PARK AND CEMKTERY 
35 
GARDEN PLANTS— THEIR GEOGRAPHY— LXIV. 
DAPHNALES. 
The Laurus, Protea, and Eleagnus Alliance. 
• Here we have a group of i6 tribes, 139 genera and 
2,301 species which are among the finest trees and 
shrubs in the vegetable kingdom. They are very 
largely evergreen, tropical and sub-tropical, but with 
a good representation of deciduous forms in northern 
temperate regions. There are but few herbs and they 
are wiry, the parasitical dodder-laurels especially so. 
The group may be roughly divided into those with 
lucid green foliage like the Laurus, and those with ar- 
genteous or fuscous leaves like the silver trees and 
Eleagnus. 
Considerable discrimination and taste will be nec- 
essary when planting these together. Miscellaneous 
mixing produces the hopeless muddles so much in 
evidence. With a good backing of the Laurineae, 
however, and well selected Protean forms used in the 
foreground with judgment and moderation, there will 
be produced the most striking exogenous group that 
can be gotten together in the drier sub-tropical re- 
gions. It will take the palm from the Cacti. At the 
north something of the kind may be attempted with 
the sassafras, the Eleagni, the Daphnes and others. 
CINNAMOMUM CAMPHOR.A. 
W feet hifjli at 8 years old, grown on S. Florida ijlantation. 
Cinnanioviiini has 130 species of sub-tropical and 
tropical trees often of immense size, and ascending on 
the mountains to considera 1 >le elevations. They are 
superb in their young vernal growth, which varies 
from creamy white to pink and red according to kind, 
and gives the surface of the mountain forests the ap- 
pearance of immense flower shows. C. Camphora 
does well southward on both coasts, and even when 
cut down by severe winters in the gulf states, usually 
grows again from the stump, a readiness of the genus 
taken advantage of in the cultivation of C. Zeylan- 
icum, which is treated much like Osiers. I cannot 
doubt but C. Loureirii, C. talmala, and others would 
do well at southern points in Florida and California. 
Persea has too species distributed over temperate, 
sub-tropical, and tropical America, the sub-tropical 
and tropical parts of Asia, and the Canary Islands. 
P. Carolineusis, known as the “red bay,” is found in 
swampy ground throughout the southern states north 
to Delaware. P. Lingue is a Chilean species, said to 
be growing in the Kew Arboretum. P. gratissima is 
the “Alligator pear.” 
Sass.afras\'& a well-known hardy native monotypic 
tree worthy more frecjuent use. 
Litsea has 125 species in eastern and tropical Asia, 
the species illustrated in North America, and the New 
Zealand tree known as Tetranthera calicaris is said 
to be a Litsea. The sub-tropical kinds are ever- 
greens. 
Umhelltdaria is the fine “California laurel.” There 
is another form found in Mexico. 
Lindera has 60 species in tropical and sub-tropical 
Asia, the Japanese islands, and North America. L. 
Benzoin is the well-known early flowering “spice 
bush” hardy to Canada ; L. glauca, L. sericea, and L. 
obtusiloba from Japan are in gardens. 
Laurus, "sweet bay,” besides the well-known ever- 
green in varieties which do well in the middle and 
lower south, has a distinct species in the Canaries, 
which is rather more tender. 
The singular parasitical “dodder laurel?” are na- 
tives of tropical xA.sia, Africa, America and Aus- 
tralia. 
The Proteae and tribes in nearest relation are most- 
ly natives of the arid zone of the southern hemisphere, 
embracing parts of South Africa, Australasia, South 
America, and a few Pacific islands. I regret that I 
can’t call any of them hardy, or say how much frost 
they endure. I have not seen them tried in other 
than orange climates, without protection. Emboth- 
rium coccineum, an Andean species, has proven as 
hardy as any in the south of England with the pro- 
tection of walls and buildings. In Mediterranean 
countries they are mostly sheltered in some way, 
for high winds often spoil their wonderfully 
diverse foliage, which is as frequently soft and 
silky, as birch-bark — brittle. One hundred years ago 
there were more of these plants in British green- 
houses than today. They have given place to florists’ 
selections which will strike like Bermuda grass and 
grow into the nimble dime. But let not our South 
California friends heed the fashion. These plants seem 
adapted to their climate, they are easily raised from 
seed, which can readily be supplied nowadays, and 
there is scarcely a group which offers greater scope to 
the planter. — Jame.s MacPhkk.son. 
