June 20, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



201 



undergrowth among other shrubs, or trees. It is very hardy, 

 and easily cultivated. 



The Ground Cherry {Primus Chamcecerasus), with its small, 

 glossy, coriaceous leaves, and small, abundant white flowers 

 covering at this season of the year the long, slender branches, is 

 a familiar object in many old-fashioned gardens in the United 

 States, where it is generally seen grafted on a tall stem of the 

 common Cherry tree, and forming a small and rather formal 

 weeping tree. It is more attractive, perhaps, when grown nat- 

 urally and on its own roots. It then becomes a graceful, low- 

 branching bush, two or three feet high, gradually spreading 

 over a considerable space. The Ground Cherry remains in 

 bloom for a long time, and is perfectly hardy. A native of 

 central and northern Europe and Russian Asia, it has been 

 cultivated in gardens during more than three centuries. 

 Primus avium, the European Bird Cherry, the JSIerisier of 

 the French, is in flower ten or twelve days later than the com- 

 mon Cherry tree {P. Cerasus). It is a handsome small tree, with 

 ascending branches, coarsely toothed, soft leaves appearing 

 with the large flowers, which are produced two or three together 

 in sessile umbels, from lateral, scaly, leafless buds, and oval or 

 ovate, dark red or black fruit. It is the origin of the Black Maz- 

 zard, the Black Heart and other garden cherries. A variety 

 with double flowers, known since the days of Tournefort, 

 should find a place in every collection of ornamental trees. 

 The pure white, semi-double flowers are produced like those 

 of the species with the leaves ; they are composed of 

 about 40 petals, thirty stamens and of an abnormally developed 

 green abortive pistil. This is a smaller tree than the species, 

 although equally hardy. It is sometimes known as Primus 

 ranunculijlora and as P. avium multiplex. 



Some of the early flowering Hawthorns are in bloom. Of 

 these the earliest and the handsomest is Crata-giis subvillosa, 

 a form, perhaps, of the exceedingly polymorphous C. coccinea, 

 but, for garden purposes at least, suificiently distinct to be con- 

 sidered a species. It is the largest of the Thorns growing 

 spontaneously in the northern States, and one of the largest 

 and most widely distributed of the American species, being- 

 found from eastern Massachusetts to Missouri and through the 

 south-western States to the Sierra Madre Mountains of north- 

 eastern Mexico. It is more common and better characterized 

 west of the Mississippi River than in the eastern States, attain- 

 ing, like several other species of this genus, its greatest size and 

 beauty in the country adjacent to the Red River. Crataegus 

 subvillosa is a round-headed tree, twenty to thirty feet high, 

 with a stout short trunk, covered with light gray, scaly 

 bark, rigid, smooth branches armed with long, stout, chest- 

 nut-brown spines. The leaves and broad foliaceous sti- 

 pules are larger than on any other American Thorn; they are 

 thin, glandular, especially on the petioles, roundish-ovate, cor- 

 date, wedge-shaped or truncate at the base, incised, and very 

 sharply serrate, scabrous above, the lower surface, as well as 

 the young branches, peduncles and caly.x, densely tomentose. 

 The flowers, in broad, flat corymbs, are produced in profusion; 

 they are an inch or more across when expanded, pure white, 

 the disk often bright scarlet. This species is, perhaps, more 

 beautiful in the late summer than at this season of the year. 

 Then it is loaded with large, bright, scarlet fruit, which is often 

 more than an inchin diamater, and which is covered with a con- 

 spicuous bloom. The fruit of this species is the largest and 

 by far the most showy produced by any of the Thorns which 

 are hardy here. Unfortunately, it falls as soon as ripe, and 

 long before the foliage takes on its brilliant autumn coloring. 

 Cratagus subvillosa requires deep, rich soil in which to de- 

 velop its greatest beauty. No other Thorn is more hardy 

 here, or grows more rapidly into a handsome, shapely tree. 

 Cratcegus Douglasii is also in flower. This is the Thorn of the 

 north-west coast, where, in the neighborhood of streams, it 

 sometimes attains a height of thirty or forty feet. It is a hand- 

 some, round-headed tree here, worthy of a place in any collec- 

 tion, and interesting, too, in the fact that it is one of the very 

 tew ligneous plants peculiar to the coast region of Oregon and 

 Washington Territory that is perfectly hardy in New England. 

 It has stout, rigid branches, armed with short, stout, russet- 

 brown spines, ovate, cuneate, coriaceous leaves one or two 

 inches long, and small corymbs of white flowers a quarter to 

 a third of an inch across, followed by small, black, edible fruit, 

 which ripens here in August and soon drops. 



Among foreign Thorns, Cratcegus sanguinea and C. nigra 

 are in bloom. The former is a widely distributed species 

 through Siberia, Mongolia, northern China and Manchuria. 

 It is well characterized by its broad, glandular stipules, shin- 

 ing, chestnut-brown, unarmed branches, smootli, purplish 

 young shoots, and by the dark green, broadly-ovate leaves, 

 wedge-shaped at the base, cut-toothed, and quite glabrous. 



except in its axils of the primary veins. The flowers are 

 white with purple stamens, two-thirds of an inch across when 

 expanded, and followed during the summer by small, purple, 

 or sometimes red fruit. This is a very hardy species, which 

 becomes here a small tree, ten or fifteen feet high, well worth 

 cultivating for its early flowers and handsome dark green 

 foliage. It is the Cratagus purpurea ol Loudon's Arboretum, 

 ii. 823; and is well figured in Pallas' "Flora Rossica,' t. 11. 

 Cratagus nigra, a native of Hungary, is here a hardy and 

 fast growing tree. It has pale green leaves, sinuately fobed, 

 sharply serrate, broadly wedge-shaped or truncate at the base, 

 and covered on the under side, like the young shoots, 

 petioles, peduncles and calyx, with a thick white tomentum. 

 The rather large creamy white flowers are followed by hand- 

 some black fruit, which hangs upon the brandies until the 

 late autumn. 



The Tartarean Honeysuckle needs only to be mentioned 

 here, that attention may be directed to the fact that it is one of 

 the very hardiest of all shrubs, which might be more often 

 grown than it is at present, in the extreme northern parts of 

 this country. There are many fine varieties in the Arboretum 

 collection with flowers ranging in color from pure white 

 through pink and rose to red. The handsomest. are from St. 

 Petersburg, where a great deal of attention has, in late years, 

 been gi\'en to the improvement of this shrub. Lonicera 

 Ruprcchtiana is a very hardy bush Honeysuckle, a native of 

 Manchuria, which here forms a handsome, erect shrub, six or 

 eight feet high by as much through, and which in its native 

 country, according toMaximowicz, its discoverer, is sometimes 

 a small tree 20 feet in height. It has ashy-gray branches, pale, 

 ovate, blunt or acuminate, entire leaves, an inch or an inch and 

 a half long, with prominent I'eticulate veins, slightly downy on 

 the under side. The flowers, which have no perfume, are 

 pi'oduced in great profusion. They are white at first, but 

 soon turn light yellow or straw color, long peduncled, the 

 slender tube of the corolla an eighth of an inch long and 

 scarcely half the leng"th of the narrow divisions of the limb. 

 The beauty of the fruit of this species excels that of any Honey- 

 suckle in the collection. It is a third of an inch in diameter, 

 bright scarlet and almost transparent, remaining a long time 

 on the liranches. Lonicera Ruprechtiana is one of the most 

 desirable of the perfectly hardy shrubs of recent introduction, 

 and is well worth cultivating for the beauty of the fruit alone. 



The Wayfaring-tree {Viburnum Lantana) is the earliest Vi- 

 burnum in flower m the collection, although the Moosewood 

 {V. lanianoidcs), a far handsomer plant, but the most diffi- 

 cult, perhaps, of all the American shrubs to establish in the 

 garden, has been blooming in the cold, damp woods of the 

 north for nearly tv.'o weeks. Viburnum Lantana is a stout, 

 tall, much-branched shrub, very common through central and 

 southern Europe, and perfectly hardy in this climate. It 

 bears ovate, sharply serrate leaves, three or four inches long, 

 cordate at the base, soft and velvety on the upper side, densely 

 covered, as well as the young shoots, with white, mealy down. 

 The small, white flowers in dense cymes, two or three inches 

 across, are followed by handsome, purple-black, oblong fruit. 



Two exotic species of Ainelanchier are in bloom several 

 days after the native species have shed their petals, A. vulgaris 

 and A. Asiatica. The former is a dwarf shrub or more rarely 

 a small tree, with roundish-oval leaves downy on the lower 

 side, long petals and blue-black edible fruit. It is a native 

 of the mountainous regions of central Europe. A. Asiatica 

 is a small, graceful tree here, with long, slender branches 

 with smooth, gray bark, ovate-elliptical, acute leaves densely 

 covered, when young, with white wool, and compound ra- 

 cemes of handsome, pure white flowers. The fruit has not 

 yet been produced here. This very hardy and desirable plant 

 was found by Von Siebold in Japan, where it is very com- 

 monly cultivated in gardens and in the neighliorhood of Tem- 

 ples, although probably a native of northern or central 

 China. It is well figured in the "Plora Japonica," t. 42. 



Staphylea trifolia, the eastern-American representative of 

 the Bladder-nuts, is in flower. The drooping, raceme-like 

 clusters of white, bell-shaped flowers are very pretty ; but as an 

 ornamental shrub for the garden it is in every way inferior to 

 5. /2««(r/(r, a native of southern Europe, with bolder foliage, 

 and larger clusters of pure white, fragrant flowers. This is one 

 of the handsomest of the European shrubs which can be cul- 

 tivated here successfully ; and it should find a place in every 

 garden. It is recommended as a good subject for forcing in 

 winter. The Japanese 5. Bumalda is very hardy, 1 lut the foliage 

 is small and the flowers are much less conspicuous than those 

 of the eastern American or of the European species, and it 

 will not be often cultivated except as a curiosity. The very 

 handsome and exceedingly rare species of northern California 



