88 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 157. 



ness of our slender White Birches (B. populifolia) is some- 

 times shown by the fact that trees as much as thirty-five feet 

 high will bend until their tops touch the ground, and will 

 remain in this position until released by a thaw, when they 

 once more assume, their natural attitude. 



Those deciduous trees which have not a very branching 

 habit, or whose lateral branches are few, are rarely or never 

 affected by the average ice-storm. Such are the Horse-chest- 

 nuts, Walnuts, Catalpas and even the Magnolias. It is not 

 easily conceived that the thick naked branches of the Ken- 

 tucky Coffee-tree (Gymnocladus) would ever be affected, as 

 their burden of ice must be much smaller than that of dif- 

 fusely branched trees ; but, of course, it is possible for such 

 accumulations of ice to take place under which no tree could 

 remain uninjured. 



Jamaica Plain. j . G. j clCIZ. 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China and 

 Eastern Burma. — II. 



Beginning with the trees, we find, as in Mexico, at somewhat 

 higher levels, that Pines and Oaks predominate. Two species 

 of the former and nine of the latter were collected. The com- 

 mon Pine is Pinns Kasya, a species abounding in Assam, Chit- 

 tagong and Burma ; and the other, P. Merkusii, inhabits 

 Martaban, Tenasserim, Sumatra and Borneo. Some of the 

 Oaks are very fine, both in foliage and in fruit. Associated 

 with these Oaks and Pines are a Willow, a Birch, replaced in 

 the Mexican uplands by an Alder, two species of Engelhardtia, 

 a species of Pyrus, and several other members of the Pomacecz, 

 an Ash, one or more Figs, a Mulberry and a Holoptelea, a 

 genus of trees next to the Elms. Intermixed with the forego- 

 ing trees are members of genera chiefly tropical or sub-trop- 

 ical, such as Dalbergia, Bauhinia, Acacia, Albizzia, Melastoma, 

 Marlea, Vernonia, Wightia (a remarkable tree of the Scrophu- 

 larinacece), Helicia (Proteacece), Lindera and several EnpJior- 

 biace<z. 



Among shrubs are Brambles and Roses, Honeysuckles, 

 Privets, Jasmines, Barberries and Viburnums, associated 

 with genera of a less decided temperate type, such as Lager- 

 straemia, Capparis, Pittosporum, Actinidia, Evonymus, Mil- 

 lettia, Woodfordia, and many others. 



Especially noteworthy among the new shrubs are Rosa 

 gigantea and Lonicera Hildebrandiana, each in its genus sur- 

 passing all previously described species in the size of its flow- 

 ers. The Rose is an exceedingly robust kind, very closely 

 allied in botanical characters to Rosa Indica. It forms thick, 

 woody stems, and climbs to the tops of lofty trees, clothes 

 them with long hanging branches, bedecked with beautiful 

 white flowers, sometimes exceeding five inches in diameter. 

 General Collett describes it as one of the most striking orna- 

 ments of the forest, reminding one, when seen in the distance, 

 of a large-flowered Clematis rather than of a Rose. Fortu- 

 nately, General Collett secured abundance of good seeds, and 

 vigorous plants are now growing at Kew and other places in 

 the United Kingdom, though nobody has yet succeeded in 

 flowering it. Talking of its seed reminds me that it is the 

 largest in the genus, being about half an inch long. When I 

 say seeds, botanists will understand that I mean " carpels." 

 The pome-like fruit is an inch and a half in diameter. In 

 justice to the original discoverer of this fine Rose, it should be 

 put on record that, although General Collett rediscovered it in 

 a new and distant locality, gave it a name, and sent seeds of it 

 to England" which have germinated, and is entitled to all the 

 honor appertaining thereto, to Or. G. Watt, of the Indian Edu- 

 cational Department, belongs the credit of having first discov- 

 ered it. Dr. Watt was attached as Botanist to a Government 

 demarcation survey expedition to Muneypore in 1881-82, and 

 made extensive botanical collections, including the Rose in 

 question, which he regarded as a new species, and to which 

 he gave a manuscript name, but it was never published. 



The Honeysuckles of the Shan Hills, so far as known, belong 

 to three species, one of which, Lonicera Hildebrandiana, is an 

 exceedingly showy, apparently evergreen, shrub with dark, 

 thick, glossy leaves and handsome crimson flowers, seven 

 inches long, and borne in pairs in the axils of the upper leaves 

 and at the tips of the branches. General Collett found this fine 

 Honeysuckle in only one locality, and only one plant was seen ; 

 but it is probably abundant in other localities, as he was in- 

 formed that the Mowers were much used in decorating the 

 temples at Pindiah. When collected it was almost past flower- 

 ing, but the fruit was not yet ripe, so there was no chance of 

 introducing it into our gardens. Now that the country is open, 

 however, we should not have long to wait for this and many 

 other ornamental plants growing in the same region. 



A tall, bushy Lespedeza (L. Prainii) is a highly ornamental 

 shrub some ten feet high, bearing large panicles of fine purple- 

 blue flowers, and would be well worth cultivating ; and there 

 are several other pretty species of the same genus. 



Prominent among the numerous Leguminostz of the region 

 are several arboreous and shrubby species of the large Asiatic 

 genus Millettia, a genus closely allied in botanical character 

 to Wistaria, and probably hardly inferior to it in the beauty of 

 the flowers of many of the species. About twenty-five species 

 are known to inhabit Burma, most of them being endemic, 

 and three fine new species are described from the Shan Hills. 

 Millettia macrostachya is a shrub or small tree with pinnate 

 leaves a foot to eighteen inches long and clustered flower- 

 spikes, or racemes, as long as or even longer than the leaves, 

 bearing a profusion of pretty pink or rose-colored flowers about 

 an inch long. Millettia multiflora and M. Dorwardi are hardly 

 less beautiful. Osteomeles anthyllidifolia, a species of a genus 

 otherwise confined to the Andes of South America, deserves 

 notice, not alone as an ornamental shrub, but also on account 

 of its singular distribution. It was first described by Lindley, 

 in 1822, from specimens collected by Alexander Menzies in the 

 Sandwich Islands, and it has since been collected in Pitcairn 

 Island, Maingaia, the Bonin group, the Luchu group, Japan, 

 central China and now from the Shan Hills. It is a dense bush, 

 growing gregariously and presenting a pretty sight when 

 covered with its white Hawthorn-like flowers, contrasting well 

 with the dark-green, finely pinnate leaves. The somewhat 

 fleshy fruit is probably a favorite food of some birds ; hence, 

 perhaps, the wide distribution of this shrub. 



Before leaving the shrubby element in the flora of the Shan 

 Hills a word should be said respecting the shrubby parasites 

 that live on the Oak-trees. The Oak-forests here support a 

 considerable variety of both parasites and epiphytes ; but the 

 latter are by no means so numerous and varied as those found 

 in the Oak-forests of Mexico, consisting of a few species be- 

 longing to the genera Dendrobium, Bulbophyllum and Cirr- 

 hopetalum, and two or three other genera, to some of which I 

 shall have occasion to refer again. On the other hand, the trees 

 in the upper forest-region, from about 4,000 to 5,000 feet, are 

 much infested by parasitic plants of the genera Loranthus and 

 Viscum. Altogether seven species were collected, five of the 

 former genus and two of the latter. The Loranthi are very 

 conspicuous when in flower, two, previously undescribed, espe- 

 cially so, having very large flowers of a brilliant dark crimson. 

 A remarkable biological phenomenon in connection with 

 these parasites merits mention here. Structurally the Loran- 

 thacea and Santalacea are closely allied ; but, whereas the 

 former are mostly parasitic on the branches and trunks of 

 trees and shrubs, the latter are mostly parasitic on the roots 

 of other plants, at least in an early stage of their existence. A 

 curious exception is offered by the genus Phacellaria {Santa- 

 lacea), of which four species are now known from eastern 

 India and Burma. These are small, leafless, shrubby plants, 

 with slender clustered branches, and, so far as our present 

 knowledge goes, they always grow on other parasites. Gen- 

 eral Collett collected two species, one of which was previously 

 undescribed ; and one of these was parasitic on a Loranthus, 

 the other on a Viscum ! Similar instances are not absolutely 

 unknown in other plants. Thus, Tupeia antarctica, a mem- 

 ber of the Loranthacea inhabiting New Zealand, has been 

 found growing on LorantJms microphylhis, though it also 

 grows on a variety of other shrubs and rees. 



Kew. W. Botthtg Hemsley. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Aster macrophyllus. 



THIS handsome plant is one of the most common of 

 the Asters which inhabit, in such vast quantities, 

 the northern and eastern states. It often almost covers 

 the ground along borders of the forest, where it finds the 

 rich, moist soil in which this species delights. The large, 

 heart-shaped, radical leaves, which grow to a large size early 

 in the season, are very conspicuous in these situations and 

 draw attention to this plant long before the flowers make 

 their appearance. These radical leaves are sometimes 

 eight or ten inches long and four or five inches wide; they 

 are broadly ovate, reniform-cordate, and are coarsely and 

 sharply serrate. The flower-stems are angled, three or 

 four feet tall, and bear ovate-oblong, winged-petioled 



