436 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 349. 



remain later in the season on the branches than those of 

 Juglans regia or Juglans cinerea, turning bright yellow 

 before falling, while in this climate the leaves of Juglans 

 regia fall without conspicuous change of color. 



In Juglans regia the bract which subtends the staminate 

 flower is glabrous, or nearly so ; in Juglans cinerea it ends 

 in a tuft of rufous hairs, and in the hybrids this bract is 

 made particularly conspicuous by the snowy white tomen- 

 tum which covers its extremity. The perianth of the 

 staminate flower, however, is glabrous, or nearly so, like 

 that of Juglans regia, and destitute of the tufts of rufous hairs 

 which in Juglans cinerea terminate its lobes. The outer 

 covering of the female flower is beset, like that of Juglans 

 cinerea, with glandular hairs, and, as in that species, it is 

 usually divided at the apex into irregular lobes, while in 

 Juglans regia this outer perianth is most often one-lobed. 

 The fruit, which is not produced every year, and never 

 abundantly, is about two inches long, rather longer than 

 broad, and covered with short, rigid, rufous hairs. The 

 nut is obovate-oblong, acute at the apex, not acuminate, 

 like the butternut, an inch and three-quarters long and an 

 inch and one-eighth broad, with a deeply sculptured wall 

 rather thinner than that of the butternut, broad thin ridges 

 at the two sutures, the two intermediate ridges so conspicu- 

 ous in the butternut being only slightly developed, and a 

 small kernel. The nut of Juglans regia is divided at top and 

 bottom into four cells by the growth of two dissepiments ; 

 in Juglans cinerea the nut is two-celled at the base and one- 

 celled at the apex ; the single nut of the hybrid which I have 

 examined is four-celled at the base and three-celled at the 

 apex, thus resembling in internal structure the nut of 

 Juglans regia rather than that of Juglans cinerea. 



A large tree of similar appearance, and with similar fruit, 

 which stood in front of Major Ben Perley Poor's mansion 

 on Indian Orchard Farm, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 

 was evidently of the same breeding. There was a family 

 tradition that this tree had been brought from Virginia dur- 

 ing the first years of the century. In 188S, after the death 

 of its owner, in spite of the urgent appeal for its preserva- 

 tion made by the papers of Essex County, it was cut down 

 for the lumber contained in the trunk and branches. The 

 heart-wood of this tree was light brown, and hardly to be 

 distinguished from the wood of Juglans regia. 



Other Walnut-trees of supposed hybrid origin are known. 

 The French botanist, Carriere, described, under the name 

 of Juglans intermedia Vilmoriniana (Revue Hor/ico/e, 1863, 

 30), a Walnut-tree which Monsieur Vilmorin planted in his 

 garden at Ferrieres, near Paris, in 1816, and which has 

 every appearance of being a hybrid between Juglans regia 

 and Juglans nigra. A portrait of this tree, with its history, 

 written by the grandson of the man who planted it, ap- 

 peared in this journal a few years ago (vol. iv. , 51, 

 f. 11, 22). 



Carriere at the same time described another supposed 

 hybrid of the same parentage as Juglans intermedia pyri- 

 formis ; and C. De Candolle (Ann. Sic. A T a/., ser. 4, xviii. , t. 

 4, f. 41-43), under the name of Juglans regia intermedia, 

 describes another of similar parentage which had sprung 

 up in the garden of the Trianon at Versailles. 



An immense Walnut-tree, found in 1888 by Professor 

 J. T. Rothrock on the Rowe Farm, on the north bank of the 

 lower James River, in Virginia, and described by him in 

 Forest Leaves (ii., 133, f. ), has the habit, foliage and general 

 appearance of Juglans regia, and produces a nut which is 

 not unlike that of the Black Walnut, although it is longer 

 and less deeply sculptured. Of the history of this tree 

 nothing is known. When measured by Professor Rothrock 

 it had a trunk girth of twenty-four feet eight inches, six feet 

 above the surface of the ground and above its greatly 

 swollen base, and its longest branch extended sixty-seven 

 feet from the trunk. Curiously enough, the nut of this tree 

 exactly matches the figure of a walnut described by Car- 

 riere as Juglans regia gibbosa (Revue Horticole, i860, f. 

 21-23), produced by a tree raised by a nurseryman at Fon- 

 tenay-aux-Roses about 1848, from a nut which was sup- 



posed to have come from America. Professor Rothrock 

 heard of what were described as similar trees on planta- 

 tions along the James River ; and a young tree growing 

 near his large specimen suggested to him that this hybrid, 

 if it is a hybrid, produces fertile nuts. 



In California, Mr. Luther Burbank, in whose skillful 

 hands the art of hybridizing has produced some wonder- 

 ful results, has obtained two hybrid Walnut-trees by cross- 

 ing Juglans regia and Juglans nigra with Juglans Califor- 

 nica. The first of these hybrids is remarkable for its vigor 

 and growth, the size of its leaves and its habit. " Budded 

 trees," Mr. Burbank affirms, "six years of age, under the 

 same conditions, are fully twice as large, broad and tall as 

 Black Walnuts at ten, or Persian Walnuts at twenty years of 

 age. Twelve to sixteen feet growth per year is not unusual, 

 thus the hybrid grows twice as fast as the combined growth 

 of both its parents. The leaves, which are from two feet to 

 a full yard in length, are clean-cut, glossy, bright green, 

 having a surpassing sweet odor resembling that of fragrant 

 apples, and as powerful and peculiar as that of roses or 

 lilies." The second of these hybrids produced abundant 

 crops of nuts of large size and excellent flavor, and prom- 

 ises to be a valuable fruit-tree. C. S. S. 



Plant Notes. 



Abelia rupestkis. — A correspondent who has been admir- 

 ing this shrub in Washington, where it is planted quite 

 abundantly in the Capitol grounds, inquires why it is not 

 more generally used. A sufficient reason is that it is of 

 doubtful hardiness at points much farther north. Mr. John 

 Saul discovered that it was perfectly hardy as much as 

 twenty years ago in Washington, and, perhaps, with pro- 

 tection, it would survive the winters in the latitude of New 

 York. Mr. Joseph Meehan says that the tips are cut a 

 little during some hard winters in Philadelphia, but this 

 does not happen often. Even in England it does not every- 

 where endure the climate, unless it is planted under 

 the shelter of a wall or in some other protected situa- 

 tion. Where it will endure the climate it is a most at- 

 tractive evergreen shrub, with small glossy leaves and 

 delightfully fragrant white blossoms, shaped like little 

 trumpets, and tinged with a very faint purplish red or pink. 

 These flowers begin to appear by midsummer and are 

 borne abundantly for many months. The plant, when 

 carefully pruned, makes a compact little bush, with grace- 

 fully arched branches. It is by no means a new plant, 

 having been introduced from China fifty years ago. 



Ipomcea leptophylla. — Some roots of this perennial Morn- 

 ing-glory which have been displayed in the windows of a 

 seed-store in this city have attracted much attention lately 

 by their curious shape and immense size. The plant seems 

 almost unknown in eastern gardens, but Mr. Andrew S. 

 Fuller, who has grown it in his garden in New Jersey for a 

 long time, and who is familiar with it in its home in our 

 dry western and south-western plains, writes of it as fol- 

 lows : " It grows and thrives where rain is always uncer- 

 tain, and sometimes where little or none falls during a 

 period of from one to three years. But, while these long 

 droughts continue, this dwarf Morning-glory throws up 

 sturdy stems three or four feet high, with branches which 

 droop gracefully and bear numerous large pinkish purple 

 flowers three inches long and fully as wide, which open as 

 the sun rises during several weeks in summer. The leaves 

 are long and slender, which give the plant its specific 

 name. How the plants live and flower in the cool dry 

 regions of the far west is no longer a mystery when we 

 attempt to dig one of them up. First we find a slender 

 stem-root not more than an inch in diameter, which extends 

 downward from five to ten inches, then there is a sudden 

 enlargement as we reach the tuber proper, and this assumes 

 various fantastic shapes, either growing in a single mass 

 or forking into two or more branches, but each one inva- 

 riably extending down into the hard adobe soil three or 

 four feet, and so becoming a magazine of stored up plant- 



