June i, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



255 



entrance in tlie shape of myriads of busfs and slugs, the inevi- 

 table accompaniment of the l)looming Rose. 



Eleagnus longipes is now llowering profusely. The tubular, 

 four (sometimes live) parted blossoms closely scattered over 

 the twigs are cream-colored when they first appear, yellowing 

 with age. They have a strong, not altogether delightful, odor, 

 by which the bees find them out and hasten to the revel it 

 proclaims. The Barberries also hold out many seductions to 

 men and bees, and charm more senses than one. Nothing 

 can be finer than a tall, graceful purple Barberry in full bloom, 

 standing in the sun. Its yellow petals have plum-colored 

 markings on the under sides, to match the rich coloring of the 

 leaves and young twigs. These Barberries need bright sun- 

 light to develop their beauty. They are dull of hue when 

 planted in the shade ; the outer leaves arc always richer in 

 wine shades, the inner foliage usually reverting to green. 



Several fine Spirteas are now at their best. The long droop- 

 ing wreaths and garlands of S. Van Houttei have a snowy 

 whiteness and grace which makes the shrub conspicuous at a 

 distance, and it rather gains than loses by close inspection. 



S.Cantoniensis (known in many nurseries as S. Reevesiana) 

 is coming into flower. I learn that it cannot always be trusted 

 to live through New England winters, but in this latitude it is 

 one of the very best spring-llowering shrubs. 



Nevuisia Alabamensis is still beautiful with its delicate flow- 

 ers of white and green. These last a long time, and know how 

 to grow old gracefully ; the absence of petals preventing the 

 unsightly appearance many shrubs present in the fading stages. 



Japan Maples are in full foliage, and their colors are at their 

 briglitest. The hot suns of July and August will dull them, 

 but they brighten again under the skies of autumn. 



The fresh green of the new growth on many conifers enlivens 

 the sylvan picture ; and all of the deciduous trees, with one 

 exception, are now in leaf. This exception is an Acacia or 

 Albezzia, of whose proper name I am doubtful ; a beautiful, 

 small tree, with foliage resembling a Sensitive Plant, which is 

 described in some nurserymen's catalogues as Acacia Memu 

 or Japanese Acacia, and is said to have pink flowers. Ours 

 has never bloomed, and is always the very last of our plants to 

 unfold its beautiful leaves. 



Honey Locusts, Paulowniasand Paper Mulberries are among 

 the latest of trees to leaf, but these are all well under way and 

 have made great progress in the last two days. 



The Red-branched Dogwood is no longer worthy of the 

 name, its brilliant coloring having passed away, or being con- 

 fined to the twigs that bear the flower-clusters. It is at all sea- 

 sons a handsome shrub. 



Rhododendrons are beginning to bloom, and many Azaleas 

 are now in their prinie. The hardy Azalea is a plant that 

 requires very skillful management. The colors are so apt to 

 quarrel, and to require separation after the groups are formed. 

 Such dissension in one family is unfortunate. I am inclined 

 to prefer the wild Azaleas to any of the imported varieties ; 

 the colors are not so glaring. Of course, the bright magenta 

 and the flame-colored types should never be planted in juxta- 

 position, yet how often this is done. If perfect accord is 

 wanted in the garden, they should not be in hailing distance of 

 each other. Groups of Azaleas of harmonizing hues are much 

 more effective than single specimens, and it is well to plant 

 them where they will have some dark evergreens for a back- 

 ground. 



Rose Brake, West Va. Danske Dandridge. 



A Sequence of Flowering Cherries. 



WRITERS on Japan constantly tell of the love the Japanese 

 have for flowers, of the various favorite varieties, and of 

 the national fetes in honor of them. We are told that one of 

 the plants so highly honored is the Cherry, and that every 

 spring-time there are Cherry-blossom festivals which have 

 something of a national character. It frequently happens that 

 the illustrations of Japanese subjects furnished by artists, in 

 which Cherry-blossoms are supposed to be represented, give 

 us what appear to be Peach or Apricot flowers, and it is quite 

 likely that they should have been called so, from a correct and 

 botanical point of view. 



That there are most beautiful species or varieties of flower- 

 ing Cherries in Japanese gardens we know by a number of 

 plants which have been introduced into cultivation in Europe 

 and America. One of the earliest-flowering of these, as it is of 

 all the species with which we are acquainted, is what is con- 

 sidered to be Prunus pendula, or a form of it, which has been 

 received from nurseries under the name of P. (or Cerasus) 

 Sieboldii pendula flore rosea and Cerasus Japonica rosea pen- 

 dula. This season the first blossoms of a particular plant 



opened about April 25th. It was in full bloom about May 2d, 

 and continued to be a conspicuous and very beautiful object 

 for fully ten days longer. 



The llowcrs, which arc produced in fascicles of three or four 

 from a bud, and on long slender stalks, are pale rose-colored, 

 and .appear before there is any indication of leaves. The calyx 

 and calyx-lobes and portions of the flower-stalks are of a dark 

 red color. The flowers are produced in great profusion, and 

 apparently there is no appreciable variation in their al)undance 

 every year, which adds much to the value of the plant for or- 

 namental purposes. The fruit is very small, being hardly 

 larger than a pea, of a dark red color, sour and with little pulp. 

 It has not been produced in sufficient abundance here to be 

 ornamental on the plant in the fruiting season, so that, except 

 for the blossoms and its pendulous habit, it has no other 

 special claim for ornament or utility. Its specific name of 

 pendula is well applied, for, although the main branches are 

 horizontal or diverge from the trunk at an upward angle, they 

 ultimately assume a widely arching form, the extremities and 

 all the lateral branches being pendent or pendulous. The 

 largest specimens here are now from fifteen to eighteen feet 

 high, and the indications are that they will not grow much 

 higher. 



X plant of similar habit, but with variations in the leaves and 

 color of the flowers and some minor details, is sold from the 

 nurseries under the long name of P. (or Cerasus) Sieboldii 

 pendula flore carneo, although the pendula is sometimes left 

 out. It is also distributed as Cerasus Japonica pendula rosea, 

 and under other names. From a horticultural standpoint its 

 peculiarity and value consist in its flowers being of a deeper 

 red color than those of P. pendula. As noticed here it blos- 

 soms a day or two later, and its branches have a more angular 

 and less graceful habit. Its fruit is similar to P. pendula. 

 Whether they are distinct varieties, from a botanical stand- 

 point, should be proved by raising each from seed. The 

 darker-flowered form is generally considered not as beautiful 

 as the other variety, whose blossoms are so peculiarly and 

 delicately colored as at once to suggest something Japanese, 

 and which is not surpassed in beauty by any other tree of its 

 class of which we know. 



Both of these grow exceedingly well when grafted on the 

 common Cherry. They should be grafted so that the point of 

 insertion is at or below the surface of the ground, because the 

 Cherry-stock apparently grows much faster than the cion, and 

 unnatural disproportions in the trunk are always a serious dis- 

 figurement, and to be avoided. In specimens in the Arboretum, 

 grafted at the ground on common Cherry, the stock has de- 

 veloped into a large woody mass or base, upon which the trees 

 seem to rest. 



There are flowering Cherries from Japan and China which 

 belong to a different type, and which are passing under a va- 

 riety of names. These are small trees, with closer affinities 

 with, and aspect more like, the common Cherries of our gar- 

 dens, but differing from them in having conspicuously 

 branched or forked flower-stalks, several flowers being' at- 

 tached by their pedicels to a single stalk common to them all, 

 instead of every flower appearing to have a separate stalk from 

 near the base or bud. There are two distinct forms, and 

 although both have sometimes been placed under the Asiatic 

 species known as Pseudo-Cerasus, they are probably representa- 

 tives of very distinct species. Both of the kinds most com- 

 mon in cultivation have double or semi-double flowers. The 

 earliest to blossom, the first flowers appearing about the first 

 week of May here, blooms before the leaves have fairly ex- 

 panded, and has petals of a rosy white or bright rose-color. Its 

 leaves are of a dark green color, and are quite pubescent be- 

 neath. The flowers persist for two weeks or more in good 

 showy condition. Among other names this plant is to be had 

 from nurseries as P. (or Cerasus) Pseudo-Cerasus rosea plena 

 and as Cerasus Watereri. 



The other type comes into bloom a full week later. Its blos- 

 soms appear with the foliage, and are of a clear china white, 

 the outer petals sometimes flushed with a rosy color, the whole 

 flower when old often having a roseate tinge. It is character- 

 ized by lighter green leaves, with smooth leaf-stalks, smooth 

 and shiny on the upper surfaces and glabrous and pale be- 

 neath. The calyx is only five-parted, while in the pubescent 

 and dark flowered form there are usually seven or eight di- 

 visions. There are numerous other points of difference, and 

 when the plants are seen growing side by side there appears 

 good reason to keep them botanically distinct. The white- 

 flowered form is known by nurserymen as the Double Chinese 

 Cherry, P. (or Cerasus) serrulata and P. Sieboldii alba plena. 

 It is apparently not so floriferous as the other. Neither of 

 these Cherry-trees, as we have them, assumes a regular form 



