November 12, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
165 
where larger growing and more straggling subjects 
would be out of place. It withstands soot and smoke 
well, and is therefore much valued for suburban 
planting. The long spikes of pinky-red flowers are 
usually produced in great abundance, and as they 
stand well above the dark green foliage, and are of 
firm, lasting substance, they have a most pleasing and 
attractive appearance. That there are numerous 
forms of the red Horse-Chestnut, differing much in 
the depth of flower-colouring, it may be well to warn 
planters, for some of these have but a faint tinge of 
pink over a dirty yellowish-green groundwork, while 
the finest and most desirable tree has the flowers of 
a decided pinky-red. There is a double-flowered 
variety of the red Horse-Chestnut, a distinct and 
pretty low-growing tree when seen in good form, 
which is, however, rarely the case.— A.D. W. 
-- 
THE LONDON PARKS, 
AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 
The Parks and Open Spaces Committee of the 
London Connty Council, having failed in its two 
attempts to find the right man for the proposed new 
office of Superintendent of the Parks, etc., the 
Council on Tuesday decided not to proceed further 
with the resolution to appoint a Superintendent at 
£7°° per annum, but to rearrange the duties of cer¬ 
tain of the present principal officials with a view to 
securing a uniform system of administration. Under 
the new arrangement Mr. J. J. Sexby, of the Archi¬ 
tect’s Department, who has practically had official 
charge of the parks since they were taken over by 
the defunct Metropolitan Board of Works, becomes 
Chief Officer, at a salary of /500 a year, and respon¬ 
sible to the Parks Committee for the execution of its 
orders and the management of the whole staff of the 
Parks Sub-department. Mr. Nairn, who has been 
clerk to the Committee under the Secretary to the 
Council, and has hitherto had control of the con¬ 
stables on open spaces and the organization of 
games, etc., becomes Chief Clerk of the department 
under Mr. Sexby, at a salary of £400 per annum. 
It was also resolved to appoint a new officer, having 
a special knowledge of horticulture, at £300 a year, 
to assist Mr. Sexby, and to be called assistant 
superintendent of works in the parks department. 
His duties will be to assist in the inspection of the 
parks, in the laying out of new grounds, and to 
relieve the forester by superintending the general 
labour on the open spaces. For this office the 
committee may find the right man among the present 
park superintendents. 
The new Chief Officer is an architect by profession, 
and though we regret that we cannot say he is a 
gardener, he has a good deal of sympathy in common 
with gardeners and gardening, and has for several 
years been a member of the Committee of the 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution. Mr. 
Sexby enjoys the respect and esteem of every horti¬ 
culturist who has had business relations with him, 
as well as of the council’s employees in the various 
parks, etc., from the superintendents downwards, 
and commences the arduous and onerous duties of 
his new office with the hearty good wishes of all who 
know him. 
-«*■- 
GUELDER ROSES. 
The largest of the Viburnums, which grow in New 
England, and one of the handsomest of the whole 
genus, is Viburnum Lentago. This sometimes 
attains the size of a small tree, but it is more often 
only a shrub. If it is planted by itself in good soil 
as a specimen on the lawn it will grow into a large 
round bush perhaps fifteen feet high and ten or 
fifteen feet through the branches, which will rest on 
the grass. The leaves are large and beautifully shin¬ 
ing and lustrous, and the large flat clusters of small 
creamy white flowers are produced during the first 
days of June in the greatest profusion, and in autumn 
are followed by bunches of handsome blue-black 
oblong edible fruit. A well-grown and symmetrical 
specimen of this plant is an object of great beauty ; 
there is hardly another shrub which can be grown 
into a more perfect specimen ; and if the Sheep-berry 
came from Tibet or Yun-nan, or from the summit of 
an equatorial African mountain, and cost fifty pounds 
an inch, rich Americans would soon exhaust the 
supply. Now the sight of it only fills most people 
with surprise and a profound disbelief that such a 
handsome plant can grow by the roadsides and in 
the coppices of every New England village, for it is 
this species which is the chief ornament of our road¬ 
sides in early summer. Viburnum Lentago has 
been largely planted in the arboretum, and has 
proved valuable in all the situations where it has 
been tried. It flourishes in the shade and in the full sun. 
light, and requires strong, rich soil and abundant space 
if it is to be allowed to spread to its full dimensions. 
The nearest species botanically to Viburnum 
Lentago is Viburnum prunifolium. This plant does 
not grow in New England, although it is hardy here. 
It is very common in the middle and southern states, 
and abounds in Central Park, in New York, where 
there are many fine specimens in the wilder wooded 
parts, which are made beautiful by them in early 
May, when the plants are in flower. This species 
grows to be a larger tree than Viburnum Lentago, 
and the flowers, which are more nearly white than 
those of that species, are decidedly handsomer ; the 
fruit, too, is more showy. The leaves, however, are 
narrower and less lustrous, and on the whole, except 
when it is in flower, the southern plant is less beau¬ 
tiful than its northern relative. 
Viburnum dentatum is as beautiful almost as 
either. It is a shrub ten or fifteen feet high, which 
grows in rather moist soil near streams and swamps 
all over the northern states, and has broad lustrous 
leaves with large sharp teeth and very prominent 
veins, and produces large flat clusters of nearly white 
flowers. The fruit, which ripens in the early autumn, 
is bright blue and very ornamental. This is an 
excellent shrub in cultivation ; planted in deep well- 
manured soil it grows with a vigour unknown to the 
wild plant, and produces larger and richer coloured 
'eaves, and larger and more abundant clusters of 
flowers. Few plants better repay good cultivation, 
and there are very few shrubs of any country which 
are more ornamental in cultivation or better worth a 
conspicuous place in the shrubbery. 
Viburnum pubescens is a smaller plant than 
Viburnum dentatum. The leaves are smaller, 
narrower, and more sharply pointed, and the flower- 
clusters are much smaller. It rarely grows more 
than three or four feet high by as much broad. The 
flowers, which appear rather earlier than those of 
Viburnum dentatum, or during the first days of 
June, are produced in the greatest profusion, and 
quite cover the plants when they are grown in good 
soil and allowed an abundance of light and air. 
This is one of the best shrubs to plant on the outer 
margin of a large shrubbery, and it is particularly 
beautiful in the autumn, when the leaves turn a rich 
dark purple colour like that of some old Spanish 
leather, a most unusual colour among our plants. 
This adds greatly to the value of Viburnum 
pubescens as an ornamental plant, and makes its 
cultivation particularly desirable. 
Delightful, too, is Viburnum acerifolium. This is 
a small plant with slender stems, which rarely rise 
to a greater height than three or four feet, and 
maple-shaped leaves, which in the autumn turn a 
most beautiful scarlet colour. The flower-clusters 
are not broad, but they stand up well on the ends of 
the branches, and the individual flowers when they 
expand are bright pink, and later become creamy 
white. The showy black fruit remains on the 
branches through the winter. This is naturally a 
shade-loving plant, and thrives when planted under 
shrubs and other trees; it bears the sun, however, 
and apparently grows as well when fully exposed to 
it as it does in its native glades. 
Our two native Viburnums, with nearly entire 
bright green leaves, with obscure veins and long- 
stalked flower-clusters, are plants for the garden- 
These are Viburnum cassinoides and Viburnum 
nudum. No one seeing these plants cultivated for 
the first time can be made to believe they are 
common native plants. In their swamps they grow 
up tall and spindling, but, transplanted to good soil, 
and given sufficient space to spread, they form broad, 
round masses of large, handsome foliage, larger, and 
almost as beautiful as that of the Camellia, and in 
June cover themselves with great broad clusters of 
creamy-white flowers. Naturally they inhabit 
swamps, but they seem to grow better in good, well- 
drained soil. Viburnum cassinoides is a more 
northern plant and flowers rather earlier than Vibur¬ 
num nudum, a native of the region from New Jersey 
to Florida. Both are equally hardy here, and there 
is little to choose between them as garden ornaments, 
although the leaves of the southern species - are 
thicker and rather more lustrous than those of its 
northern relative. No one will make a mistake in 
planting either of them or in giving them a con¬ 
spicuous place in any garden, however carefully 
selected its contents may be . — Garden and Forest. 
Mr. J. J. Sexby. 
