446 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 402. 



of this variety are only about one-quarter of the size of 

 those of H. Moserianum, which has proved a tremendous 

 success in beds at Kew this year. 



Lhspedeza SiEBOLDii. — This is one of the handsomest of 

 the shrubby Leguminosese, which flower late in the autumn. 

 It is grown in large beds in an exposed place on a lawn at 

 Kew, where its elegant pendent branches form a Bamboo- 

 like mass twelve feet through and four feet high, which is 

 attractive before the flowers come in the latter part of Sep- 

 tember, when the branches are heavily laden with red- 

 purple flowers. The shoots are annual, or at any rate they 

 are killed down to the ground by frost, but the stools sur- 

 vive and in spring new shoots are pushed up in abundance. 

 It is a native of China and Japan and has been in cultiva- 

 tion here many years, but it is not generally known in 

 gardens. 



New Chrysanthemums. — A dozen new sorts of Chrysan- 

 themums were certificated by the National Chrysanthemum 

 Society and the Royal Horticultural Society. There is every 

 promise of an exceptionally good display of these plants in 

 England this year, the peculiar character of the season 

 having been favorable to them. I am informed, too, that 

 the number of new seedlings that are being tested by Eng- 

 lish growers this year is far in excess of anything ever 

 done before. Those certificated were : Boule d'Or, large 

 incurved, amber yellow, the inside of the florets chestnut 

 red; Lady Esther Smith, large Japanese, with long, broad 

 pure white florets ; Lady Randolph, large Japanese, some- 

 what globular, the florets purplish amaranth; Lago Mag- 

 giore, large Japanese, with long, broad reflexed golden- 

 yellow florets ; Madame A. de Lacvivier, Japanese in- 

 curved, crimson, with yellow reverse; Madame M. Masse, 

 Japanese, early, rosy mauve, golden centre; Monsieur C. 

 Molin, large Japanese, with broad yellow florets tinged 

 with carmine ; Phoebus, yellow Japanese ; President Ar- 

 mand, Japanese incurved, chestnut, with yellow reverse ; 

 Pride of Madford, large Japanese, purple, paler reverse ; 

 T. B. Haywood, large Japanese, white, of good substance 

 (of Australian origin); Yellow Gem, a Pompon variety, 

 with yellow fimbriated florets. 



London. 



W. Walson. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Fothergilla Gardeni. 



THE flora of the southern Appalachian Mountains is 

 distinguished by a number of monotypic shrubs 

 which are generally exceedingly rare and of local distribu- 

 tion ; among them is Fothergilla, a member of the Witch 

 Hazel family, distinguished by its short terminal, ament- 

 like, pedunculate clusters of flowers, which are sessile and 

 apetalous, and open in early spring from the axils of scale- 

 like, tomentose, deciduous bracts. The calyx is campanu- 

 late, adnate below to the ovary and repandly five to seven 

 dentate ; on its margin are inserted in a single series about 

 twenty-five long, straight, clavate white filaments bearing 

 small yellow anthers, and rather longer than the two, or 

 rarely three, slender spreading styles. The fruit is a two- 

 lobed, two-valved, hoary tomentose, two-seeded capsule 

 resembling that of the Witch Hazel in size and shape, and, 

 like that of the Witch Hazel, ejecting the seeds violently on 

 opening. 



Fothergilla Gardeni (see illustration on page 445 of this 

 issue), the only species, is a shrub of compact habit, from 

 three to five feet tall, with numerous stout stems, large 

 ovate pointed, light red, pubescent buds, and alternate, 

 obovate, petiolate, deciduous leaves, rounded or acute and 

 coarsely serrate at the apex, about three inches long, two 

 or three inches broad, thick and firm, dark dull green on 

 the upper surface, and pale and glaucous on the lower sur- 

 face, which is more or less pubescent, especially along the 

 midribs and numerous conspicuous primary veins. In 

 early spring, before the appearance of the leaves, the flow- 

 ers open on the ends of all the branches, covering the plant 

 with brush-like masses of the long white stamens, which 



are the only showy parts of the flower, and make it at this 

 time a most conspicuous and beautiful object. 



Fothergilla Gardeni grows naturally on the borders of 

 swamps and streams on the Carolina coast and in the foot- 

 hill region of the southern Alleghanies. Nowhere com- 

 mon, it has been collected in recent years near Wilming- 

 ton and at Salem, North Carolina, at Ceesar's Head, in the 

 Blue Ridge, South Carolina, and by Dr. Mohr in the valley of 

 the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama; near Cull- 

 mann, Alabama, and at Prattville, Autauga County, Alabama. 



Fothergilla Gardeni was introduced into English gardens 

 one hundred and thirty years ago, and, judging by the 

 number of figures that were published of it in Europe 

 toward the end of the last and at the beginning of the 

 ]3resent century, it must at that time have been a well- 

 known and' favorite inhabitant of gardens from which it 

 has now almost entirely disappeared, in spite of the fact 

 that few shrubs present a more curious and beautiful effect 

 than Fothergilla when it is covered with flowers. Its habit 

 is excellent, too, and its foliage is abundant and rich in 

 color. 



In the Arnold Arboretum Fothergilla is perfectly hardy, 

 and flowers profusely every year, although it has not 

 ripened its fruit. The flowering branch in our illustration 

 is ironi a plant that has been growing for many years in 

 the Arboretum. The fruiting Ijranch is from the nursery of 

 Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Philadelphia, where 

 Fothergilla ripens its seeds during the month of July. 



c. s. s. 



Plant Notes. 



LiQuiDAMBAR sTYRACiFLUA. — The American Liquidamber, 

 or Sweet Gum, is one of the best of our large native trees 

 for ornamental planting, and yet, although Downing com- 

 mended it fifty years ago as one of the most beautiful of 

 trees at every stage of its growth and during every season 

 of the year, comparatively few of these trees, even now, 

 are planted, and to far the greatest number of those who 

 plant trees it is absolutely unknown. In the course of his 

 enthusiastic description of the Sv^'eet Gum, Downing says : 

 "During the summer months it preserves unsoiled that 

 dark glossy freshness which is so delightful to the eye, 

 while the singularly regular palmate form of the leaves 

 readily distinguishes it from the common trees of a planta- 

 tion. But in autumn it assumes its gayest livery and is 

 decked in colors almost too bright and vivid for foliage, 

 and forms one of the most brilliant objects in American 

 scenery at that period of the year. The prevailing tint of 

 the foliage is then a deep purplish red, unlike any symp- 

 tom of decay, and this is sometimes varied by a shade 

 deeper or lighter, while occasionally an orange tint is 

 assumed. When planted in the neighborhood of our fine 

 Maples, Ashes and other trees remarkable for their au- 

 tumnal coloring, the effect in a warm dry autumn is almost 

 magical." He adds elsewhere that the tree, from the 

 character of its outline, which is not specially picturesque, 

 unites and harmonizes with nearly all other trees to 

 make a good composition. In its general form it resem- 

 bles somewhat a slender Sugar Maple, although its leaves 

 are much more glossy than those of any Maple. Its some- 

 what narrow and pyramidal shape and its adaptedness to 

 various soils and rapidity of growth make it useful for 

 street-planting. The branches are rather short in propor- 

 tion to the height of the tree, so that when it is young the 

 head is rather sharply pyramidal. The broad star-shaped 

 leaves, three or four inches across, are pleasantly fragrant 

 when bruised, and the leafless branches are interesting in 

 winter on account of the broad corky wings. It attains its 

 greatest size in the Mississippi basin, where it is sometimes 

 a hundred and fifty feet high, but it becomes a large tree m 

 this latitude. It ranges naturally from Connecticut to Guate- 

 mala, but is somewhat tender on the New England coast. 

 Besides the Sweet Gum and Liquidamber, the tree is known 

 in different parts of the country as the Bilsted, the Red Gum 



