FLORA AND SYLVA 
be able to tell me if this is its proper 
English name. Geranium betulifolium 
is very distinct, with small stiff leaves 
of dark green and rather large white 
flowers — altogether a pretty and useful 
plant, hady Mary Fox — shown in the 
coloured plate — is one of the best and 
most useful for all purposes, excellent 
in the border, free and continuous in 
flower, and of good colour. It is a good 
pot plant, the edges of the leaves often 
prettily shaded with red, which harmo- 
nises with the flowers. It is a plant of 
many names, like most of the others, 
and has reached us at various times as 
Mrs. Moon, Mr. J. Douglas, Old Irish, 
and other synonyms. All forms of the 
Jj7iique section are good, and Scarlet 
Unique the best. For several varieties 
we have no names that even purport to 
be correct, and in default of better we 
call them after the gardens from which 
they came. The following are the best 
plants under each head. For scent : — 
Attar of %ose, al?rota7iifolium, all the 
forms of citriodorum , Lady Scarborough , 
DaleParkBeauty^'ixnd Prince of Ora7ige. 
The finest flowers are Lady Mary Fox, 
Pretty Polly, Shrubland Rose, and Scar- 
let Unique. Those most useful for cut- 
ting are capitation, radula, Sandback 
Beauty, quercifolium (?ninorf), all the 
forms of citriodoru7n. Pheasant's Foot, 
flicifoliu7n, and Fair Flle7i. The most 
interesting and distinct kinds are per- 
haps Blandfordia7iu7n, abrota7iifoliu7n, 
betulifoliu7n, ternatu7n,?indi the smallest 
form of citriodoru7n. 
Most of the varieties are 
Culture. . , . , 
easily grown m light, rich 
soil, the chief care being as to green-fly. 
' They root easily as cuttings, and many 
of the varieties can also be increased 
from pieces of the root, but cuttings are 
more satisfactory. They are finest when 
grown as large trained specimens, but 
space cannot always be spared for this 
way of growing them, and very good 
results can be had more simply. In con- 
clusion, let me again disclaim all idea of 
vouching for the names given ; for the 
most part I have adopted those most 
commonly used, but I am aware that 
this is far from being a proof of their 
correctness. If anyone can help me in 
revising the names of the kinds in culti- 
vation I shall be grateful, for, as I said at 
the outset, my aim in writing is that by 
some means we may determine "Which 
pretender is, and which is King." 
H. M. WHITE. 
Alexandra College, 
Dublin. 
The Pigmy Trees of British Columbia. — 
A note in the Botanical Ga-zette describes a 
forest of dwarf trees recently found upon the 
west coast of Vancouver Island, British Col- 
umbia, and in the main so nearly like the 
Pigmy Trees of Japan as to raise the question 
whether these may not have originated in the 
attempt to produce by artifice what had been 
observed in nature. The little trees in ques- 
tion are of three kinds ; the White Cedar 
( Thujagigantea) , the Western Hemlock ( Tsuga 
heterophyila), and Picea sitchensis. Thtough 
■ ranging from less than a foot up to 2 feet or 
a little more in height, the little trees ex- 
amined were found to be of great age, one 
tree under 12 inches high and with a stem 
less than three-quarters of an inch in diameter 
being eighty-six years old, and a second, very 
little larger, showing 98 annual layers. They 
j grow close to the sea upon the edges of tilted 
I layers of slate, in such scanty soil that in many 
I cases the roots lift out in a flattened mass 
like a sheet of coarse brown paper, and ex- 
' posed to the constant fret of salt breezes. 
