296 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 226. 



one of the best native bulbous plants for garden cultivation, 

 and one that should be in every collection, however small. 



The Mossy Stone Crop, Sedum acre, is ablaze with its golden 

 flowers, and it is one of the most useful things for those dry or 

 rocky situations in which dwarf plants are required. It makes 

 a delightful natural edging for a portion of the wild garden, 

 and it would be no less effective or desirable for similar pur- 

 poses in gardens of greater pretensions. Moneywort, Lysi- 

 machia nummularia, and the Field Chickweed, Cerastium 

 arvense, are useful in the same way. The former is not yet in 

 bloom, but its thick carpet of fresh green leaves is worth a great 

 deal, and the little yellow blossoms will appear in due season a 

 few weeks hence. Cerastium arvense is also close and compact 

 in growth, and its leaves are small and pointed. It is in full 

 bloom now, a mass of snowy whiteness. 



Rich groups of color are supplied by Thaspium aureum, 

 Amsonia Tabersemontana and Baptisia australis, the Blue 

 False Indigo. These plants are from three to four feet high, 

 and require good deep soil and full exposure to sunshine. 

 They are most effective in large masses, but make beautiful 

 and shapely clumps of a size suitable for mixed borders. They 

 all bloom freely. The flowers are small in the Thaspium, of 

 orange-yellow color, and are borne in dense umbels from two 

 to three inches across. In Amsonia they are of a light blue 

 color, an inch across, and produced in large terminal panicles. 

 The Baptisia has large Pea-shaped flowers, of pale blue color, 

 in long, erect racemes. 



Erigeron bellidifolius forms a thick, dwarf undergrowth, and 

 sends up straight, sparsely leaved stems to a height of eighteen 

 inches, each bearing from six to eight Daisj'-like flowers, an 

 inch and a half in diameter, with yellow disk and lilac ray 

 florets. It is an admirable plant for a sunny situation. E. flag- 

 elare is a pretty dwarf species of creeping habit. The stems 

 do not exceed six inches in height, and the whitish flowers are 

 somewhat smaller than those of E. bellidifolius. The compact 

 clusters of Thermopsis mollis, about two feet high, have a 

 pleasing effect. The long terminal racemes of clear yellow 

 papilionaceous flowers are very showy and useful at this time. 

 Its taller-growing relative, T. Caroliniana, blooms a month 

 later. Both plants flower freely, and grow well in ordinary 

 garden-soil. 



One of the best wild flowers for shady places is the False 

 Spikenard, Smilacina racemosa. It is about four feet high, and 

 the simple stems are furnished with large green leaves. The 

 flowers are cream-colored, fragrant and small, but they are 

 produced in immense terminal racemes. Polygonatum gigan- 

 teum, the Great Solomon's Seal, also grows luxuriantly and 

 flowers abundantly under trees, and so does Arisasma tri- 

 phyllum. The spathes of the latter plant, however, develop 

 their pretty colors much better under the influence of sunlight. 



Cambiidge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Flower Notes. 



IT is a good time, as the flowers of certain plants pass away, 

 to destroy those which for any reason are not desirable. 

 By prompt action of this kind, while the dissatisfaction still 

 lingers, one parts with the plants without regret, and the gen- 

 eral effect of the garden is improved. We are apt to delay this 

 often important weeding-out so that undesirable plants are 

 grown year after year. To a special collector any variety of a 

 given family of plants may prove interesting, but to others 

 there is no family in which the average grower will not find 

 some practically worthless members. The grower who sim- 

 ply cares for attractive plants will discard those which have a 

 merely botanical interest, which are unsuitable for available 

 positions, or whose form or color is displeasing. 



It is interesting to study any family of plants and separate 

 them into classes. As a practical example take the Colum- 

 bines, which happen to be plants, some of which are still in 

 bloom. Looking over a collection of them in flower the most 

 striking difference will be found in the varieties considered as 

 effective or showy garden-plants. It is no fanciful division to 

 separate them into three sections, of which the long-spurred, 

 bright-colored ones, like Aquilegia chrysantha, A. cceruleaand 

 A. truncata, may be considered the vivacious members. Varie- 

 ties of A. glandulosa, A. grandiflora alba, A. Pyrenaica are 

 quiet and reposeful, while many of the short-spurred, dull- 

 colored kinds are vapid and spiritless in effect. It is cu- 

 rious to note that the vivacity of a flower depends more on the 

 combination of form with color than on color alone. This may 

 be seen by comparing flowers of the same color, but with dis- 

 similar forms. As a bright, effective, vivacious flower A. 

 chrysantha is not surpassed by anything in the garden, a 

 golden flower, poised . delicately in air as if in flight upward. 



The due consideration of the different effect of these plants will 

 cause them to be placed by the careful gardener in positions 

 where these qualities maybe most effective. Most of the Col- 

 umbines are plants for the less conspicuous parts of the gar- 

 den, but if planted in prominent places such kinds as Munstead 

 White, for instance, are more suitable than A. Canadensis, not 

 because this is not equally beautiful, but because we naturally 

 associate our favorite wild Columbine with woods and rocks 

 and informality. 



The various notes on Narcissi also remind me that in this 

 family also may be found varieties which are not effective as 

 garden-plants, though I know of no variety which may be con- 

 sidered altog'ether vapid. The most surprising thing, con- 

 sidering the vast numbers of Narcissi now in cultivation, is 

 that the varieties are really distinct, though often slightly so. 

 The distinctions are often only clearly seen, however, when 

 the plants are grown in masses. There is, no doubt, often 

 much disappointment felt on the first view of many Daffodils, 

 and especially over the pallid kinds, the pale yellows, the pale 

 sulphur and alleged creamy whites. Even in masses these 

 cannot be considered effective garden-flowers, but they are 

 valuable under artificial light and make excellent flowers for 

 the house. Of course, such useful plants can be grown in 

 inconspicuous positions. On the whole, yellow flowers are the 

 most attractive of any color for the garden, but there is a vast 

 variety and choice in yellow. The tones seem infinite, and 

 probably indescribable without examples for illustration. The 

 largest number of Daftbdils are yellow, and the principal deal- 

 er's list uses a score of designations, from pale primrose to 

 deep golden, in the endeavor to describe the difterent fints. 

 Considering' that the tones vary somewhat with the different 

 seasons and the soil of different gardens these fine distinc- 

 tions are not very helpful. If the beginner asks for help in all 

 this confusion of names and tones, probably the best advice 

 would be to commence mostly with the large trumpets, avoid- 

 ing the pale primrose and light straw-colored sorts on the one 

 hand, and the very deep yellow ones on the other, as de- 

 scribed in a reliable list. 



Elizabeth, N. J. J. N. Gerard. 



Hard}- Plant Notes. 



'T'HE hardy perennial borders are now in their best condi- 

 -'- tion, since the season, though late, has been favorable 

 for all plants of this description, and none have been injured 

 by late frosts, as is often the case. The Oriental Poppies are 

 now in their glory, and force all other flowers in the back- 

 ground with their strong color. The true Papaver bracteatum, 

 though considered a form of P. orientale, is by far the best 

 Poppy grown as to color. Carefully selected seeds of P. 

 bracteatum will not come true, but will revert to the common 

 P. orientale, so that it is necessary to propagate it from root- 

 cuttings. Pieces of root an inch long are a suitable size. If 

 taken when the plants die down soon after midsummer, these 

 should be dibbled into sand to start them and may be planted 

 out in fall or wintered over in a cold frame, and' they should 

 flower the next season. A variety obtained in seed as P. 

 bracteatum prascox is no earlier and differs in no way from 

 the common P. orientale, though we had hoped better of it. 

 The variety sent out some time ago as P. Parkmanni does not 

 seem to be any difterent from an ordinary Oriental Poppy, 

 though distributed at a high price and with a great flourish. It 

 is well to remark that Oriental Poppies vary more than is sup- 

 posed from seed, and it is difficult to find any two that are ex- 

 actly alike, both in color and in the markings at the base of the 

 petals. 



Lindelofia spectabilis prascox, we are told, is often sold in 

 Europe for Mertensia Virginica, our beautiful native Lung- 

 wort, though it is difficult to understand why, as the plant has 

 nothing in common with Mertensia except that it belongs to 

 the same order, Boraginaceae. The Lindelofia is perfectly hardy, 

 though a native of Kashmir, and bears a quantity of bright 

 'blue flowers for several weeks at this season. Seeds are very 

 slow to germinate, often taking several months, and they al- 

 ways come unevenly. This is a monotypic genus, and the 

 flowers of L. spectabilis are said to be purple-red, a very dif- 

 ferent combination from that of our plants, which are of a real 

 Gentian blue. Flowers of a different color, even on the same 

 stem, are common in this family, as in the Borage, Mertensia, 

 and in a plant now in bloom called Caccinia strigosa. This 

 plant is a native of Afghanistan, and has wintered out safely ; 

 its chief beauty, however, lies in its foliage, which is of a de- 

 cided glaucous or grayish color, and at once arrests attenfion 

 in a border of mixed plants. In this plant different flowers 

 are both pink and blue at the same time. Our plant is 



