August 17, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



385 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Officb : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted l)y Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EorTOKlAL Ar'1-ici.fs :— The Piuctum at Wcllesley 3S5 



'I'lie Wclloslcy Plantations 3S5 



An Old House in New Jersey. (With figure.) 3S6 



By Bicycle to tlie Waverley Oaks — II Sylvester Baxter. 386 



Notes on tlie Flora o£ Smytlie County, y\v^n\\^.~\\\. .Anna Murray Vait. 388 



Nkw OR Little-known Plants : — Pterostyrax hispidiun. (With figure.) 389 



For EiGN Correspondence ;— London Letter W. Watson. 389 



CuLTUR.lL Department:— Notes on Stirubs J. G. Jack. 390 



Cape Oxalis.— I W. E. Endicatt. 392 



Notes on Stove-plants VV. H. Taplin. 392 



Eupliorbia pulcrierrima H. 392 



Coreopsis nionstrosus, Carnation Cyclops G. 393 



The Forfjst:— Forestry in Prussia Ci/ford PincUot. 393 



Correspondence : — Hardy Plants in Flower at Short Hills, New Jersey, 



y. N. Gerard. 394 



Home-made Linen Withdniinc Setiger. 395 



Albinos among Orchids .Anna Murray I'ail. 395 



Local Plant Names in New Jersey y. IV. Harskberger. 395 



Notes 395 



Illustrations :— Pterostyi-ax hispidum, Fij;. 65 389 



The Old Meeker House at Lyons Farms, New Jersey, Fig. 66 391 



The Pinetum at Wellesley. 



THE collection of coniferous trees which Mr. Hunne- 

 vvell has been forming during the last forty years 

 on his estate at Wellesley, in Massachusetts, is unsur- 

 passed in the number of species and varieties of these 

 trees that it contains, and in the size and beauty of indi- 

 vidual specimens. Much has been said and wrritten in 

 the last few months of the injury sustained by conifers in 

 the eastern states during the past winter, which was an 

 exceptionally severe one for these plants ; and in order to 

 throw some further light on the subject, we have asked 

 Mr. Hunnewell to furnish us with the dimensions of several 

 of the most important trees in his collection, that our 

 readers may realize the variety of conifers which can be 

 grown in the New England climate, when they are planted 

 in soil suitable to their requirements, and are carefully cul- 

 tivated. 



The soil at Wellesley is admirably suited to conifers, the 

 subsoil being a light porous drift gravel which insures 

 perfect drainage. The surface soil is naturally light loam, 

 but has been enriched and greatly strengthened by the 

 liberal use of peat on which Mr. Hunnewell feeds his 

 plants. They have all received the best cultivation and 

 are generally growing in sheltered positions, so that they 

 have received, on the whole, exceptionally good treat- 

 ment. 



The tallest tree in the collection is a Norway Spruce 

 (Picea excelsa), planted as a small nursery plant in 1852 ; 

 it is now seventy-eight feet high, with a trunk circumfer- 

 ence, taken eighteen inches above the ground, of nine feet. 

 A White Pine (Pinus Strobus), planted about the same time, 

 is only fifty-six feet high, the trunk girting, at the same 

 distance from the ground, nine feet six inches. Abies 

 Cephalonica, planted about i860, is forty-two feet eight 

 inches high, with a trunk six feet in circumference, eighteen 

 feet from the ground. Abies Nordmanniana, planted about 



the same time as the last, is forty-two feet in height, the 

 trunk girting only four feet six inches. Abies concolor 

 (the California form or Abies lasiocarpa of gardens), prob- 

 ably planted about 1870, is twenty-eight feet high, with a 

 trunk four feet in circumference. Another plant of the 

 same species, known as Abies Parsonsii, and also Cali- 

 fornian, is twenty-eight feet high, with a trunk four feet 

 hve inches in circumference, while a third plant, also of 

 California origin, and incorrectly called Abies grandis, is 

 twenty-six feet six inches in height, with a trunk four feet 

 seven inches in circumference, all Mr. Hunncwell's trunk 

 measurements being eighteen inches above the ground. 



Of the Colorado Picea pungens, there are a number of 

 specimens raised from the seed collected by Dr. C. C. Parry, 

 the discoverer of this fine tree in the autumn of 1862. 

 The tallest is thirty-three feet six inches, with a trunk cir- 

 cumference of three feet. A beautiful blue specimen is 

 thirty-one feet high, with a trunk circumference of three 

 feet four inches. Pseudotsuga taxifolia, imported from 

 England, and of California or Oregon origin, and planted 

 about 1865, is thirty-six feet high, with a trunk four feet 

 in circumference. This plant grows in an exceptionally 

 sheltered and favorable position, which accounts for the 

 fact of its hardiness, the extreme western form of the 

 Douglas Spruce usually proving too tender to withstand 

 the climate of New England. The largest specimen of 

 the trees of this species raised by Mr. Hunnewell from 

 Colorado seed, collected also in 1862 by Dr. Parry, is now 

 twenty-five feet five inches in height, with a trunk three 

 feet in circumference. 



Among other notable specimens, planted about 1870 or 

 subsequently, are plants of the Japanese Picea Ajanensis 

 (Picea Alcoquiana of gardens), twenty-one feet in height, 

 with a trunk three feet six inches in circumference; Picea 

 polita, seventeen feet in height, with a trunk three feet in 

 circumference ; Abies brachyphylla, twenty-two feet in 

 height, with a trunk four feet in circumference ; Abies 

 Veitchii, fifteen feet high, with a trunk two feet eight 

 inches in circumference ; Abies Cilicica, thirty-one feet in 

 height, with a trunk four feet in circumference ; Abies ori- 

 entalis, thirty-three feet in height, with a trunk three feet 

 six inches in circumference, and one of the handsomest 

 and most satisfactory trees in the whole collection ; Pinus 

 Koraiensis, twenty-tv\'o feet six inches in height ; Pinus 

 Lambertiana, eighteen feet in height ; Pseudolarix Kaem- 

 pheri, twenty-one feet in height, witli a trunk three feet 

 six inches in circumference ; Retinospora obtusa, twenty- 

 two feet in height ; Retinospora pisifera aurea, nineteen 

 feet in height; Retinospora filifera, fifteen feet six inches in 

 height ; the Japanese Larix leptolepis, certainly one of the 

 finest specimens, if not the very finest in cultivation, fifty- 

 four feet in height, with a trunk three feet in circumference. 



Among smaller specimens, there are fine plants of Abies 

 ApoUinis, Tsuga Sieboldii, Taxus cuspidata, from Japan, 

 the best member of the genus for eastern North America, 

 where it is perfectly hardy and very beautiful ; Sciadopitys, 

 Thuyopsis dolobrata, now well established ; Thuya Japonica 

 (the Thuyopsis Standishii of gardens), a hardy tree of 

 much promise ; Picea Omorika, the newly discovered 

 Spruce of south-eastern Europe ; Abies pectinata, Abies 

 Pinsapo, of doubtful hardiness ; Abies firma, of Japan ; Abies 

 nobilis, Abies magnifica, and Abies amabifis, trees of the 

 Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, which will not 

 thrive in New England unless planted in unexceptionally 

 favorable localities and tended carefull)^ The collection 

 contains, too, all the well-known forms of Retinospora, 

 and many forms and varieties of Thuya, Taxus, Tsuga, 

 etc. The Pinetum prop,er contains about four hundred 

 specimens, although conifers have been planted outside 

 it in nearly all parts of the estate. 



The Wellesley plantations have a wider interest than 

 that which arises from their dendrological value. The 

 opinion is general that the sole reward of one who plants 



