i86 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 217. 



mostly throug-h the missionary collector Delavay, who sent 

 seeds of them to the Jardin des Piantes in Paris. I have seen 

 the dried specimens of these Yun-nan Rhododendrons, and 

 they look full of promise for the garden. Mr. Hemsley 

 says that, taken as a whole, they are by no means so gor- 

 geously beautiful as the Himalayan species, though many 

 of them are highly ornamental. 



A strikingly beautiful Rhododendron from China is R. 

 Fortunei, which was introduced by Robert Fortune in 1859. 

 It is perfectly hardy in England, forms a large handsome 

 evergreen shrub, and produces in early summer large 

 trusses of rosy white flowers nearly as large as those of 

 the great R. Aucklandii, which it most nearly resembles. 

 It is remarkable, too, in having seven corolla-segments in- 

 stead of the usual five of the flowers of this genus. R. 

 rhombicum is Japanese. It is an interesting plant, decidu- 

 ous, with rosy purple flowers, and easy to force. It was 

 introduced to St. Petersburg in 1872. We grow it for the 

 greenhouse at Kew. R. ' linearefolium, also Japanese, is 

 an older garden-plant, but as yet very little grovi'n in Eng- 

 land, notwithstanding its hardiness here. It makes a fine 

 bush, and is characterized by linear hairy leaves and flow- 

 ers with long rose-purple segments divided to the base of 

 the corolla. 



Azalea Indica is now in ever)'- greenhouse, and is repre- 

 sented by very numerous magnificent varieties, mostly 

 raised by the Belgian and French horticulturists. It is cu- 

 rious to read in the Botanical Alagaziiie, under a figure of 

 this species published eighty years ago, that it was then a 

 "very rare plant, which has been long an.xiously sought 

 for by cultivators of curious and scarce exotics. We be- 

 lieve there are not above three or four individuals of it in 

 the country, and of these only that from which our draw- 

 ing was made has as yet produced any flowers." It is also 

 stated that Kasmpfer enumerated twenty-one varieties cul- 

 tivated in Japan, including white, red, yellow, purple and 

 scarlet, with spots of the most contrary hues. Fortune 

 found every mountain and hill in the central and southern 

 provinces of China covered with Azaleas as abundantly as 

 Heaths occur here. The finest varieties were cultivated in 

 the gardens there ; in fact, only the cultivated kinds were 

 worthy of introduction. The Dutch cultivated the Indian 

 ■Azalea in 1680, but lost it soon after its introduction. The 

 first varieties obtained from China were brought by a sailor 

 and sold to Knight, of King's Road, Chelsea, in 1833. There 

 were five ofthem, one a double-flowered variety. Azalea mol- 

 lis has been improved by the Belgians, chiefly by Monsieur 

 Louis Van Houtte, who raised numerous varieties with 

 flowers of better substance and more varied colors than 

 any imported. It was in cultivation here in 1824, and then 

 called R. Sinensis. Fortune reintroduced it in 1845, when 



it was rechristened Azalea mollis. „, „, 



London. W. Waison. 



Cultural Department. 



The Best Garden Strawberries. 



SHOWINESS rather than flavor has long been the end to 

 which the originators of new varieties of strawberries have 

 generally aimed. As is natural, they have had in view the 

 needs of the market gardener, who is a large purchaser of 

 plants, rather than the requirements of those who plant for 

 home use. Therefore, an early, large, firm, showy, prolific 

 berry has been the ideal one, with little regard to its table qual- 

 ities. The chance that the best-flavored berry will possess 

 one of these quahties in a marked degree is small. That 

 it should possess enough of them to attract the large grower 

 is improbable. So it is pretty much a matter of luck that we 

 have really a first-rate berry at all. 



The best berry that I have tested is the old Crystal City. In 

 exquisiteness of flavor it is unrivaled and matches the best 

 type of wild berry. Then its brilliant, glossy, crimson color 

 makes it an ornament to any table. It is also an extremely 

 early fruit, and for the first few days a very large one. But, 

 while the excellence of color and flavor is retained, the berries 

 soon run small and ill-shaped. Nor is it on the whole pro- 



lific ; still with those who value quality first, it is well worth 

 raising. 



The mammoth size of the Sharpless has won for it a higher 

 place than it deserves, for it is the most deficient in the highest 

 qualities of the strawberrv. The color is almost always dull 

 and unattractive, while the flavor is insipid. Nor is it so pro- 

 ductive on most soils as other kinds that surpass it in every- 

 thing except size. The Cloud has nearly all the qualities of a 

 good table berry, except beauty. It is too dull and coarse- 

 looking. The ideal strawberry must adorn a table as a bouquet 

 adorns it. If the strawberry were deprived of its beauty it 

 would hardly rank as it does as the first of fruits. The Cloud 

 is medium early, ripening about with Crescent. The Hender- 

 son, which ripens somewhat earlier, is an equally good fruit 

 and more attractive in appearance. All ot the very early 

 berries that I have tried, except Crystal City, are deficient in 

 real merit. The Crescent, if allowed to get thoroughly ripe, 

 is surpassed by few among the medium early varieties. Then, 

 too, its wonderful productiveness will help to atone for its 

 shortcomings in the way of flavor. No other variety approach- 

 es it in yield. Thrushes and cat-birds, connoisseurs in fruit, 

 prefer the Haverland. 



It is only when we conie to the later varieties that we find in 

 the Bubach an approach to the ideal berry. Neither in color, 

 size,. quality nor productiveness does it leave anything to be 

 desired. On rich soil it will ripen within a week ot any other 

 good variety, and in view of its great merit no one will begrudge 

 it these few days of grace. In beauty, both of foliage and of 

 berry, it is unapproachable. A bed of this variety, with leaves 

 of richest green, among which the berries fairly glow, is as 

 beautiful as any bed ot flowers. Though somewhat late, the 

 bearing period of the Bubach is correspondingly prolonged, 

 so that berries can be gatliered for fully as long- a period as 

 from any other variety. Another quality of the Bubach, which 

 should recommend it to the amateur, is that it puts out but few 

 runners even on rich soil. Runners, when neglected and 

 allowed to cover a bed, have been the undoing of many a 

 sanguine gardener. Judging by the appearance of the bed 

 while leafless in the early spring, he hesitates to attack it 

 with trowel or hoe, and he discovers when too late that it has 

 become a jungle of foliage with a scanty show of fruit. As 

 early as possible in spring — the autumn before would be 

 better still — the bed should be thinned out remorselessly till no 

 two plants stand less than six inches apart. The Bubach on 

 good soil makes runners enough, but will give less trouble 

 in this respect than almost any other kind. As it is a pistillate 

 variety it sliould be planted with some staminate kind like 

 Sharpless or any other blooming about the same time. The 

 Cloud and Crescent are also pistillate, as indeed are most of 

 the best Strawberries. Crystal City being staminate will grow 

 alone. Staminate plants, however, are by no means indispen- 

 sable, especially on rich soil; but as they increase the yield 

 and quality of the crop, they should be planted with the pistil- 

 late varieties when possible. 



What was said about the Crescent may be repeated about 

 strawberries in general — let them get ripe. Rarely, indeed, 

 are they allowed to attain this perfect state. We are so eager 

 after the long winter-waiting, and they look so inviting, that 

 at the first gleam of color off the berry comes. But the straw- 

 berry is not really at its best till some days after turning per- 

 fectly red ; nor is it really wholesome till then. Leave a corner 

 of the bed until the fruit thoroughly ripens, and you will thor- 

 oughly enjoy strawberries for the first time. 



Kittrell, N. C. O. IV. Blackitall. 



Phajus grandifolius in a Window-garden. 



WHEN, on the 20th of last February, Mr. John Saul, of 

 Washington, sent me a piece of Phajus grandifolius 

 from his Orchid-house, I called to mind the princely gift of an 

 elephant which so embarrassed its poor recipient. To intro- 

 duce this royal plant into my modest window-garden after it 

 had been accustomed to careful nursing in the atinosphere 

 of a hot-house, seemed very much like turning the elephant 

 out to graze with a flock of sheep on a Scottish down. Never- 

 theless I determined to give it a chance. Fortunately, it was 

 already well advanced, having four large healthy leaves and a 

 short flower-stalk crowned with a bud, mysterious enough to us 

 who have had little close acquaintance with Orchids, excepting 

 a few hardy, small-flowered kinds. We could not guess what 

 manner of surprise that close-shut bud might contain, but had 

 litfle hope that it would ever condescend to reveal its secret in 

 our sitting-room. 



We did the best we could for our guest, potting it at once 

 in fibrous loam, rich compost and the sphagnum which was 



