234 



Garden and Forest. 



[JULV II, 1888. 



Scliizopltragnia is found in the elevated valleys of the moun- 

 tains of Japan, wliere it climbs over rocks and the trunks of 

 trees to a height of eight or ten feet. The Japanese name, 

 Tsuru deiiiari, signifies the Climliing Snowball, a name which 

 describes the general appearance of the plant. It is well 

 figured by Siebold dnd Zuccarini in the " Flora of Japan" t. 26, 

 while a iigure, Hydrangea radicans, will be foiuid in the Bo- 

 tanical Magazine, t. 6788 (under H. petiolaris). These two 

 climbers are important additions to the small number of plants 

 hardy here, capable, like the English Ivy, of attaching them- 

 selves firmly to the trunks of trees by adventitious roots de- 

 veloped on the stem and branches. S. 



Benthamia Japonica is probably flowering for the first time in 

 the United States in the Parsons nursery, at Flushing, Long 

 Island. It may be descrilaed as a dwarf Flowering Dogwood, in 

 which the flowers ai'e not produced until after the leaves have 

 attained their full size. It is a compact shruli, six or eight feet 

 high, with bright green, elliptical leaves and compact heads of 

 small yellow flowers, siuTounded by four pure white, satiny, 

 petaloid bracts as long, but much narrower, and more sharply 

 pointed than those of the Flowering Dogwood. This is a very 

 interesting ayd important addition to the list of showy-flower- 

 ing shrubs, hardy in the Northern States, where it seems des- 

 tined to become a conspicuous garden ornament. It is one of 

 Mr. Hogg's introductions. S. 



Cherokee Rose is an excellent subject to train over the 

 roof of a cool green-house at the north, where, if it can 

 be planted out in a border, it soon attains a large size and 

 produces every year during the month of February an 

 abundant crop of flowers. Our illustration is from a pho- 

 tograph taken recently in Florida, by Dr. R. H. Lamborn ; 

 it shows a hedge of this plant from which the long pendu- 

 lous branches have been removed in order to keep it within 

 reasonable bounds. 



The Cherokee Rose. 



IN extra-tropical regions with temperate climates it is the 

 injurious weeds of foreign countries and not thg useful 

 or ornamental plants which, as a rule, become naturalizeil. 

 A hundred old-world weeds, at least, injurious to our crops, 

 are now as much established, and in some instances more 

 widely distributed, in the United States, than in their o\\'n 

 homes, while of plants useful to man thei'e are not proba- 

 bly half a dozen foreign plants naturalized in this country. 

 The most conspicuous examples of useful plants now 

 thoroughly established in the United States are the Bar- 

 berry on the New England coast, the so-called Japanese 

 Clover in the south, the Oat in California, the Wild Orange 

 in Florida, and the subject of our illustration on page 235. 

 the Cherokee Rose {Rosahcvigata), now thoroughly natural- 

 ized and widely distributed through a large part of the 

 south Atlantic and Gulf States. It is a common plant in 

 many districts of southern China and Japan, but it is not 

 recorded how the Cherokee Rose first reached America, in 

 whose garden it was first planted, or how it escaped to the 

 woods and took such a hold upon the soil that it acquired 

 the name of the tribe of Indians which once occupied 

 much of the upper country in what are now the States of 

 Georgia and the Carolinas. Michaux, the French botanist, 

 found it in Georgia late in the last century so thoroughly 

 naturalized that he mistook it for a native plant and first 

 published it in his North American Flora many years be- 

 fore it was known as a Chinese plant at all. Elliott speaks 

 of it in his " Sketch of the Botany 0/ South Carolinaand Geor- 

 gia^' published in 1821, as having been "cultivated in the 

 gardens in Georgia for upwards of 40 years, under the name 

 of the Cherokee Rose." It is a shrub with long flexible 

 branches which may be trained to a height of 15 or 20 feet, 

 but which if left unsupported fall to the ground and take 

 root. This habit, its vigorous, rampant growth, and the 

 stout, sharp, incurved prickles with M'hich. its branches are 

 armed, admirably adapt the Cherokee Rose to form 

 high hedges, which, if left unpruned, soon form thickets 

 twenty or thirty feet through, into which no animal will 

 penetrate. There are hundreds of miles of such hedges 

 lining the highways in different parts of the Southern 

 States, and nowhere are they more beautiful and luxuriant 

 than in that part of western Louisiana watered by the 

 Achafalaya and the Teche. When in bloom the Cherokee 

 Rose is an object of much beauty, its pure vi^hite, single, 

 fragrant flowers, two or three inches across when expand- 

 ed, contrasting charmingly with the dark, shining, ever- 

 green foliage. There are few floral displays in this 

 country more delightful than a long vista bordered with 

 great masses of this graceful plant in full flower. The 



Cultural Department. 



Canterbmy Jiells. 



/^F these granil, old-fashioned flowers we now (middle of 

 ^-^ Jmie) have a very fine display — some 150 plants in full 

 bloom in one belt. Although single plants are very beautiful, 

 their excellent elf'ect is attained only when a large number of 

 them are grown and massed together, like Paeonies, Poppies 

 and Coreopsis. They come into bloom when herbaceous 

 Paeonies and Oriental Poppies have passed their best, and he- 

 fore the gorgeous Kcempfer's Irises begin to flower, and they 

 are in perfection at the same time as June Roses, Deutzias 

 and the large flowered Philadelplius. 



Canterbury Bells are true biennials and of the easiest possi- 

 ble cultivation. We have never succeeded in flowering them the 

 first year from seed, and although they will sometimes live 

 over for another year after blooming, in the same way as 

 Fo.xgloves and Hollyhocks, they never are satisfactory when 

 so retained ; far better treat them strictly as biennials. But 

 they are not quite hardy, and this alone is the reason why they 

 are so seldom seen or grown in our gardens. We sow the 

 seed in flats (shallow seed boxes) in a cold-frame in June or 

 July, and soon after the seedlings appear they are pricked off 

 into other flats, and after a few weeks planted out six or eight 

 inches apart each way into frames or a narrow bed in the open 

 garden. Sowing in flats is a matter of convenience rather 

 than necessity, as the seeds are very small, and if sown 

 in the open garden warm sunshine would be likely to 

 burn them, or heavy rains wash them out or cover them 

 too deep. The cold-frame is also only a convenience in the 

 same way, and by shading the sashes and ventilating at the 

 same time, we have in it an excellent place for starting seeds 

 in summer. It is not well to sow the seeds in spring ; if 

 sown early the plants grow into large masses before summer 

 is over and are very apt to rot off in winter. Many years of 

 practical observation convince us that midsummer is soon 

 enough to sow Canterbury Bells. 



Before hard frost sets in lift the plants and transplant them 

 into cold-frames, in the same way as is done with Pansies, Vio- 

 lets or Lettuces, and, according to the size of the plants, some 

 six to eight inches apart. If the plants are vigorous and leafy, 

 shorten back the leaves a good deal so as to keep the plants 

 from touching each other ; when too close they gather and 

 hold moisture on the surface of the leaves ; and then the 

 crowns rot off in winter. But avoid coddling or keep- 

 ing them warm; just cover the glass with a few inches of 

 straw and ventilate in bright or warm weather. But keep a 

 strict watch on the frames for field mice. These little and 

 extremely destructive rodents gather to the frames in winter 

 and cut the plants all to pieces. A few Peas or grains of cere- 

 als, dusted over slightly with Paris green and buried half an 

 inch deep in the ground, is a very good bait for the mice. 



Towards spring expose the plants quite freely in order 

 to render them hardy and retard their leaf growth, and as soon 

 as the ground out-of-doors is free from frost and mellow 

 lift and transplant them to the garden where it is desired to 

 have them bloom. In lifting cut the ground between the 

 plants lengthwise and crosswise, and in tliis way you can lift 

 them with'large unliroken balls. 



There are many kinds of Canterbury Bells {Campanula Me- 

 dium), single and double ; also the cup-and-saucer forms 

 known as calycanthema ; and in color they range from pure 

 white to rose and blue, but the shades of purple, violet and 

 blue prevail. And while all are beautiful, the double ones are 

 most esteemed, and of the doubles the calycanthema varieties 

 are preferred. The finest variety we have ever grown is caly- 

 canthema rosea, and the next most beautiful is C. Mauve 

 Beauty. But it is desirable to have a variety of colors, and 

 from a packet of mixed seed of each of the above sections — 

 namely, single, double and calycanthema^there will be a great 

 variety of colors, but there should be a special packet of 

 calycanthema rosea seed. 



