246 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 382. 



Berry, with large, handsome leaves, which has just passed 

 out of flower, or V. prunifolium, the Blaclv Haw, which 

 is closely allied to it botanically, although it has hand- 

 somer flowers and more shining fruit. V. dentatum, the 

 Arrow Wood, and V. pubescens are both admirable plants 

 when cultivated in deep soil, valuable both for their flow- 

 ers, their ornamental fruit, their habit and the beauty of 

 their autumn foUage. V. lantanoides, the Hobble-bush, is 

 the most showy of all the species in flower, and when 

 grafted on the European V. Lantana is less difficult to 

 cultivate than when grown on its own roots. V. Opulus, 

 the Cranberry Tree, is found in all the temperate regions 

 of the northern hemisphere, and plants in the Arnold Arbo- 

 retum, raised from seed sent from northern China, seem 

 much more beautiful in flower than either the North Amer- 

 ican or the European forms, the sterile ray flovv'ers being 

 twice as large and rather more than an inch across. Taken 

 altogether, these Viburnums are among the very best of 

 hardy shrubs and are adapted to almost every condition 

 and use. 



Oncidium HiEMATOCHiLUM. — This Orchid, which has always 

 been rare in Europe, and is becoming more rare, has had 

 something of a confused history, and, therefore, a letter by 

 Mr. Thomas T. Potter in The Orchid Reviciv is interesting, 

 as it suggests the probable origin of the plant. Mr. Potter 

 says it is found sparingly in one limited district in the 

 island of Trinidad. Oncidium Lanceanum is only found in 

 the same region, and O. luridum also abounds there. Since 

 the flower of O. haematochilum is intermediate between 

 those of the tvi'o species named above, and they often grow 

 close to each other and flower at the same season of the 

 year, Mr. Potter suggests that it is a natural hybrid between 

 them. Experiments have been made by crossing O. lu- 

 ridum and O. Lanceanum to see if the offspring will prove 

 to be O. haematochilum. The editor of TJie Review svig- 

 gests that in view of the rarity and beauty of the supposed 

 hybrid that growers would do well to try additional crosses 

 in the hopes of raising valuable seedlings. 



Incarvillea Delavayi. — We had one or two notices of 

 this plant last year, and it has special interest from the 

 fact that it may prove hardy in this country from Washing- 

 ton southward, and, perhaps, from a still higher latitude. 

 Mr. Watson writes that it is now flowering in a greenhouse 

 at Kevi^, and proves to be a distinctly beautiful pot-plant, 

 with fleshy green pinnatipartete leaves, something like 

 those of Tecoma grandiflora, and erect scapes a foot long 

 bearing a raceme of large rose-colored flowers with a yel- 

 low blotch inside the tube. It may be called a glorified 

 Amphicome Emodi, to vi'hich it is nearly allied, but it is a 

 much more striking plant. The root-stock is perennial, 

 but the leaves are annual. Grown in a six-inch pot in a 

 cool greenhouse it is quite at home. It is one of the many 

 beautiful and interesting Chinese plants that we owe to the 

 French missionaries. For its possession we are indebted 

 to Messrs. Vilmorin & Co., Paris, who distributed it in 

 1893. 



Helenium HooPEsn. — This is one of the earliest of our 

 hardy composite plants to flower, but earliness is not its 

 only merit. Some of the Heleniums are in flower during 

 the entire season, from late May until H. autumnale is 

 killed by frost. But H. Hoopesii is, perhaps, the showiest 

 of all, with its bright orange-yellow ray-flowers, and its 

 disk of almost exactly the same tint. These flowers are 

 borne on long stems, the plants being two feet high or 

 more, and they are quite as useful for cutting as for the 

 decoration of the hardy plant border at a season when 

 flowers of this color are rare. H. Hoopesii will flower from 

 seed the second year, and, like other related plants, it will 

 flower better if not disturbed too often. It is perfectly 

 hardy and easy to manage, although Mr. Orpet finds that a 

 white aphis sometimes attacks its roots. If a plant begins 

 to look unthrifty its roots should be examined, and if the 

 aphis is discovered it should be lifted and transplanted into 

 fresh soil after the roots have been washed with an in- 

 secticide. 



Cultural Department. 



The Russian Tree Fruits in America. — III. 



"IVrOT until since the return of the Budd-Gibb expedition 

 -'- ' from Russia in 1882 did American fruit-growers reach any 

 adequate appreciation of the pomological wealth of that por- 

 tion of the world, and still less did we realize the benefits to 

 arise to so large a section of northern America from the intro- 

 duction of these fruits to this continent. The apple, it is true, 

 is our most important tree fruit ; but very clearly is it a boon 

 of no small importance that the cold north should have added 

 to its possessions the Pears, the Plums and the Cherries of 

 Russia, proving, as they have now done, beyond a doubt, per- 

 fectly adapted to its climatic conditions, and that they are in no 

 way inferior to the older standards as regards vigor, produc- 

 tiveness and quality. 



Now that my trees have come into nearly full bearing, and 

 have by so many years' test shown their quality and their evi- 

 dent market value, I stand amazed at the change which must 

 quickly follow in so large an area of territory, where there has 

 heretofore existed not so much as a feeble hope that we should 

 ever find ourselves free from dependence in this respect upon 

 lower latitudes. My own delight and astonishment, reflected in 

 the eyes of my neighbors, when they begin to realize that these 

 fruits may be so easily home-grown, might by strangers be 

 regarded as almost pathetic. Living so long without expecta- 

 tion of any great advance in this direction, it seems as though 

 we had been transported to a new country. But this time the 

 mountain has truly come to the prophet. There is clearly 

 nothing to hinder the free and unbounded production of these 

 Pears and these stone fruits throughout a belt of some three 

 hundred miles in width of country where hitherto it has 

 been doubtful whether the Apple could be made a real 

 and permanent success, ft is as though a race of Orange 

 and Lemon trees had been found which could be successfully 

 grown in Virginia. 



And these fruits are not of any stinted or inferior growth or 

 quality — mere makeshifts for something better. Each season 

 reveals, as variety after variety comes into full bearing, the 

 unmistakable fact that our section has been provided with a 

 race of orchard fruits which may not only reasonably be ex- 

 pected to well supply our home markets, but also to find their 

 way into all markets in rivalry with anything known in the 

 same line. If these fruits will do as well farther south as they 

 do with us — which may, perhaps, be doubted — they might bid 

 fair to replace them in many localities. This is more particu- 

 larly true of the stone fruits. As to the Pears, only a few varie- 

 ties have yet come fully enough into bearing to enable us to 

 see whether they can so fully replace the fine varieties, and 

 especially the keeping varieties, of a lower latitude. 



Newport, vt. T. H. Hoskins. 



Irises. 



"^OW that the hybrid German Irises are waning, it is a con- 

 -1- ' venient period for reviewing the season, although it is 

 true that some of the most showy ones have yet to bloom. 

 We have yet to see most attractive displays of the bulbous 

 Spanish and English kinds, and the Japanese varieties, which 

 later on end the season for the more showy garden kinds. In 

 spite of the long-continued cold weather of last winter there 

 were few losses among Irises, except of a few kinds whose 

 cultivation in the open is always precarious, except under 

 special protection. This includes those species which make 

 early or winter leaf-growth, and among them are some of the 

 reticulata section, the Oncocyclus and the Spanish Irises, I. 

 tuberosa and the African bulbous species. Except the latter, 

 which can scarcely be flowered here, except as frame plants, 

 these Irises, which are perfectly hardy, do not usually suffer 

 much, if any, damage in winters when the temperature makes 

 a sudden drop to minus degrees. But last winter the temper- 

 ature kept at this point for a number of days and nights in 

 succession. This severity proved fatal to foliage which had 

 been made mostly at the end of the year. Plants which make 

 only scant foliage, as do these Irises, are badly setback when 

 their foliage is destroyed, and do not seem to be able to flower, 

 though the bulbs are usually found to be perfectly sound. It 

 seems rather curious that they should not bloom, as the flower 

 is, of course, formed in the bulb, and the leaves in many cases 

 are so slight as apparently to be of little service ; however, it 

 is probable that these are adapted to the work to be done in 

 perfecting growth, and that their loss is a fatal check. Some 

 Calochorti were affected in the same way by the same condi- 

 tions. Plants of C. Kennedyii, which were quite forward in 

 leaf on January ist, lost their leaves and failed to move after- 



