66 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[July 20, 1893. 
wonderful power of resisting frost: indeed, we may sometimes see in our 
own flower beds Trillium?, Tiarellas, Uvularias holding up their heads with¬ 
out flinching on the coldest day that the end of a British April can bring, 
when every Daffodil is doing obeisance with its face on the ground. So the 
gay burst of spring, which is too often a mere poetical fiction with u«, is a 
reality in North America, though it may come late. The hot summer which 
soon follows brings many things which remind us of descriptions of tropical 
countries. Humming birds hover about the flowers in the sun, the Honey¬ 
suckles at dusk are crowded with the great Sphinx Carolina, and fire flies 
blaze all night. The great heat favours the maturation of some plants, 
which rarely complete their cycle of growth out of doors in our short and 
doubtlul summer, though from the same cause drought is more destructive 
there to the beauty of the garden. The Alpine plants, natives of high 
elevations in mountains of Europe and Asia, though the long and regular 
winter would favour their cultivation in the lowlands near Rochester, seem 
for the most part incapable of enduring that dry heat. 
The colloquial names of flowe s, many of them perhaps new to the 
reader, with which the story abounds, need not be explained here, because 
they are accompanied at least once in the book by the botanical Latin name, 
and a very complete Index enables us to refer with ease to the page where 
the name occurs. Hence such names as Partridge Vine—it may be noticed 
by the way that nearly all trailing plants are called Vines in America— 
Spring Beauty, Butterfly Weed, call for no comment. But the popular 
names of birds introduced without the addition of their scientific synonyms 
may puzzle those who know nothing of American ornithology, and who 
may like to learn what are the familiar feathered friends or enemies of the 
gardener on the shores of Lake Ontario. One bird seems to be the same 
everyw’here in its wicked propensities, the cosmopolitan “English” sparrow 
(why “English,” more than Russian, or French, or Turk, or Prussian?); 
but our friends insisted on having it sent over to them in spite of our warn¬ 
ing, and though they repent of their bad bargain, and call the bird a little 
wretch— 
“ 0 factum male ! 0 miselle passer !” 
they must keep it now, and we heartily wish they would take the rest too. 
Many other birds are introduced, such as wrens, nuthatches, swallows, and 
martins, crows, orioles, and plovers, which though distinct in detail from 
their Old World representatives, are sufficiently near to make the allusions 
to them consistent with our experience ; but in one or two cases it is not so ; 
for instance, the first English settlers gave the name of Robin to a migra¬ 
tory kind of thrush (Turdus migratorius) with a red breast, a songster, but 
not a winter resident near Rochester, and therefore hardly suggestive, except 
in name, of the half domesticated little frequenter of our sheds and window 
ledges which sings to us all winter, and seems rarely to venture beyond the 
limits of its native shrubbery. Another ambiguous name is Blackbird, given 
in the North-Eastern States to the red-winged starling (Agelteus phoenicens), 
a gregarious and migratory bird, very destructive to grain crops, and breed¬ 
ing amongst the reed of marshes, having but little in common with our 
“ ouzel cock,” BO black of hue, which warbles, eats, and dwells in our ever¬ 
greens and orchards. 
About other birds introduced, it may be acceptable information to some 
who do not know it already, that the chickadee is a titmouse, the bobolink or 
rice bird a migratory large bunting with a plumage of black, white, and 
yellow. The hair-bird is the hairy woodpecker, which, like our native green 
woodpecker or “ rain-bird,” is noisy before rain. The pee-wees (or peewits) 
are flycatchers, and the cat-bird—so called from the likeness of its note to 
the mewing of a kitten—is a dark-colouied thrush. The grackle or crow- 
blackbird is an omnivorous and gregarious noisy depredator, something 
between a jackdaw and a starling. Such names as blue-bird—a bird about 
the size of our robin—and yellow-bird, a kind of goldfinch, while suggestive 
of tropical feathering, sufficiently explain themselves. To compare the 
garden birds of two countries, one ought to have refided in both ; but, after 
consulting those who know, I conclude that in the matter of song the 
balance is in favour of the old country, while the Northern States of the 
New World have more gay plumage to admire in spring and summer. 
The main portion of the book consists of fifteen chapters, each bearing 
a poetical or seasonable title, and couched in the form of a running 
monologue or soliloquy upon the panorama of natural incidents unfolded 
during one year. Early spring is dealt with under the title of “ The 
Garden in Anticipation.” We are introduced to later spring in the 
chapter entitled “ When Daffodils Begin to Peer,” while such headings 
as “Warm-Weather Wisdom,” “Midsummer Flowers and Midsummer 
Voices,” “Flowers and Fruits of Autumn,” and “ The Last Monk’s- 
hood Spire,” suggest the inevitable progression of the seasons. It is 
from every point of view a most refined and desirable publication—a 
worthy successor to the works of White and Jeffries—and eminently 
suitable as a gift-book between naturalists and lovers of horticulture. 
British Fungus Flora. By Geoege Masses. London : George Bell 
and Sons. 
We have to acknowledge the receipt of the above text book. The 
work is in two volumes, and is a model of excellence in respect of the 
clearness of its type and solidity of its binding. In a short preface 
Mr. Massee indicates to us the vast strides which have been made in the 
diagnosis and differentiation of fungus species during the last twenty 
years, these having almost doubled so as now to number nearly 5000. 
In the present work, however, Mr. Massee confines himself chiefly to the 
description of the Basidiomycetes and the Ascomycetes, leaving the 
Moulds and Mildews for those who choose to make a closer examination 
of the subject in his other work entitled “ The Evolution of Plant Life : 
Lower Forms,” The meaning of this is that the fungi dealt with and 
depicted in the pages of the book which we are noticing are those having 
a visible stem, or at least a visible pilous, such as we are accustomed to 
see in the common Mushroom, and many of which strike the eye of even 
ordinary observers as they adhere to the branches, trunk, collar, or the 
roots of trees, or to posts or fences, or as they appear upon dunghills, 
rubbish heaps, and about swamps and plantations. 
To the universalist, the revelation of the enormous vista to be opened 
up by mycological investigation is somewhat staggering, and must excite 
something like a feeling of despair at the brevity of life. If art was 
long and life was short in the days of Horace, what will be the relative 
importance of a life even like that of the late M. Chevreuil, in the face 
of the ultimate revelations of telescopy and microscopy ? Perfect 
happiness will then only be enjoyed by tbe absorbed specialist, and men 
of science will spend a lifetime in the contemplation of a spot in the 
heavens invisible to the naked eye, or of the mould which gathers upon 
a particular kind of strawberry jam. One thing is certain, however,, 
that the pleasure of a subject increases proportionately to the mental 
concentration with which it is pursued, and the consideration of fungi 
during a perusal of Mr. Massee’s book is pleasant even to a mind hitherto 
occupied with the more visible and striking beauties of phanerogamous 
plants. One fact impresses the reader, and that is the interdependence 
of organic life and the further revelations foreshadowed by science 
of the sequences which prevail upon our planet. It is in the highest 
degree interesting to read of the affinity certain parasitic fungi show for 
particular trees and particular situations, and induces the mind to expect 
and hope for an ultimate solution of the puzzle of creation. Whether 
this ever arrives or not, such investigation is at least a more profitable 
mental manifestation than the old-fashioned way of regarding each dis¬ 
jointed fact as an accident or a miracle. It is permissible even to look 
forward to a time when the unravelling of scientific problems may 
become of as absorbing interest to young persons of the future as 
charades and guessing contests are to those of the present day. “The 
British Fungus Flora ” is the result of an exhaustive comparison of the 
best known authorities upon the subject, and it may be confidently 
recommended as a work of study and reference to those interested in 
mycology. 
A NEW LILIUM. 
At the Exhibition held in the Gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society at Chiswick on July 11th, considerable attention was centred 
on a new Lilium exhibited by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Royal Exotic 
Nursery, Chelsea, and Messrs. Wallace & Co., Colchester. The first 
mentioned firm exhibited it under the name of L. Ukeyuri, and the 
latter showed it provisionally as L. Alexandras. A first-class certificate 
was awarded in each case; but in the latter instance subject to the 
Lilium being correctly named by Mr. Baker of Kew, who, so far as we 
can at present ascertain, considers it, on a cursory examination, to be 
a garden hybrid. Messrs. Veitch, on the other hand, as already hinted, 
exhibited it as a species from Japan, and according to the rules of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, which give precedence to those who enter 
an analogous exhibit first, we illustrate it (fig. 10) as L. Ukeyuri. 
From a decorative point of view it is a grand Lilium, and one that 
will doubtless become as popular as L. auratum. It is a dwarf grower, 
being less than 18 inches in height, and some of the plants exhibited 
bore three flowers. The blooms, as will be seen by referring to the 
illustration, are very large, pure white, and of great substance. It is 
unquestionably one of the finest and most beautiful Liliums yet 
introduced. 
GRIMSTON PARK, TADCASTER. 
In many respects Grimston Park may claim a high place amongst 
the stateliest of the “ homes of England.” A noble mansion is asso¬ 
ciated with splendid grounds and a magnificently timbered park. The 
flower garden merges almost imperceptibly into the woodland, sharing 
in some measure its cool, reposeful aspect. If the Italian style, so con¬ 
spicuous in the house and its immediate surroundings, should fail to 
prove satisfying—and consider it artificial, there is ample compensation 
in the bright pictures, painted by Nature’s own prodigal hand, which 
abound in the immediate vicinity. The mansion was not built for 
Mr. John Fielden, who died recently, but for Lord Howden, and the 
architect was Decimus Burton, while the garden and grounds were laid 
out by Nesfield. How the work of the twin artists compares it would 
require the architectural knowledge, the deep artistic sympathy, and 
the literary skill of a Hardy to explain. But if the higher plane to 
which the accomplished author of “ A Laodicean ” would raise such a 
description is denied to a gardening writer he can at least make some 
acknowledgment of the many good features of Nesfield’s work. The 
formalities peculiar to the Italian style of the flower garden melt away 
along the winding walks which lead to the wilder portions of the grounds, 
and in the broad belts of Conifers and forest trees, the shrub-covered 
banks, the cool recesses, the Fern-clothed undergrowth, and the pro¬ 
fusion of wild and naturalised flowers, there is a store of interest 
and pleasure which grows the more closely it is examined. 
In the garden proper statuary and flowers dispute attention. The 
beds are numerous and attractively filled, and at the right of the house 
is a beautifully furnished Rose garden. The latter is backed by a belt 
of Oaks, Sycamores, Copper Beeches, and other trees. The last-named 
are magnificent specimens, and in the evening glow their leaves are 
tinged with Coleus-like hues unique and pleasing to the eye. Valuable 
