May 26, 1S97.] 



Garden and Forest. 



203 



general stateliness and dignity of form and expression, the 

 Ukiah Valley Oaks are unrivaled. Our valley is sur- 

 rounded by high mountains, and is thus sheltered from the 

 winds, so that the trees are apt to be symmetrical. The 

 large rainfall and rich soil have done the rest. 



Perhaps the most striking feature of the White Oaks, aside 

 from their size, is the gray moss hanging in long streamers 

 from every small limb. In the winter, when the moss is 

 green on the large limbs, the contrast of this color with the 

 pendent masses of gray moss and the brown bark is very 

 beautiful. The types of White Oak are innumerable, and 

 every tree seems to have a distinct form. There are full- 

 headed trees, the top breaking into a wilderness of small 

 ascending branches, and as fully furnished as if they had 

 been pinched and trained by a gardener. Again we note 

 immense boles with sturdy ascending branches, each large 

 enough for a tree, and ending in stiff short branchlets. 

 Then there are noble trees which branch evenly outward 

 in perfect balance with hardly a twig broken and towering 

 to 120 and even 140 feet in the air. Perhaps the most 

 beautiful of all is the so-called Weeping form, in which the 

 tree branches regularly and spreads widely, while number- 

 less branches are thrown straight down. Some of these 

 pendent branches are thirty feet long and little larger than 

 a man's arm. 



In a field on the east side of the river I recently measured 

 some trees which ranged from eighteen to twenty-two feet 

 in circumference at five feet from the ground. In the same 

 field of about sixty acres there stood at least fifty trees over 

 fifteen feet in circumference. Many of them had a great 

 spread of branches, and one I measured covered a circle 

 144 feet in diameter. This tree girthed nineteen feet 

 six inches, and its height was about 120 feet. Still larger 

 specimens were to be found in another grove near by 

 which has hardly been touched by the axe. In it I found a 

 perfectly developed specimen in full health and not dis- 

 figured by the loss of any limbs. The trunk girthed eighteen 

 and three-quarter feet at five feet from the ground, and it 

 was more than 120 feet high (see fig. 25, page 202). The 

 largest Oak that I have yet measured is growing here. The 

 trunk has a small hollow on one side (see fig. 26, page 205 ), 

 but otherwise it is sound. At five feet up it measures 

 twenty-three feet nine inches in circumference, and at one 



foot above the ground 132 feet. _ 



Ukiah, Calif. Carl Purdy. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Richardtas. — The new yellow-spathed species, Pentlandii 

 and Elliotiana, have lately been conspicuous in good col- 

 lections and at exhibitions. Nurserymen are fully alive to 

 the value of these two plants and are working up large 

 stocks of them as rapidly as possible. They ripen seeds 

 freely and they are also prolific in the development of sup- 

 plementary buds on the tubers, which are a ready means 

 of multiplication. I lately saw about a thousand healthy 

 young plants of R. Pentlandii in a nursery in the south, 

 and in one of our London nurseries I was asked three 

 guineas for a plant of this species in flower. The spathes 

 vary in size according to the strength of the plant and the 

 cultivation. I have seen this year spathes of both species 

 as large as the largest R. Africana (/Ethiopica) and of the 

 richest yolk-of-egg yellow. The two differ in that the leaves 

 of R. Elliotiana are spotted with white and the spathe is 

 uniformly yellow, while in R. Pentlandii the leaves are 

 unspotted and the spathe has a large blotch of black-purple 

 at the base inside. We have now, however, plants which 

 combine the spotted leaf with the purple-blotched spathe ; 

 possibly these are hybrids between the two. There are 

 also forms of R. Pentlandii with spathes of a sulphur-yellow 

 color. The hybridist also has been at work on these plants, 

 crosses between them and R. Africana having been suc- 

 cessfully made. In my opinion these yellow Richardias are 

 the most valuable additions that have been made to green- 



house plants in the last twenty years. The time will come, 

 and shortly, too, when the flowers will be offered by the 

 dozen by the market-growers, and they will be as conspic- 

 uous in floral decorations as the White Lily of the Nile is 

 now. Cultivators should bear in mind the fact thai both" 

 R. Elliotiana and R. Pentlandii are warm-house plants. 



Hybrid Rhododendrons. — The most beautiful Rhododen- 

 drons in flower at Kew at the present time are first hybrids — 

 that is, crosses between two distinct species — and probably" 

 the handsomest ever raised is one called Kewense. Thi.-? : 

 the offspring of R. Aucklandii and R. Hookeri, both tended 

 Himalayan species, and yet the progeny is as hardy as 

 R. Catawbiense ; at any rate, it is perfectly hardy at Kew. 

 Even when not in flower it is a handsome evergreen, but 

 when laden with its large loose trusses of big bell-shaped 

 blush-white fragrant flowers it is a magnificent picture. It 

 was raised at Kew and flowered for the first time about ten 

 years ago. Grown in a cold greenhouse it is equally meri- 

 torious. The hybrids between R. Fortunei and R. Thom- 

 son! are also flowering beautifully now. These were raised 

 by Mr. Luscombe about twenty years ago, and he presented 

 a set of them to Kew before they flowered. They have 

 since been named R. Luscombei, Mrs. T. Dyer and 

 Frances T. Dyer. Mr. George Paul, of Cheshunt, has 

 raised a number of hybrids between R. Fortunei and some 

 of the popular varieties of the Catawbiense type. These 

 hybrids are also flowering at Kew, and in distinctness and 

 beauty they prove to be of quite exceptional merit. Much 

 has been done with the Rhododendron, but a great deal 

 more remains to be done before we have got to the limit 

 of the capabilities of this great and varied genus. Anew and 

 beautiful hardy species from China is now flowering for the 

 first time at Kew, and we have seeds sown of several very 

 remarkable species recently discovered in New Guinea. 

 The potentialities of the Rhododendron as a garden plant 

 are seen in the place it fills among hardy shrubs, among 

 greenhouse plants and among perpetual-flowering shrubs 

 for the warm house. These last we owe to Messrs. Veitch's 

 operations upon the Malayan species. 



Palms. — If a census could be taken of the plants grown 

 by nurserymen for indoor decoration it would probably 

 show that Palms are first, and the rest nowhere. This is a 

 very radical change from the state of things a generation 

 back, when Palms, with the exception of Livistona Chi- 

 nensis (Latania Borbonica), were grown only by admirers 

 of the curious and rare. At that time the Kentias, from 

 Lord Howe's Island, were rarities, and Cocos Weddelliana 

 was as expensive as Phalsenopsis. Now, millions of young 

 plants of these two genera alone are raised almost every 

 year from seeds. "Good Palms will sell when nothing 

 else will," say the nurserymen. This preference for Palms 

 is deplorable in one sense ; it is driving many interesting 

 plants out of cultivation. The nurseryman will not grow 

 the collection plants which formerly were in favor ; on the 

 contrary, he is glad to get rid of them, often burning them 

 by the houseful to make room for Palms. Surely we may 

 yet hope that a taste for interesting and choice indoor 

 plants similar to that which stimulates the collector and 

 cultivator of Orchids, alpine plants and hardy trees and 

 shrubs will not be allowed to die out entirely. Indoor 

 gardening needs reforming and bringing into harmony 

 with the best style of outdoor gardening. This can be 

 done by discarding, as far as possible, the flower-pot and 

 plant-stage and making the houses look less artificial than 

 they are now. I am certain that the present style of green- 

 house gardening is responsible for the lack of interest in it 

 which is so evident in the horticulture of to-day. Two of 

 the best proofs of this are in the preference visitors to Kew 

 have for the temperate house, where the plants are all 

 grown naturally in beds, and in the popularity of two show- 

 houses in the nursery of Messrs. Veitch & Sons at Chelsea. 

 one for Orchids and the other for greenhouse plants. In 

 these there are no stages, the plants standing in natural 

 groups in artistically arranged cork, rockwork and cushions 

 of Selaq-inella, etc. 



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