220 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 220. 



and sympathetic obituary notice of our late associate, Mr. 

 Sereno Watson, in which, discussing the causes which in- 

 fluenced his career and enabled him to obtain a distin- 

 guished position among men of science, Professor Brewer 

 remarks that, " had he died twenty years after graduation, 

 the world would have known little of him, and his class- 

 mates would have considered his life a faikire. That long 

 period was, however, years of diversified preparation 

 which fitted him to bring to his chosen work most thor- 

 oughly trained powers, and gave him a wide range of 

 knowledge drawn from the study of several sciences, and 

 a personal knowledge of the aspects of the flora of many 

 widely separated parts of the country. The reserve which 

 characterized him in college, and which lasted through 

 life, left him all the more free to prosecute his chosen 

 work without the distractions of society. But his reticence 

 was not that of the misanthrope ; he endeared himself to 

 all who were brought in close relations with him. This 

 was strikingly shown in the trials and hardships of camp 

 life, as among the inner circles of his friends in the uni- 

 versity and in the few families which had the privilege of 

 his acquaintance." 



Spring in the New Jersey Pines. 



ALMOST all of the flowers in the Pines are tardy in their 

 appearance this spring. A few, however, greeted us as 

 usual despite the cold. Our charming Pyxie (Py.xidantliera 

 barbulata) was full of bloom early in April, and the Trailing 

 Arbutus was redolent with sweetness at the same time. 

 Although these shy woodland treasures are now past their 

 prime, yet we still find lingering sprays of both, which have 

 been kept in check by the cold. 



The Wind Anemone is in flower in damp places. Its pretty 

 blossoms are pinkish purple on the outside, while the inner 

 surface is pure white. In grassy places we find violets 

 innumerable, from deepest blue down to light' shades of 

 purple and lilac. All these are varieties of Viola cucullata, and 

 they have leaves as varied in form as the flowers are in color. 

 Some have palmate leaves, others broad heart-shaped ones, 

 while many are nearly round. The Arrow-leaved Violet (V. 

 sagittata) is also abundant and almost as variable in the form 

 of its leaves as V. cucullata, but the color of the flower is a 

 more constant blue in this species. The little white Violets, 

 V. lanceolata and V. blanda, are here too, giving us a sweet 

 perfume with their delicate beauty. The Bird's-foot Violet (V. 

 pedata) is just coming into bloom. This is our finest species. 

 The handsome flowers are large and brilliant, in varying 

 shades of blue and purple, down to the purest white, while 

 some have the petals striped and blotched. The leaves are 

 pretty too, but not quite as handsome as those of the Larkspur- 

 leaved Violet (V. delphinifolia) whose habitat is on the western 

 prairies. It is established in my wild garden, however, and 

 flourishes as well as any of its kindred. The leaves are 

 longer and larger and more finely dissected than those of V. 

 pedata, and the clumps of foliage are pretty all summer. The 

 flowers are deep blue and do not vary in color, and are small 

 compared with the Bird's-foot Violet. Of the leafy stemmed 

 violets, I have found only V. canina in the Pines, unless we 

 can establish the fact that V. tricolor is indigenous. This 

 species I have seen in old neglected fields, but never where 

 the ground had not at some time been cultivated. 



The little heath-like Hudsonia tomentosa is beginning 

 to light up the gray sandy places with its bright yellow flowers. 

 Before it blossoms, its downy, sharp-pointed, grayisli leaves 

 so blend with the sand that it is scarcely discernible a few feet 

 distant, but during May it makes the waste places gay with 

 color. Helonias bullata is very late coming into flower this 

 spring. For twenty years or more I have not failed to find it 

 in blossom in April, and now it is only in bud with the flower- 

 scape only five or six inches in height. But the Golden-club 

 (Orontium aquaticum) was not to be kept back by the cold. 

 It was in flower by the middle of April, but the leaves were 

 seared by frost while the flowers were not hurt at all. The 

 leaves of this plant when perfect are very handsome; they are 

 large and present a deep green, rich, velvety upper surface 

 that sheds water, while the under surface is very smooth and 

 of a light color, and always wet or moist. Arnica nudicaulis 

 is in flower, each stalk surmounted with several heads of deep 

 orange flowers — very pretty and attractive ; and the modest 

 little plantain-leaved Everlasting was in bloom early in April, 

 and still continues to flower in dense patches along the road- 



sides and in the barrens in company with its more showy 

 neighbor the Arnica. 



The false Dandelion (Pyrrhopappus Carolinianus) is grow- 

 ing here on the roadsides and in the fields. I noticed it for 

 the first time three or four years ago. It is supposed to be a 

 more southern plant, but it seems to be perfectly at home 

 here. Its bright yellow flowers are quite pretty on a branching 

 stem — solitary on each branch. The stem is a foot or more 

 in height. PotentiUa Canadensis was blooming in April, and 

 its variety, simplex, is just coming into flower. Are not these 

 two plants dissimilar enough to be classed as distinct species ? 

 P. Canadensis always creeps, while its so-called variety is erect 

 and stout, with more vivid green leaves than those of the 

 type. The flowers in both are similar, and this is the only 

 justification for considering one a variety of the other. 



Only a few flowering shrubs are in bloom as yet. Cassan- 

 dra calyculata has been very full of blossoms, but is on the 

 wane now. Leucothoe racemosa is in flower, and Amelan- 

 chier Canadensis, with its many varieties, is everywhere in the 

 damp barrens. Some have pure white flowers, and others 

 pink and rosy like Apple-blossoms. The red fruit of the 

 swamp Maple is strung thickly along the branchlets, and is 

 very showy and handsome, and the yellow flox^-ers of the 

 Sassafras make a lovely combination of color. The red 

 berries of last year still cling to the Hollies and to Ilex verticillata, 

 while beneath our feet are the spicy Wintergreen berries and 

 the paler red of the Partridge berries. The shining black 

 fruit of the Inkberry (Ilex glabra) is abundant, and also clusters 

 of the purplish black fruit of Smilax. Negundo,with its delicate 

 drooping clusters of flowers, is handsome now, and blossoms 

 of Sweet-gum still linger as well as those of the Tupelo. 



Vineland. N. J. Mary Treat. 



Plant Notes. 



Some Recent Portraits. 



IN the April number of the Botajiical Magazine are 

 figures of Lilium primulinum (t. 7227), a plant recently 

 imported by Messrs. Hugh Low & Co. from the Shan states 

 in Upper Burma. Its nearest allies are L. Nepalense and 

 L. Neilgherrense. It produces a stiff erect glabrous stem 

 three or four feet tall, with scattered lanceolate, sessile glossy 

 bright green leaves three or four inches long, and about 

 three flowers arranged in a corymb or umbel on long- 

 nodding pedicels, each with a large lanceolate leaf at the 

 middle. The perianth is open, funnel-shaped, pale yellow 

 without spots, and tinted on the outer surface with green 

 while young, and is five or six inches long ; Habenaria 

 longecalcarata (t 7226), one of the long-spurred species of 

 India, characterized b)^ the large flowers and the great 

 length of its spurs; Cirrhopetalum ornatissimum (t. 7229), 

 a native of Assam and the eastern Himalayas, a plant which 

 much resembles C. CoUettii, previously figured in the 

 magazine (t. 7198), although differing from that species in 

 the form of the pseudo-bulbs and in the erect scape spring- 

 ing from the side of the pseudo-bulb, and not pendulous 

 and developed from the young growths before the new 

 pseudo-bulbs are formed, as is the case with the second 

 species. It is rather as botanical curiosities than as orna- 

 ments of the garden that these plants will be cultivated. 

 Streptocarpus Galpini (t. 7230), already described in our col- 

 umns ; Beaufortia sparsa (t. 7231), a brilliantly flowered 

 shrub with a curious inflorescence, which presents the ap- 

 pearance of a spike the axis of which is produced above 

 into leafy branches, but which in reality is the result of a 

 consecutive series of closely contiguous leaves being re- 

 duced to bracts and producing each in its axil a flower, 

 the whole being hidden by the bundles of pendulous 

 stamens. In B. sparsa there are about five of these bun- 

 dles in each flower, each bundle consisting of a thread 

 about an inch long bearing about eight long-stalked di- 

 verging filaments, of which two are opposite and placed 

 considerably below the five that terminate the thread. B. 

 sparsa was discovered late in the last century by Archibald 

 Menzies, the surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver in his 

 voyage of discovery, on the shores of King George's Sound, 

 in south-western Australia, where the town of Albany now 

 stands, a locality well known for its rare and beautiful 



