August 5, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



367 



growing shrubs. Bigness and cheapness are still, unfortu- 

 nately, the chief factors which influence the choice of the 

 great proportion of American plant-buyers. The popular 

 plant is pretty sure to be the one which will grow quickest to 

 the largest size, and is therefore the most profitable plant to sell.^ 



The florist and the nurseryman set the fashion in planting* 

 for nine-tenths of us Americans, and until we instruct our- 

 selves about plants and learn their good and bad points so as to 

 have opinions of our own, we must be satisfied with second-hand 

 knowledge, and go on planting what we are told are the finest 

 novelties which have appeared for years. We can get some idea 

 of a plant by reading about it, or by seeing a picture of it; if 

 it is not one of those pictures used to decorate that branch of the 

 literature of horticulture from which most people draw their 

 inspiration ; but the real way to know a plant is to see it grow- 

 ing, and to watch it from month to month and from year to 

 vear. This is why arboreta and botanic gardens can be made 

 ~oi popular interest and value, if they are managed with the 

 view of affording information with regard to plants in their 

 horticultural aspects, and why each centre of population in the 

 country should be supplied with a well-equipped establishment 

 of this class. In these establishments people can see plants 

 of all sorts growing, and can learn which ones are best suited 

 to their particular needs. 



A summer-fruiting shrub which is beautiful in July is the 

 Japanese Elceagnus longipes, of which a figure was published 

 in"the first volume of Garden and Forest (499, f. 78). It has 

 now become well known, and a few nurserymen are raising it 

 in considerable quantities. Their confidence seems to be jus- 

 tified, for this is a plant which improves with age, and has not 

 -developed yet any disease, want of vigor or special attractions 

 to devouring insects. It bears great crops of fruit which 

 ripens about the middle of July and hangs for some time on 

 the branches. The fruit is brilliant, although, as it is suspended 

 on long stalks under the leaves, it does not make much show 

 from a distance, and the branches have to be turned up with 

 the hand in order to bring it into full view. It is edible, 

 and some people find the sub-acid flavor delicious. Certainly 

 it is as good as a currant, and better than a gooseberry, and 

 with good cultivation and careful selection might develop into 

 something for the table really worth talking about. The leaves, 

 too, are beautiful — very dark above, and silvery white on the 

 lower surface. The Mowers, like those of most of the genus, are 

 small, yellow, and not conspicuous. E. Longipes appears to be 

 entirely worthy of confidence, so far as can be determined by 

 the results of the experiments which have been made with it 

 in the Arboretum, in which it has now been growing and fruit- 

 ing for a number of years. 



The great summer-fruiting shrubs, however, are the so- 

 called Bush Honeysuckles. The most commonly cultivated 

 and best-known of them is the Tartarian Honeysuckle, a very 

 hardy and reliable plant which gardeners in some northern 

 countries, especially m Russia, have worked over for many 

 years, producing many varieties with flowers of various colors, 

 ranging from pure white to dark rosy red. The Tartarian 

 Honeysuckle is one of the best all-round shrubs known in 

 gardens ; it is hardy and easily propagated ; it grows rapidly, 

 and forms a great bush a dozen feet high sometimes, and as 

 deep through the branches. The flowers are abundant and 

 beautiful, and the fruit, which ripens in July, is brilliant, bright 

 cherry-red on some plants, orange on others, and dark red on 

 others ; it is lustrous and almost translucent, and it looks as if 

 it would be delicious to eat. Really it has about as nasty a 

 taste as any fruit can have ; but this serves to protect it from 

 the birds, and so it loads the branches for weeks, and makes 

 a brave show. But, fine as it is, there are finer Bush Honey- 

 suckles at this season of the year. One of these is Lonicera 

 Ruprechtiana, a very large shrub, or a small tree sometimes, 

 it is said, in its native country, which is the region of the Amour 

 JRiver. The fruit is a third larger at least than that of the Tar- 

 tarian Honeysuckle, and even more brilliant in color, so that a 

 large plant of this species covered with fruit, and it is always 

 covered at this season of the year, for it is a regular and pro- 

 fuse bloomer, is a remarkable object. Not less beautiful is 

 the Japanese species, L. Morrowi, which is as hardy and as 

 desirable in every way. The fruit is as large and as brilliant, 

 but the flowers are rather less showy, although attractive and 

 abundant. 



There is a race of Bush Honeysuckles in the Arboretum 

 which came here from a German nurseryman, under the 

 name of L. bella. They appear to be hybrids between the 

 Tartarian Honeysuckle and one of the two species just men- 

 tioned, although little is known about them. They are hand- 

 some plants, but not better or more beautiful than L. Ruprech- 

 Jiana, as regards their flowers or their fruit, and, except as 



curiosities, are probably hardly worth growing for general dec- 

 orative purposes. 



The Bush Honeysuckles, or some of them (many of the 

 species produce inconspicuous flowers and fruit and come 

 from countries of less severe cold than those which have been 

 mentioned), flourish, as Professor Budd has told the readers 

 of Garden and Forest, in the cold dry climate of the western 

 plains ; they are hardy where no other shrub with such beauti- 

 ful flowers and fruit can grow, and they succeed as well in the 

 mild climate of New England and the middle states as they do 

 in Canada or Nebraska. They are valuable plants for the 

 gardens of the northern parts of this country and of British 

 America, and it is to be regretted that the fine Russian varie- 

 ties, raised by the gardeners of St. Petersburg, are not within 

 reach of our people. 



The Bush Honeysuckles grow so well, and endure so much 

 neglect and bad treatment, that they are admirable plants for 

 public parks, city squares and the ground* of railway stations, 

 and all such places where it is impossible to give to plants 

 the care they receive in good private gardens. Their fruit adds 

 greatly to their value for such purposes, for they serve to 

 bridge over the period of the year when shrubberies are apt 

 to be less attractive than at any other — after the flowers have 

 gone, and before the fruits of autumn ripen and the leaves 

 take on their autumn colors. A plant of one of these Honey- 

 suckles, loaded with its ripe fruit, which enlivens a whole shrub- 

 bery for weeks, is always a pleasure and a delight. 



Arnold Arboretum. 



P. c. 



The Persian Ranunculus. 



DO you delight in variety of color ? I say advisedly I do not 

 know any class of flowers where the range is so great — 

 from black, at least as black as we get in any flower, to pure 

 white, through every shade of red and yellow, olive-green 

 with yellow ground, edged with darkest markings like a variety 

 of Picotee ; some striped like a Carnation, others spotted, 

 veined ; in fact, there is hardly a tint of color which exists in 

 flowers that may not be found in a good bed of Ranunculus. 

 Do you admire symmetry of form? What can be more ex- 

 quisite than the beautifully molded petals of this flower ? 

 Some may term it formal, and all double flowers as compared 

 with single ones are liable to this charge ; but there is an ex- 

 quisite finish in the form of these flowers that wins admira- 

 tion, perhaps even from the rigid botanist who declaims 

 against all these things as monstrosities and violations of the 

 laws of Nature. 



One objection to growing the Ranunculus has been their 

 supposed difficulty of cultivation. I used to imagine that the. 

 depth at which they were to be planted was to be so exactly 

 gauged (an inch and a quarter) that I had my beds boarded 

 round, and then a board cut to the required depth was forced 

 into the beds, making a drill of that depth, at the bottom of 

 which the tubers were placed, and then covered over ; but I 

 have found that this exactness is altogether unnecessary. I 

 endeavor to plant them about this depth, and am convinced 

 that shallow planting is required, but I do it in the ordinary 

 way — draw a drill with a small hoe and then plant. 



The plan which I adopt with my beds, which are about 

 thirty-five feet long and four wide, is to prepare them in the 

 autumn. The soil is ordinary light garden soil, and in the 

 month of October, if it is in a fit condition, I dig in a good supply 

 of old hotbed refuse, between three and four barrowfuls to 

 each bed. This is left through the winter, and, if there is 

 frost, it is turned up roughly, so that it may get the full bene- 

 fit of it, leveling the soil, and, perhaps, destroying grubs, etc. I 

 say perhaps because I am somewhat doubtful as to the effects 

 of frost. About the 12th of February I prepare for planting, 

 but I am not particular as to date. If the weather is favorable 

 before that I do not hesitate to plant, and if it is unfavorable at 

 that time, to defer it for a little longer. [In this country the 

 planting in the latitude of New York could rarely be done be- 

 fore the middle of March. — Ed.] It is essential that the soil 

 should be in good condition at planting time. The bed is then 

 raked down and leveled, the rows are drawn about four inches 

 apart, and, as I have said, from one and a half to two inches 

 in depth. I have previously gone through my boxes, for I do 

 not keep to names, but grow in mixture, and pick out for the 

 principal bed the largest tubers. Allowing for three rows to 

 a foot, and twelve in each row, the bed will take about 1,250. 

 Of course, smaller beds can be made. As the Ranunculus, 

 like most of its family, is fond of water, a dry spring is against 

 them, and in such a case they may be watered thoroughly, 

 once or oftener, if needed. I used to take a good deal of 

 trouble to place an awning on the beds ; for some years I 

 have discontinued it, and am quite satisfied to do so for the 



