328 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 390. 



(rate stems in spring, which rise at the extremities and bear 

 many small labiate flowers produced from the axils of the 

 leaves. They are white, with rosy-purple markings on the 

 inner side of the petals, and are borne in succession from July 

 until heavy frost. This Micromeria, with its distinct fragrance 

 and taste of Pennyroyal, is a first-rate plant for the rock- 

 garden. It is propagated by seed or by division of the roots 

 In spring. 



Stamford, Conn. .J. -t. 



Cucumber, "Cool and Crisp."— This is an excellent variety in 

 every respect. It has been grown for three seasons and shows 

 many qualities that make it valuable. Chief among these is 

 hardiness and vigor of habit, in which it excels the justly 

 popular Early White Spine. The vine is always healtliy and 

 strong, and this enables it to bear up against drought, and in 

 a large measure also against stem-boring insects. The fruit 

 is fully as large as that of Long Green, and is much more 

 symmetrical in shape, being slightly curved and tapering 

 gradually at both ends. It contains very few seeds, as few as 

 any variety I have grown, and is most delicate in flavor. In a 

 word, it is much like an English frame cucumber in form and 

 fully equal to it in flavor. Its value as a market variety re- 

 mains to be tested by experience, as it is not yet generally 

 known, but beyond all doubt it has no rival for the private 

 garden. 



Bloonifidd, N. J. iV. R. S. 



Correspondence. 



The Rose Garden on the Wooded Island, Jackson 

 Park, Chicago. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The possibility of growing Roses in Chicago is fully 

 demonstrated this year by the garden of Roses on the Wooded 

 Island. The Roses were nearly all taken up at the close of 

 the World's Fair, and these plants were mostly set out in the 

 spring of 1894 The exceptions are some plantsof Rosa rugosa. 

 Moss Roses and Pride of Washington, that form the hedge 

 enclosing the garden. The plants suffered last year from 

 drought, but the water-supply on the Island has been increased 

 and they have been properly watered this season. 



Early in the winter of 1894-1895 all of the plants except those 

 of Rosa rugosa and its hybrid, Madame Georges Bruant, Madame 

 Plantier, the Moss Roses and the climbing Rose, Pride of 

 Washington, were pegged down to the ground and well cov- 

 ered with leaves. The exceptions mentioned were protected 

 with the same material at the roots only. The plants wintered, 

 in the main, remarkably well, although the weather was 

 severe. Probably they were helped by the snow that was 

 much of the time spread over their leafy covering. But, as 

 there was no snow on the ground at the time when the mer- 

 cury reached the lowest pomt recorded, the hardiness of the 

 Roses may be considered as fairly tested. 



The Moss Roses, Madame Plantier and Rosa rugosa wintered 

 perfectly, with no protection save at their roots, but plants of 

 Pride of Washington were killed back to the covering of 

 leaves, which in their case protected the wood trained along 

 llie lower of two wires that support the hedge Roses. All of 

 the wood on the upper wire, which is stretched about two and 

 a half feet above the ground, was killed, excepting in one 

 or two places where the hedge is somewhat sheltered by trees 

 and shrubs. 



The garden is composed largely of Hybrid Remontants, and 

 of these Mrs. John Laing is easily the best, proving hardy 

 and vigorous and flowering freely. Although its first flower- 

 ing was somewhat less abundant than that of Marshall P. 

 Wilder, it has bloomed more cpntinuously. As grown here, 

 Marshall P. Wilder is entitled to second place as an all-round 

 Rose. General Jacqueminot is nearly its equal, and Earl of 

 Dufferin and Alfred Colomb are about as good. Follow- 

 ing these comes a list of good varieties, all of which have 

 proved satisfactory. They include Jeannie Dickson, Baroness 

 Rothschild, Comtesse De Serenye, Paul Neyron, Anne de 

 Diesbach, John Hopper, La Reine, Caroline d'Arden, Fisher 

 Holmes, Jean Liabaud, Pteonia, Merveille de Lyon, Mabel 

 Morrison and Prince Camille de Rohan. These all wintered 

 safely under a covering of six to eight inches of dry leaves, 

 made good growth when the covering was removed in late 

 spring, and flowered well, many of them profusely, in June. 

 Several varieties, notably Mrs. Laing, General Jacqueminot, 

 Marshall P. Wilder, Earl of Dufferin, Merveille de Lyon, Bar- 

 oness Rothschild arid a few others are giving a good second 

 crop, and other kinds show scattering blooms. No symptoms 

 of mildew are apparent up tojuly 15th. 



The beds are all covered with a heavy mulch of lawn-clip- 

 pings, but all of the Honeysuckle-vines that were supposed to 

 outline the beds have been removed, for they were found 

 quite unmanageable, overgrowing and smothering the Roses. 

 In fact, these and the rampant Verbenas that filled all of the 

 space about and beneath the Roses last year, smothered to 

 death as many Roses as were winter-killed. For this reason 

 lawn-clippings now replace any living and growing mulch. 



The Ramanas Roses have proved entirely hardy. This is also 

 true of the Rugosa hybrid, Madame Georges Bruant, which is 

 in flower continuously. Madame Plantier is also reliably 

 hardy, and gives an immense June crop of flowers. So, too, 

 are the Moss Roses, Comtesse de MurinSis and Captain John 

 Ingram having bloomed the best. 



In the Perpetual Moss class Salet and Blanche Moreau 

 have proved most satisfactory. Pride of Washington is the 

 best bloomer among the climbing June Roses, but it is 

 not hardy unless all the wood is protected. Clothilde Sou- 

 pert has almost disappeared from the garden. It is said to 

 have frozen back badly, although turned down and protected. 

 But all of the Polyantha class, as well as other low-growing 

 Roses, were so smothered by the rank growth of Verbenas 

 that they went into winter quarters with impaired vitality. 

 This may in a measure account for the loss of Clothilde Sou- 

 pert. It did admirably during the summer of the World's 

 Fair, being among the last to succumb to mildew. 



Gloire de Dijon, which is the strongest grower among Tea 

 Roses, Reine Marie Henriette and Madame Pigney are the 

 only sorts in this class that can be called hardy here, and then 

 only when protected. 



The Roses that have done least well in the Rose garden, and 

 may. therefore, be deemed unsuited to the Chicago climate, 

 are Margaret Dickson, which is the most vigorous of all the 

 Remontants grown, but is parsimonious of its truly lovely 

 flowers, and so is a disappointment. Her Majesty is also a . 

 strong grower, but does not flower well ; Belle of Normandy 

 is hardy, but does not perfect its flowers ; La France froze 

 back badly, but is sending up good shoots for late flowering ; 

 Francois Treyve is a good grower and hardy, but the buds 

 blight when they begin to open ; Francois Levet is hardy, but 

 many of its buds do not open ; and American Beauty freezes 

 back, refuses to grow, and is generally unsatisfactory as an 

 out-of-door Rose in this climate. ^ , r- 



Bri..;hton, III. Fanny Copley Seavey. 



Luther Burbank's Hybrid Lilies. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The work of Luther Burbank in the improvement of 

 plants and fruits by hybridization, cross-fertilization and selec- 

 tion is well known throughout the horticultural world. His 

 work with Lilies began some eighteen years ago with a form 

 of Lilium pardalinum, one of the native plants of this coast. 

 It grows from British America to southern California, is very 

 hardv, and increases rapidly by new bulbs from its rhizoma- 

 tous root. It is found from high altitudes to the sea-level, 

 usually in marshes on the banks of streams, or in deep, rich 

 soil, and varies remarkably in size, form and color. In culti- 

 vation it takes readily to any garden soil, is very little subject 

 to disease, and as easily grown as potatoes. 



Some bulbs, of a form found near the Geysers, were first 

 cultivated and the seed planted. Extreme types of these seed- 

 lings were selected and cross-fertilized. The same process 

 was repeated several times. Several years ago I saw a field of 

 Lilies, the result of this crossing, and the variety was wonder- 

 ful. Every intermediate form could be found, from giants 

 nine feet tall to dwarfs from six inches to a foot in height, while 

 the flowers ranged in color from yellow centres and scarlet tips 

 through orange to light yellow centres with pale red tips. 

 These variations, although valuable in themselves, only formed 

 a base for succeeding work, for when by repeated cross-fertili- 

 zations a form begins to break, it is more susceptible to the 

 influence of the pollen of another species. 



LIsingsome of these varieties of Lilium pardalinum as pis- 

 tillate parents, Mr. Burbank crossed upon them the following 

 Lilies : L. auratum, many varieties ; L. Battemaniie, L. Brownii, 

 L. candidum, L. Cateslipei, L. Chalcedonicum, L. elegans, L. 

 Humboldtii L. longiflorum, L. Martagon, L. maritimum, L. 

 Parryi, L. parvum, L. speciosum, L. superbum, L. tigrinum, 

 L. Wallichianum, L. Washingtonianum, L. purpureum. L. 

 Humbokltii and some other Pacific coast Lilies were also used 

 as the pistillate parents for a few thousand crosses. 



Four years ago I saw the seed-pans containing these hybrids, 

 then a year from seed. The little plants, numbering four hun- 

 dred thousand in all, made a wonderful study in leaf variation. 



