40 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 21, 1888. 



Native trees of sub-tropical species, sucli as the Black Man- 

 grove {ATtceiinia nitida) and the Rubl:>er Tree {Ficiis aiirea), 

 some of tliem fifty years old, were killed, proving the excep- 

 tional severity of the weather. North of latitude 30' on the At- 

 lantic side of the peninsula, and 29° on the Gulf side, neglected 

 and unprotected Orange groves were badly damaged, while 

 some even on the northern border of the State were scarcely 

 injured, except by loss of foliage, which began to put out again 

 in IVIarch. 



This event, occurring at the beginning of the tourist season, 

 and when southern California had just become accessible to 

 tourists, proved disastrous to Florida in its immediate effects ; 

 yet looking toward the ultimate welfare of the State, it must 

 result beneficially. The Orange has shown itself to be much 

 hardier than was supposed. Attention has been turned from 

 sub-tropical fruits, and in seeking for substitutes many hardy 

 fruits have been brought into notice, which will add greatly to 

 the people's comforts and sources of income. Faith in the 

 one-crop system has given place to desire for greater variety. 

 The people have been led to inquii-e and experiment, and by 

 this means have come to know that the orange belt, as well as 

 the cotton belt of the State, is adapted to a great variety of 

 profitable and attractive industries. That some progress has 

 been made in the way of fruit-growing will be shown in an- 

 other letter. 



Jacksonville, Fla. A. H. LurtlSS. 



A Disease of Certain Japanese Shrubs. 



JAPANESE shrubs form, as every horticulturalist knows, 

 conspicuous ornaments of modern gardens, and are in 

 many cases to be regarded as indispensable. All that concerns 

 them is, therefore, of interest, and details of the experience 

 even of a single amateur may not be without interest. In my 

 own garden at Newport, R. I., the exposure is to^vards the east, 

 and tlie distance from the sea-beach about one-eighth of a 

 mile. The soil is light, but fairly good, with underlying clay. 

 The prevailing wind during the greater part of the year is from 

 the south-west. The average winter temperature is higher 

 than 20" F. Lower temperatures are not very frequent, but 

 temperatures as low as 0°, or even lower, do occur, though 

 not for more than one or two days at a time, and not more 

 frequently than once or twice in the course of a winter. The 

 spring is always very cold and late — a fact which was noted by 

 Bishop Berkeley during his residence on the island in 1728-34. 

 For a number of years I have observed that spring arrives at 

 Cambridge, Mass., nearly a fortnig-ht earlier than at this place. 

 Warni days in April are very C)ften followed by very cold 

 nights. The cool and delightful summer is followed by a long, 

 very cool autuinn, not favorable to the perfect ripening of 

 bulbs. 



I have for some years cultivated Japanese and Chinese 

 shrubs with an especial predilection, and have noted the 

 following curious fact in regard to a number belonging to dif- 

 ferent natural orders : Some time in July or August the tips 

 of the new shoots begin to look sickly, then wither, turn brown 

 and finally die down to the root, leaving a number of other 

 branches in a healthy condition. This I have observed in 

 Rosa rugosa,CercisJaponica, Acer polyjnorpliiim and varieties, 

 Exocliorda grandiflora and Staphyha Buinahia. I have not 

 been able to detect the presence of any insect, and have found 

 no remedy, except the heroic one of cutting out all affected 

 branches. As a rule the root remains sound and sends up new 

 shoots during' the ensuing spring. Exocliorda grandiflora has 

 suffered most and for several successive seasons. The disease 

 showed itself for the first time in the summer of 1886 in an old 

 and very large group of Rosa rugosa, and again during the 

 past summer in some mvich younger plants. Cercis Japonica 

 is not liardy here, but is killed to the ground every spring. The 

 new shoots invariably begin to die clown in July. Viburtiuin 

 plication is not affected, and 1 have not observed the disease 

 in Ainpelopsis Veifcliii or in Cercidiphylluin Japoniciun, 

 Rhodotypiis Kcrrioides, Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, 

 Actinidia polygama, Akebia quinata or in Eleagniis longipes, 

 which last summer bore a prodigious crop of an agreeable 

 acid fruit. I have already stated that on this island very warm 

 days in April are often followed by very cold nights. Two 

 years since beautiful hedges of Lonicera HalUana were killed, 

 root and branch, by alternate heat and cold in April, while 

 Lonicera Japonica and Lonicera brachypoda aureo-reticitlata 

 also suffered severely, although in a less degree. It may prove 

 that the disease which I have observed is also due to alter- 

 nations of heat and cold, and perhaps that it is analogous to the 

 frozen sap-blight which aflects the pear. 



Newpoi-i. R. 1. Wolcott Gibbs. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



The Kew Arboretum. 



THE living collection of trees and shrubs in the open 

 air at Kew is by far the most extensive of any in 

 Europe. It is intended in these notes to give an account 

 of the most remarkable specimens of this famous arbore- 

 tum, but it seems first of all desirable to give a sketch of 

 its history, so that some idea can be formed of the way in 

 which, from a small beginning, Kew has attained its 

 present importance. About the middle of the seventeenth 

 century Kew — and tliis short, familiar name I shall use to 

 designate the Botanic Gardens and Y\.rboretum — belonged 

 to a gentleman named R. Bennett, whose daughter and 

 heiress married Lord Capel, who died Lord Deputy of Ire- 

 land in 1696. Lord Capel in reality was the first to begin 

 the formation of a botanical collection by importing rare 

 trees and shrubs from France. It was not, however, until 

 a long lease of Kew had been obtained from the Capel 

 family by the Prince of Wales that much was done in alter- 

 ing and laying out the grounds. The mother of George 

 III., Augusta, the Princess Dowager of Wales, some years 

 after the deaihof her husband, resided at Kew, and decided 

 to make a botanic garden. In this work, which she took 

 great pleasure in personally superintending, she received 

 much assistance from the Earl of Bute, a liberal patron of 

 men of genius, both in literature and in the arts, but proba- 

 bly the most unpopular English minister of modern times. 

 It may be worth mentioning here that Lord Bute's favorite 

 study was botany, and that he published a quarto work in 

 nine volumes, entitled "Botanical Tables," a whim which 

 it is said cost him ;^io,ooo ; only twelve copies were 

 printed. 



In 1759 William Alton, a pupil of the celebrated Philip 

 Miller, the friend and contemporary of Linnseus, was 

 placed in charge' of the gardens. Alton laid out and 

 planted as an Arboretnfn, according to the LiniiEEan sys- 

 tem, a piece of ground about five acres in extent. Many 

 of the finest foreign trees were contributed in 1763 from 

 his garden at Whitton by Archibald, Duke of Argyle, sur- 

 named by Horace Walpole, the Tree-mon-ger. The follow- 

 ing testimonial to the ability and character of this nobleman 

 is given by Peter Collinson (the friend and contemporary 

 of Linnaeus), a famous old gardener, who was the first to 

 introduce to cultivation in Britain, through his friends Bar- 

 tram, Catesby, and others, a host of North American trees, 

 shrubs and plants : "The Duke of Argyle, on the 15th of 

 "April, 1 76 1, died as he sat in his chair, my honored friend 

 " and great patron of all planters, aged 79, a very hearty 

 "man of that age. In the year 1723-4 he took in a part of 

 " Hounslow Heath, to add to a little farm, and began plant- 

 ' ' ing by raising all sorts of trees and shrubs from seeds from 

 "our northern colonies and all other parts of the world ; he 

 " had the largest collection in England, and happily lived to 

 ' ' see to what a surprising maturity they had arrived in thirty- 

 " seven or thirty-eight years. Great was his benevolence, 

 " for he gave to every one to encourage planting, and raised 

 ' ' plants on purpose to oblige the curious at this seat of his, 

 " called Whitton. He had a fine collection of rare birds and 

 "beasts ; he was a great chemist, natural philosopher, me- 

 " chanic, astronomer and mathematician. He was a won- 

 " derfully amiable man, plain in his dress, without pride or 

 " vain ostentation ; his library was scarcely to be equaled. 

 " He was 41 years old when he began to sow seeds for his 

 ' ' plantations. " Several of the trees presented to Kew by the 

 Duke of Argyle are still flourishing in their original posi- 

 tions, and a detailed account of some of them will be given 

 by and by. 



It would be a waste of time to give minute details re- 

 specting Kew and its fortunes between the periods men- 

 tioned above and 1841, although there is not the slightest 

 intention to underrate the services of the second Aiton, nor 

 of his able colleague, Mr. John Smith, A.L.S., who is still 

 hale and hearty, and takes a lively interest in all matters 



