474 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 353. 



only ordinary flowers of good sorts, so that ordinary 

 growers may see what their efforts are likely to result in. 

 Twenty-one new varieties received certificates, eleven of 

 them Japanese, three Incurved, four Anemone, twoReflexed 

 and one Pompon. The pick of them were Duchess of Wel- 

 lington, with long, curling, golden yellow florets ; Mon- 

 sieur Pankoucke, also golden yellow, the florets long and 

 narrow ; Miss Maggie Blenkvion, a large, full, yellow and 

 bronze Japanese ; Globe d'Or, a large full-flowered Incurved 

 with broad golden yellow, bronze-tipped, florets ; Niveus, 

 of American origin, a pure white, large, full-flowered va- 

 riety of the Japanese section. Two distinct and promising 

 new Anemone-flowered varieties, named Caledonia, white, 

 with a mauve-tinged centre, and Owen's Perfection, yellow 

 and lilac, deservedly obtained certificates. 



In addition to Chrysanthemums, there were numerous 

 exhibits of fruit, the grapes being particularly good, and 

 vegetables. There were also mixed groups of plants, 

 including Orchids, from several of the leading London 

 nurserymen. 



Mr. Cannell's Pelargoniums. — I have had occasion to 

 speak of these several times in recent years, but they are 

 as delightful lo look upon again as is the return of spring. 

 The exhibit this year consisted of a long bank formed of 

 Ferns and Violets, and set all over with enormous bouquets 

 of Pelargonium-flowers of wonderful color, size, substance 

 and variety. No one has ever attempted to rival Mr. Can- 

 nell as a grower and exhibitor of Zonal Pelargoniums in 

 winter. The Aquarium show would be deprived of one of 

 its principal attractions if Mr. Cannell's flowers were not 

 there. The Zonal Pelargonium has come to be looked 

 down upon by some as vulgar and commonplace, but I 

 question if there is anything in the whole range of garden 

 exotics which has the same all-round value as the race 

 of the Scarlet Geranium. It is impossible for any one to 

 look upon the glories of Mr. Cannell's collection of these 

 plants when at their best in winter and not grow enthusias- 

 tic over their great beauty and usefulness. „. TIT 



London. W. WaiSOH. 



Plant Notes. 



The Wax Myrtles of the Sea-coast of Eastern North 

 America. 

 \S early as 1691 Plukenet published in his Phytographia 

 £\. a vel T good figure of the common Myrica or Wax 

 Myrtle of the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North 

 America ; Catesby, in the Natural History 0/ Carolina, which 

 appeared in 1 73 1 , also published an excellent figure of this 

 plant, together with an indifferent figure of what he con- 

 sidered a second species which he distinguished by its 

 broader leaves and humbler stature. Of the first of these 

 plants, Linnaeus made his Myrica cerifera, and of the second 

 the variety ft. of that species, extending its range into 

 Pennsylvania. Miller, in the eighth edition of Tlie Gar- 

 deners' Dictionary, was the next author after Linnaeus who 

 described these plants, making of Catesby's shrubby spe- 

 cies his Myrica Carolinensis. Walter recognized varieties 

 on the Carolina coast with subserrate and entire leaves. 

 Michaux also united Catesby's two plants specifically, 

 calling Plukenet's plant variety arborescens, and giving its 

 range from Carolina to Florida, and calling Linnasus's 

 variety ft. var. media, with a range from New Eng- 

 land to Florida, and making a variety pumila, ranging also 

 from Carolina to Florida. Pursh followed Miller, adopting, 

 however, Michaux's variety pumila, and also the Myrica 

 Pennsylvanica established by Lamarck, which, judging by 

 the beautiful figure in the Nouveau Dnhamel, is only the 

 common Wax Myrtle of the northern states. Elliott adopted 

 Miller's view, although he included the variety pumila of 

 Michaux in his Myrica Carolinensis, while Chapman has 

 followed Michaux. The botanists, including Bigelow, Tor- 

 rey, Gray and Britton, who have written specially of the 

 plants of the northern states, have referred the common 

 coast Myrica to the Myrica cerifera of Linnaeus without 



even a question of its being a variety of that species. 

 When the plants are seen growing, however, it is impossi- 

 ble to adopt this view, or admit that the northern and 

 southern plants are varieties of one species ; and in de- 

 scribing the trees of this genus for The Silva of North America 

 I shall follow Catesby, Miller and Elliott, and call the 

 southern arborescent plant Myrica cerifera, and the north- 

 ern shrubby plant, which also ranges far to the south, Myrica 

 Carolinensis. 



Myrica cerifera (see page 476) is a tree sometimes forty 

 feet in height, with a tall stem covered with pale smooth 

 bark, and sometimes only a few inches thick, although oc- 

 casionally more than a foot in diameter, and a narrow head 

 of slender upright branches, which are usually forked 

 toward the extremities. The leaves, which remain on the 

 branches until after the appearance of those of the 

 following year, are lanceolate-obovate, often entire or fur- 

 nished at the apex with a few coarse or minute teeth, gla- 

 brous, two and a half to three inches in length, usually from 

 a quarter to a half of an inch in width, although occasion- 

 ally nearly two-thirds of an inch wide, and covered with 

 bright golden resinous glands, which are so thick and con- 

 spicuous on the young foliage that it appears bright yellow. 

 The leaves have a strong resinous odor, quite unlike the 

 peculiar odor of the northern plant. The fruit is about 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter and pale blue. 



Myrica cerifera grows in low wet holes in the maritime Pine 

 belt and in deep swamps near the coast under the shade of 

 Red Maples, Cotton Gums, Sweet Gums and Bay-trees ; 

 and where roads or openings have been made through 

 them this tree may often be seen bending down along the 

 margin of the forest, its long slender stem being unable to 

 hold the head erect unless surrounded by other trees. I 

 have found it near Cape Charles, in Virginia ; it is very 

 common on the coast and islands of the south Atlantic states 

 from Cape Fear River south to the Florida keys and on the 

 Gulf coast as far west, at least, as Berwick Bay, and proba- 

 bly farther, although I do not remember to have seen it on 

 the Texas coast ; it is said to grow on several of the 

 Antilles, and I have collected it in Bermuda, where it is 

 abundant. There is a form of this species (the variety 

 pumila of Michaux) which grows in the sandy Pine-barrens 

 of the south Atlantic and Gulf coast-region, usually in rather 

 low, slightly moist, places not far from the margins of 

 swamps, which is often only a foot high, but otherwise is 

 not distinguishable from the arborescent form except in its 

 narrower, smaller leaves and rather smaller fruit. 



Myrica Carolinensis (see page 477) is a low shrub which 

 often forms broad dense thickets, rarely six to eight feet 

 high, and usually not more than two or three feet high. 

 The leaves are broadly obovate, coarsely serrate above 

 tne middle with a few large teeth, or entire or nearly so, 

 slightly pubescent on the lower surface, hirsute on the mid- 

 ribs, two and a half to three and a half inches long and 

 three-quarters of an inch to an inch and a half wide. The 

 resinous glands are smaller than those on the leaves of 

 Myrica cerifera, and never abundant enough to give the 

 foliage the yellow color which is so marked in that spe- 

 cies. The fruit is rather more than an eighth of an inch in 

 diameter, or more than twice as large as that of Myrica 

 cerifera, and rather paler, although the color of the fruit of 

 both these plants varies considerably on different indi- 

 viduals. 



Myrica Carolinensis is common on the shores of the 

 Great Lakes and near the ocean from southern Maine to 

 southern New Jersey, and at the north inhabits dry hill and 

 sandy shore-dunes ; south of New Jersey it is rare, although 

 I have seen occasional isolated plants near Wilmington, 

 North Carolina, at Bluffton, South Carolina, and near 

 Mobile, growing in swamps with Myrica cerifera ; and 

 Dr. Chapman and Mr. Curtiss have collected it at Apala- 

 chicola, Florida. 



Information on the distribution of these two plants on 

 the Gulf coast west of Mobile Bay and of the northern 

 range of Myrica cerifera, which may be expected to reach 



