March 21, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



"3 



however, the bloom of this plant here has proved a disap- 

 pointment, inasmuch as the buds seem to become blighted 

 and brown during the winter and do not properly expand 

 when they are expected to. This trouble may be purely local 

 or unusual, and the plant is well worth testing by all who 

 admire the interesting yellow bloom of our native Witch- 

 hazel in the autumn, and would like to have similar flowers 

 in the very early spring. The plant is perfectly hardy in this 

 climate and requires no unusual treatment to be grown suc- 

 cessfully. This year the plant showed some good flowers 

 here on the 12th of March. Like Cornus mas, this Witch-hazel 

 is likely to grow to a considerable size and may be called a 

 small tree instead of a shrub. 



With the exception of the true Hazels, or species of Corylus, 

 which develop their gray and yellow catkins of sterile flowers 

 at about the same time, we have no native yellow-flowering 

 shrub which bears flowers so early as the Leatherwood, Dirca 

 palustris. While it may not be called a showy plant, in the 

 horticultural sense, its blossoms are, nevertheless, very inter- 

 esting, and on good healthy plants are sufficiently abundant 

 to make the little shrub quite attractive, while the buds of 

 many others still appear dormant. It is an unobtrusive little 

 plant of slow growth, of compact bush or miniature tree-like 

 form when grown singly or straggling, when growing among 

 other larger shrubs or under the shade of trees. It is quite as 

 deserving of a place in the garden as the Witch-hazel. At the 

 Arboretum it was noted as putting forth first flowers about 

 April 21st in 1888, April 15th in 1889, April 7th in 1890, on the 

 13th of the month in 1891 and 1893, and on the 6th in 1892. 



Among the earliest flowering shrubs having red flowers, the 

 European Daphne Mezereum is probably the best-known and 

 most valuable for the garden. So precocious are its peculiar 

 rose-colored blossoms that some of them may occasionally 

 open in the autumn, some may open during mild periods in 

 midwinter, and the plant may be found showy with bloom 

 before any of the buds of Cornus mas have opened. This 

 little shrub is quite hardy here, but sometimes its buds are 

 injured by frequent freezings and thawings, and the blossoms 

 do not develop well. The fruit is of a bright red color when 

 ripe, and it matures by midsummer, when the plants are again 

 conspicuous for a time. 



A little Heath, Erica carnea, may also begin blossoming in 

 the late autumn, and its small rose-colored corollas keep fresh 

 under the snow, so that the plant is provided with fresh-look- 

 ing flowers in the very first warm days and with buds which 

 continue to open. This little plant needs some protection in 

 this latitude in order to give the best satisfaction. 



Of the early white-flowering shrubs, Andromeda Japonica is 

 probably the first to open any of its pretty urn-shaped blos- 

 soms, which are borne in large compound pendulous racemes. 

 If exposed to the sun in winter the buds are liable to great 

 injury, so that the plants do best in partial shade, and they 

 should be protected by leaves and evergreen boughs in win- 

 ter as they cannot be counted satisfactorily hardy in this 

 climate. 



Perfect flowers of the Japanese Andromeda are larger and 

 more beautiful than those of our native Andromeda floribunda 

 of the Alleghany Mountains, which, however, is, on the whole, 

 a better plant for our northern gardens. Its dark evergreen, 

 compact foliage is also much handsomer than that of its Japa- 

 nese congener. While its flowers are smaller, they are borne 

 in great abundance. They seem scarcely ever injured in win- 

 ter, and in warm situations the buds are hardly behind A. 

 Japonica in opening in early spring. Besides growing from 

 seeds, these plants maybe readily propagated by layers, which, 

 if properly made, will form roots and independent plants in 

 the course of a year. 



A Honeysuckle, Lonicera Standishii, bears a few very early 

 small white flowers, which, although not showy, are interest- 

 ing for the sweet fragrance which they exhale. The earliest 

 flowers are produced, as a rule, on branches nearest the 

 ground, and they usually expand by the middle of April or 

 earlier. L. Standishii is hardier than L. fragranfissima, which 

 resembles it in many respects, especially in its blossoms, 

 which are equally early. As these Honeysuckles come into 

 full bloom the first flowers of many other shrubs begin to de- 

 velop, and the list of early-flowering species rapidly enlarges. 



There are several shrubs with inconspicuous flowers which 

 are among the earliest to bloom, and of these the rare little 

 Corema Conradi, with small dull purplish flowers, and the na- 

 tive Yew may be mentioned. But the bloom of these is not 

 of much interest to the horticulturist. 



There are one or two species of shrubby Willows which 

 show true blossoms quite early, but most of the early species 

 expose their gray catkins long before they are truly in flower. 



although in the popular mind the appearance of the catkin is 

 often taken as synchronous with bloom. 



Perhaps the Forsythias should be mentioned among the 

 earliest flowering shrubs, because the flowers open on the 

 stems which trail on the ground where the buds first feel the 

 effect of the warm sunshine almost as early as those of Lonicera 

 Standishii. In this latitude it is advisable to bend over Corylopsis 

 pauciflora and cover the branches with soil during the winter, 

 so that its flowering is delayed. In latitudes south of this, 

 where the plant does not require such protection, it makes a 

 profuse display of its pale yellow flowers at the same season. 



Arnold Arboretum. J. G. Jack. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Cirrhopetalum robustum. — This is one of the most re- 

 markable of the newer tropical Orchids in cultivation at 

 Kew. It differs from other species of the genus in having 

 the pseudo-bulbs crowded close together as in Odontoglos- 

 sum crispum, instead of springing at intervals from a creep- 

 ing rhizome. It is also remarkable for the extraordinary 

 size of its pseudo-bulbs and leaves, the former being three 

 inches long and two inches wide, and the leaves, which are 

 thick and leathery, a foot long and four inches wide. The 

 Kew plant is a large one, in fine health, but it has not yet 

 flowered. A plant of it flowered, however, last April with 

 Colonel Trevor Clarke, of Daventry, whose nephew, Cap- 

 tain Clarke, had brought it from New Guinea three years 

 previously. The flowers are as remarkable as the leaves, 

 as the following notes from the description published in the 

 Orchid Review last year will show : Scape very stout, a 

 quarter of an inch in thickness at the base, bearing eleven 

 flowers and a few undeveloped buds at the apex. Umbel 

 seven inches across ; bracts an inch long ; sepals about 

 two inches long, greenish yellow, reddish purple at the 

 base ; petals half an inch long, paler than the sepals ; lip 

 fleshy, recurved, cordate-oblong, nearly half an inch long, 

 with a pair of stout teeth, and colored deep red-purple ; 

 column dull yellow. The plant which produced the in- 

 florescence here described had leaves only half as large as 

 those recently produced at Kew, and the scape and flowers 

 may be correspondingly larger. The genus Cirrhopetalum 

 has received a fair share of attention in recent years, and 

 of the forty or so species described twenty-five are in cul- 

 tivation at Kew. The best of these are C. Collettii, C. fim- 

 briatum, C. Makoyanum, C. Macraei, C. Medusa', C. orna- 

 tissimum, C. picturatum and C. robustum. They all thrive 

 when grown in baskets suspended near the roof of the 

 hottest and moistest of our stoves. 



Cycnoches Loddigesii. — The charm of the genus Cycnoches 

 is largely due to the length and shape of the column of the 

 flower, and in none of the species is this character so con- 

 spicuous as in C. Loddigesii, which flowered at Kew in 

 May last year, and is flowering again now. The plant is 

 like the better-known C. chlorchilon in habit, and the ra- 

 ceme, number and size of the flowers are somewhat similar 

 to that species. Their color is, however, quite different, 

 being greenish brown, with blotches of dark brown, and 

 the lip white and yellow, with red spots. The column is 

 about three inches long, gracefully curved in the form of a 

 half-circle, with wings near the apex, which is inflated, and, 

 as was pointed out by Sir William Hooker, bears a striking 

 resemblance to the head of a cobra. The odor of the flower 

 is as pleasant as vanilla. All the Cycnoches like plenty of 

 heat and moisture when growing, to be followed by a short 

 resting period in a drier atmosphere. 



Laxio-CATTLEYA Pittiana. — This is a new species or nat- 

 ural hybrid which has lately flowered with Messrs. F. San- 

 der & Co., and is named, described and figured in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle this week. Mr. O'Brien suggests that 

 it is the product of Lselia grandis crossed with Cattleya 

 guttata Prinzii (amethystoglossa). It was imported from 

 Pernambuco. It has clavate compressed diphyllous stems 

 fifteen inches or more in height ; leaves about a foot long 

 and two inches wide ; peduncle six to eight inches long. 



