460 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 240. 



ter, when the glaciers plowed deep valleys, and on either side 

 piled its broken buttresses and angles against it in the passage, 

 filling its gaps, leveling the tops of its clifts, smoothing and 

 shaping the spaces inside its outer walls, scooping the abrupt 

 valleys and wearing deep holes in the conglomerate, where 

 now repose the tiny lakes that feed its romantic streams. But 

 its highest points were left unmoved, in level firmness, square 

 and compact as if these were immense forts built for the wars 

 of Titans. And since then, though the storm king at times 

 holds high carnival here, the wear and tear of the elements 

 have been propitious rather than otherwise. The disintegra- 

 tion of the conglomerate gives elements of fertility, and also, 

 when under water, hardens to an imperishable cement, while 

 the sandstone is harder than granite and far more enduring. 



Its location gives a wide outlook, for the range is compara- 

 tively narrow and isolated, and there are points from whence 

 the vie w is bounded to the south and east only by the Highlands 

 of North River, the bay atNewburgh being visible, with Storm 

 King frowning above it ; or one looks north-east to see the 

 Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, and north over the levels to 

 where the Green Mountains of Vermont lie in a blue undu- 

 lating line beneath the farthest clouds. To the west rises the 

 abrupt ascent of the Catskills from the plain, far enough dis- 

 tant for the most exquisite atmospheric effects, and the grace- 

 ful sweep of these curves toward the south-west opens ever- 

 changing glories of light and color, as the sunshine bathes 

 them or the showers sweep over them. 



Our first personal knowledge of the Shawangunk Moun- 

 tains (commonly called "Shongum ") was on a still afternoon, 

 after a morning that had been full of enchanting surprises of 

 light and shadow among the picturesque highlands of the 

 Hudson. A little jaded with travel we had looked over the 

 shoulders of our stage-driver, and without much interest, at 

 the distant uplands, which we were told contained our point of 

 destination, but with which the present direction of our big 

 slow-moving horses seemed to have little to do. 



For an hour our road lay through undulating farm-lands in 

 the rich Wallkill valley, and then suddenly turning to the north 

 we drove down a long hill into a deep dell, and straight at the 

 heart of the mountain whose thousand feet of stone seemed to 

 rise like a wall before us, stretching away in unbroken line for 

 miles on either hand. From the depth of the dell where we 

 had entered a grove of Chestnuts, for some distance up this 

 height, the debris piled against it in huge rocks and broken soil, 

 is covered with a forest-growth, hundreds of feet above the 

 trees. 



Certainly it required faith in modern engineering to believe 

 anything but eagles' wings would raise us to the top of this 

 perpendicular ; but after going down till it reached the lowest 

 point at the foot of this majestic pile, our road began timidly 

 to take hold of its skirts, and climb the way along its side, giv- 

 ing us views of great beauty over the wide valley we had left. 

 Then we reached a break in the wall, and turned sharply away 

 into a pass that was once an Indian trail, and affords the only 

 natural access to the interior of this range for many miles. 

 Here in a few moments a heavyrain struck us, and our horses 

 labored up the steep ascents, straining their great flanks and 

 standing with their legs gathered under them while they took 

 breath a moment on the shelves cut in the road for that pur- 

 pose, or dragged the coach with the wheels all locked down 

 the steep descents that seemed aimed at the centre of the earth. 



When the shower had passed we found ourselves in a 

 fertile region abounding in a great variety of wild growth. 

 One could think that Flora, hiding in these fastnesses, had 

 amused herself in sowing all manner of seeds to make 

 a garden of the wilderness. The Chestnut crowded the 

 Oak, and the red-tipped leaves of the Sassafras peeped 

 between. The Sumach made a lusty growth, and held its 

 green heads high in rocky spaces, vavmting a promise of fu- 

 ture brilliancy. Above all towered the Pines, which form the 

 chief glory of the upper plateau to which we had at length as- 

 cended. The great rocks amid which our road curved were 

 covered with brown lichens of curious form, while every hol- 

 low, every broken place and coign of vantage had its tuft of 

 Fern or its bed of mosses. In the open places bordering the 

 roadway we saw the deep green stiff leaves of the Laurel (Kal- 

 niia latifolia) bristling against baby Oaks and Chestnuts, whose 

 faces, wet by the late shower, were lifted to us in a kiss of wel- 

 come ; or the sun glinted from the waxen foliage of the Rho- 

 dodendron, both R. maximum and R. Catawbiense growing 

 freely here, and just out of blossom. The fragrant breath 

 of the Spice-bush came to us from some hidden nook, 

 and the beautiful Clematis vitalba threw out its pearls 

 of buds or its feathery blossoms to glorify the rough 

 Raspberry and Barberry bushes lining our way. In other 



places there were plantations of Golden-rod contrasting with 

 the brown blooms of the Bindweed (CalystegiaSepium) made a 

 thicket of tlie broken banks whereon were grown in profusion 

 the Blueberry-bushes dear to us from the days of our child- 

 hood; for blueberries are everywhere here called huckleber- 

 ries by the unhappy mortals who have never known the dif- 

 ference between the blueberries of Maine and the sandy 

 abominations sold under their name in the New York markets. 

 But these are the real blueberries, pulpy and juicy and sweet, 

 with the cool, pearly, delicate bloom on the fruit as if frost- 

 fingers had touched them to mark their northern origin. 

 While beneath the trees everywhere grow all varieties of the 

 Pyrola, whose white blossoms now give promise that in 

 autumn their scarlet berries shall chord with October glories, 

 as these berries reflect the blue and gray of summer skies. 



Minnewaska, N. Y. M. H. P. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



A New Hybrid Rose. 



WE have on many occasions alluded to some hybrid 

 Roses which Mr. Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold 

 Arboretum, had produced by using pollen of various hardy 

 sorts upon the Japanese Rosa multiflora, which is one of 

 the most beautiful of hardy flowering shrubs. One of these 

 hybrids, in which General Jacqueminot was the male 

 parent, was the subject of an illustration in Garden and 

 Forest last year (vol. iv., p. 533). It is a vigorous climber, 

 with clusters of semi-double rose-colored and exceedingly 

 fragrant flowers. We reproduce in this number (see p. 461) 

 a photograph of another of these hybrids, in which the 

 single flowers are pure white, with yellow stamens, and 

 borne in clusters after the manner of the seed parent. 

 They are three times as large as the flowers of Rosa multi- 

 flora, and are fragrant. In this case the pollen parent is the 

 Hybrid Perpetual, Miss Hassard, and the plant has the 

 thorns and foliage of this variety and the half-climbing 

 habit of the Japanese species. Miss Hassard is a Rose 

 which was raised from Marguerite de St. Amanda, which 

 is a free grower, with sweet-scented flowers. Marguerite 

 de St. Amande is a seedling ot Jules Margottin, and 

 this was probably raised from the old and very hardy 

 La Reine, a Rose introduced fifty years ago, and still well 

 known. Roses of the La Reine type endure more cold 

 than any other class except the descendants of Baronne 

 Prevost, and they include such admirable kinds as Anna 

 de Diesbach, Franfois Michelon and Paul Neyron. The new 

 hybrid, therefore, comes of free-growing and hardy parent- 

 age, and, if pedigree counts for anything, it ought to prove 

 one of our sturdiest plants. Rosa multiflora, although it 

 has been known for a hundred years, has only in very 

 recent times been introduced to gardens, although its 

 double form crossed with Rosa Indica and others has been 

 the origin of the Miniature Cluster or Polyantha Roses 

 which have long been popular. They are not reliably 

 hardy in this country, however, and we have no doubt 

 that the nevv strain of Roses which is being raised by 

 mingling the blood of Rosa multiflora with perfectly hardy 

 sorts will produce many plants which will prove satis- 

 factory and useful. 



Cypripedium Daisyas. 



THE flower of the Cypripedium reproduced from a 

 photograph on page 463 is from the collection of 

 Mr. H. Graves, of Orange, New Jersey, after whose daugh- 

 ter the plant has been named. It is a hybrid between 

 C. Lowii and C. oenanthum superbum. The leaves 

 are eight inches long and one and a half broad, bright 

 green and faintly tessellated. The flower-scape is sixteen 

 or more inches long, brown, pubescent, one to three 

 flowered. The sepals are white, pale green through the 

 centre, veined and tinted with carmine, with a few dots 

 of brown at the base, the dorsal one being slightly deep- 

 est in color. The petals are long, narrow at base, the 

 inner half a primrose-yellow warted with purple, the outer 

 half carmine. The lip is similar in shape to that of C. 



