July ii, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



237 



slender three-parted spines, and covered with small, spinu- 

 lose-toothed leaves, one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, 

 dark glossy green on the upper side, snowy-white arid 

 glaucous below. The pedicels are longer than the leaves, 

 drooping, solitary and one-rlowered. The flowers are globose, 

 pendant and deep yellow in color. The fruit, which is de- 

 scribed as large, oblong and bright scarlet, has not been pro- 

 duced here. Berberis concin>ia appears to be perfectly hardy 

 here, a fact which would seem to indicate that many of the 

 plants of the high Himalaya region may, with proper precau- 

 tions in the way of protecting young specimens until they are 

 fully established, be made to contribute to the beauty and in- 

 terest of American gardens. This little Barberry is certainly 

 a gem among dwarf flowering shrubs, and for the beauty of 

 its foliage alone it should find a place in every rock-garden or 

 on the borders of every shrubbery. 



One of the most distinct and desirable of exotic Thorns is a 

 north China and Magnolia species, Cratagus pinnatifida, 

 common in the neighborhood of Pekin and often cultivated 

 by the Chinese. It is a variable plant, especially in the size 

 and color of the fruit and in the character and amount of the 

 pubescence on the leaves and young shoots. Here it is a 

 small bushy tree, with dark green, shining, deeply cut and ser- 

 rate, oval leaves, two to three inches long by half as much wide, 

 borne on long, slender petioles. They are slightly rufous- 

 hairy on the under side along the mid-rib and on the long 

 slender pedicles of the large flowers. This species is hand- 

 some at this season, when the pure white flowers make a 

 oeautiful contrast with the rich shining foliage ; but it is even 

 more showy in autumn when it is covered with its large, 

 scarlet fruit. This Asiatic Thorn is perfectly hardy here, 

 and like all the north China plants which have been tried in 

 the Arboretum, it seems admirably suited to the climate of the 

 Northern States. 



Caragana spinosa is a slender shrub, a native of Siberia, 

 with handsome, yellow, pea-shaped flowers, and long, flexible, 

 graceful branches, upon which the adult petioles, developed 

 into long, strong spines, are persistent. The leaves with two to 

 four pairs of linear, glabrous leaflets, and spiny stipules, are 

 small, pale green and rather inconspicuous. This is a very 

 hardy plant, recommended as a good subject to use in making 

 dwarf impenetrable hedges, a purpose for which its long 

 branches and long, stout thorns seem to well adapt it. 



Caragana pygmaa and a variety with pendulous branches 

 known as C. pygiua:a gracilis are pretty little shrubs, one or 

 two feet high, with slender spiny branches covered with small 

 leaves composed of two pairs of linear, glabrous leaflets ap- 

 proximating near the end of the short petiole, and handsome 

 large solitary yellow flowers. C. pygtnaa is a naflve of Siberia 

 and has long been known in gardens, although rarely seen in 

 those of this country. It is perfectly hardy. 



Styrax Americana is one of the most graceful of North Amer- 

 ican shrubs, and when the slender branches are covered 

 with its drooping, pure white, bell-shaped flowers, borne in 

 slender axillary racemes, few plants will compare with it in 

 delicate beauty. It is rarely cultivated, however, and little 

 known in gardens. Although a southern plant, not being 

 found growing naturally north of Virginia, it is quite hardy 

 here and blooms freely every year. It is a common plant 

 along the margins of swamps and in low ground, where it 

 reaches a height of from four to eight feet. 



Attention has been called in earlier issues of these notes to 

 the value of Hudsonia cricoides as a dwarf rock-garden plant. 

 The second of our northern species, H. tonientosa, is equally 

 attractive in the garden. It is a dwarf, hoary plant, only a few 

 inches high, with narrow leaves, closely pressed and imbri- 

 cated on the stems, vei-y common on the sea-shore of the 

 New England and Middle States and on the shores of the 

 Great Lakes. Every morning during the blooming period of 

 two or three weeks the plant is covered with a sheet of golden- 

 yellow flowers, from which the petals fall by two o'clock in the 

 afternoon, fresh flowers opening each day. This plant, like 

 the other species, requires some care before it is thoroughly 

 established in the garden, but once established, it will spread 

 rapidly, and soon make a broad, handsome carpet. 



Stephanandra (froin two Greek words signifying crown and 

 male, in allusion to the disposition of the stamens) is a genus 

 of two or three Japanese shrubs, with the general habit and 

 appearance of Spirjea, to which they are closely related. 5. 

 flextiosa, introduced a few years ago by the Messrs. Veitch, is 

 the only species in cultivation. It has slender, flexuous 

 branches, which here attain a height of three or four feet, with 

 mcised or lobed, cordate, ovate leaves, often colored witli 

 purple, and compound racemes of small white flowers. This 

 is a graceful and handsome shrub, which is not very hardy. 



however, here, even when carefully covered, and the stems 

 are often killed back to the ground, but grow up again vigor- 

 ously. It is now flowering on such stems as were not killed 

 during the winter. 



The Stagger-Bush {Andromeda Mariana), a native shrub, 

 found along the Atlantic seaboard south of Rhode Island, in 

 low, sandy, wet situations, and very common and covering 

 extensive tracts in some parts of Long Island, is now in 

 flower. It is one of the handsomest of the Andromcdas. It 

 attains a height of two to four feet, and has deciduous, rather 

 coriaceous, and shining oval leaves, and large, pure white, 

 bell-shaped, nodding flowers, in clusters, from axillary buds, 

 crowded on the naked branches of the preceding year. The 

 foliage of this plant is popularly supposed to poison browsing 

 animals. It is easily cifltivated, thriving best in deep loam 

 mixed with peat, and is perfectly hardy. Its near ally, Leuco- 

 thoe raccmosa, a common plant, found near the coast in damp 

 thickets from Massachusetts far south, is also in flower. Less 

 showy than the last-named species, it makes in cultivation a 

 neat, compact shrub, with erect, rather rigid brandies, cov- 

 ered with oval-lanceolate, bright shining leaves, and erect 

 racemes of small, cylindrical, pure white flowers. It will 

 flourish in peaty loam, and grows and spreads rapidly. 



Tlie great Flame-colored Azalea (Rhododendron calendula- 

 cenin) is in flower, rather later than most of the garden hybrids, 

 in which its blood is mingled, and which do not surpass it in 

 the splendor of its orange and flame-colored, odorless flowers. 

 It is a common shrub in the Alleghany forests from Pennsyl- 

 vania southward, where it often grows in great masses, light- 

 ing up, at this season of the year, the lower slopes of the moun- 

 tains with sheets of flame. It is quite hardy in cultivation 

 here. No North American plant surpasses it in brilliancy of 

 bloom, and few are better worth a conspicuous and permanent 

 place in the garden where the soil is suited to its wants. Lime- 

 stone is fatal to it, as it is to all Rhododendrons. 



Rhododendron punctatum, the smallest of the species of 

 evergreen Rhododendrons, which are found in the Alleghany 

 Mountains, is in bloom. It is a graceful shrub, with recurved 

 or spreading branches and narrow leaves four or five inches 

 long, covered, as is the whole plant, with scurfy, resinous 

 scales. The rose-colored flowers, nearly an inch long, in lax, 

 few-flowered clusters, are developed later than the shoots of 

 the season, among which they are almost hidden. Tliis is, 

 therefore, a much less showy plant when in bloom than the 

 hybrids, or varieties of R. Catawhiense, in which tlie new 

 shoots from the base of the terminal flower-bud are not de- 

 veloped until after the flowers have expanded. It will never, 

 therefore, be a very popular plant in gardens. 



The Alpine Rose [Rhododendron ferrugineum), a dwarf spe- 

 cies, rarely a foot high, from the high mountains of Europe, 

 with minute, dark green, shining, evergreen leaves, thickly 

 beset on the lower side with ferrugineous dots and beautiful 

 bright scarlet flowers, is in bloom. This is a hardy plant, well 

 suited to find a conspicuous place in the rock-garden, and, 

 from its many associations, one of the most interesting of the 

 European shrubs. A good covering of Pine branches in win- 

 ter will protect the foliage from burning, and insure better and 

 more abundant flowers. 



yElhione^na coridifolium is a pretty little plant from Asia 

 Minor, which does not attain a height of more than six or 

 seven inches, and with only the lower part of the stems really 

 woody. It has minute, pale, glaucous, crowded leaves, and 

 terminal, crowded racemes of bright, rosy, lilac flowers. It is 

 very hardy and an excellent rock-garden plant. ALthionema 

 (from two Greek words signifying scorch and filament) is a 

 genus of the Mustard Family {Cruciferce), distinguished by its 

 winged and toothed stamens. The other species, of which 

 there are two or three, are annuals and perennials. 



Lonicera oblongifolia is one of the dwarf Bush Honey- 

 suckles of the northern United States, which is worth a place 

 in the garden. It has slender, upright branches, four or five 

 feet high, oblong leaves, and rather large pale yellow flowers 

 on long, slender pedvuicles, the corolla deeply two-li]iped and 

 fully half an inch long. It is found in cold, deep bogs from 

 northern New York to Wisconsin and far northward. It 

 takes kindly to cultivation here, however, and thrives in ordi- 

 nary garden soil. 



Spircra corymhosa is a dwarf species of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, found from Pennsylvania to Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky. It grows to a height of one or two feet, and has pale, 

 oval leaves, cut-toothed towards the apex, and large, hand- 

 some, terminal, compound corymbs of white flowers, which 

 are now just expanding. 



Jamesia is a genus of the Saxifrage Family, wliich commem- 

 orates the labors of Dr. Edwin James, who, when surgeon and 



