586 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 250. 



be added to the compost. A large amount of water is re- 

 quired when the plant is growing freely. It is a native of 

 China and the East Indies, having been introduced in 1792, and 

 is easily propagated by dividing the roots. 



COMBRETUM PURPUREUM. — Some of the Combretums are 

 pretty generally cultivated in European gardens, and they are 

 very ornamental plants for the warm end of any conservatory. 

 Those m search of plants choice and rare will find much to 

 please them in the best of the Combretums, and they cannot 

 do better than give them a trial. C. purpureum, however, is 

 rarely seen even in the horticultural establishments across the 

 ocean, though it is a plant of decided merit. It is a native of 

 Madagascar, said to be commonlycultivated as an ornamental 

 vine in the Mauritius, and, although introduced from the 

 British colony in 1818, it has never become popular. It is of 

 shrubby character, the free-rambling branches being densely 

 clad with opposite, elliptical or slightly obovate leaves of deep 

 green color, and from five to six inches in length, the petioles 

 short. The flowers are loosely arranged in terminal, tapering 

 panicles from twelve to eighteen inches long, and as many 

 across at the widest part. The spreading, five-parted bright 

 crimson corolla is about half an inch in diameter, and the fila- 

 ments, of similar color, are erect, three-fourths of an inch long, 

 and disposed in brush-like clusters. Our plant bloomed quite 

 freely during the summer months, and is now again on the 

 eve of making another display of flowers but little inferior to 

 the first. It is grown in a pot, the branches trained to wires 

 stretched along the sunniest side of the Palm-house, where 

 they are always fully exposed to light and sunshine. They re- 

 quire a free supply of water in summer, when a thorough 

 drenching with liquid-manure a'bout once a week will also be 

 found beneficial ; but the roots should be kept rather on the 

 dry side at other seasons. Cuttings of firm young vv'ood, in- 

 serted in sand and placed ina close propagating structure, root 

 freely in summer, and established plants should be so pruned 

 and trained in winter that all the following season's growth 

 may have equal access of light. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Correspondence. 



A Spurious Eteagnus longipes. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — What was said in your issue of November 9th about 

 ElcEagnus umbellata clears up a mystery of my own garden. 

 That fascinating description of E. longipes which appeared in 

 Garden and Forest December 12, 18S8, made me long to pos- 

 sess myself of a specimen. When I received my shrub from 

 the dealer it seemed to answer the description fairly well, 

 though not precisely. This year it fruited, but instead of the 

 oblong juicy berries, "half an inch or more long," I got a crop 

 of puckery little fruit no larger than choke-cherries, and much 

 like them in shape. Neither did they ripen in July, but in late 

 October. 



In the light of your recent explanation all is plain. It is clear 

 that the nurserymen have been sending out E. umbellata for 

 E. longipes. As there are quite likely to be other disappointed 

 ones besides Mrs. Dandridge and myself, I think it might be 

 well if the editor would kindly point out- in detail the differ- 

 ences between these two Japanese shrubs. Is E. umbellatus 

 really worth the ground it occupies ? ^t ^ t ■ j 



Marblehead, Mass. N. A. LtJldsey. 



[Elaeagnus longipes was first described by Dr. Asa Gray 

 in 1859 from the botanical collections brought home from 

 japan by the famous Wilkes Expedition. In cultivation at 

 the Arnold Arboretum it is a perfectly hardy bushy shrub, 

 and at six or eight feet in height it appears to be fully de- 

 veloped, although in Japan, where it is often culti- 

 vated for its fruit, it assumes the habit and attains the 

 size of a small tree eighteen to twenty feet in height. 

 The stems and branches are dark gray or dark reddish 

 brown and minutely scaly or dotted, the ripe annual 

 growths being lighter-colored. The leaves are green 

 above, silvery beneath, and noticeably sprinkled with dark- 

 colored dots, more numerous on some leaves than others. 

 They are without teeth, and are variable in shape on dif- 

 ferent plants ; sometimes quite long, and not more than a 

 third as wide, most usually oval or oblong, blunt-pointed 

 and two inches or less in length, or occasionally so broad 

 as to appear almost circular. The flowers are generally 

 pretty fully expanded by the middle of May, and are borne 

 singly or several together in the axil of each lower leaf of 



the new growth of the season. They are yellowish within, 

 but silvery and roughly scurfy on the outside, and often 

 dark-dotted like the under side of the leaves. At blossom- 

 ing time the flower-stalks are hardly half an inch in length, 

 but as the fruit develops the stalks lengthen, until at ma- 

 turity, in early July, they may average about an inch in 

 length, being a good deal thicker nearest the fruit than at 

 the insertion on the branch. The bright red or orange- 

 colored fruit is oval in shape, blunt or slightly flattened at 

 the ends, the skin thin and covered thickly with minute 

 silvery white dots. The juicy and luscious-looking fruit,' 

 though edible and palatable to some people, leaves a disa- 

 greeable taste in the mouth, a quality which has been 

 found even more pronounced in fruit that has been cooked. 



Under the name of Elseagnus longipes some American 

 nurserymen have sold large numbers of an entirely dif- 

 ferent plant, a species of wide distribution in Japan and 

 China and other parts of Asia, and apparently one of the 

 hardiest and the most northerly in its natural habitat. This 

 is known as E. umbellata, under which name it is properly dis- 

 tributed by some of our nurseries. This maybe distinguished 

 from E. longipes by its lighter-colored bark, silvery gray, 

 instead of reddish larown, young branchlets, a larger pro- 

 portion of the branchlets being inclined to become thorns — 

 hence the name, "Silver Thorn," sometimes given. The 

 leaves are of a lighter green color, narrower and more 

 rarely marked by dark dots on the under side than those of 

 E. longipes. The flowers are white on the inner, densely 

 silvery scurfy on the outer side. They are fragrant, and 

 are often produced in clusters like little umbels. The 

 flower-stalks or pedicels are quite short, and when the fruit 

 arrives at maturity the stalks do not average more than a 

 quarter of an inch in length. The fruit itself is usually red 

 or amber-colored, small, round or oval in shape, commonly 

 about a quarter of an inch long, sometimes less, but on 

 some plants as much as three-eighths of an inch in length. 

 It is often much more thickly covered with silvery dots 

 than the fruit of E. longipes, and when fully ripe it has, 

 on some plants, at least, quite an agreeable flavor, which 

 improves the longer it remains on the branches. Some- 

 times it has little flavor or juiciness, and all the fruit for a 

 good while after it has changed color is rather disagreeable 

 and puckery. On different plants it appears to be very 

 variable in time of ripening, and it persists for a long time 

 in a fresh condition. The plant is in good bloom at the 

 Arnold Arboretum about the middle of June, and the fruit 

 may begin to show ripening colors by the middle of 

 August, some plants keeping their fruit until late in No- 

 vember. 



This shrub is larger, more open and straggling and more 

 thorny than E. longipes. E. parvifolia is another name 

 under which E. umbellata is sometimes found. It appears 

 to have been given to a form with the larger, earlier-ripen- 

 ing fruit, but the plant has been found so very variable in 

 different regions that the name of E. parvifolia is now gen- 

 erally regarded as synonymous with E. umbellata. This 

 species will bear clipping and form a good hedge. E. 

 longipes is sometimes to be recognized under the names of 

 E. crispa, E. edulis and E. rotundifolia, given at various 

 times by gardeners. The points of chief difference to be 

 noted in distinguishing these two species of Elaeagnus are 

 the generally dark aspect of the first, as a whole, the other 

 being much lighter and more silvery ; the dark twigs and 

 buds of the first and the usually silvery twigs and buds of 

 the latter ; the marked difference in the time of flowering 

 and ripening of fruit ; the difference in size of the fruit and 

 the remarkable difference in the length of the fruit- 

 stalks. — Ed.] 



Flowers at Wellesley. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — There are just now many interesting things in the 

 greenhouses of H. H. Hunnewell, Esq., besides forced bulbous 

 plants, such as Roman Hyacinths and Narcissi, which are 

 already in full bloom and fragrance. The Cyclamens are full 



