June 9, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
645 
NOTES FROM AMERICA. 
( Continued from p. 629 ). 
North Easton is situated about thirty miles from 
Boston, and is easily reached by train on the old 
Colony line. About an hour’s ride brings one to the 
station, close to which is the residence of the Hon. 
F. L. Ames. A short walk through the grounds— 
passing a beautiful lake on the right, and crossing over 
a substantial bridge—soon brings us to the mansion, 
which is an imposing structure, used only by its owner 
and family as a summer residence. The grounds 
around the mansion are planted with a choice collec¬ 
tion of hardy trees and shrubs, fine Hollies, &c., all of 
which have to be lifted before winter arrives and 
placed in large cellars built for the purpose, which, 
while it entails a wonderful amount of labour, is the 
only way to protect them, and those who adopt the 
plan are amply repaid by the grand display they make 
through the summer months. A short distance from 
the mansion are the houses, containing a grand collec¬ 
tion of plants, which is undoubtedly one of the finest 
in the United States. Considerable alterations and 
additions to this department have been made since 
last year. 
A handsome reception house, or what should be more 
properly styled a temple of splendid design, has been 
erected in the centre of the block of houses, with which 
it is connected, so that all can be seen without going 
out of doors. Everything used in the construction of 
the temple is in keeping with the character of the 
design. The floors are magnificently paved, and the 
sides are laid diagonally with Spanish tiles half-way up. 
The carving in stone over the mantelpiece represents 
heat and water, and the columns on either side are 
beautifully carved, one side with Dendrobiums and the 
other Cypripediums. Under this place are the power¬ 
ful boilers which heat the whole of the houses by steam, 
and they do their work well. There are also Mushroom 
houses, &c., the whole having been arranged by Mr. 
Robinson, Mr. Ames’ enthusiastic and able gardener in 
charge. 
The new Cattleya house, 100 ft. long, and 20 ft. wide, 
is a grand house containing a superb lot of specimens, 
many of which were in bloom. On the north side of 
this structure, descending some steps, is the Odonto- 
glossum house, 9 ft. wide, with a front stage 5 ft. wide, 
and with recesses every 8 ft. to allow anyone to pass. 
The back wall is planted with Ferns and Lycopods. 
On the stage are many hundreds of fine healthy 
Odontoglossums and Masdevallias. It was said when 
I first paid a visit to the United States twelve years ago, 
that no one could or would grow Odontoglossums, but 
those who said so must have a sufficient reason now to 
alter their opinions, for they are not only grown in 
large quantities, but grown well too. Another of the 
houses surrounding the temple is a magnificent fernery, 
the rock-work in which has a most natural appearance. 
Here are planted out gigantic Tree Ferns and Palms, 
which give a noble effect. The next house is devoted 
to East India Orchids, and includes fine examples of 
the usual species grown in this section. Another 
division contains Cattleyas and Ccelogynes, many fine 
plants 3 ft. over. Coelogyne flaccida, a nice pair of 
plants with their graceful spikes, convinces one it is 
well worth growing. 
From the south side of the fernery we enter a large 
house, the centre of which is filled with specimen 
Palms and Cycads, and the front stages are gay with 
Cinerarias, Primulas, Spiraeas, Himantophyllum, Pelar¬ 
goniums, Cyclamen, Begonias, and Primula obconica. 
The latter is found to be a most useful plant here for 
decorating purposes, lasting a long time and flowering 
most profusely. The stove comes next, a fine house 65 
ft. long, 30 ft. wide, containing a superb collection of 
foliage and flowering plants ; and facing the door is a 
specimen of Anthurium Veitchianum with 60 fine leaves 
6 ft. long without spot or blemish ; and on one side of 
the house the Phalcenopsids are grown suspended from 
the roof, the whole length in three rows. Over 100 
spikes hung gracefully from the plants, forming a 
picture 1 shall not soon forget. Suspended from the 
roof of the same house is also a fine collection of 
Nepenthes, including all the rare, beautiful and distinct 
forms, splendidly pitchered. Another range of glass 
in two divisions contains the Dendrobiums, mostly 
suspended in baskets, with stove foliage plants upon 
the stages below. There are numerous other houses 
of great interest which I am unable to mention now, 
and it must suffice to say that they are all full of the 
best of everything. The place is most admirably kept, 
and the cultivation all round is of a high order, reflecting 
the highest credit upon Mr. Robinson, an English 
gardener, who has had the charge of the collection for 
some years.— A. Outram. 
-- >X -<—- 
SINGULAR FREAK OF AN 
ORCHID. 
It would be an exceedingly difficult task to account 
for the erratic behaviour of members of the Orchid 
family that come into our hands, or which we see from 
time to time. Our illustration exhibits a freak of 
Lffilia purpurata, which has occurred in the collection 
of De B. Crawshay, Esq., Rosefield, Sevenoaks, to 
whom we are indebted for the specimen in question. 
Two other spathes, including the flower-stalks, were 
sent us ; and in one case the spathe was nearly 11 ins. 
in length, and close upon 1^ ins. broad. Notwith¬ 
standing the vigour of the plants as evidenced by these 
spathes, two of the peduncles bore only small bracts 
and pedicels tipped by minute bract-like processes, 
representing the aborted flowers. In the specimen 
figured, the sepals on the only flower produced are 
nearly 1 in. in length, greenish yellow, while the 
petals and lip are shorter, and nearly white. The 
latter organ (not shown in our illustration) exhibited 
only a slight trace of purple, was slightly infolded at 
the edges, and occupied the upper or dorsal part of the 
flower, the ovary not having yet become twisted into 
its usual position. The plant was bought in 1884, 
produced a perfect flower in 1886, and two aborted 
spikes last year. At present it consists of twenty-three 
pseudo-bulbs, with four leads and eighteen leaves. 
"Why it should behave in this extraordinary manner is 
not evident. 
--—- 
THE COLUMBINES. 
Grigor’s fine form of Aquilegia glandulosa has, I 
learn, the reputation in the south of being shy of 
bloom after the second or third year. I should like to 
ascertain how far that may be true, and still farther 
how much it may differ from or be finer than is the 
ordinary form of A. glandulosa, which does so well here. 
I have now a number of plants blooming the third 
time, and generally have very fine flowers, the segments 
of which are deep blue and the corolla pure white, 
being about 6 ins. in height, while some of the plants 
have as many as twenty blooms. It is a lovely kind— 
one which people have but to see to be enchanted ; 
indeed, I regard this form as being without exception 
one of the most elegant and beautiful amongst hardy 
flowers. Just a few plants present a very pretty break, 
the segments being of a pale flesh colour. This gives 
a very pleasing and a delicate-hued form. It also leads 
to the hope that a pure white form of A. glandulosa 
may yet be obtained. 
Very interesting just now is a long row of plants in 
bloom of a hybrid between A. glandulosa and A. chry- 
santha. It is odd that so dwarf a kind as the former 
should have helped to throw so robust a form, but the 
plants throughout the row are much stronger and 
considerably more stalked than are those of A. chry- 
santha close by, also having more foliage. However, 
the customary product of all Aquilegia crosses seems 
to be extra strength and floriferousness. In this case 
the flowers all have good size, some resembling those 
of A. glandulosa, while others are of a pale rosy hue, 
the whole of them being very beautiful. The fairly 
robust A. chrysantha seems to be a capital parent 
form, but for real beauty I prefer A. glandulosa. It is 
now a capital time to sow seed of these forms, and the 
sooner the better. All good gardens should have the 
aid of a few scores of seedling Aquilegias put out every 
year.— A. D. 
-->£<-- 
ANTIQUITY OF VEGETATION— II. 
The Permo-Carboniferous Flora. 
What has been termed the “Age of Plants,” from the 
immense accumulation of vegetation, occurs in this 
system. The Coal Measures of South Wales are 
reckoned to have a thickness of from 7,000 to 8,000 ft., 
and to have occupied about 640,000 years in their 
accumulation. Organic remains prove that the coal 
measures were deposited in an inland sea of fresh water 
of no great depth, bordered by swamps, and fed by 
rivers, which carried down vegetation, sand, and mud, 
depositing them in the old sea bottom, there to become 
solidified into anthracite coal. Some of the beds, 
however, indicate open sea conditions, while the coal 
beds themselves, which rest on beds of clay, were 
formed by a luxuriant vegetation that occupied the 
same area when the sea bottom became elevated, 
forming land or an extensive swampy plain. 
Owing to a subsidence of the land during the earlier 
Carboniferous era, the old Devonian flora, with which 
we were familiar, became extinct and buried, and when 
the land again emerged from the sea, so as to be 
occupied with vegetation, a new flora appears without 
showing any material advance. Ferns, Horsetails 
(Calamites), and Club Mosses (Lepidodendrons), rivalling 
in size the Conifers of the present day, culminate in 
this era, but all are represented by new and different 
species. A most remarkable Conifer (Nceggerathia) 
appears in the coal measures, represented at the 
present day by a closely allied form, the Maiden-hair 
Tree (Ginkgo biloba) in China, where it exists as a 
cultivated tree, planted and tended by man. It 
appears again in the Tertiary period in a much better 
state of preservation at Ardtum, in the Island of Mull, 
Scotland, where it occurs massed in great profusion 
in a bed of white clay. Part of the trunk of a fossil 
tree (Araucarioxylon) allied to the Araucarias, 
measuring 36 ft. in length, and averaging 12 ft. in 
girth, rescued from the sandstone at Craigleith, 
near Edinburgh, may now be seen in the grounds of 
the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. It 
belongs to this epoch. 
The carboniferous system of North America is much 
more extensive, and the lower strata were deposited in 
a wide inland sea, while the coal measures proper were 
formed when the sea bottom became elevated, giving 
place to immense swamps clothed with luxurious forests, 
from which the beds of anthracite and bituminous 
coal were formed. A similar but more varied vegeta¬ 
tion grew there than in the British coal measures, 
swarming with insects, millepedes, scorpions, and 
reptiles of all sizes. The trees were giants several feet 
in thickness, particularly those known as Sigillarias, of 
which eighty species have been described as inter¬ 
mediate in character between Club Mosses, Cycads, and 
Yew-like trees, with long cable-like roots, well suited 
to fix a large tree in soft, muddy, or boggy soil. Yew¬ 
like trees (Cordaites) are also predominant. On the 
whole, the vegetation was of a monotonous kind, and 
appeared to cover the whole earth as it then was, from 
the north to the south pole. 
The luxuriance of the coal-bed forests indicates warm 
climatic conditions and a moist atmosphere. Coal has 
mostly lost its vegetable structure from pressure and 
chemical decomposition ; but tree-stumps and roots 
frequently retain their external form, indicating the 
original site of the forests. A remarkable seam of 
coal, known as the Better-bed coal, occurs at Bradford, 
in Yorkshire, and which is made up of the spores and 
spore-cases of trees allied to the Club Mosses (Lepido- 
dendron), their abundance and preservation being due 
to their greater resistance to decomposition. A great 
number of plants characteristic of the coal measures 
disappeared when the latter were finally submerged and 
buried by the Lower Red Sandstone and Magnesian 
Limestone of the Permian system.—/. F. 
