July 3, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



267 



ture is kept at about fifty degrees during tlie winter and early 

 spring montlis. Tliis final planting took place February 6lh. 

 The soil used was that in which Chrysantlienuinis had been 

 grown up to January, and it was not manured in any way for 

 the Celery. The roof of the house was five feet above the soil. 

 The plants made good progress, and on April 12th were ready 

 for bleaching, We at first tried thui wrapping-paper and two- 

 inch drain tiles, having previously tied up the leaves firmly 

 with raffia. Neither of these materials, however, was satis- 

 factory. The plants rotted in the tiles, and in the paper the 

 leaves damped off to a large extent. The paper might have 

 served its purpose had it been changed and Ihe plants cleaned 

 once a week, but this involved too much labor, and the damp- 

 ing off of the foliage injured the flavor of the Celery. On two 

 other batches of the same crop we then tried wrappers of 

 heavy porous paper, similar to that used for drying botanical 

 specimens, and White's patent Celery blancher. The drying 

 paper had the same defects as the thin wrapi.Mng-paper already 

 employed. White's blancher promised better results. This 

 consists of a sheet of heavy, flexible, dark red paper, fifteen 

 inches long by twelve inches wide, with a light wooden slat at 

 one end and in. the centre, and a siring for tying fastened in 

 the middle of the latter slat. It is certainly a handy device, 

 but, owing, doubtless, to the presence of some preserving 

 chemical in the paper, it had not been adjusted an hour before 

 the leaves of the plants began to shrivel and turn brown, the 

 plants ultimately dying. If the paper were rendered harmless 

 and the slat lengthened at the end by about two inches, with 

 the added portion pointed so that it maybe inserted in the soil 

 at the base of the plant, this blancher would be just the thmg 

 needed. 



But thus far we had failed to get a satisfactory bleacher, and 

 something else had to be tried if we were to secure any good 

 result from our crop. Another lot of plants was accordingly 

 treated with a heavy wrapping-paper, firm in texture and 

 smooth. This had the desired result of bleaching the Celery 

 thoroughly. These bleachers were placed in position May 

 9th, and the Celery, excellent in flavor, was ready for use 

 iVIay 25th. In this experiment we grew only two varieties — 

 Giant White and Kalamazoo. The latter is of stockier habit 

 than Giant White, and it seems to force and blanch better. 

 Cornell tJniversLty. Michael Barker. 



Some Good Hardy Perennials. 



/CAMPANULA PERSICIFOLIA isan old-fashioned and well- 

 '^^ known perennial, and has been grown in gardens for 

 three centuries, bvit, although cultivated for so long a period, 

 the type and its various forms are numbered among our 

 choicest summer-blossoming, hardy, herbaceous plants. The 

 typical plant has large, broadly campanulate blue flow- 

 ers. The stems on which the flowers are produced are from 

 . two to three feet high, and the inflorescence is a sort of raceme. 

 The leaves on the flower-stems are linear-lanceolate, and the 

 root-leaves are a little broader. In gardens there are many 

 forms of this Harebell to be found, and they are all good hardy 

 plants. A few of the best varieties are the following : Alba is a 

 pure white form, with flowers about the same size as the type, 

 and is more common in cultivation than any other variety of 

 this plant. Alba coronata has pure white semi-double flowers ; 

 but the best of all the forms known to me is the one in flower 

 now under the name Grandiflora. This is a distinct plant, 

 with larger flower-stems, larger leaves and much larger pure 

 white bell-shaped flowers than any of the other forms. The 

 flowers of the species and all its varieties are useful for cutting 

 and last well in a cut state. If the flowers are not needed for 

 cutting purposes they should not be cut down after the first 

 crop of flowers are over. If they are left alone a little later 

 they will produce a second lot of flowers which is almost as 

 good as the first ones. None of the varieties of this Harebell 

 are particular about soil or situation ; they grow well in any 

 ordinary garden soil, but to get extra good plants they require 

 good rich soil and should be transplanted every second or 

 third year. 



In the rock-garden Campanula Portenschlagiana is com- 

 pletely covered with blue flowers. It is a pretty dwarf plant, 

 just suited for this situation, and only grows about eight inches 

 high. The nearly erect bell-shaped flowers are so numerous 

 on the plant that one looking down upon it can hardly see 

 any of the leaves. This little gem comes to us from the 

 south of Europe and has proved hardy here tor a number of 

 years. 



In the herbaceous border Campanula lalifolia macraiitha is 

 very handsome and showy at this time. It is a stately peren- 

 nial and very showy, and should be planted in a consi)icuous 



position where it will be seen to advantage. It has flower-stems 

 about four feet high, with large flowers of an exceptionally 

 bright purple-blue color. It is a vigorous plant in any ordi- 

 nary soil. It comes true from seed, and plants are easily raised 

 if the seed is sown in spring. 



Let me add a word to what was said last week about the 

 Fraxinella. One might supjiose that so interesting a plant as 

 this, after having been in cultivation for three centuries, would 

 be found in every garden, especially since it is one of those 

 which practically never run out if once established in fairly 

 good soil and let alone. I find in Johnson's Gardeners' Dic- 

 tionary ihai " instances are known where the Fraxinella has 

 outlived father, son and grandson in the same spot." Al- 

 though the flowers of the white Fraxinella are rather hand- 

 somer than the rosy purple ones, the latter plant is much more 

 vigorous. Its flowers are borne on stems more than a yard 

 high, and a specimen which has remained in a good position 

 undisturbed for years throws up strong pinnate leaves, and is 

 very useful where a large mass of foliage is needed during the 

 summer. Both plants do well in a slightly shaded situation. 

 Cuttings grow freely and they make large plants sooner than 

 when grown from seed. 



Hai-va'rd Botanic Garden. Robert Cameron. 



Hardy Nymphseas. 



GROWERS of Nymphseas would feel an enhanced obliga- 

 tion to Dr. Faunce if he would trace the parentage of N. 

 Laydekeri rosea one step further, and reveal the male parent. 

 It is evidently futile to conjecture, in view of the revela- 

 tions which have been made, as to the origin of the hybrid 

 Water-lilies. N. chromatella was long supposed to be a 

 hybrid of N. tuberosa by botanists, and was named by them 

 N. tuberosa flavescens, yet Monsieur Marliac declares its 

 origin as N. alba x N. flava. If the botanists are misled, we 

 laymen can scarcely be blamed for being apparently so far 

 astray in our guesses as to the origin of N. Laydekeri rosea. 

 From its form, so nearly like N. pygmjea, and its peculiar 

 coloring, changing from light to dark red, any one who had 

 grown the two species naturally hazarded the statement that 

 they were the responsible parents. It does not seem to have 

 occurred to any one to venture, at least in print, a possible 

 origin from N. rubra until Monsieur Marliac, in The Garden, 

 December 23d, 1893, gave this as a grandparent. In this arti- 

 cle he says the hybrid between N. rubra and a hardy species — 

 name not given — produced no offsets, but a plentiful supply of 

 seed, which, however, produced plants of varying shades of 

 red from soft pink to the deepest shades. These varieties 

 prove useful for hybridizing choice stoloniferous and prolif- 

 erous kinds, and it is from these hybrids that he has obtained 

 the series of hardy hybrids, N. Robinsoni, N. Seignoureti, 

 N. Laydekeri rosea, N. liliacea, N. fulgens, N. Marliacea ignea, 

 N. Marliacea rubra punctata, N. Marliacea flammea, etc. 



Monsieur Marliac has given no indication of the other 

 parents except that he has made crosses with yellow-flowered 

 kinds, and the matter seems to be in considerable obscurity. 

 Dr. Faunce seems to carry the matter a step further in giving 

 Nymphcea rubra punctata as one of the immediate parents of 

 N. Laydekeri rosea, with the remark that Marliac " has not 

 sold the goose," etc., which is singular in view of the fact that 

 it is an open secret that the stock of this variety, only one plant, 

 or possibly two, if I remember rightly, was offered for sale, 

 while N. Laydekeri rosea was being sold at twenty francs a 

 plant and was put out at thirty francs the first season. It is also 

 said that N. rubra punctata is as large as N. odorata rosea ; this 

 being so, it is singular that it should be persistently crossed 

 with something to reduce the size of its flowers, for it can 

 scarcely be meant that it produces self-fertilized seed which give 

 flowersof half the size and of different color from the only parent. 

 The matter does not seem exactly clear, and it is to be hoped 

 that some of our growers with ample space will follow up the 

 points and endeavor to verify the crosses, a pursuit which 

 would be as interesting as profitable if successful. 



It would also be interesting to know exactly how hardy the 

 Nymphsas are, and under what hard conditions they will 

 exist or fail. It is>:ertain that many of them will endure some 

 freezing. My N. alba candidissima is almost invariably 

 encased in ice each winter, and has never suffered. One of my 

 tanks, which was covered with loose ihin boards, developed a 

 fracture last January and became empty and remained so for a 

 number of weeks during the very low temperature then pre- 

 vailing. There was a sheet of about four inches of ice, which, 

 while it did not prevent cold air reaching the roots, probably 

 furnislied some slight protection. Yet, with an outside tem- 

 perature of zero or less, this protection could not exclude frost, 

 and, later on, the ice disappeared entirely. Under these 



