66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 207. 



up in place of the much later Pinus insignis of Douglas, 

 although it has, unfortunately, been long associated with 

 another species, the Pinus tuberculata of Gordon, now to 

 be known by Mr. Lemmon's name of Pinus attenuate. — Ed.] 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Thrinax Morrisii. — This is a new species of Palm 

 which the Assistant Director at Kew, Mr. Morris, discov- 

 ered in Anguilla, one of the Leeward Islands, when on a 

 visit there last year. He brought back with him stems, 

 leaves and fruits, from which Herr Wendland has made his 

 description. Subsequently, good seeds were obtained for 

 sowing at Kew. It differs from all other species of the 

 genus, in being of very small stature, rivaling in this re- 

 spect Phoenix Rcebeleni, the pigmy Date, which was 

 figured in Garden and Forest a year or so ago. In the 

 Kew Bulletin, for May last year, Mr. Morris stated that : 



"Before arriving at Blowing Point (in Anguilla) an inter- 

 esting little Palm was found growing on broken limestone 

 rocks. It was present in fairly large quantities, and the 

 fan-shaped leaves were used for thatching native huts. 

 The chief interest attached to this Palm is connected with 

 its dwarf habit. The largest and most mature specimen 

 did not measure more than about thirty or thirty-five inches 

 in height, and the stem was about two and a half inches 

 in diameter. . . . There is little doubt it will prove most 

 attractive and interesting in a horticultural sense." 



The species of Thrina.x which finds most favor in England 

 is T. elegans, sometimes called T. Barbadensis, sometimes 

 T. Loddigesii, but which ought properly to be called T. 

 radiata. It forms a pretty pot-plant when small, and when 

 large is one of the handsomest of the smaller fan-Palms, 

 the elegant leaves clothing the stem almost from top to 

 bottom, even in tall specimens. T. excelsa, T. parvi flora 

 and T. argentea are also exceedingly handsome. There 

 are splendid specimens of these in the Palm-house at Kew. 

 With reference to the exceptionally dwarf character of T. 

 ]\Iorrisii, it is just possible that under conditions less e.x- 

 posed and more favorable than those under which Mr. 

 Morris found this species, it may grow much larger than 

 any seen in Anguilla. I know this happens with some 

 kinds of Phcenix. 



Child's New Japanese Wixeberry.: — Under this name a 

 plant is advertised, this week, by an American nurseryman 

 in some of the London horticultural journals. It is de- 

 scribed as a bush five to seven feet in height, and as being 

 able to "stand alike the cold of northern winters and the 

 heat of tropical summers without the slightest degree of 

 injury." Judging from this description and the picture of 

 the plant which accompanies it in the advertisement, I 

 have no doubt that the plant meant is the Japanese Rubus 

 phoenicolasius, which was introduced from Japan into 

 Europe by Dr. Maximowicz. A plant of it was obtained 

 from the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, for Kew in 1875, from 

 which a picture was made and published in the Bolanical 

 Magazine in 1880 (t. 6479). Fo'' the first year the plant at 

 Kew grew outside among the collection of hardy Rubi, 

 where it was nearly killed by the cold of the succeeding 

 winter. It was then removed to a sunny position in the 

 large temperate house, where it grew luxuriantly. Here 

 it assumed the habit of a very tall Raspberry, the shoots 

 growing to a height of ten feet or more. They were fas- 

 tened to a pole. In summer the plant flov^'ered freely, and 

 the flowers were succeeded by a fine crop of shining scar- 

 let fruit, scarcely as large as an ordinary raspberry. The 

 fruits remained on the plant until midwinter. The)'- were fit 

 to eat, but mawkish and inferior in flavor to blackberries. 

 The flowers are small, the petals pinkish, with long calyx 

 lobes, which fold over the young fruit, expanding again as 

 the berries ripen. The stems, petioles, midrib of the leaf 

 on the under side, together with the flower-stalks and 

 calyx-lobes, are clothed with long, stiff, gland-tipped red- 



purple hairs ; there are a few spines at the base of the 

 ripened stems. These hairs are, perhaps, the most orna- 

 mental feature of this species of Rubus, although the fruit, 

 when ripe, is attractive. With regard to the statement that 

 it will "stand the cold of a northern winter without injury," 

 I should say that it depends on what is meant by " north- 

 ern " and "winter." Certainly the plant is not hardy at 

 Kew, where it is still grown in the temperate house. 



[There is no doubt about the ability of this Rubus to 

 endure the winter climate of New York and its vicinity. 

 Plants stand out here with no protection, and are perfectly 

 hardy. It is quite possible that the seeds sent to Europe by 

 Dr. Maximowicz came from a more southern region than 

 those from which the strain offered by Mr. Childs were 

 grown. Professor Georgeson collected these seeds in the 

 mountains of northern Japan. It is probable, too, that 

 there is as great a difference in the quality of the fruit of 

 different plants as there is in their hardiness. The berries 

 we have tasted are by no means "mawkish." — Ed.] 



Cattleya labiata vera. — A somewhat novel method of 

 subscribing to a charitable institution was adopted lately 

 by jMessrs. F. Sander & Co., who placed in the hands of an 

 auctioneer a large newly imported specimen plant of this 

 Cattleya to be sold for the benefit of the Gardeners' Orphan 

 Fund. The plant was a magnificent one, having over 250 

 healthy pseudo-bulbs, forming a mass more than a yard 

 through. It realized fifty guineas, a price which, luider the 

 circumstances, may be called a fancy one, really good 

 plants of this Cattleya being now obtainable in England or 

 Belgium for about five shillings each. Such a specimen as 

 the above would be probably fifty years old at least. 

 Messrs. Sander & Co. have promised to give a full and 

 complete account of the discovery of this Cattleya in the 

 forthcoming number oi Reichenbachia. 



The Gardeners' Benevolent Institution was established 

 about fifty years ago for the ]3urpose of assisting aged and 

 infirm gardeners who were unprovided for in any other 

 way. The subscription for gardeners is a guinea a year, 

 but by far the largest proportion of the funds are con- 

 tributed by wealthy sympathizers. Upward of $275,000 

 have been distributed in pensions and gratuities since the 

 institution was started, the sum disbursed last year amount- 

 ing to $13,700. While preference is given in the election of 

 pensioners to those who have subscribed, a considerable 

 number of those who enjoy the benefits of the institution 

 have been elected on the recommendation of liberal sub- 

 scribers. The sum granted per week to each pensioner is 

 four dollars for a man, three dollars for a woman. Last 

 year a pensioner died at the age of 105. He had been in 

 receipt of assistance from this institution for over thirty 

 years. I\Iembers who have subscribed one guinea an- 

 nually for fifteen years are, on attaining a certain age, en- 

 titled to a pension without taking their chance in an elec- 

 tion. The good work done by an institution of this kind is 

 too apparent to need comment. With this to look after the 

 comfort of the aged gardeners, and an equally zealous and 

 beneficial body of a similar nature — the Gardeners' Orphan 

 Fund Committee — to provide for and educate the orphan 

 children of gardeners, the cause of the needy among those 

 who practice horticulture in England does not 5-0 uncared 

 for. 



W. H. Fitch. — Any one familiar with the English botan- 

 ical literature of the last half-century will be acquainted 

 with the name or initials of this botanical artist, who for 

 about forty years was the acknowledged first botanical 

 draughtsman in the world. His death, which occurred at 

 Kew on the 14th instant after an illness of over two j'ears, 

 has served to call attention to the enormous amount of 

 valuable work he did. He was a Scotchman, having been 

 born in Glasgow in 1S17, where he was employed as a boy 

 in a printing-house. His early promise as a draughtsman 

 was the means of bringing him to the notice of Sir William 

 Hooker, at that time Professor of Botany at Glasgow Uni- 

 versity, and young Fitch was engaged by him to assist 



