December 30, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



615 



abundance, it has not, owing to lack of pollen, produced per- 

 fect seed. It is propagated by grafting on stock of the com- 

 mon European Silver Fir {Abies pectinatd), while a limited num- 

 ber of own-rooted plants are also produced by fastening 

 rings of damp sphagnum to the branches in the same manner 

 that many greenhouse-plants are rooted. Among other Firs 

 were fine examples of Nordmann's and the Cilician Fir. The 

 first is well known as being quite hardy at Boston, while the 

 other is somewhat more tender. Cunninghamia Sinensis, 

 Podocarpus Chilina, Fitzroya Patagonica and Araucarias (fruit- 

 ing) were some of the other most interesting conifers noted, 

 and which we are accustomed to see only as pigmy plants in 

 greenhouses. 



Reference to the Pines should not be omitted, for a number 

 of fine examples are to be seen here. Pinus Canariensis, an 

 insular species from Teneriffe, seems to be a favorite and does 

 well, and a Himalayan species {P. longifolid) attracts attention 

 by its curious long-leaved foliage. Among our American spe- 

 cies we find here the Californian P. insignis, one of the most 

 ornamental Pines in cultivation, but, of course, not hardy in 

 our northern gardens, and the Long-leaved or Georgia Pine 

 {P. palustris), which is not more enduring, although some of 

 our nurserymen have led many amateurs into buying it. Of 

 several Mexican Pines, one of the prettiest is P. patula, while 

 another long-leaved one appears to beaform of P. Montezuma. 



Several species of Palms prove quite hardy in the open air. 

 Among these the most interesting and remarkable is a speci- 

 men of the beautiful Coquito Palm {Jtibcea spectabilis), of 

 Chili, forty or forty-five years old, twenty feet in height, and 

 with a trunk almost three feet in diameter. An example of 

 Cocos australis was in flower, and the Japanese Fan Palm 

 seemed quite at home. Quite a variety of Bamboos have 

 been brought together, some of them being twenty or twenty- 

 five feet high. One of the specialties of the establishment is 

 the cultivation of Camellias, of which there are a great variety 

 growing in the open air, while their near relatives, the Tea- 

 plants, are to be seen growing beside them. 



Much more is to be seen here than can be well indicated in 

 these notes, and any one interested in the fruits of warm tem- 

 perate regions will also find much to study. Twelve or 

 fourteen varieties of the Japan Persimmon (Diospyros Kaki) 

 are grown, and the fruit is said to be gaining in popular favor. 



An old friend was noted in the herbaceous Asiatic Lespedeza, 

 which, in a particularly warm spot, was expanding its very first 

 flowers (July 23d). This pretty, rosy purple flowered, leguminous 

 plant is apparently no more shrubby at Pallanzathan it is in our 

 northern gardens, where it blooms in the autumn. Unfor- 

 tunately, it is most widely known as Desmodium penduliftoriim, 

 a name which should no longer be kept up, as by its botanical 

 characters the plant is a true Lespedeza. 



Arnold Arboretum. J- Lr. Jack. 



George W. Vanderbilt's Nursery. 



AN article under the above title appears in the Decem- 

 ber number of The Lyceum, a magazine published in 

 Asheville, North Carolina. We have made allusion to it in 

 our editorial columns, and herewith reproduce the greater 

 portion of it. It was prepared at the request of the editor 

 of The Lyceum by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, whose 

 name is a guarantee that it is authoritative. 



1. It is intended that the greater part of the estate with 

 which the nursery is connected shall be occupied by a syste- 

 matically managed forest, constituted mainly, at least, of such 

 trees and bushes indigenous to the region as are likely to be 

 of commercial value. This forest will be in a large part formed 

 by the improvement, through thinning and 'otherwise, of the 

 present young "second growth," but considerable spaces, now 

 bare of trees, or the trees on which are unpromising, will be 

 planted. The extent of the forest is to be fully 4,000 acres. 



2. Roads will be carried through the forest, in the laying 

 out of which the motive of convenient transportation from its 

 different parts will be modified by regard for picturesque in- 

 terest, and the immediate borders of a part of these roads are 

 to be planted with the object of gradually forming more inter- 

 esting foregrounds than might otherwise be presented to view 

 from them. 



3. It is proposed to make a plantation, three or four miles 

 in length, along the borders of a certain series of the forest- 

 roads which will contain a few specimens, suitably classified 

 and arranged for study, of each of the native trees of the region, 

 and of all other trees that can be obtained from any part of 

 the world with a reasonable hope that they will flourish under 

 the conditions of climate and soil of the locality. This will be 



"The Arboretum"; in effect an Experiment Station and Mu- 

 seum of living trees. It may be hoped to be of considerable 

 national value, as the trees acquire their mature character, 

 perhaps fifty years hence. 



4. It is intended to gradually form in some of the glens of 

 the estate, passages of local scenery resembling those natu- 

 rally occurring in many similar situations in the mountain- 

 regions of North Carolina, of which the more notable constitu- 

 ents are lustrous smooth-leafed evergreens, such as the Rho- 

 dodendrons and Kalmias, Ilexes and the Leucothce. In the 

 glens there are occasional partly flooded or water-soaked 

 areas, in or on the edges of which grow Cane, Bullrushes, 

 Sagittarias and other aquatic forms of vegetation, mostly her- 

 baceous. With masses of such evergreens as have been indi- 

 cated above, it is designed to associate a comparatively small 

 number of foreign bushes of a generally similar, glossy, ever- 

 green character, by the introduction of which, if it can be suc- 

 cessfully accomplished, greater variety and grace of form and 

 vivacity of tint, and, at points, more complex intricacy of effect 

 may be obtained than if the planting were to be confined 

 strictly to natives. Also the attempt will be made to naturalize 

 a few foreign plants, as, for instance, certain Bamboos, Ne- 

 lumbiums and Nymphseas, each having qualities of its own, 

 differing from, but to be pleasingly associated with, those of 

 the native aquatic and water-side plants. 



In the nursery there are now under propagation, or already 

 in cultivation, young trees and bushes for each of the four 

 above-stated purposes. Of such of these as are designed to 

 be used either directly, or as stocks for propagation, for the 

 Arboretum, there are two or more examples each of four 

 thousand two hundred species and varieties. Of the different 

 species of Rhododendron, Kalmia, Leucothce, Andromeda, 

 Ilex, Laurus, Osmanthus, Aucuba, Abelia and other smooth- 

 leafed evergreens collected or otherwise obtained with a view 

 to the fourth class of plantations above defined, there are now 

 in the nursery, or planted on the banks of Ram branch, 20,000 

 plants, not including those intended as ground-covering, such 

 as Ivies, Evergreen, Loniceras and Running Roses, Hyperi- 

 cum, Periwinkle, etc., of which the present stock is about 

 100,000. Among the Rhododendrons there are two examples 

 each of four hundred hybrid varieties, mostly the result of 

 crossing the Catawba Rhododendron, growing naturally on 

 the high mountain-tops of North Carolina, with others largely 

 obtained from the Alpine regions of Europe and from the 

 Ural and Himalayan mountain of Asia. 



All of the plantations described are intended, as they come 

 to maturity, to have a natural aspect, and to stand in harmoni- 

 ous and modestly subordinate relations with the general 

 landscape of this region of country. There will be a small 

 space of "kept grounds," near the dwelling of the proprietor, 

 which, for the most part, will be laid out.formally, with a view 

 ' to domestic convenience and correspondence with the build- 

 ings, consequently, with a clearly defined demarcation from 

 the natural landscape. There will be but little space given on 

 the estate to what are commonly called "ornamentals," and 

 none to the exhibition of mere curiosities, eccentricities or 

 rarities of vegetation. There is, consequently, little in the 

 nursery of special interest from a gardening point of view. Its 

 stock of trees and bushes of merchantable size now numbers 

 about 100,000 ; of seedlings and cuttings propagated on the 

 grounds during the last year, about 500,000. Some of the 

 stock having been brought long distances (part from southern 

 Europe, part from Japan) and delayed on the passage, is not 

 at present looking very thrifty, but after the next winter's rest 

 is expected to fully recover. 



The entire undertaking looks to results that can be fully 

 realized only after many years, and, except to a botanist, its 

 value lies in its promises and experiments rather than its 

 actualities. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Spirasa discolor, var. ariasfolia. 



THE panicle of flowers of Spircea disco/or, var. aricefolia, 

 figured on page 6 1 7, is from a photograph of a specimen 

 grown during the past summer in the Arnold Arboretum, 

 where it bloomed better than it has ever done before, no 

 doubt owing to the comparative mildness of the past two 

 winters and to a moderate amount of winter protection 

 given to it. Perhaps, also, it is one of those plants which are 

 apparently hardier after they attain a considerable age. 

 Although one of the most beautiful of all the Spiraeas, it 



