52 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 154. 



with a slight difference in their shape. The fruit, which is 

 not produced every year, and never in large quantities, is 

 smooth. The shell of the nut (figured below) is thicker 

 and more deeply furrowed than that of the European 

 species. The fruit germinates well and produces plants 

 resembling the parent. The original tree has grown very 



Fig. 11. — Juglans Vilmoriniana. 



fast, and, although not more than seventy-three or seventy- 

 five years old, is now seventy-five to eighty feet high, 

 with a trunk-diameter of forty 'inches three feet from the 

 ground. 



Of the few seedlings which have been raised from this 

 tree one is growing beautifully at Segrez, in the Arboretum 

 of Monsieur Lavallee, and produces fertile nuts. All the 

 seedlings have grown thriftily when planted in deep sandy 

 soil mixed with clay. 



Is it to be supposed that the fine tree at Verriers is the 

 first-born of its race? So it would appear from the fact 

 that no older specimen is known. Is it probable, how- 

 ever, that the planter would have selected a tree to com- 

 memorate an important event in the family history, and to 

 occupy a specially favorable location, unless he had some 

 idea of what it would become in time? Were its peculiari- 

 ties and value known to him? To this there is no clue. 

 It is not, however, customary in France to plant the Euro- 

 pean Walnut as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens, 

 and it is more probable that this particular tree was planted 

 for a Black Walnut and selected from a lot of seedlings as 

 being larger and stouter than the rest, a chance cross hav- 

 ing caused these conditions. This, perhaps, is the least 

 improbable hypothesis of the origin of/. Vilmoriniana. 



Paris M. L. de Vilmorin. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Hollyhocks.— -These noble border plants are attracting 

 considerable attention amongst English cultivators. Mr. 

 Douglas' interesting paper upon them, read before the Royal 

 Horticultural Society in August last, and noticed in Garden 

 and Forest in September (p. 454), drew public attention to 

 them, and a paper on the best varieties by Mr. George Steel 

 in this week's Journal of Horticulture is certain to do much 

 toward creating a reaction in England in favor of the Holly- 

 hock as a garden plant. 



Twenty years ago the Hollyhock was as popular as the 

 Dahlia is now, and it was not until the appearance of the de- 

 structive Fungus (Puccinia malvacearum), which destroyed 

 many collections, and appeared to make the cultivation of the 

 Hollyhock almost hopeless, that the plants lost favor. A pros- 

 pect of overcoming the attacks of this pest by means of va- 

 rious simple remedies, such as soot, lime, Condy's Fluid and 

 weak solutions of sulphate of potash, makes it less formidable 

 to growers than it was a few years ago, and next year will 

 probably see the Hollyhock reinstated among the most pop- 

 ular of summer-flowering plants. 



Mr. Steel has been to considerable pains in obtaining, by 

 means of a sort of census among Hollyhock fanciers, a return 



of the best kinds now in cultivation. Altogether he has no less 

 than 400 named varieties recorded. Of this number, however, 

 only fifty-two are included in his select list,- from which I take 

 the first dozen, placed in their order of merit as shown by the 

 returns : 



Grace Darling (rosy salmon), Robert Ryle (carmine-red), 

 Maggie Bain (rosy peach), F. G. Dougall (rosy purple), Le 

 Grand (salmon-flesh), John Findlay (vivid crimson), Lord 

 Decies (dark crimson), Mrs. G. Steel (peach, shaded rosy 

 salmon), Agnes Ryle (yellow, stained carmine), Perfection 

 (silvery flesh), Queen of Yellows (bright yellow), Alba superba 

 (pure white). 



While many of the florists' ideal varieties of Hollyhock are 

 such as would be admired by the less-exacting horticulturists, 

 I may say a word in praise of common seedling single-flowered 

 kinds. In a garden attached to my house there has been for 

 the last three years a large clump of a single-flowered, rose- 

 colored kind which pushes up annually at least a dozen stems, 

 each about seven feet high, and for at least half their length 

 clothed with flowers. This clump gets no special treatment, 

 yet it grows vigorously and knows nothing of the fatal Puccinia. 

 No doubt the highly bred kinds are exceedingly delicate. 

 They are all the progeny of one species, namely, Althaea rosea, 

 a native of Asia Minor. 



Phrynium variegatum. — Writing to the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle, Mr. Ridley, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, 

 states that this plant, which M. Linden distributed a few years 

 ago under the above name, has long been in cultivation in 

 Singapore, where it is known as Maranta arundinacea varie- 

 gata, or the variegated Arrowroot. It was obtained by M. 

 Linden's collector from the Singapore Botanic Gardens. 



Crossing Chrysanthemums.— I have repeatedly read of the 

 production of so-called hybrids from garden Chrysanthemums, 

 but I have never yet seen one that could not have originated 

 as a seedling sport, uninfluenced by any foreign pollen what- 

 ever. I see you have in America also growers who profess to 

 be able to cross one variety with another with certainty. I 

 wonder how it is done ? Can any one take, say, Queen of 

 England and Edwin Molyneux, and produce from them a true 

 cross, or would not seeds from either produce all kinds of 

 variations or sports ? Mr. A. Forsyth, who was a great raiser 

 and distributer of Chrysanthemums, said, eighteen years ago: 

 " Permit me, in all sincerity and politeness, to say that hybrid- 

 izing the Chrysanthemum is fudge. Take your seed as you 

 get it, and with it take your chance of the crossing Nature has 

 accomplished for your benefit, but do not suppose that any 

 one less gifted than a magician can manipulate the flowers of 

 the Chrysanthemum with the certainty that we operate on the 

 flowers of the Geranium and Fuchsia." There is much talk 

 here of "intelligent crossing,' "judicious selection of the 

 varieties to be operated upon," etc., but much of it means no 

 more than the assurance of the raiser of hybrid Ferns that he 

 " effected a cross by carrying the two kinds of spores mixed in 

 his pocket." 



London. W. Watson. 



[There is much truth in this criticism, and in many cases 

 there is no foundation for the claim that the parentage of a 

 new Chrysanthemum is absolutely known. But this is 

 equally true of many other hybrid and cross-bred garden 

 plants. And yet it is not safe to assert that there can be 

 no assurance of pedigree in given instances, even of cross- 

 bred Chrysanthemums.' A few American experts make use 

 of devices and appliances which seem to reduce the un- 

 certainty to a minimum. We hope to give an account of 

 the most approved practice in this direction in an early 

 number. — Ed.] 



Cultural Department. 

 Experiments in Treatment of the Diseases of Plants. 



THE reports of experiments made in 1890 in the treatment 

 of diseases of plants at the several stations which are 

 directed by Professor B. T. Galloway, Chief of Division of 

 Vegetable Pathology, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, may not be published until late in the spring of 1891. 

 Meanwhile a synopsis of the results of work at the Vineland, 

 New Jersey, station may be of immediate interest. 



The experiments made at Vineland were chiefly directed to 

 comparing the values of various solutions of copper in their 

 use as preventives of fungous disease. If it is learned 

 which is the best of these solutions, this one can be recom- 

 mended for general adoption. It is probable, however, that 

 there is no universal remedy, and yet it is important to know 



