November 14, 1S88.] 



Garden and Forest. 



445 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY IJV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S- Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



f'AGE. 



EuiTORiAi, Articles ; — Chrysanthemums. — Piazzas. IF 445 



A Glimpse of Nantucket Ahs. Schuyler I'hk Re^isselacr. 447 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Goldriiig- 44S 



New or Little Known Plants : — Rosa Nutkana {with illustration). 



Serena IValson. 449 



Cultural Depart.ment : — Vegetables in Frames IVilliam Falconer, 450 



Notes from an Amateur's Garden W. G. 450 



Shall We Plant in Fall or in Spring? E. Williams. 451 



Nerine Fothergilli — Soil for Roses — Out-door Roses — Orchid Notes — 

 Two Beautiful Stove Bulbs 451 



Plant Notes; — Spiraea trilobata (with illustration) 453 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J, 453 



The Forest: — European Forest Management B, F. Fernow. 454 



Horticultur.al Exhibitions : — The New York Chrysanthemum Show 455 



The Germantown Exhibition 456 



The Flower Show at Orange, New Jersey 456 



Notes 456 



Illustr.-vtions ; — Rosa Nutkana, Fig. 70 449 



Spirsea trilobata, Fig. 71 452 



Chr3'santhemums. 



THE remarkable popularity of the Chrysanthemum in 

 recent years can hartily be classeii among those 

 transient floral epidemics, so many of which are on record 

 in the history of horticulture. The rage for Sunflowers 

 and Daisies, with many another ephemeral caprice of this 

 sort, died out as suddenly as they arose, not because the 

 flower which chanced to be the prevailing fashion had no 

 merit, but because an exaggerated or fictitious beauty and 

 value were claimed for it. The interest in the Chrysanthe- 

 mum has had a slow and steady development, and it is 

 based on the genuine worth of the flower. It appears 

 at a time when rivals are few and its blooming period 

 extends over a long season. It ranges through a series of 

 rich, mellow tones of color, and no flower lends itself 

 more readily to the production of decorative effects. In form 

 it has the merit of symmetry, without a hint of rigid for- 

 mality or any chilling suggestion of artificiality, such as 

 characterizes a double Dahlia or a prize Camellia. No 

 other flower equals it in the diversity of form which it 

 assumes within the limits of perfect proportion. Each 

 variety and class of varieties shows such a marked indi- 

 viduality in the shaping and arrangement of its parts, or 

 such a delightful waywardness in the curving and twisting 

 of its florets, that one can examine a hundred flowers and 

 never find the outline of a single one repeated. When it 

 is remembered, too, how much of promise for the future of 

 the Chrysanthemum there is in this free habit of blossom- 

 ing out into novel and graceful forms, we can rest satis- 

 fied that not even the Rose will more securely maintain its 

 position as an established favorite among flowers. 



The history of the Chrysanthemum's development from 

 its earlier and more simple garden forms, is most inter- 

 esting. It will suffice for our present purpose to note that 

 Loudon, in his Cyclopedia published in 1824, speaks of 

 numerous varieties "recently obtained from China," 

 where the flower had long been cultivated. He enumer- 

 ates forty-four varieties, of which few are now to be 

 found in cultivation. The Large Lilac is one of those 

 which still may be found in old gardens on Long Island 



and in other parts of this state. Perhaps several of them 

 still survive in old places still further south. Some of them, 

 like the Tasseled Yellow and White, the Yellow Waratah 

 and the Golden Lotus-flowered, would be appreciated now 

 if they could be re-introduced and cultivated under 

 approved modern methods. Samuel Broome, in 1857, 

 published a list of the varieties then growing in the Temple 

 Garden, London, and among them were 184 varieties of 

 what was known as the Chinese Chrysanthemum, 

 eighteen Large-flowered Anemones, 140 Pompons or Lili- 

 puts, and thirty Anemone Pompons. Of these, there are 

 found in collections to-day, twenty-five Chinese, eight 

 Chinese Anemones, twenty-one Pompons and ten Ane- 

 mone Pompons. It is hardly twenty-five years since 

 flowers belonging to the Japanese section were introduced 

 to general notice. It was in 1865 that the Gardeners' 

 C/irowic/e reported that Mr. Veitch had sent home "three 

 very distinct forms, evidently the representatives of many 

 beautiful prodiictions yet unborn," Two of them had 

 peculiar ligulate ray-flowers, all or nearly all of which were 

 drawn out into extremely narrow, sharp terminations, now 

 and then inclined to, fork. The third was of quite another 

 kind, close-headed, incurved, with all the florets divided 

 into two irregular and unequal lips. The now famous 

 Grandiflorum was sent by Robert Fortune to John Standish, 

 of Ascot, and shown by him as early as 1862. At the 

 same time were exhibited Laciniatum and Japonicum, 

 the former spoken of as a "distinct Japanese variety of 

 the Chinese Chrysanthemum with white flower-heads 

 composed of fringed tubular petals." The report speaks 

 of the latter as being remarkable for its slender, tubular, 

 curved florets. How all these peculiarities have been 

 intensified since their introduction, and fused together 

 into new combinations, is made plain in any ordinary col- 

 lection to-day. 



Enthusiastic cultivators in this country recognized the 

 value of the Chrysanthemum long ago, but it is scarcely 

 more than seven years since this flower first attained 

 its real popularity here. Mr. H. P. Walcott, in Boston, 

 Mr. W. K. Harris, in Philadelphia, and Mr. John Thorpe, 

 in New York, were most conspicuous in bringing it 

 into public favor. The importation from Japan, by 

 Waterer, of some fifty varieties, in 1883, many of which 

 were most distinct and beautiful, gave a new impulse to 

 hybridizing, and now the new kinds that appear every 

 year are almost numberless. At least 10,000 tried seed- 

 lings have been on exhibition for the first time this )'ear. 

 The diversity of form and color displayed is almost infin- 

 ite, and the various strains have been so intercrossed that 

 the seeds from a single flower-head will often produce ex- 

 amples of the types most widely separated in structure and 

 size, together with intermediate ancl kindred forms. The 

 strong propensity of the Chrysanthemum to variation has 

 been of great advantage to the originators of new varieties, 

 and, by careful selection, the improvement in color 

 has been as striking as the changes in form. Shades 

 and tints which were unknown in this flower a decade 

 ago are now common. Maroons, crimsons, rose, pink 

 and buff have all become more decided. The markings 

 of parti-colored flowers upon the tips and along the mar- 

 ginal lines have become more distinct, and the production 

 of a scarlet flower is not despaired of b}' those who have 

 done the most to bring out the newer and formerl)' un- 

 known shades. It is small wonder, then, that exhibitions 

 devoted exclusively to Chrysanthemums have been held 

 in at least a dozen of our cities this year, while only four 

 years ago Boston, New York and Philadelphia alone had 

 such displays. 



No one can prophes)^ in what direction the next marked 

 improvement in the Chrysanthemum may be looked for; 

 but, judging from the past, striking variations from the 

 forms we are now familiar with may be expected. Those 

 who studiously note the development of new seedlings are 

 quick to mark the appearance of slight peculiarities, for 

 these may be the forerunners of distinct types. For some 



