172 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 216. 



plenty of fruit. The purple-leaved Myrobalan Plum, com- 

 monly known in nurseries as Prunus Pissardi, is here a tree 

 eighteen or twenty feet high, and is probably one of the largest 

 in Europe. 



Through the kindness of the courteous Hofgartner, G. Fin- 

 telmann, I was shown the collections within some private en- 

 closures, where many of the rarer and choicer plants are kept. 

 A part of these enclosures is devoted to glass houses and 

 frames containing plants with which I am not familiar. Among 

 these may be mentioned very tine hybrids of Streptocarpus 

 Rexii and other species, and a magnificent collection of Be- 

 gonias well worth going a long way to see. These Begonias 

 are a specialty at Wilhelmshoe, and some of the single and 

 double yellow flowers are particularly fine. In the collection 

 are some fine forms of the Peruvian Begonia Davisii and B. 

 polypetala. Much care is taken in propagating and selecting 

 these plants, and they are not distributed, but strictly kept 

 for home use. 



Of all the plants in the open air within the enclosures, per- 

 haps the best and most interesting specimens are two examples 

 of the Japanese Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata), both 

 of the same age and from the same lot of seed. One is fifteen 

 feet high and of erect open habit, while the other is only about 

 seven feet in height, is much more compact and has a 

 broader spread of branches, so that it seems as though an 

 equal amount of growth and development had been expended 

 in this direction as in attaining a height of fifteen feet. When 

 I saw it the taller plant was bearing fruit and good seed. 

 The first cones and seeds were produced five years ago, and 

 the seedlings raised from these show the same tendency to 

 vary and separate into the two forms — one with an erect slen- 

 der growth, the other with a dwarfer, more compact habit. 

 The cones of the Umbrella Pine are pendulous, and are pro- 

 duced on the upper branches above the male flowers ; and, 

 unlike those of the true Pines and some other conifers, they 

 mature in one season. The Wilhelmshoe plants are not so tall 

 or large as some to be found in other places on the Continent 

 and in England. Though not remarkable as a specimen, an- 

 other fruiting conifer was Torreya nucifera, of Japan, whose 

 egg-shaped fruit somewhat resembles enormous berries of the 

 Yew. The Torreyas are rather rare in cultivation, and they 

 are hardly capable of well withstanding climates much colder 

 than that at Wilhelmshoe. 



It was pleasant to see the Rhodora thriving here in fine 

 clumps ; and a charming little rockery contained, among other 

 interesting things, a quantity of the little Dwarf Cornel, or 

 Bunch Berry (Cornus Canadensis), which was still producing 

 a few stray flowers. Fatsia horrida has generally been re- 

 garded as a rather difficult plant to cultivate, so that it is per- 

 haps one of the rarest and most unusual shrubs in collections. 

 A specimen here was bearing bright scarlet fruit, but the flow- 

 ers are said to be liable to some injury by late spring frosts. 

 It may be that, besides the cultural attention it gets here, this 

 Aralia also finds something in the half-mountainous, tem- 

 perate and moist situation and climate which distantly corre- 

 sponds to its native home in north-western America. 



Arnold Arboretum. y. G, JCtch, 



Primitive Vegetables of Texas. 



TN the spring of the year 1855 a body of French colonists, 

 ^ fresh from the old country, established themselves in DaUas 

 County, Texas, which was at that time very thinly settled. Game 

 was plentiful, fish not scarce, and beef very cheap, but beyond 

 Indian Corn and Wheat no vegetable food could be obtained. 

 As a rule, the French are not a carnivorous people, and there- 

 fore the lack of vegetables in variety was keenly felt. True, 

 the colonists had brought along with them vegetable-seeds of 

 many kinds, but when they arrived the season was already too 

 far advanced to permit a proper preparation of the ground, 

 and the weather that year was so dry that hardly anything 

 would grow. The crop therefore was a flat failure, and 

 the suffering colonists were forced to search among the wild 

 plants for some substitute for the vegetables they so highly 

 prized. 



The earliest plants to attract their attention in the spring 

 were two species of Astragalus, one of them A. Plattensis, 

 growing in sandy soil, and the other A. caryocarpus, growing 

 in black prairie-land, and bearing early flowers not devoid of 

 beauty, which are succeeded by round, fleshy, sweet pods of 

 the size of a large gooseberry, to which they have some re- 

 semblance. These were called buffalo peas, or prairie ap- 

 ples, and they were used as substitutes for garden peas, and 

 rather unsatisfactory substitutes they were. "Children, and oc- 



casionally grown persons, ate them raw, and in that way they 

 were really more acceptable. 



In the way of salads the country was more generous. A true 

 Lettuce was found (Lactucascariola), a perennial, and quite an 

 early plant, which was succeeded by a kind of Dandelion 

 (Pyrrhopappus multicaulis) and a Primrose (ffinothera trilo- 

 bata). This last is worth more than a passing mention. It is 

 an annual plant which grows in winter and early in the spring, 

 and which produces in long succession large bright yellow 

 flowers, each one of which lasts for a day only. They spring 

 from the ground, having no peduncles, and the plant, which is 

 quite ornamental, has no stems. The large square capsules 

 or seed-vessels are borne in large conical bunches, which are 

 not unlike the pineapple in appearance, and are very striking 

 after the leaves have disappeared. The plant is used as a salad 

 just as the Dandelion is. The Lamb Lettuce was represented 

 by the Valerianella amorella, and for Celery an early stemless 

 plant belonging to the Umbelliferas was used (Peucedanum 

 fceniculaceum), whose blossoms and leaves much resemble 

 those of the Sweet Fennel, although it tastes like Celery. Two 

 species of wild Onions were also used ; these were Allium 

 Canadense and A. Nuttallii. 



Another plant which deserves mention is a bulbous one be- 

 longing to the Iris family, and closely related to the Tigridia. 

 It is Nemastylis geminiflora, and it was found growing abun- 

 dantly in the black prairies. It produces a small brown 

 bulb that is farinaceous, sweet and palatable, and the hogs 

 were so fond of them that when free they nearly exterminated 

 the species. It is not improbable that with care and cultiva- 

 tion this would prove of some real value as a garden-vegetable, 

 and, as it is, it well deserves a place in the flower-garden. It 

 bears a dozen or more flowers on each stem of a beautiful 

 blue, or sometimes white. Most of these vegetables are lit- 

 tle used now since better ones have taken their places ; but the 

 four salad-plants I have mentioned are still in use not only by 

 the French, but by the American settlers, who have learned to 

 appreciate their value. 



Dallas, Texas. y . Re-VCrchotl. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



New Orchids. 



Cypripedium X Baconis, Kranzlin, is a secondary hybrid 

 raised in the establishment of Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of 

 St. Albans, from C. x chlorops, Rchb. f., crossed with the 

 pollen of C. Schlimii. It is said to have flowers much re- 

 sembling the mother plant, and to be of easy and luxuriant 

 growth. The seed was sown in November, 1888, and the 

 seedlings flowered in January \d.?,i. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 February 6th, p. 171. 



Cat.\setum Liechtensteimi, Kranzlin. — A species very 

 closely allied to C. Trulla, Lindl., which appeared in the 

 collection of the Fiirst Liechtenstein. The pendulous 

 raceme is said to bear about twenty flowers, with grassy 

 green sepals and petals, and a similar lip, with blackish 

 brown on the edges and lower parts. — Gardeners' Chro7i- 

 icle, February 6th, p. 171. 



Cypripedium X Led.^, Hort — A hybrid raised in the col- 

 lection of John C. Bowring, Esq., of Forest Farm, Windsor, 

 from C. X Harrisianum, crossed with the pollen of C. 

 venustum. It is said to be fairly intermediate in character, 

 except that the purple stripes on the dorsal sepal of the 

 mother plant are almost obliterated, and the sepals some- 

 what approaching those of C. villosum. — Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle, February 13th, p. 202. 



Cycnoches glanduliferuji. Rich, and Gal. — A Mexican spe- 

 cies, long very imperfectly known, which has flowered 

 both with Mr. W. Bull, at Chelsea, and Mr. J. Charles- 

 worth, of Heaton, Bradford. The male flowers, which are 

 light green, spotted with brown, with a white lip, are bome 

 in a long pendulous raceme ; the females are at present 

 unknown. — Gardeners' Chronicle, February 13th, p. 204. 



Cypripedium Chajiberlainianum, O'Brien. — A very distinct 

 and beautiful species imported from some part of New 

 Guinea by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of St Albans. It be- 

 longs to the same group as C. Rothschildianum and C. 

 Stonei, though it has so few characters in common with 

 them as to have been described as the first of a totally 

 new section of Cypripedium. Native specimens have spikes 



