2 5 8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 171-. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



ALONG and exceptionally trying winter has at last come to 

 an end, and has been succeeded by weather which, for 

 warmth and brightness, equals anything we usually experience 

 here in midsummer. Nearly a fortnight of this excessive 

 warmth has produced a change in the garden quite magical 

 in its suddenness, for the gloomy appearance worn by every 

 tree and shrub and herb a fortnight ago has given place to a 

 wealth of healthy green leaves and gay flowers everywhere, 

 Never were the orchards of the London market-gardeners so 

 heavily laden with flowers. Plums, Cherries, Apples, Pears, 

 in fact, all kinds of fruits, have flowered so abundantly, and in 

 some cases set so well, that already the prophets have fore- 

 told a ruinously heavy harvest of fruits. The orchard is the 

 most beautiful part of the garden now, far more beautiful, 

 indeed, than any other part ever is. This leads one to again 

 call the attention of garden-makers to the value of many of 

 these fruit-trees in purely decorative gardening. Where such 

 trees as the Almond, double Peach, double Cherry, and sev- 

 eral of the Plums and Crabs are used the effect at this time of 

 year is charming. But we need not stop at the double-flow- 

 ered and rare species of these. There is no more beautiful 

 tree than an old Apple heavily laden with its big bunches of 

 pink blossoms ; but who ever plants the Apple for the same 

 purpose as the Lilac and Laburnum ? 



Daffodils of all kinds and in all sorts of places — on beds, in 

 grass, by the side of the lake and in tufts among the collec- 

 tions of shrubs — have been very effective ; as also have Hya- 

 cinths, Tulips, Anemones and Ornithogalums. English gar- 

 dening has developed very considerably in the direction of 

 out-of-door spring flowers. We have almost entirely left the 

 ancient practice of attempting to grow flowers only in set beds 

 in summer, and allowing the garden to lie undressed for the 

 remainder of the year. There is abundant material with 

 which, by a little management, a garden may be made inter- 

 esting and beautiful from January to December. Bulbs play 

 an important part in this as a matter of course, although we 

 are by no means limited to them. We had the Spurge Laurels, 

 the Witch Hazels, the yellow Jessamine, the beautiful For- 

 sythias and many others long before the Primrose and the 

 Snowdrop came. These were followed by Magnolias, Brooms, 

 Rhododendrons, the Daffodils and such like heralds of spring. 

 Now there is a great wealth of flower attractions everywhere, 

 Lilacs, more Rhododendrons, the chaste Exochorda, Choisyas 

 and Kalmias. Besides these, the out-of-door beds are gay 

 with the flowers of Milla biflora, a charming plant for carpet- 

 ing small beds such as surround specimen shrubs on lawns ; 

 Muscari, several species, most effective when used like the 

 Milla ; Irises, Primulas, especially P. Japonica, one of the 

 most beautiful of all spring flowers, and as happy in an Eng- 

 lish garden as the common Primrose. Species of Tulipa are 

 employed for furnishing small beds, and they are, at least, as 

 pretty in color-effect as the most brilliant of the common kinds. 

 The garden is the most pleasant place in the world at this 

 time of year — that is, a well-furnished, nicely arranged garden, 

 wherein the birds come to live and sing all day, and the plants 

 have some new surprise for us almost every morning. Eter- 

 nal spring might not be delightful, but spring after the frost 

 and smoke and fog of last winter is most enjoyable. When 

 the sun shines long and warm the plants in the houses soon 

 wake up and rush into vigorous growth, so that houses vie 

 with the garden in the open air in interest at the present time. 



At Kew there are many noteworthy plants in flower, and 

 perhaps I cannot do better, this week, than enumerate some of 

 the most interesting. 



Amorphophallus campanulatus seems to have excited 

 some American horticulturists recently, and it excites most 

 people here, too, when in flower, for the fcetid odor of its 

 large bell-like inflorescence is most repulsive. There are a 

 dozen or more flowers of it open in the stoves at Kew, as well 

 as plants bearing only the large umbrella-shaped leaves. The 

 largest examples have a spathe about nine inches long and a 

 foot across, and colored green, mottled with gray, except 

 about the mouth, where the color is lurid brown ; the large 

 misshapen spadix entirely fills the centre of the bell and is 

 colored dark brown. 



Phyllocactus. — This genus of Cactus has at last found favor 

 with some of the leading English horticulturists, and there is 

 therefore a prospect of its becoming as popular in gardens as 

 it deserves to be. Cacti are neglected because they are not 

 known. Many of them lack the qualities essential in a good 

 garden-plant, but there are also many which possess them to 



the fullest extent. Phyllocactus is a case in point ; no plants 

 are more easily grown, none flower more freely, while in size, 

 form and richness of the color of the flowers they are as grand 

 as Tree Paeonies. At Kew there is a large collection of kinds, 

 and many of them are in flower now. There are crimson, 

 scarlet, rose, pink, white and cream-yellow varieties, some as 

 large as the flower of the Victoria Water Lily, others only a lit- 

 tle larger than the Epiphyllums. The French and German 

 growers have raised many beautiful kinds of Phyllocactus, but 

 one of the best — namely, J. T. Peacock, which is a giant and of 

 the richest colors — was raised in England by the man after 

 whom it is named. 



Cineraria cruenta and C. lanata (aurita) are charming 

 plants in the greenhouse at this time of year. They have all 

 the beauty and elegance of the best of the Michaelmas Daisies, 

 and they are as easily managed as the common Cinerarias. 

 The first-named is the progenitor of all the big-flowered popu- 

 lar varieties, which find universal favor, while C. landtags® 

 far as I know, has never altered in character since it was first 

 introduced from the Canary Islands, nearly a hundred years 

 ago. Its flowers are each about as large as a shilling, white, 

 with mauve tips, and they are very fragrant. I recommend 

 these two plants to every one interested in beautiful-flowered 

 plants for the cool greenhouse. 



Aristolochia Goldieana is again in bloom. It is a most 

 extraordinary plant, the size and form of the flower being quite 

 sensational. It would be easy for a man to hide his head com- 

 pletely in the upper part of the flower, which, in shape, resem- 

 bles an old-fashioned Dutchman's pipe. As in' the case of 

 many other gigantic and wonderful plants this Aristolochia is 

 a native of tropical Africa, where, in the region of Old Calabar, 

 it was first discovered and sent to England by a missionary 

 some twenty years ago. 



Rosa simplicifolia has apparently become quite established 

 in a cool sunny greenhouse here, where there are two large 

 bushes of it in the most perfect health and flowering freely. 

 Although never likely to become a popular garden plant, yet 

 it is a most interesting Rose, the character of its stems, its 

 monophyllous leaves, suggesting some species of Berberis 

 rather than a Rose, and its small, deep yellow flowers being 

 altogether exceptional among Roses. Probably the hvbridist 

 may be able to make something of it, for in habit it is a per- 

 fect garden plant, and its leaves are elegant and pretty in color, 

 being a glaucous, almost silvery green. 



Solanum Wendlandii. — This plant is now magnificent. It 

 is certainly one of the very finest of large stove climbers, its 

 habit being to branch freely, and on the end of every branch 

 there is produced, in spring, a large cymose raceme of rich 

 lavender-blue flowers. It appears to prefer a sunny, moist, 

 tropical house where, if possible, it should be planted in a bed 

 of rich soil. It will continue to flower all summer. 



Streptocarpus. — These plants have sprung into popularity 

 with a bound, a result largely due to the foresight and skill of 

 Messrs. J. Veitch and Sons, who have taken them in hand and 

 crossed and recrossed all the best of the varieties originated at 

 Kew. This year the seedlings at Chelsea are a great advance 

 on anything previously seen, some of the flowers almost 

 equaling Gloxinias in size and colors, while the foliage is 

 much more convenient than it was in the first hybrids raised. 

 There can be no question now of the merits of this Cape 

 genus of Gesneracece. The progress already made with them 

 is remarkable, and if Mr. Heal, Messrs. Veitch's clever hy- 

 bridizer, can go on improving them at the present rate, we 

 may soon see Streptocarpus rivaling, if not eclipsing, Gloxinia 



London. . W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 

 Notes on Shrubs. 



"P LOWERING Cherries and the flowering Crab-apples have 

 -*■ blossomed unusually well in the vicinity of Boston this 

 season, the Apples being particularly noticeable for the full- 

 ness of their bloom. 



One of the very earliest of Cherries to blossom was the Chinese 

 Primus tomentosa, the seed of which was received at the Arbo- 

 retum from the mountains about Pekin, China. It is a bushy 

 little plant, which appears to be at its full size when from six 

 to eight feet in height and with fully as great diameter. Its 

 earliest blossoms this season began to open about the 20th of 

 April, and at the same time the leaves were well advanced. 

 As the flowers are sessile, or nearly so, and are partly con- 

 cealed by the growing foliage, they are not so graceful or showy 

 as those of some other species. Its fruit, however, gives 



