June 27, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



205 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY I!V 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT TtlE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 188S. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Hardy Fruit Trees. — The Sermon of the Flowers 205 



Some EryngLums yohii M. Coulter . 206 



Trees and Shrubs tor a Trying Climate y. L, Budd. 2c6 



Alexander Pupcand the Gardener's Art. ...Mrs. SclLuyler ]'a^t Rensselaer. 207 



A Well Planted Village Street (with illusl^tion) 208 



Foreign Correspondence : — Notes on New Orchids W. Goldrhig. 208 



New or Little Known Plants : — Pitcairnia Palmeri (with illustration). 



Sereno Jl'alsoft. 209 



Plant Notes: — Iris Korolkowi Ma.r Leichtlin. 209 



Calypso boiealis. — Pentstemon barbatus — Variations in Viola pedata.. . . 209 



Cultural Uep.ari .\ien't ; — Poppies U'Hliani Falconer. ■210 



Bedding Plants for Spring — Primula oiTicinalis — Spring Beautv 210 



Orchid Notes: — Orchids in Bloom — Cattleya Sanderiana 211 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum y. 212 



The Forest: — Dispersion of Seeds and Plants 213 



Correspondence 214 



Periodical Literature 215 



Notes from the Paris Horticultural Exhibition 215 



Notes 



216 



Flower M.arkei'S : — New York, Philadelphia, Boston 216 



Illustrations : — Main Street, Kingston, Rhode Island 209 



Pitcairnia Palmeri, Fig. 3S 211 



Hardy Fruit Trees. 



IN a recent number of the Gardeners' Chro7iicle, Mr. F. 

 W. Burbidge advocates the introduction of fruits that 

 are hardy in climates lilve that of the Volga region, where 

 Apples, Cherries and Plums have been grown for a thou- 

 sand years. He does not claim that these fruits would 

 necessarily flourish in the moister climate of England, but 

 he argues that if crossed with choice varieties of more 

 tender constitution a new race might be hoped for which 

 would have the fine flavor of one parent and the 

 more vigorous habit of the other. The fruit growers in our 

 north-western States have been experimenting in this direc- 

 tion with trees from tlie great central plain of Europe, 

 where the conditions of climate more nearly resemble their 

 own than do those of western Europe. But aside from this, 

 there is ample encouragement for testing the fruit trees of 

 other countries in the success which has followed the cul- 

 tivation of the Japanese Persimmon and the Peen-to Peach, 

 for example, in our southern States. No one can predict 

 what advantage might be derived from crossing these 

 with native species or garden varieties that are in cultiva- 

 tion here. Our best Raspberries and Grapes have been 

 bred up from native species or by a mixture of native blood 

 with that of introduced kinds. 



The whole subject of improving fruit trees in hardiness 

 by going back to the wild stock, or to forms that have 

 become established by centuries of cultivation, is one that 

 should engage the attention of our experiment stations. 

 The fact that long years of work and study are required 

 before any results are reached is all the more reason for 

 beginning as soon as possible. As to the need of collect- 

 ing and studying wild plants, Mr Burbidge says : 



In fruit growing, as in gaixlening g-enerally, there is no 

 standing still. We must either improve or we shall go back, 

 and the best way to improve om- native fruits will be to cross- 

 breed with new Ijlood in the shape of hardier kinds, from 

 widely separated habitats and different soils. The Asiatic 

 Grapevine did not succeed in America, but by inter-breeding 

 it with native species a race of Grapes better suited to the cli- 



mate has been obtained, and even the French vineyard culti- 

 vators have been glad to procure these American varieties to 

 repair the ravages of the pliylloxera during recent years. 



One of the very fjest undertakings for our Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society to undertake just now would be this task of col- 

 lecting the wild species and cultivated variations of our hardy 

 fruits, other than those now grown in England. It has always 

 seemed to me, and doubtless to others also, a sad waste of 

 time and capital to grow at Chiswick the ordinary kinds of 

 Apples, Plums, Pears, Cherries, Grapes, etc., which are now 

 to be seen in most nurseries and private gardens. The true 

 work and business of a horticulture society is not with the old 

 but with the new, and to be worthy of enlightened support the 

 very fringe of progress must be lifted for us as it was lifted for 

 our predecessors in the days of Lindley and Knight, Fortune, 

 Douglas, Hartweg, and many others one need not name. 



In conclusion, 1 venture to dilTer altogether from those who 

 say that the days of collecting wild plants is passed or played 

 out, and that the hybridizers can now carry on the work, and 

 supply the collector's place to greater advantage. This view 

 is the subtlest of all errors, viz., half a truth. There is room 

 for the collector now as in the past, for the cultivator always, 

 but the hybridist cannot with safety kick down a ladder on 

 which he stands. The hybridizer may give us a few ephe- 

 meral forms of Orchids, Arads, Amaryllids, or florists' flowers, 

 but what can he hope to do with our hardy fruits, vegetables, 

 and grain-yielding grasses, when their wild prototypes are as 

 yet unintroduced to our gardens ? Looking broadly at the 

 question, there is as much room for collectors now— more, in 

 fact — than at any other time. The world of hardy flowers, now 

 so popular, is practically untouched, and as I have said of the 

 hardy fruits of northern Asia, we know practically nothing 

 more tlian the late Karl Koch has told us in his books. 



I believe the appointment by the Royal Horticultural Society 

 of a really good collector, would be one of the most profitable 

 investments the Society could make at the present time. Gar- 

 dening is changing its ground now as it ever has done, and 

 people generally are opening their eyes to the fact that the 

 glass-house culture of a few stove plants or Orchids is a very 

 small part of a great question. Gardening is creeping out 

 into the fields, and every day the demand is greater for tlie 

 best fruits, vegetables and flowers, that will grow in the open 

 air. 



The Sermon of the Flowers. 



IF there are sermons in stones, there are more and 

 clearer ones in the living works of nature. Just at 

 this time of the year, for example, there is a lesson to be 

 learned from the flowers which it would be well for us all 

 to lay to heart and consistently put in pi-actice. This is 

 the lesson of free, persistent and painstaking giving. 



Few persons are so parsimonious with the products of 

 their gardens that they neglect to share them with their 

 friends when chance suggests or some special occasion 

 prompts. Bat, even to their friends, few give as per- 

 sistently or as freely as they might. One is far too apt to 

 think before giving whether his flowers are "good enough," 

 and whether the recipient will "care about them." Such 

 thoughts are as judicious as they are natural when the 

 recipient is equally fortunate with the giver in the matter 

 of gardens and hot-houses ; but it is seldom realized how 

 out of place they are when the friend in question can 

 merely look at flovi'ers over some one else's fence in sum- 

 mer and in winter must buy little bunches at big prices 

 from a florist. Winter or summer even the refuse flowers 

 of a rich man's garden would be gladly welcomed by 

 more of his friends than he ventures to believe. 



But it is not only to friends that nature bids us give — it is 

 to the stranger, the wayfarer, the beggar. Here again it 

 is too often doubted whether the gift would be really val- 

 ued. Out in the country, where nature herself gives even 

 to the poorest, perhaps it would not be. But in the city 

 flowers afe welcomed by every class as no other gitt 

 would be. Men may not always care for them, although 

 almost always they do; but there will be found no excep- 

 tions among women and little children. Let a lady offer 

 the flowers from her belt to the tired shop-girl behind the 

 counter and she will caiTy about with her afterwards a 

 memory of brightened eyes and smiling lips which will 

 more tfian repay her for the sacrilice. Let her walk with 



