•November 20, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



467 



A Few Novelties. 



Scabiosa Caucasica alba. — This is one of the most recent 

 noveliies sent us for trial, and it is a white counterpart of the 

 type. It is white, too, without any shading of l)lue in tlie 

 Hower, but it is in no way an improvement on the originah 

 The principal charm of the older plant is its rare shade of lav- 

 ender-blue and its free-flowering propensity, but the white 

 variety seems to lack vigor as well as color, and it is a question 

 if it ever becomes popular. 



Saintpaulia ionantha. — It is not often that we are privileged 

 to try a genuine new plant that has so few characteristics in 

 common with others in cultivation, and we are much pleased 

 with this pretly little Gesneriad from South Africa. That it is 

 new is evinced by the fact that a new genus had to be made 

 for it, there being no other into which it would fit, and the 

 name, contrary to expectations, seems as if it will stand the 

 test of time; it is made to commemorate Monsieur de St. Paul 

 Hillaire, who sent it from South Africa to his fatlier, who later 

 distributed it. Our plants were raised from seed sown early 

 last year, and we obtained about fifty plants from a packet. 

 The seeds are small, similar to tiiose of the Gloxinia, and 

 require the same treatment after sowing. We started to 

 treat the plants similarly when growing, but soon found that 

 they lil<ed a cool house with shade from strong sunshine, and 

 when tliey were moved into four-inch pots they began to bloom 

 about July, and have continued to do so ever since without 

 intermission. The foliage is at times almost hidden by the 

 quantities of pretty violet-blue blossoms, and there are still no 

 signs of their ceasing. There are no tubers to the Saintpaulia, 

 though we rather expected there would be, on account of the 

 close relationship of tlie plant to a tuber-bearing family like 

 the Gesneriads. However, this plant will root readily from 

 leaf-cuttings, and, after seed, this seems the most simple way 

 to propagate it. 



Spiraea Anthony Waterer. — A colored figure of this novelty 

 was published in the London Garden for January, 1894, which 

 showed what an acquisition the plant would be if only the color 

 of the flowers were as good as the plate represented them. 

 Spirica Anthony Waterer is a sport from S. Bumalda, which is 

 itself a variety of S. Japonica, a dwarf-growing shrubljy Japa- 

 nese species, growing about two feet high and having flat or 

 cymose heads of beautiful deep rose-colored flowers. As I 

 saw these in August last at Mr. Waterer's nursery, where it 

 originated, the color was certainly as good as the colored fig- 

 ure, and there can be no question that we shall soon see it as 

 frequently in gardens as the hardy Hydrangeas when it is bet- 

 ter known to planters. It is a sport, or bud variation, and was 

 shown first in 1891 and received an award of merit under the 

 name of Beauty of Knap Hill, but later, in 1893, under the 

 above name, it received the additional honor of a first-class 

 certificate from the highest horticultural tribunal in England, 

 and if the color stands' the hot sun here and keeps as bright as 

 it does in the gardens of the introducer, it will be a valuable 

 flowering shrub for July, August and September, for it has an 

 extended flowering period. [Spiraea Anthony Waterer flow- 

 ered this year for the first time in the United Slates. See page 

 315 of the current volume. — Ed.] 



Weigelia Eva Rathke.— This may be described as a perpetual- 

 flowering Weigelia, producing clusters of bright cherry-red 

 flowers with more or less profusion all through the summer. 

 I saw it in August with quite a show of bloom, and shrubs 

 that flower at that time are not common, but there was a rea- 

 sonable promise of bloom for tlie rest of thesummer, to judge 

 from the unopened buds, and I was assured that it was as 

 good as its raisers claimed in this respect. c- /-> ^ 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



and C. Dowiana and others which have a reputation for miffi- 

 ness. These have done better for me than Lycaste Skinneri, 

 which has the reputation of flowering as readily as a Pelargo- 

 nium. Uncertainty is verv certain in the garden. 



Elizabetli, N. J. J ■ N. G. 



Correspondence. 



Oncidium varicosum Rogersii. — When this fine plant can be 

 had the ordinary type does not seem worth retaining. The 

 flowers of Rogers' variety are quite two inches in diameter 

 across the lip. They are of a beautiful deep golden-yellow, 

 with brownish spots on the petals. With its long stem and 

 broad spreading panicle of beautiful flowers it is one of the 

 most charming of Orchids, and seems to thrive under ordinary 

 greenhouse conditions, providing, of course, the atmosphere 

 is kept fairly moist. My belief is that any Orchid which proves 

 satisfactory in my greenhouse under my care is likely to do 

 well with the average amateur, and I am, therefore, inclined to 

 commend this one even to beginners. My experience witli 

 Orchids has been rather limited, but I am quite certain that the 

 amateur will be likely to find much interest and probable suc- 

 cess with any of the cool-house species, and he is quite likely 

 to meet with success with even such things as Cattleya citrina 



Is Young Timber Weaker than Old ? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The very interesting account by Mr. Dana of the Pine- 

 tum Schoberianum, in your issue for November 6th, naturally 

 elicits admiration for a man who, with such singleness of 

 purpose and with such perseverance, could devote his means 

 and attention to experiments on such a large scale for obtain- 

 ing information that does not bring pecuniary gain to the 

 experimenter. Such action certainly suggests similar attempts 

 to men of means in our country, especially as the instability 

 and constant change in the administrative offices of our Gov- 

 ernment does not warrant undertakings of such a nature by 

 the Government. 



The object of these lines, however, is not so much to bestow 

 praise and commend imitation as to suggest that Mr. Schober 

 is in error about the necessary delay in completing his inquiry 

 regarding the species planted — namely, determining " their 

 power of resistance, their duraliility and their relative value 

 as fuel." It IS stated, that " in order to arrive at this final solu- 

 tion of the problem it is his estimate that at least forty years 

 more will be required." 



The notion that young timber is inferior, as far as strength 

 is concerned, to old timber, is one that has held sway so long 

 that it will take a good deal of demonstration and a long time 

 of preaching before it will be eradicated. Nevertheless, it is 

 true that the popular belief is probably as erroneous as was 

 the one that "bled" pine is inferior to " unbled." The ex- 

 tensive tests made by the Division of Forestry have accumu- 

 lated a large array of data which indicate that this notion is 

 wrong in Pines, and we can see no reason why it should not 

 be wrong with all other kinds of timber. Nay, not only may 

 young timber be stronger than old, but we can assert the still 

 more audacious reversal of the notion that sapwood is weaker 

 than heartwood. Ample ocular demonstration and experi- 

 ment will be required to establish this fact beyond cavil, but 

 we can even now supply arguments wdiy this fact should be so. 



That strength and specific weight in the same species are 

 almost synonyms has been amply proven by our experiments 

 on pine. Specific weight is, of course, dependent on the 

 amount of cell-tissue within a given space, and the greater 

 weight of the cell-tissue is again dependent on the larger 

 amount of cell-wall, and since the darker bands of summer- 

 wood in the annual ring are composed of thick-walled cells 

 (hence the darker color effect) the greater or less amount of 

 summer-wood determines the greater or less weight. 



Now, it is well known that the wood-cells formed by the 

 cambium of the tree, when once full grown — that is, at the end 

 of the first season — do not change in size or form ; once 

 formed they remain the same in all their mechanical arrange- 

 ments and relationships, and hence the strengtli of the par- 

 ticular annual ring remains the same, no matter how many 

 more annual rings are formed around it. We do notice a 

 change when the sapwood changes to heart-wood, but this 

 change does not, as far as we know, involve any change in 

 form or size of cell or cell-wall ; it is chemical in its nature, 

 and whether it be infiltration of the cell-wall with chemicals or 

 partial disintegration of the cell-wall itself, it is not conceiva- 

 ble that such change adds to the strength ; if anything, it 

 rather detracts from it. 



To return, however, to the proposition that the amount of 

 summer-wood in an annual ring determines its strength, and 

 hence the amount or proportion of summer-wood determines 

 the strength of the given piece, we come to the conclusion that 

 the strongest wood is formed when the most summer-wood is 

 formed, which is at the time of thriftiest growtli. As a matter 

 of fact, since the growth is a direct function of the amount of 

 foliage, this occu>s in most species normally when the crown 

 is best developed, which is usually between the thirtieth year 

 of the tree's life and the eightieth, or ninetieth at most. Hence, 

 if we split up a bolt of a normally grown hundred-year-old 

 Pine into sticks along the radius from centre to periphery, we 

 shall find that the sticks that come from a zone representing the 

 wood of tlie fortieth to sixtieth year is the strongest, and as we 

 near the periphery or the centre we find the wood, as a rule, 

 decreasing in strength. Hence the trees of Mr. Schober, 

 which have attained the age of fifty years, if properly sub- 



