34o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 178. 



southern New Jersey will have to be abandoned to the rose- 

 bug. This adds a new terror to the already complicated legis- 

 lation of that unhappy region, for I am convinced, from my 

 experience, that if the rose-bug wants anything he will get it, 

 and no doubt we shall live to see him sitting in the guberna- 

 torial chair. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. RobbltlS. 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXVI. 



69. Rhus cotinoides. — The Tournefortian genus Cotinus, 

 adopted by Linnaeus in the early editions of the " Genera," 

 and afterward united by him with Rhus, is re-established 

 by Engler in his monograph of the Anacardiacece, pub- 

 lished in the fourth volume of De Candolle's " Monographiae 

 Phanerogamarum." The genus, with its two species, one 

 of the Old World and the other of the New, is well char- 

 acterized by the numerous long accrescent plumose sterile 

 pedicels, and by the unequal development of the fruit 

 which brings its apex at maturity well down on to the 

 side ; and in "The Silva of North America " I shall follow 

 Engler, and separate Cotinus from Rhus. There is not 

 much doubt what the names of the two species should be. 

 Linnaeus first described the European plant in the first edi- 

 tion of the "Species Plantarum" as Rhus Cotinus. Cotinus 

 is, therefore, the oldest specific name for the species which, 

 if the genus Cotinus is maintained, must be called Cotinus 

 Cotinus. Engler, unfortunately, passed over this Linnaean 

 name, as Koch had done before him, and took up, as the 

 specific name, Coggygria of Scopoli ("Fl. Cam.," i., 220) 

 published in 1772, that is many years later than the date 

 of the "Species Plantarum." There is even less room for 

 a difference of opinion as to the correct specific name of 

 the American species. Nuttall, who discovered it, called 

 it as an herbarium name, without description, Rhus coti- 

 noides ; this name was first published in i860 in Chap- 

 man's "Flora of the Southern United States." The plant 

 was first described by Nuttall himself in the third volume 

 of his "Sylva," which appeared some time between 1842 

 and 1850, under the name of Cotinus Americanus, and 

 Americanus is, therefore, the oldest name, whether the plant 

 is called Cotinus or Rhus. 



72. Rhus venenata. — There is confusion of long standing 

 in the case of the name of our Poison Sumach. It dates 

 from the time of Linnaeus, who believed that the Japanese 

 Lacquer, or Varnish-tree, was the same plant as our North 

 American Poison Sumach. He knew from the writing of 

 Kaempfer that the Japanese used the juices of their tree as 

 a varnish, and so called his species R. Vemix. There 

 is no question, however, that when he described R. Vernix 

 he was describing the North American and not the Japa- 

 nese plant. His descriptions in the " Species Plantarum " 

 and the earlier one published in the Horius Cliffortianus 

 show this, as do his references to earlier descriptions and 

 figures of the American plant. De Candolle, finding that 

 the two plants were distinct, made new names for them 

 both and discarded entirely the R. Vernix of Linnaeus, 

 calling the American plant R. venenata and the Japanese 

 plant R. vemicifera. Instead of lessening the confusion, 

 this only increased it, as it left a perfectly good Linnaean 

 name without a plant to which to attach it. Professor 

 Gray, as long ago as the publication of the first volume of 

 the "Flora of North America," remarks in the supplement 

 that " R: Vernix, L., was originally founded entirely on 

 the North American species ; hence the Linnaean name 

 ought to have been continued for our plant." Unfortu- 

 nately, however, he never corrected the mistake, and in all 

 of his subsequent publications wrote R. venenata. I shall, 

 nevertheless, restore the Linnaean name in " The Silva " 

 in spite of the fact that the Canclollean venenata has become 

 firmly rooted in the literature of American botany. The 

 most unfortunate part of the whole matter is, that our tree 

 has a name which properly belongs to a Japanese tree, as 

 the name Vernix was given to our plant on the supposition 

 that the Japanese and American species were identical, and 



it was chosen, of course, on account of the properties of 

 the juices of the Japanese, and not of the American spe- 

 cies. C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



New Orchids. 



Trichocentrum triquetrum, Rolfe, is a very distinct little 

 species, introduced by Messrs. Charlesworth, Shuttleworth & 

 Co., of Bradford, from Peru. It belongs to the section with 

 equitant vertical leaves, like an Iris, and is allied to T. iridi- 

 folia, Lindl., though larger, and with very different petals and 

 lip. It is about six inches high, the flowers straw-colored, with 

 the lip variegated with dull orange. The spur is one and a 

 quarter inches long, and the ovary strongly triquetrous, as in 

 Angr cecum Leonis. — Gardeners' Chronicle, June 6th, p. 701. 



Oncidiumtjrophyllum, Lindl., an interesting species, which 

 has been lost sight of for many years, has now reappeared at 

 Kew, having been received from the island of Antigua, in the 

 West Indies. The habit is peculiar, as the leaves are sharply 

 triquetrous, as in O. triquetrum, while the graceful panicle has 

 numerous yellow flowers with some brown markings. Its 

 whole history seems to be a mass of confusion, for the Bra- 

 zilian habitat originally given appears to be erroneous, while 

 in the " Flora of the British West Indies " Grisebach confuses 

 both it and O. Lemonianum with the very distinct O. tetrapet- 

 alum. — Gardeners' Chronicle, June 6th, p. 701. 



Rodriguezia anomala, Rolfe, is a remarkable little species, 

 cultivated in south Brazil by Senor Azambuja, of Porto Alegre, 

 but not yet introduced to Europe. In habit it resembles a 

 Leptotes, under three inches high, but with very numerous 

 racemes of highly fragrant white flowers, slightly tinged with 

 rose and with a yellow, crest. This floriferous little plant is 

 very anomalous in structure, for, besides the terete leaves, the 

 spur at the base of the lip is reduced to a sac of such minute 

 dimensions as to be easily overlooked. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 June 13th, pp. 728, 729, fig. 145. 



LjELIA-Cattleya X Arnoldiana is a very handsome hybrid, 

 raised by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of St. Albans, from Lalia 

 purpurata, fertilized with' the pollen of some variety of Cat- 

 tleya labiata. The sepals and petals are pale purple, and the 

 lip a brilliant dark shade of crimson. It was exhibited as 

 Lcelia Arnoldiana at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety, on June 9th last, and was awarded a silver-gilt flora 

 medal and also a first-class certificate. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 June 13th, pp. 741, 742. 



Disa Veitchii is a handsome hybrid, raised by Messrs. 

 James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, from D. grandiflora, crossed 

 with the pollen of D. racemosa. Though fairly intermediate 

 in character, the flowers most resemble the pollen parent, 

 being of a bright rose-pink. It has flowered in the short pe- 

 riod of one year and nine months from the time of sowing 

 the seed. It was exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, on June 9th last, and, like the preceding, was 

 awarded a silver-gilt flora medal and also a first-class certifi- 

 cate. — Gardeners' Chronicle, June 13th, pp. 741, 742. 



Sobralia macrantha, var. Kienastiana, is a dwarf and 

 very handsome variety, with pure white flowers and some 

 lemon-yellow on the disk. It was exhibited by Baron Schrceder 

 at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on June 9th 

 last, and was awarded a first-class certificate. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, June 13th, pp. 741, 742. _ • 



Kew. di. A. Rolfe. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Iris Gatesii. — I noticed this new Iris about this time last 

 year, when it flowered with Herr Max Leichtlin at Baden 

 Baden. Blooms of it were exhibited a few days ago in Lon- 

 don, and they fully bore out the high opinion formed of this 

 species by Herr Leichtlin — namely, that its blooms are the 

 largest and most beautiful of all Iris flowers. In habit the 

 plant resembles /. Susidna, and it is very similar to that spe- 

 cies in the size and form of its large flowers, so much so, in- 

 deed, that some authorities declare it to be only a color variety 

 of /. Susiana. If anything, /. Gatesii is the larger of the two, 

 and, instead of the dusky hue which characterizes /. Susiana, 

 the color of the new plant is pale lavender, with a dull purple 

 shade about the base of the falls. The two species ought to 

 be grown together* They apparently thrive under the same 

 treatment and bloom at the same time. /. Susiana has been 

 very beautiful at Kew during the past fortnight, a bed of about 



