226 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 328. 



slender, rig-id, hairy pedicels nearly an inch in length and 

 furnished near the middle with a linear, scarious, caducous 

 bractlet. The calyx-tube is globose, tomentose, and 

 abruptly enlarged above into a spreading, tomentose, 

 deciduous limb, which is five-lobed with small, remote, 

 nearly triangular lobes coated on the inner surface with 

 pale hairs and furnished near the apex with minute red 

 glands. The corolla is two-thirds of an inch across when 

 expanded, with pure white petals rounded at the apex, 

 abruptly contracted at the base into short claws and about 

 an eighth of an inch broad. The stamens are composed 

 of glabrous, white, incurved filaments and bright red 

 anthers, and are rather longer than the three spreading 

 styles crowned with capitate stigmas. The fruit is sub- 

 globose, marked at the apex with the scar left by the fall- 

 ing of the calyx-limb, russet brown, covered with small 

 pale dots, and about a third of an inch in diameter ; pro- 

 duced in great profusion, it ripens in October and hangs 

 on the trees until the following spring, growing soft and 

 black after midwinter. 



In Peking, Dr. Bretschneider tells us,* Pyrus betulifolia is 

 " much cultivated in gardens for its beautiful flowers, 

 which in April appear on the tree in great profusion, and 

 for its little brown fruit of the size of a small cherry, which 

 is eaten by the Chinese; taste not unpleasant." 



Its hardiness and rapid growth, the fact that it flowers 

 while very young (seedling plants flowered in the Arbore- 

 tum when only six years old), and the pale color of the 

 leaves, which shimmer on their long stalks with the 

 slightest breath of wind, make Pyrus betulifolia a most 

 distinct and desirable ornamental plant in the northern 

 states. Less showy, certainly, than the common Pear- 

 tree when in flower, the profusion in which the flowers 

 are produced, and their pleasant contrast of color with the 

 young leaves, make it a most desirable addition to our 

 shrubberies. That it may appear to its best advantage, 

 Pyrus betulifolia should be planted in deep well-manured 

 soil, and sufficient space should be given it in which to 

 spread, without interference, its long graceful branches. 



C. S. S. 



Cultural 



Department. 



Notes on Trees and Shrubs. 



THE flowers of the American Red Mulberry, Morus rubra, 

 are beginning to open in some of the later developed 

 spikes, during the last days of May, two or three weeks after 

 pollen was matured in the earliest blossoms. There is nothing 

 conspicuous or calculated to attract attention in the flowers of 

 Mulberries, but some peculiarities about them are interesting. 

 They are usually described as dioecious or monoecious. 



The White Mulberry, Morus alba, of the Orient, and now 

 common in eastern American gardens, appears to have a 

 tendency to bear either staminate or pistillate flowers on sepa- 

 rate plants ; but our native Red Mulberry commonly produces 

 its sterile and fertile flowers in separate spikes more or less 

 evenly distributed among the branches of the same tree. 

 Sometimes a large limb will bear all male flowers and 

 another large branch exclusively female flowers, or both 

 kinds may appear side by side on the same branchlet. Occa- 

 sionally both staminate and pistillate flowers occur in the 

 same spike, but this appears unusual and more likely to be 

 found on the White than on the Red Mulberry. Very often 

 apparently perfect flowers occur, bearing stamens and well- 

 developed stigmas and ovaries. The flowers in the spike are 

 arranged in two broad ranks, which gives the cluster a some- 

 what flattened appearance. Except for its calyx lobes, which 

 form the fleshy part of the fruit when ripe, there is nothing to 

 be remarked about the pistillate flower of the Mulberry, the 

 most conspicuous part of which consists of the two short 

 recurved styles and stigmatic surfaces, similar to those seen 

 in the allied Elm and Celtis. The staminate flower essen- 

 tially consists of four stamens which are incurved in the bud. 

 As the flower-bud arrives at the period when the blossom is 

 ready to fully expand, the filaments lengthen so that they form 

 four little loop-like projections, while the four anthers are still 

 held touching each other around the centre. At perfect 



* Botanicon Sitlicum, ii., 



maturity the anthers are suddenly released, the filaments 

 straighten with a jerk, and the pollen is scattered from little 

 vertical slits which are simultaneously opened in the two- 

 celled anthers. If the filaments and anthers are disturbed 

 when nearly mature, the act of expansion may be distinctly 

 observed, for as soon as the anther is released the filament 

 flies back and a little cloud of white pollen is thrown into the 

 air. 



The Red Mulberry is probably not indigenous in eastern 

 Massachusetts, but it is frequently found in gardens and occa- 

 sionally by a road-side, where it has probably escaped from 

 cultivation. It is said to be native in the western part of the 

 state and thence more common west and south. In cultiva- 

 tion here it is usually a low, broad-spreading tree with nearly 

 horizontal branches, and at a distance, when leafless, it might 

 be mistaken for a Hawthorn or flat-topped Apple-tree. Farther 

 south it often attains a height of sixty or seventy feet. A speci- 

 men in these grounds, planted many years before the estab- 

 lishment of the Arboretum, now hasa trunk more than twenty 

 inches in diameter, which branches into three large limbs at 

 three feet from the ground, and forms a tree twenty-five feet 

 high, spreading over a diameter of thirty-five feet. Another 

 tree, grown from seed collected in Virginia and sown in 1874, 

 was permanently set out when a seedling on poor gravelly 

 soil, which has ever since been covered with grass ; it now 

 has a stem two feet in circumference or eight inches in 

 diameter. The trunk divides into two or three sections at 

 three or four feet from the ground, and the tree is over twenty 

 feet in height and spreads twenty-five feet across. The almost 

 black fruit when fully ripe averages nearly an inch in length, 

 and has a pleasant slightly acid flavor which is vastly more 

 palatable than the mawkish sweet of the average fruit of the 

 White Mulberry. The fruit of the ordinary forms of the Red 

 Mulberry is much liked by many people, and locally it is some- 

 times called the Black Mulberry. This name, however, is 

 misleading, for the true Black Mulberry, Morus nigra, of the 

 Old World, is not hardy in this climate. This is unfortunate, 

 as its fruit has been generally considered much liner and more 

 palatable than that of any other species in general cultivation. 



Several horticultural varieties of the Red Mulberry have 

 been named by cultivators. They are chiefly grown in the 

 south, where the Stubbs Mulberry is said to produce immense 

 quantities of pleasant-flavored fruit fully two inches long and 

 half an inch thick, and the Hicks Mulberry bears a large sweet 

 fruit, valuable for fattening hogs and poultry, for which pur- 

 pose it has been planted by some farmers. In this vicinity the 

 first fruit is matured about the first week in July, and it con- 

 tinues to ripen during several weeks, but in the south it is said 

 that the best varieties continue to mature an abundance of 

 fruit for two or three months. 



There are some forms of the White Mulberry which have 

 dark-colored fruits, so that the plant has sometimes received 

 the name of Black Mulberry. But the White and Red Mul- 

 berries are the only two species usually seen in northern 

 gardens, and they may be readily distinguished, for the leaves 

 of the White Mulberry are smooth and shining on both sur- 

 faces, while those of the Red Mulberry are rough above and 

 densely covered by a soft gray pubescence or down on the 

 lower side. The leaves of the Red Mulberry are also usually 

 larger. In both species they are more or less heart-shaped, 

 and the margins have blunt or rounded teeth. Vigorous 

 growths are sometimes deeply lobed, the hollows or sinuses 

 being large and without serrations or teeth. In the variety of 

 the White Mulberry, known as the Tartarian or Russian, the 

 leaves are nearly always lobed and often very much so. In 

 this climate it is probable that the White Mulberry will always 

 be a larger tree than the Red. Wherever a Mulberry-tree is 

 a desideratum in a small garden the native Red Mulberry 

 would probably give most satisfaction on account of the more 

 palatable quality of its fruit, but if it is desired to feed_ silk- 

 worms, Morus alba should be selected. The Mulberries 

 appear to be exempt from the attacks of many of the insect 

 pests which affect other shade and fruit trees. 



Arnold Arboretum. 'J ■ G. Jack. 



Seasonable Garden Flowers. 



ONE of the earliest and best of the composite family to 

 flower in the early summer is Helenium Hoopesit, a true 

 perennial, a native of the western states from Montana to New 

 Mexico. It is the best garden-plant of the genus, H. Bolanderi 

 ranking next, and after it H. autumnale, a somewhat common 

 species here in the eastern states, and a useful autumn-flower- 

 ing plant. 



Helenium Hoopesii is now coming into bloom, and makes 



