April 14, 1897. 



Garden and Forest. 



47 



its greatest enemy is confervas, which will adhere to the leaves 

 whenever there is a sufficient amount of light, but with a heavy 

 shade on the glass of naphtha and white lead this growth can 

 be kept in check. The plants will throw larger leaves when 

 they are shaded from direct sunlight. In places where it is 

 not desirable to have shading, the common Azolla pinnata 

 grown on the surface makes an excellent substitute, but this 

 has to be brushed aside in order to see the Ouvirandra. The 

 soil for fairly large plants should consist of loam finely sifted 

 three parts, and one part made up of broken charcoal, fine 

 gravel and rotten cow-manure. At potting time this should 

 be mixed and put in a condition which would be considered 

 too wet for potting ordinary plants, so as to prevent the mass 

 from softening in the pot after it is placed in the water. The 

 surface of the pot should be finished off with light-colored 

 gravel or broken rock in order that the fine network of the 

 leaves may the more easily be seen. The pot should be just 

 low enough in the water to insure the covering of the leaves, 

 and no more. Should the leaves become covered with sedi- 

 ment of any sort the plant should be taken out and the leaves 

 syringed, one person holding the leaf-blades flat against the 

 hand while another manipulates the syringe. Ouvirandra is 

 most easily propagated by dividing the crowns ; one fair-sized 

 offset should make eight or ten breaks within a year. The 

 plant dislikes sudden changes in the temperature of the water, 

 and if subjected to such treatment it is almost certain to lose 

 its older leaves, and those which are growing do not attain 

 their full size. 



Botanic Garden. Washington, D.C. G. W. Oliver. 



Notes from the Botanic Garden of Smith College. 



THE raising of seedlings is one of the most important and 

 -*- one of the most interesting operations of botanic garden 

 work, especially where large numbers of species are included. 

 We have some seven hundred species germinated from seed 

 sown this spring. Two-thirds of these are intended for the 

 beds (which are planted in families) outside, while the remain- 

 der are greenhouse species and Cacti. To accommodate this 

 number it is important to raise them in the smallest possible 

 space. To this end we sow almost all our seeds in four-inch 

 pots, one species in a pot. We have found this size to be best 

 adapted for the purpose, a size larger being cumbersome, 

 while in a size smaller the soil dries out too rapidly. The 

 tropical species and Cacti are raised in the propagating-house, 

 which is kept at a temperature of about seventy degrees. The 

 hardy and cool greenhouse species are raised on the north 

 side of the warm temperate house, on a temporary stage, 

 which brings them as near the glass as possible. We have 

 found that hardy perennials germinate much better in a tem- 

 perature of fifty-five degrees than in a cooler temperature. 

 We use a light rich soil, made very fine and porous on the 

 surface. For the Cacti the pots must be well drained, and we 

 usually mix a little powdered charcoal with the surface soil, 

 and also a little more sand than for ordinary seedlings, as they 

 have to remain in their seedling pots for one year at least, and 

 often three years, according to the genus. Cereuses and 

 Opuntias may be potted off singly in one year, while the slow- 

 growing Mamillarias, Anhaloniums, Echinocactus, etc., require 

 two years at the least before they are sufficiently rooted to pot 

 singly. 



All the seedlings require careful watching in regard to water- 

 ing especially, and if any show signs of damping they must 

 be transplanted into fresh soil at once, and this is generally a 

 preventive. As we only require about eight plants of each of 

 the hardy perennial seedlings, we transplant them into two 

 other four-inch pots as soon as they are large enough to han- 

 dle ; these by the end of May are of suitable size for planting, 

 either in their permanent position or in nursery lines for fall 

 planting. This method of raising seedlings, I think, might be 

 employed with advantage commercially, tor as many as two or 

 three hundred seedlings of some species may be germinated 

 in a single four-inch pot. 



Northampton, Mass. EdlUard J. Canning. 



Rose Hybrids. 



DOSA WICHURAIANA is a plant probably familiar to most 

 ■*■ *■ of the readers of Garden and Forest, since its peculiar 

 characteristics and merits were first noted in its columns. The 

 general garden public has had its attention more especially 

 called to it lately under the name of the " Memorial Rose." 

 It is doubtful whether superintendents of trimly kept ceme- 

 teries have welcomed it as a boon, for it is a great rambler and 

 not a plant to be allowed over grass. On sandy, bare soil where 

 few things will grow, or over sloping banks or rocks, it is very 



valuable and effective, being not only a rapid, vigorous grower, 

 but perfectly hardy in the worst seasons. Its thick, smooth 

 leaves are little subject to insect pests. lis principal value for 

 ordinary positions, however, would be for use as a pillar Rose, 

 a class of plants for which purpose we have comparatively 

 few varieties that make very long growths and are entirely 

 hardy. The fragrant, beautiful clusters of the single white 

 flowers leave little to be desired. It seems to hybridize readily, 

 and Mr. W. A. Manda, of South Orange, New Jersey, has 

 secured a lot of charming hybrids which have all the merils 

 of the parent plant in hardiness and vigor, and have in addi- 

 tion a great variety of flowers. Mr. Manda has made crosses 

 with a number of tender Roses, mostly Teas, and has secured 

 flowers which are single, semi-double and very double, and 

 white-pink and dark pink (or rose) in color. Last week in Mr. 

 Manda's propagating-house there were some of the double- 

 flowered plants which had been lifted, cut back and forced 

 into bloom. This variety, known as "Manda's Triumph," has 

 a snow-white flower with petals perfectly imbricated and about 

 two inches in diameter. They grow in clusters of twenty-five 

 to fifty or more blooms. One of the prettiest of these hybrids 

 is a single-flowered pink one, known as the " Roamer." There 

 is also a variety which has only a slight suffusion of pink in 

 the white. 



These are not forcing Roses, however, and I was drawn to 

 South Orange mostly to see how the plants had wintered in 

 the open, where they had been exposed on a sandy bank. 

 Plants said to be hybrids with Madame Hoste and Meteor 

 had old growths in some cases twelve feet long, and these 

 were alive for their full length ; in fact, the plants seemed 

 entirely unaffected, except in some soft late growths, and these 

 in some cases were not entirely lifeless. These hybrids seem 

 to me an interesting and valuable genus. 

 Elizabeth, n.j. J. N. Gerard. 



Bamboos in Florida. 



THE most striking and interesting features in many Florida 

 -*- gardens are the immense clumps of Bamboos. Planted 

 with the charming evergreen Magnolia, the striking Camphor 

 Tree and such Palms as the massive Phoenix Canariensis or 

 Cocos Australis, they always command attention by their dis- 

 tinguished appearance. 



While on a visit to Florida last November and December 

 I paid special attention to the different species of these giant 

 Grasses found in cultivation. The tourist gets the first glimpse 

 of them while crossing the southern parts of Alabama and 

 Georgia. On both sides of the railroad track there are to be 

 seen in moist ground almost impenetrable masses of our 

 native Arundinaria macrosperma. In the lower Mississippi 

 valley, as far north as southern Illinois and Indiana, immense 

 stretches of the low ground are covered with these "cane- 

 brakes." The first specimens of the more ornamental Asiatic 

 species I found in the St. James Park at Jacksonville, Florida. 

 I frequently occupied a bench underneath a few broad spread- 

 ing Hollies, Ilex apoca, about twenty feet in height, to enjoy 

 the beauty of a magnificent clump of Arundinaria Japonica, 

 Bambusa metake, scarcely seven yards away. This plant is 

 about twelve feet high and twenty feet in diameter, forming a 

 semi-globular mass of the densest and richest green imaginable. 

 The stems, which are highest and slrongestin the centre, are 

 not crowded in a mass around the root-stock, but they stand 

 from one to two feet apart. Every stem stands upright and is 

 furnished two-thirds of its length with broad evergreen foliap-e. 

 All the culms clustering around the plant are smaller and 

 shorter than those more in the centre. Mocking birds and 

 many of our feathered winter sojourners, like juncos, white- 

 throated and white-crowned sparrows, catbirds, etc., find 

 exceedingly congenial and safe retreats among this mass of 

 green. This particular specimen is so beautiful that it is worth 

 quite a journey to see it. Having been planted five vears ago 

 it was killed to the ground during the great freeze on February 

 7th, 1895. At present it is as beautiful as ever. There are 

 several smaller specimens in the same ground, which in a few 

 years will have attained the same proportions. Several plants 

 of Bambusa argentea (probably B. verticillata) do not look as 

 promising, and B. vulgaris is not at home so far north. 



The most beautiful as well as the largest Bamboos were 

 seen in the gardens of Orlando, over a hundred miles farther 

 south. The species commonly met with is the large unarmed 

 Bamboo of Bengal, Bambusa vulgaris, usually called the Giant 

 Bamboo. Everywhere in the charming subtropical gardens 

 in the town it forms masses ot noble aspects. When well 

 established, heavily fertilized and frequently watered, it grows 

 at such a rapid rate that in the course of about five or six years 

 immense clumps thirty to fifty feet high, and as much in diam- 



