June 13, 



5] 



Garden and Forest. 



185 



ornamental, as it will grow under the drip and shade of trees, 

 and on the poorest soils. 



The Canadian Blueberry ( f '. Canadensis) is a dwarf shrub 

 with lig'ht green wood seldom e.xceeding a foot in height, and 

 resembling V. hennsylvanicuni, but with broader and more 

 downy leaves. The truit is Ijlue-black and ripens later than 

 the common Blueberry. It is not common in the State of 

 Massachusetts, but through Vermont and parts of the British 

 Provinces it is more plentiful and is sent in large quantities to 

 Boston markets after the home supply is exhausted. 



V. iiHginosuin is a low spreading shrub with glaucous foliage 

 and l)lue berries which are edible but not abundant. It is a 

 native of the high New Hampshire Mountains and northward. 

 It is also found in northern Europe and northern Asia. It is 

 growing well at the Arboretum. 



V. caspitosuin is a minute alpine variety not more than one 

 or two inches high. 



The Cowberry, or Mountain Cranberry {V. Vitis-Idced), is of 

 neat habit, resembling miniature Box, but of a darkerand more 

 glossy green. The woody Ijranches springing from under- 

 ground shoots or stolons soon make a solid mass of rich green 

 foliage not more than four or six inches high. The flowers 

 are of a rosy pink, and the berry dark red and acid. They 

 make, with sugar, a rich jelly or sauce for meats or desserts. 

 The plant is found only 

 in one or two localities 

 in Massachusetts, but is 

 more common on high 

 mountains of New 

 Hampshire, and in the 

 Province of New Bruns- 

 wick it covers immense 

 tracts and in the markets 

 of St. Johns I have seen 

 the berries for sale by 

 the barrel. It is also a 

 native of the high 

 mountains of northern 

 Europe, where the fruit 

 is used for jellies. It 

 does fairly well in culti- 

 vation in a peaty moist 

 soil. 



The Common Cran- 

 berry ( V. macrocarpon) 

 is found in large beds 

 on low grounds in al- 

 most every part of New 

 England. It is a prost- 

 rate evergreen creeping 

 along the earth or moss 

 by fine roots. The 

 flower stems are thrown 

 up on slender branches, 

 and are pale red, later 

 becoming variegated. 

 The fruit, usually bright 

 red, is sometimes black. 

 It varies much in size, 



shape and color, is round, pear-shaped or egg-shaped. 

 Many varieties have been selected by the cultivators, some 

 of which are nearly an inch in diameter. The growing 

 of Cranberries has become in many parts of the country a great 

 industry. Hundreds of acres of Cranberry bogs are now in pre- 

 paration at an expense of from $100 to $300 an acre. Even 

 at that price the bogs yield a good profit, often in the third year, 

 as many as five hundred bushels being sometimes gathered 

 from an acre of well prepared land. 



The Small Cranberry ( V. Oxycocacs) is a much smaller plant 

 in leaf, fruit and flower. It is usually foimd in cold bogs. 

 The fruit is used for the same purposes as the other Cranber- 

 ries, but is seldom gathered when V. macrocarpon can be had. 

 It does fairly well in cultivation, but except for botanical pur- 

 poses it has little interest. 



The Erect Cranberry ( V. erythrocarpon) is a tall shrub, 

 with reddish nodding flowers, and large black, very juicy insipid 

 fruit. It comes from the mountains of North Carolina, and 

 south. This shrub is scarcely hardy in the Arboretum. We 

 have also V. Myrtillus, V. Arctostaphylos and V. ligustrifolia. 



Other varieties that we have not yet tried may prove of in- 

 terest, such as Gaylnssacia brachycera, a very rare, dwarf, 

 evergreen species from the mountains of Pennsylvania and 

 Virginia ; Vacciniwn hirsutuin, a small plant from the moun- 

 tains of North Carolina, with neat foliage and dark colored 

 fruit, and several others. 



Arnold Arboretum. Jackson DaWSOH. 



Fig. 34. — ^Amelanchier alnifolia 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Amelanchier alnifolia.* 



TAOUBTLESS hundreds have seen and admired the bloom 

 ^—' of our eastern Shadbush among the bursting foliage of 

 the spring woods to one who has seen and tasted its fruit. 

 For some unexplained reason the flowers of this species, at 

 least in certain sections of the country, are rarely fertile, and in 

 my boyhood the Juneberry, as the fruit of the Shadbush was 

 called, was like a myth to me until a young tree well laden 

 with ripe berries was brought home by a neighbor as a curiosity. 

 The peculiar flavor of the fruit as then experienced lingers yet 

 in memory. With the western representative of the genus, ^. 

 alnifolia, the case is different. It fruits abundantly, and in the 

 region from the Rocky Mountains westward, where the supply ' 

 of Ijerries and fruits is limited to a few Raspberries, Butt'alo- 

 berries, Haws, scarcely edible Currants and the Wild Cherry 

 (of all which the last is really the only one deserving mention), 

 the abundance and excellence of this fruit goes far in its sea- 

 son to make up the deficiency. 



In a note which I find in the Grav Herbarium, written many 

 years ago by the missionary. Rev. Mr. Spalding, it is stated 

 that hundreds of bushels of these berries were dried every 



year for food by the In- 

 dians of the Clear Water 

 region m Idaho. 



This shrub, which is 

 here figured, grows to 

 a height of 6 or 8 feet, 

 with an erect somewhat 

 tree-like habit and dark 

 green foliage. The 

 leaves are rather thick 

 and vary much in form, 

 but are generally 

 r o u n d e d or broadly 

 elliptical, mostly very 

 obtuse, or truncate, or 

 even refuse, and coarse- 

 ly toothed usually only 

 near the summit. The 

 flowers are usually large 

 and showy, in short 

 racemes, and the dark 

 purple fruit is 3 or 4 

 lines in diameter, with 

 few seeds. It is found 

 in the mountains 

 throughout the West, at 

 wide extremes of alti- 

 tude, from British 

 America to California, 

 Utah and Colorado, and 

 from the Pacific to the 

 Rockv Mountains, Min- 

 nesota, and Lake Win- 

 nipeg. S. IV. 



THIS n 

 PL. 



Plant Notes. 



Selaginella Pringlei, Baker. 



e\v rosulate Selaginella (Nos. 271 and 886 of 

 Mex., wrongly referred to 3". cuspidala. Spring.) 

 is abundant with 6". leptophylla in gravelly soil of dry cal- 

 careous bluffs and ledges of the barer mountain ranges of 

 Chihuahua. It is as much a "resurrection plant" as is its 

 associate, which, indigenous along our south-western 

 border, has been often described and is well known. As the 

 atmosphere and soil become dry, these plants take the 

 form of a ball by the curling inward over their centre of 

 their frond-like stems. Then the canon sides present an 

 unsightly and desolate appearance as though strewn with 

 dead rubbish ; but an evening shower suffices to transform 

 them into lovely banks, thi''ckly spread with the green 

 mats of these plants, circular in outline and of e.xquisite 

 design. The new species is very distinct from its well- 

 known congener, being of a lighter green, and having softer 



^A ALNIFOLIA, Niitt. in Journ. Philad. Acad., vii. 33. Glabrous or often more or 

 less pubescent : leaves broadlv elliptical or rounded, obtuse at both ends or rare y 

 acute, often somewhat cordate, coarsely toothed usually only toward the summit j 

 racemes short and rather dense ; petals an inch long or less, namnvly oblong ; fruit 

 purple. 



