May 30, 1S8S.] 



Garden and Forest. 



163 



deep before covering- at all, then aim to keep it frozen till 

 February or March. So long as the ground is frozen we need 

 not uncover or ventilate in winter. 



Apart from blooming them in frames, we can use them ef- 

 fectively in out-door gardens. As soon as the frost is out of 

 the ground lift the plants from the frames and plant them out 

 in beds, borders or elsewhere in the garden in the same way 

 as Crown Anemones, Forget-me-nots, Daisies and Pansies, and 

 they grow and bloom beautifuilv. In this way they are 

 extensively used in the Boston gardens. 



William Fakoncr. 



Viola cucuUata. — We all admire the common blue Violets, 

 so vigorous and abundant in bloom in moist meadows and 

 rich woods in April and May, but it should be more generally 

 known that they are e.^cellent garden plants. They live and 

 thrive in garden borders year after year, and that too in open 

 sunny places, cjuite unliivc the situations in which we usually 

 find the wild plants. And like most otlier wild plants that 

 enjoy a place in the garden, where they bloom more abundantly 

 and form larger plants than in the meadow or wood. Besides 

 the many shades of blue we find in this Violet, we have forms 

 with pure white flowers and otliers variegated with white, 

 and the two last are the favorites in gardens. In the woods 

 and meadows hereabout, and between here and Oyster Bay, 

 the variegated varieties are found in the greatest abundance, 

 and the markings differ in almost every plant, indeed among 

 these wild plants are more beautifully variegated forms than 

 are ever seen in cultivation. Among the wild j.ilants, too, are 

 a great variety of cut-leaved forms, but these, for garden 

 purposes, are less desirable than are the simple leaved ones. 

 We have these Violets in full bloom now in our garden 

 borders, and they are lovely companions of Siberian Colum- 

 bine, Moss Pink, Virginia Lungwort, Golden Alyssum i^A. 

 sa.xatile), Siberian Corydalis (C. nohilis) and other beautiful 

 seasonable flowers. If amateurs will now go into the meadows 

 and dig up some clumps of these Violets, plant them in their 

 gardens, and give them abundance of water for a month to 

 come, they will soon be established and take care of them- 

 selves, and next spring repay this kindness with a profusion 

 of blossoms. In digging up wild plants dig deep, ami secure 

 as many roots as possible ; the mat of sod around the neck 

 of the plants is only grass roots, the Violet roots go deeper 

 than these. Never let them wilt between digging and 

 planting. W. F. 



Tulipa Kaufmanniana is another of the fine Tulips discov- 

 ered by Dr. Albert Kegel in central Asia. It is a native of the 

 mountains which rise above the valley of the river Tschirtschik 

 and has lately been introduced into cultivation tlirough the St. 

 Petersburg Garden. It is allied to T. Gcsneriana, and like that 

 species is variable in the color of the flower, which ranges 

 from difterent shades of red and yellow to white. In the form 

 which Dr. Kegel considers the type and has named alho- 

 variegata, the segments of the flower area bright rosy carmine 

 on the outside, delicately streaked with white on their interior 

 face, the claw brightly flushed with orange yellow within and 

 less conspicuously marked with the same color on the outside, 

 this marking on the outside of the outer series being reduced 

 to a pale straw colored blotch. The leaves are oblong-lanceo- 

 late, five or six inches long by an inch broad, smooth and glau- 

 cous. The stem is about one foot high, and bears a single 

 flower, an inch and a half to two inches long. It springs from 

 a small ovoid bulb an inch in diameter, with brown mem- 

 branous tunics slightly pubescent on the inside. Tulipa 

 Kaufmanniana, var. albo-variegata, is a handsome and very 

 hardy and desirable garden plant, flowering among the very 

 earliest of the Tulips. It demands no special cultivation or 

 care, and increases rapidly. C. 



Boston. 



Cereus grandiflorus. — We have a large p>lant of this grand 

 species growing in a rose-house, where it blooms lavishly 

 every year, usually in May. In the event of bright warm 

 weather the flowers open about sundown, but in the case of 

 dull weather it is generally dark lief ore they expand. Accord- 

 ing to the weather and the condition of the buds we can tell, 

 a day or two ahead, the night when the flowers will open, 

 and acting on this, can in the forenoon cut off the buds, which 

 if left uncut would bloom that night, and send them to our 

 friends. These buds will open and exhale their delicious fra- 

 grance nearly as well as they would if they had been left on 

 the plant. The flower buds before they open have no fra- 

 grance ; after opening, while they are somewhat fragrant all 

 the time, their powerful odor is so intermittent — that is, it 

 comes in puffs, as it were. F. 



Rose Princess Beatrice. — I consider this new Tea Rose among 

 the most charming of all Koses, and finer blooms could not be 

 grown in the heiglit of summer than those now seen here. 

 The form of the flower is excjuisite, the petals broad and of 

 thick substance, and recurved in the same jjleasing way as in 

 La France. The color of outer petals is pale primrose, which 

 towards the centre deepens into a warm apricot. The scent is 

 strong and the foliage broad, of a luxuriant deep green, which 

 contrasts with the ruddy-tinged twigs and leaf stalks. It is 

 evidently first-rate for forcing into early bloom. I call it new 

 because it is not much grown yet, though Mr. Bennett, who 

 raised it, obtained a first-class certificate for it from the R. H. S. 

 in June, 1883. 



Odontoglossum Harryanum. — Tliere is quite a flutter among 

 the orchidists about London in regard to this new Orchid since 

 it has been rumored that some extraordinary varieties have 

 been flowered, and others are likely to crop up. Mr. 

 Harry Veitch has in flower a wonderful variety received from 

 one of his correspondents. It measured nearly four inches 

 from top of dorsal sepal to tip of labellum. The broad petals 

 and sepals were of a peculiar shade of olive green and bronze, 

 while the broad labellum was pure white, adorned with blotches 

 and pencilings of a bright carmine. It is a long time since I 

 saw an Orchid that captivated me by its beauty so much as this 

 flower, and I know no other Orchid to compare with it. 



W. G. 



The Rock Garden in Spring. 



THE handsomest flower in the Rock Garden this week is 

 the Turkestan Tulipa Greigi, one of the most showy of 

 all the Tulips. It is a dwarf species, bearing four glaucous- 

 green leaves, of which the two lower are oblong-acute, five or 

 six inches long by two and a half wide, the two upper narrowly 

 lanceolate. They are conspicuously marked on the upper 

 side with numerous oblong and linear bright chestnut-brown 

 blotches, and are untlulated on the margins. The stout, 

 downy tlower-stem is rarely more than two or three inches 

 high. It bears a single campanulate flower, three to four 

 inches deep, the segments spreading abruptly above the mid- 

 dle when fully expanded. The upper portion of the segments 

 are bright crimson within, the lower third occupied by a large 

 black blotch, surrounded by a distinct yellow border. This 

 splendid plant, although apparently perfectly hardy, is a failure 

 here in cultivation. Imported bullis flower finely the first year 

 after planting, but then gradually diminish and finally disap- 

 pear. It is possible that they might give better results if they 

 ■were lifted and replanted every year. Much more satisfactory, 

 although a less showy jjlant, is Tulipa Oculis-solis, a native of 

 Southern Europe, and for centuries known in gardens. It has 

 three or four light glaucous leaves, a rather tall flower-stem 

 and verv handsome campanulate flowers, with acute, deep- 

 scarlet-colored segments, two to three inches long, and, like 

 those of T. Greigi, conspicuously marked on the inner side 

 with a large black blotch surrounded with a yellow margin. 

 This is one of the most beautiful of the perfecfly hardy Tulips 

 which can be grown here. 



Several Fritillarias are now in flower. The Guinea-hen 

 flower {F. Melfag>-is), a widely distributed European plant from 

 Great Britain and Norway to the Caucasus, with large, pendu- 

 lous, bell-shaped solitary flowers, checkered with dark purple, 

 and borne on slender leafy stems a foot high, is an excellent 

 and very hardy plant here, although now too rarely seen ex- 

 cept in very old-fashioned gardens. It is a useful plant, too, 

 for naturalizing along wood-walks and in other wild parts of 

 the garden. There is a variety with dull-white flowers. 



A handsome and very distinct hardy species is Frilillaria pal- 

 lidiflora, introduced a few years ago from southern Siberia. 

 It has large pale yellow, nodding, campanulate flowers con- 

 spicuously marked on the inside of the segments with small 

 purple spots, and numerous glaucous-ljlue, lanceolate leaves. 

 It is a vigorous and valuable plant, eight to ten inches high, 

 and is now blooming in the same spot where it has stood un- 

 disturbed during the last five or six years. Every one who has 

 ever been in a garden knows the stately old Crown Imperial 

 {Frilillaria imperialis), with its whorl of red-brown, drooping 

 flowers at the top of the tall leafy stems. It is a native of Per- 

 sia, and has been cultivated in gardens during nearly three 

 centuries. There is a variety (var. lutea), however, with clear 

 vellow flowers which is rarely seen, in this country at least, al- 

 though far more beautiful than the old-fashioned variety. It 

 deserves more attention than it has received here. 



The Summer Snowflake {Leucoium cestivum) is in bloom. 

 It is a very hardy bulbous plant, a native of central and 



