6i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 253. 



planted until it gets a good hold on the soil. In Vermont the 

 shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla Iruticosa) is a local plant usually 

 growing on rocky banks and under cold clilTs; it is seldom 

 more than two feet high, and, I believe, never spreads to any 

 extent ; but in some parts o£ north-western Connecticut whole 

 fields are entirely abandoned to this shrub, where it grows 

 most luxuriantly four feet or more in height in an almost 

 impenetrable mass. The conditions for its development there 

 are most favorable, and it spreads both by seed and roots. 

 But who would discard entirely the Virgin's Bower or the Bit- 

 ter-sweet (Celastrus scandens) from cultivation because they 

 occasionally hnd locations so favorable to their increase as to 

 become weeds ? It would be as reasonable to expect seedsmen 

 to discontinue the sale of the Parsnip or Carrot because they 

 sometimes escape from gardens. 17 rr zj 



Charlode, Vt. -f'- -". //. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Public Parks and Gardens in London. — There are 257 

 public parks, gardens and playgrounds in the metropolitan 

 area of London. Of these eighteen of the most important, 

 such as Kew, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Richmond Park, Ep- 

 ping Forest, etc., are maintained by the Crown, that is, out 

 of general taxation, fifteen by the Corporation of London, 

 loS by local authorities, and fifty by associations, the 

 clergy, etc. The remainder are now controlled by the 

 London County Council. Besides such important open 

 spaces as the Thames Embankment, Hampstead Heath 

 and Parliament Hill, the area governed by the County 

 Council includes the large parks of Battersea, Victoria and 

 Finsbury, the whole being about 3,000 acres in extent. 



Efforts are nov\' being made to add considerably to these 

 open spaces, and to place the whole of them, except those 

 controlled by the Crown, under the management of the 

 London County Council. While some of these open spaces 

 are laid down with turf and paths, and planted with trees 

 and shrubs, in the usual gardenesque fashion, others are 

 handed over to football, cricket and similar games. Some 

 are little more than large school-yards, in which children 

 can romp and find healtljiy open-air exercise. There are 

 many influential bodies and individuals who make it their 

 duty to see that these open spaces shall be available for 

 recreation, so that even the poorest children and adults can 

 here enjoy a breath of fresh air. London is well enough 

 supplied with large parks, but she still requires a large 

 number of small gardens and playgrounds, more especially 

 in the crowded districts. Excellent work in this direction 

 is done by the Public Gardens Association, who purchase 

 and lay out available pieces of ground and then hand them 

 over to the care of the local or other authorities. It is im- 

 possible to overestimate the value of this work of providing 

 suitable and convenient recreation and breathing-spaces in 

 all large towns. It is coming to be generally recognized 

 that land should be set apart for such purposes when it can 

 be secured at a cheap rate and wherever there are evi- 

 dences that the population will become crowded. 



The London County Council had under consideration 

 some time ago a proposal to appoint a superintendent of 

 all the parks and open spaces under their control at a 

 salary of ^700 a year. For some reason this fell through, 

 and recently they have appointed a superintendent at ;^500. 

 It is disappointing to horticulturists that the County Coun- 

 cil should have selected for this office a man who has 

 hitherto held the post of assistant architect. In England 

 the architect and the landscape-gardener do not, as a rule, 

 agree in regard to the laying-out of gardens. At the same 

 time we pride ourselves on the high art displayed in 

 the construction of many of our gardens. To make the 

 matter still more surprising, the County Council now ad- 

 vertise for a gardener to act as assistant to the architect at 

 a salary of ..^300 a year. This, remarks the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, "is a triumph for the architects and a humilia- 

 tion to the landscape-gardeners." 



The sudden death of the Duke of Marlborough, at Blen- 

 lieim, a fortnight ago, has resulted in an arrangement for 



the sale, by auction, of the very extensive collection of 

 plants which the late Duke, who was an enthusiastic 

 horticulturist, had formed during the past ten years. Until 

 about two years ago the collection of Orchids at Blenheim 

 was the largest in point of numbers of any private collec- 

 tion in England. Latterly, however, many of the Orchids 

 have been disposed of and replaced by Roses, Carnations, 

 etc. Even now, there remain 25,000 Orchids, beside enor- 

 mous nu.nbers of indoor plants of all kinds. The sale is to 

 take place on the 19th of December and following days. 



Seedlings. — Sir John Lubbock's latest contribution to 

 science is a large work in iwo volumes on seedlings. 

 He states in the preface, "The germination of plants is 

 certainly not the least interesting portion of their life-his- 

 tory, but it has not as yet attracted the attention it de- 

 serves. . . . Under these circumstances, it seemed to me 

 that the subject was very promising, and it was evident 

 that Kew would afford unrivaled opportunities for such an 

 investigation." The vast number of illustrations of seed- 

 lings, and still more numerous descriptions of others, 

 nearly every one of which was prepared from living ex- 

 amples grown at Kew, prove that Sir John has made the 

 most of the opportunities Kew offers for work of this kind. 

 Enormous numbers of plants of every description are an- 

 nually raised from seeds received at Kew, a large propor- 

 tion of which either fail to thrive or are wanting in those 

 characters which would render them suitable for artificial 

 cultivation. Consequently many of the seedlings figured 

 and described in Sir John Lubbock's work are of plants 

 which probably could not be seen anywhere in the seed- 

 ling stage except at Kew. The work has been in progress 

 .since 1885, when a young gardener with an aptitude for 

 drawing was selected from the Kew staff for the work re- 

 quired by Sir John. This book will, no doubt, prove of con- 

 siderable service to botanists of all kinds. It contains 

 illustrations and descriptions of seedlings of nearly all the 

 natural orders, and in many cases of numerous genera in 

 each order, of Phanerogamous plants. 



Cannas. — The important position now occupied by these 

 plants is due to tfie new race of dwarf, large-flowering, 

 richly colored kinds which has been obtained recently, 

 chiefly by Continental grovi^ers. The genus Canna has 

 long held a place among garden-plants, but, except for 

 their foliage, they were not of much decorative value, in 

 England, at any rate. C. iridiflora, generally called C. 

 Ehemanni, was the first large-flowered kind to attract gen- 

 eral attention ; this was about ten years ago. The history 

 of garden Cannas remains to be told. "The Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society has, therefore, been fortunate in securing 

 the services of Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., for this purpose, and 

 he will read a paper on Cannas at a conference of that 

 society to be held next year. Mr. Baker is certain to do 

 the work thoroughly, but, at the same time, it is likely to 

 prove troublesome. There are something like a hundred 

 specifically named Cannas in gardens, and probably these 

 will be rendered down by Mr. Baker to about a dozen 

 good species. The genus is represented in the Old World 

 only by the Indian Shot (C. Indica), and in tropical 

 America by twenty or thirty species. Mr. Baker will be 

 grateful for any specimens or information of any kind re- 

 lating to Cannas, and more especially to the garden kinds. 

 Plants for cultivation and observation at Kew will also be 

 most acceptable. 



I may mention here a new hybrid Canna figured in the 

 Revue Horticole this month, page 540, which was raised by 

 Monsieur Maron from the tall white-flowered C. liliiflora, 

 crossed with one of Monsieur Crozy's large-flowered seed- 

 lings. It is named Madame J. Sallier, in compliment to 

 the wife of Monsieur Sallier, the Paris nurseryman, who 

 holds the stock of this hybrid. It is tall in stature, the 

 flowers are very large, and arranged on the spike not un- 

 like those of Gladiolus Brenchleyensis ; their color is rich 

 crimson, with yellow marks and shading. 



Tacsonia Smythiana. — This is figured and described in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle as a new hybrid which origi- 



