224 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 380. 



ready for use. Some of the crop from which these 

 opinions are formed was ready to be gathered on May 7th. 

 Even then a few of the fruits were too large to be at their 

 best, although this was far in advance of the season for 

 beans or peas. In fact, the only vegetable which would at 

 all interfere with it is asparagus. This can hardly be an 

 objection, however, for there would certainly be room for 

 two such vegetables at the same season, especially as they 

 are so different in general character. 



Experiment Station, Lincoln, Neh. 



F. W. Can!. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Cultivated Ferns. — A list of all the Ferns cultivated in 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, has just been issued, and may be 

 obtained at the Gardens, price sixpence. It contains the 

 names and synonyms m use in gardens of 1,1 16 species and 

 well-marked varieties of Ferns and ninety-seven of Fern 

 allies (Lycopodium, Selaginella, etc.) ; it also contains, in 

 the form of an appendix, a list of nearly six hundred culti- 

 vated and feral varieties of British Ferns, the Kew collec- 

 tion of these being exceptionally rich. There is no collec- 

 tion of tropical and temperate Ferns equal in extent to that 

 at Kew, where they have been a prominent feature for at 

 least fifty years. The history of the collection is told in an 

 introduction to the list, which will have a special value for 

 cultivators of Ferns, than which no natural order has a 

 more complicated and irritating nomenclature. The ar- 

 rangement of the names in the Kew list is alphabetical, and 

 the classification followed is that of Hooker and Baker's 

 Synopsis Filictim, the only standard work on the order. 



Authorities and countries are given in each case, so that 

 the list will have a value for botanists as well as for culti- 

 vators. It is earnestly hoped that the nomenclature of 

 this and similar lists of garden plants, now being prepared 

 with considerable care and pains at Kew, will be adopted 

 by cultivators, at any rate, so that we may all have some- 

 thing like uniformity in regard to the names of cultivated 

 plants. Lists of the Hardy, Herbaceous and Alpine Plants, 

 and of the Orchids, are now in course of preparation, and 

 vi'ill shortly be published, the intention being to have in 

 time a complete catalogue of the whole of the vast collec- 

 tion of living plants at Kew, a rough census of which gives 

 the total number as, approximately, 20,000 distinct species 

 and varieties. Of course, the price of these lists is merely 

 nominal, certainly not more than covers the cost of print- 

 ing and paper, the object of the authorities being to place 

 at the disposal of all interested a reliable standard of 

 nomenclature for garden plants. 



The Kew Museums. — The contents of the museums of 

 Economic Botany in the Royal Gardens, Kew, are excep- 

 tionally rich in plant products of all kinds, their object being 

 "to teach us to appreciate the general relations of the 

 vegetable world to man." There are three separate build- 

 ings, one for all Dicotyledonous Plants, another for Mono- 

 cotyledons and Gymnosperms and the third for specimens 

 of Timber and bulky specimens generally. Museums do 

 not as a rule appeal to the laity, except as places in which 

 to spend a pleasant afternoon, but the Kew Museums have 

 a great attraction for business, especially commercial men, 

 as well as for botanists and horticulturists. The official 

 guide-books to these museums, of which there are three, one 

 for each building, are valuable for the useful information 

 they contain about all sorts of plants and their products. 

 I call attention to them here because the guide to the 

 Monocotyledons and Cryptogams has only lately been 

 published and its contents are of more than ordinary inter- 

 est. Palins, Scitamineje, Amaryllids, Liliacea;, Aroids, 

 Bamboos and Grasses generally, besides, Ferns, Fungi, 

 Mosses, etc., are treated upon, and information about their 

 most noteworthy products is given. I quote the follovi'ing 

 as a sample paragraph from the hundred pages or so of 

 this valuable little encyclopaedia, the price of which, by the 

 way, is fourpence : 



" Ivory Nut Palm (Phytelei'has macrocarpa). — A plant with 

 a prostrate stem and leaves often 20 feet long, inhabiting 

 the banks of rivers and rivulets in Central America and 

 New Grenada. The fruits are borne in large globular 

 heads, one of which is here shown attached to the stem. 

 As the seeds ripen they become very hard, like ivory, and 

 are, consequently, known as Vegetable Ivory, and are 

 largely used for making cpat-buttons, chessmen, and for 

 various other useful and ornamental articles, as well as for 

 artificial snowflakes in theatres." Samples of the stem and 

 many kinds of articles manufactured from the seeds are 

 shown in the cases. 



Cattleya floribunda. — Plants bearing this name are 

 offered by L'Horticulture Internationale, Brussels, and M. 

 Linden says it is "the most marvelous new Orchid of 

 recent years." He describes it as a possible natural hybrid 

 between Cattleya maxima and C. lal)iata, van, having large 

 flowers borne on strong scapes, some scapes bearing as 

 many as twenty-one flovi'ers. Their color is " brilliant 

 dark carmine for the most part," but there are white and 

 other varieties known. Ths flowering season is from 

 September to December, and as the plants were intro- 

 duced into the Brussels Nursery on December 30th last, I 

 presume none have yet flowered there, and therefore the 

 description of the flowers has been made by the collector 

 on the spot. C. maxima, one of the suggested parents, is 

 a native of southern Peru and Ecuador ; presumably, there- 

 fore, this region is the home of C. floribunda. There is 

 evidence of a growing desire among orchidists to give a 

 mongrel origin to as many new Orchids as possible, C. 

 floribunda being a case in point. 



Cypripedium, Gertrude Hollington. — This is a gigantic 

 flowered hybrid, of which a plant shown in flower last 

 week by Messrs. H. Low & Co. received a first-class certifi- 

 cate. Its parents are Cypripedium ciliolare and C. bellatulum. 

 It is exceptionally large and robust in foliage as well as in 

 flower, the leaves being nearly three inches wide by 

 seven inches in length, and the petals of the flower are 

 fully one and a half inches wide, creamy white, 

 with purple lines and dots ; the dorsal sepal is large and 

 broad, creamy white, with green and purple shading, and 

 the lip is greenish white below, rose-purple above. It was 

 generally admitted to be one of the largest and most strik- 

 ing of the hybrid Cypripediums. It was raised by Mr. 

 Ayling, gardener to Mr. A. J. Hollington, and the raiser of 

 several very handsome hyljrids. 



London. 



W. Wa/son. 



Plant Notes. 



Lilacs. 



THE past year has been one of the most severe ones 

 which plants in the eastern United States have had 

 to endure for a long time, and it serves to emphasize the 

 good qualities of several shrubs which have not previously 

 had to submit here to exceptionally trying climatic condi- 

 tions. All the species of Lilac in our gardens are in perfect 

 condition this year, the late-flowering Syringa Japonica, S. 

 Pekinensis, S. Amurensis and S. villosa are covered with 

 flower-buds as they have never been before, and the charge 

 that has been made against Syringa Japonica and S. Pekin- 

 ensis of- being shy bloomers cannot be sustained. It is 

 now apparent that these noble plants only require age to 

 enable them to produce flowers in the greatest profusion. 

 Of the early-blooming species of Lilac, Syringa oblata has 

 produced more flowers this spring than it has for many 

 years. It will be remembered that this northern China 

 plant is the earliest of the Lilacs to flower ; that its flowers, 

 which are borne in short, broad, compact clusters, are pale 

 purple or mauve color, and very fragrant ; that the leaves 

 are not attacked by the mold fungus, which whitens here 

 in summer those of the common Lilac, and that in the 

 autumn they turn to a most beautiful deep vinous-red color. 

 A figure of a flower-cluster of this plant was published on 

 page'221 of the first volume of Garden and Forest. This 



