88 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 8,1887. 
flowers, produced in great profusion in trusses termin¬ 
ating the stems and lateral branches. 
The cuttings, after having been struck, were pinched 
only once, and some of them did not even receive that 
treatment. After having made some growth with a few 
shoots they were potted off into 48-sized pots, and the 
leading shoots closely pegged down on the surface of 
the pots. They were ultimately put into 6-in. pots, 
and the primary shoots that were pegged down now 
constitute the furnishing of the lower part of the plants. 
They are comparatively weak and short, with fair 
average-sized trusses of bloom ; but the mere act of 
pegging these down in the early stages of the plant 
has caused a number of strong rampant shoots to be 
developed from the centre of the plant, and these now 
measure from 2 ft. to 4 ft. in length and are flowering 
freely from the top downwards. As soon as the 
terminal trusses are properly developed, they are cut as 
required, when buds, which are at first dormant in the 
axils of the leaves lower down, develop lateral branches, 
producing a constant succession of bloom from Septem¬ 
ber till well into spring. 
The plants are those grown in pots from first to last. 
Young plants are considered the most profitable ; while 
the planting-out system in summer is not popular here. 
"When planted out in frames or elsewhere and lifted in 
autumn, old plants are found to flag considerably for 
some time, and require careful attention in the matter 
of shading and ventilation before they again grow away 
freely, so that some time is lost in getting the desired 
supply of flowers for cutting purposes in autumn ; 
whereas those grown on from cuttings in pots never 
suffer any check, but flower away continuously from 
early autumn. _ 
THE TREE OF HEAVEN. 
The exceptionally dry season which we have ex¬ 
perienced this year, seems to have been particularly 
favourable to the well-being of Ailanthus glandulosa, 
judging from the abundance of its singular fruits with 
which the tree is loaded in various of the southern 
counties of England. Loudon speaks of the tree as if 
it fruited but rarely in this country, giving only a 
single instance of its occurrence, namely, at "White 
Knights. As far as the flowers are concerned, there 
are three forms of the tree, namely, male, female, and 
hermaphrodite. Owing to its highly ornamental 
character, there are numerous specimens of the tree 
planted all over the country, but particularly in the 
south, and in the neighbourhood of London ; but out 
of all these, supposing the three forms to be equally 
distributed, there would generally be but one chance 
out of the three of the trees to bear fruit, namely, that 
one with hermaphrodite flowers. If male and female 
trees happened to be planted in close proximity, there 
would be two chances out of three ; but as it most 
frequently happens that the trees are planted singly or 
far apart, there is little chance of the pistillate flowers 
being fertilised, either by the wind or by insects. 
From the structure of the flowers, their inconspicuous¬ 
ness and the plumose or feathery style, wind fertilisation 
would seem to be the intended plan in the native home 
of the tree. 
Other accounts state that as male flowers are seldom 
produced, no ripe seeds would be borne by the tree. 
Fruits we have examined from different sources, and 
from widely separated trees, do certainly bear seeds 
with a perfect and already highly developed embryo, 
and should the autumn remain mild and open for a few 
weeks longer, there can he no doubt that the seeds will 
ripen, and be capable of germination. In evidence of 
this, every seed examined had an embryo, the cotyledons 
of which, to all appearance, were full-sized and quite 
firm. 
There is a fine tree about 35 ft. to 40 ft. in height, 
with a broad spreading head, in Mr. Larcombe, the 
station-master’s garden, at Turnham Green Railway 
Station, and from which, by his kindness, we obtained 
specimens for examination. The tree, as seen from 
the train or platform, must be the envy of all who 
know and appreciate ornamental trees ; for, from that 
side—the southern aspect—it is a handsome object, 
being heavily loaded with fruit, resembling the keys of 
the Ash, peering from amongst the leaves in all direc¬ 
tions. Where shaded, the samaroid seed-vessels are 
pale yellow tinted with green ; but on the sunny side 
they are of a lively red. 
Each flower bears from three to five of these vessels, 
developing into as many samara if all have been fer¬ 
tilised ; but the specimens examined bore from one to 
three only, the smallest number being by far the most 
common. In the young state, the styles are united in 
one or inseparate ; and a little notch on one edge above 
the middle of the thin much-flattened fruits still in¬ 
dicates the position of the style, and these notches are 
all on the contiguous sides of the fruits produced by 
each individual flower. Another peculiarity of the 
fruits is a twist at the apex like the screw of a steam¬ 
ship, and the twists of the seed vessels of each separate 
flower all fit into one another. 
In describing the tree, Loudon states that the 
“ naked young wood is rusty brown without buds,” a 
statement that is not strictly correct. The buds are 
completely aborted at the base of the shoots of each 
year ; but the upper part certainly bears prominent, 
rounded, brown buds in the axils of the leaves. An 
ordinary observer could readily distinguish this tree 
from Rhus typhina, to which it bears considerable 
superficial resemblance by the leaves having from one 
to three coarse teeth at the base ; whereas those of 
Rhus typhina are finely and deeply serrated throughout. 
The teeth of the Ailanthus bear each a curious nipple¬ 
like gland on the under-side, the economy of which is 
not very evident. To the naked eye the under-surface 
of the foliage is glaucous, and with the aid of a weak 
lens this appearance is produced by a dense arrangement 
of whitish hieroglyphical markings, amongst which the 
Roman S is frequent, and also various Arabic numerals. 
EARLY-FLOWERING CHRYSAN¬ 
THEMUMS. 
Varieties of this section are yearly improving in 
quality, so that many kinds now are really well worth 
the trouble required to have them in good condition at 
a time when outside flowers are on the wane. An 
advantage which these varieties possess is that they 
commence to flower early, and are over before the 
November-flowering kinds come in, and thus take up 
really little of the room required for what I may call the 
legitimate sorts. Messrs. Davis & Jones, Lilford Road 
Nurseries, Camberwell, having sent me a batch of 
flowers representing the cream of their early-flowering 
collection, I am able to select what I consider the 
best kind, for the information of those persons who 
intend to grow this class, and who have not the 
opportunity of seeing and selecting for themselves. 
To make the selection clear, I have classed them in 
two sections, viz., large-flowered, and Pompons and 
hybrids. The latter are considered too large to be 
classed with the regular Pompons, but not yet distinct 
enough to be made into a separate class. The height 
of growth of each kind I have also added with a view 
to give all the information possible for the selection of 
suitable varieties for all classes of growers. 
Large-flowered Varieties. 
Madame C. Desgranges is well known to he the best 
white-flowered kind in existence for flowering during 
the latter part of August and throughout September; 
when the plants are grown strong and the buds 
thinned, large, full, solid blooms, pure white, are 
produced. I saw some flowers grown by Mr. "Wills, 
Bassett, at a show near Southampton the last week in 
August, which were quite 7 ins. in diameter and 3 ft. 
high. 
George Wermig is a sport from the above-named 
kind, and is a capital companion to it in all ways. It 
is a primrose-yellow. 
Mons. E. Pyncert-Fan Geert. —Deep orange-yellow, 
striped and mottled with crimson. A Japanese variety, 
which has long thread-like petals, forming a full large 
flower ; quite first class ; 4 ft. 
Bouquet Estival. —This is a very free-flowering rosy 
purple Japanese variety, also having long drooping 
florets, and growing only 2 ft. 
Filiciti. —A full-flowered reflexed variety, the lower 
half a bronzy orange, each petal tipped with yellow, 
and the centre of the flower a pale golden yellow ; 4 ft. 
Mrs. J. R. Pitcher. —Semi-incurved, silvery blush, 
and very free flowering ; 5 ft. 
E. G. Henderson et Son. —A Japanese, and very 
distinct in colour, which is yellow, shaded crimson ; 
5 ft. 
Isidore Feral. —Rosy lilac, free flowering, and good ; 
3 ft. 
Pompons and Hybrids. 
Lyon. —Rosy purple, full flower ; 3 ft. 
Alice Butcher .—A sport from the above, of orange- 
red colour ; 3 ft. 
Mrs. Cullingford. — Pure white, of capital form ; 
a grand variety for cutting from, and one of the 
best; 3 ft. 
Blushing Bride. —Rosy blush, very fine ; 3 ft. 
Early Blush. —A blush-pink, of fine habit, flowering 
freely, and growing only 18 ins. high. 
Flora .— Golden yellow, very free ; 2 ft. 
Anastasio. —Light purple ; 1$ ft. 
Frederick Pele. —Crimson, tipped with gold ; 2 ft. 
La Petite Marie. —A free-flowering, fine, white kind ; 
4 ft. 
Mdlle. Jolioart. —Blush white ; 1J ft. 
Madame Piccol. —Rosy purple ; 2 ft. 
Nanum. —Creamy white ; 1J ft. 
Golden Fleece. —Yellow ; 2 ft. 
L'Ami Conderchet .— Pale primrose ; 1| ft. 
La Vierge .— Pure white colour, very fine ; 2 ft. — 
E. Molyneux, Swanmore Park. 
- -—- 
PYRAMIDAL ASTER, 
HARLEQUIN. 
Of the many kinds of the China Aster grown at the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, Chiswick, the 
above-named sort proved of superior merit and a real 
gem in its way. It belongs to the pyramidal dwarf 
section of the many garden forms of Calistephus 
chinensis, and is in reality not an Aster at all in the 
true sense of the term. The stems grow to the height 
of 12 ins. to 18 ins., and branching freely in the form 
of a pyramid, become covered all over with a mass of 
bloom. The strain was a mixed one, showing a ground 
colour ranging through various tints of blue, purple 
and rose. Harlequin, as our illustration shows, has 
some of the florets marked or splashed with white, 
which gives the flower-heads a lively appearance. The 
engraving represents the flower-heads of the natural 
size, showing them to belong to the Pompon race. 
The plants are of compact habit, and their free-flower¬ 
ing nature renders them very pretty and attractive to 
lovers of this class of garden plants. 
-—>X<—- 
CLIFF CASTLE, KEIGHLEY. 
The residence of J. H. Butterfield, Esq., is situated 
very close to the town of Keighley, and on the main 
road to Skipton, and stands on an eminence only a 
little way back from the road. It is a newly erected 
mansion with castellated turrets and walls, a fine and 
conspicuous ornament to the surrounding neighbour¬ 
hood. The whole of the place may be described as 
new, for everything has been completely remodelled 
from what the old hall and grounds were a dozen years 
ago. From the terrace walk in front of the house you 
get a view of the whole country round, which is not of 
the most picturesque kind on the right hand side from 
where you stand—for this part embraces a whole host of 
workshops, chimneys, &c., which are utilised in the 
manufacture of the staple industry of the town—but to 
the left, and in the long distance, a fine wooded expanse 
of country stretches out before the eye. But returning 
to the grounds : we were standing on the terrace walk 
in front of the mansion, and here, directly in front of 
us, were a pair of perfect pyramid Sweet Bay trees 
10 ft. to 12 ft. high, and perfectly symmetrical in form. 
Grown in boxes, they stand like sentries guarding the 
entrance to a tall and massive conservatory or winter 
garden. By their side were a pair of Araucaria excelsa 
dropped into vases, and very fine vase plants they 
make with their waving branches hanging over the 
vases. Although these were good plants, yet they 
looked like pigmies beside their compeers—the Sweet 
Bays. 
Passing between these plants we entered the conserva¬ 
tory, and at once were in the midst of a fine collection 
of sub-tropical and other vegetation, all of which is 
growing in the most rampant style. The first and 
most noticeable plants are large Dicksonias, that have 
made such rampant growth since I first saw the plants 
nine years ago, that I scarcely recognised the plants 
again. Araucaria excelsa (the Norfolk Island Pine), 
towering up to great heights ; magnificent specimens of 
Camellias, with foliage the picture of health—being 
hard in substance and bright dark green in colour, 
some pyramid fashion, others bush style. C. alba plena 
and C. Mathotiana alba were the leading whites, with 
other varieties in shade mixed with them. Palms and 
Yuccas in various sizes filled up the spaces between 
these Tree Ferns and Camellias (which were planted 
out), with a general collection of moveable plants in 
pots, to give different effects at different seasons. 
Statues adorn the building in different forms ; and at 
the opening to one recess stand a magnificent pair of 
Araucaria excelsa, in pots, perfectly clothed to the 
bottom with foliage ; the plants being about 10 ft. 
high, and the exact counterpart of each other. Guard¬ 
ing another recess or portico are a splendid pair of 
Dicksonia antarctica, the frame-work of the portico 
