December iS, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



503 



plantings which I liave seen, all on upland, it has not ful- 

 filled the promises made for it. Even when planted close 

 and well treated, the small trunks are crooked and soon 

 divide into useless branches. Ailanthus has done much 

 better, for it makes a rapid growth and a straight un- 

 branched trunk. Within a very few years it makes com- 

 paratively good fence-stakes. It seems also to be tolerably 

 strong in drought-resistance, though there is little promise 

 that the trees on Kansas upland will ever come to the per- 

 fection of the old Ailanthus-trees about the Temple Square, 

 in Salt Lake, where the rows are closely paralleled by 

 ditches of flowing water. 



Black Locust made a good growth on these prairie 

 claims, but has Ceen almost completely cleared away by 

 borers. Many other species were planted, but none in 

 great quantities, and there are none which have gained 

 enough of reputation to justify their exclusive use in future 

 plantings. ir i w 1 



Manhattan, Kansas. ^- A. Waugh. 



Vaccinium vacillans with White Fiaiit. 



A VARIETY of this Low Blueberry with light-colored 

 fruit was found last summer in the sand region east 

 of Chicago. When growing in the shade the berries were 

 white or faintly tinged with red, but in the bright sunlight 

 they became flesh-colored or rosy on the exposed side. 

 Their shape was obovate or pyriform, so that they differ 

 from the common form, which is usually globular or 

 depressed globose. They were very sweet and juicy and 

 in quality superior to the average product of the Low Blue- 

 berry, for it varies considerably, being sometimes large and 

 juicy, like the fruit of Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum and V. 

 Canadense, but ordinarily smaller and drier. The leaves 

 were also smaller than usual, and were broad oval to 

 roundish in outline. These distinctions, if they remain 

 constant, shovi' a well-marked variety. 



The bushes were very prolific in fruit and covered an 

 area about three rods long by eight or ten feet to a rod in 

 width. Nearly every bush was bearing, and none of the 

 ordinary form was found mixed with them. Assuming 

 that they all were derived from a single sport of the typical 

 plant, the stoloniferous habit of Vaccinium vacillans would 

 easily account for the number of plants found together, if 

 they do not come true from seed. Many of the Vacciniums 

 spread extensively by means of subterranean stems. I 

 have traced those of the Low Blueberry several feet in the 

 loose sand. These underground stems emit many fibrous 

 roots, especially at the joints, and occasional branches. 

 Those rising above ground grow into the ordinary shrub ; 

 hence an individual plant may be made up of the parts 

 underground and several aerial stems. 



By inquiring I learned from the berry-pickers that they 

 were well acquainted with these white-fruited bushes. Two 

 other patches, at least, were mentioned, but they were said 

 to be found more frequently as single bushes, or two or 

 threein company. From this I thinkitquite probable that the 

 seed is fertile and that the variety is disseminated in this way. 



Though albinoism has been observed in the fruit of 

 various species of Vaccinium in this country and in 

 Europe, and also in the Black Huckleberry, Gaylussacia 

 resinosa, I can find no case on record for V. vacillans. 

 White huckleberries being also caused by a fungus (Sclero- 

 tinia baccarum), these berries were carefidly examined for 

 fungoid growths. None were found in them, nor any on 

 the bushes that could have affected the fruit in such a way.. 

 As a whole, they were remarkably heahhy-looking plants, 

 some root swellings only being noticed in one or two 

 plants that were apparently due to a fungus. The fruit 

 was so pure in color and the skin so thin that it was almost 

 translucent when fully ripe, and has become fully so in 

 some specimens preserved in salycilic acid. Professor 

 Porter has also mentioned the transhicency of the white 

 berries of V. Pennsylvanicum, and of alcoholic specimens 

 of the white fruit of Gaylussacia resinosa. „. 



Chicago, 111. -l^- /• ■""'• 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



New G.-\rden Pl.^nts, 1894. — The list of new plants for 

 1894, which forms Appendix II. of the Keiv Bulletin, has 

 just been issued; price, fourpence. It contains short de- 

 scriptions of each, with references to the original descrip- 

 tion and figures of nearly five hundred plants introduced 

 into cultivation during the past year. It is unnecessary to 

 point out the value such a list must have for botanists as 

 well as horticulturists, as it includes not only all the 

 species but all varieties as well, with botanical names, and 

 all true hybrids with their parents. A few of the plants 

 included are old and forgotten garden plants reintroduced. 

 The list is compiled from all botanical and horticultural 

 publications in Europe and America in which new plants 

 are known to be recorded. A similar list for each year has 

 been prepared annually at Kew, and published as an ap- 

 pendix to the Bullelin since 1887. The bulk of the new 

 plants of 1894 are Orchids, and as evidence of the activity 

 of the hybridist, it is noteworthy that no less than thirty- 

 eight hybrid Cypripediums and twenty-two hybrid Lrelias 

 and Cattleyas were flowered for the first time and given 

 prominent notice last year. 



Picturesque Scenery at Kew. — .Artists and photogra- 

 phers are fully alive to the beauties of Kew scenery, and 

 numbers of them may be seen at work at any time of the 

 year, in the morning as well as the afternoon. For the last 

 two years two eminent artists, Monsieur and Madame de 

 L'Aubiniere, have been engaged in painting pictures of the 

 scenery about the lake in the gardens. Their pictures, 

 nearly one hundred in number, are now on exhibition in 

 a room adjoining the " North " gallery, where they are a 

 source of gratification to visitors. The lake in the Royal 

 Gardens was made about forty years ago by Sir William 

 Hooker. It is an irregular piece of water with three small 

 wooded islands, and is fed by the river Thames. The 

 pinetum extends along its south side, and its margin is 

 broken by a collection of Willows and Alders. The beauty 

 of the vievi'S to be obtained from various points is well 

 shown in the pictures above mentioned. Many of these 

 views have lately been opened up by the judicious re- 

 moval of superfluous trees and shrubs. 



Idria Colu.mnaria. — -Can some correspondent in Lower 

 California give us some information with regard to this 

 plant .' I lately saw a picture of it in an American publica- 

 tion (I forget which), representing a plant with a thick 

 Cactus-like or sugar-loaf shaped stem, bearing a few short 

 branches, with leaves and flowers at the top. Inquiries 

 in America elicited no information, except that the plant 

 was in some inaccessible region in Lower California. I 

 learn from Dr. Masters, however, that a plant of it has 

 lately been added to the collection in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, Paris, where he saw it a few weeks ago. He 

 describes it as having a stem two to three feet high, and 

 as much through at the base, with slender branches near 

 the top, and ovate acute leaves. Idria is supposed to be 

 related to the genus Fouquiera, of which F. splendens is 

 in cultivation here. Living examples of the Idria would 

 be greatly valued at Kew. What the Frenchmen in Cali- 

 fornia appear to have done for Paris surely can be done 

 by an Englishman or American for Kew. 



Catasetum imperiale.' — This is one of the series of large 

 handsome-flowered Catasetums introduced last year by 

 L Horlicullure Inlernalionale, and to which I have already 

 referred. Mr. Rolfe considers them all to be natural hy- 

 brids, between C. Bungerothii and C. macrocarpum, but they 

 show a most extraordinary diversity both of form and 

 color, some being exactly like C. Bungerothii in form, and 

 to this lot belongs that now under notice, of which a plant 

 bearing a nine-flowered scape was shown last Tuesday 

 and easily obtained a first-class certificate. Each flower 

 was three inches across, the sepals and petals in a cluster 

 above the large shell-shaped lip, and the color cream- 



