July 4, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



225 



flowers. Ranunculiflora was in bloom ten days earlier than 

 any of these ; it is a form no doubt of P. officinalis, with rosy 

 red, not very large nor distinct flowers. I do not pretend to 

 vouch for these names, which are those under which the plants 

 were imported from Europe. 



The showiest herbaceous plant just now in flower in the gar- 

 dens in this neighborhood is a very fine variety of the Cau- 

 casian Poppy {Papa-L'cr bractcatuin), raised several years ago 

 by iVIr. Francis Parkman, in which the flowers are large — 

 seven or eight inches across, deep blood-red, and handsomely 

 marked on tlie inside of the petals with a dark purple-black 

 eye. It is a very hardy plant, which, when once fairly estab- 

 lished, spreads into a Ijroad mass, from which the stout, naked 

 scapes rise to a height of two to three feet. This Poppy rarely 

 produces seeds ; and is propagated by root cuttings, taken in 

 the summer, before the plants begin their second or autumn 

 growth. Tlie young plants are best grown in pots, until they 

 have attained considerable size, and then, as they transplant 

 badly, they should be planted without disturbing the roots 

 where they are to remain permanently. 



Vi)icitoxicwii acuiiiinatutn is a Japanese plant, with twining 

 stems two or three feet long, softly pubescent, long green 

 leaves, and loose axillary, long-stalked clusters of pure white 

 star-shaped flowers, which it continues to produce during sev- 

 eral months. It is rather an interesting addition to the list of 

 hardy summer-flowering perennials. 



Gilhnia trifoliata, the Bowman's Root of southern woods, 

 is an excellent plant in the herbaceous border, where it makes 

 a wide, graceful mass of slender red stems, two or three feet 

 high, covered with light, three-lobed leaves, antl many pretty 

 white-petaled flowers in loose panicles from the ends of the 

 branches. 



Allium c(cj-uleitin, a Russian species, is a good border or 

 rock-garden plant, with showy, compact heads of bright blue 

 flowers, which, individually, are not large. It is perfectly 

 hardy, and well worth cultivating for the peculiar color of the 

 flowers. Another Onion (y^/Z/ZwOT Jlfolv),a native of southern 

 Europe, and a very old garden favorite, still holds its own 

 among all the more recent introductions of this family. A 

 mass of this plant, when the bright yellow flowers, which ap- 

 pear in compact, umbels above the broad leaves, are open, is 

 always a pleasant sight, which year after year will be renewed 

 without care or trouble. 



Vancojivcria liexandra is a low herb, belonging to the Bar- 

 berry family, and a native of the North-west coast, where it 

 inhabits the moist, shady Coniferous forests. It takes kindly 

 to cultivation here, and has now spread over a considerable 

 space among the rocks in the shadiest part of the rock-garden, 

 where now it is throwing up in great profusion its tall, naked, 

 slender flower scapes. They are often two feet high, and bear 

 near the summit a number of small, white, nodding flowers on 

 long, slender, filiform, drooping pedicles. The thin, pale 

 green leaves are composed of two or three stalked, obtusely- 

 lobed leaflets, which possess in tliemselves no little beauty. 



But tlie handsomest flower in the garden, and one of the 

 handsomest of which the North American flora can boast, is the 

 great red and white Lady's Slipper {Cypripediuni spectabile). It 

 is not a rare plant at all in Northern bogs, and one of the easiest 

 of all the terrestrial Orchids to cultivate, either in the open 

 border or in a pot, but no other Cypripedium can compare 

 with it in beauty, and it quite puts to shame all the high-priced 

 tropical species and the innumerable and never-ending gar- 

 den hybrids wnich Orchid-growers now produce so easily. 

 Cypi-ipedium spectabile is a downy plant, with leafy stems, a 

 couple of feet high, bearing one or several pure white flowers, 

 with an inflated, prominent, rosy-purple lip. There is not a 

 garden which cannot be made more attractive by bringing into 

 it this charming plant. 

 Boston, June 20th. C, 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



'T'HE Rocky Mountain Raspberry (A'?/ (^;^j deliciosjis), although 

 ■■-_ one of the first of the central and southern Rocky Moun- 

 tain plants known to botanists, having been discovered in 1820 

 by Dr. James, the surgeon of Long's expedition, has only been 

 in cultivation a few years, comparatively, and is still very little 

 known in gardens. It is one of the haridsomest and hardiest 

 of the early summer-blooming shrubs. Like the well known 

 Rubus odoratus 2ct\6. R. Ni/ikanus, ithas simpleleaves and large 

 flowers. R. deliciosus has erect, arching, graceful stems four 

 or five feet high, covered with light brown or gray striated bark. 

 The bright green leaves are borne on slender red petioles one 

 and a half or two inches long. They are two inches or more 

 in diameter, reniform-orbicular, rugose, three to five lobed, 



sharply serrate, tomentose pubescent when young like the 

 calyx and the young shoots, which are also red. The erect, 

 few, generally one-flowered peduncles, are long and slender. 

 The flowers, when expanded, are nearly two inches across, and 

 pure white. Tliey resemble miniature Cherokee Roses, and 

 present a charming appearance when they cover the arching 

 branches of tlie plant. The fruit is small, composed of three 

 or four dry, tasteless carpels ; and the delicious flavor, to 

 which the plant owes its name, was developed doubtless in the 

 imagination of the hungry Ijotanist who discovered it. This 

 plant may be easily raised from seed, which is produced here, 

 but not very abundantly, or by cuttings ; it is perfectly hardy, 

 and will thrive in any exposure and in any good soil. Stronger 

 shoots and better flowering wood are ol">tained by cutting out 

 the old stems after they have finished flowering, thus stimu- 

 lating the growth of vigorous young wood. 



Tlie Nine-Bark (Physocarpus, or, as it is more generally 

 known, Spircea opulifolia) is a familiar plant in the gardens 

 and along the borders of woods and streams in the Northern 

 States. It will not be in flower here for two or three weeks 

 yet, although its near relative from another continent, Physo- 

 carpus Amurensis of Manchuria, where it was discovered in 

 1856 by Maximowicz in the mountains along the Amoor River, 

 has been flowering here for several days. It is a large shrvib, 

 with stout erect l)ranches, six or eight feet liigh, covered, like 

 those of its American congener, near the base with loose bark, 

 separating into numerous thin layers. The ample leaves are 

 broadly acuminate, three to five lobed, and sharply serrate. 

 The large, white, long-pediceled flowers, three-fourths of an 

 inch across, with conspicuous purple anthers, are borne in 

 rather loose suliracemose corymbs, terminal on lateral red, 

 leafy young branches, produced in great profusion from the 

 stems of the previous year. The Manchurian Nine-Bark is a 

 very hardy, free-growing shrub, rather coarse in appearance 

 and habit, but well suited to grow in the shade or to produce 

 bold, effective masses of foliage in large shrubberies or on 

 rocky banks. 



Among Spirseas, two species now in bloom in the Arboretum, 

 Spircra alpina and S. cana, are rarely seen in gardens here, 

 although possessing very considerable merit as ornamental 

 plants. S. alpina, like 5. Thunbergii and. S. prunifolia, belongs 

 to the section of the genus in which the corymbs of flowers are 

 produced from the ends of very short lateral branches. It is a 

 graceful plant, three or four feet high, with slender, arching, 

 flexuous, angled stems and linear-lanceolate leaves which are 

 sharply acuminate, pale green, entire or sometimes sharply 

 serrate towards the apex. The handsome corymbs of white 

 flowers are produced in great profusion, and in size and general 

 appearance are not unlike those of the well-known S. Cantonien- 

 sis {Reevesiana), in which, however, the inflorescence appears 

 at the end of long lateral branches. S. alpina is a native of 

 the mountains of Siberia and Mongolia. It is very hardy here 

 and soon grows into a handsome specimen. S. cana is a 

 very variable species with erect, round, pubescent branches, 

 growing here to a height of from three to four feet. The 

 leaves are elliptical, silky, villous on the lower side, entire or 

 sometimes with three or four sharp teeth at the end ; the 

 small, many-flowered corymbs are borne at the end of long 

 leafy branches of the current year. It is a native of Croatia and 

 Dalmatia. .S. Sauranica, a larger and less pubescent plant 

 and not rare in gardens, is considered a variety of this plant. 



Among the early Viburnums in flower is V. dilatatum, a 

 common Japanese plant not uncommon also in central China. 

 Here it is a low, wide-branching shrub, now three or four feet 

 high, with rigid spreading branches, covered with very dark 

 gray bark ; handsome ovate or obovate leaves tliree or four 

 inches long, rounded or sometimes abruptly acuminate at the 

 end, sharply and conspicuously serrate above the middle, other- 

 wise quite entire ; bright yellow-green above, paler on the 

 under side, with very prominent mid-rib and primarv' veins. 

 The under side of the leaves, especially along the veins, 

 petioles and young shoots, are densely covered with short 

 white tomentum. The small, creamy white flowers are pro- 

 duced in a wide, open- branched, long-stalked cyme, from the 

 end of short, leafy branches. The orbicular-ovate fruit, which 

 is not produced here very abundantly, is scarlet. This is a 

 very hardy plant, not showy in flower, but worth cultivating 

 for its handsome foliage, which, when bruised, has, as 

 does the wood, an exceedingly strong and disagreeable odor. 



Viburnum puhescens, although rarely seen in gardens, is an 

 exceedingly beautiful species in cultivation. It is a compact 

 shrub, two or three feet high, with rigid, erect branches and 

 ovate, taper pointed leaves, remotely and sharply serrate, except 

 near the base, conspicuously pinnately veined, the under 

 side, as well as the young shoots and very short petioles, soft 



