November 14, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



453 



stove, and may be readily obtained from nurseries. It is 

 a pity that plants like these, possessing such wondrous flower- 

 beautv, should be neglected for the sake of novelties not half 

 so beautiful. — The London Garden. 



Plant Notes. 

 Spirgea trilobata. 



Spircea trilobata, of which a flowering branch appears in 

 our illustration on page 452 of this issue, has been cultivated 

 in gardens since the ver)^ first years of the century. When 

 the graceful, pendulous branches which sweep the ground 

 are wreathed in early June with their clusters of white 

 flowers, few plants are more beautiful or more generally 

 adinired. It is a wide-spreading, open bush, which is rarely 

 more than three or four feet high ; and it is one of the very 

 best shrubs which can be used on the margins of a shrub- 

 bery to connect taller plants with the grass of the lawn. 



Spircea trilobata is a widely distributed plant, being found 

 in Turkestan, Siberia, Mongolia and northern China. It is 

 one of the very few plants which will not be out of place 

 in any collection of shrubs, or in any garden. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. 



THE most beautiful plant now in this collection, so far as 

 its fruit is concerned, is Lycinm Chinense, a Chinese 

 species with semi-prostrate or vine-like branches, eight or ten 

 feet long'. From these spring, at nearly right angles, rigid, 

 lateral branches, one or two feet long, and these are fairly 

 loaded with bright scarlet, oblong fruits, about half an inch 

 long, contrasting fijiely with the leaves, which are still 

 bright green and shining. The end of each main branch is, 

 as it were, a broad and leafy raceme, two or three feet long, 

 of brilliant fruit. The fruit and the leaves remain upon this 

 plant until destroyed by really hard freezing. Among fruits 

 which are ornamental at this season of the year should be 

 mentioned forms of one of the Asiatic Apples, Piv-z/j /;-<v«?'- 

 folia, one of the parents, most authors aifirm, of the so-called 

 Siberian Crabs. The fruit of Pyrus pru7iifolia is golden yel- 

 low on some plants, and bright scarlet upon others. It is an 

 inch or two in diameter, and hangs upon the branches long 

 after the leaves have fallen, retaining its form and its brilliant 

 colors well into the winter. This species, or its varieties — for 

 the so-called ornamental Apples are so changed by long cul- 

 tivation, and perhaps by the crossing of the different species 

 and varieties, that it is rarely possible to find exactly the wild 

 type of any of them — is far more ornamental in fruit than the 

 more commonly cultivated varieties of P. baccata, the fruit of 

 which, distinguished by the deciduous calyx, is smaller, and 

 less persistent upon the liranches. The foliage of the Asiatic 

 Apples falls early and without change of color, so that it is for 

 their flowers rather than for autumn effects that these plants 

 are really valuable. But one of the Asiatic Pears, Pyrus 

 Sinensis, often known as the Sand Pear, is not surpassed by 

 any other tree in the deep rich scarlet and purple tones of its 

 autumn leaves. This is a plant of excellent habit and rapid 

 growth ; it is beautiful when in flower ; the fruit has consider- 

 able value for culinary purposes, and the leaves turn more 

 beautifully in the autumn than those of any other fruit-tree 

 which I can now recall. It is a tree, therefore, which might 

 well be seen in gardens more g'enerally than it is at present. 

 Another eastern Asia Pear, P. betiilifolia, loses its silvery 

 white leaves early, and without any change of color. 



Few Spirasas are valuable on account of the colors of their 

 autumn foliage. Many of the species, especially the Euro- 

 pean and Siberian, lose their leaves early ; but .S. prii7iifolia, 

 of which only the double flowered variety is known to botan- 

 ists or in gardens, one of the least attractive of the entire 

 genus, both in habit and in its flowers, is now beautiful in the 

 brilliant orange and scarlet of its autumn dress. Spira:a 

 Thunbergii is sdll green, but its leaves will turn to rich colors 

 at the end of another week or two. This is almost the very 

 latest to change of the shrubs which take on bright autumn 

 colors, just as it is one of the very earliest of all shrubs to put 

 forth its leaves in the spring, and among the earliest to 

 flower. Few shrubs, all things considered, are more beauti- 

 ful than this Japanese Spiraea, and few can boast of more good 

 qualities. Here its only fault is found in the fact that the ends 

 of the branches are sometimes killed back in severe winters. 



Among European shrubs, none assume such attractive 

 colors in autumn as do some forms of the common Spindle 

 tree {Ejiony?nus Europatcs), although in the richness, or, 

 rather, in the depth of its autumn tints, their American con- 



gener {E. atropurpureus) surpasses them. Much more beauti- 

 ful, however, than either the European or the American spe- 

 cies in this respect, is the Japanese E. alata. Forms of this 

 plant vary here; but there is one in the collection upon which 

 the leaves assume in autumn a clear, rose-pink color, which 

 resembles that of no other plant I can recall, and which makes 

 it one of the most interesting shrubs that can be grown, 

 wherever attention is paid in planting to autumnal effects. The 

 fruit, however, is small, and not to be compared in brilliancy 

 or in beauty with that of the European plants, which are con- 

 spicuous objects in the shrubbery through the autumn and 

 early winter months. 



We spoke, when the plants were in flower, of the beauty of 

 a Japanese Cherry, Pritnus Pseudo Cerastes. Its value as an 

 ornamental plant is heightened by the fact that its leaves turn' 

 at this season here to orange and scarlet. Among small 

 trees of comparatively recent introduction into our gardens 

 not one gives better promise of real ornamental value. 

 A feeble growth and not particularly good habit are the only 

 drawbacks in this plant, and these are compensated for by its 

 abundant flowers and handsome foliage. 



The Japanese Maples are certainly at their best in the 

 autumn, when the colors which some species take on are 

 almost unsurpassed. On the whole, Japanese Maples cannot 

 be considered a great success in cultivation here. Occasion- 

 ally a fairly good specimen of Acer polyniorphittn or Acer 

 J aponicum may be seen, but none of the race seem possessed 

 of very robust constitution, and all of them, although hardy 

 enough as regards cold, are apt to perish suddenly, or branch 

 by branch, without any apparent cause, during the summer. 

 The nearer the plants approach the types of the species, the 

 more saitsfactory they seem to be, and the green-leaved and 

 the purple-leaved A. polymorpliiim are more reliable here than 

 any of the abnormal forms of this species, and of A. Japojii- 

 cn/n, which Japanese gardeners have been collecting and per- 

 petuating for centuries. But Japanese Maples are such really 

 beautiful objects at this season of the year, that one is 

 tempted to recommend their more general use in gardens, 

 in spite of all the disappointments which have followed 

 their cultivation, and of the miserable sun-burned appearance 

 many of the varieties present before the autumn kindles their 

 color into a blaze. A week of such beauty may well compen- 

 sate for many disappointments. 



Few Maples turn more beautifully than the shrub-like Man- 

 churian form of Acer Tartariciim, which is sometimes known 

 as Acer Ginnalaj but it has the serious defect of losing its leaves 

 early and before most other plants have made their finest 

 autumn show. 



There is great difference in the behavior of the various 

 species of Lilac in autumn. The leaves of the common Lilac 

 never change color at all, but remain green until very late 

 and then turn black and fall. The Persian Lilac behaves in 

 the same way, while the leaves of 5. Chinensis turn to a pale 

 yellow, without beauty. The leaves of S. Japonica and 5. 

 Aimirensis fall early in October and without changing color, 

 and this is certainly a defect in these plants as garden orna- 

 ments. S. villosa behaves in the same way, although the leaves 

 persist a few days longer than upon the two species just re- 

 ferred to. The leaves of S. Pekinensis remain much later upon 

 the plant, and then turn a light, but not very clear yellow. The 

 leathery leaves of 5'. oblata, the only Lilac worth consideration 

 for the autumn coloring of its foliage, are still green. A little 

 later they will turn to a deep rich claret color of unsurpassed 

 lieauty. 



Female plants of the Black Alder, Ilex (Prinos) verticillata, 

 are now conspicuous objects, covered with their bright red 

 fruits. There is a plant in this collection with yellow fruit, 

 but this is less showy than the common forms, and hardly 

 worth cultivating except as a curiosity. The leaves of the 

 Black Alder turn black before they fall, and without any pre- 

 vious change of color, while on an allied and comparatively 

 rare species. Ilex Icvingaia, which may be most readily dis- 

 tinguished by its stalked fruit, the autumn coloring of the 

 leaves is bright yellow. These two Hollies are well worth 

 general cultivation for the beauty of their fruits. They will 

 thrive, although swamp plants, in any ordinary garden soil. 



Some of our native Viburnums are worthy of mention at 

 this time. The most conspicuous, perhaps, although its foli- 

 age, having first turned orange and scarlet, has now nearly all 

 gone, is the cosmopolitan V. Opii/iis, the most showy of the 

 genus in fruit, which is large and bright red, remaining for 

 many weeks upon the branches until devoured by birds, who 

 seem to attack it only wlien other food becomes scarce. The . 

 broad and handsome leaves of V. dentatum, one of the most 

 ornamental species of the genus in habit, foHage, flowers and 



