December 21, 1S92.] 



Garden and Forest. 



609 



air was filled with the perfume of more than three thousand 

 blooms of large size and perfect form. It is not, however, a 

 very prolitable variety to grow, owing to the large number of 

 side buds. In a white variety this is not so serious a fault, as 

 many short stems are used in bouquet and other work. 



Striped, or flaked. Carnations are not popular, owing to the 

 prevailing fashion of arranging colors separately ; for this pur- 

 pose, distinct and telling self-colors are preferable, but when 

 a mixed cluster is desired a few bizarres contrast beautifully 

 with the others. Mary Fisher is a lovely violet striped on yel- 

 low ground. Paxton is one of the best crimson striped on 

 white ground. 



Raising seedling Carnations is a fascinating pastime, if not 

 very profitable. As with Chrysanthemums, there is no cer- 

 tainty that the results desired by making a certain cross will be 

 reached. The general opinion is that the tree, or peroetual 

 blooming, varieties have been evolved from the border kinds. 

 But several years ago, when raising border kinds only from 

 seed, I found among them very many true Perpetuals. 

 Raisers here say that seedling Perpetuals often run back to the 

 border kinds, and it is only by very careful selection the ever- 

 blooming standard is maintained. And afterward, in order to 

 perpetuate the variety true to character, it is necessary to select 

 cuttings only from the flowering stems, a fact not duly con- 

 sidered by introducers of new varieties. 



Wellesley, Mass T. D. H. 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Gardens. 



PLEROM.'i MACRANTHA. — One occasionally meets with this 

 excellent plant in good condition throughout the country, but 

 it is in general neglected. It is a free-growing shrub, branch- 

 ing abundantly, and may be grown to neat bush specimens or 

 trained on a light-colored wall with equal effect. The opposite, 

 ovate leaves are from three to four inches long, rich green on 

 the upper surface, much paler underneath, and densely pu- 

 bescent, as are the young branches. The flowers are borne 

 singly on the upper portion of the shoots, and they are from 

 four to five inches in diameter and of a rich blue-purpIe shade. 

 The color, so rich and uncommon among our greenhouse- 

 flowers, gives these flowers great value ; and were it not for their 

 brief duration of but two or three days, this plant would 

 rank among the most useful of those cultivated under glass. 

 The flowers, however, are produced so plentifully and in sucli 

 quick succession in autumn and winter that their fugacious- 

 ness can be partly overlooked. Young plants only a few 

 inches in height bloom quite as profusely in proportion to 

 their size as larger ones, and, therefore, several of them are 

 desirable in decorative collections. A few of them dotted 

 here and there in a group of foliage or other flowering plants 

 add a distinct richness of appearance, and since they can be 

 grown with little trouble, it is astonishing that the plant is not 

 more generally used. It was introduced in 1864 from Brazil, 

 and with us thrives best in an intermediate temperature, with 

 all the air and light possible in summer, without exposure to 

 strong sunshine. The growth is made in the warm season, 

 and at that time the plant'needs plenty of water ; but the supply 

 must be gradually shortened as the ifowers appear, and a very 

 small quantity will suffice in winter. Plants intended for bush 

 specimens may be sparingly pruned into shape at the termi- 

 nation of the flowering season, and repotted in spring. Cut- 

 tings of the young wood rooted in early spring will make neat 

 flowering plants the following autumn. Lasiandra is a syn- 

 onym of Pleroma, and often used in connection with this 

 species. 



Urceolina pendula. — This rare and lovely stove bulbous 

 plant is now in bloom. The bulbs, as we find them in gardens, 

 are roundish, and from two to three inches in diameter. Each 

 bulb develops two, sometimes three, dark green oblong leaves 

 about twelve inches in length. The drooping flowers are borne 

 in large panicles at the apex of an erect scape from twelve to 

 eighteen inches high, the filiform peduncles measuring an 

 inch in length. They are urn-shaped, and the conspicuous 

 portion is about two inches long by half an inch diameter, a 

 rich golden-yellow for two-thirds of its length, the divisions 

 being deep green, margined with white, at the spreading ex- 

 tremity. The leaves disappear when they have completed 

 their work, thus leaving the plant wholly destitute of foliage, 

 when the flowers develop a few weeks later. The bulbs should 

 be turned out of the pots before they commence to grow in 

 spring, and, after carefully removing the exhausted earth from 

 about them, replaced collectively in large pots, or singly in 

 small ones, keeping the summit of each on a level with the 

 surface of the soil. They must now be placed in the stove 

 and kept dry until growth begins, when water may be given 



freely until the leaves have attained their full size and show 

 signs of changing color. The supply of water should be gradu- 

 ally diminished as the leaves turn from green to yellow, and 

 little or none will be necessary afterward. After flowering, the 

 plants may be placed on a dry shelf in an intermediate tem- 

 perature, and kept there untd the following spring. U. pendula 

 is propagated from seeds and offsets. Some English nursery- 

 men, Messrs. W. Clibran & Son, of Altrincham, have recently 

 been successful in obtaining a hybrid between this plant and 

 Eucharis grandiflora. The new plant is figured in the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle of August 20th last under the name of Urceo- 

 charis Clibrani, where it was described as interesting and 

 beautiful, with flowers in character curiously intermediate be- 

 tween those of the two parents. 



Plumbago rosea has been known to cultivators since 1777. 

 It bears dark red flowers, but is not so decorative as 

 its variety Coccinea, obtained by the Messrs. Veitch, from the 

 Niigiri Hills in 1863. The latter plant, now in full bloom at this 

 place, was very popular for winter decoration some years ago, 

 but it seems to be greatly neglected now. It is a compact, 

 evergreen shrub, from three to four feet high, the branches 

 clad with alternate, oblong-ovate, bright green leaves, measur- 

 ing from six to eight inches in length. The flowers are almost 

 sessile, and borne in graceful terminal panicles from twelve to 

 twenty-four inches long. The slender tube of the flower, 

 emerging from a short calyx, is nearly an inch and a half long, 

 and the spreading limb of five or six obovate parts, rather more 

 than an inch across. The color is much brighter than that of 

 the species, and the flowers themselves are produced in far 

 greater profusion. The plant is constantly in bloom during 

 the winter months, and it requires a stove or intermediate 

 temperature. It is easily propagated by cuttings. Old plants 

 should be invariably potted in spring, and a week or so before 

 they should be primed to within two or three joints of the 

 old wood. They like a humid atmospliere when growing 

 freely, but a trifle less heat and moisture will be beneficial later. 

 A position close to the glass will always help secure their best 

 development, and a little shading is necessary in summer, al- 

 though the flowers take on a deeper and stronger color under 

 full light and sunshine in winter. 



Cambridge, Mass. . M. Barker. 



The Forest. 



The White Pine for Timber. 



FEW questions in practical forestry have greater interest 

 than those which relate to the best methods of grow- 

 ing the White Pine. Mr. Edmund Hersey has lately pre- 

 pared an instructive paper on the general subject, which 

 has been issued as a bulletin by the Bussey Institute. We 

 publish this paper below, together with some notes which 

 Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry at 

 Washington, has prepared at our suggestion. We should 

 be glad if other correspondents would give their views, 

 since a full discussion of every phase of the subject is 

 desirable. 



As a timber-tree the White Pine possesses more good quali- 

 ties than any other tree that is a native of Massachusetts. 

 It is easy to grow it from the seed or transplant it when 

 young ; it will grow on a light sandy soil or on a peat- 

 meadow ; (i) on an ordinary soil the growth is quite rapid, 

 making m thirty-five years from the seed a tree large enough 

 to be sawed with profit into box-boards or coarse lumber; 

 it makes lumber that can be used to advantage for a great va- 

 riety of purposes. 



When a Pine-forest is to be grown from the seed, an effort 

 should be made to secure seed that is new and taken from the 

 cone but a few days before the time it is wanted for planting. (2) 



The cones containing the seeds begin to grow in June, and 

 when of the size of the end of one's finger they stop growing 

 until the following year, when, during the summer, they grow 

 to full size, and perfect their seeds early in September ; the 

 first frost severe enough to kill Squash-vines opens the cones 

 and the seeds drop out ; (3) they are about the size of a Parsnip- 

 seed, are very light in weight, and, having a little wing on them, 

 they float along through the air in a slightly downward direc- 

 tion, reaching -the ground sometimes twenty rods from the 

 parent tree, but more frequently not more than from one to 

 five rods. Soon after reaching the earth the little wing sepa- 

 rates from the seed, and if the seed is to germinate it becomes 

 partially or wholly covered with earth by a heavy rain, or by 

 the pressure of the foot of a passing animal, or the falling 



