262 



Garden and Forest. 



[Ndmber 3S4. 



annual plants, with rock-gardens, alpine gardens, aquatic 

 gardens, shrubberies and arboreta, are not only the work of 

 time, but the product of thought. To build up and main- 

 tain an establishment so vast and complicated requires 

 original ability of the first rank, with thorough training 

 added. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a better garden 

 than any one the world has yet seen. And this is why it 

 is so important to realize at the very threshold of the work 

 the difficulties to be met and the necessity of securing the 

 highest attainable scientific and executive talent. If the 

 design of the garden shows breadth, originality and a full 

 appreciation of what it ought to become, it will, without 

 doubt, command all the aid it deserves, not only from 

 private subscription, but from city and state appropriations. 



The Persimmon. 



MORE than one hundred and fifty species of Diospyros 

 are now known to botanists, many of them inhabit- 

 ants of tropical Asia, Africa, South America, IVIexico and the 

 region bordering the Caribbean Sea. The beautiful varie- 

 gated Coromandel-wood is produced by two species from 

 Ceylon, and the ebony of commerce is derived from species 

 which inhabit India, western Africa, Mauritius and Malaya. 

 Only two species exist in eastern North America, one of 

 which is the Black Persimmon, Diospyros Texana, a tree 

 with intricate branches, often growing to a height of fifty 

 feet, with a trunk twenty inches in diameter. It reaches its 

 largest size in Nuevo Leon, between the Sierra Madre and 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and it abounds in western and southern 

 Texas near the coast. It has never been planted for orna- 

 ment, but its dark glossy foliage and black fruit make it an 

 attractive tree. 



The common Persimmon, Diospyros Virginiana, ranges 

 throughout the country east of the Alleghanies as far north 

 as New Haven, Connecticut, and west of the Alleghanies 

 from the valley of the Colorado River, in Texas, to south- 

 eastern Iowa and southern Ohio. When grown in the 

 open ground it becomes a tree forty or fifty feet high, 

 with a trunk rather more than a foot through and a 

 round-topped head, and spreading and sometimes drooping 

 branches. Under favorable forest conditions in the Missis- 

 sippi basin it sometimes reaches a height of more than a 

 hundred feet, with a slender trunk free from branches sev- 

 enty or eighty feet long. One of these trees standing in 

 the old arboretum of Kew, which was presented by the 

 Duke of Argyle to George III., is still growing, apparently 

 as contented as in its native habitat, and measures more 

 than sixty feet in height, with a spread of about thirty feet, 

 and a trunk which girths five feet four inches, breast-high. 

 The specimen in our illustration, p. 265, which stands in an old 

 Corn-field near Auburn, Alabama, is a tree of about the same 

 dimensions as the one in the Kew Arboretum. It is a grace- 

 ful tree, and the photograph by no means does it justice. 



The fruit of the Persimmon ripens in midsummer near 

 the Gulf, but does not mature until late in autumn 

 in the north, and hangs on the branches until after heavy 

 frost. It is an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, 

 although it varies much in different parts of the country 

 and on different individual trees, not only in size and 

 shape, but especially in quality. The early explorers 

 in America found this fruit used by the Indians and were 

 glad to avail themselves of it and pronounced it pleasant 

 and somewhat luscious, although they discovered that 

 when not fully ripe " Pessimmins were harsh and choaky 

 and furred in a man's mouth like allam." The variability 

 of the fruit and its improvement by selection and cultiva- 

 tion have brought it recently to the attention of nursery- 

 men, and many varieties are now propagated and sold in 

 different parts of the country, so that it seems destined to 

 become a genuine addition to our orchard fruits. We are 

 not aware that any successful efforts at crossing our native 

 species have been made, or that it has been hybridized 

 with the so-called Kaki, which has been cultivated for gen- 

 erations as a fruit-tree in Japan, where trees are found in 



every garden, and where a hundred varieties, at least, are now 

 named and recognized. Diospyros Kaki, or a species much 

 resembling it, is hardy in Peking and in the highlands of 

 central Japan, where the climate is quite as trying as that 

 of New England, and there seems no reason why plants 

 of this northern strain should not succeed in our middle 

 states. At all events, by hybridizing it with our native 

 species we might hope to secure native fruits of high 

 flavor and ornamental trees of great interest, for the Kaki, 

 with its lustrous leaves and large bright-colored fruit, which 

 is not equaled in beauty by any other fruit grown in north 

 temperate climates, would add greatly to the interest of 

 our rural landscapes. As an ornamental tree, our native 

 Persimmon certainly deserves attention, not only because 

 of its pale orange-colored fruit, but because it is adapted 

 to a great variety of conditions from light, sandy soils to 

 deep rich bottom-lands. Its habit is good, its leaves are 

 large and glossy, its fruit is ornamental, and it is subject to 

 comparatively few diseases or insect enemies. 



Early Summer in the Pines. 



My record shows that many plants are two weeks later 

 in flowering this season than they have been in 

 all the years since I have taken notes in the Pines. 

 Kalmia latifolia is now just in its prime, so is Magnolia 

 glauca and Itea Virginica. Viburnum nudum is full of 

 bloom, and its relative, the common Elder, is handsome 

 with its great flat cymes of flowers. The Holly, too, is in 

 bloom, with last year's berries still thickly clinging to the 

 twigs, but most of the old foliage has fallen and given 

 place to the new lighter green leaves which will gradually 

 take on their deep dark hue. Ilex verticillata and I. laevi- 

 gata are also in flower, as well as the Inkberry, I. glabra. 

 1 have several plants of the Inkberry in my wild garden, 

 and so far have failed to find any staminate flowers, and 

 yet my plants fruit freely. It is a mile or more to the 

 nearest plants in the Pines, so that insects must take quite 

 long trips to carry the pollen. 



The fruit of the Shad-bush, Amelanchier Canadensis, is 

 fully ripe, and some of the bushes are highly ornamental. 

 The dark blue fruit of the Tupelo is also ornamental, and 

 has a pleasant acid taste which is ver)' grateful, especially 

 on a warm dry day in the Pines when no drinkable water 

 is at hand. The Staghorn Sumach, Rhus typhina, and R. 

 glabra are in bloom, and for the first time in several 

 years the flowers have escaped the ravages of the rose bug. 

 This pest is at last disappearing from our neighborhood. 

 I have noticed comparatively few bugs on some of the 

 Roses ; everything else is unmolested. No one out of the 

 infested district can realize the thankfulness we feel in 

 being delivered from this scourge. Not only were our 

 flowers destroyed, but the creatures ate the stems of plants. 

 Strong stems of Hollyhock and Hibiscus were cut down, 

 and green apples, peaches and plums were devoured, and 

 not a Grape blossom escaped them that was unprotected. 

 A good many herbaceous plants are making the Pines 

 gay at this time. In dry, sandy places Tephrosia Virgin- 

 iana and its relative, the wild Lupines, make a brilliant 

 mass of color. In yellow nothing is more showy and 

 graceful than Coreopsis grandiflora, which in places stands 

 so thickly that it excludes everything else. Some of the 

 Lysimachias, too, are in flower, modest attractive plants 

 with handsome foliage and pretty blossoms. Aletris, with 

 long spikes of tubular flowers and a thick rosette of lily- 

 like evergreen leaves, is abundant in many places. Both 

 species of Chimaphila are here, with handsome, fragrant, 

 waxy-looking flowers, which, together with their foliage, 

 make most charming table bouquets. In wet places the 

 Pickerel-weed is showing its long spikes of blue flowers, 

 and the Orchids, Calopogon pulchellus and Pogonia ophio- 

 glossoides are also beginning to show their handsome 

 flowers. 



I have not mentioned among the foreign plants which 

 have taken up their abode with us Galium verum. Indeed, 



