September 15, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



365 



itself several different shapes. This marked variability is, of 

 course, due in great measure to its newness, and persistent 

 selection will do much to fix the variety. The most perfect 

 flowers bear very few seeds, although those less perfectly 

 doubled produce an abundance, and the strain would, there- 

 fore, be liable to deteriorate rapidly in the hands of inexpe- 

 rienced growers. This new form further shows a tendency 

 each year to produce a few (ten per cent, or less) of single 

 flowers and as many more of otherwise worthless ones. On 

 account of its novel shape the Alleghany is a distinct and 

 valuable audition to our already long list of Hollyhocks, while 

 in delicacy of shades and tints it is surpassed by none. 



University of Vermont. V. A. Clark. 



Notes from Wellesley. 



AMONG autumn flowers Rudbeckia fulgida shows up well 

 in the borders. It is tall and stiff in habit and floriferous. 

 The flowers, though smaller than those of our native R. hirta, 

 are distinctly raved, while the black centre makes a striking 

 and pleasing contrast. It is a useful plant for cut flowers. 



Salvia splendens compacta can only be kept true when 

 raised from cuttings. The plants are now a mass of brilliant 

 scarlet. Growing not more than one foot high, these Salvias 

 make a better bedding plant than scarlet Geraniums. 



An attractive bed in the flower garden on the estate of H. 

 H. Hunnewell, Esq., is made up of trailing Roses of the 

 Wichuraiana type, with the pretty Nierembergia frutescens 

 intermixed. The Roses are beautiful in spring, and Nierem- 

 bergia makes a display in summer. 



A bed of Giant Grasses, with Arundo Donax fifteen feet high, 

 tapered down with striped and barred Eulalias, some Pani- 

 cums, and here and there a Cyperus antiquorum, is one of the 

 most attractive features here just now. 



Cyperus alternifolius and its variegated form make excel- 

 lent pot-plants for table decorations. They sow themselves 

 freely in our greenhouses and come up as an edging to the 

 walks. They are equally effective as bedding plants in sub- 

 tropical gardens. 



Another common yet interesting plant is the Wandering 

 Jew Saxifrage, S. sarmentosa. It is not hardy. It makes an 

 excellent basket-plant, the stolons, with plantlets, drooping 

 sometimes more than two feet. Under the greenhouse 

 benches it takes care of itself, and when in bloom is quite 

 effective with long spikes of white flowers. 



The vigor of the popular autumn-flowering climber, Cle- 

 matis paniculata, is now well known ; it here grows twenty- 

 five feet and covers a large Maltese cross with a mass of 

 bloom. Seeds gathered when ripe, sown at once in boxes, 

 left until frozen, and then covered with litter and kept so all 

 winter, will germinate in spring. 



Wellesley, Mass. l.JJ. Hatfield. 



Rudbeckia Golden Glow. 



WE have been much pleased with this novelty this season 

 (see Garden and Forest, vol. x., p. 294), and consider 

 it altogether the finest herbaceous plant for border use sent 

 out in recent years. It is quite distinct from Helianthus multi- 

 florus in that it flowers fully a month earlier and is past when 

 the latter begins. The long-stemmed flowers are useful for 

 cutting, and are smooth-stemmed and not so unpleasant to 

 handle as those of the Helianthus. It is also perfectly hardy, 

 a strong point in its favor, as the Helianthus multirlorus can- 

 not be relied upon every year and often winter-kills, so that it 

 needs protection to make sure of it. The variety Golden Glow 

 appears to be a form of Rudbeckia laciniata, a rather weedy 

 plant and suitable only for semi-wild situations. This double 

 form is free from the objectionable weediness and its only fault 

 is in the weakness of its stems, which it is necessary to stake 

 when the flower-buds begin to form. Otherwise it is an ideal 

 plant for the border. 



South Lancaster. Mass. -£•• U. Urpet. 



Lilium Henryi.— It is a surprise as well as a pleasure to note 

 the praise that lias been bestowed upon Lilium Henryi in 

 recent garden literature. After having seen it in blossom for 

 two years in Mr. Horsford's gardens at Charlotte, Vermont, I 

 am willing to believe all the good reports of it. The plant 

 seems to be remarkably hardy, thrifty, vigorous and free from 

 disease. The individual flowers are beautiful, but the general 

 effect of several plants growing together is truly magnificent. 

 There is a free and easy unconventionality about such a 

 group which reminds one of L. speciosum rubrum at its best. 

 L. Henryi is more pleasing, and it is, perhaps, not too much to 



say that for the hardy border, thrift and beauty considered, 

 this species surpasses all others known to cultivation. 



University of Vermont. F. A. Waugh. 



Correspondence. 



The Botanic Garden of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Michigan Agricultural College has a campus of about 

 eighty acres, besides the orchards, fields, vegetable gardens 

 and forests, and three acres are devoted to growing hardy 

 plants in what is called a botanic garden. Here 1,850 species 

 are now under cultivation. The botanic garden is well kept, 

 and that it is interesting is attested by the many visitors of all 

 classes during the growing season. Granges, farmers' clubs, 

 Sunday schools, lodges, entire schools with their teachers, 

 professors of colleges, and students taking a vacation trip on 

 bicycles, all visit this botanic garden. It is none the less inter- 

 esting because it differs so much from the parks usually found 

 in cities, and contains no " bedding plants." The interest 

 shown by visitors encourages us to believe that the effort to 

 plant and maintain a smali botanic garden is worth a good 

 deal more than it costs. 



Everything considered, from early spring into late autumn, 

 the Mint family is one of the most satisfactory to cultivate and 

 one of the most attractive to visitors. Nearly all the species 

 of Mints in our garden, some sixty-five in number, are placed 

 in one group. Large dense masses of plants, with tops of an 

 even height, are pleasing to most persons. The shape of leaf 

 and the color sometimes attract attention, but the general 

 shape of the plant strikes people as important. Of this family 

 we have Linden-leaved Sage, Salvia tiliasfolia, an annual from 

 Europe. The mass is dense and even, and three feet or more 

 high. It always wins notice, notwithstanding the flowers are 

 small and inconspicuous. Another low annual known as 

 American Pennyroyal, Hedeoma pulegioides, is interesting 

 when well grown. It is easily kept from year to year on sandy 

 land, not too dry, and a patch three to four feet in diameter is 

 satisfying to the eye. The odor is remarkable and usually 

 pleasing. A dense and thrifty patch of Thyme, five feet across 

 at this season, attracts insects in large numbers by its spikes 

 of small light pink flowers and its delightful fragrance. In 

 1893, while attending the World's Fair, I made the acquain- 

 tance of an attractive plant on the prairies and took specimens 

 of it to plant in the garden here. It is thrifty from spring to 

 October, and it deserves more general cultivation than it has 

 yet received. This plant is False Dragon-head, Physostegia 

 Virginiana, one of the Mints. I planted it in sandy land, not 

 far down to water. The leaves are thick, very dark green, 

 lanceolate, strongly denticulate; the plants five to six feet 

 high. To be appreciated there should be a good clump of it, 

 and not only a few stems. In central Michigan it flowers late 

 in August and early in September. The dense spikes are three 

 to eight inches long ; the flowers all bend to one side, are of a 

 light rosy hue, an inch long and somewhat trumpet-shaped. 

 The spikes are liable to fall over unless grown in a still place 

 or tied to stakes. 



In rich, moist black earth at the foot of a low bank under the 

 spreading limbs of evergreen trees, we have a spot well 

 adapted to Ferns and some other choice plants. Near by a 

 group of Ginseng develops to perfection, and just now the 

 umbels of shiny vermilion ben its an- at their best, and 

 the leaves are beginning to show a tint of the same color. 

 White Baneberry is displaying fruit to good advantage, the 

 white berries on thick red pedicels, each berry turning up a 

 small black eye. Here is also a thrifty patch of Yellow Puccoon, 

 Hydrastis Canadensis, four by eight feet, from which large 

 crimson berries have lately been removed. Physicians are 

 always glad to look at it and frequently ask for seeds or roots, 

 the latter of which bud at random in sufficient profusion to 

 multiply thespecies. The healthy plants are attractive in the 

 shape and color of the leaves and in the color of the berries. 

 Near by are two masses of Hepatica, three to four feet across, 

 one of each of our two species. They are still in perfect health, 

 with all the leaves fresh and sound and give promise of a 

 splendid crop of their flowers in early spring. Considerable 

 pains have been taken by our students in contributing individual 

 plants distinguished for flowers of different sizes and colors 

 from white to pink and dark blue. 



Three or four years ago I introduced from the south some 

 plants of the Water-lily family, known as Cabomba Caroliniana. 

 These were placed in two ponds, but until this year they 

 escaped notice. One mass is now twelve feet in diameter. 



