August 26, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



401 



roads, and here and there open into little irregular glades 

 which cannot be dignified by the name of lawns. 



But there is a river-side to the park, and this is really its 

 main point of interest, giving it a variety and charm so great 

 that one never thinks of its design as being monotonous or 

 tame. From the beginning the little far-off chateau has 

 asserted its importance in the scheme, attracting the foot as 

 well as the eye, and giving an artistic reason for the long 

 avenue perspective ; and, as we approach it, curiosity is 

 whetted by the discovery that it cannot be reached — it lies on 

 the other side of the narrow river Ouche. But, to emphasize the 

 lact that this is the picture we have been brought to see, the 

 encircling drive here widens out into a fine terrace, over the 

 edge of which we may look down along a massive water-wall, 

 fringed with flowering plants, into the yellow stream below. 

 Conde' called the chateau La Colombiere — the "Dove-cote" — 

 and, to enhance its attractions, caused the park to be laid out, 

 probably using it as a hunting-lodge or summer villa in agree- 

 able contrast to the tall, grim, medieval pile which was his 

 official residence within the town. Just what it is to-day I 

 cannot tell, or whether tourists, more enterprising than we, 

 could have found an easy way to it and a pass-word to unlock 

 its doors. In that golden Sabbath stillness it seemed pleas- 

 antest to think of it as a sort of enchanted home of sleeping 

 princesses, ignoring certain prosaic signs which seemed to 

 imply some not very dignified sort of modern serviceableness. 

 A little to the right of the chateau lies a little island in mid- 

 stream, crowded with those tall spiring Poplars — not Lombardys, 

 but Black Poplars lopped of their large branches, and feathery 

 to their lofty tops — without which no scene would look truly 

 French. The clipped hedges too, which are almost equally 

 characteristic of the land, although they do not occur in the 

 park itself, surround the chateau and give it dignity and charm 

 together. And right and left, as we lean over the low balus- 

 trade, the eye can follow the pretty stream lying deep between 

 its verdant banks, and see, off the soft, blue hills beneath, a 

 sky almost as brightly blue as our own country shows us in July. 



A great majority of the trees within the park itself are Horse- 

 chestnuts and Elms, and it was here that I first discovered 

 what a Horse-chestnut might become. "A symmetrical tree 

 with a compact round head" — thus it is described for us in 

 botany-books and horticulturists' catalogues, and thus we 

 usually see it, not only in America but in Europe too. But 

 here, where it has grown in masses, and for generations, its 

 aspect is so entirely different that no one, seeing the size and 

 outlines of these Dijon trees, and not seeing their foliage, 

 would be likely to fit them with their proper name. Along 

 the grass-roads especially, as one viewed them from the central 

 space, they rose to an enormous height, with broken outlines 

 and huge pendent branches, now revealing a great reach of 

 massive trunk, and again concealing it by luxuriant irregular 

 cascades of foliage. No more unpicturesque tree could be 

 imagined than a "fine Horse-chestnut," as we commonly 

 understand the term ; but I have never seen trees more 

 picturesque than the old Horse-chestnuts here. 



New York. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Aristolochia grandiflora is now finely in flower at 

 Kew, a plant of it having been kindly presented by Mr. 

 Sturtevant, who found it two years ago in a garden on 

 the Hudson River under the name of A. pelicana (see 

 Garden and Forest, vol. iii., p. 596). Until Mr. Sturtevant's 

 plants came I do not believe the true A. grandiflora had 

 been in cultivation in England for many years, the com- 

 moner A. ornilhocephala being generally grown under that 

 name. 



In the house here devoted to Victoria regia there is a 

 very vigorous plant of A. grandiflora with about twenty 

 flowers and buds upon it, and the large, long-tailed, extraor- 

 dinary-looking blooms hanging from the roof over the 

 great tray-like leaves of the Victoria have a particularly 

 striking effect. As a stove-climber for large houses this 

 Aristolochia has quite exceptional claims. It grows very 

 freely in a moist, unshaded house. 



Mucuna atropurpurea is an annual attraction in the large 

 Palm-house at Kew, where it is now at its best. Like the 

 majority of the perennial species of this genus, it grows 

 very vigorously, its Bean-like shoots extending many yards 



along wires or anything else that they can entwine them- 

 selves round. The leaves are large, ternate, and covered 

 with a silky tomentum ; the racemes are axillary, pendu- 

 lous on cord-like stalks a foot long. Each raceme is about 

 as large as a pound-bunch of grapes, and is made up of 

 about twenty flowers, each two and a half inches long and 

 colored blackish purple. They last a long time, and are 

 copiously produced by healthy plants. The bean-like pods 

 of this species are coated with prurient hairs, which are 

 celebrated as an anthelmintic known as cowage or cow- 

 itch. The species is a native of the East Indies. 



Gourds as Stove-climbers. — The attractiveness of the 

 Water-lily house at Kew at this time of year is largely due 

 to the tropical Gourds, which are planted in a shallow bor- 

 der all round the house and trained along under the roof, 

 from which the fruits now hang in great profusion. Luffas, 

 including L. gigan/ea, which has a cucumber-like fruit five 

 feet long ; the large Bottle Gourds ; theTrichosanthes (Snake 

 Gourds); the brown reticulated Sikkim Cucumber, with yel- 

 low, crimson, orange and variegated Cucumis and Momor- 

 dicas, are now at their best. They are as attractive in colors 

 as the most brilliant flowers, and they are a novelty to 

 many of the thousands of visitors who come to Kew daily, 

 and who "have never seen such queer-looking cucumber 

 things before." 



Aerides Lawrencle and A. Sanderianum are merely 

 forms of one species, and that a very beautiful one. The 

 flowers are the largest of all Aerides, and their colors are 

 pretty. Both kinds grow as freely as their ally, A. odora- 

 tum, and flower as regularly. Frequent importations of 

 them are made chiefly by the Messrs. Sander & Co., in 

 whose nursery a fine lot are now in bloom. Each 

 flower is at least twice as large as the flower of A. odora- 

 tum, and colored white or cream-yellow, with the segments 

 tipped with bright amethyst. The form named A. Law- 

 rencice by Professor Ruchenbach was described by him in 

 1883 as "the best and most beautiful Aerides ever intro- 

 duced," and it was shortly afterward sold by auction for 

 thirty-five guineas, the purchaser being Sir Trevor Lawrence. 



Lemoine's New Gladioli. — These are now a handsome 

 feature in our bulb-border, and promise to remain an at- 

 traction for some weeks to come. They are fulfilling all 

 that their raiser predicted for them — namely, hardiness suf- 

 ficient to enable them to withstand the cold of an English 

 winter, floriferousness, and constitution which is easily ac- 

 commodated by the most ordinary soil. That their flowers 

 are large, distinct and beautiful goes without saying, and the 

 question, Are they equal in beauty to the Brenchleyensis 

 section of Gladioli ? is answered differently by different cul- 

 tivators. Certainly the two sections fully merit favor just 

 as Tea Roses and Hybrid Perpetuals do. We grow a rep- 

 resentative collection of both, and now that we know the 

 good qualities of Lemoine's Nanceianus seedlings we 

 should not willingly discard one of them. 



Interesting Combinations. — An attractive'large bed along 

 one of the principal walks at Kew is made up of compact 

 bushes of Olearia Haastii and Tiger Lilies. They are in 

 flower together, and the gray foliage and white flowers of 

 the Olearia are a capital foil to the bright orange of the 

 Lilies. Another bed is formed of small bush Rhododen- 

 drons and Lilium Canadense ; another of American Azaleas 

 and L. superbum, while L. auraium is grown in large quan- 

 tities among various kinds of shrubs. The effect of these 

 large masses of Lily-flowers could not be easily surpassed, 

 and their perfume makes the whole garden pleasant. L. 

 candidum, which is usually a failure at Kew, has done well 

 here this year. L. longiflorum is also very fine ; in fact, 

 the Lilies generally are better than they have ever been. 

 This is probably due to the moisture and coolness of the 

 present summer. 



Carnations are now more popular than ever before. 

 The number of named kinds in English gardens is legion, 

 and it is somewhat remarkable that fanciers of these plants 

 can find marks of distinction in every one of them. They 

 are not every man's plant, or rather it would be more cor- 



