196 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 166. 



ered with brown scales, an interesting feature of epidermal 

 structure when examined by a magnifier, and a pretty object 

 for an opaque mount. The stems of the Leather-leaf are 

 about two feet high, and end in slender tips clothed with small 

 leaves. These bear the flowers in the early spring, for it is 

 one of the earliest to bloom. They are also peculiar in bend- 

 ing away from the axial line of the stem with a moderate curve, 

 giving a graceful turn to the extremity. The Cranberry nearly 

 always accompanies the Leather-leaf, but is not so restricted 

 in range or habitat. It is seen in other localities, sometimes 

 in the wet sands, where it seems to do well, showing a natural 

 basis for the different conditions to which it has been sub- 

 jected in cultivation. The species is Vaccinium macrocarpon, 

 and the berries of all the vines I have seen here are spherical. 

 They are scarce in winter, having been picked for market, or 

 more often for domestic use, since the areas covered are too 

 small to make their gathering of much profit. But when seen, 

 there are few handsomer fruits than these large red or flesh- 

 colored berries hanging from a slender stem, and made promi- 

 nent by the pale sphagnous Moss among which the delicate 

 vines creep. They are darker-colored in the winter, and the 

 frost takes away some of their acidity. The small glossy 

 leaves are changed to a light purple, and, as in Cassandra, are 

 frequently turned so as to expose their lower surface, in this 

 case smooth and glaucous. 



There are other humble evergreens, almost herbaceous in 

 character, but with leaves capable of enduring the cold of win- 

 ter. They are mostly Ericacece, and are visible when the 

 ground is bare. One of these is the Prince's Pine (C/iima- 

 phila umbellata). Its thick and glossy leaves, clustered on the 

 short stems so as to form a kind of rosette, are as green and 

 shining as in the summer. Very rarely I have found the other 

 member of the genus, C. metadata, in the shade of Pines and 

 Cedars. Its leaves, mottled with white blotches, do not shine 

 like those of the other kind, but furnish it with one of its chief 

 characteristics. The Checkerberry, or, as it is better known 

 with us, the Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), is abun- 

 dant in suitable locations, generally in the shade or where the 

 sand is damp. The leaves on some of the stems are green 

 and glossy, but on many they have changed to a dark or 

 vinous purple, so that a patch of these plants is quite varie- 

 gated, but not as much so as in the case of the Bearberry. 

 They are often furnished with scarlet berries, only partially 

 hidden by the leaves, which adds to their variety and gives 

 them prominence for fruit as well as leaves. This remains 

 upon the plants till spring, and is frequently gathered for mar- 

 ket, rather for its bright color and pleasant, spicy taste and 

 aromatic flavor than as an article of food. Similar to the Win- 

 tergreen as to its scarlet berries, but quite different otherwise, 

 is the Partridge-berry (Mitchella repens). This small trailing 

 or prostrate vine, but a few inches long, is rare in the Pine- 

 woods, growing sparingly on the richer shaded knolls, or 

 creeping beneath the evergreens, where the soil is most pro- 

 ductive. I find it oftener in this vicinity in the hard-wood 

 forests, with a soil of clay or loam, in which it commonly takes 

 the drier knolls as a place of growth. The leaves are green 

 and shining, small, roundish and opposite. Its curious double 

 drupes, of a sweet and pleasant taste, stay upon the vines 

 a long time if they escape the notice of birds, and when 

 in flower in June the fruit of the preceding year may be 

 obtained. 



Several kinds of Pyrola will be found when the ground is 

 free from snow. As in Chimaphila the leaves are clustered near 

 the ground, from the midst of which they send up a flower- 

 stem in summer. The leaves are mostly oval or roundish, 

 and often large for the size of the plant. P. rotundifolia has 

 shining, coriaceous leaves, round or broadly oval ; P. elliptica 

 thinner and more delicate leaves, more elliptical in outline. 

 But the two species are very closely allied, and appear to run 

 together in their leaf-characteristics, both as to shape and tex- 

 ture, so that it is sometimes difficult to identify the species, 

 the specific names not being diagnostic in this respect. Both 

 species are common. P. chlorantha is much rarer, its small 

 round leaves, rather thick and dull, so well characterizing it as 

 to make it easy to determine in the winter-time. So of P. 

 secunda, well marked by its thin, ovate, finely serrate leaves, 

 more scattered on the low stems, and but little shining. 

 Though met with more frequently than the last, it is somewhat 

 rare. Both of these are more delicate plants, and with smaller 

 leaves, than the two first mentioned. The conditions of 

 growth of all are essentially alike, though P. secunda may 

 affect drier situations, and P. rotundifolia those more damp 

 than are habitual to the rest. 



Another small plant with very bright fruit is seen now and 

 then, the Dwarf Cornel, or Bunchberry (Cornus Canadensis). 



Its compact bunch of red berries, at the top of the low stems, 

 is very prominent, and, since there are no leaves to hide it, the 

 ground is fairly red where they grow in beds. It falls an easy 

 prey to birds, which are very fond of the sweet and palatable 

 berries. One more pretty evergreen vine sometimes delights 

 the eye when a spot thickly covered with the slender, trailing 

 stems of Linncza borealis, the Twin-flower, is found. It grows 

 in the dense shade of evergreens, and the tangled and matted 

 stems, with small, roundish leaves, almost carpet the ground, 

 and afford the botanist in themselves and their associations 

 one of his choicest plants. This and the Dwarf Cornel, to- 

 gether with the stemless Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium acaule), 

 when all are found in the cool, damp woods in blossom about 

 the same time in early summer, bring to mind more vividly 

 than any other plants in the barrens scenes from woods farther 

 north. The places where they grow with the surrounding 

 Cedars and Pines seem like spots taken from the foot of Lake 

 Michigan and transferred to its head. 



Englewood, 111. E. J. Hill. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Aster Tartaricus. 



THERE is more pleasure to be had in the open air in 

 North America in the autumn than at any other 

 season of the year. It is the time of all others here to 

 enjoy the garden and the woods, and we should lose no 

 opportunity to increase the number of plants which are at 

 their best at that season, and which can be successfully 

 grown in our climate. There are many plants which are 

 more beautiful in the autumn than at other times on ac- 

 count of the colors their leaves assume toward the end of 

 the year, but there are not a great many which bloom in 

 the autumn in comparison with the number which expand 

 their flowers in spring or in early summer. Thanks, how- 

 ever, to Asters and Golden-rods the list is a fairly long 

 one, and the flowers with which these plants enliven the 

 autumn landscape are not without variety of form and of 

 color. 



It is desirable that they should be better known and 

 their value for the garden appreciated more fully than it is 

 now, in this country at least ; and with this end in view we 

 have already published figures of some of the handsomest 

 and most distinct American species. The illustration in 

 the present issue (p. 197) represents the end of a branch 

 of one of the few Old World Asters known in gardens. It 

 is an Asiatic species, and excels all the American Asters in 

 the height to which it grows, in robustness and in the great 

 size of the lower leaves, sometimes more than two feet long, 

 and like the leaves of some great Silphium or Inula. The leafy 

 stems, which are not developed until the end of summer 

 or the beginning of autumn, shoot up rapidly sometimes, 

 if the plant is well fed, to a height of six or seven feet, and 

 then branching produce at the ends of the branches, which 

 form immense, long, rather loose panicles, large, bright- 

 colored, blue or purplish blue flowers. These do not open 

 until the end of October or early November, or not until 

 the flowers of all but two or three of our American Asters 

 have passed ; and if the season is favorable they continue 

 to open until almost the end of November. A sheltered 

 position must be selected, however, if flowers from the 

 open ground are expected anywhere in the north after 

 the middle of November, except in years when the coming 

 of winter is exceptionally delayed. 



Aster Tartaricus is blessed with a good constitution and 

 a rapacious appetite ; andit needs strong feeding and a deep 

 soil into which to send down its long, stout roots ; and, 

 like most perennial plants, it gives the best results when 

 the great clumps it soon spreads into are occasionally 

 lifted, divided and reset in fresh soil. Treated in this way, 

 this really noble plant will not fail to do justice to itself 

 and to delight the owner of the garden who is fortunate to 

 possess it, and his friends. 



Aster Tartaricus is one of the best hardy herbaceous plants 

 for supplying cut flowers for large decorations at the time 

 of the year cut flowers are most difficult to obtain. 



