WALKS AND TALKS AT BREEZE HILL— IV 



J. HORACE McFARLAND 



Wherein is Reflective, Critical, Philosophical, and Friendly Comment about Plants 

 and their Behavior Inspired by Personal Experiences in a Garden Made for Pleasure 



gjHE chestnut-bark disease which is exterminating one 

 of our noblest and most valuable American forest trees 



Hj was an imminent fact when I bought and planted two 

 fine little Chinquapins. I was taking a chance, but 

 not much of a chance, for there were no Chestnuts in the im- 



TEA-LEAVED VIBURNUM IN FLOWER 



Lovely in mid-May and equally lovely when hung with 



light scarlet berries in its September fruiting season 



Viburnum theiferum is certainly a prize shrub 



mediate vicinity from which the spores of the dread disease 

 might be carried to my bushes. 



Seven years have passed, and the "chinks" are fine bushes, 

 about seven feet high and through. Though planted in a rather 

 shady and damp location, and crowded in with a Magnolia, 

 some Witch-hazels and Spice-bushes in a mass planting, they 

 seem not to have resented absence from the dry and rocky 

 slopes which are their native preference. 



The Dainty Chinquapin 



THESE plants of Castanea pumila have been blooming and 

 fruiting for four years, and this year have been particularly 

 pleasing. The flowers come earlier than those of the forest 

 Chestnut, and they are decidedly handsome. The foliage is 

 good and well retained through the summer, and the fruit is as 

 toothsomely delightful as the bur-clusters that contain it are 

 ornamental. I would have it for its flowers if it had no nuts, 

 and for its nuts if it had no obvious flowers, so I have been 

 doubly rewarded, having both. 



The nuts are small, almost black, and are customarily but one 

 in a "bur," though I have frequently found three. Frost has 

 nothing to do with opening these burs, which mature here in 

 September, and silently drop the nuts, all convenient for the 

 vigilant chipmunks who miss none of them. By vigilance partly 

 as persistent as that of the "chippies" I have this year har- 

 vested for myself most of the crop, going to the bushes early 

 each morning, and carefully opening each bur that shows a peep 

 of the brown-black nut within. 



The quality of the nuts of the Chinquapin is its great recom- 

 mendation as a fruit. Sweet, fine-grained and rich in the 

 delectable chestnut flavor, they are not at all hard to eat. 



The Tea-leaved Viburnum and Some Others 



TN APRIL, 19 1 6, I planted the Tea-leaved Viburnum (Vi- 

 1 burnum theiferum), another Wilson introduction and said 

 by the Arnold Arboretum bulletins to be " one of the two best 



Wilson Viburnums." The next season the dentatum stock 

 on which it was grafted got away, and some time was lost in 

 consequence. It bloomed in 191 8, nevertheless, and fruited in 

 due course. Since, it has flourished, and on a late September 

 day it is one of the most pleasing objects in the " Locust Walk" 

 border at Breeze Hill. 



The flowers come in mid-May, and the small flat corymbs of 

 fertile white blooms make a charming effect in the midst of the 

 good foliage. The leaves justify the name, and they are of 

 unusual thickness and substance, deep green above and light 

 green underneath. They bronze in fall, and as the plant is of 

 rather compact habit, it is at all times an agreeable object. 



But the fruit! Clusters of pea-shaped, light scarlet berries, 

 hard, shining, and graceful, hang pendant from between the 

 two leaf-buds that are all ready for next year, and outside 

 of which are the present leaves, soon to drop. When they do 

 drop, the plant will be even more brilliant until frost disorganizes 

 and shakes down the seeds. 



I highly prize this Viburnum as a distinct and pleasing mem- 

 ber of a shrub family not half appreciated in American gardens. 

 Why is it that when one plant of a genus makes a splash, as 

 does the Japanese Snowball (V. tomentosum plenum — plicatum 

 as we usually have it), we promptly drop all the others 

 for it? I always did have some sympathy for the eleven sons 



CHINQUAPIN (Castanea pumila) 



Desirable because of its feathery bloom and the small, 



sweet nuts hoarded in its decorative bur-clusters which 



— unlike most nuts — ripen before frost 



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