1 84 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 217. 



The PiBon is a small but very graceful tree, usually under thirty 

 feet in height, with sheaths of short leaves, which densely clothe 

 the tree. In shape it is very symmetrical, especially such young 

 trees as have not been exposed to adverse conditions. 



Encircling the meadows at high elevations is found 

 the Bull Pine, or Piiios, which J. G. Lemmon calls Pinus 

 Jeffreyi, var. peninsularis (Third Report California State 

 Board of Forestry, 200). It seems to be most abundant on 

 the mountains east of the San Rafael Valley, at an elevation of 

 4,000 to 6,000 feet, where it attains magnificent proportions. 

 Lemmon describes this tree as varying from medium to 

 large size, 150 to 200 feet tall. The mining camp of Alamo, 

 locally best known as Hanson's ranch, now obtains its 

 main lumber-supply from this region. On the east the de- 

 scent to the plain of the Colorado desert is very abrupt, and 

 along the precipices overlooking the desert another Pinon 

 Pine {Pinus monophylla) maintains a precarious existence. 



A greater diversity of forest-vegetation e.xists on the San 

 Pedro de Martin mountain, the highest mountain in Baja Cali- 

 fornia. Its elevation at the highest point is over 11,000 feet. 

 On this mountain occur the Sugar Pine, Coulter Pine, the 

 White Fir and other trees which here find their most south- 

 ern station. The summit of the mountain is a world in 

 itself, over fifty miles in length, and was selected as the site of 

 one of the old missions, the ruins of which may yet be distin- 

 guished. It is very difficult of access, and as yet has never 

 been visited by a botanist. 



The two views published in this issue will be of especial inter- 

 est as giving a glimpse into an unknown land, and are from pho- 

 tographs taken by iVIessrs. Roscoe Howard and Russell Gunnis, 

 the first men to invade these sylvan glades with a camera. 

 The Pine in the foreground is Jeffrey's Pine (see page 185). 

 The magnificent proportions of this tree may be realized by a 

 comparison with the man standing beneath it, while the trees 

 around even surpassed it in altitude. 



The broad grassy meadows intervening between these 

 patches of woods are still pastured by deer, and game of other 

 descriptions abound. The coyote and the mountain lion are 

 not unknown. The noonday siesta of the rattlesnake is seldom 

 disturbed, while the call of the quail alone breaks the silence 

 of the woods. 



To the southward of this mountain an unbroken desert ex- 

 tends for two hundred miles, while desert sands alone inter- 

 vene between its eastern base and the Gulf of California. Thus 

 San Pedro de Martin furnishes the most southern typical Cali- 

 fornia forest, the forest farther south being composed mainly of 

 cacti and desert vegetation. C. R. Orcutt. 



San Diego, Cal. 



Plant Notes. 



Some Recent Portraits. 



To American readers the most interesting figure in the 

 March issue of the Botanical Magazine is that of Cereus 

 giganteus (t. 7222), the great Tree Cactus of Arizona and 

 Sonora, but not a native of southern California, as is here 

 stated, whose flowering in England last year Sir Joseph 

 Hooker very properly considers one of the triumphs of 

 horticulture. 'The plant which flowered at Kew is fourteen 

 feet high and four and a half feet in girth, and was pto- 

 cured from i\'Iessrs. A. Blanc & Co., of Philadelphia, whose 

 collection of succulent plants is probabl)^ unrivaled in the 

 United States. C. giganteus is one of the vegetable mar- 

 vels of the world, sending up a tall single shaft some- 

 times sixty feet in height, and sometimes separating near 

 the top into two or more upright branches. It is the tall- 

 est, although not the stoutest, of all Cacti, and produces an 

 edible fruit which the Indians of the south-west devour 

 both raw and made into a conserve. Numerous attempts 

 to cultivate this plant have been made since General 

 Emory first gathered the seeds as long ago as 1847, during 

 his military reconnaissance from the Missouri River to 

 San Diego, in California ; and although Dr. Engelmann 

 succeeded in germinating the seeds and inducing the young 

 plants to live, they have grown so slowly as to give little 

 promise of ever reaching sufficient size to flower. A pe- 

 culiarity of the plant not noticed in this description is the 

 wonderful duralsilit}'' of the hard woody skeletons of the 

 stems ; these can be found lying about the desert and are 

 used for the rafters of houses and apparently are inde- 

 structible by any influence of weather. 



In the same issue are figures of Dianthus callizonus (t. 

 7223), a lovely Pink of the calcareous Alps of Transyl- 

 vania, where it flourishes at an elevation of some seven 

 thousand feet above the sea. It appears to be closely re- 

 lated to D. alpinus, and, like that species, has solitary flow- 

 ers with crenate rose-colored petals with a deep red zone 

 of color at their base speckled with white, although the 

 flowers are larger and the leaves more glaucous than those 

 of that species ; Gongora gratulabunda (t. 7224), a not very 

 showy or horticulturally interesting Orchid, probably a na- 

 tive of Granada, where it was discovered by Warscewicz, and 

 was first flowered in 1857 by the late Consul Schiller, of 

 Hamburg; Chrysanthemum rotundifolium (t. 7255), a 

 handsome Hungarian species, differing from those in gen- 

 eral cultivation by its strict rigid habit, acutely angled 

 stem and branches, corymbose many-flowered inflores- 

 cence, and broad leaves. It belongs to the section Pyre- 

 thrum of the genus which includes most of the perennial 

 white-flowered species, although it differs from them in the 

 terete, not ribbed or angled achenes, and in the cupular 

 pappus. It is a low-grownig plant in cultivation, rarely 

 exceeding the height of two feet, and in the rockery at Kew 

 flowers freely throughout the summer ; Lysimachia paridi- 

 formis (t. 7256), a native of China, vi'here it was collected 

 by Dr. Henry on the Yang-tse-kiang River in 1889. This 

 is a handsome red-stemmed species with bold leaves, yel- 

 low corollas, marked like the calyx with glandular streaks, 

 unequal filaments, monadelphous below, and few-seeded 

 five-valved capsules. It is said to be more closel}^ related 

 to L. quadrifolia of the eastern United States than any other 

 described species, although the flowers are much larger 

 than those of the American plant. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 A New Strain of Roses. 



IT now appears that the Rose may be added to the list 

 of plants which may be treated as annuals. Seeds of 

 a variety, under the name Rosa polyantha remontant, 

 received from a French seedsman early in the year, were 

 sown January loth. They germinated rapidly in green- 

 house warmth, and, after being pricked out, have been 

 grown in a pan on a shelf in the cool house. They are 

 now small plants, two to three inches high, and every 

 shoot apparently is carrying a bud. The first flowers 

 opened April 9th, just three months from sowing. The 

 flowers are coming in considerable variety, white and pink 

 mostly, single and semi-double, an inch or more in diam- 

 eter. At present they are charming little plants, with small 

 stems and small light green foliage. With their prolific 

 flowering habit and rapid growth they can scarcely fail to 

 prove useful and attractive garden-plants. 



Their precocity is certainly novel and interesting. Some 

 few years since Carnation-growers were much surprised by 

 the introduction of a strain of these flowers which could be 

 had inflowerin four or five months from seed, surprise which 

 has given way to satisfaction with the desirable Marguerites. 



Perhaps, the Rose having developed a precocious habit, 

 we may be favored with even finer forms than R. poly- 

 antha remontant. It would seem that flowers are being 

 inoculated with some of the rapidity of the age. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. /• ^ Gerard. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



HippEASTRUMS AT Chelsea. — The special attraction this 

 month in the nurseries of Messrs. J. Veilch & Sons is the 

 collection of Hippeastrums, more popularly known as 

 Amaryllises. These plants have been a specialty, almost 

 a monopoly, of the Veitchian firm for the last ten years. 

 They have raised many new varieties, every year produc- 

 ing a crowd of new seedlings, a large proportion of which 

 are so far an advance as to merit certificates from the Royal 



