1 88 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 481. 



Cypripediums are not so plentifully represented at this sea- 

 son. C. villosum will soon be past its best. C. Lawrenci- 

 anum is just coming in, and this deservedly popular variety 

 is attractive both in flower and foliage. C. caudatum, or Se- 

 lenipedium caudatum as it is now classed, is bearing some fine 

 flowers, which, with their long tail-like petals, are more quaint 

 than showy. 



The somewhat rare Bifrenaria Harrisonise eburnea is bear- 

 ing its two-flowered spikes of ivory-white flowers. A few 

 flowers of Lycaste Skinneri still linger, though somewhat out 

 of season. This is one of the longest-standing Orchids we 

 have if taken care of, but the least touch disfigures it, and it 

 must, therefore, be carefully handled. Odontoglossum Harry- 

 anum is carrying some fine spikes, while the little O. Rossii 

 and its variety O. Rossii majus still produce a few flowers. 

 Oncidium splendidium is just at its best and is bearing noble 

 spikes of richly colored flowers. The flower-spikes of Renan- 

 thera coccinea are fast pushing- out, and an abundance of 

 bloom is promised. Several varieties of Phalaenopsis are still 

 in flower, P. amabilis and P. Schilleriana being most abun- 

 dant. Schomburgkia undulata still holds its brownish purple 

 flowers in good condition, but they will soon be past their best. 



Tarrytown. N. Y. William Scott. 



Irises. — To continue the calendar of Irises, I. fumosa in 

 mid-bloom now proves to have a flower of a light yellow 

 color more pleasing than I. Caucasica, with a little smokiness, 

 but it is not a very effective garden plant. In foliaee and habit 

 it is akin to I. Smdjarensis. The first of the rhizomatous 

 Irises flowered last week. I. rubro-marginata, which I have 

 before described as a very dwarf species with scythe-shaped 

 leaves and small flowers an inch across, dark red-purple, 

 tinged with blue, in color. It has tall and large standards. It 

 is a bearded Iris from Asia Minor. Other Irises now in flower 

 are I. pumila and its white variety, both dwarf kinds, six 

 inches or so in height; also I. ChamEeiris, a species growing 

 about a foot high, with pleasing yellow flowers. About the 

 same height is I. Olbiensis, a dark purple-flowering kind, very 

 desirable and effective. Somewhat dwarfer is I. lutescens, 

 with pale yellow flowers and falls slightly tinged with purple ; 

 from a garden point of view, an inferior species. Similar in 

 habit and size is I. Statellae, a species with creamy white 

 flowers and yellow markings on the falls. The color is very 

 pure in tone and the species one of the most desirable. Also 

 at this time flowers I. Tectorum, the Japanese Roof Iris, 

 though it is under protection, and has never been tested for 

 hardiness in my garden. It flowers before it has made much 

 new growth. The flowers are very handsome, with wide falls 

 light lavender in hue, darker markings of the same color. 

 This Iris has a very pretty habit, the sword-like leaves being 

 somewhat relaxed. My plant produces double flowers, if that 

 describes the curvature, which may be its normal form, or 

 otherwise. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N. G. 



Correspondence. 



Bibliographical Notes on American Trees. — II. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— In No. 477 of Garden and Forest, Mr. Farwell calls 

 for a more explicit statement of the case of the publication of 

 Abies as a genus by Duhamel in 1755. He credits me with 

 saying that "Duhamel published a genus Abies in 1755," but 

 complains that I "fail to state what his type was." It is true 

 that I did not indicate what was Duhamel's type ; but that was 

 not and is not necessary, inasmuch as I did not publish any 

 such ambiguous statement as that Duhamel presented a 

 genus Abies. I said the genus Abies ; and that expression 

 implies that the author has the Firs, not the Spruces, for his 

 type. Of course, all early authors included the species of 

 Picea and of Tsuga under Abies, Duhamel with the rest ; but 

 they are quite as unanimously accepted the true Firs as the 

 type of Abies. In this Duhamel is even more explicit than 

 some others, for, in characterizing Abies, he states that the 

 more genuine species — the Abies proper — have upright cones, 

 two-ranked foliage, etc. And then, in the enumeration of the 

 species, the common Old World Fir, Abies alba, Mill. (A. pec- 

 tinata, Lam.), holds the first place, as being the type of the 

 genus. 



In attempting to establish the identity of Miller's Abies Can- 

 adensis with the Pinus Canadensis of Linnaeus, Mr. Farwell 

 has at least presented a curious, if not, indeed, a very difficult 

 problem in nomenclature, though his own way of solving it 

 will not satisfy every one. In the process of his 



some important considerations seem to have been left out of 

 view, as, for example, the possibility that both Linnaeus and 

 Miller may have had two different trees, perhaps of different 

 genera, included under the specific name Canadensis. For, if 

 it be admitted that Linnaeus' descriptive phrase, " foliis soli- 

 tariis linearibus obtusiusculis submembranaceis," applies to 

 and indicates the Hemlock Spruce, it is more certain that the 

 synonym which he adduces from Miller, and which ends 

 with the character "conis parvis biuncialibus laxis," cannot 

 belong to the Hemlock Spruce ; for the cones of this are 

 not " lax," nor are they even one-half of " two inches long " ; 

 but this, the essential character, does apply to what Miller 

 calls the " Newfoundland While Spruce Fir." It is quite con- 

 clusive, then, that our White Spruce forms a part, at least, of 

 the Pinus Canadensis, Linn., and if the Hemlock Spruce was 

 at all intended by him, under the name P. Canadensis, then his 

 so-called species of that name is made up of two trees of dif- 

 ferent genera — a situation in which that celebrated author 

 placed himself upon almost every page of the Species Plan- 

 tarum. It is even possible to think that by his P. Canadensis 

 nothing at all but the White Spruce is intended. Miller, a con- 

 temporary of Linnaeus, a careful botanist, and particularly 

 interested in trees introduced from America into Europe, had 

 not the remotest suspicion that (he P. Canadensis of the Species 

 Plantarum meant anything but the White Spruce. Linnaeus 

 had cited his figure of it, published in 1760, as a type, and he 

 himself in 1768 seems innocently to have returned the compli- 

 ment by adopting, and giving the first place to, Linnaeus' 

 descriptive phrase. If by that phrase anything else than the 

 White Spruce had been intended, Miller was completely un- 

 aware of it. And as for the Hemlock Spruce, it is plain that 

 Miller, in naming and publishing it as Abies Americana, 

 believed himself to be naming a tree of which Linnaeus had 

 made no mention. When, therefore, it is proposed, as by Mr. 

 Farwell, that the two names, P. Canadensis. Linn., and Abies 

 Canadensis, Mill., must be received as applying to the same 

 species, we are ready to answer : Yes, unless under each name 

 two species are included. But when it is said that both names 

 apply primarily to the Hemlock Spruce, we are obliged to pro- 

 test, first, that Miller both implicitly and expressly denies that 

 he had such intent ; and second, that it remains to be shown 

 that even Linnaeus meant, by P. Canadensis, the Hemlock 

 Spruce. 



Catholic University, D. C. KdlV . L. Greene. 



Is the White Pine Doomed ? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have been interested in the discussion of this ques- 

 tion in your columns, and I will leave the scientists to decide 

 whether coniferous forests must ultimately give place to those 

 of deciduous trees. In my experience I have found species 

 of both classes of trees which it seemed to me must fail sooner 

 or later because they are unable to produce seeds of good 

 germinating quality, but the White Pine is not one of these. 

 When I lived in Vermont fifty-nine years ago they were cut- 

 ting timber on Woodford Mountain, adjoining Bennington, for 

 charcoal. An old Vermonter surprised me by saying that 

 wherever a forest was cut down a new kind of timber was 

 sure to take its place. This was the first time I had heard this 

 statement, though it was by no means the last, and when I 

 asked him where the seed came from he replied that he did 

 not know. White Pines are (rees which I have admired more 

 than any others, and I have watched them during all these fifty- 

 nine years. In that period I have traveled among White Pine 

 forests in New England, both Canadas, Michigan and Minne- 

 sota, and it never once occurred to me that White Pine was 

 losing its power to reproduce itself from lack of seeds, and 

 while I have planted seeds of this tree and sold them for both 

 the home and foreign market, except in a single instance, I 

 have never found any difficulty in securing all I wanted. In 

 that case I sent to Germany and bought eight hundred pounds 

 of seed that had been shipped from Halifax a few weeks be- 

 fore. My experience is that a White Pine-tree will average a 

 full crop of seed once in three years. One year the tree will 

 be well filled with embryo cones, the second year it will per- 

 fect a good crop of seeds, and the third year it forms buds for 

 the next crop. I have seen White Pine-trees cut down in Ver- 

 mont to clear up a farm, and when I visited the same place 

 forty years later I have found the farm run out, while the few 

 Pines that had been left among the rocks on the mountain 

 side had filled the rough places with saplings and seedlings. 

 Several years ago we had an application from a German seeds- 

 man for forty hundredweight ot While Pine seeds — that means 

 112 pounds to the hundredweight and 20,000 seeds in every 



