July 21, 1S97.] 



Garden and Forest. 



283 



for the various trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants 

 to do their part in making the picture. More are needed at 

 the commencement than are needed later. They are not 

 large or strong when first assigned their places. Some may 

 become sick or they may crowd their neighbors. The owner 

 of a place or his man in charge, or the superintendent of a 

 park, may have failed to grasp the features of a design, and so 

 have made changes detrimental to the final result. Few mem- 

 bers of the profession, to say nothing of the clients, have ap- 

 preciated the importance of an oversight extending through a 

 series of years. The architect's work is finished with the com- 

 pletion of a building ; the painter's when he puts his last 

 touches on a canvas, but what the landscape-gardener must 

 have in mind is not a single picture, but a series of pictures 

 having more or less resemblance to each other, changing 

 more rapidly with the first than with the later growth, and 

 needing from time to time the inspection and criticism of a 

 trained eye. This inspection may be made by visiting a place 

 once a year, once a month, or even more frequently, as may 

 be agreed on with the client, but it should not be omitted. 



Perhaps no work of an artistic character requires a broader 

 knowledge than that of landscape-gardening. Besides the 

 creative faculty of a designer, it calls for some acquaintance 

 with engineering, architecture, horticulture, botany, the adapta- 

 bility of different plants to various climates and soils, their 

 appearance, their rate of growth, their length of life and the 

 social habits of the people to whom they will give pleasure. 

 Of course, his knowledge of engineering or architecture will 

 not be as extensive as that of men engaged in those profes- 

 sions, but it will be such as will enable him to bring the bridges, 

 buildings and other constructive works into harmonious rela- 

 tions with the landscape. 



The Madrona at Ukiah. 



EVERYWHERE in California Arbutus Menziezii is 

 known by its musical Spanish name of Madrona, 

 pronounced with a soft "d." While found from Puget 

 Sound to Mexico, it is in the region between San Francisco 

 Bay and Oregon that the Madrofia is at its best. Else- 

 where it is oftener a shrub, here frequently a tree of 

 considerable dimensions, specimens two or three feet in 

 diameter being common, and one noble tree near San 

 Rafael is said to be twenty-three feet in circumference at 

 base. 



In Ukiah Valley it is very common, extending from the 

 dry uplands to the mountain tops, and almost exclusively 

 covering some considerable areas on the mountain slopes. 

 The town of Ukiah is built on a sloping upland, which was 

 originally covered with timber, a mixed growth of Douglas 

 Spruce, White Oak, Black Oak, Black Live Oak (Quercus 

 agrifolia), Manzanita and Madrona. The founders of the 

 town, with rather unusual good taste for pioneers, spared the 

 native trees, and they have thrived wonderfully under the 

 changed conditions. Trees in variety have been planted, 

 and sidewalk trees are the rule rather than the exception. 

 Viewed from any quarter now, the town seems hidden in 

 a forest. 



The Madrona formed a large part of the original under- 

 growth. A few were large trees, but there were a multi- 

 tude of seedlings and many clumps of sprouts from old 

 stubs. All have grown well, and are now beautiful 

 and symmetrical trees, the most attractive feature of our 

 town. Many blocks are covered with fine groves of them. 



As an ornamental tree the Madrona has many virtues 

 and a few vices. With its large elliptical leaves, sugges- 

 tive of the Rhododendron, its sweet flowers in May and 

 its glory of red berries in midwinter, it is always beautiful. 

 No less charming are the smooth limbs left clean and shin- 

 ing in their rich brown coat, as the old bark sheds each 

 summer. The leaves are shed in May and June, after the 

 new leaves have formed. The contrast between the bright 

 green of the new and the yellow of the old is fine, but the 

 litter of leaf and bark is objectionable, and perhaps a little 

 more so because the leaves do not fall as part of the gen- 

 eral decay at the close of the year with those of deciduous 

 trees, but at a season when all vegetation is in the full tide 



of life. „ , D , 



Ukiah. calif. CarlPurdy. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Victoria regia. — A considerable range of variation has 

 already been revealed under cultivation by this, the queen 

 of Water-lilies, and two forms of it at least have been 

 named — Randii and Dixon's variety. The latter is re- 

 markable for the red tints of its flowers and for the size and 

 depth of the rim of the leaves. A well-marked variety, 

 new to cultivation so far as this country is concerned, is 

 now flowering for the first time at Kevv. It was raised 

 from seeds received in January from Mr. Tricker, of the 

 nurseries of Mr. H. A. Dreer, Philadelphia. Among its 

 peculiarities are, first, the early cupping of the leaves, the 

 turned-up rim being shown by quite small plants, while 

 when full grown the leaves are large, of a lustrous bright 

 green color, and the rim is from six to eight inches deep. 

 The flowers produced up to the present are not quite equal 

 in size to those of the ordinary form, but they open several 

 hours earlier in the day and they change color earlier. 

 Usually the sepals of Victoria are spinous to the tips, but 

 in this variety they are quite glabrous. Mr. Tricker states 

 that with him the plant grows very freely and that during 

 the summer it is not unusual to have fifteen or twenty good 

 leaves on a single plant, and frequently two flowers open 

 together, a first and a second day flower. He has also had 

 plants that flowered when in comparatively small pots and 

 a perfect flower produced on a plant in a twelve-inch seed- 

 pan. The plant at Kevv is growing along with one of the 

 ordinary variety and one of Dixon's variety, and it is by 

 far the strongest and most attractive in leaf characters, 

 while it has already developed three flowers before the 

 others have shown signs of any. It is noteworthy that 

 these varieties of Victoria regia come true from seeds, so 

 that their characters are fixed. Probably Mr. Tricker can 

 furnish particulars of the origin of his variety. 



Camptosema pinnatum. — This handsome stove shrub or 

 small tree has an erect woody stem, pinnate leaves over a 

 foot long, each leaf consisting of three pairs and one 

 terminal ovate leaflet, ten inches by three, of a bright 

 green color. In habit and leaf characters the plant is not 

 unlike a young American Ash. The flowers are borne in 

 short axillary racemes resembling those of Erythrina caffra, 

 but shorter, each raceme consisting of about a dozen flow- 

 ers, which are two inches long, the calyx green, mottled 

 with purple, and the corolla rich rose, changing to rosy 

 mauve. There is a plant of it a yard high now flowering 

 for the first time in the Palm-house at Kew ; it was raised 

 from seeds received from Brazil nine years ago under the 

 name of Camptosema erythrinbides. The genus is com- 

 posed of ten species, mostly climbers, all natives of Brazil. 

 C. rubicundum, a climbing species with red flowers, was in 

 cultivation here sixty years ago, when it was figured in 

 The Botanical Magazine, t. 4608, and also in Paxton's Maga- 

 zine, where it is called a Kennedya. It is not known to be 

 in cultivation now. 



Eulophiella Peetersiana. — A plant of this extraordinary 

 Orchid has been established in Sir Trevor Lawrence's col- 

 lection, where I lately saw it growing vigorously. It has 

 made three rhizomes about nine inches long, on each of 

 which are about a dozen leaves, each from three to four feet 

 long and three or four inches wide, of firm, almost leathery 

 texture and plicate. It is a most distinct-looking Orchid, 

 undoubtedly a Eulophiella, a photograph of the flower 

 showing all the characters of that genus as known in E. 

 Elizabethan The flowering of this plant is awaited with 

 curiosity. I am told that Monsieur Peeters, the Brussels 

 Orchid dealer, to whom we owe the introduction of this 

 Orchid from Madagascar, has also succeeded in establish- 

 ing plants of it. 



Dendrobiuji cceleste. — A blue Dendrobium would be a 

 decided acquisition, and if the species described under this 

 name in The Gardeners' Chronicle for this week is all that 

 it is said to be, its introduction will be awaited with con- 

 siderable interest. It has been discovered in the Philippines 



