January 21, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



3i 



month of October, and, if the weather is dry, a good coat of 

 salt ; the ground is then trenched two feet deep and left until 

 the spring, when a top dressing of soot is applied. In March 

 or April the ground is raked and made ready to receive the 

 Onions, the seed of which was sown the last week in February, in 

 boxes, then hardened off, and planted the first week in May, in 

 drills eighteen inches apart, seven inches being allowed from 

 plant to plant. There are two rows of Onions, then a path two 

 feet wide and two rows of Onions again, and so on. The beds 

 are top dressed with well spent manure, and several doses of 

 soot are sown broadcast during the season ; the beds being 

 well watered in dry weather, thoroughly soaked between the 

 rows, the two-foot path between each two drills being very 

 convenient for the purpose. 



" This method of cultivation produced the finest bed of 

 Onions ever grown in the United Kingdom. Hundreds of 

 bulbs could be picked weighing from a pound to a pound and 

 a-half each, and scores from two pounds to two and a half 

 pounds. A dozen bulbs scaled twenty-eight and a half pounds, 

 and six bulbs fifteen and three-fourths pounds." 



London. W. WatsOll. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Some Hardy Wild Roses. — III. 



THE pretty little Burnet or Scotch Rose, the type of which 

 is known to botanists as Rosa spinosissima (or R. ftim- 

 pinellifolia), has been so long and so much cultivated that 

 innumerable forms and variations of it are now grown. It 

 appears to hybridize naturally and easily with a number of 

 species of Roses belonging to other groups, so that many 

 of the forms classed under R. spinosissima in catalogues are 

 in reality mixtures with other species. The erect, though 

 dwarf, and much branched habit of the plant ; the very 

 numerous prickles of unequal length with which its branches 

 are armed, and the generally small leaflets, serve as a rule to 

 distinguish these Roses from any others in cultivation. As it 

 grows wild in its native habitats in Europe and Asia, the Bur- 

 net Rose seldom exceeds a foot or a foot and a half in height, 

 and its rather small flowers are borne singly, and are either 

 white or pink in color. In cultivation the plants attain a height 

 of from two to three feet. While many double flowered 

 forms have been developed, those with single blossoms, of 

 varying sizes and shades of color, are none the less beautiful. 

 One of the prettiest of these in the Arboretum has flowers of 

 a very delicate pinkish white color, which expand from two to 

 two and a half inches across. The flowers of these Roses 

 appear early in the season, and they continue to bloom for two 

 or three weeks, and are followed in August and September 

 by large, solitary, almost globular, and very firm hips, con- 

 spicuous by their purplish black', or sometimes deep red, 

 color, which also extends down the somewhat thick and fleshy 

 fruit-stalks. As the foliage of this species is good and persists 

 late, it is often useful for massing in clumps in shrubberies. 



Any peculiar form of this Rose must necessarily be propa- 

 gated by cuttings or layers or other modes of division ; seeds 

 cannot be depended on to come true to the character desired. 



Although the single-flowered Yellow Eglantine Rose (Rosa 

 hi tea) has been in cultivation for centuries, it still appears to be 

 one of the rarest of wild Roses in northern American gardens. 

 This may be partly accounted for by the fact that it does not 

 seem sufficiently hardy and enduring under ordinary circum- 

 stances to make it popular. Nevertheless it will do well in 

 sheltered situations, and its large single yellow flowers are 

 quite as interesting and beautiful as those of any double yellow 

 Rose we ordinarily meet with. Besides the deep color of this 

 Rose there are the variations, which are of a deep coppery, 

 lurid red or scarlet hue on the upper side of the petals and 

 yellowish beneath, giving to them an unusual or unique place 

 in the genus. Although the flowers are less enduring than 

 those of the double Yellow Harrison, or the handsome, but 

 troublesome and generally unsatisfactory, Persian Yellow, they 

 are quite as attractive as either of these double Roses when 

 growing side by side with them in the garden, and are well 

 worth a little space in any collection. While the little Scotch 

 Rose is generally noted for its more or less rounded or compact 

 habit under cultivation, the Yellow Eglantine is disposed to 

 become straggling, and requires to be carefully trained, ami 

 judiciously, but not too severely, pruned. Plenty of warmth 

 and sunlight and moisture are essentials to its successful culti- 

 vation. As there is little likelihood of confusing the foliage 

 and flowers of this with other species, it may sometimes be 

 budded or grafted to advantage upon other kinds suitable as 

 stocks. 



The Sweet Briar Rose (Rosa rnbiginosa), or Eglantine, as it 

 is also sometimes called, is one of the few examples where a 

 single or primitive Rose has taken and held a place in gar- 

 dens, although its popularity has, no doubt, been partly owing 

 to the peculiar sweet-scented and agreeable fragrance given off 

 by the foliage when rubbed or bruised. This odor originates in 

 the rusty-colored glands which cover the leaves and buds and 

 which suggested the name of the Rusty-leaved Rose for this 

 plant. It is one of those species in which long cultivation and 

 selection have produced many modifications and well estab- 

 lished variations. Around it may be grouped a number of 

 others generally described as distinct, but which are hardly 

 separable as species from the horticulturist's point of view. 

 Some of them are deficient in the true Sweet Briar fragrance, 

 and relationship to the Dog Rose (R. canina) and other spe- 

 cies may sometimes be indicated. R. micrantha hardly dif- 

 fers from the Sweet Briar except in the size of its flowers 

 and fruit ; and others closely allied go under such names as 

 R. graveolens, R. Belgradensis, R. Caballicetisis and R. agres- 

 tis. The flowers of some of these are white, others are rose 

 colored; and they are generally, although not always, followed 

 by an abundance of bright red fruit, which remains conspicu- 

 ous throughout most of the winter. R. rnbiginosa, var. echi- 

 nocarpa, as it grows in the Arboretum is a very robust plant 

 with flowers of a bright rose color, which expand over two 

 and a half inches across, and some of whose stamens become 

 transformed into petals, showing the tendency toward the 

 double forms which have already been evolved from this spe- 

 cies. The Sweet Briar has escaped from gardens and become 

 naturalized in many of the older settled localities in America, 

 from Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence Valley to the southern 

 states. Gardeners have occasionally found it of value as a 

 stock upon which to bud some kinds of our garden Roses. 



The Sweet Briar appears to be, more than any otherspecies, 

 subject to large mossy-looking deformations or excrescences 

 on its stems and branches. These are caused by a gall-making 

 insect (Rhodites roses), of which a considerable number, occu- 

 pying separate cells, are to be found in each mossy cluster. 

 They naturally interfere somewhat with the free growth of the 

 plant, and where they occur in such abundance as to be annoy- 

 ing the galls may be cut from the bushes in winter and burned, 

 for the insects do not leave them until the following spring or 

 early summer. 



The Dog Rose (R. canina) has also become spontaneous in 

 some parts of this country. There are a large number of 

 plants, mostly found in Europe, to which varietal or specific 

 names have been given, but which bear more or less affinity 

 to the typical Dog Rose. The principal use which has been 

 found for this Rose is as a stock upon which to bud or graft 

 many of our finest garden kinds, as thus treated they give bet- 

 ter satisfaction than when grown on their own roots or upon 

 other stocks. 



The Red-leaved Rose (R. rnbrifolia, a name which Professor 

 Crepin now replaces by the older R. ferrnginea), a native of 

 some parts of Europe, is perhaps more curious and odd than 

 really beautiful, the dark pinkish or purplish red leayes con- 

 trasting strongly with the foliage of other species. The plant 

 grows five or six feet in height, and produces numerous rather 

 small flowers, which are hardly distinguishable from the leaves 

 in color. When not too freely used this Rose may be so 

 planted among other green-foliaged plants in shrubberies that 

 it will give a pleasing effect and variety. It is still uncommon 

 in this country ; but it will be found perfectly hardy in exposed 

 situations, even where the temperature falls to twenty or thirty 

 degrees below zero. 



Arnold Arboretum. J ■ G. Jack. 



Rose Notes. 



Autumn Blooming Varieties. — No variety surpasses the 

 old Souvenir de Malmaison as an autumn bloomer. In many 

 of the northern states, where our winters are a constant suc- 

 cession of hard freezing and complete thawing, this and many 

 other out-door Roses are so crippled by the sudden changes 

 as to have little chance to show us their best points. They 

 may often be seen in really fine form in localities of extreme 

 cold, but this is where they are not subject to these trying- 

 thaws ; in both situations, however, a judicious winter pro- 

 tection, which allows a good circulation of air about the plant, 

 will usually be found of great benefit. 



In the milder climate of England and in the more favored 

 areas of our own country, especially in the Ohio Valley and south- 

 ward, the Malmaison, with Sombreul for a lovely companion, 

 are beautiful beyond description. Cave Hill Cemetery, at 

 Louisville, is a garden of Roses, and it is seldom seen to greater 



