May 25, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



251 



effects of dry weather in summer timn it does from severe cold 

 the following; winter. 



Of course, our winters here in New England arc considera- 

 bly colder than yours in New York, and if it was thecoUl alone 

 which injureil the trees in your vicinity we surely should liave 

 suffered more or less here. This is not the case, however. 

 Of the numerous Spruces and Firs which I have been grow- 

 ing for many years there are twenty species at least which 

 have not been injured by the winters for twenty years past. 

 The Retinosporas do not seem to be quite so hardy as 

 the Spruces, especially R. pisifera and some of its varie- 

 ties. I have occasionally lost one of these, and the small 

 branches die. I have plants of R. squarrosa, R. filifera and R. 

 obtusa twenty feet high which have never been at all injiu'ed, 

 and the same is true of Thujopsis dolobrata.and T. Standishii, 

 although they are not quite as large. 



Wellesley. Mass. ■ H. H. Huiinewell. 



[We attributed the injury to coniferous trees in this 

 vicinit}' this year to very cold winds in March after a few 

 unusually warm days. The injured trees, however, may 

 have been weakened by the drought of last year. There 

 can be no doubt as to the accuracy of Mr. Hunnewell's 

 observation in regard to the effect of autumn droughts on 

 coniferous trees. If the ground after a dry autumn does 

 not get saturated with late rains before it freezes up for the 

 winter, evergreen trees are certain to suffer more than 

 others, for the leaves continue to transpire moisture to a 

 certain extent all winter, while the water from rains and 

 snows cannot penetrate to the roots through the hard 

 frozen surface. If, therefore, the subsoil is dry — that is, if 

 the roots cannot respond to the demands for moisture 

 made by the leaves^he trees will suffer. We have a note 

 from Mr. William Falconer stating that Mr. Charles A. 

 Dana's collection of conifers at Dosoris, Long Island, suf- 

 fered to a considerable extent, and the injury there was 

 done in March, at the beginning of which month the 

 evergreens were never in better ^ form. Some of the 

 Retinosporas, like the varieties of R. pisifera, especially 

 filifera, suffered seriously ; others, like R. squarrosa and 

 plumosa, to a less degree, while the various forms of R. 

 obtusa suffered least of all. It is worth noting, too, that 

 at Dosoris, Azalea amoena came out unscathed, although it 

 was in the teeth of the wind, and Osmanthus ilicifolius 

 was also unharmed, while Broome, which had survived for 

 years, was nearly killed, and Furze suffered still more. — Ed.] 



Rose Sports. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — An acquaintance of mine has a bush of the Baroness 

 Rothschild Rose which has sported — that is, one of its branches 

 has flowers which resemble the parent plant in form but are 

 nearly pure white in color. Do sports of tliis kind always re- 

 main true when grafted, and will it be worth while to try to 

 perpetuate this one t 



Montclair, N.J. C. R. 



[It is always worth while to perpetuate a good Rose if 

 it is any improvement on what we already have. The 

 Baroness Rothschild is one of those varieties which have a 

 tendency to sport, and we already have some good white- 

 flowered plants from it as a parent. Mabel Morrison is one, 

 and so is the Merveille de Lyon. There is no certainty, 

 however, that any sport when grafted will remain true. 

 Very often the first flowers from grafts will be identical with 

 those of the original plant. These sports themselves are 

 more liable to sport than other plants, and some of them 

 lack fixity to such a degree that one can never be sure of 

 them, although a portion of the grafts may continue to per- 

 sist in the new form. Of course, stock and soil may have 

 some influence upon the grafts, but, really, our knowledge 

 of these matters is limited as yet, and we cannot account 

 for many of the vagaries of sports. 



We infer that the difference from the sport mentioned by 

 our correspondent and its parent is simply one in the color 

 of the flower. There are many other cases in which there 

 is a distinct change in the habit of the plant as, for exam- 

 ple, where some Rose, hke Victor Verdier or Niphetos, 



develops so-called climbing varieties. This means that 

 from the original plant there will start some shoot which 

 grows with remarkal)le vigor. The Dcvonicnsis, for ex- 

 ample, is not a strong grower, but its climbing varieties 

 sometimes grow twenty feet in a season, although its 

 flowers are true to the original type. Variations of this 

 sort may be traced to some remote ancestor, but, so far as 

 wc know, this habit of growth is more liable to be fixed 

 than simply variation of color. — Ed.] 



Sweet Alyssum. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In simimer-time no family owning the smallest lot 

 of ground need be without a pretty centre-piece for the table 

 if precaution has been taken to sow some seeds of Sweet 

 Alyssum in April or May. This little plant thrives in any soil, 

 and two packets of seeds sown in a bed or as a border will 

 yield a plentiful supply of flowers the entire season through. 

 They should be picked with long stems, and in plentiful quan- 

 tity. The children of the family will do this work with pleasure, 

 and they may also be taught to arrange the flowers afterward. 

 A silver fern-dish is admirable for this purpose, but any low 

 open bowl will answer, if it be but of glazed earthenware. 



A piece of wire netting with meshes about half an inch 

 square, a. trifle larger than the top of the bowl, should be 

 placed on the bowl when filled with water. Then set a blos- 

 som in each mesh, making sure that the stem reaches well 

 into the water. The netting keeps the flowers in place ; they 

 stand more erect, and, in changing the water, it is only neces- 

 sary to lift the netting, and replace it when the bowl is filled. 

 By changing the water every morning a bowl of flowers will 

 keep quite fresh for three days, as the stems do not crowd 

 upon each other as they do in the old way. 



Mignonette mingles well with Sweet Alyssum or Heliotrope 

 or a few sprays of pink or red Geranium ; but only flowers of 

 one color should be used at a time, and these sparingly. 



Brooltlyn, N. Y. Mary F. Harmau. 



The Flowers of Euphorbia. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your correspondent O. O. makes a very natural mis- 

 take when he says, on page 224 of your issue for May nth, 

 that it is the flowers that are ornamental in the case of the 

 Euphorbia jacquiniaeflora. Referring to Gray's Field, For-est 

 and Garde7i Botany, we read : " E. fulgens, or jacquiniae- 

 flora, . . . what appears like a 5-cleft corolla are the bright 

 red lobes of the involucre." 



Milton, Mass. Nathaniel T. Kidder. 



Notes. 



The Diet of the Tyrol recently decreed that a heavy fine 

 shall be imposed upon any person oft'ering' for sale a sample 

 of Edelweiss that has been pulled up by the roots. 



We have received a photograph from Mr. W. B. Hartland, 

 of Cork, Ireland, of a mass of Horsfield Daffodils planted 

 thickly over a bed of about a hundred square feet in extent. 

 Judging from the picture, these plants have wonderful vigor 

 and attain remarkably good form in the " old country." 



The white flowers of the Black Haw are beautifying many 

 of the road-side thickets within a few miles of this city, and 

 there is no more attractive small tree or large shrub than this 

 native Viburnum prunifolium as it appears in our woods and 

 parks. Besides the beautiful flowers, the bright red bark of 

 the young twigs and the reddish tint of the young leaves add 

 to the beauty of the plant, and the foliage is no less striking in 

 autumn, when it turns from its bright green to rich orange 

 and purple. 



The earliest Paeonies to bloom, and they are now at their 

 best, are the varieties of P. tenuifolia. These are not new 

 plants by any means, but since they are so easily cultivated, 

 so perfectly hardy and so beautiful, it is remarkable that they 

 are not more common. The single form is especially beauti- 

 ful with its dark crimson flowers, which are borne on stems 

 some fifteen or eighteen inches high surrounded by finely cut 

 foliage. The double-flowered forms are also very beautiful, 

 and the foliage is rather more delicate. 



A preliminary announcement, with schedule of prizes for the 

 Chrysanthemum Show at Madison Square Garden next fall, 

 has been issued. The exhibition will be under the auspices 



