442 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 507. 



tips of some of the branchlets are while (var. variegata) 

 has come from Japanese gardens, which have also given 

 us a compact form with rather more slender branches and 

 lighter green foliage than those of the ordinary form (var. 

 nana), and there are one or two other varieties represented 

 by names, at least, in European collections. 



Libocedrus bears in many respects a close resemblance 

 to Thuya, from which it chiefly differs in the structure of 

 the fruit, which is composed of four or six scales, those of 

 the lower pair being thin, reflexed above the middle and 

 much shorter than those of the next pair : these are thick, 

 woody, and wide-spreading at maturity, while the two inner 

 scales when these are present are confluent into an erect 

 woody septum. Eight species of Libocedrus are now 

 known. One of these species is a native of semitropical 

 south-western China ; two are scattered through the moun- 

 tain forests of western South America, from Chili to Pata- 

 gonia ; two inhabit New Zealand : two Xew Caledonia, and 

 one western North America, where it ranges from southern 

 Oregon along the mountains to Lower California. This, 

 the Libocedrus decurrens of botanists, is a noble tree often 

 one hundred and fifty feet in height, with a tall, slightly 

 lobed trunk covered with bright cinnamon-red bark and 

 sometimes seven or eight feet in diameter, and slender 

 branches which are clothed with flattened pale yellow- 

 green frond-like branchlets and which, erect above, and 

 below sweeping downward in graceful curves, form for a 

 century or so a narrow, open feathery crown which later 

 becomes irregular in outline by the greater development 

 of some of the branches which from horizontal become 

 upright, and secondary stems. 



Libocedrus decurrens has been cultivated in Europe for 

 more than forty years and has already grown there to a 

 considerable size, promising to become a long-lived and 

 large tree. In the city of Washington there are good, 

 healthy specimens in the grounds of the Department of 

 Agriculture and of the Soldiers' Home, and this tree ap- 

 pears to be hardy near Philadelphia and New York. In 

 New England it has not been sufficiently tested yet, but as 

 its range is coextensive with that of the Sugar Pine, which 

 is hardy in eastern Massachusetts, it is possible that it can 

 be made to thrive in this part of the country if it is obtained 

 from a cold, dry region like that at the eastern base of the 

 Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, or from northern 

 California. It may be worth mentioning that in at least 

 nine out of every ten European nurseries, owing to the 

 mistake made by one of the early seed collectors in west- 

 ern America, Libocedrus decurrens is sold as Thuya gigan- 

 tea, while the true Thuya gigantea, or, as it is now called, 

 Thuya plicata, is sold as Libocedrus decurrens. 



C. S. S. 



Plant Notes. 



Spiraea arguta. 



THIS plant, one of many hybrid Spiraeas raised at the 

 Forest School at Munden by Dr. Zabel, is a decided 

 acquisition as a garden plant, and one of the most beauti- 

 ful Spireeas in cultivation. It is described by Dr. Zabel* 

 as a hybrid between Spiraea multifiora, itself a hybrid 

 between S. crenata and S. hypericifolia, and S. Thunbergii. 

 Flowering very early with S. Thunbergii, it surpasses that 

 plant in the gracefulness of its arching branches, its more 

 abundant and larger flowers, and in its greater hardiness, 

 the ends of the branches of Spiraea Thunbergii being 

 almost invariably killed by the cold of northern winters, 

 which occasionally also destroys a large part of the 

 flower-buds. 



Spiraea arguta in the Arnold Arboretum, where it has 

 been growing since 1893, is now about four feet high, with 

 slender stems covered with lustrous red-brown bark and 

 furnished near the extremities with numerous elongated, 



clustered, arching wiry lateral branches, which about the 

 first of May, just as the leaves are unfolding, are covered 

 on the upper side with crowded umbels of pure white 

 flowers a quarter of an inch in diameter, and raised on 

 slender pedicels about half an inch in length. The pale 

 green leaves are oblong-obovate, entire below and coarsely 

 toothed at the acute apex. 



Our illustration on page 443 of this issue, from a photo- 

 graph made at the Arnold Arboretum by Mr. James F. 

 Codman, represents the end of a stem of Spiraea arguta 

 with its numerous lateral flower-bearing branches which, 

 erect in the illustration, are pendent on the plant. 



"Die Slraiichigen S/ir&u der Dattschen C, 

 xxii. 3, t. 1. 



-Gar,/. Chrot 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Nvmph/Ea O'Marana. — Kew is indebted to Mr. H. A. Dreer,ot 

 Philadelphia, for a tuber of this hybrid Water-lily, and the 

 plant has been an attraction among the tropical aquatics 

 for the greater part of the summer. It was described in 

 Garden and Forest (vol. viii., page 96), where its origin is 

 stated to be due to a cross between Nymphaea dentata and 

 N. Sturtevantii, the latter a hybrid of rare quality, but, with 

 us, not free-flowering. In its bright rose-pink color, with 

 an almost pure white stripe down the middle of each of its 

 two dozen or so broad petals, N. O'Marana differs from all 

 other tropical Nymphseas. Mr. Dreer states that with him 

 the flowers were from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter. 

 At Kew they have not exceeded nine inches. Prob- 

 ably, however, the flowers are larger when the plants 

 are grown in full sunshine. In my opinion this is one of 

 the three best forms of N. Lotus, the other two being N. 

 dentata (white) and N. Devoniensis (red). If we add to 

 these N. Zanzibarensis (blue-purple) we have a quartette of 

 the best tropical Nymphaeas. 



Crested- flowered Begonias. — The latest "freak'' of the 

 tuberous Begonia is the development of a plumose crest 

 on the inner surface of the petals, not unlike that developed 

 by the Persian Cyclamen. This crested Begonia originated 

 in a Continental garden, the stock being secured by a nurs- 

 eryman who has lately distributed seeds from which a 

 large proportion of the plants raised has possessed this 

 crested character. It is noteworthy that sports of this 

 nature are hereditary, for Messrs. Low & Co., to whom we 

 owe the origin of the crested Cyclamen, found that ninety 

 per cent of the plants raised from its seeds had crested 

 flowers. At present the crested Begonia is merely a curi- 

 osity ; some growers call it a disfigurement, but there is no 

 saying what it may lead to. A Begonia with flowers like a 

 Cockscomb Celosia would no doubt find many admirers. 

 "The case of cresting shows that the plant possesses the 

 power to strike out a new line and to develop characters 

 which would even be regarded as having specific value," 

 has been said. 



Begonia Gloire de Lorraine. — One of the most charming 

 exhibits recently seen at the meetings of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society was a group of about thirty plants of this 

 Begonia. Each plant grew in a five-inch pot and was 

 eighteen inches high and wide, forming a compact ball- 

 like cluster of bright green leaves and elegant rose-pink 

 flowers. They were grown by one of our cleverest market 

 nurserymen, Mr. May, of Edmonton. I mentioned this 

 hybrid in a letter last December, but, good as the plants 

 were that I had seen then, they are eclipsed by those now 

 noted. Some of the Socotrana hybrids are " miffy " ; in- 

 deed such plants as Winter Gem and John Heal may be 

 described as difficult to manage, but Gloire de Lorraine is 

 as easily grown as Begonia Dregei, one of its parents. In 

 addition to its" good qualities of freedom of growth and 

 charm of flower it has also that of durability, plants in 

 flower in October remaining in beauty until February or 

 March, the racemes gradually extending in length until 

 they have long flexuose stalks. It is a most valuable 

 winter-flowering plant for the warm greenhouse. 



