October 



1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



403 



would be even better than it is now, and it would soon 

 support a considerable population and be of direct advan- 

 tage to the state. It is a spot which is typical of the dullest 

 condition of the high Sierras, and here, or in some similar 

 place, the National Government could well afford to set 

 apart a square mile of land for a forestry station, in order 

 to prepare for the forests of the future. The suggestion of 

 such a forestry experiment in the Sierras and a similar one 

 in the Coast Range, upon land that is definitely unagricul- 

 tural, has been made before now, and it should be kept 

 before our law-makers. Congress after Congress, until defi- 

 nite results are reached. ^i , t, i a ■ 

 Niies, Calif. Lliar/es Howard Sliinn. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Gerbera Jamesoni. — This pretty Composite perennial 

 was introduced from south Africa seven years ago, and for 

 several years it was grown in pots in a greenhouse. It 

 has, however, since proved to be quite hardy in a south 

 border, and in some gardens, notably the botanic garden at 

 Cambridge, it makes a beautiful display of flowers all 

 through the summer. The number of flowers open at 

 once upon a single plant has been as many as fifteen, and 

 as each flower is over four inches across and colored 

 bright vermilion the effect is exceptionally good. The 

 plant has a tuberous root-stock, stalked pinnatifid leaves 

 about a foot long, and erect scapes from fifteen to thirty 

 inches long, nodding at the apex, and bearing a single 

 flower-head composed of a disk and a radiating single row 

 of narrow petals. They last a long time. At Cambridge 

 the leaves are said to be two feet high and the scapes three 

 feet. I do not suppose that the plant would stand severe 

 frost, but it might be grown where the Belladonna Lily 

 would live. 



Polygonum compactum. — There are two large beds of this 

 plant in a conspicuous place on the lawns at Kew, and for 

 the past month or more they have been very attractive. 

 The plant grows to a height of about eighteen inches, pro- 

 duces many shoots, clothed with cordate leaves four inches 

 long, bright green, with red petioles. The flowers, which 

 are crowded on erect terminal and axillary panicles, are 

 whitish, tinged with rose, and in the effect they produce 

 they resemble somewhat the common Spiraea (Astilbe) 

 Japonica. Although long grown at Kew, this really hand- 

 some Polygonum has never had an opportunity till this 

 year of proving its worth as a garden-plant. It is a peren- 

 nial, and is as easily propagated from cuttings, division of 

 the root-stock or seeds as Polygonums generally are. It is 

 a native of Japan and is quite hardy here. 



Polygonum lanigerum. — This is a large and handsome- 

 leaved annual species of recent introduction (I believe it 

 was first cultivated at St. Petersburg in 1890), and is a most 

 suitable plant for a position in the herbaceous garden or to 

 fill a bed on a lawn. It has stout semi-procumbent stems, 

 a single plant forming in a few weeks a mass six feet 

 through and four feet high. The leaves are stalked, lanceo- 

 late, about a foot long and four inches wide, elegantly 

 curved into a half-circle and covered with a silvery tomen- 

 tum, as in the Cape Silver-tree (Leucodendron). The plant 

 at Kew has not yet flowered, but it promises to make a 

 good display soon, and as the flowers are said to be red, 

 knd the succeeding nuts black, it ought to prove strikingly 

 handsome when at its best. It is well worth attention for 

 its foliage alone by any horticulturist who can appreciate 

 a good lawn plant It appears to be found wild in all parts 

 of the world except Europe. 



Polygonum orientale is one of the oldest of the exotic 

 species that are sufficiently ornamental for the garden, but 

 it is not often used with such effect as at Kew this year. 

 Here it is a handsome feature of the herbaceous border, as 

 well as in a pair of round beds on a lawn. In the latter 

 position a rich soil has produced stems fully ten feet high 

 and as thick as a man's wrist at the base ; the leaves are 



correspondingly large, but there are not so many flowers as 

 upon the plants grown in poorer soil. These are six feet 

 high and crovi'ded with elegant, drooping tail-like racemes 

 of coral-red flowers. The species is an annual and is of 

 the easiest possible cultivation. It is just one of those hand- 

 some, good-natured plants which fit many a corner in the 

 outdoor garden, but are often overlooked. P. orientale 

 is an eastern plant, ranging from the Himalaya to China 

 and Japan. There is a white-flowered variety of it 



Impatiens amphorata. — This is a rival to the old Impa- 

 tiens Roylei, which is naturalized in England and which is 

 at the same time one of the most commonly grown plants 

 in cottagers' gardens. I. amphorata was introduced to 

 Kew last year from the Himalayas. It ripened plenty of 

 seeds, which were sown in beds and in the wild garden, 

 and from these there are now handsome bush-like speci- 

 mens four feet through, with slender upright stems, ovate 

 leaves two or three inches long and a great number of flow- 

 ers about half as large as those of I. Roylei, and colored 

 soft-rose, with the upper segment white and a blotch of yel- 

 low in the throat It is a good plant for the herbaceous 

 border, as it flowers freely and continuously all through the 

 summer. If I. Roylei is not common in the United States 

 it is worth being made so. 



Physalis Franchetl — This beautiful border plant is 

 charming in every character, the stems healthy, the foliage 

 vigorous and of a rich green, and the Chinese lantern-like 

 fruits nearly three inches in diameter and of the brightest 

 orange-red color. It is a plant for the million, as it is peren- 

 nial and as hardy, apparently, as the old Physalis Alke- 

 kengi. It will be remembered that P. Francheti was intro- 

 duced last year by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, and that 

 it was named by Dr. Masters in compliment to Professor 

 Franchet, the well-known French botanist, to whom we are 

 indebted for recognizing this as a distinct and promising 

 garden-plant It is worth growing for the sake of its fruit 

 in the autumn, which, if cut with the stems, would be pop- 

 ular for floral decorations. 



Alth/ea ficifolia. — I believe I mentioned this plant about 

 a year ago as a good subject for the herbaceous border. It 

 is exceptionally fine again at Kew, forming a large cluster 

 of stems six feet high, clothed to the base with rugose fig- 

 shaped leaves a foot in diameter, and bearing axillary 

 flowers four inches across of a clear primrose-yellow color. 

 It is a near ally of the Hollyhock, A. rosea, but differs 

 from that in its looser habit of growth and in the digitately 

 lobed character of its leaves. It is perennial, I believe, but 

 it ripens seeds freely, from which flowering plants can be 

 raised in one year. It might be a good plant to cross with 

 the garden Hollyhock, with a view to strengthening the 

 latter against the devastating disease, Puccinea malvacea- 

 rum, which has driven the Hollyhock out of cultivation in 

 many districts. 



Helianthus rigidus, van Miss Mellish. — The Sunflowers 

 are beautiful with us in September and October, and one 

 of the best of them is that here named, which was first 

 brought into notice here about three years ago. It differs 

 from the type in having larger flowers of a purer golden 

 yellow color, while in height, five feet, it is exactly right 

 for beds. A large circular bed, twenty feet across, filled 

 entirely with this plant and situated on the sunny side of a 

 tall black green yew hedge, is a magnificent picture here 

 now. The plant is easily multiplied by division of the 

 root-stock or from cuttings. It is already very popular in 

 the garden here. A few groups of such plants as this, the 

 big Ox-eye, CKtysanthemum, purple Asters and Kniphofias, 

 if planted with taste in the pinetum, have a wonderfully 

 brightening effect upon that otherwise usually sombre 

 part of the garden. 



Bedding Begonias. — The craze for the big-flowered tuber- 

 ous Begonia has crowded out of notice some of the pretty 

 little sorts which used to find favor. There is, for instance, 

 no Begonia more deserving of a place among summer bed- 

 ding plants than the old B. Worthiana, a sport from B. 

 Boliviensis. It has been beautiful all through the summer 



