520 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 245. 



The situation is simply tliis : tlie nortli-west must have an un- 

 usually hardy class of fruits, and any type of fruit which will 

 grow there should be encouraged. The Russian is simply one 

 of these types, the Siberian and native Crabs being others. 

 But, inasmuch as the Russian type is the most highly devel- 

 oped of them, it follows that quick results are to be expected 

 from it. If the Russian Apples and the Crabs are more or less 

 adapted to the north-west, 1 feel sure that American seedlings 

 of them will be still better adapted to those conditions, as a 

 whole, and this must be the opinion of many of the fruit- 

 growers of the north-west, else the talk about promising seed- 

 lings of Duchess and other families is meaningless. Already 

 the McIVIahan, Wolf River, Pewaukee, North-western Greening 

 and others are great blessings to the north-west. I look for the 

 time when the present imported fruits and Crabs will be su- 

 perseded by their own progeny in the same way that the lists 

 of Coxe and other early writers have been supplanted. Already 

 the tide has set in which shall submerge them. I therefore 

 regard the Russian importations as of immeasurable benefit 

 to our horticulture, but I look upon them as a means rather 

 than as an end. The history of our horticulture everywhere 

 emphasizes the probability of a secondary and more important 

 outcome. 



The conclusion of the whole matter, as it now lies in my 

 mmd, is this : American fruits constantly tend to diverge from 

 the foreign types, which were their parents, and they are, as a 

 rule, better adapted to our environments than foreign varieties 

 are. In less than a century we have departed widely from the 

 imported varieties which gave us a start. At the expiration of 

 another century we should stand upon a basis vvrhich is nearly, 

 if not wholly, American. 



Hard Times in West Virginia. 



RETURNING to Rose Brake, after an absence of nearly two 

 months, the home-grounds were found parched and 

 browned by the worst drought ever known here. All vegeta- 

 tion was languishing, the foliage of the trees shriveled and 

 scorched, the color of the leaves dull and faded. Even the 

 Virginia Creeper, which in October waves its scarlet drapery 

 from the trunks and tops of the tallest trees, was a sober 

 brownish crimson. 



Coming from the hills and mountains about the Delavifare 

 Water Gap, where timely showers had kept the grass fresh 

 and luxuriant, and where the trees were already beginning to 

 glow with autumnal color, we found the desolation in the valley 

 of Virginia all the more apparent by contrast. In the home- 

 grounds the evergreens had suffered the most, and many had 

 perished outright. A good watering followed by heavy mulch- 

 ing has, in past summers, tided many nurslings over a parch- 

 ing drought ; but this year, with dry cisterns and the absence 

 of the care-taker, such treatment was impracticable. Few de- 

 ciduous trees or shrubs have succumbed to the heat, but 

 nearly all fall-blooming plants have found it hard enough to 

 hold their own without flowering, and few blossoms cheered the 

 garden-beds. The sunny bloom of the brave Marigolds and 

 Corchoruses nodded a welcome to the visitor, but the Hy- 

 drangea-heads had withered on their stems, and the Japanese 

 Anemones were nearly dead. 



A few berries ornament the bushes here and there, and the 

 Witch Hazel has put out its yellow fringes amid shriveled 

 leaves. A plant sent to me as Eteagnus long-ipes, and de- 

 scribed as a "shrub or small tree that ripens its berries in 

 July," is now covered with fruit, both green and red, and has 

 capriciously waited for frost before commencing to ripen. 

 The berries have a pleasantly acid and slightly mucilaginous 

 taste. We have not yet tried them as a substitute for cran- 

 berry-sauce, for which purpose they have been recommended. 

 They are so pretty on the tree, densely scattered along the 

 limbs, and so quaintly marked with fine gray dots over the 

 surface of lucent green or red, that it seems a pity to pick 

 them for any purpose. The birds trouble them very little, 

 perhaps because birds do not care to try food-experiments ; 

 but I fear that when they discover their delicious qualities they 

 will leave very few for us. [The plant is not Ela;agnus 

 longipes. — Ed.] 



Thunberg's Barberry has turned crimson, and the berries 

 are a brilliant scarlet. Some Thorn-trees are a vivid mass of 

 fruit, and Cotoneasters are covered with balls, wdiich look like 

 tiny apples, yellow and red. 



In one part of the grove we have planted trees and shrubs 

 with a special view to their fall aspect, and these we are now 

 watching with special interest. Here are Enkianthus Japonica, 

 Parrottia Persica, and a few other rarities, which are at their 



best in October ; also a fine young Scarlet Oak, Scarlet and 

 Sugar Maples, Sour Gums, Kolreuteria, Liquid Amber, Su- 

 machs, Virgilia, and many shrubs. Of this group, only the 

 Sour Gums have been as brilliant as usual. 



Our pretty little Erica carnea, which is planted in a hollow, 

 is as fresh-looking as it was in May, and has bloomed steadily 

 since the end of June without watering. The same may be 

 said of Abelia rupestris, a most beautiful and interesting little 

 evergreen. Aster oblongifolius, still covered with buds, has 

 begun to expand its large blue ray-Mowers. This is one of 

 the handsomest of Asters, and withstands drought as well as 

 Portulacas do ; hundreds are blooming, undeterred by frosty 

 nights. 

 Rose Brake, w. Va. Diinske Danclridge. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Aster surculosus. 



NEARLY related to Aster spectabilis, one of the most 

 beautiful of the low large-flowered Asters of the coast- 

 region of the northern Atlantic states and now sometimes 

 found in the choicest collections of hardy plants, Aster sur- 

 culosus replaces that species at the south, where it is found 

 near the sea, growing in sandy soil from southern New Jer- 

 sey to Georgia, and also on the Blue Ridge of North and 

 South Carolina, where it abounds, and where it was first 

 noticed a century ago by the French botanist Michaux. 



Aster surculosus sends up low stems twelve to eighteen 

 inches tall from long filiform root-stalks ; they are covered 

 with rigid, nearly entire leaves, which near the ground are 

 oblong-lanceolate, and are linear above. The flower-heads 

 are large and showy, with puberulous involucres and beau- 

 tiful bright violet rays. 



Our illustration (seepage 521), which appears to be the 

 first ever published of this handsome plant, was made by 

 Mr. Faxon from a specimen grovi'n in the Botanic Garden 

 of Harvard College. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Asters in English Gardens. — Thepopularity of the genus 

 Aster in England, and especially of that section of it known 

 as Michaelmas Daisies, has had considerable development 

 in recent years. Some difficulty has, however, been expe- 

 rienced by those interested in these plants owing to their 

 names being almost hopelessly mixed, what was known 

 by one name in one place being called by one or several 

 different names elsewhere. The Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety set itself the task three years ago of remedying this 

 by gathering together for cultivation in their gardens at 

 Chiswick all the shrubby Asters in cultivation. They then 

 appointed experts to study these, and, if possible, reduce 

 their names to order. This has been accomplished, or 

 nearly so. Mr. Devi-ar, of Kew, was one of the appointed 

 experts, and at a recent meeting of the Society he read a 

 paper on the Asters, in which the views of himself and his 

 co-workers are embodied. 



In America you probably know a great deal more about 

 Asters than is known here. At the same time, as a consid- 

 erable number of improved varieties and supposed hybrids 

 have originated in cultivation here, you will probably be 

 interested in a resume of Mr. Devi'ar's paper. 



The Chiswick collection of Asters is now the largest and 

 best-known in England. The supposed hybrids and gar- 

 den-forms are planted side by side with the typical species, 

 supplied from the Kew and Harvard collections. Professor 

 Asa Gray was puzzled by the forms of American Asters 

 grown in England, although, of course, he was thoroughly 

 acquainted with the types. It is supposed that by a pro- 

 cess of selection and cultivation extending over a long pe- 

 riod in England the characters of some at least of the 

 American wild plants have been more or less modified. 

 The greater number of our Michaelmas Daisies are from 

 species found wild in the eastern United States, few of 

 those found in the west being in cultivation here. 



