35^ 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 341 



of the stamens, the great abundance of pollen, are all marked 

 characteristics. Mr. W. Watson, of Kew Gardens, speaks of 

 the color of the flowers as a " soft delicate pink," but as grown 

 in the open air in America, the color is deeper, especially if 

 the water is artificially heated, when it is as deep a red as 

 is ever found in N. rubra, though of a different tone. Mr. 

 Watson speaks of the leaves as " apple green "; here they are 

 often near the color of Coleus Verschaffeltii. I have never 

 known N. Sturtevantii to produce seed. While it may be well 

 grown with the treatment commonly given to N. Devoniensis, 

 the best results are obtained when it has abundant root-room 

 and artificially heated water. 



Nymphaea Devoniensis, given as the parent of N. Sturte- 

 vantii, is an hybrid produced at Chatsworth in 185 1 by Sir 

 Joseph Paxton, and seemingly considered by him a mule, 

 and was so described in the first notice of the variety in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, July 10th, 1S52. It is usually 

 considered sterile by cultivators, and an examination of 

 an ordinary flower will show that while it is well furnished 

 with pollen, the female parts are imperfectly developed. It 

 seems that these organs became fertile under the stimulus 

 of Mr. Sturtevant's generous culture. It is, however, a 

 curious freak that from the fertile seed produced by this 

 plant one only of the number should have varied from the 

 type. 



There is much confusion among the Nymphaeas, both 

 hardy and tropical, and Nymphaea rubra, the grandparent 

 of N. Sturtevantii, has not escaped its share. Its flowers 

 are fertile and readily cross with other species, and even 

 when uncrossed the seedlings sometimes vary in size, form 

 and coloring. There are several forms grown in gardens ; 

 and though this and N. Devoniensis have been often con- 

 fused by growers, it does not seem difficult to fix the nor- 

 mal types. We have little help, however, toward this in 

 the published figures of N. rubra in the Botanical Magazine 

 and Paxton's Magazine of Botany. In the former it is 

 figured as a dark rosy carmine flower, quite single and 

 with loose irregular petals, which are black on the reverse, 

 resembling the figures of the flower of N. rubro-rosea, 

 which is somewhat more double and lighter-colored, with 

 bright yellow stamens. The Magazine of Botany figures 

 N. rubra as resembling a very bright rich crimson Cactus 

 Dahlia, with stamens of the same color, but of the normal 

 shape as we know them. 



Making allowances for the deficiencies of art in these 

 figures, Nymphsea rubra in our gardens has taken on a no- 

 bility of form and a delicacy of color unknown to those by 

 whom they have been figured. Good forms of this plant 

 grown in our gardens are of a deep rosy carmine, eight to 

 ten or more inches in diameter, with petals intermediate in 

 width between those of N. Devoniensis and N. Sturte- 

 vantii, and not as sharp-pointed as those of the former 

 variety. The leaves are a very dark olive-green, with 

 darker spots, sometimes quite indistinct. The petals are 

 narrow, strap-shaped, dull brick-red, and with two narrow 

 lines of yellow anthers on the inner side. 



Nymphaea Sturtevantii is, as shown in the illustration 

 (see page 355), a variety with wide petals and somewhat 

 cupped form. The coloring is brighter than that of N. 

 rubra and not so bluish in tone. The leaves are distinct from 

 those of all other Nymphaeas, with a color difficult to de- 

 scribe, but of a dull reddish coppery hue. It is a beautiful 

 plant when in flower, but is not so free in bloom usually as 

 its parent. N. Devoniensis is now well known as a beau- 

 tiful night-blooming Lily, with flowers of a still lighter 

 shade, with narrow petals and very dark shining leaves, 

 whose rich color reminds one of the Copper Beech. 



In the first description there is a seeming confusion as to 

 whether Nymphaea Devoniensis is a hybrid of N. rubra with 

 N. dentata or with N. Lotus. N. rubra is classed as a red form 

 of N. Lotus, and the other parent may be the ordinary N. 

 Lotus or the N. Lotus of Sims (N. thermalis). While N. den- 

 tata and N. Lotus arebotanically alike, as garden-plants they 

 are very dissimilar, the latter, as we know them, being cup- 

 shaped, and the former being very open, with somewhat 

 narrow petals. In seeking to duplicate N. Devoniensis one 



would naturally try N. dentata as the pollen plant, and 

 expect forms approaching that of N. Sturtevantii when N. 

 Lotus furnished the pollen. It would be interesting to 

 know the exact difference in forms between the plant 

 illustrated and N. Kewensis, which in 1888 wassaid to have 

 been secured between N. Lotus and N. Devoniensis. Some 

 promising crosses between N. dentata and N. rubra are 

 now under trial by American growers. 



For the opportunity of figuring this flower we are in- 

 debted to W. W. Lee, Esq., of Northampton, Massachu- 

 setts, who not only grows Nymphaeas to great perfection, 

 but has secured a remarkable series of life-size photographs 

 of the different species. The picture, which had to be re- 

 duced one-fourth in order to appear on a page of this size, 

 represents the flower on the third day after opening. It is at 



its best on the fourth day. 

 Eizabeth, n.j. _ ./• N. Gtrard. 



Plant Notes. 



Pyrus arbutifolia. — A correspondent who has been ob- 

 serving the Choke-berry, as it frequently appears along the 

 roadsides in western New York, writes to inquire why a 

 shrub so attractive has not been commended in our pages 

 for planting in parks and private grounds. As a matter of 

 fact, attention has been called to this plant in every volume 

 of Garden and Forest. Its handsome white flowers, nearly 

 an inch across, often tinged with purple, and with con- 

 spicuous brown anthers, are borne in downy corymbs, 

 which make it exceedingly attractive. There are two 

 varieties of the plant so well marked as to suggest that they 

 be made separate species. One bears scarlet fruit and one 

 black, the first having a rather more southern range than the 

 other, although the plants appear together occasionally in 

 New England. The scarlet-fruited plant blooms in early 

 June, and the fruit, which does not ripen until late in Octo- 

 ber, remains on the branches in full color well into the 

 winter. The black-fruited Choke-berry flowers a fortnight 

 earlier and ripens its dark vinous purple and lustrous fruit 

 early in September. In habit this plant is rather more 

 dense than the scarlet-fruited kind, and it has more orna- 

 mental foliage. The fruit varies much in color, some varie- 

 ties being deep wine-colored, but it all falls as soon as it is 

 ripe. Pyrus arbutifolia was figured in vol. hi., page 417, 

 and the differences between the two forms were fully ex- 

 plained. Both of them vary considerably in the shape of 

 the leaves and in the size and color of the flowers, and it is 

 not improbable that they could be greatly improved by 

 cultivation and selection. Certainly, they are both desira- 

 ble hardy shrubs. 



Gordoxia Altamaha. — Something more than a month 

 ago a correspondent in Washington sent us several of 

 the Camellia-like flowers of this tree, and a few days since 

 we were favored in the same way by Mr. Joseph Meehan, 

 who has more than once, in these columns, assured all who 

 have been deterred from planting it on account of its repu- 

 tation for tenderness, that it is reliably hardy, at least as 

 far north as the latitude of Philadelphia. Certainly there 

 are some very fine examples in Fairmount Park and in 

 Germantown. The original tree in Bartram's garden died 

 some years ago, but a sucker from it is now living, and the 

 largest tree in Germantown, which is now some twenty 

 feet high, was taken from a layer of this plant. The tree 

 will thrive best under conditions favorable to Rhodo- 

 dendrons — that is, in deep rich soil and in a partly shaded 

 condition. It cannot endure hot, shallow soil. The Gor- 

 donia orginally came from Georgia, although, as it is well 

 known, it has not been seen in a wild state since Bartram 

 saw it more than a hundred years ago. Perhaps it might 

 thrive in sheltered situations considerably north of Phil- 

 adelphia ; indeed, it flowers annually in the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, but every autumn the tree, or shrub, as it is there, is 

 pegged down to the ground and covered with leaves and 

 soil. Wherever it will live it exceeds in beauty any of 

 our summer-flowering trees. These flowers in the lati- 

 tude of Washington are produced continually from July 



