296 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 15, iSSS. 



that had kept within Iiounds, notwithstanding the predic- 

 tion of Mr. Sturtevant, from whom I obtained it. "Had 

 kept within bounds" is no longer true of it. Not long since 

 a dog plunged into the pond and tore this one plant into 

 a dozen bits, and now every one is as flourishing as a Green 

 Bay tree, and several are blooming as though the disruptive 

 process was a stimulant to flower production. Two of the 

 fragments of the original plant are far out in the trackless 

 marsh, hidden by a jungle of nati\'e plants, but these are 

 no check to its progress ; and the European Lake-floA-\-er is 

 an established fact. If it will not pro^'e mischievous, long 

 may it flourish ! 



Near Trenton, Ncwjeiscy. L /litb. U. .dOOO/l. 



Malformation uf Cabbage Leaf. 



'T'HE specimen from which the accouipauying drawing 



^ M'.is UKule was grown on the farm of Mr. Thomas 



Hume, iu Alexandria Countv, Virginia. It ficlongs to tlie 



ICarly York vai'ictv, 

 and has been dis- 

 served in several 

 plants. Malforma- 

 tion of tliis charac- 

 ter, although well 

 known, is far from 

 common. Masters, 

 in his "Vegetable 

 Teratology" (p. 313), 

 says: "In cabbages 

 and lettuces there 

 not unfretjuently 

 occurs a production 

 of leaf-like proces- 

 ses projecting from 

 the primary blade 

 at a right angle. 

 Sometimes these 

 are developed in a 

 tubul.ar form, so as 

 to form a series of 

 little hornlike tubes 

 or shallow troughs, 

 as in Aristolochia 

 Sipho. At other 

 times the nerves or 

 ribs of the leaf pro- 

 ject beyond the 

 blade, and bear, at 

 their extremities, 

 structures similar 

 to those just de- 

 scribed." The exact 

 significance of this 

 curious growth is 

 not well known, 

 nor indeed is the 

 means of its pro- 

 duction. Masters 

 inclines to regard 

 it as a dispropor- 

 tionate growth of some portions as contrasted with others, 

 whence is usually produced a depressed cavity. 



National Museum. Wasliinijton, D. C. F. H. KnoUiItOH. 



Fii;. 4S. — Malformed Cabbage Leaf. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



T^HE three American species of Hydrangea are now in 

 -'- bloom. They are all useful garden shruf>s, altliougli 

 the introduction of some of the more showy flowered Japa- 

 nese species has no doubt caused gardeners to overlook them 

 of late years. Hydrangea arborcscens is the earliest to flower 

 here by a few days, and, as an ornamental plant, is the least 

 interesting and attracfive. It is the most northern American 

 representative of the genus, being found from northern New 

 Jersey to Wisconsin, and southward through the Alleghany 

 region. It is a vigorous shrub, sometimes six or seven 

 feet high, with coarse, ovate, pointed and sharply serrate 

 leaves, pubescent along the principal veins, as are also the 

 young shoots, and rather small, flat cymes of yellow-whito 

 flowers, which in the most common form, are nearly always 

 ]3erfect. Varieties (var. cordata. ohlonga and stcrilis) are de- 

 scribed by Torrey and Gniy ^Fl. N. Aiiwrica, i. 591) in which 

 more or less of the flowers are sterile, with enlarged, petaloid 



calyx-segments, but none of these, so far as I know, are in 

 cultivation. They would be welcome additions to the 

 Arboretum collection. Hydrangea radiata (the H. nivea of 

 some collections) is a handsomer plant than the last. It is a 

 native of the mountain country from South Carolina and 

 Georgia to Tennessee, \yhere it sometimes attains a height of 

 six or eight feet. It has large, ovate, cordate, acuminate and 

 sharply serrate leaves, dark green and velvety above, silvery 

 white on the under siu'face, and fastigiate cymes, in which 

 the marginal or ray flowers are all sterile, very large and pure 

 white. Individuals vary considerably in the degree of white- 

 ness of tlie tomentum which covers the under surface of the 

 leaves. This is a perfectly hardy plant of very considerable 

 horticultural value. But far more showy and one of the finest 

 of all Hydrangeas is H. ijuereifoHa, a nati\'e of Georgia and 

 northern Elorida, where it is found in the middle country, 

 occupying the rocky banks of streams, and growing some- 

 times, under favorable conditions, to a height of fifteen or 

 eighteen feet, with almost tree-like habit. It has large and 

 variously lolied or sinuate, minutely serrate leaves, sometimes 

 twelve or fifteen inches long, tomentose when young, the 

 upiicr surface finally quite glabrous. The flowers appear in 

 large, crowded, thyrsoid panicles with spreading branches 

 liearing here and there clusters of perfect flowers, and at the 

 extremity a large sterile flower, wdiich, when first expanded, 

 is dull white, turning reddish before fading. The handsome 

 foliage of this pilant turns in the autumn to a deep, rich claret 

 color. It is, unfortunately, not perfectly hardy in New Eng- 

 land, and rarely attainsanythinglike its full size here, although, 

 if jjlanted in partially shady situations, it will flower every 

 year and soon spread over a considerable space. The only 

 Hytlrangea which resembles H. quereifolia in its panicled in- 

 florescence is H. paniiulata, the most common of the Japa- 

 nese species in a wild state, and the only Hydrangea which 

 ever becomes really arliorescent. A variety of this plant (//. 

 paniculata grandiflora), with enormous panicles, on \vhich all 

 the flowers are sterile, long a favorite among the Japanese, is 

 now one of the most common shrubs in American gardens, 

 ■where it blooms during the month of September. The form 

 of this species in which the terminal flowers only, as in H. 

 quereifolia, are neutral with enlarged calyx lobes, is, how- 

 ever, now in flower. In Japan it is a tree or tall bhrub ; here 

 it makes a bush five or six feet high, with rather ridged 

 branches covered with elliptical-ovate, sharply pointed leaves, 

 sharply serrate only above the middle, roughly hispidulous 

 on tlie upper and pubescent on the lower surface along the 

 principal veins, as well as the petioles, young branches and 

 panicles. Although far less showy than its better known 

 variety. Hydrangea panieulata is a handsome and exceedingly 

 free tlov.'ering plant, wliich has, moreover, the merit of 

 blooming at a season of the 3'ear when flowers are not abund- 

 ant. It was sent to the Arboretum by the Messrs. Parsons, 

 of Flushing, and is still very rare in gardens. 



Calliina vulgaris, the Heather of Europe, which is not rare, 

 although very local, in Newfovmdland, and was first discover- 

 ed growing wild within the linuts of the United States in the 

 town of Tewksbury in this State by Mr. Jackson Dawson, is now 

 in flower. It is a dwarf, compact, Heath-like shrub, one or two 

 feet high, with short, olituse, opposite leaves, densely crowded 

 and imbricated on the wiry branches, and long, slender, ter- 

 minal, spicate racemes of rose-colored flowers, with a colored 

 calyx and bell-shaped corolla. There are varieties with white 

 and with flesh-colored flowers, and one in which the 

 flowers are double, as well as varieties with golden and with 

 silver colored leaves. The Calluna is one of the very best of 

 the dwarf hardy shrubs, it is an excellent rock-garden plant 

 and it is useful to form low edgings. It is a good bee-plant, 

 too, and it remains long in flower. In Europe it is largely 

 planted to cover rocky ami exposed hill-sides and to furnish 

 shelter for game. 



The most interesting shrub, however, in Iiloom this week, 

 is Stiiartia pentagyna, the only American representative of the 

 Tea and Camellia family ^vhich can be grown in New Eng- 

 land. It is a native of the mountains of North Carolina and 

 Georgia. There is a second American species, ^S". Virginica, 

 found in the coast regions from Virginia to Florida, but not 

 hardy in the Northern States, and three Japanese species are 

 described. Two of these are growing in the Arboretum, but 

 they have not flowered yet. 5. pentagyna is an erect shrub, 

 ten or twelve feet high, with oval or ovate -acuminate, entire 

 or mucronately serrate, deciduous leaves, and large, axillary, 

 sub-sessile flowers, three or four inches across, with creamy 

 white petals, deeply crenulated on the margins, and resem- 

 Ijling those of some of the single Camellias. This plant, in 

 spite of the fact that it has been cultivated for more than a 



