May, 1908 
as brittle as pipe stems, yet start readily 
on the arrival of the rainy season. A big 
mass of scarlet larkspurs three to seven 
feet high in California is a memorable 
sight, but in the East we commonly get 
miserable little plants a foot or so high 
bearing only a few flowers. 
THE MAY-BLOOMING LARKSPUR — TRICORNE 
A May-blooming larkspur ought to be 
of considerable interest, yet I know only 
one nurseryman who catalogues our native 
D. tricorne. Yt usually grows only a foot 
high and bears six to ten purple, rarely 
white, flowers each a little more than an 
inch in diameter. The rockery is a better 
place for rare plants with tuberous roots 
than the border, because in the latter situa- 
tion when the tops die down, the roots are 
easily ruined by a careless stroke of the hoe. 
THE PALE YELLOW LARKSPUR 
There is no golden larkspur, and un- 
fortunately the pale yellow larkspur (D. 
Zalil) belongs to the same cultural group 
as the Californian species, although it is 
a native of Afghanistan. It is a freer 
bloomer than the other tuberous kinds but 
is inclined to bloom itself to death. There 
is an exquisite colored plate of it in The 
Garden (English) for 1896, showing flowers 
one and one half inches across and two dozen 
in a spike. It has been known to attain 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
a height of five feet, but few people make 
it average more than two. It would be 
a great achievement to cross this species 
with a white-flowered perennial larkspur. 
D. Zalil is often sold under the name of 
D. sulphureum, but there is no-excuse for 
confusing them. D. sulphureum is a worth- 
less species growing only three to six inches 
high and having only three to five flowers 
in a cluster. 
THE MUSK-SCENTED LARKSPUR — 
BRUNONIANUM 
The musk-scented larkspur (D. Bruno- 
nianum), according to the Botanical Maga- 
zine, “is remarkable for the very powerful 
odor of musk, which is not peculiar to this 
species of the genus, but exists in other 
high alpine plants which form a peculiar 
group, with large half-closed membraneous 
flowers, whence the mountaineers errone- 
ously suppose that the musk-deer feed upon 
them, thereby communicating the peculiar 
odor to their glandular secretions.” The 
flowers are blue, with dark centres, about 
one and one-half inches across and about 
five blossoms on a stalk. The plant grows 
about a foot high, is tuberous and comes 
from Thibet at an altitude of 14,000 feet. 
A GUIDE TO THE SPECIES 
For those who wish to determine which 
species have played the most important 
2A7 
part in the evolution of the hybrids I give 
the distinctions between the six species on 
which the latest monographers (Huth and 
Davis) lay most stress. 
A. Seeds scaly. 
3B. Leaf stalks sheathing at base .. hybridum 
BB. Leaf stalks hardly dilating at 
KASS oa cdcageoseod6ons0S formosum 
AA. Seeds decidedly winged. 
B. Lower petals 2-lobed ........ elatum 
BB. Lower petals entire or undulate 
or slightly 2-lobed. 
C. Fils.very large: spurs 4 in. long, 
often longer than sepals ... grandiflorum 
3 
CC. Fis. smaller: spurs 2 to 2 in. 
long, about as long as 
RAIS. Hu oo dosauvel4bce cheilanthum 
AAA. Seeds irregularly wrinkled, hard- 
IM, SRINEECho obo oto ee oe oOnO ne exaltatum 
Unfortunately, the doubles produce few 
seeds or none and therefore I add the follow- 
ing key, based almost wholly upon the 
original descriptions: 
A. Lys. many-times parted. 
B. Petioles sheathing at base..... hybridum 
BB. Petioles not sheathing........ grandiflorum 
AA. Lys. usually 5-parted. 
B. The petals all bearded....... formosum 
BB. The lower petals bearded. 
C. Spikes many-fld.: fls. small. . elatum 
CC. Spikes fewer-fld: fis. large ... cheilanthum 
AAA. Lys. usually 3-parted......... exaltatum 
[NotE. Next month the culture of peren- 
nial larkspurs will be given in jull, and in 
July the annual larksfurs will be treated.| 
The Best Broad-leaved Evergreen Trees—By P. J. Berckmans, c#« 
THE FOURTH OF A SERIES OF HORTICULTURAL MEMOIRS BY THE DEAN OF AMERICAN POMOLOGY AND OF SOUTHERN 
FLORICULTURE, WITH ACCOUNTS OF MANY IMPORTANT PLANTS INTRODUCED TO CULTIVATION BY HIM 
HE list of broad-leaved evergreen 
trees is very limited, especially in 
varieties suited to sections north of Washing- 
ton City; therefore reference, in this article, 
applies mainly for the middle and lower 
South, and even there we find but few sorts 
that can be strictly classed as trees, the 
bulk of the broad-leaved flowering species 
being properly included among shrubs. 
First of all is that noble tree so appro- 
priately called Magnolia grandiflora. There 
is no hardy tree in cultivation, whether in 
the United States or Europe, that equals 
this in its magnificent proportions as to size 
of tree, broad shiny foliage, or enormous 
white flowers. It is native to the middle 
sections of the South, where it is usually 
found in rich, low, or swampy woods where 
water often stagnates for long periods. 
Nevertheless it grows to huge size upon rich 
high grounds where it is the most valuable 
of our native flowering trees. 
Many of these magnolia trees are taken 
from the woods and if the branches are 
severely cut back and all the leaves removed 
they transplant very readily, but seldom 
grow as rapidly or with equal symmetry as 
do nursery-grown trees. The latter have a 
better root system because they have been 
transplanted once or twice and if defoliated 
they recuperate easily after removal. Pot- 
grown trees, no matter how small, should 
always be preferred to field-grown specimens 
of Magnolia grandiflora. 
In 1851 the writer planted an avenue 
goo feet in length, taking one-year-old pot- 
grown seedlings not over ten inches high. 
Some trees produced their first crop of flowers 
four years afterward. 
and to-day many of these trees are sixty 
feet high. They annually yield myriads of 
The western live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) branches 
lower down than the eastern species 
Not a plant failed — 
their snow-white flowers. Not long ago a 
Northern gentleman who has a Southern 
winter home planted five miles of road on 
his estate with Magnolia grandiflora. ma 
There is considerable variation in_ this 
tree both as to foliage and flowers. In some 
specimens the leaves are very large, three by 
ten inches, and with a brown pubescent 
under surface. These usually produce the 
best flowers both as to size and heaviness of 
petals, the blossoms sometimes measuring 
ten to twelve inches in diameter. 
In other trees the foliage is narrower, 
more or less undulating and pale green 
beneath, while the flowers may be only 
four inches across. A tree was found in 
Laurens County, Georgia, with leaves 
measuring fifteen inches in length and 
flowers of twelve inches in diameter. ‘This 
tree was taken from a low swampy wood 
and transplanted in high sandy loam where 
it is growing luxuriantly, thanks to the liberal 
plant food it is receiving. 
In the Middle South, the flowers begin to 
expand early in May, in some instances by 
the middle of April, but the full harvest is 
from the middle of May until the end of 
June. A few flowers are found during 
the following months and occasionally as 
late as October, but this is more of a rarity 
than a rule. 
