December 2, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



573 



ties, determined to subject them to the same conditions all 

 through the season. The result was the same. As, however, 

 a few blooms were of colors we desired, I kept them till last 

 winter, with scarcely better results. I recently visited the green- 

 houses belonging to Joseph Tailby, of Wellesley, the veteran 

 Carnation raiser and grower, who kindly gave me some valu- 

 able information regarding the history and development of the 

 American type of Carnation. When I told him of my expe- 

 rience with the imported varieties, he said the same had gen- 

 erally been his, especially with regard to the English varieties. 

 His opinion is, that the American Carnation, as it is, is the 

 result of adaptation, by selection and acclimatization ; and 

 when I suggested to him that the first Carnations came from 

 somewhere, he said that the French varieties had always suc- 

 ceeded better here, arid had been the parents of the best 

 American varieties. Boule de Neige, La Purite, Madame Carle, 

 A. Alegatiere and De Graw (parent of Mrs. Fisher, perhaps 

 best, new white) are French varieties which are still grown 

 to some extent. The ideal Carnation, in addition to blooming 

 freely, should have solid, erect, pointed foliage, through which 

 air and sunlight can strike the soil. The importance of this 

 will be readily apparent when it is remembered that broad, 

 flat, dense foliage must hold moisture, causing dampness and 

 decay of foliage. Stiff, wiry foot-stalks are another necessity 

 which we too often get with the lack of solidity of bloom, as 

 in the case of Lambourn and Lizzie McGowan, two very pretty 

 whites, which, however, are thin and will not travel. A. Ale- 

 gatiere is one of the best scarlet flowers we have, but the 

 stem is too weak, and, withal, brittle, causing the flowers to 

 droop, and so is fast being displaced by Florence and Hector, 

 American varieties with stiff stems. Grace Wilder, the best 

 and most extensively grown of all rose-colored varieties, was 

 raised by Mr. Tailby. It was a seedling from Boule de Neige 

 (white) X La Purite (rose). Boule de Neige proved an excel- 

 lent seed-parent, and along with Grace Wilder came some 

 seedlings, giving shades of color, which would be valuable at 

 this time although undesirable then. 



A good marketable, winter-blooming yellow variety is a want 

 long felt, but soon to be filled. Among border or summer- 

 blooming varieties we have some excellent yellows, but they 

 almost refuse to bloom in a greenhouse. The French have 

 produced a few doubtful yellows of free habit, but poor con- 

 stitution and color, and it is on these, with the good border- 

 yellows, that Mr. Tailby has been working. Results were 

 unsatisfactory, and so he, last year, tried Florence (scarlet) 

 with better results, getting good and distinctly intermediate 

 color as a result of the cross, but no clear yellow ; still he is 

 satisfied he is on the right road, and thinks by crossing back 

 he will get what he needs. It is a great step, certainly, to get 

 an infusion of yellow and yet retain the free habit of the seed- 

 parent. The crossing of Florence (scarlet) and Anna Webb 

 (deep crimson) has produced an intermediate shade remind- 

 ing one more than anything of the Chrysanthemum Culling- 

 fordii, having precisely the same velvety texture. But there is 

 something more important than this in this seedling, and that 

 is its excellent habit, for it is far superior to Anna Webb and 

 Ferdinand Mangold, the two prevalent crimsons, in constitu- 

 tion and free-flowering qualities. 



Numerous sports have been produced, including white, 

 pale rose, salmon and purple flowers, from Grace Wilder. 

 Lately there was in bloom a salmon-pink sport from Hector, 

 the new scarlet. It is a color which several raisers have been 

 trying to get. All of them, however, have lacked a sufficiently 

 hardy constitution or free-flowering habit to make them worth 

 perpetuating. If this variety holds its color, with the good 

 qualities of Hector, it should prove valuable. Strange to say, 

 however, the habit is different and considered better, being 

 more dwarfed and erect. 



There appears to be an established conviction among Car- 

 nation-growers that locality has much to do with success or 

 failure in the case of certain varieties. Soil, probably, has 

 more influence than locality. One thing is certain, that Grace 

 Wilder needs a light soil, and Anna Webb and crimsons gen- 

 erally, a heavy one ; and here I venture to suggest, that as 

 most marine plants are characterized by glaucous foliage, 

 those varieties, like Anna Webb, having a distinctly glaucous 

 foliage might be improved if a little salt were added" to the soil. 

 Wood ashes, containing the salts of potash and iron, ought 

 also to have a beneficial effect. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Eulalia gracillima univittata. — This fine ornamental grass 

 should not be confounded with the well-known varieties of E. 

 Japonica. The newer plant has been extensively catalogued 

 as E. univittata, and the tendency is to associate it mentally 



with the older kind, and therefore it has not been so widely 

 distributed as it deserves, for it is quite distinct in appearance, 

 and it may be employed in places where the older E. Japonica 

 would be quite unsuitable. E. gracillima does not exceed 

 four feet in height under the most liberal treatment, and this 

 is one of its most useful characteristics, for it can be used as a 

 centre plant in large vases to the best advantage. Its foliage 

 has a tendency to assume a horizontal position when fully ma- 

 tured, and this, with the white midrib of the leaf, gives the 

 plant a very distinct appearance among ornamental grasses. 



Our plants were originally obtained from Monsieur Le- 

 moine, Nancy, from whom so many desirable plants have 

 emanated, but the native country of E. gracillima is, without 

 doubt, Japan. It has been described as perfectly hardy in the 

 United States, but this needs confirmation. Perhaps some 

 reader may be able to enlighten us. Our own stock has 

 hitherto been too limited to risk losing it by leaving it out 

 during winter in these colder states, and there is so little trouble 

 involved in lifting the roots and storing them in sand in a cel- 

 lar that we usually adopt this method and plant them out 

 again in newly enriched soil in spring. According to Bentham 

 and Hooker, we must no longer call our plants Eulalias, the 

 proper name being Miscanthus ; but probably the garden name 

 will be Eulalia for a long time. 



Dahlia imperialis. — This is at present one of the rarest of 

 Dahlias in cultivation. Why this is so is not easily understood, 

 for there is no other Dahlia so worthy of a place as this spe- 

 cies, if space can be given it at this season, in a greenhouse. 

 The word space means a good deal here, for, while two square 

 feet of pot-room is enough for a well-developed specimen, it 

 must have at least eight feet of head-room. Our plants were 

 grown out-of-doors until frost came, when they were about 

 five feet high ; they immediately showed flower-buds, while 

 the plants rapidly grew three to four feet higher. The first 

 blooms are now open, and we shall have a succession of them 

 all winter. They are very suitable for cutting, as they last a 

 long time in water. While most other Dahlias have a flat out- 

 line, the flowers of the Imperial Dahlia are broadly campanu- 

 late.and resemble a Lily much more than a Dahlia in outline, 

 the flowers often measuring eight inches across, and the petals 

 being over an inch across and pure white, except at the base, 

 where they are pink. The anthers and pollen are bright 

 orange, forming a pretty centre to the flowers. Dahlia inipe- 

 rialis, in common with most of the other species, is native of 

 Mexico, whence the plants were originally introduced into 

 Europe over a century ago, and were at first grown for the 

 tuberous roots, which were said to be eatable, but they never 

 found much favor with man or beast, owing to their acrid or 

 medicinal flavor. All the species of Dahlia are single, the 

 double varieties being the result of the gardener's art. 



Montbretias (Tritonias). — In a recent article in Garden and 

 Forest Mr. Barker says that, so far as he is aware, M. crocos- 

 mceflora is the only hybrid in cultivation in the United States. 

 But Mr. Gerard and others have noted on more than one occa- 

 sion some half dozen others of Monsieur Lemoine's produc- 

 tions, such as Etoile de feu, Bouquet parfait, Drap d'or, Rayon 

 d'or, Tigridie, Transcendant and others, all of which are dis- 

 tinct and equal in merit to the original M. crocosmceflora. It is a 

 mistake to treat Montbretias as hardy plants, for they certainly 

 are no more hardy than the Gladiolus here" in the eastern 

 states. I have known after a mild winter a few stray bulbs to 

 come up here and there in a feeble sort of way, precisely as do 

 Gladiolus-corms of Monsieur Lemoine's so-called hardy kinds ; 

 but there seems to me no sort of reason for risking Montbre- 

 tias in this way when it is so easy to take them up at the same 

 time that Gladioli are dug, and store them away in a cellar in 

 sand or earth that is moderately damp. To grow these plants 

 well requires a rich soil, the richer the better, hence one of the 

 advantages of transplanting every year to a new position. 

 There are, I know, several others who cultivate the newer 

 kinds. My own were received partly from a correspondent in 

 Oregon and partly from another in Indiana. It would be in- 

 teresting to have the experience of these western growers. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



Galanthus Octobrensis. — It was with surprise and delight that 

 I found this autumnal Snowdrop flowering in my border in 

 the middle of November. This was somewhat late for the 

 variety, but as the bulbs were received in early September 

 with some other east European varieties, it speaks much 

 for their precocity that they have bloomed with such a short 

 establishment. It is interesting to speculate on the conditions 

 which, through the course of years, have imparted to a local 

 strain of G. nivalis the precocious habit of this variety. Like 



