286 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 8, iS88. 



green on the upper surface, and snoVy white below, and large 

 white, pm'ple or rose-colored nodding flowers arranged in 

 loose terminal racemes. "St. Daljeoc's Heath" is a native of 

 south-western Europe, where it sometimes covers barren and 

 gravelly wastes ; and it is found in one or two stations in Ire- 

 land. Here it is a delicate and not very hardy plant requiring 

 careful protection in winter and frequent renewal ; and in 

 spite of its beauty it can hardly be recommended for general 

 cultivation in the climate of the eastern United States. 



Rhaininis Fraug7ila is a widely distributed European and 

 North Asian plant, closely related to the Carolina Buck- 

 thorn of our Middle and Southern States. It is a tall, erect, 

 unarmed shrub, growing to a height of eight or ten feet, with 

 slender branches, handsome, glossy, pale green foliage, and 

 small, axillary, yellow flowers, which are followed by rather 

 consf)icuous fruit, which is at first green, then bright reel, and 

 finally, when fully ripe, quite black. This plant continues to 

 produce flowers in great profusion all simimer long, and is 

 covered during several months with flowers and witli fruit in 

 all stages of development, a peculiarity which, as well as its 

 handsome foliage and entire hardiness, sliould give this Buck- 

 thorn a place in collections of deciduous shrubs. The wood 

 is known in England as black dogwood, and in common with 

 that of other species of the genus, has a considerable employ- 

 ment in the manufacture of gunpowder. Another plant which 

 flowers here froin the middle of July until the coming of frost, 

 and which produces flowers and ripe fruit simultaneously, is 

 the Cliinese Lycium (Z. Chinense), near relative of the well 

 known and familiar Matrimony Vine of all old-fashioned gar- 

 dens (L. Eiiropa-itin). It has long, pendulous, or prostrate, 

 armed liranches, ten or twelve feet long, OA'ate-acute, dark 

 green leaves, rather large pale purple flowers, and abundant, 

 showy, bright scarlet, oval or olilong fruit, which is nearly an 

 inch in length. This is a free growing and very hardy plant, 

 admiraljly suited to train upon pillars or over trellises, and in 

 every way more showy than the European Matrimony Vine. 



Attention has been directed in an earlier issue of these 

 notes to the great value of Spircea sorbifolia as an ornamental 

 plant ; mention must now be made of a variety of that plant 

 cultivated here under the name of ^"i". Tobolshia, a name not 

 referred to by Ma,xiniowicz in his monograph of Spirasa, and 

 here applied to a plant probably of garden origin, and 

 which only differs from 5'. sorbifolia in its much smaller pani- 

 cles of flowers, and in the fact that it blooms from two to three 

 weeks later. It is an equally hardy and desirable plant. 



Aralia hispida, the Wild Elder of northern woods, may per- 

 haps l)e considered a shrub, as the base o the stems are truly 

 wood)'. It is a usefifl plant, largely grown in the Arboretum 

 for covering the grovuid under trees and larger shrubs, for 

 which purpose its habit of spreading rapidly by means of 

 underground shoots well adapts it. It deserves notice, too. 

 as a purely ornamental plant; the foliage is bold, the large, 

 compound corymbs, composed of umbels of yellow flowers, 

 make it conspicuous during the early weeks of July, and these 

 are followed in autumn by showy, deep purple fruit. 



Rosa sctigera, the Michigan or Prairie Rose, is in flower. 

 It is a widely distributed species, being found from Ontario 

 and Wisconsin to Texas, South Carolina and Florida; and the 

 only American Rose with climbing stems. It is the origin of 

 the Queen of the Prairies, Baltimore Belle, and other double 

 flowered climbing Roses, and in its single state is one of the 

 most beautiful of our climbing plants, with broad and hand- 

 some foliage, and broad, flat corymbs of large flowers, wliich 

 are sometimes nearly three inches across, and deep rose color 

 when first expanded, but turning nearly white before fading. 

 The Prairie Rose requires rich, deep soil and generous treat- 

 ment to develop its greatest beauties, Imt when well grown it 

 surpasses in beauty any cif its progeny. J. 



July 2ist 



The Forest. 

 The White Pine in Great Britain. 



Mr. A. D. Webster, in a recent issue of 77?;? Garden, 

 makes the following interesting statements in regard to the 

 White Pine (Piuits Sirohus) in England, called forth by 

 Dr. Mayr's article upon this tree in the. first number of 

 G.ARDEN AND FoRF.ST. They are all the more interesting be- 

 cause it is now very generally believed by English planters 

 and nurserymen that this tree does not liourish in that 

 country, where for some reason or other it is certainly 

 much less frequently seen than on the continent of Europe. 



" Next to the Corsican Pine {P. Laricio), I consider the White, 



or Weymouth Pine, whether as an ornamental tree or for eco- 

 nomic planting, the most valuable of the many Pines that have 

 yet found their way into this country. The woods at Gwydyr 

 Castle, in North Wales, and of many other places that I could 

 name, amply sul)stantiate Mi'. Mayr's remarks as to the great 

 value of the Weymouth Pine as a rapid timber-producer, and 

 likewise as to its yielding under similar conditions to the 

 Scotch Fir (P. sylvesfris) a far greater amount of wood than 

 that valuable and much-cherished tree. Let us look at these 

 Gwydyr specimens and compare their rate of growth and 

 bulk of timber with that of the Scotch Firs with which they are 

 associated. Unfortunately, we do not know when these trees 

 were planted, but one thmg is pretty conclusive, that the 

 whole wood, which crowns a shingly-soiled hill in the roman- 

 tic and picturesque Conway Vale, was planted at or about the 

 same time. The Weymouth Pines are now what might in 

 truth be termed giant specimens, for I am under the mark in 

 stating that the average height is fully go feet, and the girth of 

 the flag-pole-like stems between eight feet and nine feet 

 at a yard from the ground. Straight as ship masts describes 

 well their appearance, they being smooth, nicely tapering-, 

 and destitute of liranches for about three-fourths of their 

 hqight. About the biggest Scotch Fir in the same wood is be- 

 tween seventy feet and eighty feet in height and with a bole 

 fully seven feet in girth. Were we to touch on cubical con- 

 tents, the differences in these two species of Pine would hard- 

 ly 1)6 credited, and should any one feel inclined to doubt the 

 genuineness of these statements, Mr. Mclntyre, agent on tliis 

 historic Old Welsh estate, will gladly vouch for their accuracy. 

 The soil at Gwydyr is of a rocky, shingly nature, largely inter- 

 mixed with the richest of vegetable refuse, fairly moist at all 

 times, but without stagnant water. Situation not sheltered, 

 yet not fully exposed. On another estate in Cambria I have 

 measured specimens of the Weymouth Pine 57 feet in height, 

 and with stems fully 50 inches in girth at a yard up, the trees 

 being only thirty-one years old. 



"At 1,200 feet above the level of the sea, at Strathkyle, in 

 Ross-shire, the Weymouth, in conjunction with the Corsican 

 and several other species, is doing well and making rapid pro- 

 gress. Then look at the Longleat trees, which are fully ninety 

 feet in height, not long drawn-up poles, but huge stems fully 

 eight feet at breast high. I will say no more about how it 

 succeeds in this country, for that it does well I am quite con- 

 vinced. 



" But some may ask. What al.iout the timber ? for plenty of 

 foreign trees do fairly well in this country, and yet are value- 

 less as timber-producers. I also know something of this, and 

 am able to speak of it in terms of the highest praise. 



" The timber, judging from the specimens I have had a chance 

 of converting into boards, is of exceptional quality, being clean 

 and very easily worked, of a desirable color, and, from experi- 

 ments instituted five years ago, of a lasting nature." 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I should be grateful for some advice as to the best 

 plants and shrul)S tor tlie adornment of a small pkice at Fal- 

 mouth, on the southern extremity of Cape Cod. Excepting a 

 strip of the original ground, the land has been reclaimed from 

 a salt marsh. Tlie place seems too limited to justify the call- 

 ing in of a professional landscape gardener, but I am inclined 

 to spare no pains to make the planting effective. F. 



FalTiiniith, Mass. 



[Our correspondent, in common with nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine persons in ever)' one thousand, who want 

 to treat a small piece of ground to the best advan- 

 tage, makes the mistake of thinking that "the place seems 

 too limited to call in the aid of the professional landscape 

 gardener." A trained artist is needed to develop the pos- 

 sibilities of beauty, convenience and iisefulness in a small 

 as well as in a large piece of ground, and his knowledge 

 and ingenuity may be more seriously taxed to make the 

 most of a plot of ground containing a few hundred square 

 feet than of a park of hundreds of acres. It is, of course, 

 (piite outside our editorial duties or aims to give specific 

 instructions or advice about laying out or planting particu- 

 lar places. Such advice to be of any practical value must 

 be based upon exact kviowledge not only of local condi- 

 tions and surroundings, but of the taste and wishes of the 

 proprietor in regard to the character of his place and of the 



