206 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September S, 1891. 
bedding Pansy of good constitution and very free blooming. Other 
kinds which do well in this town garden are Skylark, white with 
coerulean blue border ; Countess of Kintore, The Mearns, Lady Amory, 
and Mrs. Pearce, a very free blooming light coloured variety which 
stands bad weather well. These are all standard useful cheap varieties 
for growing anywhere, in town gardens especially. 
Violas and bedding Pansies can be easily propagated now by cuttings 
or taking off rooted side shoots and planting either firmly in a shady 
place. 1 say “ firmly ” because they are so likely to be thrown out or 
■drawn under by worms if not firm in the soil. Planting out can be 
done in October or November, when the plants are strong and well 
■established for standing the winter. Where autumn planting can be 
done I strongly recommend it for securing an early bloom in the spring 
and the plants going ahead. 
For bedding purposes, free-flowering kinds which are both early and 
continuous are wanted such as I have named. Still there are many 
other beautiful varieties which well deserve culture, and a collection of 
the best kinds yield as much pleasure as any other kind of plant. A 
very fine white variety which is but little known has this season come 
under my notice, Countess of Wharncliffe, sent out from Wharncliffe 
Hall Gardens some three or four years since. It is snow white, free 
from markings, of compact habit, and very floriferous. In William 
Neil we have a distinct gain in its lovely pale rose tint and excellent 
habit. Lady Amory is very beautiful, rich plum violet with light t >p 
petals and excellent form ; and Duchess of Fife, Beauty, Bridesmaid 
(Dean’s), Cottage Maid, Bessie Clark, Mr. Charles Turner, Queen of Scots, 
Dean’s Golden Gem, Mrs. Grant, and Master of Arts are all valuable 
Acquisitions.— Wm. Dean, Sparkhill, Birmingham. 
DOGWOODS AND VIBURNUMS IN THE ARNOLD 
ARBORETUM. 
Among exotic Cornels, as at present represented in the Arboretum, 
there are only two which possess ornamental qualities of a different 
Character from those found in our native species, and which will repay 
cultivation in this country. There are some East Asian species which 
■are not introduced, and a few others only imperfectly known, so that 
there is a chance that the number of good garden Cornels may still be 
-enlarged. 
The two foreign species which can well be added to our shrubberies 
are the White-fruited Dogwood, Cornus alba, and the so-called Male 
Dogwood or Cornelian Cherry, C. Mas. The fi st is a spreading shrub 
which, in good soil, grows to the height of 6 or 10 feet, and produces 
slender, recurved branches covered with bright red bark. In habit and 
in the general appearance of the foliage and flowers, and in the colour 
of the fruit, it bears a strong resemblance to our native red-stemmed 
Dogwood (C. sericea), and the only advantage it possesses over that 
species is in the brighter colour of its branches in winter. In this par¬ 
ticular it is far superior to the American plant, and should replace it 
where the attempt is made to produce a bright effect in the shrubbery 
during the winter months. There is a variety of this plant occasionally 
met with in nurseries under the name of C. sibirica, which has deeper 
and brighter branches than any other plant which is hardy ; and this, 
rather than the more common form, should be planted. Of the origin 
of this variety not very much is known ; it may have been brought from 
Siberia or it may have appeared in some European nursery. The earliest 
mention of it is to be found in the catalogue for the year 1836 of the 
Doddiges, fifty years ago famous London nurserymen who maintained a 
large and very rich arboretum in connection with their business. 
0. alba is widely distributed, and very common in Siberia and 
through Northern Asia, and is perfectly hardy. It is, like all the 
Cornels of this class, easily raised from seed or from cuttings made in 
the summer. It grows as rapidly as any of the native species, and can be 
mingled with them without danger of offending the most sensitive taste or 
shocking the susceptibilities of those critical designers of natural land¬ 
scape who sometimes find the most beautiful garden plant out of place 
in the picture of sylvan beauty and quietness they would create, unless 
from harmony of outline and of character acquired by natural selection 
and long association it happens to accord with its surroundings. 
The Cornelian Cherry is a small tree, reaching sometimes the height 
•of 20 feet, with slender, rigid branches forming a head of rather formal 
outline. It is one of the plants which cover themselves with flowers in 
■early spring, before any of its leaves appear. The flowers are small 
and bright yellow; they are arranged, however, in compact, many- 
flowered clusters, and these, being scattered along the whole length of 
the branches, give to the plant, in the early days of April, a very strik¬ 
ing and beautiful appearance. It is the first of the shrubs with showy 
flowers to blossom, the flowers appearing almost a week earlier than 
those of the native Benzoin bush, which the Cornelian Cherry resembles 
in general appearance at that period—that is, the two plants cover 
themselves with yellow flowers before any of their leaves unfold. The 
Cornel is, however, a more showy plant; it grows to a larger size and 
the flowers are of a brighter yellow. There is not much to say, however, 
of this Dogwood, once its flowers are fallen. The fruit, which is half an 
inch long, or rather more, is elliptical and bright red, and, individually, 
is as handsome as a Cherry or a small Plum. But it is not produced in 
very great abundance, and the leaves so completely hide it that, practi¬ 
cally, it makes no show at all, and there is nothing striking or remark¬ 
able about the foliage. One passes the plant without noticing it much, 
except in early spring, and it3 appearance leaves no lasting impression 
on the mind. But this, after all, is perhaps a merit, for plants without 
striking individuality are sometimes the most valuable, as they are 
available for many purposes and combinations where more distinct 
subjects might prove disturbing elements in a composition. The Cor¬ 
nelian Cherry is, therefore, a good plant to use in a garden or a shrub¬ 
bery where a bright show of flowers would be agreeable in the very 
earliest days of spring, and where, for the rest of the season a mass of 
pleasant objectionable foliage would not destroy any of those natural 
and restful conditions of scenery a good garden should be made to afford. 
C. Mas is a native of central and southern Europe, and is one of the 
hardiest and most satisfactory of the trees of that continent which 
have been introduced into America. The wood has in all ages been 
celebrated for its strength, hardness, and density, and it is from this 
peculiarity that the Cornels obtain their name of Cornus, derived from 
the Latin word meaning a horn. The origin of the English name of 
Dogwood is not so apparent. John Parkinson, who wrote voluminously 
and learnedly about plants two hundred years ago, says that the name 
came from the fact that the fruit of the English species (C. sanguinea) 
was so bad that it was not fit to give to the dogs. In his time the 
English Cornel had been called Houndsberry Tree also, and Hound’s 
Tree and Dogberry Tree, so, for some reason or other, its canine affini¬ 
ties seem to have been firmly settled in the popular mind. 
The fruit of C. Mas is at least more valuable than that of the 
other species, although it appears to have been one of the coarse 
fruits which Circe threw with acorns and Beech mast to the com¬ 
panions of Ulysses after their transformation. When it is thoroughly 
ripe the flavour is sweet and not entirely disagreeable, and in Germany 
and other European countries it is used in making preserves, robs and 
liquors. It is not probable that it will ever find much favour in this 
country, or that the Dogwood will be planted for its wood, which by the 
ancients was much esteemed for the shafts of javelins, and in later days 
for the cogs of wheels and butchers’ skewers. 
There is a variety in gardens with light-coloured fruit, and others 
with brightly variegated leaves. These last, however, are feeble and 
ugly plants of no merit whatever, except in the eyes of those persons 
who delight in vegetable monstrosities and like to see a garden filled 
with “freaks” and converted into a vegetable dime museum, useful 
enough, perhaps, to physiologists, but abhorrent to the lover of the 
beautiful. 
Among the native shrubs which are not well known to gardeners 
there is a southern species of Viburnum which deserves a place in the 
garden. This i3 Viburnum molle, a plant which is widely scattered 
through the Southern States, and which just reaches New England on 
the Massachusetts islands of Nantucket and Naushon. In habit and in 
general appearance, in the shape of the leaves, in the flowers and in the 
fruit it bears a strong likeness to the Arrow-wood (V. dentatum). It is 
not a handsomer or in any way a better plant than that familiar species, 
and its value lies in the fact that it flowers two weeks or more later 
than the other Viburnums. It serves, therefore, to prolong the flowering 
period of one of the most useful and beautiful of the groups of hardy 
shrubs, and Mr. Dawson is preparing to get together a large supply of 
young plants, with a view of introducing them on a considerable scale 
in some parts of the Arboretum. 
A word about V. dilatatum will not, perhaps, be out of order here. 
The plants have passed safely another winter, and have flowered more 
profusely than ever before. There can be little doubt that this is a 
perfectly hardy plant, and that it has the capacity of adapting itself to 
new surroundings. It will only be planted by people who desire to make 
their gardens beautiful in the late autumn and early winter ; in habit 
and in foliage it is not better, and indeed not so good as V. dentatum or 
the species which has just been mentioned. The flowers, although 
abundant enough, are much smaller, and they fall almost as soon as they 
open ; and this Japanese species has really little to recommend it as a 
flowering plant. But the fruit is splendid, brilliant, abundant, and 
long-hanging. There is no shrub of recent introduction that equals it 
in the beauty of its fruit, and there is hardly one among the innumerable 
varieties found in this collection which surpasses it. This certainly is 
one of the plants which need to be known only to become one of the 
most popular .—(American Garden and Forest.') 
THE NEWCASTLE HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 
A Calamity. 
Instead of publishing in our present issue a report of what we 
hoped would be a successful show at Newcastle-on-Tyne, we have with 
much regret to record a calamity. 0 f this we had telegraphic informa¬ 
tion just in time for insertion in our last issue. As there stated, the 
Show was to have been held on August 26th, 27th, and 28th, when 
a display of unusual magnitude and excellence was anticipated, but 
a raging storm swept away the tents. The only consolatory 
thought that arises in connection with the great misfortune is that 
the storm did not come on Thursday instead of early on Wednesday 
morning, as if it had the results, serious as they were, would have 
been stiil more lamentable. 
Not only our northern but our southern readers—indeed, horti¬ 
culturists everywhere—will join us in a strong expression of 
sympathy with the Newcastle Committee in their trying ordeal, 
also in the expression of a hope that the old Society, which has 
