232 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 221. 



the more secluded and beautiful tract which was laid out as 

 the " English garden." Almost every visitor to Paris goes to 

 Versailles, but after a weary pilgrimage of sight-seeing in pal- 

 aces and show-grounds few get beyond the edge of the Petit 

 Trianon. The picturesque dairy, iSoudoir and pavilion, built 

 more than a century ago, now show unmistakable signs of de- 

 terioration and decay, but, with few exceptions, the noble trees 

 remain in tine health and vigor. A Lombardy Poplar, which 

 a label tells us was planted by Marie Antoinette in the reign of 

 Louis XV., was broken by the wind in 1880, and now has only 

 one green spot left on the side of its trunk. This little rem- 

 nant is kept alive, and in connection with the roots, by a nar- 

 row' living strip a few inches in width. The remainder of the 

 trunk, si.x feet in diameter in its widest part, is quite denuded 

 of bark and so decayed and hollowed out that only a mere 

 shell remains. Cedars of Lebanon, Zelkowa crenata and 

 Sophora Japonica are among the best examples of introduced 

 Old World species of trees in the park. It is said that the 

 Sophora does not mature fruit here. 



Through the industry of many of the early botanical 

 explorers and collectors North American trees have a fine 

 representation in the collection ; in fact, this is probably one 

 of the best places in France to see certain species. Here may 

 be seen fine rugged old specimens of Sassafras and of Ash- 

 leaved Maples, and vigorous trees of the Bitter-nut Hickory, 

 Hicoria minima (Carya amara). The common Cataipa big- 

 nonioides, said to have been planted in 1736, is two feet in 

 diameter, while our North American Red Mulberry (Morus 

 rubra) has a trunk nearly as large and is a broad-spreading 

 specimen, whose age is attested by its moss-covered limbs. 



A Tulip-tree, to which a label is affixed bearing the date of 

 1663, is a fine example of this species, having a trunk two 

 and a half feet in diameter ; a Red Oak, said to have been 

 planted just two hundred years ago, has a stem three feet 

 through, and trees of the American Linden have attained fine 

 proportions. They are, however, very much affected by Mistle- 

 toe, which causes irregular knots and swellings on the branches 

 and limbs. Its effects at first give the foliage a sickly 

 appearance, and later often causes the death of the affected 

 limb. Great globular masses of the Mistletoe also seriously 

 infest some of the large Poplars, but Catalpas and some other 

 kinds of trees in thevicinityappearquitefreefrom the parasite. 



The visitor here has an excellent opportunity to study 

 "knees" of the Bald C3'press (Taxodium disticlium) of our 

 southern swamps, of which ^there are some very handsome 

 tall and thick-stemmed trees, said to be over two and a half 

 centuries old. The trees being planted in the vicinity of a pond 

 or lakelet, a part of its margin has become thickly studded 

 with the "knees," which are of very various shapes and from 

 one to three feet in height. I was surprised to find these pe- 

 culiar growths extending so far from the trees, in some cases 

 being distant from ninety to one hundred feet. The theory 

 that these knees act as a support to the tree in yielding soil 

 (Garden and Forest, vol. iii., p. 21) would hardly apply here, 

 where they are comparatively slender and extend so far from 

 the base. In drained portions of the ground the knees are no- 

 ticeably very small. 



Examples of our White Pines, with trunks four feet in diam- 

 eter, and Douglas Spruces sixty-five or seventy feet high, attest 

 the suitability of soil and climate in this locality to these favor- 

 ite American conifers. The Red Cedar, or Savin (Juniperus 

 Virginiana), exhibits various familiar forms or outlines, and we 

 find old trees with their characteristic spreading and straggling 

 habit and younger specimens of the more regular close pyra- 

 midal form, such as we commonly see in New England. Good 

 examples of various species of Spruces, Firs, Hemlocks, Se- 

 quoias and other conifers might be enumerated. 



The garden and nursery adjoining the park is quite worth a 

 visit, and such old acquaintances as Dirca palustris and Kal- 

 mia latifolia are found to be represented by as fine rugged old 

 specimens as can be seen anywhere in cultivation. Here, also, 

 we find the true Magnolia macrophylla, a rare tree in Euro- 

 pean collections, those passing under the name sometimes 

 proving to be our M. tripetala, or Umbrella-tree. 



Arnold Arboretum. y. G. Jack. 



Early May in West Virginia. 



FORSYTHIASarenowout of bloom, and so is the delicate and 

 graceful little Spiraea Thunbergii. Their places are taken 

 by the Japan Corchorus and some of the later Spirasas. Large 

 clusters of these shrubs are mingling their flowers in the gar- 

 den, and mask the foundations of the house effectively. 



Both the white and the pink flowering Almonds are now in 

 perfection of bloom. These shrubs never grow very tall, four 



feet being their average height at maturity, and a group of three 

 varieties, the white, the pink-flowering and the striped-bark 

 Almond, are exceedingly pretty against the stone foundation of 

 a country-house. Their suckers should be encouraged to grow 

 and the pruning-knife used judiciously on the old wood to pre- 

 vent the straggling appearance they are apt to assume in un- 

 cared-for old age. The ground about them should be kept 

 mellow, and they ought to be mulched for winter protection, 

 as they are not perfectly hardy. They well repay a little care 

 by the extreme beauty of compact specimens when covered 

 with their early bloom. 



Wistarias are now clothing the trunks of their supporting 

 trees and draping their branches with festoons fringed with 

 clusters of purple flowers. With us these lovely vines seem 

 to have alternate seasons of scarcity and profusion. Last year 

 they gave us very few flowers, for whicli they are now atoning 

 by a luxuriance which is delightful to the eye. They grow with 

 amazing rapidity, and soon reach the tops of tall Locust-trees. 

 The foliage of these trees does not give a dense shade, but 

 just furnishes the shelter from the sun which Wistarias seem to 

 require, as they bloom before the Locusts which they climb 

 are in full leaf. Later in the season the tree and the vine min- 

 gle their blossoms with an indescribably beautiful effect. 



One of the earliest shrubs in flower of the great family of 

 Leguminosffi is the Chinese Caragana (C. Chamlagu). This is 

 now blooming in a section of a shrubbery where many of its 

 relatives are planted. Its small, glossy, dark green, pinnate 

 leaves are so delicately beautiful, and its flowers are so large 

 and showy, that it is a most attractive plant. When the blos- 

 soms open they are a clear yellow, but a few hours' exposure 

 to the hot sun changes them to orange and brown, and they 

 have almost the same range of color with the old-fashioned 

 Wallflowers, one of the old plants beloved by our grand- 

 mothers. These are now in full bloom, and carry the memory 

 back to days of childhood, when they were first known and 

 loved. 



Flowering Currants have bloomed abundantly this year, but 

 are now fading. The numerous varieties of Cydonias are all 

 so useful and pretty that it is hard to select a favorite. Be- 

 tween the charms of the various-named varieties in different 

 tints of scarlet and orange one hesitates to choose. But the 

 lovely white Cydonia, known as Simplex alba, captivates every 

 beholder. This variety is perhaps most effective when planted 

 close to one of the deep red sorts, though a clump of them 

 standing alone is a very beautiful sight. Gaujardii and the 

 other orange-red varieties are best by themselves, and are now 

 strikingly handsome, blooming even more profusely than 

 usual. 



The buds of Magnolia Lennei were much injured by the se- 

 vere frosts of April, and our one specimen of this tree did not 

 produce a single perfect flower. The winter and late spring 

 have been peculiarly trying to vegetation, and a fine M. cor- 

 data was killed outright, while a small Evergreen Magnolia 

 safely housed under a barrel did not seem to suffer at all. 



Staphylea trifoliata makes a pretty little tree about ten feet in 

 height, and is a native of our woods. It is now profusely or- 

 namented with raceme-like clusters of curious white flowers 

 hanging from the ends of its branchlets, and which will soon 

 be followed by large bladdery pods, which have given it its 

 common name of Bladder-nut. It improves greatly under cul- 

 tivation, and a specimen we brought from the woods two years 

 ago has flowered more freely and grown more luxuriantly, and 

 in more symmetrical form, than its wild relatives. S. Colchica 

 is about a week later than our native plant, and is now in bud. 

 It is a neat compact little shrub with glossy leaflets and very 

 fragrant white flowers, much prettier than those of the Ameri- 

 can variety, which has little or no perfume. 



Neviusia Alabamensis is showing a few first blossoms. 

 These flowers dispense entirely with corolla ; they have five 

 green sepals and very numerous white, yellow-tipped sta- 

 mens, and are produced so freely that they completely mantle 

 the bush, and have a most dainty and feathery effect. The 

 shrub is a rapid grower. Last year, in spite of the severe 

 drought, it made very satisfactory progress, and threw up a 

 root-sucker six feet in length. It is of the easiest cultivation, 

 and is especially interesting to botanists from the fact that it is 

 found in but one locality in Alabama. 



The Red-bud and the large-flowering Dogwood are now the 

 most conspicuous of our native trees. They are very often 

 found growing, side by side, in the woods here, where they 

 form a beautiful illustraflon of Nature's skill in grouping for 

 effective contrast. Many copses of Red-bud have for back- 

 ground the delicate young foliage of Oaks and Hickories, 

 and form a lovely fringe to the borders of deep woods. A 

 large-flowering Dogwood, planted by itself in rich ground 



