378 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 181. 



sine. [It was figured in Garden and Forest, vol. i., p. 19. 

 —Ed.] " ■ 



Primula Poissoni. — I have already noticed the flowering 

 of this new Chinese Primrose at Kew, and only mention it 

 again for the purpose of drawing attention to its excep- 

 tional floriferousness. Unlike its ally, P. Japonica, the new 

 one does not flower with a rush, but continues to push up 

 spikes from lateral growths after the first central spike has 

 passed. Thus at Kew plants of P. Poissoni have been in 

 flower over two months, and are still gay with bloom. If 

 this species only proves hardy it will be a most valuable 

 plant for the rock-garden, and, even if unable to withstand 

 our winters, it is, nevertheless, a first-rate plant for the 

 conservatory. P. imperialis has the same flowering habit 

 as P. Japonica. 



Spiraea Bumalda, Knap Hill Variety. — This was exhib- 

 ited recently by Mr. A. Waterer, the Woking nurseryman, 

 and was awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society. It differs from the type in having flow- 

 ers of a pleasing shade of pink. Mr. Waterer says it is a 

 most profuse flowering shrub, being covered with bloom 

 just now in his nursery. The shrubby Spiraeas do not re- 

 ceive the attention they deserve in England. It would be 

 easy to name a dozen species which for habit and beauty 

 of flowers would compare favorably with the very best of 

 summer-flowering shrubs. Even in the poor sandy soil at 

 Kew the Spiraeas are beautiful shrubs, and in rich soils they 

 are much finer still. No plants are more easily accom- 

 modated in the garden. 



New Peas. — The annual trials of new vegetables and 

 flowers conducted at Chiswick under the superintendence 

 of Mr. F. Barron are of value as affording some indication 

 of the merits of the new things in the market. The Peas 

 selected this year as being of first-rate quality are : Duke 

 of Albany, Telephone, Chelsonian, Tall Green Marrows 

 (Veitch); Extra Dwarf (Carter & Co.); Critic, Essential, 

 Epicure, The Echo (Eckford); Alderman, The Marquis 

 (Laxton); Early Green Marrow, Empress of India (Sutton 

 & Sons); Ameer (Harrison & Sons). 



London. 



W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Stray Notes from the Arnold Arboretum.— VII. 



SHRUBS which bear handsome and showy fruit in midsum- 

 mer were briefly discussed in the last issue of these ram- 

 bling notes. The subject is an interesting one to gardeners, 

 and one full of promise to the student of the beautiful in 

 plants. The list of shrubs which are noticeable at this time 

 on this account is really a surprisingly long one, and every 

 week new beauties are discovered in the shrub-garden, in 

 which handsome fruit is to be seen from now until the first of 

 next April. The most showy plant here now, so far as the 

 fruit is concerned, is the Wayfaring-tree. 

 Why Wayfaring — 



What ancient claim 



Hast thou to that bright pleasant name? 



William Howitt asked long ago in the Book of the Seasons, 

 and no one appears to have found a satisfactory answer. But 

 never mind the English name; the plant is a Viburnum (not a 

 difficult name, certainly, to remember), and its second name, 

 from its old anti-Linnaean appellation, is Lantana. It is a com- 

 mon road-side and wood-side shrub, or small tree, in Europe 

 and western Asia, and has been an inhabitant of gardens as 

 long as any shrub has been cultivated in modern Europe. It 

 has rigid upright-growing branches, which form a mass of 

 rather stiff outline. The flowers are small, creamy white, in 

 dense cymes two or three inches across, and open here very 

 early in the season before those of any other of the Vibur- 

 nums, with the exception of our native Moose-wood (see 

 Garden and Forest, vol. ii., p. 535)- Th e flowers are not 

 beautiful, although they make an interesting contrast with the 

 developing leaves, which are covered, as are the shoots at that 

 time of the year, with thick, white, mealy down, and which, 

 late in the se'ason, are large, sharply toothed, heart-shaped at 

 the base, pale grav-green, and soft and downy. The fruit, 

 which is dark blue-black when it ripens, passes, like that of a 

 o-ood manv of the species of Viburnum, through a red stage, 



and just now is the very brightest shade of coral-red imagina- 

 ble, one side of each fruit being often pale and orange-colored. 

 A compact cluster of this brilliantly colored fruit several 

 inches across terminates every branch of a well-grown shrub, 

 for the Wayfaring-tree is exceedingly free with its flowers ; 

 and the fruit-clusters contrast well with the dark foliage and 

 produce a beautiful and striking effect not surpassed in showi- 

 ness by many shrubs when in flower. A good effect can be 

 produced by placing this Viburnum near a Cornus circinata, 

 a plant which has already been alluded to in these notes. The 

 fruit of the Cornus, which at maturity is of a dull white color, 

 ripens just at the time when that of the Wayfaring-tree is most 

 brilliant, and if the two plants are side by side, the fruit of the 

 one sets off that of the other ; and the beauty of the light 

 green foliage of Cornus appears all the more beautiful as it 

 comes in contrast with the dull dark shades of the large leaves 

 of the Viburnum. This is mentioned merely as an illustration 

 of the fact that plants to be grouped, in a way to bring out all 

 the beauty they are capable of giving us, must be known thor- 

 oughly, and that the planter or landscape-gardener, to de- 

 serve the name of artist, must study his plants in all their 

 aspects — that is, from one year's end to another, and year after 

 year, until he knows just what each is capable of in a given 

 position and in what manner each must be placed to produce 

 certain effects at certain seasons of the year. But such thoughts 

 as these must not make us forget our Viburnum, which re- 

 minds us that another species, the Cranberry Bush, Viburnum 

 Opulus, is very beautiful in midsummer, too. Late in the 

 autumn the fruit of this plant, which it produces in abundance, 

 is scarlet, remaining bright and comparatively fresh on the 

 branches until early spring. Now it is a deep orange color, 

 with ©ne red cheek, and beautiful against the rich green foli- 

 age. Something of this plant was said in the first number of 

 these notes, but its. claims cannot, perhaps, be set forth too 

 often, and it is well to call attention to its midsummer aspect. 

 It is a great plant, but how rarely one sees it in gardens, and 

 yet how few shrubs there are which can boast of beautiful 

 flowers, fruit which is handsome during nine months of every 

 year, vigor and good habit, and a constitution upon which 

 cold, at least the cold of inhabitable regions, makes no im- 

 pression. 



Very handsome just now with its fruit-laden branches is a 

 shrub of which we know very little in this country. This is 

 the Cotoneaster vulgaris of Europe, a member of a large genus 

 which has no representative in the flora of this country. It is 

 an irregular-growing, rather sprawling, plant with rigid 

 branches covered with dark reddish bark, small ovate leaves, 

 rarely more than an inch long, coated on the under side, as 

 are the young shoots, with dense white cottony down. The ' 

 flowers are small, greenish white, and have no ornamental 

 value or significance whatever. But they are followed by 

 bright red apple-like fruit, which, individually, is not large, 

 rarely more than a quarter of an inch across, but which is clus- 

 tered along the whole length of the branches, which it covers 

 from end to end, almost hiding the leaves, and making a great 

 show. C. vulgaris is a very hardy and easily grown plant, but 

 for some- reason or other it appears to have escaped attention 

 in this country ; in its native land, which is all the colder parts 

 of eastern, central and southern Europe, and central and Rus- 

 sian Asia, it usually, but not always, selects limestone soils ; 

 and it is so hardy and vigorous that it grows to the borders of 

 the Arctic Circle and on mountain-sides to the very edge- of 

 glaciers. 



The Cherry Plum, or Myrobalan, is a handsome object now. 

 This is a small Plum-tree much cultivated in some European 

 countries, with erect rigid branches, and conspicuous in 

 spring from the fact that the flowers do not open until the 

 leaves are about half-grown, an unusual thing among Plum- 

 trees, and one which greatly increases the beauty of the Myro- 

 balan at that season of the year. Indeed, it is one of the most 

 charming of all fruit-trees in the spring, and it is the hand- 

 somest, too, of the Plum-trees in fruit, which ripens here ear- 

 lier than that of the other species. The fruit is globular, or 

 nearly so, and hangs on long slender stems ; it is orange on 

 some trees, bright yellow, with a red cheek on others, and as 

 the branches grow upright it hangs down in such a manner 

 that it is not hidden under the leaves, and so makes a con- 

 spicuous show in contrast with the foliage, which is dark and 

 rich in color. The well-known purple-leaved Plum (Prunics 

 Pissardi) is a variety of this tree, and is beautiful, too, at the 

 flowering time from the contrast of the pure white flowers with 

 the bright red color of the unfolding leaves. The fruit, how- 

 ever, although individually very handsome, is identical in 

 color with the leaves, and therefore is not distinguished ex- 

 cept on close examination. The curculio does not appear to 



