464 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 240. 



my knowledge, have been completely exterminated by its rav- 

 ages. It attacked our Lilies this season. It remains to be seen 

 what the results will be ne.xt year. Rusty yellow patches on 

 the stems and leaves tell of the work going on, and soon the 

 stalk dies off, and the bulb is weakened for ne.\t year. I have 

 had no opportunity for comparison, but the symptoms are un- 

 mistakable. Apart from this disease, there is no reason why 

 we do not see more Lilies grown in gardens. Enough are 

 forced in one year for Easter to plant bulbs in every garden in 

 the United States, and yet how seldom do we see this family 

 represented, except, perhaps, by a clump of Tiger-lilies that 

 have been undisturbed for a generation, and yet live to flower 

 and plead for attention and encouragement. ■[:■ n r^ j. j 



South Lancaster, Mass. -*•• 'J- Orpei. 



Autumn-blooming Perennial Plants. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS have absorbed so large a pordon 

 of the attention of gardeners in recent years that other au- 

 tumn-fiowering perennials have suffered some neglect, and 

 Chrysanthemums are rapidly becoming plants for the green- 

 house exclusively. The early sorts give little promise of being 

 out-of-door bloomers, if one may judge from a large collection 

 of the new French strains seen a few days since, which seemed 

 scarcely as forward as the old Madame Desgranges. For a 

 garden of narrow limits the selection of plants for flowers at 

 this season requires more care than for those of spring and 

 summer, as at this time many plants are apt to become rank 

 in growth — weedy, in fact. In selecting plants for conspicuous 

 positions care should be given to obtain those with good fo- 

 liage, as the weather is at this time very trying to all leaves. 

 The popular Sunflowers are usually quite defective in this re- 

 spect, and quickly become unsightly. For a suitable position, 

 however, they are, of course, among the attractive flowers of 

 the season. An excellent succession of these is Helianthus rigi- 

 -dus, the double-flowered H. multiflorus, H.tetiflorus, H. orgy- 

 alisand H. Maximiliani, the two latter being especially graceful in 

 foliage, and H. Maximiliani is in flower longafter the first frosts. 

 Of the more modest flowers of the season. Anemone Ja- 

 ponica alba is easily the most charming, and is usually entirely 

 satisfactory if the position is somewhat moist and not too 

 open. Delphinium Sinense seems to me scarcely less beauti- 

 ful in either of its three colors, white, pink and a heavenly 

 blue. It has a very neat habit, of moderate growth and a long 

 season of bloom. Messrs. Pitcher 5; Manda had it in flower 

 in November last year in the open nursery. This species 

 should be very popular when better known. The autumnal 

 Monk's-hood (Aconitum autumnale) is a plant of very trim 

 habit, two to three feet high, with glistening dark green leaves 

 and abundant large hooded flowers of a pleasing purple. 

 Stokesia cyanea has flowers of a lighter purple, like a full- 

 petaled single Aster, though the foliage is not specially attrac- 

 tive. This plant is probably not hardy here without some 

 protection, which is also a drawback to the cultivation of the 

 Torch-lilies, or Kniphofias, which have been so much im- 

 proved, especially by Herr Max Leichtlin, in recent years. 

 There seem about two-score varieties available, these varying 

 in habit and coloring of flowers ; few are hardy without pro- 

 tection from wet and severest frost. No good garden is com- 

 plete without some varieties of these plants, ornamental in 

 foliage and flower. Of the most common varieties K. corallina 

 is most likely to give general satisfaction. It is a dwarf kind, 

 of very thrifty growth, and gives a succession of bright torches 

 until frost. They winter without harm in a frame or cellar. 



Pyrethrum uliginosum, with its Chrysanthemum-like habit 

 and white daisy-like flowers, is now in season, and likely to 

 prove satisfactory. It should have a sheltered place, where 

 wind will not thresh the fair flowers, which are thin of petal. 

 Another fall daisy is Chrysanthemum lacustre, a plant of 

 coarser habit, proof against severe weather, and somewhat of 

 the wildling order. The best composites of the season are the 

 perennial Asters, the varieties of which are so plentiful in our 

 American fields at this season. No plants are more satis- 

 factory in the garden than the best of the Asters, with their 

 bright multitude of flowers. A standard collection of the 

 family, correctly named, in some one of our botanic gardens 

 would be of real interest. At present it is practically impossi- 

 ble to secure even a small collection from two nurserymen 

 which shall be named alike. Were there more room in my 

 garden I think probably there would be added some fine 

 forms of Golden-rod, full as the fields are of them. Solidago 

 cassia, with long wand-like stems and clustered axillary flow- 

 ers, seems to be the perfection of grace and brightness. 



A sowing of Iceland Poppies made early in the year is now 

 flowering freely and vieing with the brightest flowers in the 



garden. Scarcely less bright is the well-known Plumbago Lar- 

 pente, with its blue flowers and foliage, which is taking on 

 bright autumnal tints. Sedum spectabile adds color in spots 

 which prove too dry for other plants. Gaillardia grandifiora 

 is, perhaps, not strictly a fall flower, but nothing but a hard 

 frost will give a pause to its floral succession. Among bulb- 

 ous plants, the flowers of the season are from varieties of 

 Colchicum, Crocuses and Cyclamen. Cyclamen Europoeum 

 album, now showing pure white flowers, would be much more 

 attractive with leaves, but at present there are none. Cycla- 

 mens are difficult bulbs to establish in the open, and I have 

 not yet discovered why they live through one winter and are 

 pulped the next. The garden is made interesting and expen- 

 sive by these little experiments. Plants with magenta-colored 

 flowers are not long-lived in my garden, but it seems worth 

 while to make an exception in favor of Lespedeza Sie- 

 boldi, which has such a graceful habit, with its pendulous 

 branches covered at this time with a myriad of pea-shaped 

 flowers. Roses give such a plentiful daily crop of buds at 

 this season that it seems ungrateful in talking of hardy plants 

 not to mention them, though what I know of them may 

 be summed up very shortly. A man may have Roses in his 

 heart, as the well-known saying goes, but if he wants them in 

 his garden he must set his plants in a good, deep compost (two 

 feet not being too much), rich with manure and bone-meal. 

 Gloire de Dijon and La France, both of which are hardy with 

 me with no protection, give decidedly more flowers than other 

 variefies which have been grown here. 



With all its wealth of showy flowers the September garden 

 seems to me the least interesting one of the year. Crops are 

 a mere detail, not always essential to the enjoyment of a plant. 

 Human beings, as children, are often more interesting to their 

 guardians, filled as they are with wonderful potentialities, than 

 when in full development of maturity. And plants, new or 

 old, in their early growth give pleasurable anticipations which 

 are not always realized. Again, we are in this latitude never 

 free from danger of killing frosts after this date, and garden 

 operations must be shaped with this contingency in view. 

 Then around us is the glamour of the glorious American 

 autumn, tinging the fields and ripening leaves with a wealth of 

 colors overpowering the brightest garden. Seen under a de- 

 clining sun at this season our Jersey meadows show broad, 

 harmonious and exquisite shadings of color which no expert 

 in bedding-out can hope to rival. When one has perceptions 

 open to these impressions the mere enclosed garden is at this 

 season rather commonplace. r^ ^, ^ 



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



Cool-house Ferns. 



AMONG the many fine Ferns that may be successfully 

 grown in a cool-house, that is, in a temperature forty- 

 five to fifty degrees during the winter, there are few superior 

 to Hypolepis distans, an evergreen of much elegance and free 

 growth. This Fern makes a mass of dark green bipinnate 

 fronds about a foot in length ; these are finely divided and 

 serrated and thrown up from a creeping rhizome. Like many 

 other Ferns of creeping habit, this species does not require a 

 great depth of soil, and pan culture is therefore advisable. 

 Planted out on a rock-work it is equally at home. 



Pteris scaberula is a fine companion plant for Hypolepis dis- 

 tans, and thrives under similar conditions. The fronds of this 

 species are also finely cut, lanceolate in general outline and 

 light green in color, and they are produced from slender rhi- 

 zomes. This admirable Fern is partly deciduous, and is, con- 

 sequently, likely to become rather rusty-looking during late 

 winter and early spring. But the beauty of the young growth 

 fully repays for any previous shabbiness, and it is well worth 

 a place in any conservatory. 



An unusually pretty Fern, and also an uncommon one, is 

 Athyrium Goringianum pictum, a variety introduced from 

 Japan some years ago. It has long pendulous fronds, the 

 stems of which are pinkish or red, and the pinnae on each side 

 of the midrib are variegated with a lighter shade of green, 

 thus making a light stripe down the centre of each leaf. This 

 variety will grow nicely in light loam, if proper attention is 

 paid to the drainage of the pots. The plant is entirely decidu- 

 ous, and should be stored away under a bench when the 

 fronds die down and watered often enough to keep the soil 

 moist. 



Adiantum Capillus-veneris magnificum is one of the best 

 forms of the common Maidenhair, and can be grown into a 

 very pretty specimen, besides having good lasting qualities 

 when used in cut-flower work. This variety has particularly 

 arge pinnae, possibly the largest in the Capillus-veneris sec- 



