384 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 344. 



thickets the plants rarely become very large, and they often 

 spread and increase by suckers. The true P. Amer- 

 icana, as now distinguished and separated, does not 

 occur in this region. P. Pennsylvania, the Bird or 

 Pin Cherry, is common. P. serotina, the wild Black 

 Cherry or Rum Cherry, becomes a large timber-tree, but 

 the best of it has been cut from the woods. P. Virginiana, 

 the Choke Cherry, while commonly seen as a shrub, is 

 sometimes found with single stems twenty or more feet 

 high and ten inches through. A variation, with large, 

 clear amber-colored fruit, is sometimes found in or near 

 French-Canadian gardens, and is usually more or less 

 arborescent. The ripe fruit of this and of the black type 

 is to be found in the city markets of Montreal. When 

 fully matured it has sometimes a very pleasant flavor. 



Arnold Arboretum. J • Cr- JdCK t 



Planting the Locust. 



CONSIDERING the effort of thought and manual labor, 

 perhaps nothing that I have done at the Agricultural 

 College during the past twenty-four years is likely to be 

 productive of more satisfaction or lasting benefit than the 

 planting and care of trees on a small area of less than two 

 acres. The planting was begun in the fall of 1876, and 

 was continued for several years afterward. The land is a 

 rather thin sandy loam. The trees were mostly planted in 

 rows four feet apart, each kind usually by itself in whole 

 rows, or in parts of several contiguous rows. The mistakes 

 made are now probably as instructive as anything. For a 

 greater or less time — five to ten years — the trees were cul- 

 tivated. Including species represented by one to five trees 

 and some shrubs, there are not far from one hundred and 

 fifty kinds. Elsewhere, after five years of experimenting 

 with various crops on the Jack-Pine plains, two members 

 of the State Board of Agriculture told me that the most 

 valuable part of the work done was the acre of land on 

 which I had planted some sixty-five species of trees, some 

 of which are doing well. 



In the spring of 1880, in the college arboretum, I planted 

 a few sprouts of common Locust, Robinia Pseudacacia, one 

 year old, in the midst of Chestnuts, Ashes, Maples and But- 

 ternuts that were several years old. Some years ago the 

 best tree was cut for an exhibition, but I have just measured 

 another. It is now about forty feet high, the advanced 

 growth of surrounding trees having kept off the lower 

 limbs and caused it to shoot up with a long straight stem. 

 Three feet above the ground the circumference is thirty- 

 one inches, and eighteen feet above the ground twenty- 

 four and a half inches. The trunk is clean and nearly free 

 from borers, a result, I believe, of the shading by surround- 

 ing trees ; perhaps, also, partially due to the small number 

 of the Locusts in this isolated spot. Another tree is nearly 

 as large, and both would make nice fence-posts or telegraph- 

 poles. Sprouts have come up for some distance around in 

 every direction. This suggests forcibly the propriety of plant- 

 ing sprouts or seeds of the Locust, a few here and there, in 

 open places among young timber, where the soil is suita- 

 ble for their growth. 



Agricultural College, Michigan. *V . J. Beat. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Syringa Pekinensis. 



ON page 165 of the third volume of this journal the 

 portrait of a flowering branch of this north China 

 tree was published. It had produced a few clusters of 

 flowers for the first time in America in the spring of 1889 

 in the Arnold Arboretum, where it had been raised from 

 seed sent by Dr. Bretschneider from St. Petersburg. The 

 plants attained such a large size without flowering at all, 

 and appeared to be such shy bloomers when they did 

 flower, that we believed it was the least valuable of all the 

 Lilacs as a flowering plant, in spite of its hardiness, rapid 

 growth and excellent habit. Like many other plants, however, 



Syringa Pekinensis does not show what it is capable of in 

 the early years of its life, and does not begin to flower 

 freely until it has grown to a good size, but that it can in 

 time produce its large clusters of white flowers in profu- 

 sion is shown on page 385 of this issue, which is repro- 

 duced from a photograph of a plant which stands in 

 deep rich soil, in a garden near Boston, and has been al- 

 lowed to spread its long graceful branches in all directions. 

 The habit of Syringa Pekinensis is excellent, as the illustra- 

 tion shows ; the foliage is pleasing in color, and is not 

 injured by insects or disease ; and the flower-clusters, 

 which appear a week or ten days earlier than those of 

 Syringa Japonica, and about ten days later than those of 

 Syringa Amurensis, are produced more freely on old well- 

 established plants than they are on either of these species. 

 They appear, too, on the lower as well as on the upper 

 branches, while on Syringa Japonica they are usually con- 

 fined to the upper part of the tree. The disagreeable 

 Privet-like odor, which is common to all the Lilacs of this 

 section (Ligustrina), is less pronounced in this species than 

 in the others. Altogether, Syringa Pekinensis in New Eng- 

 land is a very beautiful, desirable and perfectly hardy small 

 tree. It requires, however, strong moist soil and plenty of 

 room in which to display the graceful sweep of its branches. 



Plant Notes. 



Viburnum cassinoides. — This handsome shrub, which has 

 its home in the swamps of our northern states, succeeds 

 well in any ordinary garden-soil, and, like other members 

 of the genus, deserves a larger place in our parks and 

 gardens than it has yet received. Just now its clusters of 

 berries, some of them bright pink, some flesh-colored, con- 

 trasting in color among themselves and with the dark green 

 leathery leaves, give the plant a singular attractiveness. 

 Later on the berries will be dark green and the foliage will 

 assume rich autumn colors. In June it bears abundantly 

 broad cymes of cream-white flowers, while its vigorous 

 health and its compact habit make it serviceable at all sea- 

 sons. V. nudum is a closely allied plant of more south- 

 ern range, and like V. cassinoides, when taken from its 

 native swamps into good garden-soil, it abandons its spind- 

 ling habit and spreads out into a broad mass of lustrous 

 foliage that makes it worth planting, even in choice col- 

 lections of shrubbery. 



Sternbergia lutea. — This is by no means a new plant, 

 but, although the bulbs are not expensive, it is much more 

 rare in gardens than it deserves to be. It is one of those 

 bulbous plants which rest during the summer and throw 

 up flower-spikes in September, and, like the autumn Cro- 

 cus and Colchicum, it always affords a pleasing surprise 

 by its unexpectedness. Its flowers are often called Crocus- 

 like, which is only partially true. They are a beautiful 

 clear yellow, two inches or more long and funnel-shaped, 

 but they are borne on scapes from four to six inches long, 

 and as they usually stand out at an angle from the stem, the 

 general effect is altogether different from that of a short- 

 stemmed Crocus, and the common name, Winter Daffodil, 

 by which they are known in England, is much more 

 appropriate. Unlike the autumn Crocus, the attractive 

 foliage appears with the flowers and remains all winter. 

 The leaves are from six to twelve inches long, narrow, 

 slightly keeled and very dark green, and they add much to 

 the appearance of the plant. A colony of Sternbergias 

 on a front border makes a beautiful mass, since the flowers 

 last for a long time and are very useful for cutting. As we 

 have said, the leaves appear with the flowers and ripen off 

 in the spring. They seem perfectly hardy here, however, 

 but some cultivators hold that the plants are stronger if 

 they are covered with a sash in winter to prevent them 

 from being crushed by the snows. In Europe they are 

 often grown on the borders of water or in bogs, but here 

 they flourish well in any well-drained garden-soil and in- 

 crease rapidly. There is a stronger variety with larger 



