434 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 349. 



tance to size it will have exceptional charms. At this 

 time of year there is no more effective plant in the open 

 border than the Winter Cherry, its branches, from one to 

 two feet high, being profusely hung with inflated fruits 

 like tiny Chinese lanterns and colored bright orange. For 

 room-decoration it is a most delightful plant to cut from. 

 The new and big-fruited species above named has lately 

 been introduced from Japan by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, 

 who exhibited it this week, when it was awarded a first- 

 class certificate. It has been described by Dr. Masters, 

 who, while admitting its close relationship to the Winter 

 Cherry, rightly regards it as distinct enough to warrant the 

 above specific name, which is given in compliment to 

 Monsieur Franchet, the eminent French botanist, who 

 described it in 1879 as a variety of P. Alkakengi. The dif- 

 ferences between the two are as follows : P. Francheti is 

 an annual with fibrous roots, erect glabrous branches with 

 large short-stalked leaves, and "lanterns" two and a half 

 inches in diameter, whereas P. Alkakengi is perennial, with 

 semi-decumbent, setose branches the leaves smaller, and 

 the lanterns from one to one and a half inches in diameter. 

 P. edulis, the Cape Gooseberry, is not nearly as ornamental, 

 although probably much more useful, as yielding fruit 

 which makes good jam, etc. It is a South American plant, 

 notwithstanding its popular name. P. Alkakengi is a native 

 of Europe and various parts of Asia. P. Francheti was 

 generally looked upon as the most interesting plant shown 

 at the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. It 

 ripens seeds freely, and its fruits are fit to eat, though, per- 

 haps, not overpleasant when raw. 



Herbaceous Plants. — An exhibition of more than ordi- 

 nary interest was made last Tuesday by Messrs. J. Veitch & 

 Sons, who are now taking up a leading position among 

 caterers for those who delight in outdoor gardening of the 

 decorative kind. Their collection showed what a wealth of 

 beautiful flowers could be cut from the herbaceous border 

 in October ; it included grand varieties of Kniphofia, 

 Michaelmas Daisies, Rudbeckias, Perennial Sunflowers, 

 Scabiosas, Pentstemons, Red Millefoil, Montbretias, Gail- 

 lardias, Anemone Japonica, red, pink and white varieties. 

 These are all what are termed "barn-door'' plants in Eng- 

 lish gardens, but they are too often left, like other "barn- 

 door " things, to take care of themselves. Well looked after 

 and properly cultivated they are capable of great things, 

 as was proved by Messrs. Veitches' exhibit, compared 

 with others I could name. The glory at this time of year 

 of a few good gardens known to me is the Kniphofia, but 

 it is generally overlooked, apparently for no other reason 

 than because in severe winters it suffers or gets killed 

 entirely. 



Three Good Carnations were exhibited this week. They 

 were Mademoiselle Therese Franco, a dwarf plant with large, 

 well-formed, elegant flowers of a deep flesh-color. This, 

 I believe, is largely grown in France, where its flowers find 

 much favor with ladies ; Miss Mary Godfrey, with a beau- 

 tiful white flower, perfect in form, and having a delicious 

 odor. The plant is a strong grower and profuse bloomer. 

 It is regarded here as one of the very best whites ; Regi- 

 nald Godfrey is a worthy companion of the above, being 

 quite equal to it in form and robustness of habit, the flowers 

 being salmon-pink. 



Vallota purpurea is too well known to require recom- 

 mending, but it is not often grown as superbly as a plant 

 shown this week from a garden in Buckingham. It was in 

 a fifteen-inch pot, and bore forty-eight scapes about two 

 feet high, with an aggregate of some two hundred open 

 flowers. The plant had not been repotted for seven years, 

 and never received any other food than rain-water. 



Duke of York Rose.— Messrs. W. Paul & Son are exhib- 

 iting a beautiful bedding Rose under this name, and from 

 what I have seen of it it is sure to become popular because 

 of its perpetual flowering character and the bright flesh- 

 pink color of its flowers. These are borne in clusters after 

 the style of the Monthly Rose, on almost spineless stems 

 about a yard high. It was shown as a new Rose at 



the Temple Show in June last, when it received a certifi- 

 cate. 



Chrysanthemums have begun again, and certificates were 

 awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society last Tuesday 

 to several new ones. The National Chrysanthemum Society 

 also held an exhibition of early-flowering sorts at the 

 Aquarium this week, and r considering the backwardness of 

 the season, the display of flowers was surprisingly good. 

 Most of the sorts shown, however, were those which nor- 

 mally do not flower so early, so that they must have been 

 forced for this exhibition. Chrysanthemums in midsum- 

 mer certainly are a novelty, but, after all, they go best 

 with November fogs and frosts. 



London. W. WatSOtl. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



A Hybrid Walnut-tree. 



qp] 



'HE existence of some curious Walnut-trees in the 

 j|_ neighborhood of Boston has been known for several 

 years to students of trees in this neighborhood. My atten- 

 tion was first called to the fact by observing that a tree, 

 which I had supposed was the so-called English Walnut, 

 Juglans regia, in the grounds connected with the Episcopal 

 School of Harvard College, at Cambridge, was not injured 

 by the cold of the severest winters, although Juglans regia 

 generally suffers from cold here, and rarely grows to a 

 large size. This individual is really a noble tree ; the 

 trunk forks about five feet above the surface of the 

 ground into two limbs, and girths, at the point where 

 its diameter is smallest, fifteen feet and two inches. The 

 divisions of the trunk spread slightly and form a wide 

 round-topped head of pendulous branches of unusual sym- 

 metry and beauty, and probably sixty to seventy feet high. 

 A closer examination of this tree showed that it was hardly 

 to be distinguished from Juglans regia in habit, in the charac- 

 ter of the bark or in the form and coloring of the leaves, 

 and that the oblong nut, with its thick shell deeply sculp- 

 tured into narrow ridges, was the slightly modified nut of 

 our native Butternut, Juglans cinerea. Two other trees 

 with the same peculiarities were afterwards found ; one is 

 a large widespreading specimen with a trunk diameter of 

 four feet three inches about two feet above the surface of 

 the ground and just below the point where it divides into 

 three large limbs, standing in the grounds of Mr. Ebeh 

 Bacon, of Jamaica Plain. This tree is supposed to have been 

 planted between fifty and sixty years ago. The other has 

 a tall straight trunk with a diameter of three feet one inch 

 at three feet above the surface of the ground, and is grow- 

 ing on a farm near Houghton's Pond, in Milton, at the base 

 of the south-eastern slope of the Blue Hills, where it was 

 first noticed by Mr. C. E. Faxon. These three trees all 

 resemble each other, and had evidently the same origin ; 

 no written record, however, tells their history, and there is 

 nothing but their apparent intermediate character between 

 two well-known species and their comparative barrenness 

 to justify the belief that they are hybrids. 



The figure of the flowering and fruiting branches of the 

 Milton tree (the leaf considerably reduced), of a staminate 

 flower enlarged, and of a nut of the natural size, appear in 

 our illustration on page 435 of this issue. The bark of 

 the trunk of these trees is deeply furrowed and rather 

 darker than that of Juglans. regia, and the bark of the 

 branches is also darker. The branchlets, coated when 

 they first appear with rusty pubescence, at the end of the 

 season are glabrous, green, lustrous and marked with dark 

 lenticels, with no trace of the brown hairs which during 

 their first year are so conspicuous on the branches of Juglans 

 cinerea. The terminal winter-buds are rather longer than 

 those of Juglans regia, but resemble them otherwise in 

 shape and in the character of their pubescent covering. 

 The axillary buds are more generally solitary than is 

 usually the case with Walnut-trees, an indication, perhaps, 

 of diminished vigor, and there is no trace of the band of 

 tomentum which on Juglans cinerea occupies, during the 



