August ii, 1S97.] 



Garden and Forest. 



M 



scarce the upright racemes of pure white flowers above the 

 glossy leaves are singularly effective. The flowers, too, are 

 very fragrant. 



The Button-bush, Cephalanthus occidentalis, is an inhabitant 

 of swamps, and is often found with its roots under water. 

 Like many other plants of this class, it does equally as well 

 on dry ground as it does in marshy land, and while it is very 

 beautiful in its native swamps it certainly would grace any culti- 

 vated grounds, although it might be used with good effect along 

 the margins of brooks in company with dwarf Willows and 

 Alders. Its flowers are arranged in perfectly spherical heads, 

 poised gracefully at the ends of slender branchlets, and they 

 are so full of nectar that they constantly invite the bees. 



New Rochelle, N. Y. S. A. Reed. 



Correspondence. 



Seasonable Notes. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the greenhouses of B. P. Cheney, Esq., at Dover, 

 Massachusetts, is a fine specimen of Asparagus Sprenglei which 

 measures six feet in diameter. It made a fine display when in 

 bloom recently, covered with thousands of white saucer- 

 shaped flowers. This new plant will prove of great value to 

 decorators, as it can be effectively used in almost any form. 

 It can be trained into pyramidal or loose bush form, or natu- 

 rally takes a graceful and drooping form. As a basket-plant its 

 lively green is effective for relieving bright colors. It grows 

 quite rapidly, and from a small plant in a five-inch pot this 

 spring it has been successively shifted on as new roots formed, 

 until now it is in a ten-inch pot. It deligh's in a well-enriched 

 soil, rather light in composition, with plenty of drainage. New 

 crowns form quickly, and, as it divides quite freely, there will 

 soon be an abundance of it. Adiantum Farleyense has always 

 succeeded well here. It is generally given a shady position in 

 the tropical-plant house, but this is not really essential. It 

 delights in shade, but must be near the glass. A little fire- 

 heat is required in cool or damp weather to prevent mildew 

 and discoloration of the fronds. There is enough here to fill 

 one side of a large greenhouse, and it makes a beautiful bank 

 of green. Besides good turfy loam, with a little cow manure, 

 there are no special requirements in its cultivation. 



A Japanese gentleman sent to an acquaintance in Framing- 

 ham, Massachusetts, a packet of seed of the Japanese Morning 

 Glory, and some of the plants are now in bloom on the estate 

 of David Nevins, Esq., of that town, where they prove a great 

 attraction. In form and color shadings the flowers resemble 

 Gloxinias, and detached flowers might easily be mistaken for 

 them. 



The fine specimen of Larix Kaempferi, the Japanese Larch, 

 on the grounds of H. H. Hunnewell, Esq., at Wellesley, is now 

 carrying a heavy crop of seed-bearing cones. They are borne 

 on the upper side of the branches. The bracts are broad, short 

 and heavy in texture, with a comparatively open arrangement. 

 This tree has been bearing seeds for ten years, and seedlings 

 have been raised here and at the Bussey Institute. Seeds are 

 planted in autumn, wintered over in a cold frame and come 

 up in spring. Another remarkable specimen of this Larch is 

 to be found on the estate of Mr. Probasco, a gentleman who 

 has done much for horticulture in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Pro- 

 basco, when here last summer, stated that his specimen is a 

 little the larger. 



At Mrs. Cheney's place I noted a first-rate plan for Celery 

 culture. The Celery is planted between bushed Peas of mod- 

 erate height, which, during warm, dry summer weather, 

 provide good shade. We have given up the laborious prac- 

 tice of digging trenches for Celery, and consider it a waste of 

 time. To dig in a uniformly good coating of manure and 

 draw out shallow trenches with a hoe is all the preparation we 

 make. Except for the convenience which trenches afford for 

 watering, we would plant on a level. Planting as we do, 

 we can grow a crop of Lettuce, Peas, Beans or Beets 

 between the rows, and get the crop off before it is time 

 to earth up. With the exception of White Plume and 

 Paris Golden, little earthing is done. The bleaching is done 

 after the Celery is packed away, with sand between the rows, 

 in deep pits for the winter. The claim that White Plume and 

 Paris Golden need no bleaching is not quite just. They clo 

 require to be bleached, or they are stringy and bitter; they 

 can, however, be prepared in half the time that ordinary kinds 

 require. The Admiral Pea has again proved our best sort, 

 and is the heaviest cropper I know. The flavor is equal to the 

 well-known Champion of England. The pods are filled their 

 entire length, and as the grains are small they maintain a good 



table appearance for a long time. The Marshall and Brandy- 

 wine Strawberries have done finely with us this season. It is 

 interesting to compare notes, and it is seldom gardeners agree 

 in their preferences ; one wants the Leader, another Bubach 

 No. 6, a third favors Eureka or Belmont, Gandy or Burnette, 

 while yet another considers Parker's Earle without a peer. 

 Soil and location seem to have much to do with success. Even 

 so late in the season a good word should be said for the Em- 

 peror Forcing Lettuce. The heads are small and can be set six 

 inches apart. Planted at the same time as Hettinger's Belmont, 

 it is five days ahead of that variety, and in spring-time Lettuce 

 is estimated by the heads rather than size. A row of Scarlet 

 Runner Beans combines the ornamental with the useful, and 

 a few of the fine scarlet pea-like flowers mixed with a bunch 

 of Sweet Peas make a striking combination. The pods are 

 excellent cooked as Snap Beans. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Periodical Literature. 



The last addition to the useful Hand-lists of the Kew 

 collections of living plants is devoted to tender Mono- 

 cotyledons, excluding Orchidece, which has just reached 

 us, and forms a volume of 347 pages. In it are included 

 lists of the Seitamineae, Bromeliaceas, Cape bulbs, Aloes, 

 Yuccas, Agaves, Palms, Screw Pines, Aroids and Grasses 

 grown under glass in the Royal Gardens. Of the Scita- 

 minea?, including- the Gingers, Arrowroot-plants and Musas, 

 of which 450 species are known, 240 are in cultivation at 

 Kew ; almost all are natives of the tropics. In 1813 forty 

 species were enumerated in the second edition of Aiton's 

 Horlus Keivensis, and 139 before 1864, as shown in John 

 Smith's privately printed Records of Kew. It may be 

 mentioned that Musa Ensete, one of the best-known rep- 

 resentatives of this family, the noble Abyssinia Banana, 

 was introduced into cultivation at Kew from seeds sent 

 by the British Consul at Massowah. Strelitzia Regince, 

 another well-known plant of this family, was introduced 

 by Banks into the Royal Gardens in 1773 from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and another member of this genus, Strelitzia 

 Augusta, was first cultivated in the gardens in 1791, when 

 Francis Masson sent it from the Cape. 



Of the Bromeliacea? no less than 252 species are culti- 

 vated at Kew, although in 18 13 only sixteen appeared in 

 Aiton's Hortus Kcwensis. 



In Cape bulbs the Kew collection has been rich for more 

 than a century, and now numbers twenty-eight species of 

 Hoemodoraceae, 221 of Irideae, 4S8 of Amaryllideas, and 

 512 of Liliaceae, or a total of 1,249. 



No less is the collection of so-called succulent plants — 

 Aloes, Yuccas and Agaves— and the house devoted to the 

 cultivation of these plants is one of the most interesting 

 and effective in the Royal Gardens. Three hundred and 

 seventy-seven species of these plants are enumerated in 

 this Hand-list. 



The history of the Palms at Kew is interesting. Eleven 

 hundred species, nearly all natives of the tropics, have been 

 described, and there are probably many more still remain- 

 ing unknown. In 1768 six species were cultivated at Kew. 

 In 1787 the number had risen to ten, and in 1813 to twenty. 

 At the present time 407 species, or more than a third of all 

 that are known to science, can be seen in a living state in 

 the Royal Gardens. This is probably the largest assem- 

 blage of species of Palms to be found in any one place, 

 although, of course, much larger individuals are to be seen 

 at Buitenzorg and in other tropical gardens. 



During the latter years of George the Third and in George 

 the Fourth's reign a new Palm-house at Kew was contem- 

 plated and a piece of ground was set apart for its erection, 

 although nothing was done about it until William the Fourth, 

 who took much interest in improving the Royal Gardens, 

 came to the throne. Nothing, however, was accomplished 

 in the way of providing a proper shelter for the Kew 

 Palms until the Royal Gardens became a public institu- 

 tion. The present Palm-house, the finest in the world, was 

 completed in 1848 from tin' designs of Decimus Burton. 

 The length of this structure is 362 feet; its width in the 



