200 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 20, iS 



early the first season into nui-sery rows, and then they can be 

 transplanted again in the autumn into the rockery or herl^a- 

 ceous border, where they will bloom the next spring. Few 

 plants better repay this trouljle. 



TJieriiiopsis fabacca is a hardy Siberian perennial Pea, with 

 pale foliage, and tall, erect racemes of large, clear.yellow flow- 

 ers, which is just now in all its beauty. It spreads rapidly 

 from underground shoots and is almost too rampant in its 

 growth for tlie rockery, and is better suited to a large herba- 

 ceous border, wliere, if left undisturbed, it will soon spread 

 over a consideraljle area. 



Tiarella ior<nfolia, known as the false Mitre-wort from its 

 resemblance to its near relative the Mitella, is now a beautiful 

 object in the shady parts of the rockery, where it is well estab- 

 lished and thoroughly at home. It is a member of the Sa.\i- 

 frage Family, with heart-shaped, hairy leaves sharply lobed 

 and toothed, and a solitary, slender, leafless scape a foot high, 

 liearing a simple raceme of small, pure white flowers. The 

 False Mitre-wort is found in cold, northern woods and on the 

 Alleghany Mountains. 



The small, yellow Lady's Slipper {CypripcJiuvi parvifloi-wn) 

 is in flower. It is a pretty species, much smaller in all its 

 parts than C. piibescens mentioned last week in these notes, 

 rarely growing more than a foot high. It has a bright yellow 

 lip flattened aljove and darker brown sepals and petals. The 

 flowers are fragrant. It is a not infrequent inhabitant of 

 northern bogs and wet woods. 



Clintonia horealis is a stemless, perennial plant of the Lily 

 Family, wliich recalls to the lovers of nature the name of De 

 Witt Clinton. It is now in flower in a shady corner of the 

 rock garden. The flowers are greenish yellow, half an inch 

 long, with reflexed segments, and are produced in a few-flow- 

 ered umbel, upon a low, slender, naked scape sheathed at the 

 base by the stalks of the large, oblong leaves. The blue, 

 oblong berries which ripen in August are very ornamental. 

 This pretty plant inhabits northern woods, and is found also in 

 those which cover the Alleghany Mountains; it is easily trans- 

 planted into the garden, when, if in a shady position and deep, 

 rich soil are provided, it soon becomes thoroughly estalilislied. 



Ixiolirion Tartaricmn, var. bracliyantJicrum, is a variety of 

 the well known /. Tartaricum, a native of central Asia, and a 

 member of the Amaryllis Family. It is a very hardy bulbous 

 plant of easy culture, with narrow, grass-like leaves,' trumpet- 

 shaped, deep blue flowers, with reflexed segments, two inches 

 in diameter when expanded, and borne in a loose terminal 

 umbel, upon a scape twelve or eigliteen inches high. 



The latest Tulip in bloom is the dwarf T. Biebcrsiciuiana, 

 grown in some foreign nurseries as 7! Persica. It is a native 

 of soutliern Russia, the Caucasus and Persia, extending as far 

 east as Turkestan. The flowers are an inch and a half deep, 

 bright clear yellow, with acute segments, the tlu-ee oute ones 

 being somewhat broader than the others and fluslied with pale 

 green on tlie outside. The yellow stamens are bearded at tlie 

 base. The scape rarely exceeds six inches in height, bearing 

 below the middle two or three narrow, pale, glaucous, chan- 

 neled leaves. This is a very attractive little plant which should 

 find a place in every collection of hardy bulbs. 



Smihxcinia bifolia, or, as it is sometimes called, the Wild 

 Lily-of-the-Valley, is a common northern plant with creeping 

 root-stalks, often forming wide carpets, especially on rather 

 dry knolls occupied by the White Pine and by the Oaks. It is 

 a dwarf plant, three or four inches high, with two or rarely 

 three heart-shaped clasping leaves, and short, single racemes 

 of small, pure white flowers. It is easily cultivated and admir- 

 able for carpeting the shady parts of a rock garden, or to 

 plant under shrulSs and other taller growing plants. 



Solomon's Seal {Polygonatum Diultifloriiin) once was often 

 found in American gardens, whereat this season of the year it 

 was a conspicuous and beautiful object. Now this handsome 

 plant is so rarely seen here that it seems entirely unknown to 

 people of this generation. Solomon's Seal has stout stems 

 two feet or more in height, inclined to one side, alternate, 

 ovate leaves, with pendulous, tul>ular, white flowers tipped 

 with green, in axillary clusters. It is a Ijold and striking plant, 

 well adapted for naturalization along the borders of sln-ub- 

 beries or wood-walks, where, if planted in deep rich soil, 

 it soon makes broad clumps. Polygonatum niultijloriim is 

 widely distributed tln-ough central Europe and Russian Asia. 



Few persons realize the beauty of ourconmion wild Maiden- 

 hair Fern {Adiantium pedatiiin) in cultivation, or know what 

 a useful plant it is for a shaded rock garden, where it soon 

 spreads and throws up a profusion of its graceful fronds. It 

 bears exposure to the sun, too, and is an excellent pot plant 

 for the summer decoration of rooms or piazzas. 



Boston, May 3otli. Q. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



Pniiiiis yaii/7uwito?iiii\s flowering here for the second year. 

 It is a common plant in the drier regions of the north-west 

 Himalaya from the province of Garvv'hal northward into Thibet 

 and westward to Afghanistan, and is found at elevations vary- 

 ing from 6,000 to 12,000 feet. Primus yacqueinontii is a shrub, 

 which in the native country is said to attain a height of from 

 six to ten feet, with long, slender, unarmed, divaricate 

 branches, covered with pale gray bark. The leaves are 

 two to two and one-half inches long, ovate or ovate-lanceo- 

 late, acute, sharply serrate, pubescent when yoimg, on the 

 mid-rib and primary veins, short petioled and destitute of 

 glands. Tlie flowers appear just before the leaves; they are 

 solitary or often in pairs; very short pediceled, and quite 

 cover the branches for several feet of their lengtli. The tubu- 

 lar cylindrical calyx is about a quarter of an inch long, 

 smooth, glaljrous and striated, and twice the length of the 

 acute lobes, which are hairy on the inside. The overlapping 

 petals are bright pink, nearly circular, and about a quarter of an 

 inch across. The ovoid ovary is cjuite glabrous, and is con- 

 tracted into a long, narrow style. Primus Jacquemontii has 

 not produced fruit here yet; it is described as " globose, as large 

 as the finger nail, red, juicy; stone nearly globose, a quarter 

 to one-third of an inch in diameter, quite smooth." There is 

 every prospect that this exceedmgly interesting little Cherry 

 will prove perfectly hardy in this climate, and that it will be- 

 come a garden ornament of verv considerable value. Dr. 

 Aitchison, of the late Afghan Boundary Commission, who de- 

 tected this plant in the Kuram valley and first introduced it into 

 cultivation, in speaking of it says : "When the fruit is ripe 

 and the plant is covered with it, which is usually the case, it 

 forms a very pretty ol.iject in the landscape. It would be 

 worth cultivating for ornamental purposes."* 



The Dwarf Cherry of northern China {Prujius huiiiilis) is in 

 bloom. It is a low, delicate shrub, scarcely exceeding two 

 feet in height, with virgate branches densely covered with 

 puljescence during their first year, small, elliptical or obovate 

 douljly serrate leaves, which are pubescent when young and 

 small, pink or nearly white flowers, solitary or two or three 

 together, and followed by small, edible, acidulous red fruit, 

 rarely exceeding a third of an inch in diameter. It is a pretty 

 little species, but less hardy and less valualjle from a garden 

 point of view than the closely allied Primus yaponica, with 

 which it has often l_ieen confounded, but which may be 

 distinguished from it by its glabrous branches, ovate-lanceo- 

 late, long pointed, simply serrate, reticvflate-veined leaves, 

 and by its rather larger, deeper colored flowers. The double- 

 flowered, white and rose-colored varieties of Primus yapon- 

 ica ai'e not surpassed in beauty by any of the dwarf shrubs 

 in the collection now in bloom; they are very hardy and 

 are often seen in gardens. As these varieties of Primus 

 yaponica appear in garden catalogues under a variety of 

 names, it may be an assistance to cultivators to add that to 

 this species belong the plants grown vmder the names of 

 Primus glandulosa, Thimb.; P. Sinensis, Pers. ; P. Cliinensis, 

 Blume, and Amygdalus piimila, Sims. Primus yaponica is a 

 native of Manchuria and northern China as well as of Japan, 

 where it is genei-ally cultivated both in its single and 

 double forms. 



Primus niaritima, the Beach Plum, is a handsome plant 

 when in flower, and one which is too seldom seen in gardens. 

 It is a common coast-plant, from Maine to Virginia, often 

 covering sandy dunes adjacent to sea-beaches. It is a low 

 compact shrub, rarely more than three or four feet high, 

 which is now covered with small white flowers, which in the 

 late summer are followed by a profusion of handsome globu- 

 lar purple or scarlet fruit, which is collected in large quantities 

 at some points on the Ne\v England coast and sold in the mar- 

 kets for preserving. Tliis plant, although only found growing 

 naturally in light sandy gravel, flourishes and flowers profusely 

 when transferred to the garden. The little Wild Cherry [Pru- 

 nus puiuila) of the northern United States blooms here a few 

 days earlier than the Beach Plum. The common eastern 

 form is a low slirub, rarely reaching a height of two feet ; but 

 western plants sent to the Arboretum from the shores of Lake 

 Michigan, near Chicago, have tall virgate, erect branches, six 

 to eight feet high. This variety flowers nearly ten days later 

 than the eastern plants, and reproduces itself from seed. The 

 small white flowers, two or three together, are produced in 

 the greatest profusion. The fruit is hardly larger than a pea, 

 bright red and destitute of flavor. The Dwarf Wild Cherry is 

 found on dry, rocky or gravelly banks or hill-sides, and is an 

 excellent subject for planting in waste places, or for an 



* jLiiir. Linn. Soc.^ xviii. 51. 



