NovEirBER 13, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



457 



possible, and the soil should be light and not overrich. Only 

 enough shading should be provided to prevent them from 

 getting scorched. They can be kept in a small state by con- 

 fining them to small pots, but this is by no means a good plan, 

 as it causes them to assume a stunted and sickly appearance. 



Tanylown, N. Y. lVitlia7>l Scoit. 



Half-hardy Shrubs. 



'X'HERE are quite a number of showy-flowered shrubs which 

 -'■ might be grown in the northern states with a little protec- 

 tion out-of-doors in winter ; when that is not sufficient they 

 can be lifted bodily and stored in a deep frame where they will 

 get light and air occasionally. Abelia floril uuida and A. rupes- 

 tris are two shrubs belonging to this class well worth this extra 

 attention ; they fiower very abundantly all through the summer 

 months and late into the fall ; they are not particular as to soil, 

 and will flourish even in very dry weather. During the past 

 summer I saw a good-sized bush of A. floribunda at Dosori.s, 

 Long Island, loaded with flowers, which I was told was moved 

 each fall with other things to a place where it got the protec- 

 tion of a few boards. 



The Chinese Crape Myrtle, Lagerstromia Indica, is another 

 shrub which is too little known and grown in the northern 

 states. Asa proof of its rapid growth I will say that we had 

 some plants of it in bloom this fall which were raised from last 

 year's seed. Old established plants stand several degrees 

 below zero safely, and young ones, if protected with some 

 rough material over the roots, although killed to the ground, 

 will come out safely in the spring, even where the cold is 

 much more intense, and flower profusely. Medium-sized 

 bushes can be moved to a safe shelter each fall and replanted 

 in the spring without suffering much from the operation. This 

 species, with its dilferent colored forms, are represented in the 

 vicinity of Washington by bushes twenty-tive feet high. 



Hypericum patulum and H. Mosserianum occasionally get 

 nipped here, but they stand the removal treatment well. All 

 the varieties of Vitis Agnus-castus are good plants for dry 

 soils ; its leaves and flowers are both attractive, and it will 

 grow from cuttings four feet in a single season. Rhaphiolepis 

 Japonica integerrima, a leathery-leaved rosaceous shrub with 

 sweet-perfumed Hawthorn-like flowers, is quite hardy in 

 Wasliington, and so is the Japanese Photinia serrulata, a very 

 handsome shrub with Laurel-like leaves. If planted in shel- 

 tered situations this ought to thrive much fartlier north. [This 

 Photinia is hardy in New England. See Garden and Forest, 

 vol. i., page 67. — Ed.] Although more in the nature of an 

 herbaceous plant, Caryopteris Mastacanthus is really a sub- 

 shrub, and it should have a trial everywhere, as it stands 

 drought well and flowers very abundantly even on the small 

 twigs. Being easily propagated, the old plants can be left out 

 for trial, protected if necessary, and young plants kept in a 

 cool frame. [Caryopteris survives ordinary winters in the 

 latitude of Boston. See Garden and Forest, vol. vii., page 

 406.— Ed.] 



The common Indian Azaleas are much hardier than many 

 people suppose ; a bed of them has stood unprotected during 

 twenty years in Washington, where the mercury frequently 

 gets to the zero point. They are planted in a mixture of leaf- 

 soil and sand partly in the shade of some tall Oak-trees, the 

 leaves of which are allowed to remain on the ground where 

 they fall. A. amcena is perfectly hardy in some of the north- 

 ern states. This is a very beautifully flowered shrub, and 

 should be more largely planted. There are several very pleas- 

 ing hybrids between this and A. Indica. In likely situations 

 they should all be given a trial. The stronger-growing, single- 

 flowered varieties of A. Indica give the best results. 



Botanic Garden, Washington, D. C. G- ^V. O. 



The Winter Cantaloupe. 



T T is not generally known that there are several varieties 

 ■*• of Cantaloupes which are distinctively slow in ripening, 

 and may be some months in doing so after they have been 

 pulled from the vine. We know this to be true with regard to 

 some apples and pears, some of which require several 

 months before they are fit to eat. They are put away in their 

 green state, and after a longer or shorter period, by some 

 hidden process, become mellow and ripe. The cantaloupe is 

 generally so perishable that it lives only from one to three 

 days after it has been separated from the plant, and can be 

 transported but a few hundred miles. 



But there are winter varieties of the melon that can be kept 

 like apples or pears and will ripen in November and along 

 until the last of winter. We know of four varieties of the win- 



ter Cantaloupe, two of which are credited to the vicinity of 

 Naples and two to the island of Malta. The Naples green- 

 fleshed is probably the largest and finest of the four, and, 

 strange to say, grows in swampy land. The fruit has large 

 brown seeds and sells in Naples at from forty to sixty cents 

 apiece. In the fall the melons are stored away, and when one 

 is to be ripened it is hung up in a net in the air. In our coun- 

 try, it being too cold, the fruit can be ripened in a room where 

 it is not exposed to the frost. In Naples this variety can be 

 kept from Christmas to Easter, and is said by foreign visitors 

 to be a fine melon. 



All the winter melons are long, oval, of a green color, with 

 no network, or merely a trace of it, and weigh from three to 

 four pounds. The Naples varieties are either green-fleshed 

 or white-fleshed, and the Malta kinds are red-fleshed or green- 

 ish white. The latter is sometimes known as the Spanish 

 winter melon, and has recently been imported into New York 

 from Cadiz, in Spain. As these melons grow near Naples, in 

 the island of Malta, in the south of France and in Spain, there 

 is no reason why they should not be grown in our southern 

 states and in California. We have introduced the Japanese 

 Plum and Persimmon, why not the Winter Cantaloupe ? 

 Damman & Co., of Portici, near Naples, can furnish experi- 

 menters with the two Naples varieties, and the Malta kinds 

 can be had of Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie., of Paris. Any good 

 seedsman will import them for customers. This new industry 

 is worth trying in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and southern 

 California. 



Philadei;.bia, Pa. Robert P. Harris. 



[In Bulletin 95 of the Cornell Experiment Station on 

 growing Melons in winter, one section is devoted to 

 Winter Melons for field cultivation. These interesting 

 Melons, the Cucnmis Melo, var. inodorus of Naudin, are 

 little known here, although their long-keeping qualities 

 make it possible to send them across the Atlantic, and 

 there has been considerable importation of the fruit here 

 this year. These mostly belong to the variety known as 

 the White Antibes, a large, hard-shelled, bright green, 

 egg-shaped and very long-keeping melon, which has the 

 characteristic odor of the muskmelon, and when properly 

 ripened a good flavor. It belongs to the type which has a 

 soft interior and loose seeds like ordinary melons. Another 

 type, including the Winter Pineapple, or the Green-fleshed 

 Maltese Melon of the French, has a solid interior like a 

 cucumber, with the seeds imbedded firmly in the structure 

 of the fruit. For field cultivation the Winter Melons require 

 a long season, and should be picked just before frost and 

 before they have become edible. — Ed.] 



Aralia Veitchii — This Aralia, together with A. elegantissima 

 and A. Kerchoviana, forms a trio of highly ornamental stove- 

 plants which are much prized by cultivators of the finer-leaved 

 plants. Owing to the difficulty of propagating them by cut- 

 tings, they are not much grown commercially. As we com- 

 monly see them they have digitate leaves, with from seven to 

 eleven very narrow leaflets of a bronzy green color. A plant 

 of A. Veitchii, said to have been the first one imported into 

 this country somewhere about thirty years ago, was planted 

 out in one of the conservatories here, where it has remained 

 ever since. It has grown to a height of over twenty feet, and 

 the stem at the base is twelve inches in circumference. Vis- 

 itors when they see this specimen for the first time find it 

 difficult to believe that this is the true A. \'eitchii. Its whole 

 appearance is changed ; instead of the wiry upright stems and 

 graceful foliage the smallest of the branches are at least half 

 an inch thick and assume more of a pendent than an upright 

 habit, while the leaves have changed still more. They have 

 become a dark shining green, and the leaflets are at least one 

 and a half inches broad, entire at the margins, with three or 

 four undulations along their entire length. It is only where a 

 large branch of this plant is cut back to near the principal 

 stem that the typical characters of A. Veitchii — that is, shoots 

 with narrow leaflets — are seen. These shoots grow quite rap- 

 idly, and are used for grafting on the common .-V. Guilfoylii, to 

 which they unite readily. 



Bolanic Garden, Wasliington, D. C. G. W, O. 



Cucumis dipsaceus.— I have lately received from one of our 

 great seed houses the fruit of this Arabian and African species. 

 It has been somewhat cultivated in this country under the 

 name of the Ostrich-egg Gourd, but, unfortunately, so far as I 

 know, it is described in none of the current botanical works, 



