346 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 340. 



which testifies to the singular purity and beauty of their 

 color. 



Swainsonia galegifolia. — This Australian plant is by no 

 means new, but it has been much neglected, in this coun- 

 try at least, until within a few years a white-flowered 

 variety of it has been grown to a considerable extent for 

 florists' use. It is well adapted for cutting, for it is almost 

 a constant bloomer, and when the flower-spikes or the ex- 

 tremities of the branches are cut off, it at once throws out 

 new shoots from below. It is of a half-scandent habit, and 

 therefore is better with some support, and it does very well 

 in a conservatory when trained against a wall. When 

 well grown, the spikes of white pea-shaped flowers are three 

 or four inches long, and a branch containing three or four 

 of these spikes rising above the glaucous-green delicate 

 compound leaves is very attractive. It does not seem gen- 

 erally known that this shrub is an excellent border plant. 

 A plant set out in the open ground as soon as the weather 

 becomes warm in late spring will grow rapidly, and if kept 

 back by cutting it will become a broad and stocky plant, 

 producing numerous flowers until frost. 



Liatris pycnostachya. — It is hard to say which of the spe- 

 cies of Liatris is the most beautiful at this season of the 

 year, and we have selected this one simply because a vase 

 filled with its long dense spikes of rose-purple flowers in 

 the exhibit of Pitcher & Manda at the Florists' Convention, 

 at Atlantic City, last week, seemed to be particularly attrac- 

 tive. There are many other species of these Blazing 

 Stars, or Gay Feathers, as they are sometimes called, with 

 long spicate or racemed heads of purple flowers, which 

 bloom in early autumn and late summer. L. scariosa, 

 which sometimes reaches a height of five feet, is very hand- 

 some, having larger heads than the first-named species and 

 bright reddish scales. L. spicata begins to flower earlier in 

 the season, and there are others, like L. graminifolia, L. 

 elegans, and even the little L. cylindracea, which are worth 

 growing. One objection to the Liatris is that the flowering 

 begins at the extremity of the spike and progresses down- 

 ward, so that while the lower portion of the spike is in 

 bloom the upper portion may be dry and withered. Nev- 

 ertheless, they are for the most part showy species, and 

 deserve a place in any considerable collection of hardy 

 perennial plants. 



Quercus palistris. — We generally think of the Oak as 

 the emblem of rugged strength, but none of our native 

 forest-trees excel in grace of outline the Pin Oak, which is 

 so common near this city. This is especially true of this 

 species before it reaches its full size. The lower branches, 

 which droop gracefully in a young tree, seem in an old 

 one to be thrust downward in a rigid, disagreeable way, 

 and such trees are often disfigured by dead branches in the 

 interior of the head. Perhaps a course of systematic pruning, 

 begun when the tree is young and carried on so as to give it 

 a more open habit when it became old, might remedy this 

 difficulty. The White Oak hardly attains its full measure 

 of dignity until it is a hundred years old, and it becomes 

 more impressive and venerable for a century or two 

 longer. This means that we should not plant Pin Oaks 

 to be rivals of White Oaks in the twenty-first century, 

 but they are beautiful trees always, and we can plant 

 them without any fear of outliving their attractiveness. 

 Their clean glossy foliage and the long slender sprays 

 at the extremities of the branches give them an expres- 

 sion of feathery lightness which is worn by no other 

 Oak. For street-planting this is one of our most useful 

 trees. We have often alluded to the famous avenue of Pin 

 Oaks in Flushing, and it is to be hoped that the double row 

 of these trees which extends up Pennsylvania Avenue, in 

 Washington, from the Potomac, may yet be continued to 

 the national Capitol. Some of the Oaks have a reputa- 

 tion for resenting removal, but a Pin Oak can be trans- 

 planted with perfect safety, since it differs from many others 

 in having a mass of fibrous roots when young, instead 

 of a few prong-like roots. 



Cultural Department. 



Basket Ferns. 



TT ANGING baskets of Ferns are very ornamental, and there 

 •1 •*• are many species and varieties suitable for this purpose, 

 and many that need to be suspended in order to show to the 

 fullest advantage the grace of their drooping foliage. The 

 baskets maybe of wood or wire, the former being preferable, 

 and a compost of fibrous loam, leaf-mold, peat and coarse 

 sand is suitable, and it should be kept as coarse as possible. 

 The baskets must be lined with moss to keep the soil from 

 falling through, and the moss should be carried well up to the 

 edge of the basket, leaving it about an inch higher than the 

 soil, so as to form a receptacle for the water. It is a great 

 mistake to fill the basket too full of compost, as the water then 

 runs off instead of through it. 



Of the Adiantums, perhaps the two most suitable are A. 

 amabile and A. assimile ; their creeping rhizomes soon find 

 their way through the crevices and over the entire surface of 

 the basket and envelop it in a mass of tender green foliage. 

 A. dolabriforme and A. ciliatum are also very suitable, pro- 

 ducing young plants at the points of their pendent fronds, 

 which greatly enhance their beauty. The last-named some- 

 what resembles A. candatum, which is also a very suitable 

 variety, but the fronds are larger and more deeply cut and 

 fringed. 



Asplenium fiabellifolium, A. macrophyllum and A. Longis- 

 sinum are all good for this work. Among the Davallias quite 

 a number are admirably adapted for baskets, and also for 

 hanging on blocks of wood or cork. The pretty little D. bul- 

 lata, or Squirrel's-foot Fern, D. dissecta, D. repens and D. 

 Tyermania are specially adapted for small baskets. The fronds 

 of none of these varieties attain a length of more than a foot, 

 while D. solida, D. elegans polydactyla and D. Mooreana are 

 among the best for large baskets. But among all the spe- 

 cies ot Ferns there is none quite as desirable for large baskets 

 as the Goniophlebiums. G. chnoodes has beautiful soft pen- 

 dent fronds, often measuring four feet in length, and G. sub- 

 auriculatum, often attaining a length of ten feet. Nephrolepis 

 davallioides furcans, with its large arching fronds of robust 

 growth, makes a noble basket-plant. The distinct and beautiful 

 N. Duffii, with its close tufted habit of growth and peculiar 

 character, also serves this purpose well, while N. exaltata and 

 N. pectinata are first-rate for this work. Pillaea ternifolia, a 

 lovely basket species, has elegant pendent fronds about a foot 

 in length. Platyloma rlexuosa, with fronds of the same 

 length, is also good. 



Peteris scaberula makes a fine little basket-plant, while 

 Woodwardia radicans makes a noble specimen for a large 

 basket. 



Plants of the Platycerium, or Stag-horn Fern, make beauti- 

 ful objects for hanging on blocks of wood or cork. They 

 grow better and show the peculiar form of their fronds to 

 greater advantage this way than any other in which they can 

 be grown. There are several well-marked varieties, the com- 

 moner being P. grande and P. alicorne. The former has both 

 upright and drooping fronds, while the latter is entirely upright. 

 Among the rarer kinds are P. Wallichii, with broadly cut 

 rounded fronds, P. biforme and P. Willinckii, with narrower 

 cut fronds, and quite distinct in having the tips of its fronds 

 turned upward. 



Tarrvtovvn, N. Y. 



William Scott. 



Hardy Perennials. 



PLANTS which start into growth as soon as the ground 

 warms in spring must make all preparations for this dur- 

 ing the previous autumn, and, therefore, there are very many 

 hardy herbaceous perennials, which, if properly cared for, can 

 be transplanted now to better advantage than at any other sea- 

 son. If we look at the roots of early Anemones, Violas, Tril- 

 liums, etc., just before the ground freezes up for winter, we 

 will see that the flower-buds are all well formed and ready to 

 break into growth as soon as the snow is off the next spring, 

 so that it is much better to set the plants early, that they 

 may have time to make their autumnal growth without dis- 

 turbance. It is much better to lift them as early as the middle 

 of August than to defer this till just before winter, when the 

 fibrous roots, many of which must necessarily be broken, 

 will not have time to recover before they are frost-bound. Of 

 course, in a very dry season like this the ground should be 

 artificially watered at the time of transplanting, so that the 

 plant will have some food to start off with. Paeonies and other 

 coarse-growing plants which have exhausted their soil can 



