable, and in some locations terraced gardens are 

 indispensable. E. 0. 0.\ 



Wayside Shrubbery. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have just returned from a drive, rather more than 

 half a mile of which was on a byroad, which means a narrow 

 strip of wheelway somewhere between stone fences, which, 

 by the law of the state, are set two rods apart. There is little 

 travel on this cross-road, and, therefore, the roadmaster has 

 kindly allowed its borders to take care of themselves for two 

 or ttiree years past. When the wayside sln'ubbery gets too 

 aggressive he will go in some tine June morning with his axe 

 and cut down some of the most vigorous trees and shrubs and 

 burn them, but in a year or so the place will be as wild as ever. 

 In this thicket the wild Plums have gone out of bloom, but the 

 yoimg Apple-trees which the t)irds have planted are still in 

 tlower, and the Scarlet Fruited Thorns are at their best. There 

 are great masses of bright I'inxter-tiowers, and the graceful 

 racemes of the Choke Cherry are unusually abundant. 



Of course, the leaves at this season are quite as beautiful as 

 the flowers, and from the deep red of the young seedlings of 

 Swamp IVIaples to the gray of the Dwarf Willows and the 

 light yellow of the Sassafras there are tints without num- 

 ber. Wild flowers smile all along the sides of the road ; 

 Violets and Anemonellas, Mandrakes, and, most beautiful of 

 all, the Columbines, unite with the shrubberies to make pic- 

 tures of rich and varied beauty, and new ones greet the way- 

 farer at every step. 



No doubt the " inescapable joy of spring" makes everything 

 look beautiful at this season, but this byroad will continue 

 beautiful all summer long, and have fresh attractions every 

 day in the way of foliage, flowers and fruit. I am writing of 

 this simply to say that all through the hilly parts of our eastern 

 states every road can be made just as beautiful if the margin 

 of it is only left to take care of itself. Why should not socie- 

 ties similar to Village Improvement Societies be organized in 

 townships to protect all this beauty instead of paying roadmas- 

 ters for devastating every roadside ? How many people are 

 there who really believe if their attention is once called to the 

 matter that naked stubs and stones and ground burned black 

 is more beautiful than a natural growth of a wayside vege- 

 tation ? 



Denville, N. J. JM. 



. Rhododendrons in a Hard Winter. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In reply to your inquiry as to the effect of the past win- 

 ter on my Rhododendrons, I would say that they have not 

 suffered to any considerable extent. The winter was not un- 

 usually severe here, the lowest record being ten degrees below 

 zero, and yet it is true that in this vicinity many collections 

 have suffered rather seriously. Every year my faith is 

 strengthened in the theory that Rhododendrons are more apt 

 to suffer in this country from drought in summer than from 

 cold in winter. We do have a winter occasionally in which 



plants are injured, but this is not always from serious cold ; 

 during the past year, for example, a large portion of the dam- 

 age showed itself in the latter part of the winter, and it, there- 

 fore, seems probable that our bright sun in March sometimes 

 scalds the foliage when it is covered with frozen sleet. For 

 this reason I have made most of my plantation on the north 

 side of a belt of evergreen trees, and I have found that these 

 always suffered less than plants which have a southern expo- 

 sure ; and this is especially true of such varieties as are gen- 

 erally considered half-hardy. This year I noticed that large 

 healthy plants of Album grandiflorum, for example, in a sunny 

 and sheltered Ijorder have been quite killed, while varieties as 

 tender as J. Walter and Kate Waterer, planted in the shade 

 and only a few feet distant, are all right. I enclose a memo- 

 randum of some of the best varieties which I have been grow- 

 ing for the last few years, nearly all of which have not suf- 

 fered in the least diu-ing the past winter, although a few of 

 them have been slightly touched ; A. Adie, Blue Bell, Hamlet, 

 C. S. Sargent, Mrs. C. S. Sargent, F. L. Ames, F. L. Olmsted,' 

 James Mcintosh, Sefton, P. Simon, Princess Mary of Cam- 

 bridge, Silvio, Vauban, Duke of Teck, J. H. Agnew, Mrs. 

 Heywood, Lady Grey Egerton, Bacchus, Lothair, J. Marshall 

 Brooks, J. Walter, Kate Waterer, Mrs. John Glutton, Ralph 

 Sanders, Mrs. Shuttleworth, Duchess of Sutherland, J. D. God- 

 man, Pelopidas, Countess of Normanton. 



Wellesley, iMass. H. H. Hlllincivcll, 



Shy 



Wood Plants. - 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— In an illustrated article sometime ago on Phlox divari- 

 cata. Garden and Forest speaks of it as somewhat. rare, and 

 though I find it quite common in the woods liere I am at a 

 loss to know how such a shy plant can hold its own lor any 

 length of time anywhere. It is never found except in part 

 shade and in soil made almost entirely of leaf-mold, so lioht 

 that in exposed places it would require the leaf and root fibers 

 to keep it from blowing away. It lives the most precarious 

 life in semi-cultivation, and I have always lost every specimen 

 after two or three years. The partiality the garden-slugs have 

 for Phlox has something to do with its disappearance, but it 

 must be classed as tender, or perhaps uncertain is the better 

 word, along with Bee Balm, Ciaytonia, Hepatica,and not a few 

 others which cling to the woods, not probably from choice, 

 but because one needs the winter protection and another the 

 light soil afforded there, and also the freedom from the sod 

 that drives them all from the fields. 



Nearly all wood plants are obliged to flower in the early' 

 spring before the trees put out their leaves and live a semi- 

 torpid life the rest of the season. Cannot some evolutionist 

 show us how the rise of the sod-producing Grasses has not 

 only driven them to the woods, but also. changed their time of 

 flowering to accommodate them to their conduion of enforced 

 seclusion ? 



Buffalo, X. V. 



Joliii Chanibeylin. 



Recent Publications. 



Diclionary of Orchid Hybrids. By E. Bohnhof. Baris : 

 Octave Doin. 



This little manual contains a list of all artiticial hybrids 

 among Orchids which were known up to the beginning of 

 the present year, with the name of their introducer and the 

 date of their appearance. The plants supposed to be natu- 

 ral hybrids are also placed in the list, and tables are added 

 to indicate the seedlings which have been obtained from 

 each species. This will be a useful list for all who wish 

 information as to the origin of hybrid Orchids, and those 

 who are engaged in hybridizing will find it serviceable by 

 showing in a compact form what has been accomplished 

 with each species. It is proposed to publish a new edition 

 of this dictionary every two years, so that the list can be 

 kept as nearly up to liate as possible. 



Notes. 



There is no more showy flower just now in the border of 

 hardy perennials than the cut-leaved P:eonv, P;i2onia tenui- 

 folia, which blooms several days earlier than the ordinary gar- 

 den varieties of P. officinalis 'and P. albiflora. The single- 

 flowered variety, with its solitary dark crimson cup-shaped 

 flowers on stems a foot and a half high, is much more rare 



