236 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 329 



also Bougainvillea glabra Sanderiana. and Heliconia illus- 

 tris. The last named is a stove-plant of brilliant color, 

 probably not a Heliconia, although, perhaps, related to 

 it ; it has hastate leaves with sheathing bases, the color 

 of which is bright rose-red. 



As a whole the exhibition may be taken as fully represent- 

 ing the strength of horticulture in England, and the great 

 variety and cultural excellence shown by the exhibits is 

 probably equal to anything ever seen here. Fifty years 

 ago Orchids and herbaceous plants counted for compara- 

 tively little in England ; now they are pre-eminently first in 

 the attention they receive. 



London. 



W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Trees and Shrubs. 



AMONG the numerous species of wild Roses in the collec- 

 tion of the Arboretum the earliest to flower this season 

 was Rosa acicularis, whose first buds were expanded on 

 the 14th of May. Last season the same plant produced its 

 first flowers on May 25th, in 1892 about the same date, in 1891 

 about May 21st. in 1890 on the 26th. and in 18S9 on the 16th 

 of May. These data show pretty fairly the relative advance- 

 ment of the seasons in the different years at that partic- 

 ular time, although hot or cool weather before or after a 

 special time may hasten or retard vegetable growth, so that 

 earliness or lateness in flowering is not uniform throughout 

 the spring and early summer when compared with other years 

 and starting from a given date. 



The Rosa acicularis in cultivation is a native of northern 

 Europe, for although the same species is native in parts of our 

 own country, the American form does not appear to have 

 been brought into general cultivation from its native haunts. 

 R. acicularis has ail the qualities of fragrance; size and rosy 

 color of blossom which we usually associate with wild Roses, 

 our indigenous local species being just as beautiful and 

 attractive and only lacking the one merit of extreme earliness. 

 The stems are prickly and attain a height of five or six feet or 

 more ; they are likely to spread by underground suckers. 



Rosa alpina, another European species, is but a day or two 

 later in flowering than the earliest R. acicularis, and has the 

 recommendation of being almost or quite without prickles or 

 bristles. In other respects it is very much like R. acicularis, 

 except that it does not grow quite so tall, and it might well be 

 substituted for it. It is considered as one of the parents of the 

 old-fashioned climbing Boursault Roses, and several other 

 double or half-double torms have been produced from it. 



After these two species of Roses it is not easy to say which 

 Rose has precedence in the order of flowering. The first 

 native New England species to produce blossoms is Rosa 

 blanda, which here opens its first flowers ten or twelve days 

 inter than the earliest R. acicularis. In cultivation the plant 

 will grow two or three feet high. It usually bears few, or 

 sometimes no prickles, and the blossoms average a good deal 

 larger than those of the first species mentioned ; the rosy 

 color of the petals is often marked by numerous narrow light- 

 colored streaks or blotches. Before this species begins to 

 flower, however, some of the little Scotch or Burnet Roses, 

 varieties of R. spinosissima, have become quite conspicuous 

 with bloom, the earliest being not many days behind R. acicu- 

 laris. These, although single, can hardly be considered sim- 

 ply wild Roses, as they have generally been somewhat 

 modified by cultivation. The usual color is white or pale yel- 

 lowish white, and the size of the flower varies with different 

 individual plants. A specimen received from Kew under the 

 name of Rosa grandiflora has large pale yellow flowers which 

 measure quite three inches across. The name grandiflora, 

 however, does not properly belong to it, as it appears to be 

 nothing more than a tall-growing, vigorous and large-flower- 

 ing variety of the Scotch Rose known to some rosarians as 

 R. spinosissima aitaica. A very pretty and early variety re- 

 ceived from Kew as R. spinosissima pusilla has large single 

 pale rosy colored blossoms, and is one of the best of those in 

 which red or rosy colors appear. 



Lonicera Korolkowii, which was first described and figured 

 in the current volume of Garden and Forest (page 34, 

 fig. 4), is just now, in the first days of June, in its tullest 

 and best bloom, and it is at once the most distinct and 

 attractive of all the Bush Honeysuckles at this time, when 

 most of the flowers of the common Tartarian Honey- 

 suckles have faded. The flowers, though small, are produced 



in great profusion. They are not so strongly fragrant as those 

 of the Tartarian Honeysuckles, the odor being rather faint and 

 delicate. The little plant received in 1881 is now ten feet high, 

 spreads widely, and is well covered with small grayish foliage, 

 which gives the whole plant a glaucous or cinerous aspect. 

 It is a shrub well worth a place in any collection. The fruit has 

 not yet been produced in abundance. It is very small, bright 

 red, and is greedily eaten by birds as soon as ripe. This species 

 may be readily propagated by cuttings of the mature wood. 



Arnold Arboretum. J. G. Jack. 



The Rock-garden in June. 



'THE rock-garden is less bright now than during May, but is 

 *■ still full of color. The showy patches of Phlox subulata 

 are nearly all out of bloom ; only one remains in full beauty, 

 and this is a chance seedling. It is a blue variety, somewhat 

 resembling Sadie, but with more compact habit and full 

 round flowers. Rocky Mountain Columbines, in blue and 

 white, among yellow and orange Iceland Poppies, make a har- 

 monious color-scheme, as do blue Globularias and crimson 

 Fire Pinks in one place, and Fire Pinks and the blue Alpine 

 Bugles, Ajuga Genevensis, in another. This Fire Pink (Silene 

 Virginica) was sent here a few years ago from Virginia, and is 

 well established. It is not obtrusive, and there can scarcely 

 be too many of such strikingly beautiful plants. 



Rock Roses (Helianthemum), in shades of orange, red and 

 white, are interesting and beautiful when planted where they 

 droop over a ledge. The imported plants do not do so well 

 as acclimatized seedlings, several of which have settled them- 

 selves here. Phyteumas are pretty and distinct members of 

 the Bellrlower family ; their flowers are arranged more or less 

 in heads, sometimes oblong, sometimes round, nearly always 

 blue, and seldom white. P. Charmellii and P. orbiculare are 

 among the best varieties. Myosotis rupicola, a gem among 

 alpine Forget-me-nots, is scarcely three inches high ; Linaria 

 alpina is another diminutive plant, a distinct and pretty mem- 

 ber of the Toad Flax family, with glaucous foliage, and 

 blue flowers with an orange throat. Soldanella alpina, a deli- 

 cate but lovely little member of the Primula family, has strug- 

 gled along for three or four years, and its location has been 

 changed several times ; it now seems -to have found congenial 

 quarters, and is giving us a few flowers this year for the first 

 time. It is planted on the north side of a large stone, which 

 shades it from the midday sun. Beside this is another gem 

 of the season, the rare Ramondya Pyrenaica, also now in 

 bloom. Though easily enough grown in pots, it is hard to 

 establish when planted out. Plenty of moisture is required 

 and good drainage is necessary. Potentilla tridentata is per- 

 fectly at home in a cleft of rocks, and its dark green, shining 

 foliage and white star-like .flowers are very effective. Alpine 

 Poppies in red, white and yellow shades, though delicate, are 

 becoming more hardy, but I strongly suspect, by the appear- 

 ance of several seedlings, that there is an infusion of Papaver 

 nudicaule, the yellow Iceland Poppy. 



Phlox repens, dwarf, deep rose flowered, and P. divaricata, 

 slightly taller, in shades of blue and white, are growing to- 

 gether and do well. These follow the Moss Pinks, and, though 

 not so bright, are still a very effective species. Aster alpinus 

 speciosus is by far the best of several varieties of the alpine 

 Aster. The flowers are solitary, three inches across, on stems 

 six inches high and bright rose color. Seeds of this' fine new 

 variety were sent to me by Mr. Robert Cameron, of Cambridge 

 Botanic Garden, where they were received from St. Peters- 

 burg, having been collected in central Asia. I have raised 

 several hundred of these plants from seeds collected last 

 autumn. It is easy of cultivation, and should soon be abundant. 



The yellow Globe-flowers (Trollius) have a stately beauty 

 and effectiveness among lesser plants, and give variety to the 

 garden. So, also, do Oriental Poppies, of which we have now 

 several charming varieties, and the long leafless scapes of the 

 American Cowslip, Dodecatheon medea, with large heads of 

 pendulous lilac flowers, reflexed in the same way as the Cycla- 

 men, these two genera belonging to the same natural order. 



Other noteworthy plants in bloom are Saxifraga Wallacei, a 

 fine tufted variety with white flowers ; Gypsophila repens, in 

 dense sheets of white ; Heuchera sanguinea, with long, slen- 

 der scapes of coral-red flowers ; Armeria vulgaris, Laucheana, 

 the best of all the Sea Pinks, and always a favorite ; Geranium 

 sanguineum, a perennial bloomer; Saponaria ocymoides, with 

 beautiful flesh-colored flowers, but liable to be weedy ; Astra- 

 galus Monspessulanus, a rose-flowered milk Vetch, always in 

 bloom. Gentiana acaulis still gives us a few flowers, and will 

 be succeeded soon by G. cruciata, less beautiful, but hardier. 

 Viola cornuta, in blue, yellow and white varieties, will con- 



