4o+ 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 346. 



the various species probably V. ( anadense yields the 

 largest proportion of the enormous quantities of berries 

 which are annually brought to the markets. Kalmia lati- 

 folia has been reported as found within fifty miles to the 

 south-east of Montreal. 



Fraxinus Americana, the American or White Ash, is a 

 very common tree. F. pubescens, the Red or Downy Ash, 

 is quite common in some localities. It is sometimes called 

 " Frene gras" (Fat Ash or Greasy Ash) by the French Cana- 

 dians because the wood burns easily when quite green and 

 newly cut, this peculiarity not being true of the White Ash. 

 F. viridis, the Green Ash, is no longer recognized as a dis- 

 tinct species in Professor Sargent's Si/va of North America. 

 It occurs in this region, but there are many intermediate 

 trees to be found which seem to carry the species into F. 

 pubescens. as it is impossible to tell to which type they 

 belong. F. sambucifolia, the Black Ash, is also known as 

 " Frene gras " by the habitants. It is a common tree in 

 swamps or low grounds or moist rocky places, and grows 

 much larger than F. pubescens. Good straight stems are 

 in demand by the Indians and others for making baskets, 

 hoops, etc.; the wood, with a little manipulation, readily 

 splitting into thin sheets along the line of each annual 

 layer or ring of growth. 



Dirca palustris, the Leather-wood, sometimes called 

 Moose-wood, and the "Bois de plomb " of the French Cana- 

 dians, is frequently found in woods on warm rocky soils. 

 These little shrubs are often stripped of their extremely 

 tough pliant bark, which finds many uses. . , 



Arnold Arboretum. /• "• JaCK. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Rudbeckia nitida. — I saw this plant for the first time in 

 the Botanic Gardens at Oxford a few days ago, under the 

 name of R. columnaris, and, so far as I can make out, it 

 has never before been in cultivation in England. In my 

 opinion it is one of the most beautiful of all Rudbeckias. 

 In the Oxford gardens it was about a yard high, with 

 leathery oblong-lanceolate leaves about six inches long, 

 with a long petiole, except those on the stem, which were 

 sessile. The flower-heads were borne singly on slender 

 naked peduncles, and each head measured eight inches 

 across when flattened out. The dozen or so bright yellow 

 ray-florets droop gracefully around the conical dark brown 

 disks. I see that R. nitida is a native of Texas, Florida, 

 Georgia and Louisiana, and that it is placed next to R. 

 maxima, one of our commonest garden-plants, by Torrey 

 & Gray. -The true R. columnaris has pinnatifid leaves 

 and small flower-heads, and is as poor, in a garden sense, 

 as R. nitida is superior. 



Helianthus debilis. — This plant, one of the most attrac- 

 tive border-plants at Kew this year, is also called H. 

 cucumerifolius, under which name it is described in Torrey 

 & Gray's Flora of North America, where it is said to be a 

 native of Florida, Louisiana and Texas. It is a new plant 

 in English gardens, and is likely to become a favorite now 

 its decorative value is revealed. At Kew it grows to a 

 height of about five feet, forming a bush clothed with 

 heart-shaped, stalked leaves, which are scabrid on both 

 sides and toothed along the margins. The flower-heads 

 are borne singly on long erect naked peduncles, each head 

 being three inches across, the spreading oblong-concave 

 ray-florets being bright deep yellow, darkening to orange 

 at the base, while the disk-florets form a black-brown, 

 button-like centre an inch across. The plant appears to 

 be an annual. It is first-class in every sense. 



[Helianthus cucumerifolius is well known in American 

 gardens as one of our best annual Sunflowers. — Ed.] 



Senecio Hualtata. — This is a handsome plant of large 

 growth, which has been introduced to Kew by means of 

 seeds sent four years ago from Tucuman. It has proved 

 hardy here, having stood several winters out-of-doors, and 



it flowered a few weeks ago for the first time. It has a 

 perennial root-stock, from which spring numerous large 

 ovate cordate leaves on long stalks, forming a cluster sug- 

 gestive of a big Dock. The flower-stems are five feet high, 

 branched, the branches bearing clusters of flowers an inch 

 across, with creamy white ray-florets and an orange-yellow 

 disk. The decorative value of the plant is almost equal to 

 that of the giant S. sagittifolia which Monsieur Andre 

 introduced from Montevideo two years ago, and which 

 flowered at Kew last year and again this. A figure of S. 

 Hualtata will shortly be published in the Botanical Magazine. 

 Nerine appendiculata. — This new species has flowers of 

 extraordinary formation. Mr. Baker describes it this week 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle, from material supplied by Mr. 

 J. O'Brien, who introduced it from Natal ; he says it has a 

 floral structure suggestive of Narcissi. In general charac- 

 ters it is near Nerine flexuosa, under which is now included 

 N. angustifolia pulchella, etc., but it differs in having a 

 ring of strap-shaped processes which spring from the out- 

 side bases of the stamens, forming a kind of inner cup or 

 corona. The flowers are red. Similar but smaller appen- 

 dages to the stamens are found in the very distinct N. 

 pancratioides, which Mr. Baker described three years ago, 

 and which was also imported from Natal by Mr. O'Brien. 

 This species, however, has white flowers and is nearly 

 allied to N. pudica. The Nerines are very useful plants 

 for the greenhouse, and every new addition is most wel- 

 come. Hybridists will, no doubt, look sharply after N. 

 appendiculata. 



Brunsvigia Josephine. — If we could induce this plant to 

 bloom every year it would take rank with the most select 

 of south African bulbous plants. Under cultivation in this 

 country, however, it rarely flowers, consequently it is 

 rarely grown. In some parts of south Africa it is most 

 abundant on the open sandy plains, its large heads of red 

 flowers standing erect among the short scrub, and when 

 withered rolling about in the wind like gigantic Dandelion- 

 heads. There is a plant of it in bloom now in the Cape- 

 house at Kew. It has a bulb about four inches in diameter 

 and a stout semi-terete scape a foot high bearing an umbel 

 of fourteen flowers, each flower being borne on a stiff 

 pedicel nine inches long, the flower itself being three 

 inches long, and in shape and color suggesting the Jacobcea 

 Lily (Sprekelia). Sometimes there are fifty or sixty flowers 

 in an umbel, according to Baker. The whole inflorescence 

 is very suggestive of an elaborate chandelier. 



Cyanastrum cordifolium. — This is the sole representative 

 of a new genus of Haemodoraceae, founded by Professor 

 Oliver three years ago on a plant discovered in Lagos, 

 west tropical Africa, and figured and described in Hooker's 

 Icones Plantarum, t. 1965, where the Professor recom- 

 mended it as a likely garden-plant for tropical collections. 

 It is now flowering for the first time in one of the stoves 

 at Kew, and although not likely to please growers gen- 

 erally, it is, nevertheless, worth including in choice or 

 botanical collections. It has a creeping root-stock from 

 which spring leaves nine inches high, on erect peduncles 

 eight inches long, the blade six inches long, deeply heart- 

 shaped and colored shining green, of two shades. The 

 flowers, which are purple, are borne on short erect scapes 

 and are an inch across, star-shaped, with six segments. 



Gerardias. — I have seen several species of this North 

 American genus of Scrophulariaceas tried in gardens here, 

 but they have always proved unsatisfactory — no doubt, 

 for the reason stated recently on page 367. The best 

 results have been obtained with G. quercifolia, which be- 

 longs to the Dasystorna section of the genus, and which is 

 sometimes happy in English gardens. It is in flower now 

 in Mr. Smith's nursery at Newry, where it is over two feet 

 high and has charming butter-yellow flowers two and a 

 half inches long. This species was introduced about eight)' 

 years ago. The beautiful Harveyas, Cycniums and But- 

 tonias, which are natives of south Africa, and some of the 

 Indian species of Pedicularis have also been tried in Eng- 

 lish gardens, but they come to nothing. Our only chance, 



