May 12, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



187 



Houtte, of Ghent. Although pronounced as the very best 

 Amaryllis of their time they would scarcely attract more than 

 a passing glance to-day. They all show unique and often bril- 

 liant colors, but all are characterized by narrow, pointed seg- 

 ments, scarcely broad enough to exclude the light from 

 behind. At the same time Van Eeden took up the cultivation of 

 the Amaryllis with marked success, as his fine hybrids H. 

 Count Cavour and H. Fidelio show. 



S. A. De Graaf, of Leyden, Holland, is usually termed the 

 Amaryllis King. He has raised and introduced many thousand 

 exquisite, broad-petaled and finely formed robust-growing 

 hybrids. These plants have been cultivated in the family of 

 Mr. De Graaf since 1790. At first only the species were crossed 

 and intercrossed, and though rich colors were obtained, the flow- 

 ers were small. The present Mr. De Graaf began to hybridize 

 in 1862. From a fine hybrid named after his family, H. Grave- 

 ana and H. psittacinum, the very robust and strikingly beauti- 

 ful Empress of India was raised. This hybrid is of glowing 

 orange-scarlet color, with broad white bands, changing in the 

 tube to a yellowish green. The segments are very broad and 

 the flowers are of gigantic size, measuring about eight inches 

 in diameter. With the appearance of this remarkable hybrid 

 a new era in hybridizing Amaryllis began. All the sorts now 

 sent out by Mr. De Graaf are stately in growth, exceedingly 

 rich in color and of fine form. Bulbs fifteen to eighteen inches 

 in circumference are produced, as a rule, each bulb sending 

 up from two to four flower-scapes, each crowned with four 

 to six flowers. Of the following almost all vie in beauty with 

 Empress of India : Professor Koch, Van Speyk, Jacob Cats, 

 Franz Hals, Laurens Koster, Rubens, President Carnot, Mozart, 

 Louis Pasteur, Willem III. and Surprise. Of the light-flower- 

 ing hybrids the following are the most beautiful and robust: 

 Elvira, Waterloo, Conqueror and Schiller. 



The introduction of H. Leopoldii and H. pardinum afforded 

 an excellent opportunity to Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, 

 England, to attempt the improvement of the beautiful hybrids 

 raised by Mr. De Graaf. In 1867 they raised the very glowing 

 broad-petaled Chelsoni and Brilliant. Unfortunately these 

 forms are weak growers and not easily kept in good health. 

 Later, Mr. John Heal, who is in charge of the great Amaryllis 

 collection of Chelsea, crossed De Graaf's Empress of India with 

 the best forms of Leopoldii, with the result of obtaining not 

 only four to six flowered scapes, but also decided breaks of 

 color into various shades and tints, and from the intercrossing 

 of forms so obtained has resulted the race of Amaryllis now 

 so universally admired. Almost all the named Amaryllis sent 

 out by Messrs. Veitch at present are of the most symmetrical 

 form and as beautiful in every respect as any Lily. I have just 

 now the following in bloom : Crown Princess of Germany, 

 very short-tubed, open, broad-petaled, rosy white clouded 

 with deep glowing red ; John Heal, deep red with a yellowish 

 white star and points of segments broadly tipped, creamy 

 white ; Milton, Meteor and Enchantress, all of a light color 

 lined and penciled with red ; Southey, Star of India and Ne 

 Plus Ultra, all of vigorous growth and bright red color. 



A little later Mr. B. S. Williams, of London, also began the 

 hybridizing of Amaryllis, but on an entirely different line. His 

 results are among the best achieved. He succeeded in raising 

 the exquisite Amaryllis, Dr. Masters, a small-flowered but 

 exceedingly gorgeous hybrid, a glowing crimson-scarlet self, 

 without a trace of any other color. This kind is easily grown, 

 and flowers profusely when very small, in the window as well 

 as in the greenhouse. Mr. Williams has also raised robust- 

 growing, large-flowering hybrids, of which Lady Ardilaun, 

 Joseph Chamberlain, Ornata and Magnaeflora are fine exam- 

 ples, but he especially excels in the smaller- flowering, symmetri- 

 cally formed kinds, particularly those flowering in autumn. 

 These have mostly been derived from Hippeastrum reticulata 

 and its progeny, and almost all have short broad leaves, striped 

 with a conspicuous white band. Of these Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. 

 William Lee, Comte de Germiny, George Firth and R. J. 

 Pitcher are the most beautiful now in cultivation. 



One of the best Amaryllis cultivators and an excellent writer 

 on the subject is Mr. James Douglas, of Great Gearies, Eng- 

 land. He has a fine private collection and has raised a num- 

 ber that rival in gorgeous coloring those obtained by Mr. John 

 Heal, of the Messrs. Veitch. I have quite a number of his 

 Kinds in my collection, and all are beautiful. The most note- 

 worthy are Serapis, Clarinda, Cleanthes. Prince Albert Victor, 

 Grand Monarch, Great Gearies, etc. His accounts of these 

 royal plants in the English horticultural journals have done much 

 to disseminate information on the subject, and many flower 

 lovers have been induced by him to take up their cultiva- 

 tion. 



Milwaukee, Wis. H. Nehrling. 



Early-flowering Shrubs. 



GARDEN AND FOREST has often called attention to the 

 beauty of the foliage of trees in early spring, not only on 

 account of its delicate texture, but on account of its wonderful 

 color, which is different in every species and sometimes in the 

 individual trees of each species. It often changes between 

 morning and night through a range of color entirely different 

 from that which the same leaves assume in autumn. Of 

 course, these spring tints are not as vivid as those of autumn, 

 but they are quite as rich, and our forests never show more 

 wonderful variety of tone than they do through the hazy air of 

 early May. But I do not remember ever to have seen much 

 stress laid on the varying colors of the foliage of shrubs in spring, 

 although this is almost as beautiful, and it adds one more to 

 the many delightful aspects of the shrub border. Forgeneral 

 form, for luxuriant flowering, for variety of foliage, for beauty 

 of fruit in summer and winter, for the depth of the color of its 

 foliage in autumn, much has been written about shrub planta- 

 tions, but it well may be added that between the middle of 

 April and the last of May the variety of form and color in the 

 leaves of any extensive plantation of shrubs brings a constant 

 delight. The light yellowish green of some of the low Wil- 

 lows, the gray of the Elaeagnuses, the dark bronze or deep 

 wine-color of some of the Viburnums with all shades of green 

 between, make a variety which is almost infinite. 



This is the flowering season of many shrubs ; the very earliest 

 of them, like the Chinese Bush Honeysuckles, Lonicera fra- 

 grantissima and L. Standishii, are already past their bloom. So 

 are the Spice-bush, the beautiful Cornelian Cherrv, Daphne 

 Mezereum, the Leatherwood, Andromeda floribunda and its 

 Japanese relative. Several of the Currants are still in flower, and 

 among them the western Ribessanguineum, which is occasion- 

 ally seen here, though it does not do as well as R. aureum, 

 the well-known Missouri Currant, with its bright golden-yellow 

 flowers. The hybrid R. Gordonianum is very hardy, being a 

 cross between R. aureum and R. sanguineum, and bears flow- 

 ers abundantly in racemes. There are many other varieties 

 and species of Currant which ought to be in gardens and 

 which are found in collections like the one in the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum. Forexample, the American Red Currant, R. rubrum, 

 is a beautiful object when in flower. Out in the swamps the 

 fragrant Andromeda polifolia is in bloom, but it is rarely seen 

 here in cultivation, although it does just as well in a border 

 and flowers as freely as it does when it is in the peat bog 

 where it naturally grows and is sometimes almost entirely 

 submerged in water. The little Swamp Laurel, Kalmia glauca, 

 a low shrub from the far north, is just opening its lilac-purple 

 flowers, and so is the beautiful Rhodora, which is known bv 

 Emerson's poem to a very great many people who have never 

 seen its rosy flowers in a cold northern swamp. Rhododen- 

 dron Vaseyi is showing its clear pink flowers, which are quite 

 unlikeeither of thoseof other Azaleas. Manyyears ago Gardex 

 and Forest recommended the crossing of this plant with the 

 Rhodora. Has any one tried the experiment ? The Siberian 

 Pea-tree, Caragana arborescens, and the shrubby C. f ructescens, 

 which begins to flower a day or two earlier, are both now 

 showing their bright yellow pea-shaped flowers in clusters 

 from the axils of the leaves. Daphne Genkwa is displaying its 

 tubular flowers with the singular bluish-lilac color which no 

 hardy shrub of the season exactly matches. SpirasaThunbergii 

 has passed out of bloom, the old-fashioned S. prunifolia is 

 still covered with its double flowers and will soon be followed 

 by half a dozen more, while Exochorda, often called the Pearl 

 Bush, Japan Quinces in variety, Rhodotypus and many others 

 are in full beauty. Among the smaller trees the Red-buds, 

 many of the Plums and a wonderful variety of flowering 

 Apples and Thorns are in full bloom. In short, the shrubbery 

 is never more beautiful than it is in early Mav. 

 New Brunswick, N. J. R. Ennis. 



Orchids in Flower. 



nnilE greenhouse is as gay with flowers in April as in any 

 -*- month of the year, and the Orchid-house quite holds its 

 own, with most of the genera represented. Cattleyas are 

 probably most numerous. Fine forms of C. Trianse are in 

 flower, and one of the most distinct is tin- variety Schrccder- 

 iana. C. Lawrenciana is bearing some handsome spiki 

 live and six flowers. C. intermedia, C. Skinned, C. Mendelii 

 and C. maxima»are all in full flower, while the flowers of 

 C. Mossise are just pushing through the sheath. 



Among Dendrobiums a few flowers of D. nobile still remain, 

 while D. densiflorum and D. thvrsiflorum are just coming fo 

 their best. Fine flowers of the fragrant Cymbidium eburneum 

 are still to be seen. 



