5?o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 197. 



the original color, namely, a yellowish green, and this is in 

 exact accordance with the principles laid down in this article. 

 Concerning the list of wholly green flowers near the com- 

 mencement of this paper it is not necessary to consider the 

 question of degradation or retrogression from brighter hues, 

 the simple fact being that there are such flowers, and that 

 when they change color, as they frequently do, it is always to 

 white. Examples : Erechtites and Rhus. 



All wholly white flowers, except where the transition could 

 be observed, of course, would be of no avail in our researches, 

 and so are not referred to. Without a single exception every 

 flower that came to hand of a white color was developed 

 directly from green, without any intervening color. The proof 

 is overwhelming that white immediately follows green and is 

 the primitive color, unless it can equally be proved that some 

 other color also directly succeeds green. 



New Bedford, Mass. E. Williams Hervey. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Rosa Wichuraiana. 



THE handsome Rose which is figured on page 569 was 

 sent to the Arboretum by Mr. Louis Spath, of Berlin, 

 in 1888 as Rosa bracteata, but when it flowered two years 

 later it was found to be the Rosa Wichuraiana of Crepin,* a 

 native of Japan, and previously confounded with Rosa 

 LucicB of that country, and still earlier with Rosa semper- 

 virens. 



Rosa Wichuraiana is remarkable in producing slender 

 prostrate stems, which grow ten to fifteen feet long in a 

 single season, and cover the ground as with a dense mat ; 

 they are free of prickles and produce short, stout, straight 

 or slightly recurved spines, and in moist ground develop 

 rootlets freely. The leaves are three to nine-foliolate, with 

 obovate or nearly orbicular blunt leaflets, which are sharply 

 and coarsely serrate, glabrous, very dark green and lus- 

 trous, and from a third to two-thirds of an inch long. The 

 stipules are adn'ate, usually conspicuously toothed, and 

 vary from a third to half an inch in length. The flowers 

 are produced here in great profusion from about the 8th to 

 the end of the month of July, and during the remainder of 

 the season appear irregularly and less abundantly ; they 

 are pure white, an inch and a half to two inches across, 

 very fragrant, and are borne in short, broad, pyramidal, 

 terminal, few or many-flowered clusters. The primary 

 bracts are lanceolate, foliaceous, dentate and persistent. 

 The pedicels are stout, an inch long, slightly glandular- 

 hispid, and furnished with lanceolate, denticulate, rather 

 persistent, bractlets. The flower-buds are -a third of an 

 inch long, ovoid and abruptly contracted into short points. 

 The sepals are oval, contracted at the apex into rather rigid 

 points, coated with pale pubescence on the inner surface 

 and reflexed at maturity. The petals are broadly obovate, 

 slightly emarginate at the apex, and sometimes rather re- 

 motely dentate toward the base. The stamens are bright 

 golden-yellow and very conspicuous ; and the column of 

 styles is elongated, rather thick, and pubescent. The fruit 

 is oval or obovate, dull red, and from a third to half an 

 inch long. It matures here late in the season, producing 

 good seed every year. 



Rosa Wichuraiana has been used very largely during the 

 last two years by the Park Department of the city of Bos- 

 ton, especially in Franklin Park, for covering rocky slopes, 

 embankments and such spots as it was desirable to clothe 

 quickly with verdure. It appears to be admirably suited 

 for such purposes, and as it grows more rapidly than 

 almost any other vine which has been tried in similar situa- 

 tions, soon making a dense mat over the ground, it seems 

 destined to become a popular plant. Its remarkable habit, 

 its hardiness, the brilliancy of its lustrous foliage, and the 

 beauty of its flowers, which appear when most shrubs are 

 out of bloom, certainly recommend it to the attention of 

 the lovers of hardy plants. C. S. S. 



* Bull. Bot. Soc. Roy. Belg., xxv, pt. ii., 189 ; J. G. Jack, Garden and Forest, iv., 44. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Chrysanthemums.— The great annual exhibition of the 

 National Chrysanthemum Society has been held this week 

 in the Royal Aquarium, at Westminster. The plants and 

 cut blooms shown were on the whole of the finest quality, 

 and almost every class was abundantly filled. I did not 

 see any very striking new variety among those shown for 

 the first time, Louis Bcehmer being, perhaps, the most re- 

 markable of these. As a flower, this variety has little to 

 recommend it, ugliness of form and dullness of color charac- 

 terizing all the blooms shown here ; but as a wonderful 

 development from the original Chrysanthemum it has much 

 interest. There were about 500 varieties submitted to the 

 Committee of Certificates, but only the following obtained 

 awards : 



Comte de Galbert (Calvat), Japanese, with large, full, 

 pale flesh-colored flowers ; Lord Brooke (Carter & Co.), a 

 large bright orange-colored incurved Japanese variety ; 

 Miss L Allen (Pitcher & Manda), Japanese, incurved; Dela- 

 ware (Pitcher & Manda), Anemone, large-flowered, with 

 white ray-petals and a yellow centre ; Excelsior (Owen), 

 Japanese, very large, colored bright cerise, with white re- 

 verse ; Mrs. G. C. Schwabe (Owen), Japanese, pale rose 

 and salmon, tipped with gold; Mrs. R. King (Owen), in- 

 curved, a good bold flower, full, and colored rich yellow ; 

 Florence Davis (Davis), Japanese, a very pretty white- 

 flowered variety, with long elegantly twisted petals ; Kate 

 Mursell (Mursell), a pure white sport from Lady Trevor 

 Lawrence ; Coronet (Mursell), Japanese, incurved, large, 

 full, deep yellow, a first-class variety ; Louis Bcehmer — 

 some very large well-formed flowers of this were exhibited, 

 and obtained a certificate. 



Perhaps the most interesting feature of the exhibition 

 was the collection of flowers of Anemone-flowered varie- 

 ties. The improvement made in this section of Chrysan- 

 themums in the last few years is most marked. Some of 

 the newer varieties have almost entirely lost the character 

 of Composites, the ray florets being reduced to a single 

 row, while the disk-florets are so large and well formed as 

 to appear like a bunch of Erica-flowers, say, of E. venlri- 

 cosa. Enormous crowds visited the Aquarium during the 

 three days on which the exhibition was held. Certainly 

 this is the most popular flower-show held in London, 

 though not the most select. 



Chrysanthemum Sports. — A paper upon this subject was 

 read by Professor Henslow, F. L. S., at the conference of 

 the National Chrysanthemum Society, held on the opening 

 day of the exhibition. Professor Henslow has for many 

 years been identified with studies of plant phenomena as 

 revealed by horticultural art, therefore anything he may 

 have to say upon such a subject as sporting in plants is 

 deserving of attention. He confessed to being unable to 

 explain this peculiarity of cultivated plants, but suggested 

 that ingredients in the soil had something to do with it. 

 He also pointed to the occurrence of sports simultaneously 

 at various places at the same time as indicating that cli- 

 matal conditions had some influence in causing a plant 

 to sport. From the fact that "nearly all the early im- 

 ported varieties from China were much more inclined to 

 sport than those raised from seeds in Europe " it is sup- 

 posed that sporting may be induced by frequently intro- 

 ducing plants from as different a climate as possible from 

 our own. The most remarkable case of sporting is that of 

 Queen of England, a pale blush variety which has sported 

 into six different colors, namely, two golds, two bronzes, 

 a rose and a primrose. It is possible that, by careful ob- 

 servation and experiment, the exact causes to which sport- 

 ing is due may be discovered, and the production of new 

 varieties in this way be under the cultivators' control. At 

 present we only know that sports do occur, but when or 

 in what form they will come we have absolutely no means 

 of knowing. Varieties of Chrysanthemums are so easily 



