400 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 17, 1888. 



and September makes it very beautiful, and as it continues 

 in bloom for weeks, its value is enhanced. M. Lemoine, 

 the famous hybridist of Nancy, has raised other hybrid 

 Montbrietias, one of which I saw the other day in Mr. 

 Wilson's garden at Weybridge, under name of Gerbe d'Or. 

 It is like the older M. crocosmicefloj-a, except that the 

 flowers are of a pure rich yellow, instead of orange-red, 

 blotched with crimson. It is very beautiful, and though 

 it has not come into general cultivation, it is certain to 

 become popular, especially as a green-house plant. 



Lxora Duffii. — Those who want a really fine stove plant 

 for autumn flowering should become possessed of this 

 evergreen shrub, introduced a few years ago from the 

 South Sea Islands. In my opinion, it is the finest of all 

 the Ixoras, for though it does not produce such a number 

 of small flower clusters, its huge heads of bloom have an 

 impressiveness which places it in advance of all others. 

 A well grown plant is about four feet high, with large, 

 deep green leaves, and it produces, at the extremity of each 

 main shoot, an enormous cluster, often nine inches across, 

 of deep scarlet-crimson flowers. It generally begins to 

 flower early in August and lasts in bloom for several 

 weeks. It is of simple culture under ordinary warm-stove 

 treatment. It is grown to perfection at Kew in the Water 

 Lily house, which is always moist and warm, and it 

 has been the admiration of visitors for weeks past. It 

 is a stock plant in nurseries and is known also by the 

 name T. macrothyrsa. W. Goldiing. 



London, September 2otIi. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Rhododendron (Azalea) arborescens. 



THIS beautiful Azalea was first made known to bot- 

 anists by Pursh, in his "Flora of North America,'' 

 published in 1816. He had fovnid it in the mountains of 

 Pennsylvania, and in Bartram's garden at Philadelphia, 

 where John Bartram, who was, therefore, its real discov- 

 erer, had planted it many years before. Neither the elder 

 Michaux, who traversed over and over that part of the 

 country where this species is most common, nor Fraser, 

 who had explored the Alleghany Mountains some years 

 before Pursh visited that region, seems to have noticed it, 

 although it is hardly possible that they would have over- 

 looked so common a plant, which they, perhaps, con- 

 founded with R. vircosuni. 



It is stated in Nicholson's "Dictionary of Gardening" 

 that Rhododendron arboresce?is was introduced into English 

 gardens in 1S18, but it has probably never been very well 

 known in Europe, and was soon lost, perhaps, from 

 gardens. Our figure upon page 401 is, at any rate, 

 the first which has been published of this plant, which, 

 through the agency of the Arnold Arboretum, has been 

 distributed within the last five or six years among many 

 of the principal American and foreign collections. 



Rhododendron arborescens is a tall shrub, with slender 

 branches, sometimes fifteen or twenty feet high, and obo- 

 vate or oblong-oblanceolate, slightly coriaceous leaves, cilio- 

 late on the margins, bright green and shining on the upper 

 and pale on the lower surface. The flowers are white or 

 tinged with rose, the long, slender tube of the corolla, and 

 the conspicuous, narrow calyx-lobes somewhat glandular 

 bristly. The brilliant scarlet stamens and pistil add to the 

 beauty of the deliciously fragrant flowers, which are not 

 viscid like those of its nearest American relative, the 

 familiar Swamp Honeysuckle {R. viscosiim). They are 

 later than those of other Azaleas, not appearing until July, 

 and are often obscured by the shoots of the year which 

 precede them, a habit which lessens somewhat the value 

 of this species as a showy garden plant. The leaves, in 

 drying, exhale the perfume of newly mown grass — a 

 character which has not been noticed in other Azaleas. 



Rhododendron arborescens is a native of the mountain 

 region from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and Ten- 

 nessee, where it is frequently found in great abundance, 

 especially among the foot-hills of the high mountains 



of North Carolina, bordering and often overhangmg the 

 smaller streams and filling the woods in early summer 

 with fragrance. 



It is perfectly hardy in the Arboretum, where it re- 

 ceives no special treatment, and flowers freely every year. 



c. s. s. 



Cultural Department. 



Winter Apples. 

 ^piIE Baldwin is the most satisfactory winter Apple, as well 

 ■*■ as the most popular variety in this vicinity, and yet in the 

 southern part of this state it is regarded as a fall Apple, and 

 esteemed only as such. I confess its record for keeping quali- 

 ties is not as good here as it was once, but its size, beauty, 

 flavor, and fine Ijearing qualities render it a general favorite 

 notwithstanding. 



The universally popular Rhode Island Greening is still a 

 great favorite, but it does not grow as smooth generally as the 

 Baldwin. Neither does the tree grow as well. Its reputation 

 as a keeper is also on the wane ; and this will apply to all of 

 our Apples once famous for long keeping. It was not unusual 

 years ago for farmers to have a generous supply of Apples in 

 April and May, a thing now very rare indeed. The cause or 

 causes contributing to this changed condition give rise to 

 much speculation, but no conclusion that is generally accepted 

 has yet been reached. Possibly new varieties may be devel- 

 oped in the future that will occupy the positions in this respect 

 once held by our old-time favorites. 



Smith's Cider is a very popular winter Apple in Pennsyl- 

 vania and southern New Jersey. The Apple is of fair size; 

 tlie trees bear young, and when gi'own are immensely product- 

 ive. The fruit is of fine quality and keeps well. It promises 

 to do well in this section of the state. 



One of the best winter Apples I am acquainted with is 

 Peck's Pleasant. High-flavored, productive, and a good 

 keeper, it very well fills the place once occupied by the 

 famous Newtown Pippin, a variety long since superseded 

 by others better adapted to our locality. 



Northern Spy is also a fine, high-flavored winter Apple, but 

 the tree is rather tardy in bearing, and the fruit is very 

 liable to grow imperfect, and rots to such an e.\tent as to im- 

 pair its value. 



Fallawater is a large Apple, a young and abundant bearer; 

 very popular in some portions of Pennsylvania, but of late I 

 hear complaints that the trees fail early. The fruit is not of 

 first-rate quality. 



Ben Davis, a popular Apple in the West, gives good promise 

 here of early productiveness. The fruit is fair, handsome, of 

 good size, and keeps well, but the quality of the fruit is far 

 below that of the varieties already named. 



Winesap, a beautiful red Apple, of excellent c^ualitv, of 

 medium size, has proved one of the best keepers. 



Yellow Bellflower is also a fine-looking and good-keeping 

 winter sort. It seems among winter Apples what the Orange 

 is among autumn ones, the chief objection to it being' its 

 large core. 



■Wagoner stands near the head of all the winter Apples I am 

 acquainted with for quality ; of medium size, with a tender, 

 crisp, fine-grained flesh. 



In southern New Jersey the Roman Stem is a great favorite, 

 an Apple the farmers always keep for their own use. At the 

 Mount Hollv Fair two years ago there were about fifty plates 

 of this Apple on exhibition, entered for the prize offered for 

 the best plate, which shows how extensively it is grown there. 

 I am not aware of its trial in this section. 



For a sweet winter Apple which is wanted for baking, 

 Talman Sweet is probably as good as any ; but the winter 

 sweet Apple of this region is the old-time Canfield, the stand- 

 ard winter Apple of our fathers and grandfathers, a very pro- 

 lific sort, and one that will stand more rough handling than 

 any other. A bruise on the Canfield will dry up; on any other 

 it will rot. This Apple stfll holds its place in the aftections of 

 the farmer, though it is a poor Apple for dessert or cooking. 

 Its great merit is for cider. Its old-time consort, the Harrison, 

 once so popular, and the richest of all Apples, has failed so 

 completely of late years that a tree of it is a great rarity. Its 

 present status affords a fit answer to the question. Do varieties 

 run out or degenerate ? These two Apples were the founda- 

 tion in years gone by of New Jersey's well-earned reputation 

 for "Newark cider," vast quantities of these Apples being 

 crushed together and distributed widely through the Newark 

 market. There was a cider-mill on every third or fourth farm, 

 but nearly all of them long ago fell into decay. 



I have only given the names of leading Apples of established 



