278 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



ANEMONE CERNUA : WITH 

 COLOURED PLATE FROM A 

 DRAWING BY H. G. MOON. 



The Windflower family presents flow- 

 ers of many colours and of great bril- 

 liance, ranging from red to blue and 

 white, but no other species so far known 

 in gardens shows the strange colouring 

 seen in this new and handsome species. 

 Anemones of many kinds are plentiful 

 in japan, where twenty-three species 

 are named by Franchet and Savatier as 

 natives of the Archipelago — a greater 

 number than is found in the whole of 

 Europe. The Russian dominions claim 

 twenty-six species (according to Lede- 

 bour), and fifteen are described in the 

 " Flora of British India" as natives of 

 that region. 



Anemone cer7iua is found growing 

 in open sunny situations in the islands 

 of Nippon and Saghalin, and reaches the 

 mainland in Corea, extending inland all 

 over southern Manchuria, where it is 

 common as a mountain plant. With this 

 wide range of country it shows great 

 variation in size, in depth of colour, and 

 in the greater or less abundance of the 

 soft white silky hairs that clothe it in 

 every part. The plant shown in our 

 coloured plate was sent to Kew by Max 

 Leichtlin of Baden Baden, in the year 

 1900, and flowered in a cold frame for 

 the first time in April, 1902. The nod- 

 ding flowers are subdued in colour, and 

 there is a velvety richness in the dark se- 

 pals which is well set off by the wealth 

 of yellow stamens, and the dense hoari- 

 nessof leaf and stem. Seed has hitherto 

 failed to ripen at Kew. 



W. IRVING. 



The Neglect of Summer Leafing Trees. — 

 During the planting season it may be well to 

 remind the many who only plant conifers and 

 other evergreen trees, without knowing how 

 long they will endure the climate, how un- 

 fruitful their efforts are likely to be, compared 

 with what might be expected if they worked 

 with more lasting materials. Judging by the 

 scant attention now paid to the planting of de- 

 ciduous trees, one would suppose them lower 

 in the scale of attractions than the Conifers, 

 which are planted everywhere, though the 

 summer-leafing trees are by far the more valu- 

 able over large areas in our country. A great 

 number of conifers described as hardy are, 

 for the most part, not really so as forest trees. 

 They endure the climate for a while, sheltered 

 in sunny nooks here and there, but a severe 

 winter comes and kills them, or an easterly 

 wind comes and half burns off" the leaves. Un- 

 proved exotics, that thrive for a little while, 

 but succumb to some unusually bitter spell 

 of weather, we have given them everywhere 

 places of honour that should be filled by trees 

 more congenial to our plains, and as a conse- 

 quence we often find disease or a vacant place 

 where we looked for a long life of dignified 

 beauty. 



Some Pines are hardy, and it is impossible 

 to embellish our country seats without their 

 aid ; but it is a mistake to depend almost wholly 

 upon them, as many do. Then as to beauty, 

 they are inferior to our finest flowering trees 

 — inferior inasmuch as they are changeless, and 

 without the charm of fair blossom. The com- 

 mon trees of the parks of Europe, with their 

 massive trunks and limbs,and picturesque rami- 

 fications are finer than any Pines. Nor in this 

 connection must we compare the giant Pines 

 of the West with what we can grow in Eng- 

 land. It is a delusion to think that our climate 

 will ever permit the Sequoias, the Mexican, 

 and some other great Pines to live for anything 

 like the time that they have existed in their 

 native homes, the long and brilliant summers 

 of which are necessary to their growth. Few 

 seem to take any interest in the newer summer 

 leafing trees, and they are hardly ever grouped 

 so that their beauty may be fully seen as tree- 

 pictures. But, badly as deciduous trees are 

 treated, they generally live, even in crowded 

 cities and their suburbs, where conifers and 



