July 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



341 



perhaps, because the Turks have not such finely perfected 

 machinery as tliat wliich is used in tlie Maritime Alps. Vio- 

 lets and Narcissus are cultivated by tons, only Farma violets 

 being sent to the still, the others not being sufficiently odorous. 

 These pale blue and fragrant violets are grown in the neigh- 

 borhood, and according to the supply or demand, or accord- 

 ing to whether it is a good or bad season, these choicest of 

 modest flowers brmg at wholesale from one franc to four 

 francs a pound. Sometimes higher prices are paid. 



" The best time to visit Grasse is, of course, in theadvanced 

 spring, when the general country is an undulating forest of 

 flowers and the air is filled with a thousand odors. Visitors 

 in the spring-time should be about as much as possible in the 

 evening' along the well-kept lanes which cross the flower re- 

 serves, for then the perfumes are the most powerful and the 

 best appreciated. Situated on a gentle slope of a spur of the 

 Maritime Alps, the view of Grasse and its vicinity is most pic- 

 turesque, offering ever-changing prospects as the tourist 

 ascends. On the summit of the hills, above the town, a mag- 

 nificent view is presented of the numerous manufactories, all 

 surrounded by tfower-covered fields, a smiling valley beyond 

 them, and a range of hills closing the view of the sea. When 

 the flowers are harvested for the distillery they are brought 

 into sheds, heaped on long tables, and women, who are so 

 scantily paid that they can barely exist, are set to sort them. 

 Old and young women, little boys and girls, all are at it and 

 earn but a miserable pittance. On following the car-loads of 

 flowers into the distillery, one will at first be pleased with the 

 all-pervading perfume, but getting into the depositing sheds 

 this becomes too much of a good thing. The odor is so rank 

 as to lose its fineness, and it becomes only a strong, almost 

 nauseating, smell, which permeates everything damp, even to 

 the handkerchief within one's pocket." 



Plant Notes. 



Some Recent Portraits. 



THE plants figured in the July issue of the Botanical 

 Magasme are of less interest than usual to the gar- 

 dener, who will see in them botanical rather than horticul- 

 tural subjects. They are : Synandrospadix vermitoxicus 

 (t. 7242), a stout aroid of Tucuman, an east Andean prov- 

 ince, where it inhabits hedges and shrubberies. This 

 plant produces hastate-cordate leaves, and large cymbi- 

 form spathes with recurved margins, dirty green on the 

 outer and pale purple on the inner surface, the tubers 

 being described as attaining a weight of four pounds. In 

 its native country it is known as "Cana brabo, the fero- 

 cious Cane," because the plant blisters the human flesh. 

 Disa incarnata (t 7243), a small inconspicuous flowering 

 Orchid of Madagascar, and a member of a genus of which 

 Mr. Bolus, who has paid particular attention to it, remarks 

 that "in the variety of its perianth, it is only excelled, per- 

 haps, by that of Habenaria and Catasetum, and is scarcely 

 equaled by that of any other genus in the vegetable 

 world." To this Sir Joseph Hooker adds, "that, after a 

 careful study of a large proportion of the species of 

 Habenaria, including upward of one hundred Indian, I 

 find their flowers to be morphologically uniform as com- 

 pared with those of Disa ; nor does this remark apply to 

 the perianth onl)^, it extends to the column and its append- 

 ages, and even to the pollinia. I quite believe that if 

 Habenaria had been a European genus, it would have 

 given rise to as many genera as Orchis and Habenaria 

 have — that is, about thirty-five instead of the five included 

 in it by Bolus, and upon much more marked structural 

 characters. From such a dismemberment Disa has been 

 saved by its remote geographical position far from the 

 haunts of systematic botanists, and by the sagacity of those 

 orchidologists (Lindley and Bolus)wlao have devoted them- 

 selves to its study." Gynura sarmentosa (t. 7244), a climb- 

 ing plant of the Senecio tribe of Composite, and a native 

 of the Malayan peninsula and islands. It is described as 

 a very elegant climber, with richly colored stems, branches, 

 and involucres, although from its lax habit of growth not 

 likely to become a horticultural favorite, except in tropical 

 gardens, where space is at its disposal. The small flowers 



are not attractive, although the habit of the plant, which is 

 said to be the most graceful member of this rather coarse 

 genus, may make it desirable. Masdevallia leontoglossa 

 (t. 7245), a native of the mountains of New Granada, and 

 a small, dirty flowered species. Primula Forbesii (t. 7246), 

 a Chinese species, and one of the only two known Primroses 

 which are strictly annual — that is, tfiat die after first flower- 

 ing — although tliey should, perhaps, be more accurately 

 described as monocarpic rather than annual if, as is prob- 

 able, they form seedling plants the first year and flower 

 and die in the following. P. Forbesii is another of the 

 species lately discovered in the mountain districts of the 

 interior of China, where Delavay, the French Jesuit mis- 

 sionary, discovered it in marshy ground near Tali, in Yun- 

 nan. More recently, 'General Sir H. Collett has found the 

 same plant in great abundance on the hills of the Shan 

 States in eastern Burmah, growing at an elevation of three 

 thousand feet from the sea. P. Forbesii is a delicate species, 

 with small, long-stalked, ovate-cordate, irregularly lobed 

 leaves,, and small, long-stemmed, rose-colored flowers ar- 

 ranged in remote whorls. 



A charming colored plate of Acacia dealbata gives special 

 interest and distinction to the first number of the forty- 

 second volume of The Garden, issued on the 2d of July. 

 This is the Silver Wattle of eastern Australia, and one of 

 the most beautiful trees brought from Australia. It is now 

 a well-known plant in all semi-tropical countries, forming, 

 where the soil suits it, handsome specimens fifty to one 

 hundred feet high, and in spring flowering most abun- 

 dantly. It is largely grown in southern France, especially 

 in the neighborhood of Cannes, and a considerable industry 

 is founded on the sale of its fragrant flowers, which are 

 shipped to the Paris and London markets in large quanti- 

 ties. In California, too, it has been largely planted, and is 

 one of the best Australian plants which have as yet been 

 tried in that state, although apparently capricious about 

 soil and location. At Cannes, for example, it is perfectly at 

 home, while at Nice, a few miles distant, and in several 

 other towns on the Riviera, it refuses to grow, owing, 

 probably, to the presence of lime in the soil, which is dis- 

 tasteful to many Australian plants. A line a yard wide, it 

 has been said, may be drawn between Nice and Cannes to 

 mark the boundary of the territories in vi^hich this tree 

 will and will not grow. In its native country it selects 

 swamps and low ground, where it sometimes attains a 

 height of one hundred and fifty feet 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Corylopsis pauciflora. 



AN account of some remarkable Japanese plants in Dr. 

 George R. Hall's garden, in Bristol, Rhode Island, 

 appeared three years ago (vol. ii., p. 537) in the columns 

 of this journal. Dr. Hall was probably the first American 

 intelligently interested in plants who lived in Japan, and 

 he was the first to send Japanese plants to this country. 

 He first visited Japan in i860, and about ten years later 

 began to plant Japanese plants in Bristol. Later he made 

 another voyage to the east, and, returning in 1874, brought 

 with him several plants, including a specimen of Corylopsis 

 pauciflora. This (see our illustration on page 342) has 

 now grown into the largest and most vigorous specimen 

 that has come under our notice. The branches are six 

 feet in height and form a compact mass of thirty-six feet 

 in circumference. 



Corylopsis belongs to the Witch Hazel family, and is 

 chiefly valuable for the extreme precocity of the flowers, 

 which appear in this latitude early in April, before the 

 unfolding of the leaves ; they are pale yellow and hang in 

 short compact racemes, which quite cover the branches. 

 Although less showy than the Forsythias and some 

 other spring-flowering shrubs, Corylopsis pauciflora de- 

 serves a place in the garden, to wtiich in early spring it 

 adds interest and variety. 



