66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 155. 



Hybrid Orchids eclipse in beauty and interest the new 

 introductions. Best of all is Phajus Cooksoni, a hybrid be- 

 tween P. tuberculosus and P. Wallichii, raised by Mr. Norman 

 Cookson. It has the constitution of the latter parent and the 

 elegance of the former, plus a rich rosy color. This Orchid 

 ought to prove a useful garden plant. Equaling the Phajus in 

 interest is the hybrid Odontoglossum Leroyanum, raised by M. 

 Leroy, gardener to Baron E. de Rothschild at Gretz, its parents 

 being O. crispum and O. luteoparpureum. It is the first hybrid 

 Odontoglossum originated in the garden. Equally interesting 

 are the two bigeneric hybrids produced and flowered last year 

 by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons — namely , Epiphronitis Veitc/iii and 

 Sophrocattleya Calypso. Masdevallia Stella is an additional 

 hybrid in this genus. Dendrobiums have produced several 

 beautiful hybrids, those exhibited by Sir T. Laurence at the 

 beginning of the year being at least as beautiful and interest- 

 ing as the best of those previously raised ; they are named 

 Juno, Luna, Chrysodiscus and Melanodiscus. Something like 

 thirty hybrids have been added to Cypripedium, and, whilst a 

 few of them are good, most of them are of no account. The 

 cream of them are Aylingii, H. Ballantine, Pollettianum, Vipani 

 and Osbornei. Cattleyas and Laelias have added nothing par- 

 ticularly noteworthy. 



Stove and Greenhouse Plants. — The most interesting 

 new plants in this department are the following: Heliamphora 

 nutans, which has been successfully introduced from Roraima 

 by Messrs. Veitch and which flowered in their nursery last 

 year. It is a near ally of Sarracenia, having erect, pitcher-like 

 leaves and regular white flowers not at all like those of Sarra- 

 cenia and Darlingtonia. Hitherto, however, the Heliamphora 

 has not shown a disposition to grow freely under cultivation. 



Messrs. Veitch have also distributed three new Nepenthes of 

 good quality — namely, N. stenophylla, a narrow pitchered spe- 

 cies not unlike N. Curtisii, and two varieties of the excellent 

 N. Burkei, named pro lific a and excellens. 



Clematis Stanleyi must be numbered among the prizes of 

 last year, but it needs no more than mention in these pages. 

 Hamanthus Lindeni is a handsome species in the way of H. 

 Kalbreyeri and H. puniceus. Mr. Bull's Sonerilaorientalis and 

 varieties are pretty additions to this class of stove plants ; they 

 have prettily marked foliage, a free branching habit, and pro- 

 duce bunches of bright-rose, attractive flowers in profusion. 

 A new Fern, in the way of Pteris cretica, but far more elegant, 

 has been introduced by Mr. Bull and distributed under 

 the name of Pteris ensiformis, var. Victortz. This will become 

 popular as a table-plant, as its fronds are semi-erect, very 

 graceful and prettily mottled with silvery gray on a bright- 

 green ground. 



Calla Elliottiana is a plant which ought not to be lost sight 

 of, as it has all the charm of the common C. ALthiopica, differ- 

 ing only in the clear sulphur-yellow of the spathe. C. AZthi- 

 opica, var. Little Gem, is remarkable in having small flowers 

 and leaves scarcely a foot high. 



Cineraria lanata, a tall, handsome-flowered, greenhouse 

 plant, and Dipladenia atropurpurea, with rich purplish- 

 maroon flowers, were reintroduced into gardens last year 

 after an absence of long enough to make them practically new. 



Hardy Plants. — Lilium Henryi is the most interesting and 

 promising of these. It has already been noted in Garden 

 and Forest, but I may supplement the information already 

 given by recording the fact of the bulbs havingstood uninjured 

 the severe weather here of the past two months. L. Bolanderi 

 is another new Lily, small-flowered, almost black in color and 

 likely to please those who cultivate this beautiful butsomewhat 

 refractory genus. Three new species of Gladiolus, namely, G. 

 decoratus, G. primulinus and G. Kirkii, flowered at Kew last 

 year, and were so distinct in color and size as to have attracted 

 the attention of breeders of these plants. These three will 

 no doubt eventually be heard of again. Thalictrum Delavayi, 

 a pretty hardy Fumitory from south-western China, completes 

 the list of new, good, hardy, herbaceous plants. 



Trees and Shrubs. — Cytisus scoparius, var. Andreanus, is 

 the only beautiful new plant in this department. It is a seed- 

 ling variety of the common broom, the flowers large, rich yel- 

 low, with the wings colored velvety maroon. Grafted on short 

 stocks of the type it makes a presentable pot-plant and flowers 

 freely when small, so that it should prove valuable in spring 

 as a greenhouse plant. Trr rT _ 



London. W. WatsOH. 



So select the material of planting, or the native material to 

 be left growing, that, within reasonable limits, the principle 

 upon which Nature, unassisted, proceeds in her selections 

 shall be emphasized, idealized or made apparent in landscape 

 quality. F. L. Olmsted. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Some Hardy Wild Roses. — V. 



Y\/E have, indigenous to America, a little group of several 

 * * species of hardy wild Roses which are not surpassed 

 for beauty and general effectiveness by any introduced spe- 

 cies which possess similar characteristics in habit and in color 

 of flowers. So far it appears that few variations from the 

 natural types have been derived from them. One of the most 

 common and familiar wild Roses, which is found on the rocky 

 soils in many places along the sea-coast of New England, is 

 Rosa lucida, theso-called Dwarf Wild Rose of Gray's " Manual." 

 This popular name, however, is not to be relied upon as indi- 

 cating its habit or stature, because, although it is generally 

 rather a dwarf plant in exposed situations, under more favor- 

 able conditions it commonly attains a height of from four to 

 five feet. 



This species may generally be distinguished from its con- 

 geners, by persons who are not botanists, by its rather thick, 

 dark-green leaflets, which are smooth and shining above. 



The foliage often assumes brilliant reddish or orange colors 

 in the autumn, and for this reason it is often effective when 

 growing in masses in shrubberies and similar places. The 

 plants have more or less of a tendency to spread over the 

 ground by underground shoots. This characteristic, however, 

 is not nearly so highly developed in this species as it is in R. 

 nitida, which spreads very freely and thickly over the surface 

 of the ground by means of surculose stems from the parent 

 plant. R. nitida may generally be readily distinguished from 

 the last species by its smaller, narrower leaves, and espe- 

 cially by having its stems densely covered with straight slen- 

 der prickles, which are of a reddish color. The plant is much 

 more slender than R. lucida, and rarely grows more than two 

 or three feet high in cultivation. 



The flowers of both species are in best condition in the lat- 

 ter part of June and they are of a bright rose color. Although 

 equally beautiful, those of R. nitida often seem slightly more 

 attractive, an effect which may be due to its smaller bright 

 green leaves and slender stems. This species generally 

 grows best in moist situations, and the bright color of its foli- 

 age in autumn is often quite striking. The fruit of this and 

 of R. lucida often remains bright and fresh-looking through- 

 out the winter; but in this region, owing to the attacks of the 

 beetle, Rhynchites bicolor, the hips are generally imperfect. 



The surculose habit of R. nitida is imitated by the little 

 Prairie Rose, Rosa foliolosa, which was figured on page 101 of 

 the last volume of Garden and Forest. R. foliolosa, how- 

 ever, is a very much more slender and more dwarf plant, with 

 very few branches; and, moreover, it differs 'in having its 

 stems, which are of a light green color, entirely free from 

 prickles, and only possessing straight, geminate, infrastipular 

 spines, which are often weak and slender. On the flowering 

 branches, indeed, the spines are either absent or so little 

 noticeable when handled that the species might almost be 

 called a thornless Rose. The stems of this Rose are peculiar 

 from the fact that they do not live more than two or three 

 years. The new shoots branch and flower the second season, 

 after which they wholly or partially die and are replaced by 

 new stems arising from or from near the ground. In this habit 

 it is like some of our Raspberries. 



Although naturally only native to regions so far south as 

 Arkansas, New Mexico and Texas, R. foliolosa seems perfectly 

 hardy at the Arboretum, where it grows from eight or ten 

 inches to a foot and a half in height, and spreads freely by 

 underground stems or suckers, by which it may be very easily 

 propagated. The sweetly fragrant flowers are two inches in 

 diameter, and usually solitary on the ends of the shoots. The 

 earliest of them do not open in this latitude until the first or 

 second week of July. There is no profusion of bloom at any 

 time, but a few flowers continue to be produced throughout 

 the rest of the summer, so that the species appears to have 

 more or less of the character of the ever-blooming Roses. 



It is a curious fact that, although it has been collected by 

 many botanists, there do not appear to be any definite obser- 

 vations or statements on record regarding the color of the 

 flowers of this Rose. In the original description of Nuttall's 

 specimens in Torrey & Gray's " Flora of North America," p. 

 460, the flowers are described as " apparently rose-colored," 

 and the description accompanying the illustration in Garden 

 and Forest states that they are "bright pink." Berlandier, 

 who collected it in Texas, notes that the color of the flowers 

 is " pallide rosei " — pale rose color ; and in the only nursery- 

 man's catalogue where I have seen it advertised it is described 

 as from Texas and producing " pinkish-white, very fragrant 



