June 9, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



229 



gated plants, mostly of a shrubby character, which will interest 

 those who care to punctuate their gardens. The gem of the 

 Japanese collection is a white form of the short-clustered Wis- 

 taria, W. brachybotrys alba, which is probably new to cultivation 

 here. This forms a woody stem three to five feet high, with 

 numerous pendent branches, which, in the middle of May, are 

 covered with short racemes of pure white flowers. It is evi- 

 dently a choice shrub for the lawn or for growing in a pot for 

 special decoration. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Exhibitions. 



The Boston Flower Show. 



OWING to the mildness of the past winter and a favorable 

 spring, flowers of Rhododendron exhibited in Horticul- 

 tural Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, last week, were finer than 

 any ever seen here before. The exhibits in every instance 

 were large, and the capacity of the hall was taxed so much 

 that several important shipments were unopened. 



The tender varieties attracted most attention. The collection 

 of H. H. Hunnewell, Esq.. was uncommonly good. Among 

 the choice kinds were Duchess of Sutherland, rosy, with 

 deeper color on the edge ; Mrs. Jackeye, blush, and spotted 

 like a Pelargonium ; Sir Jos. Whitworth, very dark purple, 

 large flowers; Sigismund Kucker, red rose, dark centre ; Mrs. 

 R. G. Shaw, blush tinted, red-spotted standard ; Lady Grey 

 Edgerton, rosy, with yellow spots ; Mr. H. H. Hunnewell, 

 deep rose, with dark standard. The tender varieties from the 

 F. B. Hayes' estate, exhibited by Mr. James Comley, included 

 Onslowianum, blush, orange spots ; Princess Mary of Cam- 

 bridge, extra fine, rosy, with lighter centre ; Lady Clarence 

 Cathcart, warm rose, red spots ; John Walters, rosy red ; 

 Duchess of Edinboro, white centre, red on the edge ; Dorothy 

 Neville, blush, dark standard. 



A new variety, Mrs. Powers Wilson, exhibited by Mr. Com- 

 ley, attracted much attention. The trusses were extra large, 

 color blush, with pelargonium-like spots on the standard. 



Mrs. B. P. Cheney had a large exhibit of fine hardy sorts. 

 Mrs. J. L. Gardener and Dr. Weld had specially good collec- 

 tions. Wm. Nicholson, of Framingham, showed a splendid vase 

 of Carnations. Mr. Clinkaberry, gardener to C. G. Roebling, 

 Esq., Trenton, New Jersey, made a grand showing of Orchids, 

 including many rare and beautiful varieties of Lselia pur- 

 purata. Among these were Russelliana, delicately veined 

 with purple, and Roeblingiana, marbled with pink and veined. 

 Lselio-Cattleya, var. C. G. Roebling, is of the L. purpurata type, 

 with golden throat. Cattleya Warneriana, var. lilacina, is a 

 lovely shade of rose with a white band at the^ throat. Cypri- 

 pedium Chamberlainianum is curious as well as beautiful. 

 There is a distinct stem with small leaves arranged distich- 

 ously ; the flowers occur on short stems in the axils of the 

 leaves. Green and purple are curiously blended throughout 

 the flower ; the pouch is of a deeper purplish shade. Flowers 

 of Cypripedium caudatum had tails nearly two feet long. 



N. T. Kidder, Esq., had a beautiful lot of show Pelar- 

 goniums, which, unfortunately, for want of space, had to 

 be arranged on the steps in poor light. Kenneth Findlayson, 

 gardener to Dr. Weld, showed Iris Susiana in flower. 



Wild flowers proved interesting to a larger number of people 

 than would be expected, and the collections contained almost 

 the entire list of the interesting wild flowers in bloom near 

 Boston at the present time. 



Recent Publications. 



Flowers of Field, Hill and Swamp. By Caroline A. 

 Creevey. Illustrated by Benjamin Lander. New York : 

 Harper & Brothers. 1897. 



This beautifully printed volume of 550 pages is another 

 attempt to help novices to call the common plants he 

 meets by their botanical names. That Mrs. Creevey does 

 not always adhere to one system of nomenclature is a 

 matter of minor importance in a book of this sort, which 

 does not pretend to have any such high scientific purpose 

 as to engage in one or another side of the various contro- 

 versies now ranging over the proper method of naming 

 plants. Still it is rather confusing for the student who 

 wishes to verify his work by examining some other book 

 to find that the names used by Mrs. Creevey are not all in 

 any one manual. The feature in which the book is espe- 

 cially strong is the popular descriptions of the plants and 



of their ways and habits. These show a keen obser- 

 vation and marked literary skill. When, for example, she 

 characterizes Bouncing Bet as "a slovenly flower with a 

 backyardish appearance," we are apprehensive that asso- 

 ciation may have led her to be a trifle unjust, even though 

 the phrase is picturesque. But one more phrase justifies 

 the whole, "the calyx bursts and the petals seem tumbling 

 out of place. " The botanical descriptions proper are not 

 as good as the popular ones. The author is not successful in 

 selecting the distinguishing characteristics either of species 

 or of genera, and left to these descriptions alone the student 

 would find small assistance in the book. The figures are 

 much better than those usually found in similar books. 

 They are not always drawn to bring out the marked specific 

 qualities of a plant, but they represent with much force and 

 spirit the general air of the plant, and they show the true 

 artistic touch. 



The novelty in the book is in its arrangement. Within 

 a few years there have been books in which the plants 

 have been grouped according to their structural affinities, 

 the colors of their flowers and the times in which they 

 bloom ; while this one is an attempt to bring plants into 

 classes according to their usual place of growth, and it 

 is certain, as Mrs. Creevey holds in her introduction, 

 that a classification of plants upon the natural basis of 

 their environment, including shade, soil, moisture, etc., 

 has certain advantages. It is really a part of botanical 

 education to know the plants which grow near the sea- 

 coast, those which grow in bogs and marshes, on the 

 borders of brooks, in wet meadows or dry fields, in rocky 

 woods or open sandy soil. The environment of a plant 

 accounts for a great many of its ways and habits, and the 

 grouping of many plants together which are subjected to 

 the same influences ought to lead the careful student to the 

 discovery of many interesting facts in biology. On the 

 other hand, this arrangement is an unfortunate one for the 

 beginner, and this book is made exclusively for beginners. 

 Many plants are rather cosmopolitan in their habits, and it 

 will not be strange if the student should discover on a 

 sandy hillside some plant which is classified in Mrs. 

 Creevey's book as a wood plant or marsh plant because it 

 is nearly always found there. We have in mind a spot in 

 a rather moist meadow where the little stars of Houstonia 

 bloom every spring, but this plant is grouped, and very 

 properly so, among those which thrive in dry fields and 

 waste places. Again, to any one who has regard for 

 system, the tendency to group plants according to their 

 generic and family likenesses is irresistible. It is rather 

 disheartening to find the various species of one genus 

 scattered all through the book, and in many cases with 

 nothing like a generic description, or when there is an 

 attempt at this a very meagre and unsatisfactory one. We 

 cannot help feeling that the book would have been more 

 useful if the plants had been arranged in the text according 

 to their families, with one or two of Mr. Lander's fine 

 drawings for each important genus. The central pur- 

 pose of the book could then have been carried out 

 by lists of plants arranged according to their habitat. 

 After all, structural resemblance is the true basis of classifi- 

 cation, interesting as classification by environment may be. 

 It is not true, as Mrs. Creevey says, that a plant born to 

 wet soil will not flourish on dry. Our beautiful Cardinal- 

 flower, which, by the way, is most felicitously described 

 by her, although always born in or near the water, will 

 flourish in any ordinary garden soil, and so will the Marsh 

 Mallow and the Swamp Maple. We notice a few inaccuracies 

 of statement, as, for example, that the Golden-rod cannot 

 be cultivated, but, as a rule, the text can bo trusted as cor- 

 rect, and every reader will at once be attracted by the 

 sprightliness of the style. 



Notes 



The twenty-eighth season of the New York Flower and Fruit 

 Mission is now begun, and flowers and delicacies for the sick 

 are received on Monday and Thursday mornings of each week 



