190 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 



western Asia, and has been cultivated for centuries for its 

 fruit. A plant of the America Red Currant {Rilics ruhrum) is a 

 lieautiful object in flower. It is not considered distinct from 

 the garden Currant of Europe, although the veins of the leaves 

 are wliite beneath, wliicli led Michaux to apply to the Ameri- 

 can plant the name albincrvuin, and the yellow-g-reen flowers 

 are larger and more conspicuous than those of tlie European 

 Currant. The stems are straggling or reclined and three to five 

 feet long. The wild Red Currant is an inhabitant of cold bogs 

 and woods from northern New Hampshire and far northward. 

 Ribcs Jioriifian, the w'Wd Black Currant of our northern woods, 

 is in bloom also, and resembles the Black Currant of gardens. 

 It is a slirub three to five feet high, with heart-shaped, lobed, 

 resinously dotted leaves, drooping racemes of large and hand- 

 some greenish or white flowers, and black berries with the 

 smell and flavor of those of the garden plant. These two wild 

 American Currants probably will not be often found in those 

 gardens where plants of merely botanical interest are not cul- 

 tivated. 



TheCorchorus {Kerria yaponica), with its bright vellow and 

 very doul:>le flowers, is almost invariably found in old coimtry 

 gardens in the Northern Spates, but this plant in its natural 

 state with single flowers, each with five petals and numerous 

 stamens, is still rare. It is, however, a far handsomer and 

 more desirable plant. The Kerria is a shrub five or six feet 

 high, with slender, virgate, flexuous stems, and ovate-lanceo- 

 late, longly acuminate, doubly serrate, deciduous leaves, 

 rounded or subcordate at the base, and solitary flowers ter- 

 minal on short lateral branches (in the single form wide 

 spreading, an inch and a half across) and appearing' with the 

 leaves. The fruit has probably never been produced in this 

 country, and according to Von Siebold it rarely ripens in Japan, 

 where the plant is everywhere cultivated, and now widely dis- 

 tributed ill a semi-wild state. It is found in the mountainous 

 regions of central China, and like the Ginkgo and several other 

 plants, for many years known to Europeans from Ja]ian only, 

 it is probably a native of that country. In central China the 

 fruit is reported to be "yellow and good to eat like a Rasp- 

 lierry," the Chinese name indicating that it produces an edible 

 berry. The single and the double flowered forms are beauti- 

 fully figured in Siebold and Zuccarini's "Flora Japonica," t. 98. 



Daphne Geiikwa is another Chinese plant long cultivated in 

 Japan, and first made known by Von Siebold, who found it in 

 Japanese gardens and described and figiu'ed it in the "Flora 

 Japonica," t. 75. The Genkwa is a handsome and interesting 

 shrub with spreading tortuous branches covered at this season 

 of the year with sessile lateral fascicles of two to seven hand- 

 some, tubular, lilac-blue, precocious flowers about an inch long, 

 the tube, like the ovary, densely coated on the outside with 

 silky hairs and quite smooth within. The leaves, which 

 appear sometimes later than the flowers, are opposite, mem- 

 branaceous, short petioled, about an inch long and cpiite entire. 

 The Genkwa is very generally cultivated in japan, both on ac- 

 count of the beauty of its flowers as an ornamental plant, and 

 for the flowers and bark, which are believed to possess valuable 

 medicinal properties and are frequently used and highly es- 

 teemed by the Japanese. Daphne Genkwa is not very hardy 

 here, and like nearly all the other species of the genus in. the 

 collection, requires in winter a slight protection of evergreen 

 branches. 



Daphne Cneorum, a trailing evergreen shrub of central and 

 southern Europe, with tough, wiry stems, smooth, lanceolate, 

 glabrous leaves, and terminal clusters of bright pink, deliciously 

 fragrant flowers, is now in bloom. It is a free blooming plant, 

 l)Ut not very hardy nor safisfactory in this climate. Sometimes 

 it grows well for a number of years, forming wide, handsome 

 mats, and then, in a winter apparently not more severe than 

 those which have preceded, it dies, or is seriously injured. In 

 some exposures and situations it appears to do best when un- 

 protected in winter, in others a covering of evergreen branches 

 appears beneficial. It is well worth all the care and attention 

 necessary to secure its free growth and al)undant flowers. 



Two Spiraeas in addition to the two mentioned in the last 

 issue of these notes are now in bloom, Spira-a media an<\ S. hy- 

 perlclfolia. The former is a tall, erect shrub with rovmd 

 branches, flowering after the leaves have attained their full 

 size. They are elliptical, acute and obtuse, entire or some- 

 times deeply serrate at the end, three or four ribbed, smooth 

 above, hairy on the lower side and on the margins. The 

 handsome, many flowered corymbs terminal on lateral, leafy 

 branches of the year are produced in great profusion, for a 

 distance of two or more feet along the ends of the main 

 branches. Spircia media, which is often confounded in gardens 

 with S. chemadryfolla, which has square branches and smaller 

 and more generally serrate leaves, is one of the best of the 



early flowering Spirseas here, of its section. It is very hardy, 

 grows rapidly in all soils and it can be transplanted with the 

 greatest ease. It is found in Hungary and southern Russia, 

 and through Siberia to Kamscliatka and Mongolia. Splrcea 

 liypcrlclfolla, known sometimes in gardens as Italian May, 

 or St. Peter's Wreath, is a tall slnub with long, slender, 

 flexuous, round branches, snrall, wedge-oblong leaves, entire 

 or slightly crenate or lobed at the end, and small white or 

 cream-colored flowers in nearly sessile lateral umbels, terminal 

 on very short leafy Ijranches. A variable species, of which 

 several forms are distinguished, it is found from western 

 Europe through Siberia to Mongolia. 



May 25th. • J- 



The Forest. 

 Forest Trees for California. 



IN the second numlier of Garden and Forest I mentioned 

 the "English " Oak ((?. Rohur jxedunculata') as a prom- 

 ising timber tree for California. The facts thus far gathered 

 concerning^ this rather unexpected adaptation are these : 

 The acorns of this Oak (from a tree iii New England) 

 were first planted on the experimental grounds of the 

 University in 1879, with a number of species of eastern 

 Oaks, which were increased in succeeding 3'ears. All of 

 these, however, were found to be of exceedingly slow 

 growth, showing little or no inclination to utilize the 

 long growing season of California. After two j^ears' 

 growth none of the American Oaks had attained a greater 

 height than eighteen inches, the average being from eight 

 to ten only. Of the European Oak seedlings, none 

 measured less than twenty inches, and a number were 

 three feet in height, with strong branches. Attention 

 having thus been called to the possible importance of 

 this tree for California, several importations of acorns 

 were made subsequently, and these, with seedlings a 

 year old, were distributed for trial to numerous locali- 

 ties in the State, 



Unfortunately, but few of these seem to have found 

 favorable conditions for their prosperity, from causes suf- 

 ficiently apparent from the experience had upon the 

 University grounds themselves. It was found, first, that 

 the acorns were extremely attractive to all sorts of dep- 

 redators, including blue jays, rats, gophers {Thomoviys 

 uiiibi inns) and ground squirrels (Spernioplillus/ossor), and 

 that, therefore, but a small percentage of the acorns sent 

 out ever germinated. Those that did germinate, how- 

 ever, were reported to be growing thriftily and rapidly. 

 I-Iow long the)^ continued to do so, will have depended 

 largely upon the protection afforded them from cattle, 

 which seem to be as fond of the foliage as the other 

 animals mentioned are of the acorns ; moreover, the 

 ground squirrel and gopher delight in gnawing the roots 

 and trunks as well. But few of the trees escaped muti- 

 lation from one or the other cause, and even the one 

 which is the best representative of the stock grown by 

 the University experiment station, now beginning its 

 seventh year, lost fully one season's growth, being weak- 

 ened by removal and having been bitten off by a horse. It 

 thus shows properly the result of five years' growth only. It 

 is now sixteen feet high, with a trunk six inches in diameter 

 a foot from the ground, and separating at three feet into 

 three branches, forms a spreading top, fourteen feet across. 

 The tree has now set an abundant crop of acorns, and a 

 seat is made around it, the occupants of which will 

 be fully shaded during the warm hours of the da)'. 



A Black Oak (Q. linctvria) of the same age and grown 

 without any interruption, is a bush scarcely six feet 

 high and having as yet no aspirations to become a tree. 

 Its growth is about the best among the eastern Oaks. 



Two species of Hickory (Carya porcina and C.lomcntosa), 

 also contemporaries, have as yet hardly risen above four 

 feet, and, like many eastern trees, show their aversion 

 to the climate by sending up suckers from the base as 

 soon as the shoots of the previous year have made a 

 growth of a few feet. 



