Volume XLVI
gD Ile Eiya February, 1958
Number |
CONTENTS
Inside a Missouri Bald Cypress Swamp The Mausoleum Grounds Come To Life A Saturday Afternoon With Epidendrums
Xanthoceras, The Chinese Buckeye, A Good Shrub for St. Louis Gardens
Cold Frame or Miniature Greenhouse For Small Gardens
Horticulture Courses Offered by the Garden Notes Book Review
byt), Purple-leaf Winter-Creeper (Eu- onymous fortunei reticulatus) and Liri- opes of many kinds. The Liriopes or Lily-Turfs are represented by eight species or varieties (the first big trial of these in Northern gardens), each demonstrating a remarkable type of cover for densely-shaded locations. Liriope muscariodes, not as widely known as the other species, is by far the best for St. Louis gardens. In early May the pale lavender flowering spikes of the native Ozark Wild Hyacinth,
% &
e., |
2 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Camassia_ scilloides, will super-carpet the area. While the life on the Mauso- leum floor begins early and changes rapidly so does that of the trees above. The small, yellow flowers of the Sassa- fras (Sassafras albidum) appearing be- fore the leaves, are among the earliest of flowers. The flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and many early azaleas are some of the more showy shrubs adding a temporary brightness to what one might suppose a sombre atmos-
phere. —E.L.E.
Wood Hyacinths in the Mausoleum grove.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 3
INSIDE A MISSOURI BALD CYPRESS SWAMP
JULIAN A. STEYERMARK
T HE extraordinary beauty and ma- A jestic stature of Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) can be seen to great advantage in old trees at the Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. The natural distribution of the species in Missouri is confined to the southeastern lowland section of the state, reaching its north- ernmost limits there in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Wayne, and Ripley counties.
Natural stands of Bald Cypress were formerly much more abundant. To- day, after decades of heavy lumbering over a large area, these beautiful trees have become much less frequent, and are now found only in scattered patches. Clearing of the land for cotton, soybean, and watermelon has left millions of acres of bare soil where once stood tall forests of these trees. Although some Bald Cypress may be found at the Big Tree State Park in Mississippi County, an effort should be made to preserve for posterity some remaining stands of this species before it becomes destroyed and exterminated from the relatively few remaining sites in the “boot-heel”’ section.
Many people, undoubtedly, have seen Bald Cypress in southeastern Missouri while driving along some of the high- ways. Good examples of these trees in their natural habitat are familiar to those traveling south of Advance on highway 25, or when crossing the St. Francis River on either highway 25 northwest of Cardwell in Dunklin County or highway 53 at the border of Dunklin and Butler counties. There
are still many sections of the St. Fran- cis River bottoms as well as other areas away from the more frequented high- wavs which display magnificent stands of Bald Cypress, and some individual trees have been left standing after heavy lumbering or clearing of areas for agricultural purposes.
Inasmuch as most people are not familiar with the interior of an un- spoiled cypress swamp, it may be of some value here to describe such an area. During the spring and early summer months the undrained virgin Bald Cypress swamps (see photo) are usually so full of water that it is vir- tually impossible, unless one has a small boat, to get around inside. Also, at that time of year the hordes of mos- quitoes are so thick and annoying that one does not usually wish to remain for any length of time in such a place. However, if one can brave the mosqui- toes for a while, many very interesting aquatic plants may be seen there. Of plants floating on the water, probably the most peculiar is the Water Violet (Hottonia inflata) with hollow, pale- green, leafless flowering stems rising above the water-surface. Bright masses of yellow flowers covering the water are those of Yellow Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus flabellaris) with sub- merged finely-cut leaves. Other sub- merged lace-like foliage in the swampy waters belongs to Lake Cress (Armo- racia aquatica) and Mermaid Weed (Proserpinaca palustris). If the sur- face of the water has a thin pale-green covering it is due to the floating col-
34 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
families of plants, the Leguminosae, particularly the sub-family known in technical terms by the impressive, mouth-filling phrase of Papilionaceous Leguminosae — Pa-pil-i-on-a-ce-ous Le-gu-min-o-sae.
Scientific terms are frequently so long and so different from everyday speech as to frighten away the ordi- nary amateur. Occasionally, however, a term turns up which is so perfectly terrible that it is as much fun to learn as a nursery rhyme. If you want to learn something useful and at the same time acquire an air of erudition, spend a few hours with the Sweet Peas and their interesting relatives and you will be able to talk with real understanding about Pa-pil-i-on-a-ce-ous Le-gu-min- o-sae such as Wisteria, Clover and Black Locust.
Begin with the Sweet Pea blossom with its strange butterfly shape. Use a fading flower, if possible, whose petals are getting ready to fall. You can gently pull out all five of these curi- ously formed objects. They are of three sorts. One stands up with a crease down its middle where it was folded, tentlike, over the whole blos- som when it was in the bud stage. This petal is called the STANDARD (an old word for a flag). On either side (mir- ror images of each other like two cupped hands) are the so-called Wincs. These petals each have two curious flanges at the base, one hitches the petal to the base of the flower, the other engages like a patent catch with other parts of the blossom. The two other petals are more or less stuck to- gether into a little boat-shaped object
at the base of the bloom and they are aptly termed the KEEL. (See illustra- tion page 42,)
The Sweet Pea, in other words, in spite of its air of fantasy, is not so different from the ordinary Buttercup or Wild Rose. It too is made up of five petals but unlike all buttercups and all roses one of these is specialized into a standard, two are wings with curious flanges at the base, and two (more or less adhering to each other), form the keel.
After we have removed the petals from a Sweet, Pea flower, the remaining portion is not very easy to see because it is rather small; but anyone with good eyesight can make out the fact that most of the stamens are united over a good part of their length into a sort of little white shirt and one of the stamens is completely separate. After you have familiarized yourself with these facts it is better to turn to the pea pods from the grocery store. (see illustration page 42.) They came from a very similar kind of blossom, a little smaller, to be sure, than the average Sweet Pea but with a stand- ard, two wing and two keel petals, and with nine stamens webbed to- gether and one separate (you'll find them all dried up but still hanging to- gether down next to the calyx). When the seed-bearing portion of the flower begins to develop it grows to many times its original size and becomes big enough to analyze with the naked eye. The Pistiz in the center of the flower is shown to be made up of two parts which open up when the seed is ripe, displaying one row of seeds which hang
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 35
from the two inner edges of the joined CarPELs. Such a seed pod is known technically as a LEcuME. The LEGu- MINOSAE, therefore, are those plants whose seeds are borne in LEGUMES. Most of the Leguminosae which we see in the temperate zone have flowers like the Sweet Pea as well as pods like With their bright colors and graceful petals they have reminded
pea pods.
many people of butterflies; since the classical word for butterfly is Paprio, what could be more natural than to refer to such legume-bearing butterfly- flowered plants as Papilionaceous Legu- minosae ?
If you will look carefully at a Rep- BuD flower you will find that though the blooms remind you of a tiny Sweet Pea in a general sort of way, they do not fold up into a bud quite like the Sweet Pea bud. The keel petals are only vaguely like a keel, the wing petals do not have complicated flanges; they do, indeed, belong to the Non- papilionaceous Leguminosae, and are closely related to many of the dazzling flowering trees of the tropics, many of which have strange leaves something like the curious leaf of the Redbud. The Redbud bears, among other dis- tinctions, the honor of being Missourt’s commonest non-papilionaceous legume!
The Leguminosae not only have dis- tinctive flowers, they are distinctive in other ways. If you learn to recognize them by the flowers, you will under- stand many other things as well. Their leaves and leaflets have special little valves, or PULviNni, at the base which permit them to move about more rapidly than do the leaves of most other plants. The Sensitive Plant or
Mimosa is a Legume related to the Acacias and other tropical non-papil- ionaceous legumes. It is the pulvini at the bases of mimosa leaves and leaf- lets which make them close up when the plant is touched. It is the pulvini on the common white clover which close up the clover leaf at night so that the two side leaflets are pressed close together and the middle one folds down over them like a tent. If you want to see a most peculiar sight, turn a flash light (or the headlights of your car) on a Black Locust tree at night and see the way the leaves are all folded up.
Another characteristic of this un- usual plant family is its ability to go into partnership with soil microoragan- isms and get nitrogen out of the air and into useful proteins. All our best meat substitutes come from the Legu- minosae: beans, peas, lentils, pulses, chick peas, Korean lespedeza, soy beans. The Leguminosae play an important role in our diet and in that of our farm animals; we are just beginning to understand how important they are as game foods; we are learning to use them effectively in building up our soils. All the clovers, all the alfalfas, all the vetches are Pa-pil-i-o-na-cae- ous Le-gu-min-o-sae.
SPRING-FLOWERING LEGUMES OF FIELD AND GARDEN
Cladrastis (Yellow Wood) Laburnum (Golden Chain Tree) Lathyrus odoratus (Sweet Pea) Lupinus (Lupine)
Medicago (Alfalfa)
Melilotus (Sweet Clover) Robinia hispida (Rose Acacia) Thermopsis (Banner Plant) Trifolium (Clover)
Wisteria (Wisteria)
6 systematics symposium participants at the Museum where the fifth annual symposium will be held October 25.
(Photo by Dr. Frederick Meyer)
99
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MUSSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN IBULLETIN
VOLUME XLVI
1958
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, JUNE, SEPTEMBER AND NOVEMBER BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: $2.50 A YEAR
Miss ae P A BRA Inside a Missouri Bald Cypress Swamp Cold Frame or Miniature Greenhouse The Mausoleum Grounds Come To Life For Small Gardens A Saturday Afternoon With Epidendrums Horticulture Courses Offered by the Garden Xanthoceras, The Chinese Buckeye, Notes
A Good Shrub for St. Louis Gardens Book Review
Cover: Camellia japonica ‘““Mathotiana’—many such perfect blooms as this, in white, red, delicate pink and variegated can be seen in the Linnaean House, where every year in Mid-winter the Camellias present one of the finest shows at the Garden.
Photo by Paul A. Kohl.
Office of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, I]linois. Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year. Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-office at Galesburg, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Missour1 Botanical Garden Bulletin
Vol. XLVI No. 1
FEBRUARY, 1958
THE MAUSOLEUM GROUNDS COME TO LIFE
HE Snowdrop or Galanthus (Greek
for milk flower), considered a harbinger of Spring, has been flower- ing in the Mausoleum enclosure at the Garden since the last of January. Snowdrops are Spring-flowering bulbs (there are a few autumnal kinds rarely seen in American gardens) belonging to the Amaryllis Family. The genus has twenty-two or more species and named varieties, all native to the Old World. Of the species represented in mass here, the first-blooming are the tetraploid varieties of Galanthus el- wesii. The later ones are the diploid G. nivalis. The Garden has numerous other varieties and species that, so far as we know, make up the most com- plete collection in America. The nor- mal flowering period for these early- blooming bulbs is from late January to early March when they are frequently seen nodding above the snow. They thrive best in dry leafmold and seem happiest under a cover of Ivy. New introductions and transplantings of Galanthus, unlike those of most other plants, should be made while the bulbs are in full flower, for then the bulbs are dormant.
These hardy little flowers herald the arrival of longer days and of numerous other perennials, among the first being Aconitum or Monkshood, a member
of the Buttercup family. Following closely and blooming with these earli- est plants are Crocus, Muscari the Grape Hyacinth, Daffodils, Jonquils and Scillas, the English Bluebells or Wood Hyacinths. This last group is made up of Scilla nutans, Scilla cam- panulata and their hybrids. This is no doubt the finest collection in the New World, with color varieties of dark, light, and pale blue, deep pink, gray- pink as well as white and cream—an outstanding collection with many self- sown hybrids which occurred right there! Scillas also love the ivy cover.
The many tall, ivied oaks, the sassa- fras and other trees and shrubs in and surrounding the fenced enclosure where Mr. Shaw is buried, preserve a quiet, shaded, but living mausoleum for the Garden’s founder (indeed, like no other place in the United States, it resembles the private burial grounds of English gentlemen).
Since lawn grasses will not grow satisfactorily in the shaded area, many different kinds of evergreen ground- covers have been planted in sizeable groupings forming a mosaic or patch- work pattern. The patches consist of Rumanian and Bulgarian Ivy (the first large plantings made in the United States), Myrtle or Periwinkle (Vinca Minor), Pachystima (Pachystima Can-
(1)
4 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
onies of Duckweed (Lemna spp.), Watermeal (Wolffia spp.), and Water- flaxseed (Spirodela polyrhiza). Patches of green in the water may be due to the slender stems and submerged needle-like leaves (beneath the floating broader ones) of the Water Starwort (Callitriche heterophylla ). Swamp Dock (Rumex verticillatus) is promi- nent in the water with its tall green stems of whorled greenish flowers raised above a cluster of smooth, flat,
mostly upright leaf-blades.
With the approach of autumn and
Buttressed trunks of Swamp Tupelo. Photo
by author.
the gradual drying-up of the swamp, it becomes more hospitable with a less bothersome mosquito population. The ground is then dried sufficiently to permit foot navigation, and a more detailed investigation can be made of the vegetation. Upon entering such a swamp in the late summer, one is im- mediately impressed by two things: 1) the great size and stature of the
trees, and 2) the swollen or buttressed
bases (see photos) of the trunks of the
Bald Cypress and Swamp Tupelo Bald Cypress trees. Note “knee” projecting : ; . from water. Photo by author. (Nyssa aquatica). One is also struck
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 5
by the great thickness and height of the vines. Here are high-climbing woody vines of Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) and its relative, the Cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata) ; Grape (Vitis cinerea, V. rotundifolia, and V. palmata); Poison Ivy (Rhus radicans); Ladies’-eardrops (Brunni- Wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya); Raccoon Grape (Am- pelopsis cordata); Pepper-vine (Am- pelopsis arborea); Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia); and Supple-Jack or Rattan Vine (Ber- chemia scandens). Usually the trees are so tall that one sees only their bare
chia cirrhosa) ;
trunks extending for some distance up to the first leafy limb, which often makes it difficult to identify them. With patience, however, one learns to distinguish a large variety of trees. There are a number of large-sized oaks, including Over-cup (Quercus lyrata), Mossy-cup (Q. macrocarpa), Swamp- White (Q. bicolor), Basket (Q. Mix- hauxii), Pin (Q. palustris), Willow (Q. Phellos), and Water (Q. nigra). Sycamore is common, as are also Pump- kin Ash (Fraxinus tomentosa), Red Maple (Acer rubrum var. Drum- mondii), Water Locust (Gleditsia aquatica), Hackberry (Celtis laevi- gata), Water Hickory (Carya aquat- ica), and Pecan (Carya illinoensis ).
Among the smaller trees, Water Elm (Planera aquatica) with its flaky bark, and Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) with bark checked like that of an alli- gator skin may be recognized.
As one walks around in such a swamp, one sees a number of interest- ing shrubs, many of them to be found only in this section of the state. Among
these should be mentioned Water Wil- low (Itea virginica), Storax (Styrax americana), Stuff Dogwood (Cornus foemina), Swamp Rose (Rosa_palus- tris), Swamp Privet (Forestiera acu- minata), and Button Bush (Ce phalan- thus occidentalis var. pubescens), an especially common shrub.
The great height of the trees com- bined with the abundance of vines produces a dense shade and one soon becomes enveloped in this relatively dark interior where a sombre silence prevails. Where in the rainy periods of spring and early summer lay endless expanses of dark silent water of un- certain depth, now in late summer and autumn the ground has become coy- ered with herbaceous plants whose period of growth started when the waters receded. Myriads of ground plants are now evident. Bugle Weed (Lycopus rubellus var. arkansanus) with pairs of narrow, slightly toothed dark green leaves and little clusters of white flowers pegged along the stem; Marsh St. John’s-wort (Hypericum tubulosum var. Walteri) with pairs of thin gray-green leaves; colonies of the fragrant-leaved Lizard’s-tail (Saururus cernuus), the closest relative in Mis- souri to the tropical Black Pepper fam- ily; Blue Mist flower (Eupatorium coelestinum) with clusters of blue- lavender Ageratum-like flowers; sprawling mats of the climbing white- flowered composite (Mikania scandens) ; and various grasses (Paspalum fluitans, Cinna arundinacea, and species of Pan- icum), and sedges (Cyperus strigosus, Rhynchospora corniculata, and species of Scirpus)—are all commonly en- countered. In addition, there are usu-
6 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
ally present other kinds of herbaceous plants, such as False Loosestrife (Lud- wigia glandulosa), False Pimpernel (Lindernia dubia), Water-willow (Di- anthera ovata), Loosestrife (Lysimachia radicans), Buttonweed (Dioda virgini- ana), Eryngo (Eryngium prostratum), and Beggar-ticks (Bidens discoidea). The latter often seeds itself on floating logs, living or dead tree trunks, or old stumps, and may, thus, appear several feet above the general ground level. Various kinds of mosses and liverworts clothe the bases of living tree trunks, while others are found on floating logs A beautiful, lacy, dark green liverwort (Porella
and decayed stumps.
spp.), is commonly found attached to and encircling the base of trees, usu-
ally above the high water level of flood stage.
The ‘“‘knees”’ of the Bald Cypress are conspicuous in the swamps. They vary in prominence from small, short stubs to elongated, stalagmite-like pale brown growths protruding above the ground-surface. They are thought to help facilitate the conduction of oxy- gen to the tree when the roots are sub- merged for extensive periods of time.
There are many other herbaceous plants in addition to those mentioned here that may be found within the interior of a Bald Cypress swamp, but the brief statements made in the pre- ceding paragraphs will give us some idea of the principal plants to be
encountered.
A SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH EPIDENDRUMS
O*. of the bright little orchids in the Garden’s collection which has always interested me is Epidendrum Obrienianum (a hybrid between E. evectum and E, radicans). The brilliant orange-red flowers are seldom as large as your thumb nail but they are borne in little bunches at the ends of long bam- boo-like wands and they flower almost continuously. In the Los Angeles area they are grown along the patio fence and many beginners with orchids have a soft spot for them because they give so much bloom for so little trouble. If the whole flower cluster is cut without too long a stem, they last amazingly long as cut flowers; I have frequently had three or four bunches of them in a little brass vase on the mantlepiece flowering away for several weeks or a month,
In California these ever-ready Epi- dendrums are beginning to interest some amateurs and a few professionals. At the first World Orchid Congress (held at the Garden in October of 1954) there was a nice display of selected varieties in red, orange, pink, yellow and intermediate shades. They should ultimately serve as the basis for a set of easy-to-grow, interesting or- chids for the small greenhouse or even for the beginner’s sun porch.
During my first week in Medellin, Colombia, I was driven over the main ridge of the Central Cordillera which forms a thousand-foot-high wall along the west edge of the mountain valley in which the city is located. At sev- eral places along the road I noticed clumps of bright little Epidendrums, closely related to E. Obrienianum. A
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 7
week later a car was again available on Saturday afternoon (it never pays to study corn ALL the time) and so I was driven up the winding black-top road which connects Medellin with the old city of Antiochia.
As one rises above the city there are wider and wider views across the valley with the city now filling the flat central floor, its suburbs spreading up towards the sides and the ends. The road is lined with modern week-end estates of the well-to-do, covered with flowering vines and surrounded by or- chards and gardens. The most ambi- tious of these estates have a five- or six-room house for the major domo in addition to the owner’s home, and scattered here and there one or two tiny homes for the workmen. It was in this suburban zone that I came upon the first of the three kinds of Epidendrums which grow along the road. They were growing like weeds in the roadside banks in gravelly soil
This first kind had
orange-red flowers, some with tiny
in full sunshine.
dots of deep red, on plants which were, for the most part, only two or three feet high at the most (though this figure doesn’t mean very much because the roadsides are so frequently cut or grazed or tramped over). No wonder these orchids will put up with such a variety of conditions! They have been bred as weeds; they really are weeds, or at least common roadside plants in the places where they grow.
Five miles above, at the pass over the Cordillera, we came upon another related species. Here the city and its suburbs had been left behind. The
bare, steep, pastured peaks rose on
either side, only a few of them forested any more, except along the water- courses. Here, in remnants of the original woods intermixed with bright red-purple Melastomes and Angels Trumpets (Datura) of purest white, were some very similar Epidendrums, bright rose-pink in color, smaller flow- ers, in much larger bunches on much larger plants with wider leaves. Within a mile or two they began to show hybridization with a yellow-flowered species which grows at lower elevations in drier sites (though all of these were growing on the highly disturbed vege- tation that had flooded in when the big earth cuts were made a decade or so ago to carry this road across the Andes). The biggest of these hybrid swarms was something to see! Fist- size bunches of bright little flowers hung out away from the slopes on narrow reed-like stems no thicker than a telephone wire. Each plant was of a different shade. There were deep pinks and light pinks and very bright pale pinks. There were deep yellows and light yellows and a dull pinkish-yellow. There were deep creams and _ pale creams and a lovely pure white, all of them with delicate little fringes on the lip and varying amazingly in the tech- nical details of their spottings and rumplings when looked at through the hand lens. I made quite a collection of them and carried them back to my hotel where they are now effectively pickled for further study in small bottles of the native bay rum (it was Sunday and the laboratory was closed). If all goes well they will be useful material for my Washington Univer-
sity classes next February and March
8 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
and then we shall perhaps understand just a little better these sturdy and brilliant little plants.
—Edgar Anderson
(The foregoing article was received from Dr. Edgar Anderson in the fall of 1957 while he was in Colombia making a study of the varieties of corn in Bolivia, Chile, and other parts of South America.)
HORTICULTURE COURSES OFFERED BY THE GARDEN
COURSE IIL SPRING HORTICULTURE TT" object of this course is to
assist beginning gardeners to learn how to propagate plants from. seed. Special emphasis is placed on annuals and perennials. Each session will in- clude a lecture period and a practice period. The lecturers will discuss the factors affecting plant growth and the practical means for their control, such as optimum supply of heat, light, mois- ture, air, fertilizer, lime and mulches; methods of pest and disease control will also be discussed.
Each student will receive seeds and four metal flats and_ sterilized soil. There will be enough space to grow about 300 to 350 seedlings which, with the flats, may be taken home. Seeds of plants, particularly desired by any student, should be brought to the first session.
The course will be given in the Ex- perimental Greenhouse, Missouri Bo- tanical Garden (enter Cleveland Ave- nue Gate, 2221 Tower Grove Avenue).
It will be offered in four duplicate sections of five periods each:
Section I meets 9:00 A. M. to 12:00 Noon, Fridays, March 21, 28, April 11, 18, 25.
Section II meets 1:00 to 4:00 P. M., Mondays, March 24, April 7, 14, 21, 28.
Section III meets 1:00 to 4:00 P.M., Wednesday, March 26, April 9, 16, 23,30.
Section IV meets 7:00 to 10:00 P. M., Tuesdays, March 25, April 8, 15, 22, 29.
Register between February 14 and March 14, 1958. Fee: $15.00.
COURSE IV) GROWING ORCHIDS IN THE HOME
The course consists of one full day of instruction and workshop with the following schedule:
10:00 A.M. Topics discussed will include kinds of orchids suitable for home culture (orchids that like St. Louis), the factors influencing their growth and development—light, tem- perature, etc., and how these conditions can be created in the average home using Wardian case, evaporative dish, There will be a
demonstration of potting methods and,
artificial light, etc.
if time permits, a question and answer period.
12:00 Noon. Coffee and soda supplied by the Garden.
Lunch.
1:00 P.M. Examples of growing orchids in unusual containers in the home—baskets, slabs, poles, etc., with demonstration of potting and care.
2:00 P. M.
houses.
Inspection of Green-
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 9
3:00 P.M. Members of the Orchid Department staff will give individual instructions in potting. Students may take potted plant home.
The course is offered twice——Section I, Saturday, April 19, 1958, at the Orchid Range of the Missouri Botan- ical Garden Arboretum, Gray Summit, Missouri; and Section II, Saturday, April 26, 1958, at the Missouri Botan- ical Garden, Flora and Tower Grove Avenues (The Main Gate entrance), St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Register at 2315 Tower Grove, St. Louis 10, Missouri, fee $10.00.
COURSE IN WILDFLOWER IDENTIFICA- TION FOR FRIENDS OF THE GARDEN
This year the Garden will offer for the first time a series of five workshop sessions on Botany for the busy citizen, open to Friends of the Garden only,
free of charge. The workshop will be taught by Dr. Edgar Anderson and his assistants and will be similar to the high school course for amateurs which he taught so long and so successfully at Washington University. It is designed for the person of no specialized botan- ical training who after his school years discovers he wants to know more about plants. It is essentially a course in how to find your way to the infor- mation you need, how to learn about plants from plants, how to learn about Ozark wild flowers as painlessly and effectively as possible, how to learn to know and understand the plants in your garden.
The sessions will meet on Thursdays, April 10, 17, 24 and May 1 and 8, from 8:00 P. M. to 9:00 P. M. Friends of the Garden members who wish to attend must register before April 8, since the class will be limited in size.
BOOK REVIEW
How to Identify Plants. By H. D. Harrington. Illustrated by L. W. Durrell. 203 pp. Sage Books, Denver, 1957.. Price $3.00.
i Daan to identify a plant with even the best of the manuals is a difficult task for someone who is not familiar with the terminology and methods used in plant identification. This book is written to teach people how to name plants. It covers briefly most of the steps involved, from collecting and preparing specimens,
through the selection and use of the There is a
simple, illustrated glossary of the terms
proper flora or manual.
commonly used in manuals and floras along with some maps helpful in select- ing the text to be used. The book is simple, the margins and spacings are ample, and there is considerable repeti- tion.
This is a book of value to beginners who have no one to guide them past the many pitfalls found in the com- mon plant manuals.
—Hugh Cutler
10 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
COLD FRAME OR MINIATURE GREENHOUSE FOR SMALL GARDENS
ERE is an easy to make cold frame H suitable (1) for starting plants in the Spring before danger of frost is past; (2) for receiving plants from a hot bed or greenhouse, holding them as an intermediate station until they can be planted in position in the garden; (3) for a general storage place for hardy or semi-hardy plants from the garden and (4) for a propagating bed in Spring or Summer for seed and/or cuttings.
For the first three uses select a loca- tion affording the maximum amount of winter sun, preferably facing south and protected from the wind. Dig a trench 3 ft. & 6 ft. and 4 to 6 inches deep. The bottom can be filled with loosened earth, sawdust, leafmold or other material for imbedding clumps, The soil re-
moved from the trench can be used to
pots or flats of plants.
bank against the outside of the frame
when it is in place.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Three boards 1 in. & 12 in. X 6 ft. to be used for the sides; one piece is cut diagonally for the two sloping sides. (Note: actual measurements of dressed lumber run approximately one- fourth inch less than size specified. )
Three boards 1 in. & 12 in. & 3 ft. to be used for the ends.
Seven pieces 1 in. 2 in. & 6 ft. to be used for the cover frame, the crosspiece, and the cleats (indicated in drawing by broken lines).
Four pieces 1 in. & 1 in. & 6 ft. and four boards 14 in. & 14 in. & 6
ft. cut to 3-foot lengths to be used in fastening the plastic to cover frame. (The 1 in. & 1 in. stripping should be placed carefully on underside of cover frame to assure snug fit of cover to box. )
Fight 2 in. & 2 in. & % in. corner irons for bracing cover frame. Three- fourths pound of #7 5 screws for fastening corner irons in frame.
One-fourth pound of #6 aluminum nails for fastening cleats to sides and strips to lower side of cover.
Small brads for strips on upper side of cover. Twenty-five feet of #12 gauge galvanized wire for securing framework of box.
Four pieces of polyflex plastic sheet 3 ft. & 3 ft. for double layers in cover.
The use of Western Red Cedar, California Redwood or Southern Cy- press is preferable and will give longer service than other kinds of lumber where wood is in direct contact with soil. If the cold frame is to be painted it should either be treated first with a fungicide or be painted with a fungi- cidal greenhouse paint.
Proceed by cutting all materials to size and assemble as indicated in draw- ings. Cleats and all joints should fit snugly to prevent drafts or loss of heat. Saw narrow, 1-inch-deep slots in the ends of the sidepieces and, divid- ing the wire, run it through the slots binding the two sides together across each end of the frame on the outside
(see sketch). The top sashes should
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
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COVER Make 2
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Sketch of cold frame
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Plan for making unheated portable cold frame which can be disassembled and stored when not in use,
be made to fit snugly into place. They are constructed with two pieces of plastic with a dead-air-space between to provide insulation, preventing loss of heat and the penetration of cold. The design presents a sloping top to give maximum sun exposure and ade- quate run-off for water. The covers are fastened to the sides with screen- their being
door hooks to prevent
blown off by wind or moved by ani-
mals and at the same time to allow for easy opening.
Plants placed in the cold frame should be soaked well at the start, then watered from time to time when neces- sary to prevent excessive drying.
This frame when equipped with an electric heating cable and a thermostat can readily serve as a minature green- house or hot bed.
—E.L.E.
BIRD NOTE
The Garden is a haven for many wild birds; among the Winter visitors is a small flock of waxwings (probably Cedar Waxwings). The Spring migra-
tions are already bringing many un- usual songbirds that add to the pleas- ures of the keen observer walking in
the Garden.
12 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
XANTHOCERAS, THE CHINESE BUCKEYE
A Goop SHRUB FOR ST. LoutIs GARDENS
HOULD you visit the Garden in the Spring, you may find blooming there a shrub which, while not new, is very interesting and worthy of special attention from garden lovers. It can be located at the turn of the path east of the old Shaw residence and south of the Museum. The plant referred to is Xan- thoceras sorbifolius, a native of North China. (Xanthoc-eras: Greek for yellow and horn, referring to the horn-like processes of the floral disk; and sorbi- folius: Latin for leaves like Sorbus, the Mountain Ash.) Sapindaceae or Soapberry family, this
A member of
deciduous shrub or small tree, known also as Yellow Horn or the Chinese Buckeye, is related to the Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) and to the Soapberry tree (Sapindus Drum- mondii), both of which may be found in the Garden. It is a handsome shrub, though of somewhat loose growth habit, attaining a height of 15 feet, with alternate odd-pinnate glossy leaves from 6 to 12 inches long, the many leaflets dark green above and paler beneath. The flowers, about an inch in diameter, are white with a yellow changing to red spot at the base of each petal. They appear in upright racemes 6 to 10 inches long, resem - bling those of Catalpa or Chestnut. Xanthoceras plants have been growing in the St. Louis area for more than
thirty years and are well adapted to the hot dry summers as well as the variable winters. They can be used in a border or as individual specimens. Propagation from seed is rare since the plant only sets a good crop of fruit once in four or five years and then only a few of the buckeye-like seeds are viable. The squirrels find the seeds delectable which adds a fur- ther complication. The plant does not root readily, if at all, from softwood or hardwood cuttings. Root cuttings seem to be the best and most satisfac- tory means of propagation as the plant spreads naturally by suckering. If three- or four-inch pieces of the heav- ier roots are placed in a propagating frame in early spring, within four weeks new shoots will appear and shortly thereafter the cuttings should be potted and placed in a warm house until later in spring, when they may be planted in a cold-frame or the nursery, or the individual root cut- tings may be placed directly in a six- or eight-inch pot and left there for an entire year. Since Xanthoceras does not stand transplanting very well, a single cutting should be planted in a_ pot. Continued interest in this shrub will doubtless bring about more efficient means of propagation and_ perhaps further improvements horticulturally.
—E.L.E.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 13
NOTES
He Garden and the Henry Shaw School of Botany welcome a new Taxonomist, Dr. Robert L. Dressler, to their staffs. native, so to speak, since Dr. Dressler
His is the return of a
went from Branson, in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks, to the University of Southern California where he obtained a B.A. degree in Botany. He then did graduate work under Dr. Reed C. Rollins at Harvard University where he completed studies on the genus Pedil- anthus for a thesis and received a Ph.D. degree in Botany in 1957. He traveled extensively this past summer in Mex- ico, mainly in the state of Tamaulipas, making studies and collections of var- ious plants, although he was primarily interested in study material of Poinset- tias, other Euphorbias and the various Orchids of the region. Dr. Dressler will conduct classes relating to Plant Taxonomy for the Henry Shaw School of Botany and will also be responsible for taxonomic problems concerning the vast collection of plants that makes up the living display of the plant world which is Shaw’s Garden. In addition, he will edit the ANNaLs OF THE Missourt BoTANICAL GARDEN.
A former graduate student at the Garden, Mr. E. L. Evinger, who re- ceived his M.S. degree in the Henry Shaw School of Botany in 1928, has returned as Horticulturist in charge of the introduction and propagation of trees, shrubs and other outdoor plants at the Garden.
Mr. Kenneth Peck, a graduate of Duke University where he obtained his B.A. degree in 1953 and M.A. degree in Plant Ecology in 1954, joined the
Garden staff last August filling a new post—that of helping make the Gar- den more useful and meaningful to its many thousand visitors.
The Friends of the Garden have as their Secretary, Miss Isabella Powell, who is also receptionist at the Main Gate Office.
Dr. Edgar Anderson, Curator of Useful Plants, returned to the Garden late in December and resumed _ his classes at Washington University at the beginning of the second semester. Last June and July Dr. Anderson par- ticipated in emergency teacher training courses for the National Science Foun- dation at Cornell University, the Uni- versity of North Carolina, and Alle- gheny College. In August he was sent to Colombia, South America, by the National Research Council to expedite the work of Colombian and American agronomists who are describing and preserving for future use the varieties of corn in Bolivia, Chile, and other parts of South America. During his time in South America he was flown to Ethiopia by Oklahoma State Uni- versity (formerly Oklahoma A. and M.) to aid a group of scientists who have established the first Agricultural and Technical School in Ethiopia and have just opened an Imperial Agricul- tural College there. Dr. Anderson’s main job there was to assist in the study of important but little-known crops and to help work out research programs with Coffee, Sorghum and Wheat which would benefit both Ethi- opia and the United States. In January he completed this assignment by three days of conferences with plant breed-
14 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
ers, directors of research programs and other administrators at Oklahoma State University.
The herbarium assistant at the Gar- den for the past year, Dr. Alfredo Cocucci, returned in October to the University of Cordoba, in Cordoba, Argentina.
Miss Nell Horner who has been li- brarian and Editor at the Garden for more than 30 years is now an assistant librarian at the St. Louis University Medical School Library.
graduate students who had received
The many
her help in preparing their theses for publication in the ANNaAts of the Garden, presented Miss Horner with a bound volume of letters and a gift of more than $600.00 in token of their friendship and esteem at a party given by Dr. Robert Woodson of the Garden and Dr. Harry Fuller, of the Univer- sity of Illinois.
Dr. Frederick Meyer, former den- drologist at the Garden has gone to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Introduction Center at Beltsville, Mary- land, following an extensive plant- collecting trip last summer in_ the Mediterranean area of Southern Europe.
Dr Rolla Tryon and his wife, Dr. Alice Tryon, Fern Taxonomists for- merly at the Garden, are now at the University of California at Berkeley, California.
During the summer of 1957 a horti- culturist from Kew Gardens, England, Mr. Kenneth Beckett, worked for a few months at the Garden, then re- turned to England in the fall.
Since last January the national othce of the Executive Secretary of the American Iris Society, Mr. Clifford
Benson, has been located at the Garden in the old Shaw Residence.
The following degrees were awarded in the Henry Shaw School of Botany, June 1957: M.A. in Taxonomy to David Palache Gregory (A.B., Harvard University); M.A. in Taxonomy to Loren I. Nevling (B.S., St. Mary’s College) ; M.A. in Mycology to Joseph A. Zammuto (A.B., Washington Uni- versity). Robert H. Mohlenbrock, Jr., A.B. and M.S., Southern Illinois Uni- versity, received the Ph.D. degree in Taxonomy in February 1957.
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SUPPORT FOR GARDEN RESEARCH
The Missouri Botanical Garden has received a grant of $60,000 for sup- port of its herbarium and_ library facilities. This grant is to be used over a period of two years to pay for personnel, materials and equipment needed to put these research facilities in good working condition. In_ the herbarium new specimens will be ac- quired, mounted and added to the ref- erence collection. More space and equipment will be provided for persons using the herbarium. In the library additional personnel will take care of cleaning and shifting books, and pre- paring them for binding. Books and periodicals will be purchased to fill A rare book
room will be constructed to house the
gaps in our collection.
Garden’s valuable pre-Linnaean and Linnaean collections and certain rare and oversize books which are now Additional space, furniture and lighting will be
stored in crowded cases.
provided so that the library can be
used more readily.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 15
The Garden is well-known to bot- anists throughout the world. Its tech- nical publication, THE ANNALS OF THE MissourI BOTANICAL GARDEN, 1s sent to practically all of the important botanical centers of the world. In ex- change and by purchase, the Garden receives more than 500 serials and re- ports. The National Science Founda- tion grant is a recognition of the value of the Garden’s research in botany.
Although | this
granted for a short time only, the
facilities for basic
support has been National Science Foundation has been helping the Garden’s research for sev- eral years by making grants for specific research projects. At the present time the largest grant to the Garden is one of $17,000 to support the study of evolution in plants directed by Dr. Edgar Anderson. Other grants from the National Science Foundation to the Garden include the following: Dr. Woodson’s research project, the Flora of Panama, is aided by a grant of $15,000 over a three-year period to pay for assistants, artist’s work and some publication and travel costs. Dr. Cutler’s studies on the origins and development of corn and squash are aided by a grant of $4,700 to help pay Small
grants have been made the past few
for travel and an_ assistant. years to support the annual Systematics Symposium, a meeting of zoologists and botanists working on the naming
of animals and plants. FRIENDS OF THE GARDEN MEMBERSHIPS
One of the fastest growing things at the Garden today is the number of in-
dividuals and firms joining the Friends of the Garden. Back in 1953 when we let St. Louisans know about the in- creased need for financial aid we had 236 members making annual contribu- tions. Today we have over 2,300. This public confidence in the admin- istration of the Garden is a real in- spiration to those of us charged with the responsibility of its future.
Membership in Friends of the Gar- den has been classified as follows: An- $5.00; $10.00; Participating, $25.00; Sustaining, $50.00; Supporting, $100.00; and Life, $500.00.
Tell your friends about the various If they knew what could be accomplished with addi-
nual, Contributing,
activities at the Garden.
tional funds they too, would want to help make this the country’s most out- standing Botanical Garden.
“HOLIDAY HISTORIQUE” PROFITS PRESENTED TO GARDEN
At the evening preview of the An- nual Orchid Display, Thursday, Feb- Mrs. Arthur J.
Treasurer of the Women’s Committee
ruary 6, Kreuger, for Shaw’s Garden presented a check for $4,057.44 to Robert Brookings Smith, newly elected President of the Board of Trustees of the Garden, and Hugh Cutler, Acting Director of the Garden.
This money was raised by the Wom- en’s Committee at their fund-raising project, “Holiday Historique” held last fall in the Floral Display House, and will be used to restore and repair walls, fences, and ornamental ironwork in the Garden. The project not only served
to raise money for these much-needed
16 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
repairs but also brought to the Garden a large number of visitors, some for the first time.
TO BE SEEN AT THE GARDEN
In the Floral Display House.—The Annual Orchid Display opened Febru- ary 6 and will continue through March 16.
The Annual African Violet Show will be open March 22, 23.
The Easter Show will be held April 5, 6.
The Second Annual Daffodil Show will be held April 13, 14. should be brought to the Display House
Entries
before 10:00 A. M. Saturday, April 13. For information call Mrs. Grover F. Roennfeldt, PA 1-3645.
In the Linnaecan House.—The Ca- mellias (see Cover) have been flower- ing for over two months and will continue into March.
In the Garden.—Snowdrops and other early Spring flowers (see The Mausoleum Grounds Come to Life, page 1 of this issue), such flowering shrubs as Hamamelis mollis in Dr. Anderson’s Garden, the many Jonquils and Daffodils which will be at their best in early April, and many more awakening outdoor plants will reward
the seeking flower-lover.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ROBERT BROOKINGS SMITH, President Henry HitcHcock
Leicester B. Faust, Vice-President JOHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B. Prracer, Second Vice-President RicHarp J. Lockwoop
DaNnieEL K. CaTLiIn WarRREN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
DupLEY FRENCH EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ErHan A. H. SHEPLEY, James McCCAFFERY Chancellor of Washington University sich to ve the Board ot Education ARTHUR C. LICHTENBERGER, oe ee
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri STRATFORD LEE Morton t
RAYMOND R. TUCKER, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis of St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E. GLAESSNER
THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier,
Chairman.
STAFF [ed REY oi rime ©) 1 (cl Fp OMe NOD repos oe ns RPG OO PRT OE cle OPER Se De NOS Acting Director [Eve Fy thera We (al) to) w Vege eee ee ee ea ere Ey cr trea eee ae Curator of Useful Plants Vee Cora Vy lake SOI 3 oe Fh, ¢: Pee OD EP EERO POR SR Ue enya ere, re Paleobotanist Evelyn Barbour.............0..000..cccccceseesseeeeeeeeeees Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN CONES ln Val- ia) bye 0] oR Se NPDES an tA MEE Ne AE NAD i DREADS se Pe REIN EMA RNS Nr IER eT Instructor JEXe TUF ek © bh eS al 01 cee eres rrr rere ernest eer Arborist and Grounds Superintendent Badislausy Guta ke sco cress hee oes ees Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent CES LoS 0b AN iemed D Yo te Fd Take mene oi cree ep N Ree MU EEN Sens ely PEP eee Mycologist Riopentn Dressler sce. ee ee gee ee eee thee Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS 1 PLY ss D Jone) DA oy eae ele ee ae aE eS Sei Rae Re RE RR UA Research Associate Bie Van BOK ee ccsec-P set <2 <cn2s+ ce ecscccess Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse Roberts) soil lespieccccstscs cis caacee tees tcc ansccsceeserec reco ceca seer aaeg: In charge of Orchids scare Pa: (Gl aesstie rt. rs ce cpa oc ace eee cast ag See ec saky scutes Cee Controller Pa eA RCO Na ce ras cers aes ag ese ase eet ae eh rete sate eseciaseduectes ty adv Floriculturist |r 4 Yel oa feel Bao 0) + PRP ee CO tC eer Landscape Architect VaktoreMueh len baGisic.cuc.52cc esos cov gee oot cad sors ce a ec zacou cence teat ra ce aueadat as Research Associate remmechin@) ss Recs. ecssrt see sns eae eee te en te In charge of Visitors’ Activities Reateltatle: Powell race iccte neg ee Friends of the Garden Secretary EE ghee gt Capel bg | «Yee ene ene PoE pee eri RE ACI SARTRE REY eee Superintendent STATS (yeh ae RRA a ol EIRP ne ls er eR NEG rEe NrSea Ppa EOE OE Engineer Julian A. Steyermark....... eee ee re es once nee Cnc nae Research Associate Pitariks OCeIN DGD Sissaccets oscacez-tersetaeeseteas ese Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit Rreanmer Boe Vali OCM AAC Keene ccsccecces pace pede ooo ec cee sane h cbedssges aes Acting Curator of Herbarium PlaritO Ma VOMs SCI LEI Kis. cetsses seers pe erdee tee seeetec ce ioe vecaacaeatesst Associate Curator of the Museum
YG De Bee Se WV OOCSOLNg Cetceece cece cevece nee ees IS Se Shog, hs dee eu ee ranteesaess Senior Taxonomist
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at Tower Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the Towrr Grove mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees
who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A. M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Towrr Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are
at their best in April.
Volume XLV
ulle tin March, 1958
Number 2
i
ee genaatneree
CONTENTS
The Garden Report For 1957
Errata: February 1958 Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 1. Page 1, column 1, last line: the reference to Aconitum or Monkshood should instead read: Winter Aconite (Eranthus hyemalis) a member of the buttercup family. Page 1, column 2, last line: the refer- ence to Pachystima (Pachystima canbyi) should instead read: Japanese Spurge (Pachysandra terminalis).
Cover: The Linnaean House, the only remaining greenhouse built by Henry Shaw. For the last two years the proceeds of the GARDEN Tours (arranged by the Garden Club of St. Louis providing an opportunity to see some of the outstanding St. Louis Gardens) have been used to restore the Linnaean house. Restoration work will be continued this year with the proceeds from the 1958 Spring Garden Tours to be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 2, 3, and 4, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eight St. Louis gardens will be open; four of the homes also will be open. For information call Missouri Botanical Garden, Main Gate, PR 6-1785. Tickets may be obtained for $2.00 at the Main Gate of the Garden and by mail from Mrs. John Lehmann, 10 Apple Tree Lane, St. Louis 24, Missouri.
Office of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, Illinois. Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year. Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-ofhce at Galesburg, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Miussour1 Botanical Garden Bulletin
Vol. XLVI No. 2
MARCH, 1958
THE GARDEN REPORT FOR 1957
HUGH
a lies year 1957 was an eventful one at the Garden with the successful accomplishment of many plans. A good botanical garden combines re- search and planning with demonstra- tions of these activities in plantings and displays and in publications and lectures. The wide range of the Gar- den’s work can be illustrated by two of the most important events at the Garden in 1957. The first directly concerned the research staff although it will eventually help improve all of the Garden; the second concerned grade school children, inducing many to visit the Garden for the first time.
A committee of distinguished bot- anists from some of the most active institutions in the United States in- vestigated the needs and activities of the Garden research facilities and, after their recommendation, the National Science Foundation granted $60,000 for work to be done in 1958 and 1959 to rehabilitate the library and_her- barium. A considerable number of research projects at the Garden are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation but this is the first time that support has been granted for the facilities which make our research possible. This grant is important be- cause it indicates a recognition of the value of the Garden to the nation’s research program. Our plant collec- tions and library are used not only by
C. CUTLER
our own research staff but by many visiting scientists and, when sent on loan to accredited institutions, by re- search workers throughout the world.
It is likely that, of all the things done at the Garden last year, the initi- ation of a planned program for grade school children will have the greatest effect in the future. Interests and character traits are usually formed in youth, Children are naturally curious; they love to name things and to make collections. Through the Garden’s ed- ucational programs these traits can be directed and a lifelong interest in plants, and nature in general, be stim- ulated. The response to the first program, a “Tree Trail,” showed that both students and teachers enjoy and profit from a _ well-planned project. Some adults asked for the guide sheets to the “Tree Trail”? because their chil- dren were so enthusiastic about their visit to the Garden. A grant from the Pitzman Fund made it possible to begin this program. Volunteer help and more funds will be used to expand this program in 1958.
Many of the changes which were planned for 1957 could not be made. Plantings planned for the spring were delayed by the rains. Some staff posi- tions were not filled because people with the necessary qualifications could not be found. There was much evi- dence of an emphasis on the kinds of
(17)
18 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
things which make a botanical garden differ from a park or a private garden. New kinds of plants were displayed whenever possible, usually labeled with some information in addition to the name; and often planted in groups or shown so they could be compared with related plants. ‘There were more lec- tures, flower shows, garden club mcet- ings, and more help was provided for special groups. The extent of many of these activities was severely limited by the size of our staff. The Garden probably has fewer employees now than ever before, yet everyone is work- ing as hard and intelligently as possible so that much is accomplished. Mr. Oscar Glaessner, Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Controller, made im- provements in our records and by his management of business details made it possible to save significant amounts of money. A tremendous amount of work of all kinds has been done by volunteer helpers and the number of volunteers continues to increase.
It is imperative that more funds be obtained in 1958. Our staff working in research, education and _ plantings is small and largely underpaid. Many of our greenhouses, buildings, pools, waterlines, trellises and benches are in serious need of repair or replacement. Our grounds crew is able to spend only a small amount of its time on replacing old or poor plants. One of the greatest needs is for a functional entrance where people can learn what a Botan- ical Garden is and how to derive the most pleasure from their visit.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES
For several years informal discus-
sions have been held to plan the activ- ities of the research division of the Garden. In 1957 a Research Commit- tee was organized with all of the active research workers of the Garden and the heads of the botany departments of St. Louis University and Washington University as members. At the monthly meetings plans are discussed for the improvement of the research program. ‘This committee takes over all the functions of the previous Li- brary and Herbarium Committees.
The Fourth Annual Systematics Symposium was supported again (for the third time) by a grant from the National Science Foundation. — Dr. Ernst Mayr, Columbia University, and Dr. Carl Epling, University of Cali- fornia, were the invited chairmen. The Symposium was arranged by Dr. Woodson with the help of Dr. Van Schaack and others of the staff. At one time there were 203 people present, many of whom participated in dis- cussions of the problem of classifica- tion of plants and animals. This Symposium is an important activity, bringing workers in the field of sys- tematics, along with large groups of their students, to the Garden. It is an opportunity for the exchange of ideas; and the stimulation of these discussions results in better work by all the participants.
Dr. Anderson spent several months in the early part of the year as a Fel- low in Mathematics at Princeton Uni- versity, working on his semigraphical methods of analysis. During the fall he worked in Colombia on the classi- fication of some South American maize
for the National Research Council and,
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 19
Dr. Anderson studying a native giant cane grass (Gynerium sagittatum) in Colombia.
while there, he was sent by Oklahoma State University to the new agricul- tural school, which they have helped to establish, in Jimma, Ethiopia, to confer with the staff on problems concerning native crops. Dr. Anderson returned to his work at the Garden in Decem- ber. He has received a grant of $17,000 from the National Science Foundation for support of his studies on hybridization in plants for a period of three years.
Dr. Woodson is active in teaching
at Washington University; while at the Garden he has been busy with studies on the Flora of Panama, which is currently being supported by a grant of $15,000 for three years by the Na- tional Science Foundation.
A grant of $4,700 for two years from the National Science Foundation is aiding Dr. Cutler in his studies on the origin and dispersal of maize and cucurbits in the Southwest.
A considerable amount of research work is done by staff members who are
20 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
concerned with displays and plantings. Without research the Garden would become static and would no longer be a Botanical Garden. New plants are sought and tried at the Garden in the hopes of finding those that would be valuable additions to the gardens of this region. Other plants are grown so that the variation in the groups to which they belong can be studied, or simply so that they may be seen by visitors. Most of the new plants for outdoor plantings are tried or propa- gated at the Experimental Greenhouse, which work, since August, has been done by Mr. Edgar Evinger.
Three research projects of special interest to the St. Louis region are Mr. Viktor Muehlenbachs’ studies on the native and weed flora of St. Louis and vicinity, Dr. Julian Steyermark’s con- tinued work, nearly completed, on the Flora of Missouri, and studies on hops made under the direction of Dr. Edgar Anderson and supported by grants from the Brewing Industries Research Institute.
LIBRARY
Library work for 1957 was chiefly devoted to cataloging and binding. By the end of the year the large back- log had been completed and current cataloging was practically up to date. Some thousand periodicals and numer- ous books were added to the library. Notable among these was a set of the botanical articles from the early issues of the Memoirs of the Paris Museum of Natural History which appeared in the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury. Although over 600 volumes were bound the backlog of material needing binding or repair is still very large.
A program of revising the publica- tions exchange list was initiated with a questionnaire sent to some 500 insti- tutions throughout the world. Replies, which were still being received at the end of the year, will be used to correct our exchange list so that our publica- tions will still go all over the world and we will receive mainly only those pub- lications of real value to the Garden.
A new system of journal checking involving the use of visible files was instituted. This system has been a genuine time-saver. During the sum- mer a temporary assistant replaced hundreds of old pamphlet covers and did other needed “shelf-housekeeping.”’ Early in the year Mrs. Virginia Mc- Mahon took over the duties of secre- tary for the library and publications.
HERBARIUM
In the herbarium the usual duties of loaning, borrowing, accessioning and inserting specimens continued. Some painting and repair work has been done to make it a more pleasant place to work.
The principal figures for herbarium activities during 1957 follows:
Specimens inserted ss 3,360 Specimens accessioned for
future mounting - —.. 4,159 Specimens sent out in exchange
(to 10 institutions) 2,497 Specimens loaned (to 20 insti-
tutions, 4 foreign) —_ 4,817
Specimens borrowed (15. insti- tutions, 10 foreign) | 2,625
The position of herbarium assistant was held by Dr. Alfredo E. Cocucci of Cordoba, Argentina, until October 1. During the remainder of the year the
position was vacant. A_ significant
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 21
part of herbarium insertion during the year was done by Mrs. Frederick Comte, who devoted several hours of vol- untary work to this detail each week. Our collection of nearly 10,000 neg- atives of type-specimens was revised and filed in strong fibre-board boxes donated by the St. Louis Paper and Box Company and the Gaylord Con- tainer Corporation. In addition to the usual mounting a program of going through our collections and repairing old mounting was begun.
This work has been carried out under the direction of Dr. Van Schaack, the Acting Curator of the Herbarium, and Miss Margaret Carroll, Secretary of the Herbarium.
THE TOWER GROVE GARDEN
GROUNDS MAINTENANCE AND PLANTINGS.
During 1957 the grounds crew (under the direction of Grounds Super- intendent Louis Brenner and his fore- man, Joe Baker) was occupied chiefly with routine maintenance, although considerable progress was made in re- habilitation work. Improved methods of gardening, such as the use of mulches, the spacing of shrubs and new plantings to permit faster machine mowing and to eliminate hand trim- ming, and the removal of aged, un- sound, or crowded trees which drop branches during heavy windstorms, greatly reduced the number of hours spent on maintaining the grounds. The Rose Garden, Linnaean Garden, Italian Garden and certain borders still require large amounts of hand work. In the Rose Garden some beds have been combined to eliminate the amount of edging; and mulches are
used to conserve water, cover weeds, and keep down blackspot and_ the damage from soil splashing. Many of the roses have been obtained as gifts or at low prices by members (especially Mr. Francis R. McMath and Mr. John Nies) of the Rose Society of Greater St. Louis. In the Italian Garden many small areas were united and the borders were replanted with Forsythias, Juni- pers, Star Magnolias and Bamboos, then heavily mulched.
The grounds about the Museum were planted with Hollies following the design of Landscape Architect Emmett Layton. The nearby lawn areas were graded and covered with a wild hay mulch which contained a large amount of the Arboretum strain of blue grass. Contributions from many of the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri made it possible to do this
work.
Work continued on the removal of undesirable trees, mainly Silver Maples, Elms, Sycamores and Trees of Heaven that had sprouted as volunteers many years ago. Many of these trees were near buildings, structures, or along the stone wall on Tower Grove Avenue, where they were weakening the structures as well as crowding and deforming more desirable trees. The entire crew spent about ten days clean- ing out weeds, old brush and dead or undesirable trees along Alfred Avenue About half of the walks were resurfaced in
and surrounding the Lake.
August, in preparation for which it was necessary to cut away the sod bordering the walks so that the new surface could go out to the very edge. In the fall many of the plants in the
ho i)
Experimental Greenhouse nursery were planted out to replace the old and dead ones which had been removed.
In addition to the regular main- tenance, the grounds crew has col- lected trash, moved properties for many special functions and for the various flower shows, and on _ rainy
days helped with the maintenance of
buildings, repaired tools and other
equipment, and done various other
jobs which have turned up.
GREENHOUSES,
Flower Shows and Displays: ‘The annual flower shows are an important part of the Garden’s busy schedule. In January the Poinsettias were replaced by “Snow”? Mums. Later, Primroses, Cyclamens and Buddleias were added.
The regular Orchid Show opened with a preview for the Friends of the Garden on the night of February 7. The focal point of the design was a small plastic-covered greenhouse which housed easily-grown orchids and vari- ous supplies for their successful cul- ture. The Orchid Show closed March 25th and was followed on March 30 and 31 by the African Violet Show sponsored by the local Society.
Our Easter Display opened April 3, featuring Croft Lilies, Nasturtiums, Azaleas, Cinerarias and other appro- priate flowers. The Show continued into May with weekly replacements of fresh material. In early April the balcony of the Floral Display House was the scene of a Daffodil Show, the first of its kind staged in the Garden. The St. Louis Horticultural Society presented its Spring Flower Show on
May 18 and 19 and the following
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
weekend the Rose Society held its Rose Show.
Flowers were provided to decorate Christ Church Cathedral for the An- nual Flower Sermon which is given as directed in Henry Shaw’s will.
During the warm summer months only a small display, mostly of exotic foliage plants, is maintained in the Floral Display House.
Three important shows were staged during September: the Fall Cactus Show (September 14-15), the Har- vest Show (September 21-22), and the Dahlia Show (September 28-29).
The day following the Veiled Proph- et’s Ball, his Queen’s bouquet was placed on exhibit. A second bouquet was prepared for the Queen’s visit to the Henry Shaw Home on October 5th to receive school children.
The Women’s Committee of Shaw’s Garden helped with many events dur- ing the past year. Their third major fund-raising project was called “Holi- day Historique” and subtitled ‘The Mayflower Comes to Shaw’s Garden.” It brought many people to the Display House, where a wide variety of ex- hibits emphasizing ideas for home holi- day decorations were displayed in an attractive garden setting. The pro- ceeds of this project, $4,057.44, will be used to repair and restore the many fences, walls and ornamental iron work structures which need immediate attention,
The Women’s Committee also ar- ranged the receptions and refreshments for the previews of the Orchid and Chrysanthemum Displays and for the
special showing of the research facili-
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 23
ties and research work of the Garden on May 9.
Immediately after the closing of the very successful “Holiday Historique” everyone worked to install the annual Chrysanthemum Show in record time so it could open on November 7 with a preview for the Friends of the Gar- den. The Display was designed by Kimio Obata and Associates and the installation was directed by Floricul- turist Paul Kohl. After six weeks, the Mum Show was followed by the Poin- settia Show.
Maintenance: ‘The routine work of propagating, planting, feeding, spray- ing and watering was performed as in other years. In order to let visitors know more about the plants, a large number of descriptive labels were pre- pared by Greenhouse Superintendent Lad Cutak. When outstanding plants came into flower, or were acquired, they were displayed in special places with informative labels.
Outdoor Pools and Annual Plant- ings: Heavy rains delayed planting in the flower beds and the Italian Garden and many areas had to be replanted because the first plantings were flooded. Weeding, spading and planting was not completed in the Italian Garden and flower beds until mid-June.
The pools in the Main Garden, where our best waterlilies grow, were lined and staked on May 6th and planted with 75 waterlilies. The center pool was left unplanted and treated with sodium arsenite to eradicate the weeds, mainly Sagittaria, which had become a problem. A jet of water was used to decorate this pool. The lilies for the outdoor pools are started in tanks in
greenhouses in January and_ shifted into larger pots as needed. These plants begin to flower in late March and April and so this portion of the private houses was opened to the public until the waterlilies in the pools bloomed.
MAINTENANCE AND HEATING,
Many Garden structures are in such bad condition that major repairs, or even replacements, will be necessary. Our staff can barely keep up with cur- rent maintenance, and catching up on an estimated $400,000 of repairs and replacements is done mainly with special gifts. The south half of the roof of the Linnaean House was com- pletely redone with funds raised by the Spring Garden Tour of the Garden Club of St. Louis. The old slate roof of the Museum was replaced with the best composition material available and parts of the roofing of the Ad- ministration Building were replaced. This work was paid for with funds raised by the Women’s Committee. Most of the pergola in the Italian Gar- den was painted. More than half of the walks in the Garden were sur- faced during the summer. This new surface will close cracks so water can no longer enter and freeze and break the walks.
For many years we have expected the old heat transmission line from the Boiler House on the north end of the Garden to the Administration Build- ing, Shaw Home, Experimental Green- house and Museum to break. A study of the costs of replacement or of in- stallation of one or four separate boil- ers for these four buildings was made and the best solution was to install
24 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
individual heating units. These units are in use now and we are no longer dependent on the long, wasteful and
old transmission line.
THE ARBORETUM
Careful planning and hard work on the part of Superintendent of the Arboretum, Frank Steinberg, has re- duced costs there so that they are less than half of what they were during the past few years. Many small opera- tions which do not properly belong in an Arboretum were eliminated. The cattle and sawmill have been sold, farming on the south side of the river has been practically stopped and the pastures and arable land were placed under Soil Bank and Soil Conservation plans which yield a cash return and pay for part of the expenses of im- proving the land. Forty-six acres were plowed, limed, fertilized, disked and sowed with fescue and lespedeza.
Particular attention has been paid to the area about Pinetum Lake, for this main drive is open to the public the entire year. All planted groups were cleared of brush and weeds, the trees were pruned and dead ones removed. The trees will grow better now and the naturalized daffodils will make a more striking display.
Six hundred hours were spent mow- ing, fifty-one loads of brush were hauled away and seven loads of chips were used for mulch. Repairs were made to some of the equipment and the doors of the service sheds were re- paired and painted. A large number of Redbud and other plants were dug for planting in the Tower Grove
Garden.
The heavy spring rains washed some of the main roads badly and eighty hours were spent working them with the grader. Cinders from the orchid greenhouse boilers and 250 tons of crushed stone were added to the worst places.
Each Easter for many years a sun- rise service has been held at the Ar- boretum. The long circle drive past the trailhouse is open to cars only during April and the first half of May. This is the time when the Daffodils, Redbuds, Dogwoods and other wild- flowers are at their best. During the rest of the year visitors are encouraged to walk along the trails and roads
beyond the Pinetum area.
THE ORCHID DEPARTMENT
In 1957 the major endeavor in the Orchid Department at the Arboretum was to eliminate large numbers of duplicate plants and = poor quality plants, to acquire new kinds of orchids, to perform research essential for a sound breeding program and further research, and to study and employ the best cultural methods.
RESEARCH.
Investigations on the use of weed killers continued. Trials of orchids cultured in fir bark in both open benches and in pots showed that weed control was practical. Studies on the control of flowering time of orchids by regulating the length of day were continued. Chromosome studies on some of the important Cattleya stud plants were made and the information added to our chromosome atlas, the only collection of this sort of data which is being kept, as far as we know. Such cytological observations make it
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 25
possible to use our valuable parent plants more intelligently in the pro- duction of new hybrids.
CULTURAL TECHNIQUES.
About seventy per cent of the orchid collection is now potted in fir bark and eventually all of our plants, except for the few that are grown in baskets or on rafts, will be grown in this medium. Humidity control and evap- orative cooling is used to decrease sum- mer temperatures. The collection of Ladyslippers (Cypripediums) produced about twice as many flowers as in previous years and the plants are more vigorous than before; this is attributed to the better cooling, the moisture control and the use of fir bark as a potting medium.
PLANT BREEDING,
Many inter-specific crosses were made, using some of our rare and un- usual orchids as parents. These crosses involved such genera as Oncidium, Miltonia, Cattleya, Catasetum and Cynoches. The cross made between these last two genera had not been made before.
New PLANTs.
Last year 349 new plants were added to the collection. Most of these were species or unusual types. Three collec- tions acquired were particularly note- worthy: 1) a fine collection of species received in exchange from Sherman Orchid Gardens at Glendora, Cali- fornia; 2) a shipment of unusual species given by Mr. Jose Strobel of Ecuador; 3) a group of modern cym- bidium seedlings received in exchange from the Dos Pueblos Orchid Com- pany of Goleta, California.
The Orchid Department, under the direction of Mr. Robert Gillespie, has been located at the Arboretum at Gray Summit since 1926 when the orchids were moved from St. Louis because of the damaging city smoke. With the success of the St. Louis smoke control program, it is now possible to grow orchids in St. Louis; consequently, the orchid growing and research will be moved back to St. Louis, a change that will be completed by September of 1958. In the city more people can see the orchids and a really active research program can be carried on, since the library, herbarium and laboratories are convenient and it will be possible for Mr. Gillespie to consult more fre- quently with other members of the Garden staff.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance last year was the largest it has been for several years: the Gar- den was visited by 217,419 people. Attendance figures for the past five years are:
195 3...207,938 19552213 6,077
1954...215,045 1956....198,472
1b ey eae 217,419 These figures represent only the people who enter through the main gate turn- stiles. Increasing numbers of people enter through the Cleveland Avenue entrance or the service entrance.
A graph of attendance by months shows that the peak months usually are April, May, or September. These are the months when our outdoor gar- dens are at their best. In April and May the lawns are bright green and many trees, shrubs and small plants are in flower. In September and Oc- tober the waterlilies and Italian Gar-
30000
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Graph of attendance by months at the Garden.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 27
den are at their best and the Rose Garden has a second spurt of bloom. Our Camellias bloom in February and March at the time of our Orch‘d Dis- play and our Chrysanthemum Show is in November. We are trying to add to the beauty and interest of the Garden in summer by _ introducing plants which bloom at that time and by increasing the number of kinds of trees. For winter we are adding more broadleaved evergreen shrubs and trees and using ivy and other evergreen vines for ground covers. Clear, ac- curate and informative labels make plants more interesting any time of the year.
Volunteers of the Regional Council of Men’s Garden Clubs, under the di- rection of Mr. Arthur J. Krueger, reset and repaired the labels on many of the trees and shrubs. A large number of very interesting educational signs were
prepared by Mr. Paul Hale.
PUBLICITY
Many people and organizations have helped in projects to improve the Gar- den, to attract visitors and to show them what the Garden is doing. Most of our publicity has been managed by Mr. Rollo Horwitz. guides, under the leadership of Mrs.
Ten volunteer
Paul Britt, conducted 54 special groups of visitors through the Garden. Mem- bers of our staff and the Horticultural Council have lectured to many groups and given information to amateur gar- deners and students. When groups ask for a speaker from the Garden we try to encourage the group to visit the Garden and have them talk among the living plants rather than have a mem- ber of our staff travel to their meeting
place and show slides of the plants.
Mrs. Hazel Knapp is in charge of the Horticultural Consultants who are trained at the Garden to answer gar- dening questions. This group has done a good job and taken care of many requests which the Garden staff is not large enough to handle.
A valuable gift to the Garden is the help of the many hostesses for the Shaw House. Members of the Eighth District of the Federated Women’s Clubs serve from one to four each day except during January, February and December, when the Shaw House is open only on weekends. Mrs. Arthur J. Krueger and Mrs. George Pring are in charge of the arrangements with the clubs for hostesses.
An excellent color film of the Gar- den was made by Mr. Frank McCready. He has shown this before several groups at the Garden and at a large number of dinners and special meet-
ings in the St. Louis area.
INSTRUCTION
All of our classes in bulb forcing, spring horticulture and plant propaga- tion were taught by Mr. Clarence Barbre, one of the best gardeners of this region. He not only knows a lot about plants but can teach in such a lively manner that empty seats are rare in his classes. Mr. Gillespie taught the course in orchid growing.
Mr. Kenneth Peck laid out two pro- grams for grade school children and these were used by a large number of classes and groups. In a trial of plans for future programs two grade school classes planted bulbs under Mr. Peck’s supervision: each pupil provided his own container, a tin can, and planted
28 MISSOURI BOTANICAL
two Paper-white Narcissi bulbs after learning what a bulb is, how it grows and how to plant it at home outdoors.
The bulbs were delivered to the school
and the pupils took them home to
flower about Christmastime.
Garden demonstrations and_ tours were given during the fall on Wednes- day and Saturday afternoons. Experts on Iris, Daffodils, Waterlilies and African Violets gave demonstrations; and staff members conducted tours of the new developments at the Garden. Dr. Anderson and Dr. Van Schaack conducted their popular grass walks The St. Louis Academy of Science held two of their
through the Garden.
series of public lectures at the Museum Building with Dr. Anderson and Dr. Van Schaack as guest speakers.
The National Council of State Gar- den Clubs:
monies for the permanent home on the
Ground breaking cere-
Magnolia Avenue side of the Garden were held May 11th and were attended by Mrs. Daniel Mooney, president of the National Council, Mrs. William J. Walters, chairman of trustees of the Permanent Home Endowment Fund, Mrs. C. G. Spillars, chairman of the site selection committee, members of the Garden’s Board of Trustees and staff, and representatives of many Mis- souri Garden Clubs. Building was de- layed by the wet early summer and cold winter but the stone siding is now being added and the major part of the structural work is done. In November of 1957 there were 10,905 clubs with 361,376 members in the National Council, making this the largest of all groups of organized
gardeners.
GARDEN BULLETIN
MAIN GATE
Many importaat activities are car- ried on at the Main Gate Information Center. Superintendent George Pring takes care of the many questions which are asked over the telephone or by visitors. Miss Powell helps visitors find the most interesting features of the Garden, sells postcards and books and pamphlets on plants, and is Secre- tary for Friends of the Garden. Mr. Dudley French and Mr. Towner Deane are in charge of the Friends of the Garden.
clubs and of the Women’s Committee
Members of many garden y 8
addressed more than 17,000 envelopes for the mail campaign for new mem- bers. The 2,217 members contributed $25,618.87 during 1957. The Gar- den receives no support from taxes and depends on these gifts to do many things which could not be done with only the funds from Henry Shaw’s endowment.
Bequests to the Missouri Botanical Garden may be made in_ securities, money, or books. They may, if de- sired, take the form of a memorial to a person, to be named by the giver.
Bequests to the Garden by will are deductible, without limit, in determin- ing the federal estate tax and are ex- empt in any amount from Missouri and Illinois state inheritance taxes.
For bequests to the Missouri Botan- ical Garden, the following form is suggested:
I do hereby give and bequeath to the Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri:
P BOARD OF TRUSTEES
RoBertT BROOKINGS SMITH, President Henry HircHcock
Leicester B. Faust, Vice-President JoHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B. Prracer, Second Vice-President RicHarp J. Lockwoop
DaNIEL K. CaTLin WaRREN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
DubDLEY FRENCH EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ErHan A. H. SHEPLEY, JamMes McCCAFFERY Chancellor of Washington University President of the Board of Education f : i ARTHUR C. LICHTENBERGER, So
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri SreatroRD LEE Moxon ’
RayMOND R. Tucker, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis of St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E. GLAESSNER
THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier,
Chairman.
STAFF Prughe GcsGut ler gsc... 2 onc ti ae ea Acting Director ice Fog ¥ tals ao (110 9 eee aie mes BP Me eee Pn on eR Ree a ieee Pee eee Curator of Useful Plants Behe nyey IN At Fe ws 2 es ee ee eer en ee eee Paleobotanist Evelyn Barbour..........00.....c.ssceccseseseecceeeeceeeeees Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN Glarence: Barbies sesssc.cc-12-tssesivs ete easeetiinneatiee ..Instructor Louis G. Brenmec.......................sssccsccessssesecesceessseces Arborist and Grounds Superintendent Weadislaus@utak sete eee Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent Carroll W. Dodge....00.0...000020000.220-- : Mycologist Reobertal ressl eres: chess noeceestasse aes setasentaesenesesesiaes Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS Fo) eo a BD Yel BD pe EB ee oP ee Research Associate Bee loa Val eek rstnte cee st ie eters Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse Robert J. Gillespie cial catesecnacteseassene — In charge of Orchids ORE a mad CO) ECCT ot atte eee Ree a et re et ee ot re pe ER nny eer Controller Rabi An Oh tear ccccsrne eet cres Floriculturist JR ca¥a oY \ctial Psi) Ey A i) » are Se ate ee ON Reto ne Sarno cs ee eee Landscape Architect Wiletor™ Muehlenbac tise. 22.2 55sec ees Senet Bac oee eens tesatas eee stens Research Associate Renmeth ©) Peck asta 5 series rac cross c ae tena ee ne cere wer ese eee In charge of Visitors’ Activities Sa belay diz PO wel tise rtr ee eee arses eas ne ade ee Friends of the Garden Secretary George. FA: Pring cer. se-se0s 22. eerses cee esacte Superintendent | Ssob Vola (kee Rue) 101 Ce ¢ eae ee a BE a en te PO 8A eo eh Eee Engineer Pulsar Ce y. CLI ar Koss se eters rece cos susan oes eee a concen rece a eens eee Research Associate Frank Steinberg.................---:ceec--eeceese0e= Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit SCOL Ber bse Vail SCA aC hens sc ee ee et es ote os ae ete Acting Curator of Herbarium Trifon von Schrenk........... Beene eaten ieee eno ree Associate Curator of the Museum
Robert E. Woodson, Jru..........-..-.-----+- eabaeg sietead cosusaseeeseestughsceseeessscrtseeees Senior Taxonomist
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at Tower Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the Tower Grove mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees
who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A. M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Towrr Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are at their best in April.
Spring Flowers of Kissouri and Stow to Know Chem
—_— -—_..
hy, r Uy, Ut Hannibav4 oO f¢ YY M i> a > ; . 4 — bas cae : . M4 2S pong YY Jefferson City goo aS, got. Louis ~ ee
yy,MiSSISS\ppi Y) River Valley
MissourRI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN VoLuUME XLVI APRIL 1958
NUMBER 3
A greatly enlarged picture of Erigenia bulbosa (Pepper and Salt). See the tailpiece for a habit sketch showing how these plants bloom down among last years’ dry oak
! . leaves.
Othce of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, Illinois.
Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year.
Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-ofhce at Galesburg, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
SPRING FLOWERS OF MISSOURI AND HOW TO KNOW THEM
EpGar ANDERSON, DRAWINGS BY BERNADETTE VELICK
HOW TO USE ANY GOOD BOOK ABOUT WILD FLOWERS
HE average St. Louis amateur who
buys a copy of Steyermark’s SPRING FLORA OF Missourt takes it home thinking “Now when I spend a weekend in the Ozarks I’ll have a book which will tell me all those plants I don’t know”. If the amateur is really interested at all, this is the very worst way to use the book. There are some- thing like a million kinds of flowering plants in the world; no book is going to be able to help anyone identify very many of them right off. The best way to use any good book about wild flowers is to Stupby THE PLANtTs You ALREADY KNow.
Surely you know a buttercup when you see it. Well, look up BuTTERCUP in the index and you will find that Missouri has more kinds than you probably suspected. Now put the book aside and sit down and spend at least half an hour studying your special buttercup—the leaves, the flower, the stem. A reading glass or a hand lens will help you. Never mind if you do not know any names for the various parts of the flower; anything which you find on more than one plant is probably significant. You will find this half hour rewarding in many ways. The plants you live with have more variety and charm than you ever sus- pected before you took a really good look at them.
With this experience behind you
turn back to Dr. Steyermark’s invalu- able book. Look at the pictures and see if you can decide from them just which Missouri buttercup you have in your hand. Then read what he has to say about it. Read what he has to say about buttercups as a whole—the ge- nus Ranunculus. Some of the fancy words he uses will be new to you. Look up their meaning; you’re going to run into them again. After having looked for half an hour at strange little things in the flower with no name in your head to pin them down with, it will be a relief to find such useful concepts as CaRPEL, SEPAL, and Pistit. Never mind if you cannot yet make out what every word means. Have you ever tried to read a foreign newspaper? If you have, you know it is possible to read along in a foreign language skip- ping over the words you don’t know or only half way understand and still get a good deal out of the account. You will also have learned that it pays to sit down from time to time with a good dictionary and look up those words which keep recurring and that do not mean anything at all to you. Set yourself a simple goal. Every time you go to the country look up one plant you know. Spend the week- end learning all you can about this fellow-Missourian you previously took so much for granted. After about five or six such sessions you will find you (29)
30
It will be as if you had previously gone through the world with Vaseline
are seeing plants with a new eye.
smeared over your glasses. Having really looked at a Dog-tooth Violet and learned why it was in the Lily Family, you will understand the Wild Hyacinths when they open, and will surprise yourself by saying ““Why, I do believe that must be in the Lily Fam- ily”. to the Rockies you will find few of
Next summer when you go out
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
the plants which are in Dr. Steyer- mark’s book but if you have spent ten week-ends studying ten plants that you thought you knew anp REALLY Got To KNow Tuem, you will find that though the Rocky Mountain flowers are strangers, they are mostly close relatives of old friends. You will have the satisfying feeling of knowing your way around. Your best teacher
is yourself.
THE LANGUAGE FOR THE FLOWERS
hough they may not look it at | first sight, different kinds of flowers are built up out of the same kinds of units. If you really want to understand them and to find out about them from books, you will have to learn nearly as many technical terms as you did when you first learned to drive an automobile. Here, in the ac- companying chart, is THE ABSOLUTE There
that you really must know: sepal,
MINIMUM. are twelve terms
calyx, petal, corolla, stamen, carpel, pistil, filament, anther, ovary, style, stigma.
Study the chart carefully. Most ed-
ucated people know that the corolla is made up of petals. In just the same way the calyx is made up of sepals and the pistil is made up of carpels. When you see the words, ‘“‘carpel” or pistil” in a book and do not understand them, look at this simple chart. Just as a corolla is made up of petals, either separate or fused together, so a pistil is made up of carpels which may be more or less separate or so fused that you will have to hunt very carefully to find any evidence of individual car- pels. (Words in brackets are less use-
ful to the amateur.)
PARTS OF THE FLOWER AND THEIR NAMES
(FROM THE OuTsIDE INWARDS)
NaME NAME FOR NaMEs
OF THE WHOLE FOR THE
UNIT CYCLE PaRTs
Sepal Calyx
Petal Corolla [ Tube, Limb] Stamen | Androecium | Filament, Anther Carpel Pistil Ovary, Style, Stigma
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 3]
X5
Z
Hamamelis vernalis
1] Crocus susianus | i] Bai
Hamamelis vernalis (Ozark Witch Hazel). Flowering branch, enlarged flower and stamen and staminode. Blooms from December to April along water courses in central and southern Missouri. Petals Old Gold to Chinese Red. Fragrant. Old leaves tending to persist through the winter.
Acer saccharinum (Silver Maple) X'%. Male and female flowers mostly on separate trees though sometimes mingled on one branch as illustrated here. Male flower upper left. Blooms from February to early May along river banks and bottom lands throughout Missouri.
Ulmus americana (American Elm) and Ulmus fulva (Slippery Elm). The flowers of these two species are much more distinctive than the leaves. Those of the Slippery Elm are borne in dense clusters from large, rusty-brown, wooly buds. Blooms from March to early May in rich soil.
Crocus susianus (Crocus) ca. natural size. At left the three stamens and the much-branched style and stigma which are characteristic of the Iris family, to which the crocus along with Gladiolus and Blue-eyed Grass belongs.
32 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
BOOKS TO USE
» pring Flora of Missouri by Ju- «lian A. Steyermark, Missouri Botan- ical Garden, St. Louis, and Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, St. Louis, 1940. Reprinted by Lucas Brothers, Publishers, Columbia, Mis- souri, 1954.
This is a flora of Missouri written as simply and non-technically as it is possible to write and still satisfy the demands of scientists as well as those of the general public. Line drawings in black and white illustrate nearly every native spring flower except the grasses and sedges. The cloth bound edition is out of print and it is avail- able now only in paper back reprint.
Gray’s Manual of Botany, Eighth Edition, largely rewritten and ex- panded by M. L. Fernald, American Book Company, New York, 1950. Although pretty large to be called a manual, this work is one volume and can be carried in the hand. It gives concise, scientific descriptions of the native flora from Missouri eastward and northward to New England and the Maritime provinces of Canada. It is much too technical for ordinary amateurs, yet a challenge to the extra- ordinary, some of whom have mastered its technicalities with no outside help.
Wildflowers of Missouri, by T. C. Rickett, Missouri College of Agricul- ture Circular 363, Columbia, Missouri, 1937. Second edition, revised and ed- ited by E. M. Palmquist and C. L. Kucera, Missouri Handbook Number 3. The University of Missouri, Colum- bia, Missouri, 1954.
Here is a wildflower guide written in clear, easily understandable language by the wife of a former professor at the University of Missouri. It is illus- trated with black and white reproduc- tions of photographs of wild flowers. The original circular proved to be very generally useful to the amateurs of the
state.
The New Britton and Brown Illus- trated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, by Henry A. Gleason, The New York Botanical Garden, 1952.
This is a work as technical as Gray’s Manual and covering approximately the same area, consisting of three large volumes with excellent line drawings of all the native plants and a few cul-
tivated ones which have run wild.
An annotated Catalogue of the Flower- ing Plants of Missouri, by Ernest J, Palmer and Julian A. Steyermark, An- nals of Missouri Botanical Garden 22: 375-758, September 1935.
The entire flora of the state are cat- alogued in this technical book, with precise notes as to the distribution of each species, county by county. It contains a valuable discussion of the geographical distribution of plants in Missouri which should be largely in- telligible to any amatuer.
Manual of Cultivated Plants, by L. H. Bailey, The MacMillan Co., New York, 1949,
If he is interested in garden plants, this fat little book will answer more of the amateurs questions about the kinds
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 33
of plants than any other. It has an unusually full index of common names. Though it is written in technical bo- tanical style it is so clear that most amateurs are able to find their way through it. There is an unusually good glossary explaining the meaning, not only of technical terms, but of the scientific names of plants. ‘“Scandens,”
ts
for instance, means ‘“‘climbing”’ and when we see a plant listed as Celastrus scandens we may immediately know that it is most probably a climbing plant. The manual is partially illus-
trated.
The Geography of the Ozark High- land of Missouri, by Carl O. Sauer, published for the Geographical Society of Chicago by the University of Chi- cago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1920. Professor Sauer, one of the greatest living geographers, wrote this book as a young man about his native state and those parts of it which he had
known as a boy and studied as a gradu-
ate student. A combination of history, geology, and geography.
Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs, 2nd edition, by Alfred Reh- der, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1940.
This is a technical compendium for all the woody plants (trees, shrubs and vines) native or introduced into the temperate and sub-temperate parts of the United States. It contains tech- nical keys and descriptions, enumera- tions of the outstanding varieties of woody ornamental plants and dates of introduction into cultivation; and is one of the world’s finest reservoirs of useful information. It is amazing that one man should have been able to com- plete it in his lifetime. Every amateur should look through this book to real- ize (as few amateurs do) the amaz- ingly large number of plants which have been brought into cultivation by man, and the incredible amount of information about them which _ has been gathered into books like this one.
SWEET PEAS, PEA PODS, AND THE
f you want to understand something | important and interesting about the flowers of almost any part of the world, one of the easiest ways to learn a little in a short time is with a few Sweet Pea flowers plus half a dozen pea pods from the grocery store. Plants not only are of many different species but these species are classified in groups aptly termed Families. Knowing some- thing about plant families is the easy
PA-PIL-I-ON-A-CE-OUS LE-GU-MIN-O-SAE
route to knowing something about many kinds of plants in many parts of the world. By and large, however, this is a rather technical kind of thing to know and few amateurs find their own way into the problem. If there is any route easier than the Sweet Pea- pea pod route, no one has found it yet. Not only is it an easy one but it takes you immediately into an understanding of one of the world’s most important
36 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
SPRING-FLOWERING LEGUMES
Native To Missouri
Amorpha (Lead Plant)
Astragalus (Ground Plum)
Baptisia (Wild Indigo)
Cercis (Redbud)
Gleditsia (Honey Locust) Glycerrhiza (Wild Liquorice) Gymnocladus (Kentucky Coffee Tree) Lespedeza virginica (Bush Clover) Oxytropis (Locoweed)
REDBUDS AND THE HISTORY
perceptive naturalist, visiting
southern Missouri for the first time is impressed by two things—the strange plants peculiar to the Ozarks and the strange aspect of well-known plant species. From New England to New York State to Michigan the Sugar Maples are much the same; but come to the Ozarks and you find them more variable. Here they tend to hold their leaves in the winter in a fashion un- known in the North and East. They are smaller, wartier, scragglier, more picturesque trees than other Sugar Ma- ples. Similarly, as one comes in from the East, the Red Cedars are seen to be shorter, more variable and with larger berries, the Hepaticas and Dutchman’s Breeches appear much brighter in color. The Flowering Dog- wood grows in more exposed situations and has denser masses of bloom. The common red-and-yellow Columbine is a taller and more branched plant than it was back in Pennsylvania and New York; and its sepals are more greenish and frequently have a strong keel down the middle of them.
These are variations which have been studied at the Missouri Botanical Gar- den by the students and staff during the last thirty years. Some have been
Petalostemum (Prairie Clover) Psoralea (Psoralea)
Robinia (Black Locust) Schrankia (Sensitive Briar) Stylosanthes (Pencil Flower) Tephrosia (Goat’s Rue)
Vicia (Vetch)
Wisteria (Wisteria)
OF THE OZARK FLORA
studied in great detail, as in Dr. Wood- son’s statistical analysis of what has been happening to the Butterfly Weeds.
We now have a fairly simple ex- planation for many of the disturbances of the Ozark flora. The story is most easily demonstrated for our Redbuds. One does not need to have a very sharp eye to note, as he travels westward in the early spring, that the Redbuds vary somewhat in color from one bush to another, while as one travels towards the east they become more and more uniform. From ‘Tennessee and Ken- tucky to the Eastern States, Redbuds are pretty much the same kind of tree, growing in the same kind of place. When masses of them are in full bloom the interlacing flowering branches of adjacent trees cannot be distinguished by their color, or the size of the flowers, or the branching pattern of the twigs. But, drive westward out of St. Louis on Route 66 and you will see a very different kind of evidence. Even when they are all in full bloom the Redbuds are not quite the same color and some bushes are conspicuously very dark, others very light. If you stop your car and examine some of them you will find examples which are grow- ing side by side whose flowers are so
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 37
different that you can quite easily distinguish the two, even when the branches are interlacing.
As you drive west towards Spring- field, Missouri, this tendency becomes more and more conspicuous. If you know the Redbud well in the East you will be surprised to find Redbuds grow- ing in brighter, sunnier and rockier spots than they did there; and an oc- casional plant will have larger and more tightly bunched blossoms than those you knew before. Many of these bushes, even when grown to blooming size, will be no taller than a man.
To find the explanation of this vari- ation one has merely to drive on west- ward until he comes to the Arbuckle Mountains in central Oklahoma. Here is a hybrid swarm of Redbuds, the like of which cannot be found in any other part of the world. The Texas Redbud, a shorter, bushier tree with leathery leaves and brilliant, big flowers has hybridized for many years with the common Eastern Redbud; the Ar- buckles are populated with their mon- grel descendants. Flowers vary from deep pink to almost white, from large to small, from petals all of one color to diverting specimens whose upper petal will be dark pink, the side ones white and the basal pair pale pink.
If one then drives on farther West the country becomes drier and drier, the stands of Redbud fewer and farther between, the influence of the Eastern Redbud less and less discernable until it dies out altogether and one finds isolated colonies of Western Redbud. Our Ozark Redbuds owe their vari- ability to their slightly mongrel ances- try. Some thousands of years ago at
a time when the climate here was drier, the Texas Redbud spread farther up this way and there was a good deal of hybridizing. As the climate became more moist again the Texan species was at a disadvantage and finally died out; but in drier and rockier places Redbuds with a little Texan ancestry were at an advantage, particularly dur- ing spells of extreme drought such as those of the last decade.
This Redbud story, which is now being studied in detail at the Garden, seems to be typical of many Ozark plants. A few thousand years ago in the Xerothermic (hot-dry) period, the climate was much drier than at pre- sent. Conditions in the Ozarks then were much like those of central Okla- homa today. At such times the Eastern Red Cedar hybridized with the Mexican Red Cedar, the common Sugar Maple with the Caddo Canyon drought-resistant maple, the Colum- bine with one of its south-western relatives. When better times brought back a climate not so different from that of Kentucky and Tennessee, the desert vegetation retreated but some of its mongrelized descendants lingered on. Today if one goes to the rocky, west-facing and south-facing limestone glades in the Garden’s Gray Summit Arboretum he can see Redbuds, Sugar Maples, Red Cedars, and Columbines all growing together, all different from their relatives in the East, all with measureable resemblances to south- western species. If you have got to live on a dry Missouri hillside and you come from an old Eastern family, one grandfather or great grandfather from Texas is a real asset.
38
ho
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
SPRING FLOWERS NATIVE TO MISSOURI MARCH |
NAME Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot) Amelanchier canadensis (Shad Bush)
Cercis canadensis (Redbud)
Dentaria laciniala (Toothwort)
Dicentra Cucullaria (Dutchman’s Breeches) Erigenia bulbosa (Pepper and Salt) Hepatica acutiloba (Liver-leaf )
Houstonia minima (Small Bluets) Isopyrum biturnatum (False Rue Anemone) Leavenworthia uniflora (Leavenworthia) Claytonia virginica (Spring Beauty) Erythronium albidum
(White Dog-tooth Violet) Erythronium mesochoreum (Prairie Dog-tooth Violet)
Nothoscordum bivalve (False Garlic)
Viola papilionacea (Common Violet) Viola pedata (Bird’s-foot Violet) Lithospermum canescens (Orange Puccoon) Myosurus minimus (Mousetail ) Polemonium reptans (Jacob’s Ladder) Stylophorum diphyllum (Celandine Poppy) Uvularia grandiflora (Bellwort)
Viburnum rufidulum (Black Haw) Astragalus distortus (Bent Milk Vetch) Camassia_ scilloides (Wild THyacinth) Del phininm tricorne (Dwarf Larkspur) Mertensia virginica (Bluebells)
Phacelia Purshii (Miami Mist)
Phlox divaricata (Blue Phlox) Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine) Arisaema Dracontium (Green Dragon) Arisaema triphyllum (Jack-in-the-pulpit ) Dedecatheon Meadia (Shooting Star)
APRIL | MAY
JUNE
63
64
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
39
LISTED IN ORDER OF COMING INTO BLOOM
NAME
lodanthus pinnatifidus (Purple Rocket)
Viola striata
(Pale Violet)
Arenaria patula (Sandwort)
Astragalus mexicanus (Larger Ground Plum) Clematis Fremontii (Fremont’s Leather Flower) Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood) Hydrophyllum appendiculatum (Woollen Breeches) Nemastylis acuta (Northern Nemastylis) Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort)
Tris virginica
(Southeran Blue Flag) Scutellaria parvula (Skullcap)
Amsonia illustris (Amsonia)
Coreopsis lanceolata (Tickseed Coreopsis) Menarda Bradburiana (Horsemint)
Ocnothera missouriensis (Missouri Primrose) Tradescantia canaliculata (Spiderwort)
Del phinium carolinianum (Carolina Larkspur) Penstamen Digitalis (Beard-tongue) Echinacea pallida (Cone-flower )
Echinacea paradoxa (Cone-flower)
Saturaia glabra
(Ozark Calamint)
Rosa setigera
(Climbing Rose) Asclepias tubercsa (Butterfly Weed) Petalostemum purbureum (Purple Prairie Clover) Ratibida pinnata (Prairie Coneflower) Vernonia altissima (Ironweed) Cephalanthus occidentalis (Buttonbush)
Monarda fistulosa
(Wild Bergamont) Veronicastrum virginicum (Culver’s-physic) Asclepias verticillata (Whorled Milkweed) Cam psis radicans (Trumpet Vine) Houstonia angustifolia (Summer Bluet)
L | MAY | JUNE | JULY DN Mest dase une doc vac races teapteadeeeseeeos WD so eadovaks eat ie te eee BO wscoi sects ccotendaodsreeenccnteace Fed sodas tevatug tiene et ee yO Oe ee Ae 9D dan scleg et a ee re ee DO cain eens ieee Acie ee ee Did dustianeedug sats Sah puneesniesese D2 scenseeasedsheadien Did covccseddescvebor ees DA resceeene seas DY sek easencpececussnscacdencssaven vaunsesciedieee DIG oh EA Gy eT eee 57 bier pf ame 60..:.:- 6l Otc ates To Sept. 63. _To Sept. 64 -To Sept.
40 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Viola pedata
Amelanchier
F ‘a canadensis es oe (( RREEKQKQ ™ =, SS SS \ \ \ \K\ a NY \ Uvularia Camassia grandiflora scilloides
Amelanchier canadensis (Shad Bush) natural size, leaf X¥%. Blooms from mid-March to mid- April in open or rocky woods and bluffs throughout Missouri; the flowers appearing before leaf buds open. At a distance it resembles wild plum, but blooms earlier in rockier places and has more graceful branches than plum.
Viola pedata (Wild Pansy, Bird’s-foot Violet)ca. natural size. The form with upper petals velvety deep purple (upper right), is commoner in the St. Louis area than the plainer form with all petals of soft gray-blue. Late-March to May in sour soils in woods, glades and prairies through- out Missouri.
Uvularia grandiflora (Bellwort) ca. half natural size. Flowers drooping and frequently appear- ing as if wilted or unopened. Sepals and petals colored alike, deep or pale yellow. Leaves very graceful. Blooms in April in rich woods on slopes of ravines or bluffs, or wooded bottom Jand, throughout Missouri.
Camassia scilloides (Wild Hyacinth) ca. half natural size. Sepals and petals colored alike, a soft, gray-blue. The slender stamens give the tall spikes an airy grace. Blooms April to May, prairies, open woods, glades and rocky open slopes, mostly on limestone in eastern, southern, and central Missouri.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 4l
Dodecatheon Meadia
ye = 9 i; { HY i
Monarda DH /— Bradburiana
\ Y
Amsonia illustris
Phacelia Purshii (Miami Mist) X21%. Flowers soft, bluish-white, delicately fringed. The closely related Phacelia gilioides is darker blue and is found in rockier places from Franklin Co. west- ward and southward. Blooms April to mid-May in moist open woods, alluvial thickets and open places in eastern Missouri.
Dodecatheon Meadia (Shooting Star) ca. natural size. Flowers intense pink to white, sweet- scented. Very variable in color and color pattern in the Ozarks. Blooms April and May in prairies, glades, bluffs, and moist wooded slopes in eastern, central and southern Missouri.
Amsonia Illustris (Amsonia) X™%, detail X11%. Plants form dense clumps (unlike their rela- tives in the East). Flowers are shades of gray-blue and white, the color of old-fashioned Canton china. Blooms mid-April to mid-June in rocky open places and gravel bars of streams in central and southern Missouri.
Monarda Bradburiana (Horsemint, Bee Balm) X'%. The only common Bee Balm which blossoms in the spring. Flowers bright pink to almost white, attractively spotted, sweet-scented. Blooms May and early June in open rocky woods, thickets and glades in eastern, central and southern Missouri.
42 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Oenothera missouriensis
Echinacea
pallida
Ocnothera missouriensis (Missouri Primrose) X14. Flowers opening in the late afternoon, soft primrose yellow, as large as saucers. Seed pods (lower right, X%) turn grayish as they ripen and look almost like wooden lilies when they open up. Blooms May and early June on limestone glades and rocky outcrops in central and southern Missouri. .
Echinacea pallida (Cone-flower) X¥;. Varies in color from deep pink to almost white. Fre- quently grows in dense clusters of hundreds of plants. Blooms late-May and June in rocky prairies, glades and open woods throughout Missouri.
Lathyrus odoratus (Sweet Pea) X¥%. A typical papilionaceous legume (see page 33). Petals at right, standard below, wing in the middle, keel petal above.
Legume. Lower left: pistil of a sweet pea (greatly enlarged) showing the surrounding nine webbed stamens and one separate stamen, stigma pointed to the left. Center: pea pod X'%; note webbed dried-up stamens still clinging to pod. Upper right: pistil of sweet pea with free ends of stamens cut away.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 43
OZARK WILDFLOWERS AND OZARK LANDSCAPES
Su Louis is not only a meeting place of different floras, it is a meet- ing place of quite different landscapes. The Ozarks begin just west and south of the city limits; the Glaciated Plains of northern Missouri and of Illinois fade out (technically at least) within the metropolitan area. Though the last of the great glacial advances was halted much farther north, earlier ones from the east and from the north reached our boundaries before dying out.
The Ozarks are a flat-topped low plateau of ancient limestones and sand- stones whose northern border (as shown in the map on the cover) runs from St. Louis to Joplin. The Ozarks take in a small area in northeastern Oklahoma and extend across northern Arkansas where they meet the southern coastal plain, whose curving edge comes past Poplar Bluff to end at Cape Girardeau. Then the broad, flat, flood plain of the Mississippi River serves as the eastern boundary of the Ozarks to the very edge of metropolitan St. Louis. Along their southern border in Ar- kansas, the Ozarks are joined by the Boston Mountains, a high, flat, steep- sided mesa only recently accessible by first class roads.
The ancient limestones and sand- stones of the Ozarks, lying one on top of another like a stack of gigantic din- ner plates, have warped only a little in the ages since they were deposited. In only one part of Missouri, the St. Francois Mountains, have they been worn through to the ancient granites and porphyries on which they rest. These are scarely more than stumps of mountains, mostly low, whale-backed
ridges a few hundred feet above the valleys from which they rise, though at least one of them, Pilot Knob, is really mountain-shaped, as if one small fea- ture of Yellowstone National Park had accidentally been dropped down, a hundred miles south of St. Louis.
To those who were born and bred in other parts of the country, these little mountains are sometimes a blessed relief. They form soils which are so acid that at times the whole flora re- sembles spots in the East and North. The Southern Yellow Pine (Pinus ech- inata) is common there; Azaleas (Rho- dodendron nudiflorum var.roseum) fill some of the woodlands; in early spring the clear-watered streams which form granite gorges (known locally as “shut-ins”) are lined with graceful bushes of Alder (Alnus rugosa).
Not that the Ozarks are not fascin- ating country in their own strange way. They were uplifted in what was, geologically speaking, just yesterday; and the rivers, which used to meander across a flat coastal plain, now have cut down narrow steep-sided valleys leaving frequent spectacular cliffs of weathered limestone which remind one of canyons much farther westwards. Over much of the Ozarks the hills have been leached away for so long that no limestone is left along the hill tops. The soil there is full of tiny chunks of virtually insoluble chert (impure flints) which was once in- cluded in the limestone. Since chert makes a rather acid soil many of these hills have lime-loving plants at their bases and lime-hating plants along ther ridges, as over much of Jefferson
county where the Blue Phlox (Phlox
44 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
divaricata) fills the valleys and the pink Phlox (Phlox pilosa) is mainly on the ridges.
Some of the limestones in the Ozarks are thin-bedded dolomites which weather into ‘“‘glades’. These rocky areas ooze water all winter and spring when most plants would like good drainage and turn hot and dry in the middle of the summer when plants want all the water they can get. Spe- cies which are really happy in such a situation are rare indeed and_ these glades have a curious flora which can at times be most spectacular. There grows the Purple Coneflowers (Echin- acea_ pallida) in various shades, the Missouri Primroses (Oenothera missou- riensis) with their pale yellow blooms as wide as bread-and-butter plates, and the summer Bluets (Houstonia angus- tifolia) so delicate that one wonders how such dainty flowers could blossom through rainless summer weeks in such exposed places.
Throughout most of the Ozarks there is so much limestone, and lime- stone is so soluble, that many water channels have been disolved-out deep underground. There are few brooks that have water in them all the year round but there are frequent caves and many springs, some of them really
astonishing in size and beauty, where the underground brooks and _ rivers come to the surface.
Near St. Louis there is only one layer of rock, the St. Peter’s Sandstone, which is not strongly alkaline. Along the Crystal Escarpment where this soft white sandstone comes to the sur- face there are many little canyons and gorges. The lack of lime, the sandy texture of the soils, and the shade of the steep-sided canyons attract another set of plants from those common in the rest of the landscape. Here one may find the Partridge Berry (Mitchel- la repens) with its evergreen leaves, tiny, pink flowers and spongy, red berries which last all winter, as well as many other rare and interesting plants. Near St. Louis the Crystal escarpment is most marked from Crystal City (where the sandstone is used for glass- making) to Pacific where imposing cliffs of it can be seen crowding up to the northern edge of the highway, North of the Missouri River it out- crops in beautiful wooded valleys near Marthasville, turning eastward to cross the Mississippi River near Winfield but not until it has produced spectacular examples of folded rock strata along highway 79.
= r Erigenia bulbosa. (See inside front cover).
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ROBERT BROOKINGS SMITH, President Henry HitrcHcock
LeicEsteER B. Faust, Vice-President JOHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B. Prracer, Second Vice-President RicHarp J. Lockwoop
DaniEL K. CATLIN WarrEN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
DuDLEY FRENCH EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ErHan A. H. SHEPLEY, James McCaFFERY Chancellor of Washington University President of the Board of Education ArtHuR C. LICHTENBERGER, a
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri STRATFORD LEE Morton ’
RayMonpD R. Tucker, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis of St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E, GLAESSNER
THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier, Chairman.
STAFF Hugh) Gs Gutlen ee -Acting Director EdgarAndersoni fico eee eee ete . Curator of Useful Plants Elem trys Nc ATG OW Sonar Fee rac ca saree ae aa asscsescieerecanereces Paleobotanist Evelyn Barbour: 22224 egies Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN Clarence Barbre ....................... eae car ea eg eras eget es Instructor [sottis Git Brews nie coer coer teen cee ee Arborist and Grounds Superintendent Teadislatig eu take ee ea Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent Catrolli- Wi, Dodge... 2.222 ea aceses See Reece nhs nc Ae Peat Mycologist Robert. Dressler veces eae ees aneesee Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS lo) 11 pod BSR D112 yee en ne ae nee ....Research Associate Ba Evin gene 20 e-sereeestae cee coat Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse roberts |e: Gill es pie ssesce cacao a eae cng ae e eee eee cee eeeeeeeee In charge of Orchids scary gb 2G des rer ese aree ay ae a e ae esecraee a ee eaca gene de sace race teearte Controller Paul Aw Kohl 22 eas rccree ae Floriculturist Ihab a4 Lael Eee Ey clo) « Rene ee ep rae ei eee ie REE ee TOPE Landscape Architect Viktor Muehlenbachs 2 c.c5scc-sc.cctceesecsecs secs secs soe sess cas ese taectes const cauneesses Research Associate Kenneth ‘©; Peck 2 oc.sccn 5-20, 5k ce cectece pace tacts ao tece ete scnesess In charge of Visitors’ Activities Teabsel lacs) Powell eseccssee ee ecersgenerns acco ees eet eoes reat Friends of the Garden Secretary Were EN Pi geo a ces ce seca cscne cn cepuetsaee sce ctrenscocasacasacassecmeacsasteaeuaccecstvesecovenroen~ Superintendent Kenneth A. Smith.....0002...0...2...-- Sars ee a Aen sae ee Nata sada Tae eee cease ee Engineer aliatie Aso teyettma rises eecevevectescsereecees esse cones Sccececosnta ter meecseenccee: Research Associate Frank’ Steinbete....... 222 see Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit Ger ee 1 aT SC Maa CK ees access ones ceeciaets ha uuseutaqssicraas Acting Curator of Herbarium MPerit OY AVON CSCI Tem Kicete ores e ne cc ons fecewes este ee ceten cast caces Associate Curator of the Museum
Robert: Es Woodsony Jif ..c2i 52-20-25 -0sscassetetecscaauscas Sarre SE eer aa Senior Taxonomist
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at Tower Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the Towrr Grove mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees
who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A. M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Towrr Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are
at their best in April.
Volume XLVI
ulle fin Sane 1958
Number 4
Contents
Chinese Gardens Hibiscus for St. Louis Gardens Research in Breeding Tropical Water Lilies
Cover: Nymphaea “Aviator Pring’. About 4; natural size. See page 59.
Ofhce of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, Illinois.
Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year.
Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-ofhce at Galesburg, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin
CHINESE GARDENS BEVERLY KLING MOHLENBROCK
Vol. XLVI No. 4
* ‘A garden...to the Oriental...
is any secluded spot in the earth, in the heavens or in the imagina- tion where are garnered, cultivated and cherished certain ‘flowers’ or precious symbols—be they stones, or bronze, or tiles, or marble, or wood, or what not. The slightest touch of the imagination transforms and transmutes these simili- tudes of Nature into gardens and garlands.”
A Chinese garden exemplified the harmony of the artificial with the natural—the harmony of man-made structures with natural structures. The location of every building, plant, rock, pool, and bridge was determined in terms of its blending with nature. The garden became very much like a “landscape painting in three dimen- sions, but like Chinese painting, it was subjective.”
The Chinese learned that every pos- sible form of rhythm was to be found in nature and made good use of this fact in their gardens, which have been called “‘symphon[ies] of rhythm.” Disregarding their content, lines and forms were considered beautiful in themselves because of their natural rhythm. “Qualities like force, supple- ness, reserved strength, exquisite ten- derness, swiftness, neatness, massive- ness, ruggedness, and restraint’ or freedom” were considered beautiful
and natural in regard to lines, Sim-
JUNE, 1958
ilarly, qualities such as “harmony, proportion, contrast, balance, lengthi- ness, compactness, and sometimes even
.slouchiness or irregularity’? were considered beautiful in regard to form. Never were lines or forms straight or perfectly symmetrical, for if so, their beauty was lost.
The simplicity of the Chinese garden and its prevailing quietness were con- ducive to meditation and contempla- tion, the main purposes of a garden as established by the underlying religious philosophy. ‘‘Serenity of soul, medita- tion on the problems of life and con- duct, contemplation of the mountains, rivers, waterfalls, trees, flowers, and stars—these were the spiritual elements that entered into the creation of a garden.” A garden became an escape from reality and tension, a place where man might reach perfection through meditation. It also was a place for relaxation, a place of solitude. The builder of a garden did not intend his work of art to be used for recreational purposes, but occasionally he deviated from the main purpose of his garden and utilized it in entertaining his few choice friends. The entertainment would consist of nothing more ener- getic than the enjoyment of “‘calli- graphy, painting, performing on the table lute, playing chess, writing verses, drinking wine... or cultivating flowers.”
(45)
46 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
The philcsophy created by the inter- woven ideas of the two main Chinese religions, Taoism and Buddhism, was reflected in the gardens. They were built to represent the people’s concep- tion of Paradise, the design often being a replica of the semi-mythical Islands of Dawn, the Three Blessed Isles of the Eastern Sea, or of the mountains hold- ing the Western Heaven. Heaviness and stableness were eliminated as much as possible in order to make everything appear as light and cloudlike as prac- ticable and encourage the immortal spirits to feel at home. It was believed that by building the gardens in this manner the immortal beings, living in clouds and winds, would be pleased and would bless the garden with their presence and give immortality to the builder.
It was a Chinese belief that, by dwelling in a house situated high on a mountain, it would be possible for man to reach perfection and be swept away by the immortal beings to their heavenly abiding places on the moun- tain tops of Paradise. Those people who were unable to live on the moun- tains created them artificially in their own landscape.
Symbolism of the Chinese religions, chiefly influenced by the scholars of the Ming Lynasty (1368-1644), was ap- plied to nearly everything in the gar- den. Life was symbolized by the Yin and Yang elements, the passive and active principles, the female and male forces. The Yin element was repre- sented in “earth, water, darkness, woman, and trouble’; the Yang ele- ment was represented in “heaven,
rocks and mountains, light, man, and
the good.”’ Rocks were believed to be the earthly completion of the clouds, that is, clouds in solid form, and were admired for their strange and gro- tesque shapes. They were gathered from lake beds, where they had been worn by the action of the water. The bent pine and budding plum trees were considered reflections of man’s prob- lems, and water was significant as the arteries of the earth. The following are some of the most important flowers and trees and what they symbolized.
Peony, wealth and honor
Peach and plum blossoms, physical charm and the loveliness of woman, as well as the spirit of the quiet, poor scholar
Orchid, culture, refinement, and nobility of character
Magnolia, associated with the idea of fra- grance of virtue
Pomegranate, fruitfulness
Lotus, truth and purity
Chrysanthemum, gentility, good fellow- ship, and longevity
Gardenia, graceful charm
Narcissus, good fortune
Willows, grace, friendship, purity and mercy
Peach and plum trees, brotherliness and cordial relationships
Bamboo, fidelity, constancy, humility, wisdom, gentleness, and long life,
The Garden of the scholar and poet, which dates back to 206 B.C.—220 A.D., the period of the Han Dynasty in China, was an example of a typical Chinese Garden. Preferably located in the mountains, such gardens were oc- casionally found on the plains near a river. Completely surrounding the garden was a high wall, the top of which had a tile finish and a wavy appearance. In Southern China these walls were usually whitewashed, in Northern China they were built of rough stone. Similar walls were found
throughout the garden and often ter-
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 47
minated as a porticn of a pavilion, a hill, or a rockery. In these walls were windows, varying in design from ex- treme simplicity to intricate detail. A circular or octagonal gate in the form of a crescent moon, a gourd, a vase, flower petal or musical instrument led into the first courtyard of the garden. Several of these gates and courtyards were encountered before a person ac- tually entered the garden proper.
The view through the garden gate was one of great depth, often decep- tive. Through the use of concealment and suggestion, the garden was made to appear larger than it was. The entire garden could never be seen at one time, as it was divided into nu- merous irregular sections by winding walls, shaded corridors called prom- enades, and architectural structures composed mainly of wood, which merged and blended with the natural elements of the garden.
No such distinction as we know in the United States was made between the indoors and outdoors. Low-roofed buildings housed the members of the family which owned the garden. Open galleries in the form of verandas and tile-roofed pavilions, sometimes two- storied and built upon an elevated section of ground or upon stones, were located in places of vantage within the garden. Each of these galleries and pavilions was built for a specific purpose, such as to serve as a com- fortable place from which to listen to the sounds of autumn—‘‘the murmur of the leaves, the stir of homeless ghosts, the chirp of crickets, the rus- tling of brittle bamboo, the whirring
of dragon-flies’ wings,”’ and so on—or
perhaps as a place from which to view the moon as it rose over the lake, the evening sunset, the clouds in the sky, the beauty of the chrysanthemums when they were in bloom, or merely as a place where one might stop to rest and to drink some tea. The name in- scribed on each of the galleries and pavilions revealed the purpose for which it was constructed. Frequently pavilions were found bordering the lake, which was a fundamental struc- ture of the garden, or were built in the middle of the lake. A beautiful, high, arched bridge led to and from the pavilion. The curving lines of the bridge were effectively completed by their reflection in the placid water. Paths found leading to the lake and throughout the garden added a unique touch to the beauty already established. They were constructed of very tiny grey pebbles arranged in various pat- terns which were outlined by thin curving stones, sometimes of a faint rese color. The color built into the Chinese garden—the red columns of the pavilions and the colored tile roofs —gave the buildings the appearance of being copied after flowers, and enabled them to “bloom” all year round. Rockery played a prominent role in the Chinese garden. Steps were con- structed so as to give the impression that they were the works of Nature. Balanced rocks and rock formations containing tunnels and doorways were scattered throughout the garden, add- ing an unusual sight. The roughness and sharpness of this rockery was broken by the soft green hue of vines and trees, and by a brightly colored
flower which would occasionally ap-
48 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
pear amidst varying shades of green.
Few lawns or open stretches of land were found in the Chinese garden, for such were considered wasteful and ugly. In contrast to Western gardens, those of China were devoted more to architecture which blended with na- ture than to the cultivation of lawns, trees and flowers. Nevertheless, plant life was abundant, and it served to enable the buildings to blend with nature and lose their conspicuous man- made appearance.
The main use of flowers was to decorate the interior of the Chinese homes and the courtyards. They were displayed in a series correlated with the seasons. In such a way, each season of the year was seen at its best in the numerous views of the Chinese garden.
“Competent authorities estimate the Chinese flora to contain fully 15,000 species, half of which are peculiar to the country.” Of these 15,000 species, the flora that was most commonly found in a typical Chinese garden
included the following:
lotus, wisteria, laurel, begcenia, jasmine, peony, iris, clematis, azalea, hydrangea, chrysanthemum, orchid, gardenia, narcis- sus, magnolia, pomegranate, bamboo, plum, peach, pine, juniper, cedar, willow, maple, palm, musa (banana), elm, cypress, winter- sweet (perhaps Acocanthera spectabilis) , heavenly bamboo, winter green, maiden- hair tree ferns, Chinese tulip trees, and camphor trees.
The Chinese gardens can be classi- fied into several categories. There are, of course, intermediate stages of vary- ing degrees. The first category would include the simple house-gardens of the Chinese commoners, concentrated on utility yet revealing the beauty of
nature. Small yards or miniature gar-
dens with all the trimmings of a good- sized garden were enjoyed by people of lesser means.
The temple gardens are in a second category. Many of these were scat- tered throughout the Western Hills and offered beauty, peace, and seclu- sion to troubled minds. The Chieh T’ai Ssu, the Monastery of the Ordina- tion, an example of one of these gar- dens, has been preserved due to its well-hidden location and the difficulty encountered in reaching it, even when its location is known. This garden is large, spread out, and built in a series of terraces, with the Ordination Ter- race located on the summit. The Ling Yin monastery, the Spirits’ Retreat, serves as another example of a pre- served temple garden. Here goldfish are seen swimming in the placid pool, and awesome caves are found hollowed- out in the mountain.
A third category would be made up of the pleasure gardens of the wealthy, more claborate in their make-up than the two previously mentioned types. During the latter part of the Sung Dynasty (960-1277 A.D.), Hang- chow became the site of many of these beautiful gardens. From 1368 to 1644 A.D., the period of the Ming Dynasty, the greater number of these were cen- tered in the vicinity of Soochow, the most beautiful and most prized being the Liu Yuan, The Lingering Garden. The Liu Yuan still exists today and is a “series of courtyards and garden rooms, dependent on each other and
Another of China’s
prized pleasure gardens, built in Soo-
>
inseparable.’
chow in the year 1342 A. D., was the
Shih Tzu Lin, the Lion Garden. The
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 49
Shih Tzu Lin has been described as “one large rectangle around which an endless number of charming per- spectives has been created.’’ These “charming perspectives” are composed of picturesque rocks. This particular garden is the only famous Chinese rock garden which has survived.
Chinese pleasure gardens deviated from the idea of extreme simplicity in garden design, but their luxury was far surpassed by the imperial gardens, which were built by each of the im- perial families after the unification of the Chinese Empire (third century B.C.). These imperial gardens com- bined the basic form, purpose, and philosophical symbolism of the typical Chinese garden with magnificence, ex- travagance, and vastness.
The elite of the Chinese gardens were clustered about the imperial gar- den and migrated with it as it moved from one place to another with each change of dynasties. This change was brought about directly by the Chinese people who marveled at the splendor of the imperial gardens and delighted in hearing tales of their magnificence but revolted against such luxury and ex- travagance when the oppression of the ruler and the heavy burden of taxation could no longer be endured. As a result of this popular uprising, a new dynasty would come into power, and it too would create magnificent gar- dens at the expense of the people, until once again revolt would bring another new dynasty into power. Because of this sequence of events, it can be said that “the history of China is the record of her gardens.”
The imperial gardens reached their
peak during the Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1911). They were built north- west of Peiping and near the foot of the Western Hills. most splendid of all the Chinese im-
The largest and
perial gardens was the Yiian Ming Yuan, built in 1709 by Emperor K’ang Hsi of the Ch’ing Dynasty. This fabulous garden was said to have con- tained literally hundreds of individual gardens, and it was distinguished from all others by its air of refinement and mist of privacy.
In addition to the basic requisites of a Chinese garden, the Yiian Ming Yiian possessed a system of canals, a multitude of buildings, and an abun- dance of plant life. The canals divided it in such a way as to create numerous islands and valleys. These canals were reported to appear as works of nature rather than works of human beings. They were irregular in width and wound gracefully between the hills. The rocks which lined the canals were of various sizes, shapes, and designs and added to the desired natural effect The buildings in-
cluded the “dwellings of the numerous
of the structure.
members of the Emperor’s large fam- ily, ... halls for audience and for meeting ofhcials, an ancestral shrine, temples, libraries, theatres, farm build- ings, ... a drill field for archery con- tests, a workshop for the artists, boat- houses, numerous pavilions and covered porches of various shapes and sizes.” “These buildings, which were located on the many islands of the garden, were connected by a network of courtyards, covered passageways, and bridges. Waterfowl swam on the
lakes of the garden, and fish of gold,
50 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
silver, and copper lived in the pools. In addition to the plants commonly found in Chinese gardens, the Yuan Ming Yiian was graced with the beauty of lilies, wu tung trees (Sfer- culia platanifolia), reeds, and apricot trees, as well as rice and grain fields.
The combination of all the splendors of the Yiian Ming Yiian attracted, among others, Jesuit missionaries who, in the seventeenth century, aroused European interest in Chinese gardens by describing them in their letters. As a result of this interest which increased rapidly in the cighteenth century, Europe’s very stiff and formal style of gardening gave way to a style greatly influenced by China. The first person to introduce the Chinese gardens into Europe was Sir William Chambers, who, in 1750-1757, built the first Chinese garden in England. The new Chinese-English garden style was grad- ually carried into France, Germany, and other parts of Europe.
During the early and middle nine- teenth century, the power and _ in- fluence of the Ch’ing Dynasty were declining, but China haughtily con- tinued to claim universal authority. Her attitude and policy of resistance to foreign demands for trade conces- sions in China resulted in the French and British campaign of 1860 against her. This campaign led to the evacua- tion and doom of Yiian Ming Yuan. British and French soldiers looted all the treasures possible from this im- perial garden, and the objects which were too large to be taken were broken and widely strewn. The remainder was destroyed by small fires started by the soldiers.
Finally a truce was made among the belligerents, and it seemed as though peace was to be restored; that is, until the Chinese were discovered treating the French and British prisoners cruel- ly under the flag of truce. Upon receipt of this knowledge, Britain sent Sir John Michel and his forces to burn the Yuan Ming Yiian as revenge for the ill treatment afforded the war prisoners. These troops carried out their orders well and went so far as to burn adjacent gardens and those miles away.
The destruction of the treasures of art and literature of the Yiian Ming Yiian was total, but a few of the ar- chitectural structures remained stand- ing. In 1873 a few minor repairs were made on the remnants of the garden, but it was kept closed. In 1900 once again the palace garden was raided, and after that the Yiian Ming Yiian ceased to exist. Its annihilation has been an irreplaceable loss, not only to the Emperor and the people of China, but to all cultured peoples of the world.
The dramatic end of the Yuan Ming Yiian signified the end of a glorious empire, the remains of which today are seen faintly in the New Summer Palace, outside Peiping, which was built just after the destruction of Yiian Ming Yiian in the campaign of 1860. The payment of a gate fee enables a person to visit these palace grounds today.
In northern China the Sea Palaces also represent what was at one time the romantic atmosphere of the long van- Most of this
ished imperial gardens.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN a1
atmosphere has been lost, due to the fact that the Sea Palaces have been converted into recreational areas, open to the public. Such innovations as these are absolutely incompatible with the original Chinese concepts of a garden.
The sites of many of the old Chinese palace gardens are now occupied by modern institutions, such as Tsing Hua University, Yenching University, military garrisons, flying fields, an or-
THE GARDENS OF CHINA EXISTING TODAY Hangchow—The Gem Spring of the Dancing Fish, Yu Ts’uan; The Island of the Three Pcols of the Moon’s Re- flection; The Monastery cf Pure Com- passion, Chin Tz’u Szu; The Monas- tery of Secluded Light, T’ao Kuang; The Pavilion from Which the Storks Went Forth; Pavilion of the Lake’s Heart; The Spirits’ Retreat, Ling Yin
.; The Upper Monastery of India, Shang T’ien Chu; The Villa of the Liu Family.
Nanking—Only a few fragments re- main.
The Black Dragon Pool, Hei Lung Tang; The Forbidden City; The
Peking
Garden of Smiling Harmony .. . Sum-
mer Palace; many Private Gardens that
phanage, a trade school, hotel, hospital, and numerous summer cottages. Although many of the beautiful Chinese gardens have been destroyed by wars, the influence of the basic simplicity, fundamental purpose, and philosophical symbolism of the Chinese gardens has enabled us to realize that a garden is an art to be enjoyed by all —the people of great wealth as well as the people with only small areas of land
5
“lying just beyond their windows.’
must be visited by means of letters of introduction; Monastery of the Or- dination, Chieh T’ai Ssu; The Peony Gardens of Tung Hsiao Ssu; Tan Che Ssu; The Temple of the Azure Cloud, Pi Yun Ssu; Wo Fu Ssu. Shanghai—Chang Yuan; Pang Sung Yuan; The Willow Pattern Bridge (undoubtedly the central portion of a Chinese garden); Yu Yuan. Soochow—The Autumn Garden, He Yuan; The Forest of Lions, Shih Tze Lin; Garden of the Anhuei Guild, Hui Yin Yuan; The Lingering Garden, Liu Yuan; The Returned Garden, Fu Yuan; The West Garden of the Hsu Family ..., Si Yuan; Yi Yuan, on the site of a Ming garden. Yangchow—Hsiao Chin Shan; Ping Shan T’ang.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bayville, L. L., “Far East Influence: Chinese Garden,” House and Gardens, April, 1949, 94:114.
Graham, Dorothy, Chinese Gardens, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1938.
Howard, Edwin Laclede, Chinese Garden Architecture, New York, Macmillan Com- pany, 1931.
Inn, Henry, Shao Chang Lee, ed., Chinese Houses end Gardens, New York, Hastings House, 1950,
Malone, Carroll Brown, History of the Peking Summer Palaces Under the Ch'ing Dynasty, The University of Illinois, 1934.
Nichols, R. S., ‘Some Old Chinese Gardens,” House Beautiful, February, 1927, 61:158. Peterson, F., “Chinese Gardens,’ Scribner’s Magazine, September, 1917, 62:383—386. Phillips, H. A., ‘‘Celestial Gardens Without Flowers,” House and Gardens, April, 1932,
61:64.
52 MISSOURI BOTANICAL
Powell, Florence Lee, In the Chinese Garden, New York, The John Day Company, 1943. Siren, Osvald, Gardens of China, New York,
Ronald Press Company, 1949.
GARDEN BULLETIN
Wilson, Ernest Henry, China, Mother of Gar- dens, Boston, The Stratford Company, 1929. Yu-T’ang, Lin, My Country and My People, New York, The John Day Company, 1935.
BOOK REVIEW
African Violets, Gloxinias and their relatives: a guide to the cultivated Gesneriads. By Harold E. Moore, Jr. Illustrated by Marion Ruff Sheehan. 323 pp., 5 colored plates, 50 line draw- The Macmillan Co., New York, Price $10.00.
ings. 1957. H'" is a book long needed to
straighten out the Gesneriaceae family.
Part I has chapters telling where the Gesneriads grow in nature; and how to handle them under culture—their propagation, pests, diseases and remedies.
Part II deals with the kinds of Ges-
neriads, of which over 100 are listed,
and includes a key to the cultivated genera. There are five color plates and more than 40 line drawings illustrating nearly every species described, which will help the grower to identify his plants.
A guide to pronunciation, the mean- ing of names and a glossary rounds out a well written book.
Although written more for the stu- dent of the Gesneriaceae, it is of more than passing interest to those who grow African Violets, Gloxinias and a
few other members of this family.
—Armyn Spies
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 53
HIBISCUS FOR ST. LOUIS GARDENS
| ee
Giana the name Hibiscus in garden circles and you will find your listeners will have a wide and quite divergent idea of the species of flower to which you refer. Much of this confusion is due to the fact that many varieties of Hibiscus syriacus (the most common species grown in the St. Louis area) are known popular- ly as “Shrubby Altheas” thus they are thought to be in the genus Althea to which the Hollyhock, another member of the Mallow family, belongs. More properly Hibiscus syriacus is known as the ‘Rose of Sharon.” Few other species are well-known locally.
The Mallow family (the Malvace- ae), to which Hibiscus belongs, con- sists of some thirty-nine genera and from eight to nine hundred species distributed over the entire world, with the exception of the Arctic region. Tropical Araerica has the largest num- ber of species growing most abundant- ly. There are relatively few members of the family with any commercial value or importance; of these few, the best-known are Cotton (Gossy pitti spp.) and Okra (Hibiscus esculentus). The Mallows all contain a mucilagi- nous substance, at one time used in making confection, and the source of the name “Marshmallow.” Such spe- cies as Hibiscus cannabinus of the Old World tropics contain a fibre used in making a sort of jute called Indian Hemp or Bastard jute.
The ornamental Mallows of prom- inence, in addition to the Rose of
Sharon, are the herbaceous, biennial
EVINGER
&
Ba 3
Hibiscus syriacus “Coelestis”
Hollyhock (Althea rosea) and the Swamp Rose-Mallow (Hibiscus mos- cheutos); other new and exciting vari- eties of such species as the Rose of China (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) must be kept in the greenhouse or be pro- tected during winter.
Members of the Mallow family are herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate, simple, and mostly palmately veined or lobed leaves. The open, bell-shaped flowers are regular and bisexual, with five sepals, five petals and numerous stamens. The family is characterized by the fusion of the many stamens into a tube which is often also fused at the base with the petals and which encloses the ovary and style, the many anthers branching off from the surface of the tube at various levels.
An old name of unknown Greek or Latin origin, Hipiscus /s now applied to those Mallows whose seeds are borne
in a five-celled capsule that is dry or
54 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
more or less dehiscent (splitting regu- larly), thus distinguishing Hibiscus from the genus ALTHEA, whose seeds are borne in a whorl or disc. The flowers, often large and showy, are scarlet, pink, white, yellow or com- binations of these colors. The calyx is five-toothed or parted and the bracts or bracteoles at the base of the flower or pannicle may be few to maay and broad or narrow. Anthers are borne over much of the length of the sta- minal column. The pistil (most of which can be seen only by slitting the staminal column) has a style divided at the tip into five distinct slender and spreading branches, and the ovary is made up of many united carpels which form the capsule fruit. Seeds are kidney or bean-shaped and few to many in each of the five cells. Hibiscus or Rose-Mallow is a varied genus, with species widely distributed in the temperate and tropical countries. It is made up of herbs, shrubs, or even small trees. There are between one hundred fifty and two hundred species, of which about seven (with several varieties) are adaptable or have prom- ise for use in St. Louis gardens. They are most suitable for border plants or occasionally as accent groups. Hibiscus militaris Cav. This species is an herbaceous perennial, growing four to six feet high. The leaves are glabrous or nearly so, dark green, rather small, hastate (with two short lobes at the base), the middle lobe ovate- lanceolate or triangular-lanccolate, long-acuminate and equally crenate toothed; the upper leaves are halberd formed (these spear-shaped leaves give
the plant a military appearance, hence
the name militaris). The bracts or bracteoles are linear or awl-shaped and nearly or quite half as long as the calyx. The flowers are three to five inches across, white, bluish or pale rose with a purple eye. The fruit is en- closed in an inflated calyx; the seeds are hairy or fuzzy.
This is a hardy, fine species for use in wet places. No selections or varia- tions yet named are in the trade.
Hibiscus coce:nius Walt. This is a perennial herbaceous species that grows from three to ten feet high and is known for its large rose-red or crim- son flowers that are five to six inches across and borne in the upper leaf axils. The leaves are digitately or somewhat pedately three- to five-parted, the divisions slender, acuminate and_ re- motely toothed. The bracts or brac- tioles are very narrow and_ mostly bristle-shaped, about one inch long, and shorter than the large ovate- lanceolate pointed calyx lobes. The petals are obovate and much narrowed at the base so that they stand well apart. The staminal column with the enclosed style is very long. Fruit cap- sule is ovoid and about an inch long.
This species is of doubtful hardiness in the St. Louis region, which is the northernmost limit of its natural range; it may need to be carried through the winter in a cellar or cold-frame. Fur- ther investigation may find strains of hardy character for general local use.
Hisbiscus lasiocarpus Cav. — This plant is a perennial herb, growing to six feet. It has pubescent stems and leaves, the leaves are ovate to more or less cordate and are slightly three- lobed. The bracteoles are angular and
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 55
bristly. The flowers are white or pale rose with a darker center. This species is a native of the swamps from Ken- tucky westward and south. It is slightly out of range in this region and of no special interest.
Hibiscus moscheutos Linn. (H. palustris Linn.) This is the Swamp Rose-Mallow, a vigorous- growing, per- ennial herb reaching eight feet or more. The stems are hairy or even woolly, the leaves which are mostly ovate and en- tire, though sometimes three lobed at the tip, are crenate-toothed and very soft-woolly becoming nearly or quite glabrous on upper surface. The bracts or bracteoles are linear, nearly or quite as long as the woolly, triangular-ovate calyx. Flowers of the Swamp Rose- Mallow are very large, from four to even eight inches across, and are light rose color in the native form. The fruit capsule is globose-ovoid and glabrous.
Naturally occurring in marshes, the Swamp Rose-Mallow is native along the east coast from Massachusetts to Florida and westward to Lake Michi- gan. It can be easily adapted to gar- den culture, since it does well in wet or poorly drained spots and thrives in any good garden soil. This is one of the best and easiest to cultivate of the Rose-Mallows; it needs only to be cut back during the dormant season. The foliage is sturdy and effective and the plant blooms in August and September.
The Swamp Rose-Mallow is the most generally cultivated of the hardy herbaceous perennial types of Mallows. Soon after the turn of the century several varieties of this species appeared
some of which may yet be found in
old gardens. They were, however, not constant; and obtaining a good strain seemed a matter of chance. The only propagation was from crown divisions —a long and slow process and not very practical or widely used. Named varieties now appearing commercially include: “Anne J. Hemming,” bright red; “Crimson Eye Rose-Mallow,” white with red eye; “Clown,” white with pink veins; “Crimson Wonder,” bright vermilion red; “Fresno,” silvery pink, giant size; “Satan,” deep dark crimson; “Poinsettia,” bright scarlet; “Avalon,” blush-pink to red. There is also a grafted form named “Rain- bow Rose of Sharon” now offered on the market which has branches bearing white, red, and blue flowers, separately, on the same bush.
Hibiscus oculiroscus But. Crimson Eye Rose-Mallow. This species is often classified as a variety or form of H. moscheutos, from which it differs only by having white flowers with crimson centers; and in fact it may be the variety referred to by this name above.
Hibiscus incanus Wendl. This spe- cies also is much like H. Moscheutos and sometimes passes for it in the trade. The leaves are smaller and nar- rower, ovate-lanceolate, rarely lobed, and serrate-toothed. The flowers are sulphur-yellow, pink or white with a crimson eye. This species seems to be hardy in our region but may need the protection of a heavy mulch in winter.
Hibiscus syriacus Linn. The Rose of Sharon or Shrubby Althea. For local gardens this species and its vari- cties are the most interesting and most promising of the Hibiscus. The Rose
of Sharon is a shrub six to twelve feet
56 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
high, sometimes almost tree-like, much branched and nearly or quite glabrous. The leaves are rather small, short- petioled, three ribbed and triangular or rhombic-ovate. The lower leaves are mostly three-lobzd with many rounded teeth or notches. The bracteoles are linear, six or seven in number and shorter than the sepals. The flowers, solitary in the axils on the young wood, are short-peduncled, somewhat _ bell- shaped and two or three inches in width and length. The petals are rose or purple, usually darker at the base in the original species.
The exact origin of the Rose of Sharon is not known. It was intro- duced into Western Europe before 1600, probably from India or the East- ern Mediterranean region. It is now one of the most common ornamental shrubs and is quite hardy in this area. A feature of old fashioned gardens from colonial times, it seemed for a while to have lost favor to other flow- ering shrubs, but is now coming into its own again largely due to the habit of free-flowering in late summer after other shrubs have passed their peak of bloom. Also new varieties are show- ing great promise and may, in time, rival these of the already famous tropical species and varieties of Hibis- cus. Its culture is easy if it is given a little protection from sudden freezing and thawing. This can be done by plac- ing the plant away from an extreme northern exposure and by mulching. Little pruning is required.
Listed below are the old and some of the new improved varieties of Rose of
Sharon now being offered. They differ
from one another largely in the size and color of the flowers and by the leaf varigations, (Asterisk indicates plants which may be seen growing in a Hibiscus planting in the knolls in the Missouri Botanical Garden, al- though some of the varieties are yet quite small and cannot be cbserved in
flower this season. )
“Anemone flora’, flowers double pink
“Ardens’*, flowers double violet or purple
“Admiral Dewey”, pure white double
“Banner”, bluish, double
“Boule de Feu’”’*
“Celestial Blue”*, light blue
“Coelestis’’*, purplish blue
“Crimson wonder”, deep, dark red or crimson
“Flora plena’’, double white
“Foliavarigata’’*, variegated leaves
“Grandiflorus superbus”’, large pink
“Jean de Arc”’*, double white
“Hamabo”, pale bluish with large carmen blotch at the base of petal
“Lady Stanley”, white-shaded rose, double
“Lucy”*, double bright red
““Monstrosus’’, double red
“Paenoflorum”*, double pink
“Pulcherima’’*, pink and white
“Purpurea semiplena”*, double purple or bluish
“Rosea”’, white crimson eye
“Rubis’’, red
“W.R. Smith”*, pure white
“Speciosa plena”, double, pinkish- striped or blotched with deep rose
“Totus albus” *, pure white
“Woodbridge”*, clear rose-pink to red
“White red-eye’*, white with red
center.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 57
RESEARCH IN BREEDING TROPICAL WATER LILIES
GEORGE
é lee successful introduction of the yellow day-blooming tropical water lily, Nymphaca Burttii (Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 20, 1933), opened up an entirely new field in water lily breeding for the writer. Nymphaca Burttii was intro- duced into cultivation by the Garden in 1929 from seeds sent by Mr. B. D. Burtt, botanist for the Tsetse Research Burcau, Kondoa, Tanganyika. Several hybrids, derived from Burttii, have been introduced into the commercial trade and amateur collections. These include: “Saint Louis,” 1932; ‘‘Yel- low Star,” 1932; ‘African Gold,” 1941; and “Sunbeam,” 1941. The latter is a viviparous type, producing young plants from the center of the fully developed leaves.
The parent species, N. Burttii, un- fortunately is a very poor propagator from tubers; although tubers are formed they fail to grow into young plants. This defect did not show up in the first generation hybrid, ‘‘Saint Louis”; but it definitely did in the later hybrids produced from it.
To obtain a hybrid with a deeper yellow, the good propagator, N. “Saint Louis,” was selected to back-cross to N. Burttii. The result was an excel- lent dark-yellow hybrid, named N. “African Gold,’ which was, however, a poor propagator from tubers and was also sterile. The commercial growers were disappointed in the poor repro- ductive qualities inherited from the parent N. Burftii, and hoped that future research would produce a good, dark yellow which they could propa-
. PRING
gate annually. From the amateurs the request was: ‘You have originated many large hybrid water lilies in varied colors suitable for large pools. Why don’t you develop small water lilies to fit our small pools?”
I accepted the challenge and visited the Kew herbarium in England the following year, 1948, to search through the water lily collections. Tropical pygmy water lilies had not been intro- duced into cultivation; however, two (Nymphaea sul- Heudelotii,
perfect specimens furea, yellow; and N. white-shaded, pale blue), were found and studied. Both of these species pre- sented the opportunity for research in breeding smaller water lilies. Dr. H. S. Conard, an authority on water lilies, writing of the tender day-blooming kinds, states:
“There are two treasures awaiting introduction and which promise great things. Africa hides in its vast in- terior two yellow tender species allied to the present blues and whites. One has excellent double flowers six or seven inches across—N ym phaea Stuhl- The other, Nymphaca sul- phurea, is a pigmy with flowers and
mannii,
leaves two to three inches in diameter. Aside from their individual attraction, think what a future they offer for hybridization! It is earnestly hoped that they will not long be absent in our gardens.”
Twenty-five years later on August 30, 1949, through the efforts of Mr. Robert Trickett of Kew, a tuber of N. sulfurea collected by Mr. P. J. Green-
way in Northern Rhodesia, was_ re-
58 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
ceived at the Garden. Despite its dehydrated condition upon arrival, the tuber was successfully grown in a half- barrel and it flowered the summer of 1950. On February 7, 1950, seeds of N. Heudelotii collected by Mr. R. D. Meikle of Kew Gardens while on a visit to Nigeria, arrived from Mr. Trickett. Upon arrival the seeds were immediately sown in pans and placed in the propagating tanks in the greenhouse. Excellent germination soon appeared, the first flowering plant being grown in a_ half-barrel. To increase the stock, self pollinations were made the first season for seed production. Again the Garden is credited with being the first to intro- duce new species of Nymphaea into cultivation (Missouri Botanical Gar- den Bulletin, 1951).
Experience has proved that the breeder of water lilies is limited to in- tercrossing within sub-groups of the Nymphaceae; for example, the hardy pygmy water lilies, N. fetragona (white), and the hybrids “helvola” (yellow), and “Jo-Ann Pring” (pink), belong to the Castalia group which are not compatible with the recently intro- duced pygmies of the Brachyceras group. To produce new tropical pyg- my water lilies in varied colors will necessitate a long-range breeding pro- gram, since only large-flowering types are available for pollination with the tropical pygmies.
During August 1951 the writer started pollinations between N. Heu- delotii and N. colorata which resulted in a medium-sized, pale blue hybrid named “‘Bluet.” It is a very poor
propagator that is almost sterile and
consequently of botanical interest only. N. su!furea crossed with N. “African Gold” produced a medium-sized dark yellow hybrid, N. ‘Saint Louis Gold,” with all the floral characters of N. sulfurea. With several seasons testing it has preved to be a desirable hybrid tor small pools and is as well a free- flowering lily during the early spring in the greenhouse, particularly in small pots. N. “Saint Louis Gold” is now listed in the commercial catalogs as suitable for small pools.
A cross between N. sulfurea and N. “Saint Louis” has produced a yellow hybrid which satisfies the connoisseur and is now in the trade catalogs for distribution. It is named in memory of Lt. R. Bradford Pring, a pilot in World War Il. It possesses hybrid vigor, is an excellent propagator from bulbs (a characteristic from its ancestor, N. “Saint Louis”), and it is viviparous and very fertile. N. sulfurea has in- fluenced beth its color and fertility. N. “Aviator Pring” is a very good indoor winter-flowering hybrid.
Frequently amateurs will ask how Jong it will take before a new lily is originated and distributed. For ex- ample, in the production of “Aviator Pring” and “Saint Louis Gold’ the pollinations for the crosses were made in August 1952. The hybrids flowered the following year. Both hybrids were distributed for sale in 1957. The in- tervening period was necessary for a series of tests to ascertain the abilities of reproduction from tubers and for the production of sufficient stock for distribution. Hybrids that are vivip- arous producing piggy-back plants are
assured of speedy reproduction.
MISSOURI BOTANIC
P N
<x NYMPHAEA “AVIATOR
N. capensis zanzibariensis f. rosea Q
N. capensis zanzibariensis cv. castaliiflora 4
0
N. ovalifo'ia |
. “Mrs. George H. Pring”
AL GARDEN BULLETIN
RING” (BRACHYCERAS), PRING
. capensis zanzibariensis f. rosea ,
oO +
N. oval folia
N. “Mrs. Edwards Whitaker”
N. Burttii
A
2
N. sulfurea 9
N. “Aviator Pring
Hybrid vigor is shown up in this new primrose yellow hybrid. This is the first yellow variety that meets all
the requirements of the grower. It is
SEPAL PETALS
Nymphaea “Aviator Pring”. i g
Description—F lowers 9-10 inches across; bud narrowly ovoid, pale green; peduncle 4, oblong, hooded at the apex, wide, 5 inches long, outer surface pale
brown; — sepals ovate-
4 =
inches
green, primrose yellow within; petals 40-42, primrose yellow, 4 rows, outer-
N. “St. Louis” 4
”
a good propagator and is occasionally viviparous. This variety has exceeded all expectations regarding size of a
flower.
|
STAMENS
About 4 natural size. (See Cover.)
4,
inches long, 1 inch wide, occasionally
most row lanceolate, obtuse, suffused with green as in the sepals; stamens 265-270, 7 rows, outermost row 2 inches long, °,¢ inches at the spatulate base, pale yellow at the apex,
golden yellow toward the base; carpel-
60 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
lary styles 33-36, primrose yellow, stigma concave, lemon chrome, slight- ly darker than the base of the stamens; seed pod 2—3 inches in diameter; leaves
orbicular, 14-16 inches diameter, pale NYMPHAEA “SAINT LOUIS N. Burtii 9°
N. “African Gold”
SEPAL PETALS Nymphaea “St. Louis Gold”. Description—Flowers 7-8 inches across; bud narrowly ovoid, dark
green; peduncle brown; sepals 4, ovate- oblong, hooded at the apex, 1% inches wide, 4 inches long, outer surface dark green, within citron yellow; petals 20- 22, citron yellow, comprising 3 rows, outermost row lanceolate, obtuse 334, inches long, 1 inch wide; stamens 115— 120, 6 rows, outermost row 134 inches long, 5; inch at the spatulate base, primuline yellow; carpellary styles in- curved, primuline yellow; stigma con- cave, primuline yellow; seed pod 1'14- 2 inches in diameter; leaves, orbicular, 10-12 inches in diameter, dark green, chocolate above,
marmorated with
margins wavy or undulated, below
GOLD” (BRACHYCERAS),
green above, below dark blue to violet, veins green, margins wavy or undu- lated, viviparous at the insertion of the petiole, brown, sinuses open. (Ridg-
way color standard used. )
PRING
N. “Saint Louis”
N. Sulfurea 9 |
N. “Saint Louis Gold”
I
STAMENS
About !4 natural size.
dark green, flushed pale blue, venation
green, petiole brown, sinuses open. (Ridgeway color standard used.)
A medium sized lily producing citron yellow flowers 7 to 8 inches across. Leaves 10 to 12 inches across are dark green flushed with chocolate brown fading green with age. Suit-
able for small pools.
Nymphaea “St. Louis Gold”
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ROBERT BROOKINGS SMITH, President Henry HitrcHcock
LeicesTER B. Faust, Vice-President JOHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B. Prracer, Second Vice-President RicHarD J. Lockwoop
DaNIEL -K. CaTLIN Rospert W. Orro
DupLeY FRENCH WarRREN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ETHAN A. H. SHEPLEY, JaMEs McCCaAFFERY Chancellor of Washington University President_of the Board of Education ARTHUR C. LICHTENBERGER, ad aa
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri Sreareonn: Len MORTON ’
RayMOND R. TUCKER, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis of St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E, GLAESSNER
THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier,
Chairman.
STAFF Pin oh Gy Cit eit st fai et oc Meh te eg a ee eh Acting Director BdgarAndersontcc fe. oe ND readies 2, Ta ee eae res Curator of Useful Plants Elen ny (Nier ANC PEWS ceo. ete Os oe cada Ps. sl es ee ee Paleobotanist Evelyne Barbou tcc ie.) cones e ee A a: Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN GlarencemBarb rents rs tack dee ci ss te es Mme eee cee Instructor Louis G. Brenner Arborist and Grounds Superintendent EadislausCutake eros tee Ors Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent (GEMS {oy ll kbp’ ame B Yo fq. Soegteasts co ene Na oe aS See a eS N ERE ORE en Pte ee OE Mycologist Robert Dressers S22 tx Nis eee tat ee be tS Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS Hoye tot) © ial 0). comme arenes eda EE ER ane ney ey ans aerate ne ee PRI Research Associate Bee LR vin pere.ver eee tee Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse Riobert:)iy.Gillespien arse eee een nea .In charge of Orchids @scarahe Glacss ie rece fee oe nee a Se Bee en acces eee Controller Patil mA ek Wo tyler tae 2 a ci LOH. 2 Sn hes eee Sak ees Se Floriculturist | Dh vat eaX feted fered Ge: id 05 » Proms Pear eed one ASP en eer 8 on PAAR NSB nt eeU nnn Vere eae! Landscape Architect Viktor Muehlenbacl sett cree. sree test Aca oc ccty tans dec es ereaet oes eaveeneet eee Research Associate Keenmeths@ Pec rere ears na New sn dead scandens eee In charge of Visitors’ Activities Isabella bowel lee steht Me ean cee hae BS cle re Friends of the Garden Secretary Ger rey el cue Ruri tere oes ic AN Soe oho aaa Sug te ceases Ucapaveaussuccased Aaeseeeaeneee Superintendent Kenneth A. Smith......0............ BNA TORMENT einer reer Engineer lta Ae SCO Verena Se a aa se dese oasvenselecdovaestases Mowe Ne Research Associate Frank Steinberg.................:0ccsssccceccneeseees Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit George Bi Van Schaack..h.220 oso ocicc. uc cacansncanenctnacercoce¥occee Acting Curator of Herbarium TirikOmeVOnes Gil CM Kress a25 oys2es se <c25-c2s! capaaceaesancweccss sca -seats Associate Curator of the Museum
Robert E. Woodson, Jr.....--..-------:--:---- ee hort ccpscactia tate cee dae esa Senior Taxonomist
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at Tower Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the TowErR Grove mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees
who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A. M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Tower Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are
at their best in April.
Volume XLV |
u Ile fia September, 1958
Number 5
CONTENTS
Inexpensive Beauty
The Silver Nut Tree, “Yin Kou-Tze”’ Euonymous Alatus, A Good Shrub for St. Louis New Plant Introductions for 1958 Hedge Apples Kepell Bugs
“Botany Evening”’ Treating Bark Wounds by Wrepping Fifth Annual Systematics Symposium Horticultural Courses at the Garden
Notes ‘all Events
Cover: Nyssa sylvatica, commonly known as Tupelo or Sour Gum, a tree which stands at the southwestern edge of the lake in the North American Tract of the Garden. It becomes the most conspicuous specimen in the Garden in early October when the dark, lustrous green leaves, not unlike those of Magnolia grandiflora but smaller and less leathery, change to a brilliant crimson. Tupelo Pool was the name given the lake in a general plan of the Missouri Botanical Garden prepared by the Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects of Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1905. Plants were set out in the North American Tract in the early 1900’s according to a synoptical plan following the Bentham and Hooker sequence of families and presumably this tree was planted at that time. Allowing several years for the juvenile stage before being transplanted to its permanent location, it must be almost sixty years old.
Anyone wanting a striking, colorful tree, rivaling a hard maple or a yellow Shag- bark Hickory for autumn color, might try a Tupelo. It is well to remember that this tree does best in a moist situation and is dithcult to transplant, so should be handled
carefully—Paul A. Kohl (Photo by Paul A. Kohl)
Oflice of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, Illinois.
Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri.
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year.
Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-ofhce at Galesburg, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin
Vol. XLVI No. 5
SEPTEMBER, 1958
INEXPENSIVE BEAUTY
W. F. SCOTT, Jr.
|e year a few dollars of the gardener’s budget should be set aside for new plants, exciting things to renew enthusiasm and improve judgment. The daffodil collection is sometimes the last to receive this “modernizing,” and_ since this is the time to buy and plant daffodils, let’s give them some thought.
New daffodil varieties do not need to be expensive. It is a challenge to seek out the unusual, and yet find it at a low price. We will try to do just that, find varieties which are “new” in the sense that nine out of ten casual daffodil growers do not own them, yet which have been on the market long enough to bring the price below two we are look-
dollars. And remember ing for ribbon-winners!
Of the yellow trumpet daffodils (class la), few can equal KiNGscourt. It is outstanding, and for ten con- secutive years it won “best yellow trumpet in show” at the Royal Horti- cultural Society (RHS). Nearly its equal, and preferred by some, are CROMARTY and MiILaNion. You could not go wrong on any of these.
TROUSSEAU is an exquisite bi-color trumpet (class 1b) which has received high honors all over the world. The
perianth is pure white. The trumpet opens a soft yellow, which passes to rosy cream. Other good choices in this class are CONTENT and Spirz- BERGEN.
From the long list of fine white trumpet daffodils (class 1c), two stand out from all others. They are BROUGHSHANE and CANTATRICE. These should be in every daffodil col- lection, for they are lovely, and they are ribbon-winners in any show.
Class 1d must be omitted from this search, for it is a new one and contains very few varieties, most of which are exceedingly high priced. These are the reverse bi-color trumpets. If you feel you just must have one, and are willing to pay $3.00 per bulb, SpeLt- BINDER is your choice. It is a flower which enchants everyone who sees it.
In class 2a (yellow perianth, large colored cup), GoLDEN TorRCH is an ideal choice and quite reasonable in price. Class 2b (white perianth, large colored cup) contains two excellent varieties of high quality and low price: Coverack PERFECTION and Rep Hackie. Buy both if you can; but if a choice must be made, Coverack PERFECTION might be preferred.
After the shock of the brightly
(61)
62 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
colored cups found in classes 2a and 2b wears off, you will find lasting satis- faction in the glistening purity of the all-white class 2c. In this class, KILLALOE is a sure ribbon winner, and Lup.ow is close behind.
Class 2d contains one such utterly charming variety that it deserves special mention. This is BINKiE, and it will captivate you immediately. When the flower first opens, it is en- tirely a most unusual sulphur yellow. The crown soon passes to a lighter shade, which becomes almost white as the flower ages. The flowers, though not of extremely large size, are very well proportioned and perfectly bal- anced to the stem height. This is a most unusual daffodil.
In class 3a (yellow perianth, small colored cup) there are very few varieties available. CHUNGKING is a sound choice, at a reasonable price. There are no real show-stoppers in this class.
MauHMoub is your choice for class 3b (white perianth, small colored cup) for it is probably the best of the red- and-white varieties. The almost flat crown is a glowing ruby red, against a snow white perianth. LIMerIck is an excellent second selection.
The last class of large-flowered hy- brids is 3c (all white, with small cup) and the outstanding selection here is CUSHENDALL, which has won_ the Award of Merit of the RHS. The very shallow crown is delicately cream colored on the frilly edge, and the center is a lovely moss green.
Other RHS Daffodil classes include the Doubles, Triandus hybrids, Cycla- mineus hybrids, Jonquils, and all the
other small and very interesting forms and species. These are for the lovers of the small and unusual, or for the specialist. Some of them do wonder- fully well here. Others, like the deli- cately scented Jonguilla simplex, are at the edge of their natural climate and fail to prosper.
All of the large-flowered hybrids we have discussed have been grown in St. Louis several years, and will flourish in this climate. This is an important feature, for some of the large-flowered beauties do not take kindly to our winters, and succumb in one or two years.
Buy a few new things each year, to bring your collection up to date. Otherwise, your judgment of what is good in daffodils suffers considerably. You must have an ever-new standard of comparison. Get only one, or two, but get the best you can afford in the class. The cheapest is almost never an investment. The best nearly always is.
Were To Buy? There are many dealers, and you may have your favor- ite. Some of our local gardeners may have small quantities of surplus bulbs to sell or trade, and you may save money by asking questions. Of the large growers, Grant E. Mitsch, Can- by, Oregon, is the largest domestic breeder and grower of daffodils. He issues a lovely catalog. P. DeJaeger & Sons, South Hamilton, Massachusetts, import bulbs from their nurseries in Holland, and issue a regular catalog. These are the two most important domestic sources and in their catalogs you should be able to locate almost
any variety you wish.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 63
NEW PLANT INTRODUCTIONS FOR 1958
| igs Garden has received this year some 150 new plants for intro- duction into the outdoor collections. Of these, the greatest number have come from the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture Plant Introduc- tion Station, Glendale, Maryland. The plants were received in the form of seed, cuttings and small plants. Most of them are now growing in cans and in the cold frames awaiting the fall and spring planting season for incor- poration into the Garden. A_ new, over-all landscape design for the entire Garden is being planned. This will first require a mapping-listing of all plants to give a better idea of what is already here and to serve as a guide for replacements and new accessions. Then will follow a revision of existing plantings.
Listed below are some of the more noteworthy plants received. BARBERRIES—
Berberis aggregata from the Morris Arboretum.
B. fendleri from the Denver Botanic Garden.
B. Diaphana, B. dictyoneura, B. Gil- giana, B. koreana, B. Poireti, and B. virescens from the Botanic Garden of Smith College.
B. Thunbergii var. vermilion from the U.S.D.A.
Docwoop—
Cornus florida “Cherokee Chief” a red variety from Mr. Clarence Barbre of Webster Groves. Ho.tiies—
Ilex hanceana, 1. mutchagara, I. rotunda, I. sugeroki, from the U.S.
D.A
I. opaca ‘““Fosteri” from Mrs. Martin Lammert III], St. Louis, Missouri.
I. aquifolium “Dumbarton Oaks” from Dumbarton Oaks estate in Wash- ington, D, C.
I. opaca “East Palatka’? and the hybrid, I. cassine & I. opaca “Teas Holly” from Mr. Clarence Barbre. LEGUMES—
Albizzia Julibrissin, Mimosa Tree, a new strain having very red flowers, from Mr. Thomas C. Crannage of Belleville, Illinois.
Laburnum vossi, Golden Chain Tree, from Mr. Clarence Barbre.
MAHOGAN Y—
Cedrela odorata, West-Indian- or Spanish-Cedar, from Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Australia. (A relative of the Mahogany tree important to com- merce. )
Lity—
Ophiopogon japonicus, Lily-Turf, from Semmes Nurseries, Semmes, Ala- bama. <A ground-cover, the hardiness of which has not yet been proved in this area, now planted in the Mauso- leum grounds,
MAHONIAS—
Mahonia lomarifolia from the U.S. DA
M. bealii from Mr. Clarence Barbre.
M. pinnata from Mr. Harvey Tem- pleton of Winchester, Tennessee. MaLLows—
Hibiscus “Anne J. Hemming,” a large, bright red form of the Rose Mallow, from Eastern
Moscheutos
Shore Nurseries, Easton, Maryland. This plant is already well established in the Hibiscus collection in the middle knoll of the Garden.
64 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Hibiscus coccineus, a hardy strain, having grown in St. Louis for the past twenty years, with bright red flowers, from Mr. Claude L. Matthews, Ladue, Missourt.
VIBURNUMS—
Viburnum macroce phalum var. ster- ile and V. judii from Mr. Harvey Templeton.
—E.L.E.
TREATING BARK WOUNDS BY WRAPPING
HE loss of large sections of bark
from tree trunks through auto- mobile collision or other accidents is quite common. The conventional method of treating such wounds con- sists of cutting away the loosened bark and applying wound dressing materials to the exposed wood. The wound then heals through the formation of callus growth along the edges of the injury; usually this is a long slow process.
An entirely different method of treatment is suggested in a successful experiment made by Andrew T. Leiser of the Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture, University In this case, the bark was completely stripped from the trunk of a Chinese elm from the ground upward for a distance of
of California, Los Angeles.
about 41% feet. Upon discovery some 28 hours after the injury occurred, the loosened bark was removed and the trunk wet down with tap. water. Then the injury was wrapped with two layers of polyethylene film. The
wrapping was not sealed along the edges, but was tied with cord at the top, middle and bottom. The injury occurred in June; by the following October new bark had formed directly on the sapwood and, with the excep- tion of a few relatively small areas, the wound was covered with this new bark.
The interesting feature of this in- cident is that new bark developed, not through callus growth along the edges of the wound, but through continued activity of the cambium layer over the sapwood as a result of the protection provided by the polyethylene film. Some cases of similar wound healing have been reported when the injury was shaded either naturally or by bur- lap screens. When wounds are treated by shading or wrapping, it appears es- sential that treatment must be made before the cambium layer is killed by the drying effects of long exposure to air.
—Reprinted from the Shade Tree Digest, July 1958.
HEDGE APPLES REPELL BUGS
HE hedge apple, the large, green, ball-like fruit of the Osage Or- ange tree, Maclura pomifera, is gaining
a reputation as an insect repellant. To
quote an American Nurseryman writ- er, “One green fruit, hedge ball, Osage orange, Osage apple or whatever you
want to call it, placed in a room
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 65
infested with roaches and waterbugs, will drive the creatures out in a few hours,” and he further states that such use was discovered by chemists at the University of Alabama.
In recent years there have been a number cf reports of the effective use of hedge apples as a roach and water-
bug exterminator. Mr. Pring as well as others at the Garden attest that a few hedge apples in the basement and closets have positive results.
Hedge apples drop throughout the fall and winter and the many trees at the Garden usually are quite
productive.
THE SILVER NUT TREE, “YIN KOU-TZU”
we it is not generally known, the seed of the Ginkgo when roasted is quite edible. In fact the name Ginkgo comes from the Japanese rendering of the old Chinese name “Yin kou-tzu’ meaning silver nut tree. It is also referred to as the white nut tree. The seeds, denuded of their offensive pulp and washed, are a pure white. Roasted “Silver Nuts” are eaten by Orientals at banquets, wed- dings and other gatherings, being supposed to promote digestion and diminish the effect of wine. They can be found for sale in most market towns in China and Japan. Also you will find them in the Chinatown mar- kets in such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The Ginkgo trees in the Garden or more accurately the female of the species are extraordinarily heavily laden with fruit this season, due, no doubt, to very favorable weather conditions. The branches are so burdened they are breaking with the slightest touch or movement by the wind.
The Ginkgo tree in modern times reportedly is known to occur as a nat- ural forest tree in a single area in China, being usually a tree planted by man for religious purposes or as an
ornamental. For this reason the wood is seldom or little used commercially. The wood is white or yellowish-white and is not differentiated into heart- wood and sapwood; it is finely grained, quite like White Pine (Pinus strobus) ; it is easily worked but is of no great value. To a limited degree it is used in Japan as ground work for lacquer ware and for making chess boards and chess men.
The Gingko is first and foremost an ornamental tree of distinct Oriental or While long
a revered tree in Oriental Gardens and
patriarchal appearance.
religious places, it has only in recent years found wide acceptance in Europe and America; the outstanding objec- tion being the foul-smelling fruits borne on the female trees. However, male trees may now be propagated vegetatively for assurance of male trees for planting.
Trees of stately beauty at any time, Ginkgos are especially handsome in the fall, coloring to a rich golden yellow; and when in group plantings as along Flora Place, in the Garden and in near- by Tower Grove Park they are most striking in the autumn landscape.
—E.L.E.
66
MISSOURI BOTANICAI
GARDEN
BULLETIN
25.
the fifth annual symposium will be held October
Museum where
1
56 systematics symposium participants at the
195
The
Frederick Meyer)
(Photo by Dr.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL Se LM Fs aw 67
EUONY MOUS ALATUS, A GOOD SHRUB FOR ST. LOUIS
NE of the most dependable of O shrubs is the Cork-barked or Winged Euonymous, Exonymous ala- tus, which has funny little winged ridges along the sides of the twigs and branches. Whether the summer be wet or dry, the frost early or late, Euonymous alatus always colors a deep pinkish red and holds at least some of its bright color long after other shrubs are bare and brown. The Tar- tarian Maple, by comparison, though more brilliant, holds its leaves only for a few days, frost or no frost, and does not give effective color to the garden for more than a fortnight at the very mest. Ina protected spot, with Exon- ymous alatus it is frequently almost a month before the very last of the
leaves have fallen. Last year, for in-
stance, in spite of several frosts and one or two hard freezes it was bright and attractive during the first week of December.
In general, it is a good all-round shrub for St. Louis. The corky ridges on the twigs make it interesting in the winter landscape. When brought into the house, winter twigs are readily forced into leaf and make unusual table and window sill arrangements for some weeks. It is a shrub that does well in full sun or in light shade, pass- ably well in quite deep shade; and it is readily available from most nurseries. The flowers are greenish and incon- spicuous, the fruits, though bright, are small; but the rich deep red of its autumn leaves, year after year, makes it a fine shrub to live with.
—E. A.
PIFIO: ANNUAL SYSTEMATICS: SYMPOSIUM
r SHE fifth annual symposium on
systematics is to be held at the Garden on October 24 and 25. This symposium brings together botanists and zoologists, principally from the Central United States, to discuss prob- lems of classification and evolution. This year the effects of Man’s activ- ities on these fields will be considered. Dr. Edgar Anderson of the Garden and Dr. Robert Usinger, University of California, Berkeley, will serve as chairmen. Following is a list of speak- ers and the papers they will present for discussion: Dr. F. R. Fosberg, Pacific Vegeta- tion Project, “Man’s Activities as a Dispersal Agent.”
Dr. Robert R. Miller, University of Michigan, “Man and the Changing Fish Fauna of the American West.”
Dr. H. H. Ross, HUlinois Natural History Survey, “The Potential Effects of Man’s Activities on the Insects.”
Dr. Jonathan Sauer, University of Wisconsin, ‘““Man’s Effect on Tax- cnomic Discontinuities in Plants.”
Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins, University of California, Davis, ‘“‘Habitat Dis- turbance by Man as an Accelerating Factor in Plant Evolution.”
The Symposium is in part supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Last year the meeting was attended by nearly 200 profes- sional biologists and students.
68 voninen omen nn ICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
HORTICULTURAL COURSES AT THE GARDEN 1958-1959
Course I—BuLB FORCING
Instructor: Mr. Clarence Barbre
HE course consists of one meeting ¥ which instruction will be given in bulb forcing and outdoor bulb cul- ture, followed by a practice period in which each student will plant, in five 7-inch bulb pans, at least 24 top- quality bulbs—tulips, Narcissi (daffo- dils and paper-whites), and hyacinths. These will be kept in the Garden bulb pit under cold treatment and in the greenhouses until ready to flower (total of 60-80 days). Each student will be notified when to call for the bulbs. This course is intended pri- marily for those having no previous
instruction in bulb forcing.
Five sections are offered:
Section 1, Tuesday, October 14, 7:00-9:30 P.M.
Section 2, Thursday, October 16, 9:00-11:30 A.M.
Section 3, Friday, October 17, 1:00 —3:30 P. M.
Section 4, Tuesday, October 21, 9:00-11:30 A. M.
Section 5, Wednesday, October 22, 1:00-3:30 P.M.
Registration: September 8 through October 8. Fee: $8.00.
Course is given in the Experimental Greenhouse, Missouri Botanical Gar- den (Enter Cleveland Avenue gate, 2221 Tower Grove Avenue).
Course II—PLANT PROPAGATION
Instructor: ‘Mr. Clarence Barbre
Again there will be two divisions (A and B) of the Plant Propagation Course. In each division the class will meet twice for a lecture-discussion session followed by a student-practice session. The general objectives of both divisions are the same. Propagation methods, tools, and techniques to con- form to the needs of the plant material used will be discussed, thus giving the student understanding and_ skill in production and care of plants suitable for the home grounds. One plastic- covered propagating box and approx- imately 40-50 kinds of plants will be provided per student. The lecturer will discuss methods of vegetative
propagation: root cuttings, suckers,
divisions, hard and soft wood stem cuttings, leaf, bud and scale propaga- tion.
Division A: The student practice will emphasize soft wood propagation of evergreens, principally broad-leaved, such as holly, ivy, azaleas, Euonymous, etc. Some attention will be given to winter care and propagation of house plants.
Four sections are offered:
Section I, Mondays, September 22 and 29, 1:00-3:30 P. M.
Section II, Tuesdays, September 23 and 30, 7:30—10:00 P. M.
Section III, Thursdays, September 25 and October 2, 9:30—12:00 Noon.
Section IV, Fridays, September 26
MISSOURI BOTANICAL
and October 3, 1:00-3:30 P. M.
Registration: August 18 through September 18.
Division B: The student practice will emphasize propagation of house Dieffen- Some at-
plants, such as bachias, Philodendrons, etc.
Begonias,
tention will also be given hard wood cuttings. Four sections are offered:
Section I, Mondays, January 12 and 19, 1959, 1:00-3:30 P. M.
Course II[I—Sprinc
GARDEN BULLETIN 69
Section II, Tuesdays, January 13 and 20, 1959, 7:30—-10:00 P. M.
Section III, Thursdays, January 15 and 22, 1959, 9:30-12:00 Noon.
Section IV, Fridays, January 16 and 23, 1959, 1:00-3:30 P. M.
Registration: December 7 through January 7.
Fee: $12.00 each division.
The course is given in the Experi- mental Greenhouse, Missouri Botanical Garden (Enter Cleveland Avenue gate, 2221 Tower Grove Avenue).
HorTICULTURE
Instructor: Mr. Clarence Barbre
This is a course in practical spring gardening, the growing of annuals and perennials from seed. Each of the five meetings will include a lecture period in which will be discussed the factors affecting plant growth and the practical means for their control, such as optimum supply of heat, light, moisture, air, fertilizer, the application of lime and mulch and the control of pests and diseases. There will also be a practice period in each day’s meeting for which each student will receive seeds and four metal flats with steri- lized soil. There will be enough space to grow about 300 to 350 seedlings which, with the flats, will become the Seeds of plants particularly desired by any stu- dent should be brought to the first
property of the students.
meeting.
Four sections are offered:
Section I, Wednesdays, March 18, 25 and April 8, 15 and 22, 1:00- 4:00 P.M.
Section II, Fridays, March 20, 27 and April 10, 17 and 24, 9:00 A. M.— 12:00 Noon.
Section III, Mondays, March 23, 30 and April 13, 20 and 27, 1:00-4:00 P. M.
Section IV, Tuesdays, March 24, 31 and April 14, 21 and 28, 7:00-10:00 P.M.
Registration: February 13 through March 13.
Fee: $18.00.
The course is given in the Experi- mental Greenhouse, Missouri Botanical
Garden (Enter Cleveland Avenue gate, 2221 Tower Grove Avenue).
CoursrE IV—GROWING ORCHIDS IN THE HOME Instructor: Mr. Robert J. Gillespie
A one-day course of instruction with the following schedule: 10:00 A.M. Discussion of orchids
suitable for home culture and the best ways to grow them, with potting demonstration.
70 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
12:00 Noon. Lunch time, coffee and soda supplied by the Garden.
:00 P. M. Unusual containers such
—"
as baskets, slabs, poles, etc., for growing orchids in the home, with examples and demonstration
of potting and care.
2:00 P.M. Inspection of green- houses. 3:00 P.M. Individual potting in-
structions by members of Orchid Department staff. Students may take potted plant home. Two sections are offered: Section I, April 18, 1959. Section I, April 25, 1959. Fee: $10.00. Course is given at the Orchid Range, Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower
Grove and Flora avenues.
CoursE V—ADVANCED ORCHID GROWING
Instructor: Mr. Robert J. Gillespie
This course for the advanced orchid grower is offered in two divisions (A and B).
Division A: How to Make Orchids Flower. A discussion of how environ- ment influences growth and flowering in the major cultivated genera of the Orchidaceae. Lights and other de- vices for controlling flowering will be explained. There will be a laboratory session followed by a question and an- swer period.
Division A meets November 18, 7:00-10:00 P. M.
Division B: Greenhouse Culture of
Orchids.
mentals of growing orchids in the
Instruction in the funda- greenhouse. Ventilating, watering, heating, shading, cooling, greenhouse design, automatic equipment, and new construction methods and _ materials will be discussed and illustrated in the Garden’s Orchid Greenhouses.
Division B meets May 2, 1959, 1:00 —4:00 P.M.
Both divisions will meet in the Or- chid Range, Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower Grove and Flora Avenues.
Fee: $5.00 each division,
“BOTANY EVENING”
fie students in Dr. Anderson’s evening classes last April and May have initiated a series of “Botany Eve- nings” at the Garden, continuing in an informal way their studies of garden plants and wild flowers. The first such evening was held in early June. Two meetings held in September were particularly designed for those who had taken the evening courses in the classification and identification — of plants. It is planned to follow them
with once-a-month meetings open to all “Friends of the Garden.” Visitors are encouraged to bring plants which they would like to have identified or flowering specimens of unusual horti- cultural and botanical interest to demonstrate to other members.
“Botany Evening” meetings are held in the Museum Building just inside the Cleveland Avenue gate. Announce- ment of dates of monthly meetings will be made later.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 71
NOTES
HE Garden is proud to welcome
Dr. Frits W. Went as its new Director. He is also a Professor of Botany in the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University.
Dr. Went was born in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1903. His father, Prof. F. A. F. C. Went, was a Professor of Botany at the University of Utrecht and Director of the Utrecht Botanic Garden. Young Frits, having grown up in such surroundings, had a natural interest in Botany. He was educated at the University of Utrecht and later became a plant physiologist at the Royal Botanic Garden of Buitenzorg in Java.
In 1933 Dr. Went came to the United States and to the California Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor. Two years later he was promoted to full Professor. At Cal. Tech. he originated the “phytotron,” a specially designed air-conditioned greenhouse where moisture, heat, light and other factors in the growth of plants are automatically controlled. He, with several other scientists, dis- covered the effect of hormones on the growth of plants, thus leading the way to new scientific advances in Horti- culture.
While in Southern California, Dr. Went did much to aid in the promo- tion and establishment of the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum at Arcadia, California. He has con- tributed much time and energy in all fields of Botanical study and research.
Dr. Went is married and has two
children. He is a member of many
scientific societies, including the Na- tional Academy of Science, and is an honorary doctor of the University of
eR
A former graduate student at the Garden, Dr. Norton H. Nickerson, is welcomed back as the Garden Mor-
Paris.
phologist. He is also a member of the faculty of Washington University. Dr. Nickerson received his Ph.D. de- gree from the Henry Shaw School of Botany in 1953, studying with Dr. Henry N. Andrews, Jr., and Dr. Edgar Anderson.
Since receiving his degree he has taught at the University of Massachu- setts and at Cornell University. At Cornell, Dr. Nickerson helped initiate and organize the summer program for teachers given there in 1957, with the support of the National Science Foun- dation, and in which Dr. Andrews and Dr. Anderson of the Garden staft participated.
As a part of his work this year Dr. Nickerson will help organize adult classes in botany to be given at the
eR
Dr. Edgar Anderson spent two
Garden.
months this summer on several dis- tinct projects in various parts of the New World. For three weeks he was a guest of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto, California, assisting various social scientists in analyzing their data by his methods, originally developed
for measuring differences between
N Nm
Mexican corn fields. From Palo Alto he flew to the University of Alaska to assist with a National Science Founda- tion teacher-training course for five days, then to Costa Rica where he attended the 33rd Congresso de Ameri- canistas. From Costa Rica he flew to Colombia where he continued work with the international project con- cerned with the preservation, classifi- cation, and description of the races of
corn in the New World.
ceK
Dean Henry Andrews has been in Europe all summer on a Guggenheim Fellowship and will remain there dur- ing the fall and early winter, studying fossil plants and = conferring with European authorities. Ever since he spent part of his student years in Europe, Dean Andrews has been par- ticularly interested in the fossil plants which are found in coal mines. He has become one of the world’s out- standing students of the fossils in coal and in rocks associated with it. An increasing number of authorities have
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
een trained under him in the Henry
Shaw School of Botany. For him a “field trip’? means loading a station wagon with students and simple min- ing equipment and starting off for a few days in the coal fields of Illinois, Kentucky or Kansas.
In the last few years his work has given him new insights into a much more difhcult problem, not the plants of the Age of Coal, but the more primitive plants which preceded them when life evolved out of the seas and cnto the land. It is these new ideas which he has taken to Europe with him, ideas not yet developed to the point where he wants to put them all down cn paper; ideas rather at the growing stage where he needs to try them out on other experts and particu- larly on collections of fossil plants in European museums. In_ letters re- ceived at the Garden, he writes en- thusiastically about the way his work has been going during the summer and how his ideas have developed under the impact of his studies in European museums.
FALL EVENTS
27-28 Dahlia Show, Greater St. Louis Dahlia Society, in Floral Display House. 27-28 Flower Show, Better Garden Clubs of Greater St. Louis, Museum and
September
Shaw House.
October
4-26 House Plants, Old and New, Floral Display House. 11 Veiled Prophet Queen’s Reception for School Children, Shaw House. 18 Junior League Show, Floral Display House. 24-25 Fifth Annual Systematics Symposium, Adm. Bldg. and Museum. 29-30 Indian Art Exhibit, 8th. Dist., Mo. Federated Women’s Clubs, Museum.
November
8-30 Chrysanthemum Show, Floral Display House.
December
1-7. Chrysanthemum Show, continued. 14-31 Poinsettia Display, Floral Display House.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
RoBERT Brookincs SMITH, President Henry HitrcHcock
Leicester B. Faust, Vice-President JOHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B, Prracer, Second Vice-President RicHarD J. Lockwoop
DanieEL K. CaTLIn RosBert W. Orro
DupbLEY FRENCH WARREN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ETHAN A. H. SHEPLEy, JAMES McCaFFERY Chancellor ot Washington University President of the Board of Education f St. Louis ArtHurR C, LICHTENBERGER, :
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri STRATFORD LEE MORTON >
RAYMOND Ry TUCKER, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis ot St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E, GLAESSNER
‘THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier,
Chairman.
STAFF |e aE, ERE) 0 | Se ORE EN OPM STE PD a AA Ce eS oN DPE OR RIES RRC ee Oe SLR aE Director | A= nc Cr aNh OO} oll) eeenene es cence Bier aa Pi ok Sena Woe Pee ee ne Ae eee Executive Director sd sam cA le rsOm ajc des si reese eee eee eae ae eee Curator of Useful Plants EAE INA Le wy Si eee ee sae ea, see eee Paleobotanist ByelyneBarbour.:f1:.etee tc eee Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN Glarencer Bar bre cot ss ees ea nee eee keg e eee usa rati ever Ree ee Instructor Wotrish Gis Bremneiercccscsc.ces 2 eases es ee eee eee Arborist and Grounds Superintendent BadislaussGutake nen ees Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent WPOSe olin rr] lcs Ado) acy ee cs saa ece ca a ee ee Assistant in Education Carroll W. Dodge...........0...220..2.20-- : Mycologist 1S] oy g eb BLS a 1d ky ope tn eo ae Oe ny gS Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS Ot AD MD Wivekceecseescceefecksessysscecase Research Associate 12h Na) Cas) Ona cy: cera ers Ore ene oe Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse Robert J. Gillespie... An charge of Orchids Oscar E.. Glaessner......c...202..c000c000--02 Controller Ral Ac Obie ieee nee eects Floriculturist Esmimm ete): leay vo mscecte ate tea eae aa Oeeeen ee coe sage ae Dele eats aoe ye Landscape Architect Viktor Muehlenbachs........00..0.0.0.ssseececeeesceseeeeeeeeees ae Research Associate Norton H. Nickerson................--..---.- a ee ee Morphologist rennetne@: Recker os aces fete eer seen ee See In charge of Visitors’ Activities Asabella= f2 Powells. cc.0;c:..5222s.00de0hssscnecctvecessaqo 2sceaccesseasoerss Friends of the Garden Secretary George H. Pring.. ton diretedeset cect nee cees e Superintendent PCTs Tope es SSRs 01» Pee oes OO eT ae EP Engineer Vinligm Ase Ste veri aren ce sss eo, ce eee Research Associate Frank Steinberg sv 2.252. 2 ees Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit George: Bs Van Schaack=2 2-2) eset 2. 2c te Librarian and Curator of Grasses sirifon: voneSChiren ese: ee ee 2 8 ee Associate Curator of the Museum
robert, Bs W0OdSOns. [ler e tse cu. fe settee gg eas eee Curator of Herbarium
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at TowER Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the Tower GRovE mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees
who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A.M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Tower Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are at their best in April.
\/
olume XLVI
tation Ney mber, 1958
Number
CONTENTS
Hybridizing Cluster- Type Cattleyas
Cattleya < Mayor Tucker
Trees and Shrubs as Tub Plants
A Century of Planting
New Hostas Received by Garden
Book Reviews
Spring Flower Show Calendar
General Index—
Volume XLVI
Cover: Cattleya XX Mayor Tucker, a new cluster-type Orchid hybrid with dark lavender-purple, beautifully-shaped flowers with ruffled lips. The parents are Cattleya Bowringiana var. Splendens and Cattleya Juanna. (See article, page 75). Photo by Lad Cutak.
Ofhce of publication: 306 E. Simmons Street, Galesburg, Llinois. Editorial Office: Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis 10, Missouri,
Published February, March, April, June, September, and November by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Subscription price: $2.50 a year. Entered as second-class matter January 26, 1942, at the post-office at Galesburg, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin
Vol. XLVI No. 6
NOVEMBER, 1958
HYBRIDIZING CLUSTER-TYPE CATTLEYAS ROBERT J. GILLESPIE
HE desire for something new and
different is a universal human trait that pervades all phases of man’s activities. Orchid hybridists are by no means the exception to this rule. In recent years many breeders have been turning their attention to some of the small-flowered Laelia and _ bifoliate (two-leaved) Cattleya species as a source of genetical material for the production of new and unusual or- chids. Actually the Cattleya tribe contains a large number of small- flowered species, only a few of which have been used to any degree by the modern hybridists. By crossing some of these small-flowered species of Cat- tleya with the large-flowered species and with the large-flowered Laelias, orchid breeders are now producing an exciting array of new hybrids, many of which will be unusual and _ strik- ingly different from the commercial hybrid Cattleya popular today. Many amateur orchid hobbyists are now be- coming interested in hybridizing these small-flowered Cattleyas and many of them are producing excellent hybrids. It is the purpose of this article to further stimulate their interest by discussing some of the more common breeding problems encountered with these hybrids. Sterility, floriferousness and flower size, and flower color will
be briefly discussed.
STERILITY
Genetically the bifoliate Cattleyas seem to be quite distinct from the large-flowered labiate Cattleyas and Laelias. Complicated interspecific and intergeneric Cattleya and Laelio-Cat- tleya hybrids, which have varying de- grees of polyploidy (having more than two sets of hereditary structures, the chromosomes), exhibit a surprisingly high degree of fertility. On the other hand, some of the simple bifoliate- labiate Cattleya hybrids are completely sterile. Investigation of these sterile hybrids almost invariably indicates that sterility is due to polyploidy. This sterility is present regardless of whether the bifoliate or the labiate parent has introduced the polyploid condition into the hybrid. For ex- ample, Cattleya < Chapmanii var. Splendens (triploid), is a sterile bi- foliate-labiate hybrid in which an extra set of chromosomes was inherited from the bifoliate parent, Cattleya Bowringiana var. Splendens, which is a tetraploid. The reverse situation is found in Laelio-Cattleya >< Tanger- ine, a Missouri Botanical Garden hy- brid between LC. & Mimi Koehler (polyploid, exact cultivar unknown) and Cattleya aurantiaca (diploid) ; for this hybrid inherited its polyploid condition from the labiate Laelio- Cattleya parent. LC. Tangerine is
(73)
74 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
a beautiful yellow cluster-type orchid which would made an excellent parent for future breeding work; but thus far it has been completely sterile. A hybrid half-sister to LC. Tangerine is C. & Confetti, a primary bifoliate- labiate hybrid in which both parents (C. Trianae var. Delicata and C. au- rantiaca) are diploids. (A hybrid is a primary hybrid if neither of its parents The diploid hybrid,
C. Confetti, has proved to be ex-
was a hybrid.)
tremely fertile and all seedlings from it are vigorous, normal growers. Al- though it is not our purpose here to attempt an explanation of why steril- ity in these hybrids is always coupled with polyploidy, theoretically, it should be possible to produce a com- pletely fertile bifoliate-labiate Cattleya hybrid by crossing a selected tetraploid of the bifoliate group with a selected tetraploid of the labiate group. The Garden is now in the process of mak- ing several such carefully controlled crosses and the results, combined with cytological investigations, should be
enlightening.
FLORIFEROUSNESS AND FLOWER SIZE
Frequently hybridizers have ex- pressed disappointment with cluster- type hybrids because they fail to have a desirable flower size and/or sufhcient number of flowers per stem. Most breeders attempt to predict floriferous- ness and flower size of their hybrids by using the arithmetic mean. Actually, the flower size and floriferousness of any proposed or existing cross can be accurately predicted by employing the geometric rather than the arithmetic
mean. The Garden’s Cattleya auran-
tiaca hybrids will once again adequate- In Cattleya < Confetti, the C. frianae parent has
ly illustrate this point.
a flower spread of 12.0 cm., while the C. aurantiaca parent has a_ flower spread of 2.5 cm. By using the arith- metic mean to compute the average flower-spread to be expected in the hybrids between these two plants, we obtain 7.3 cm. (2.5 + 12.0 = 14.5; 14.5 + 2 = 7.25 cm.). However if we employ the geometric mean, we would predict that the hybrid flowers should be about 5.4 cm. in width, on the average (2.5 & 12.0 = 30; \/30 —= 5.4 cm.). When we actually meas- ure the spread of the flowers of the hybrid plants produced we find that it varies from 5.3 to 5.5 cm., which is evidence that the geometric mean method is reliable and accurate. The accuracy of the geometric mean when used to predict floriferousness can be illustrated by the hybrid LC. Tan- gerine, of which one parent, LC. Mimi Kochler, has 3 flowers per stem, while the other parent, C. aurantiaca has 22 flowers per stem. Computing the geometric mean (3 X 22 = 66; \/66 — 8.1 cm.), it is calculated that the plants of this cross will average 8 flowers per stem. Although this hy- brid is only reaching maturity, those few plants which are mature have 7-8 flowers per stem. This shows how the plant breeder can, with surprising ac- curacy, determine flower size and flor- iferousness of any primary bifoliate- labiate Cattleya hybrid even before the
cross is made.
COLOR
One of the alarming practices which
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN a3
some orchid breeders have been em- ploying recently is the crossing of a white labiate-type hybrid Cattleya with a colored cluster-type Cattleya or Laelia, presumably on the assumption that the white Cattleya will act genet- ically as it appears physically, that is to say, as a “white” or “neutral” background against which the brilliant colors or unusual markings of the smaller-flowered parent can be ex- pressed in a dominant way in_ the hybrid. To prove the fallacy of such thinking, one has only to review Hurst’s classical paper on white Cat- tleyas, published in 1925 (Evperi- ments in Genetics) and frequently reviewed by numerous authors in many subsequent publications. Hurst’s work shows that the white labiate Cattleya can be thought of as a machine, built exactly like its colored counterpart, with its germplasm containing factors for color, the usual emphasis on a darker labellum, etc. The only thing which sets it apart is the fact that somehow a small piece of the genetic machine is missing. ‘Thus the entire color machine is latent and cannot
function even though ninety percent
of it is in perfect running shape. When the white labiate Cattleya trans- mits this machinery to offspring who have received the missing genetical part from another parent (presumably any colored parent would do this), the result, of course, is that this unknown color machine can function and ex- Therefore
it becomes quite evident that the white
press itself in the progeny.
labiate Cattleyas cannot be thought of as “neutral” or “passive” background in hybridizing; they will produce a variety of unpredictable and frequent- ly undesirable color types in_ their
progeny.
SUMMARY
In hybridizing cluster-type Cat- tleyas, 1) sterility in primary hybrids is usually associated with polyploidy, 2) floriferousness and flower size in the hybrid follow the geometric mean of these characters between respective parents, and 3) white labiate Cattleyas cannot be used as genetically “neutral” color parents; they contribute signifi- cantly to the flower color of their
progeny.
CA LUBA
W: at the Missouri Botanical ae are particularly pleased with the cleaning up of our city air. When air pollution in St. Louis became worse and worse, it finally be- came impossible to grow our famous orchids in town any more; and in 1926 the whole orchid collection had to be
moved to Gray Summit. For display
x MAYOR TUCKER
and for the orchid shows, plants had to be moved back and forth to town. But now, with clean air restored to our city, the orchids have been moved back into town; and they do very well. Actually, we have not once observed a situation, so-called dry-sepal, which causes much damage to Cattleya flow-
ers in the Los Angeles and San Fran-
76 MISSOURI BOTANICAL
cisco areas of California. Dry-sepal occurs generally after periods of smog; its lack in the St. Louis area, as well as the lack of damage to vegetables shows that our air here is cleaner than in any other American city of equal size. Therefore, in tribute to the man who did more than anyone else to clean
up our air, and to make Cattleya
GARDEN BULLETIN
culture possible again in St. Louis, the Garden’s newest Cattleya hybrid (see cover), one of the newer cluster-type orchids from the cross Cattleya Bow- Splendens Cattleya
Juanna, is named ‘Mayor Tucker”
ringiama var.
(See cover illustration).
—F. W. Went
Pittosporum Tobira, a well-established tub plant at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Photo by Kenneth Peck.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 77
TREES AND SHRUBS AS TUB PLANTS
Bask.
A LMosT all homes and many apart- ments, as well, have one or more places where a tub plant or perhaps a pair of them may be placed to add much to the attractiveness and charm of living. Homes with small yards or patios can use them to dress up other- wise bare and uninteresting corners. They can be used for privacy and con- cealment—a vine in a large container will screen off the barbecue pit or hide the trash disposal cans. Tub plants have the advantage of being movable to accommodate special occasions (or the mere whim of moving things about as you might the furniture in your living room). They are dis- tinctive as a decorative furnishing for the home. In addition to being un- usual in itself, a potted tree, shrub or vine offers the home gardener the op- portunity to express his own individ- uality in the selection, growing and shaping of it, thus making possible for him to have a unique plant unlike that had by any other. We all strive to have something which is a product of our own creation and effort; and liv- ing plants, although having individu- ality and charm of their own, are
admirably adaptable to our fancies.
PLANTS SUITABLE FOR TUB PLANTS
The field from which to select a plant for tubbing is wide and exceed- ingly varied. Deciduous trees which make excellent specimens are Japanese Maples, Flowering Cherries, Ginkgos
and Oaks.
Among the conifers are
EVINGER
numerous possibilities such as Deodar and Lebanon Cedars, Austrian and Japanese Pine, Umbrella Pine (Sci- adopitys), Araucaria and Podocarpus. The evergreen broadleaved shrubs like- wise offer a variety of good tub plants, for example Pittosporum, Oleaster (Elacagnus spp.), Privits and the ex- otic and tropical Coral Tree (Eryth- rina). For colorful flowering effect all summer, many varieties of Lantanas can be grown as trees. Other shrubs such as Camellias and Gardenias pro- vide spectacular flowers in their season. The Golden Bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea) and the varieties of true Ginger (Zingiber) lend an Oriental as well as a very modern touch. A tropical feeling can be obtained through the use of giant-leaved Philodendrons, Cycads, Strelitzias, or perhaps Bananas, Trellised vines such as Grape Ivy (Rhoicissus rhombifolia), Wisteria
Bougainvillea, Fatshedera or English
>
Ivy can be styled to make a screen or massed effect.
HOW TO SELECT A TUB PLANT
Some one of these plants is certain to be within the reach and ability of the average home gardener. Like Af- rican Violets, tub plants are fussy and require a lot of attention and care which is true of many things really worth while. In selecting a plant for tubbing, first visualize the maximum size you want or can accommodate, then select a suitable container. The
tub, pot, or other planter must not be
78 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
too large (a twelve inch tub will hold a six foot tree). You will naturally need to begin with smaller pots for small plants and transfer from time to time to larger pots as the plants grow, until they reach the desired size. It is preferable to have a container that drains and is provided with a saucer or drip pan. Should you select a con- tainer which does not drain, such as a brass kettle, an old churn or some fancy jardiniére, then it is best to put the plant in a clay pot liner. The most desirable tubs are made of wood, preferably California Redwood, South- ern Cypress or Western Red Cedar, since these materials are rot-resistant. Tubs of other woods can be made long-lasting by treating them with a wood preservative stain or paint. As a refinement the tubs may be equipped
with castors and/or handles.
PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS
Most any rich well-drained soil is generally satisfactory for potting, however if the plant selected is some- thing quite special it would be best to consult a gardening encyclopedia or ask your nurseryman for advice. Place a layer of broken clay pots, coarse gravel or other porous material over the entire bottom of the container to give maximum drainage. When using a container which does not drain and you feel you must plant directly with- out a liner use an inch or so of char- coal as the porous material to aid in keeping excess water sweet (or from becoming stagnant). Fill the tub with soil only to within an inch or two below the upper edge. This amount of space when filled with an inch of
water at watering time will be equiv- alent to that much rain, which gener-
ally will be sufficient.
CARE OF THE PLANTS
We all know that plants are de- pendent for their sustenance upon the available sunlight, water, minerals and carbon dioxide. We must provide, therefore, as nearly as possible, the conditions for growth to which the type of plant we are culturing is ac- customed in nature. Sun plants must be given full sun and shade plants the proper filtered light. Water carefully as needed, never allowing the soil to become completely dry and, on the other hand, being careful not to over- water or to allow the soil to become soggy wet. Living as they must in a confined soil space, tub plants must be provided with the essential minerals by the application of proper fertilizers. A general rule is to use an organic fertilizer such as fish oil, bone meal or cottonseed meal for broadleaved ever- green plants. Commercial or balanced mineral element fertilizers are satis- factory for other plants. When in doubt it is best to consult a gardening encyclopedia or your nurseryman. Feeding no more than once a month
is usually sufficient.
SHAPING THE PLANT
The shape or style of the plant is quite important. This depends largely on the type of plant and your decora- tive requirements. Generally speaking, tub plants should not be pruned, that is, not in the ordinary fashion of snip- ping off branches, for you want to keep as many of the young green
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 79
leaves as possible. The best practice is to watch the plants carefully and pinch out the terminal buds as the plant reaches the desired size. The direction of growth can be altered or encouraged in this way. Do not be afraid to nip these buds—plants are long-suffering and will respond to our whims or fancies. The original selec- tion of the particular plant subject to use for tubbing is of utmost impor- Often-
times while looking over a nursery-
tance in regard to shaping.
man’s stock it is interesting to consider some of his “‘pot- or can-bound” stock which have been naturally dwarfed by their containers. These plants frequently have a made-to- order character already achieved or
started. The custom of “can culture”
by nurserymen has brought to light many species of plants which will tol- erate cramped growing space. Such plants become dwarfed and thus they make excellent tub specimens. How- ever, watch carefully when looking at nursery stock, for those kinds which seem to adjust their growing habits to the container as opposed to those which are decidedly unhappy and
probably unsuited to tub culture.
OFF-SEASON CARE
The over-wintering or off-season care of tub plants frequently presents a problem. After frost or a ripening period, deciduous types grown outside may be placed in a basement or garage with very little light, where they re-
quire a minimum of watering and
Elaeagnus pungens var. Simonti, an attractive tub plant, handsome
for its silvery-brown foliage, with many decorative uses at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Photo by Kenneth Peck.
80 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
only an assurance that the temperature will not go below 26 degrees Fahren- heit. The broadleaved evergreens and the more tropical kinds of plants, if not to be kept in their regular places in the home, must be placed in a solarium, a bay window or other light place where the temperature will not drop below fifty degrees Fahrenheit at night. They will of course need watering. Nurseries frequently offer “boarding space’ as a service to tub
plant owners.
TUB PLANTS NOT “BONSAI” The growing of plants, particularly the tree types, in tubs or other suitable containers should not be confused with
the true dwarf or “Bonsai” trees. This
kind of culture is an art in itself and requires study, care, time and infinite patience to produce an artistic crea- tion. However, plants kept properly in tubs will live and flourish over a long period of time. They will adjust themselves to their surroundings and frequently achieve a dwarf state not unlike a true “Bonsai”.
The size of tub plants and their care, particularly in the off-season, presents a problem. Still we find it inherent in our natures to be interested enough to accept the challenge of having them about. One need only think of how our grandmothers went to all the work, worry and inconvenience of carrying her house plants and even fruit trees across the country in a
covered wagon to realize this fact.
A CENTURY ile is perhaps a mark of Shaw’s Gar-
den that, after nearly one hundred years of growing orchids and other exotic things, the Garden can now claim the “world’s best collection of philodendrons.” The Veiled Prophet Queen carried a bouquet of 300 or- chids from the Garden, while philo- dendrons trail over many a_ kitchen window or end table. But there is nothing common about any growing thing, and Shaw’s Garden treats them all—-in research or display—with democratic respect.
The progressive approach of the in- stitution characterizes its plans for a centennial observance next fall. Last year, more than 217,000 persons were attracted by the Garden. This figure
strongly reversed a trend of declining
a
PLANTING
attendance that had set in perhaps be- cause of television and the move to the suburbs. St. Louisans have not lost interest, certainly, any more than they have been willing to call the Garden by the official name, Missouri Botanical Garden, which merchant Henry Shaw chose for it before be willed his Tower Grove estate to the public.
But even St. Louisans do not always know how famous their Shaw’s Gar- den is. It is ranked by botanists as the equal of London’s Kew Gardens; it has an international reputation as a training center. Nearly a century old, it is no century plant that flowers once and dies; it flowers constantly for anyone who would look through Its gates.
(Reprinted) from the Editorial in the October 8, 1958, Sf. Louis Post Dispatch.)
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 8]
NEW HOSTAS RECEIVED BY GARDEN
Sie Garden has recently received a fine group of Hostas (Plantain Lilies) from the Botanic Garden and Botanic Museum of the University of Uppsala at Uppsala, Sweden. The group, which has been added to the collection growing in the Mausoleum grounds, consists of the following species, varieties and forms:
Hosta albomarginata, Hosta cris pu- la, Hosta decorata, Hosta clata, Hosta
fortunei var. albopicta, Hosta fortuncei var. albopicta £. aurea, Hosta fortunei var. albopicta f. vindis, Hosta fortunes var. byacinthina, Hosta fortunei var. obscura f. marginata, Hosta fortunei var. stenantha, Hosta fortunei var. rugosa, Hosta lancifolia, Hosta sei- boldiana’ (Typ.), Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans, Hosta ventricosa, Hosta undulata, Hosta undulata var. univit-
tata (2 selections). —E.L.E.
BOOK
Enjoying America’s Gardens. By Joan Parry Dutton. 311 pp., 28 pp. ills. Reynal & Company, Inc., New York,
ING Nee | Price $5200.
a Reh book has a special quality, which you see at once when you take it up. At the beginning of each chapter there is a delightful pen draw- ing, fitting in beautifully with the text (but why was the artist, Grambs Miller, not mentioned on the title page?). As one starts to read one is soon absorbed by the author’s fresh outlook and beautiful style, and by her interesting information. Mrs. Dutton writes about flowers, which she knows so well, about the great horticulturists who introduced them, about the gar- dens where they grow or their coun- tries of origin, about the growers she has met, but above all, she writes about America. And she does this superbly well. She came here from
England for a visit, but soon became
REVIEWS
so engrossed by America, its land, peo- ple, plants and gardens, that she stayed for years, and returned again after a trip back home. By the way, she met an American and married him. We Americans will enjoy listening to Mrs. Dutton, and will gain a new perspec- tive of our country, whereas her book will be equally informative to the traveler from abroad.
There is only one of the 27 chapters which is all about a garden, and this is about “Magnificent Longwood”. But in the last chapter Mrs. Dutton sums up her garden experiences: “To com- pare America and England gardenwise is not only unfair but absurd. Amer- ica as a whole is not so garden-minded as England, which probably has more gardens, more home gardeners than any other country of the world. To England gardening is as painting 1s to France or skiing to Switzerland. About ten million out of forty-two
million English are gardeners; Amer-
82 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
ica’s gardening population is probably no more than five million among a total population of one hundred and sixty million. Make no mistake, how- ever, half as many gardens as England is a lot of gardens, and America is less than half England’s age.” It is good to ponder this: for we Americans are still far removed from the desirable goal: a garden for everyone, whether it be the vast expanses of a country estate or a small window box in an apartment.
You want another reason to read this book? Listen to this statement: “If I were asked if there was one single feature of American gardens as a whole which had caught my attention, I would unhesitatingly say the lack of hedges.” If you agree, you will want further similar information; if you disagree, find out why the author came to this conclusion.
The spelling of Latin names could be improved in many cases (e.g. on p. 154, thyrsiflorus, Artemisia and Esch- scholzia are misspelled), but this is about the only criticism I have.
—F. W. Went
eR
Exotica. Pictorial cyclopedia of indoor plants. Alfred Byrd Graf. Roehrs Company, Rutherford, N. J. 1958. 4000 illus., 644 pp. $17.50.
gies last two decades have seen a & revolution in the way tropical and subtropical plants have been intro- duced into cultivation in the tem- perate zone. Glass-sided homes,
fluorescent lighting, plastic glass, and
air-controlled equipment have made it possible for millions of Americans to live with tropical plants throughout the year if they so desire. The five- day week has brought to people with lively minds the need for more absorb- ing hobbies. The rise of mass-produc- tion ornamental horticulture has been one of the results. The gardens and the jungles of the tropics and sub- tropics are being combed for likely plant material.
A little-known species or hybrid of Peperomia or Syngonium may now be in mass production within two years from the time it was first collected in the back corners of Brazil. There are already over 150 species and varieties of Philodendron in cultivation in this country; hybridization programs are well under way which will multiply the number of named varieties in another decade. The total national business in African violets alone, | am reliably informed, now grosses more than all the nursery business in tem- perate and tropical fruits, apple trees, peach trees, current bushes, avocado trees, and so on. The poorly known genus Schefflera was of so little com- mercial importance when the last edition of Bailey’s Manual of Culti- vated Plants was being planned that it did not even qualify for admission. Today the production of large tubbed specimens for glass-sided office build- ings has become big business. One can scarcely stroll through the business district of a city in the eastern United States without seeing a Schefflera (or near-Schefflera, for the precise limits of the genus have not yet been worked
out) in a bank or cafeteria.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 83
This trend is the raw material of social history; it is changing various kinds of attitudes toward plants and toward their cultivation and study, in all classes of society in the United States. Eventually our technical, bo- tanical and horticultural works will catch up with this flood of new intro- ductions and reduce to some kind of order their identification, history, and significance. Until then, the amateur, the social historian, the horticulturist, even many taxonomic botanists will get their most immediate help out of Graft’s remarkable book. Most syste- matists who give their concentrated attentien to the sections of the book dealing with their own specialties will wince at the inaccuracies they find; many of them, however, will learn to use the book as an effective first ap- proach to the other fellow’s specialties. That anyone should have been able to survey this rapidly growing flood of exotic plants is a marvel; that a busy executive like Graf should have pro- duced this 644-page compendium ap- He is the
manager and a director of the Roehrs
proaches the miraculous.
Company of Rutherford, New Jersey, one of the principal dealers in and growers of this kind of plant material.
The chief feature of the book is some 450 pages of clear photographs illustrating close to 4000 of the species and varieties of tropical and sub- tropical ornamental plants. There are indices to common names and scien- tific names, a glossary of botanical terms, short semi-technical descrip-
tions, a section on pest control, and a
discussion of the climates from which these plants came, complete with a climatic map of the world. There are short introductory pages on the care of house plants (don’t overfeed and don’t overwater!) which are of more practical help to the average intelligent person than most books on the subject.
One of the most valuable features of the book is a 40-page summary of the kinds of places where these plants have been collected. There are on each of these pages three or four of Graf’s excellent photographs showing — the deserts and jungles, the temples, gar- dens, and nurseries from which orna- mental plants have been gathered. Graf’s comments supply an effective summary of the conditions under which ornamental plants are being grown in various parts of the tropics, as well as considerable insight into why they are being grown and the various ways in which they are being used. Since he has traveled and collected throughout the tropics with an inquir- ing mind and a good camera, he has unwittingly produced our first com- pendium of tropical man’s attitudes toward plants.
—Edgar Anderson
Missouri Botanical Garden and Department of Botany, Washington University
(Reprinted from Science, August 8, 1958.)
X &
84 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
SPRING FLOWER SHOW CALENDAR
February 7-28 March 1-15 28-29
April
Orchid Show
Orchid Show continued
Easter Display
4—5 (depending on season) Daffodil Show
May
2—3 18-19 23-24
July
African Violet Show Spring Flower Show Rose Show
Cactus Show
GENERAL INDEX — VOLUME XLVI
Figures in italics refer to page numbers of illustrations.
A
Acer rubrum var. Drummondii, 5; A. sac- carinum, 31.
Albizzia Julibrissin, a deep red strain, 63.
Alder, 43.
Alnus rugosa, 43.
Althaea, 54; shrubby, 53; A. rosea, 53.
Amelanchier canadensis, 40.
Ampelopsis arborea, 5; A. cordata, 5.
Amsonia illustris, 41.
Anderson, Dr. Edgar, A Saturday Afternoon with Epidendrums, 6; 13; 19; Spring Flow- ers of Missouri and How to Know Them, 29-44; Euonymous alatus, a Good Shrub for St. Louis, 67; Botany Evening, 70; 71; review of Alfred Byrd Graf's “Exotica,” 82.
Andrews, Dean Henry, 72.
Araucaria, 77.
Arboretum, the, 24.
Armoracia aquatica, 3.
Azaleas, 43.
B
Baker, Joe, 21.
Bald Cypress, in Missouri swamps, 3, 4. Barberries, new varieties at Garden, 63 Barbre, Clarence, 27, 63, 68.
Bark wounds, treatment of, 64 Beckett, Kenneth, 14
Beggar-ticks, 6,
Benson, Clifford, 14.
Bequests to Garden, form for, 23.
Berberis aggregata, 63; B. Diaphana, 63; B. dictyoneura, 63; B. fendleri, 63; B. Gilgiana, 63; B. koreana, 63; B. Poireti, 63; B. Thun- bergii var. vermilion, 63; B. virescens, 63.
Berchemia scandens, 5.
Bidens discoidea, 6.
Bignonia capreolata, 5.
Bird note, 11.
Blue Mist, 5.
Bluets, 44.
Book Reviews:
Jean Parry Dutton’s “Enjoying America’s Gardens,” 81.
Alfred Byrd Graf’s “Exotica,” 82.
H. DD. Harrington’s “How to Identify Plants,” 9.
Harold E. Moore, Jres “African Violets, Gloxinias and their relatives: a guide to the cultivated Gesneriads,” 52.
Books to use in identifying Spring flowers of Missouri, 32.
Boston Mountains, 43.
Botany Evening, 70.
Bougainvillea, 77.
Brenner, Louis, 21.
Brewing Industries Research Institute, grant from, 20.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 85
Britt, Mrs. Paul, 27.
Brunnichia cirrhosa, 5.
Bugle Weed, 5.
Button Bush, 5.
Buttonweed, 6.
Cc
Cactus House, 33.
Calendar, of Fall events, 72; of Spring Flower Shows, 84.
Callitriche heterophylla, 4.
Camassia scilloides, 2, 40.
Camellia japonica “Mathotiana,” Feb. cover, 1.
Cam psis radicans, 5.
Carroll, Margaret, 21.
Carya aquatica, 5, C. illinoensis, 5.
Cattleyas, hybridizing cluster-type, 73.
Cattleya aurantiaca, 73, 74; C. Bowringiana var. Splendens, 73, 76, and C. Juanna, inside front cover, Nov., 73, 76; C. & Chapmanii var. Splendens, 73; C. < Confetti, 74; C. < Mayor Tucker, Nov. cover, 73; C. Tri- anae, 74.
Cedar, Deodar, 77; Lebanon, 77.
Cedrela odorata, 63.
Celtis laevigata, 5.
Century of Planting, A, 80
Cephalanthus occidentalis var. pubescens, 5
Chinese Buckeye, 12.
Chinese Gardens, 45.
Cinna arundinaceae, 5.
Cocucci, Dr. Alfredo, 14, 20.
Cold frame, plans for constructing, 10
Colombia, Epidendrums in, 6.
Color, in Cattleya hybrids, 75
Comte, Mrs. Frederick, 21.
Cone-flowers, Purple, 44.
Coral Tree, 77.
Cornus florida, 2; C. florida “Cherokee Chief,” 63; C. foemina, 5.
Cotton, 53:
Cover Illustrations:
Feb., Camellia japonica ‘“‘Mathotiana,” 1; March, Linnaean House, 17; April, map of Missouri and adjacent area showing extent of Ozarks, 29; June, Nymphaea ‘Aviator Pring,” 45; Sept., Nyssa sylvatica beside lake in North American Tract, 61; Nov., Caf- tleya X Mayor Tucker, 73.
Cress, Lake, 3.
Crocus, 1.
Crocus susianus, 31.
Cross-vine, 5.
Crowfoot, Yellow Water, 3.
Crystal Escarpment, 44.
Cutler, Dr. Hugh C., Review of H. D. Har- rington’s “How to Identify Plants,” 9; 15; The Garden Report for 1957, 17-28.
Cycads, 77.
Cyperus strigosus, 5.
D Daffodils, new varieties for St. Louis gardens, 61; where to buy, 62.
Dianthera ovata, 6.
Dioda virginiana, 6.
Diospyros virginiana, 5.
Dock, Swamp, 4.
Dodecatheon Meadia, 41.
Dogwood, new variety at Garden, 63; Stiff, 5. Dressler, Dr. Robert L.,13.
Duckweed, 4.
Dwyer, Dr. John D., 41.
E
Echinacea pallida, 42, 44.
Editorial, reprinted from Sf. Louis Post Dis- patch, 80.
Elaeagnus spp., 77; E. pungens var. Simonii, 70.
Epidendrum evectum, 6; E. Obrienianum, 6; E. radicans, 6.
Epidendrums, A Saturday Afternoon with, 6.
Fpling, Dr. Carl, 18.
Ericenia bulbosa, Apr. inside cover, 29; 44.
Eryngium prostratum, 6.
Eryngo, 6.
Erythrina, 77.
Enonymous alatus, 67; E. fortunei reticulatus, »
Eupatorium coelstinum, 5.
Evinger, Edgar L., 13; 20; Cold Frame or Miniature Greenhouse for Small Gardens, 10; Hibiscus for St. Louis Gardens, 53; The Mausoleum Grounds Come to Life, 1; New Plant Introductions for 1958, 63; New Hostas Received by Garden, 81; The Silver Nut Tree, “Yin Kou-Tzu,” 65; Trees and Shrubs as Tub Plants, 77; Xanthoceras, the Chinese Buckeye, 12.
Exotica, review of, 82.
F Fagus sylvatica var. atropunicea, 47. Fatshedera, 77. Fall events at Garden, calendar of, 72. Floriferousness in Orchid hybrids, 74. Flower Shows, 16, 22, 72, 84. Flower size in Orchid hybrids, 74. Foresticra acuminata, 5. Fosberg, Dr. F. R., 67. Fraxinus tomentosa, 5. Friends of the Garden, memberships, 15. G Galanthus, 1; Galanthus elwesii, 1; G. nivalis, ls Garden report for 1957, 17. Gardens of China, 45; existing today, 51. Gillespie, Robert J., 25; 69; Hybridizing Cluster-type Cattleyas, 73. Ginkgo, 65. Glaciated plains, 43. Glaessner, Oscar, 18. Gleditsia aquatica, 5. Gossypium spp., 53. Golden Chain Tree, 63. Grape, 5. Grape Ivy, 77.
86 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Graph, of Garden attendance, 26. Gregory, David Palache, 14. Gynerium sagittatum, 19.
H
Hackberry, 5.
Hale, Paul, 27.
Hamamelis mollis, 16; H. vernalis, 31.
Hedge apples, 64.
Hibiscus for St. Louis Gardens, 53.
Hibiscus cannabinus, 53; H. coccinius, 54; H. esculentus, 53; H. incanus, 55; H. lasio- carpus, 54; H. moscheutos, 53; H. mos- cheutos “Anne J. Hemming,” 63; H. oculi- roseus, 55; Hl. rosa-sinensis, 53; H. syriacus, 55; H. syriacus “Coelestis,” 53.
“Holiday Historique,” 15.
Hollies, new varieties at Garden, 63.
Horner, Nell, 14.
Horticultural Consultants, 27.
Horticulture Courses, 8, 68.
Horwitz, Rollo, 27.
Hostas, new plants received by Garden, 81.
Hottonia inflata, 3.
Houstonia angustifolia, 44.
Hyacinth, Grape, 1; Wood, 1, 2; Ozark Wild,
4
Hypericum tubulosum var. Walteri, 5.
I
Ilex aquifolium “Dumbarton Oaks,’ 63; 1. cassine X 1. opaca “Teas Holly,” hybrid, 63; 1. hanceana, 63; T. mutchagara, 63; 1. opaca “‘Fosteri,” 63; I. opaca “East Palatka,” 63; 1. rotunda, 63; I. sugeroki, 63.
Information Center. 23.
Ifea virginica, 5.
Ivy, Bulgarian, 1; Rumanian, 1.
J
Jonquilla simplex, 62.
K Kalanchoés, 34. Knapp, Mrs. Hazel, 27. Kohl, Paul A., Nyssa sylvatica, inside front cover, 61.
Kreuger, Arthur J., 27. > a
Kreuger, Mrs. Arthur J., 15, 27. L
Laburnum vossi, 63.
Ladies’-eardrops, 5.
Laelio-Cattleya > Mimi Koehler, 73, 74; LC. < Tangerine, 73, 74.
Lantana, 77.
Lathyrus odoratus, 42.
Lemna spp., 4.
Lily-Turf, 63.
Lindernia dubia, 6.
Linnaean Garden, 21.
Linnaean House, Mch. cover, 17
Liriope, 2.
Liriope muscariodes, 2.
Lizard’s-tail, 5.
Loosestrife, False, 6
Ludwigia glandulosa, 6. Lycopus rubellus var. arkansanus, 5. Lysimachia radicans, 6.
M
Maclura pomifera, 64.
Mahogany, 63.
Mahonia, 63.
Mabhonia_ bealii, 63; M. lomarifolia, 63; M. pinnata, 63.
Mallows, 53; new varieties at Garden, 63.
Maple, Japanese, 77; Red, 5; Silver, 31.
Marsh St. John’s-wort, 5.
Mausoleum Grounds, Daffodils in, 1; Grape Hyacinths in, 1; Hostas in, 81; Ivy in, 1; Pachysandra and Eranthus in, (errata inside Mch. cover), 17; Periwinkle in, 1; Sassafras in, 2; Scillas in, 1; Snowdrops in, 1; Wood Hyacinths in, 1, 2.
Mausoleum Grounds Come to Life, 1.
Mayr, Dr. Ernst, 18.
McCready, Frank, 27.
McMahon, Mrs. Virginia, 20.
McMath, Francis R., 21.
Mermaid Weed, 3.
Meyer, Dr. Frederick, 14.
Mikania scandens, 5.
Miller, Dr. Robert R., 67.
Mimosa Tree, 63.
Missouri Botanical Garden, attendance, 25, 20; Bald Cypress in the, 3; flower shows, 16, 22, 72, 84; Herbarium, 20; Hibiscus grow- ing at the, 56; horticulture courses at the, 8, 68; Library, 20; Mausoleum grounds, 1, 81; new plant introductions, 63; new orchid hybrid, Cattleya & Mayor Tucker, 75, Nov. cover, 73; Orchid department, 24; report for 1957, 17-28; research activities and facilities, 18; research in breeding trop- ical waterlilies, 57; Systematics Symposium, 18, 67; “Tree Trail,” 17; Xanthoceras in the, 12.
Mitchella repens, 44.
Mohlenbrock, Beverly Kling, Chinese Gardens, 45.
Mohlenbrock, Dr. Robert H., Jr., 14.
Monarda Bradburiana, 41.
Mooncy, Mrs. Daniel, 23.
Muelenbachs, Viktor, 20.
N National Council of State Garden Clubs, 23. National Science Foundation, 13, 14, 17, 18. Nevling, Loren L, 14. New Plant Introductions for 1958, 63, Nickerson, Dr. Norton H., 71. Nies, John, 21. North American Tract, Sour Gum beside lake in, O1, Notes, 13, 71. Nymphaca “Aviator Pring,” June cover, 45; 59; N. burttii, 47; N. colorata, 58; N.
furea, 57; N. tetragona, 58; N. “St. Louis Gold,” 60, 00.
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 87
Nyssa aquatica, 4, 4; N. sylvatica, Sept. cover, ol.
O
Oak, Basket, 5; Mossy-cup, 5; Over-cup, 5; Pin, 5; Swamp!White, 5; Water, 5; Willow, De
Ocnothera missouriensis, 42, 44.
Okra, 53.
Oleaster, 73, 70.
Ophiopogon, \aponicus, 63.
Orchid Department, the, 24.
Orchids, new additions to collection, 25; new Garden hybrid, 73, 75; Hybridizing cluster- type Cattleyas, 73.
Osage Orange Tree, fruit of, 64.
Ozark flora, history of. 36.
Ozark Wild Flowers and Ozark Landscapes, 43.
Ozarks, map showing extent of, April cover, 295
12
Papilionaceous Leguminosae, 33.
Parthenocissus quinquefolia, 5.
Partridge Berry, 44.
Paspalum fluitans, 5.
Pecan, 5.
Peck, Kenneth, 13; 27.
Pepper-vine, 5.
Periwinkle, 1.
Persimmon, 5.
Phacelia Purshii, 41.
Philedendron, 77.
Phlox, Blue, 43.
Phlox divaricata, 44; P. pilosa, 44,
Phyllostachys aurea, 77.
Pimpernel, False, 6.
Pine, Japanese, 77.
Pine, Southern Yellow, 43.
Pinus echinata, 43; P. strobus, 65.
Pittosporum Tobira, 76.
Pitzman Fund, grant to Garden from, 17.
Planera aquatica, 5.
Plantain Lilies, new, received by Garden, 81.
Podocarpus, 77.
Poison Ivy, 5.
Porella spp., 6.
Primrose, Missouri, 42, 44.
Pring, George H., 23, 65, Research in Breed- ing tropical Water Lilies, 57.
Pring, Mrs. George H., 27.
Privet, Swamp, 5.
Proserpinaca palustris, 3.
Pumpkin Ash, 5.
Q Quercus bicolor, 5; Q. lyrata, 5; Q. macro- carpa, 5; Q. Mixhauxii, 5; Q. nigra, 5; Q. palustris, 5; Q. Phellos, 5.
R Racoon Grape, 5. Ranunculus flabellaris, 3. Red buds and History of Ozark Flora, 36
Red Maple, 5.
Regional Council of Men’s Garden Clubs, 27.
Research activities at Garden, 18.
Research Committee, 18.
Rhododendron nudiflorum var. roseum, 43.
Rhoicissus rhombifolia, 77.
Rhus radicans, 5.
Rhynchospora corniculata, 5.
Rosa palustris, 5.
Rose Garden, 21.
Rose-Mallow, Swamp, 53.
Rose of Sharon, 53.
Rose, Swamp, 5.
Ross, Dr. H. H., 67.
Rumewx verticillatus, 4.
S
St. Francois Mountains, 43.
St. Peter’s Sandstone, 44.
Sassafras albidum, 2.
Sauer, Dr. Jonathan, 67.
Saururus cernuns, 5.
Sciadopitys, 77.
Scilla nutans, 1; 8. campanulata, 1.
Scirpus, 5.
Scott, W. F., Jr., Inexpensive Beauty, 61.
Shade Tree Digest, article reprinted from, 64.
Silver Nut Tree, 65.
Smith, Robert Brookings, 15.
Snowdrop, 1.
Sour Gum Tree, Sep/. cover, 61.
Spanish-Cedar, 63.
Spies, Armyn, Review of Harold F. Moore, Jres “African Violets, Gloxinias and their relatives: a guide to the cultivated Gesneri- ads,” 52.
Spillars, Mrs. C. G., 23.
Spirodela polyrhiza, 4.
Spring-flowering legumes native to Missouri, 36.
Spring-flowering legumes of field and garden, 35.
Spring flowers native to Missouri, flowering time of, 38, 39.
Starwort, Water, 4.
Stebbins, Dr. G. Ledyard, 67.
Sterility, in bifoliate-labiate Orchid hybrids, 73
Steyermark, Dr. Julian, 20, Inside a Missouri Bald Cypress Swamp, 3.
Storax, 5.
Strelitzia, 77.
Strobel, José, 25.
Styrax americana, 5.
Supple-Jack, 5.
Swamp Dock, 4.
Sycamore, 5.
Symbols, of flowers and trees, 46.
Symposium on Systematics, Fourth Annual, 18, 00; Fifth Annual, 67.
Systematics Symposium, Fourth Annual, 18, 00; Fitth Annual, 67.
T
Taxodium distichum, 3, 4. Tower Grove Park, Bald Cypress in, 3.
88 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN
Treating Bark Wounds by Wrapping, 64.
Trees and Shrubs as Tub Plants, 77.
“Tree Trail,” at the Missouri Botanical Garden, 17.
Trumpet Creeper, 5.
Tryon, Dr. Alice, 14; Dr. Rolla, 14.
Tub plants, care of, 78; how to select, 77; planting instructions for, 78; off-season care, 79; shaping, 78.
Tupelo, Sept. cover, 61; Swamp, 4.
U Ulmus americana, 31; U. fulva, 31. Umbrella Pine, 77. Usinger, Dr. Robert, 67. Uvularia grandiflora, 40.
Vv
Van Schaack, Dr. George, 18; 21.
Velick, Bernadette, drawings by, April cover, 29; inside cover, 29; 31; 40; 41; 42; 44.
Viburnum, new varieties of, at Garden, 64.
Viburnum judii, 64; V. macrocephalum var. sterile, 64.
Vinca minor, 1.
Viola pedata, 40.
Violet, Water, 3.
Virginia Creeper, 5.
Vitis cinerea, 5; V. palmata, 5; V. rotundi- folia, 5.
W Walters, Mrs. William J., 23
Water Crowfoot, Yellow, 3.
Water Elm, 5.
Water flaxseed, 4.
Water Hickory, 5.
Water Lilies, tropical, research in breeding, 57.
Water Locust, 5.
Watermeal, 4.
Water Starwort, 4.
Water Willow, 5.
Water-willow, 6.
Water Violet, 3.
Went, Dr. Frits W., 71; Review of Joan Parry Dutton’s “Enjoying America’s Gardens,” 81; Cattleya X Mayor Tucker, 75.
West-Indian-Cedar, 63.
Winged Euonymous, 67.
Winter-Creeper, Purple-leaf, 2.
Wisteria, 5.
Wisteria macrostachya, 5.
Wolfha spp. 4.
Women’s Committee, 22, 23,
Woodson, Dr. Robert, 18.
Wounds, of tree bark, treatment of, 64.
Xx
Xanthoceras, the Chinese Buckeye, 12. Y
“Yin Kou-Tzu,” 65. Z
Zammuto, Joseph A., 14. Zingiber, 77
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
RoBERT Brookincs SMITH, President Henry HircHcock
Leicester B. Faust, Vice-President JOHN S. LEHMANN
Henry B. Priacer, Second Vice-President RicHarp J. Lockwoop
DaniEL K. CATLIN Ropert W. Orro
DupLEY FRENCH WarrEN MCKINNEY SHAPLEIGH
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
ErHAN A. H. SHEPLEyY, H. LEE Bruns Chancellor of Washington University President of the Board of Education
St- ARTHUR C. LICHTENBERGER, ’ sada
Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri STRATFORD LEE MORTON ?
RayMOND R. Tucker, President of the Academy of Science Mayor of the City of St. Louis of St. Louis
Secretary Oscar E. GLAESSNER
THE HORTICULTURAL COUNCIL
Clifford W. Benson, Mrs. Paul H. Britt, Hugh C. Cutler, Robert E. Goetz, Paul Hale, Mrs. W. Warren Kirkbride, Mrs. Hazel Knapp, Emmet J. Layton, John S. Lehmann, Francis McMath, D. O’Gorman, Robert W. Otto, G. W. Pennewill, W. F. Scott, Robert Waln, Harold E. Wolfe, E. G. Cherbonnier,
Chairman.
STAFF Pei Wie IN sds Aon Se Rae ae ee ee eas Ns eeesseened! Director Pluie hin Ca Cutlets, << ie tae ea tee eee er are ps aes mee Executive Director Bd parereA mdersonscets cs2sss ete tees ater ss bw seaeee eee eee Curator of Useful Plants Behera tye ING eA Td TOW Sess cecet sac eee cn Sle Lea oe ee eee Paleobotanist Evelyne Ba rbouricc.2) 2a eee Be ck Research Assistant and Editor of BULLETIN Klarence sat ore seme ee ace ees acs feos oe Se Instructor TEQUIS Gres Lente eek a Sere nh al Siete Ra Arborist and Grounds Superintendent adislausa@utake A053 aus eee Horticulturist and Greenhouse Superintendent hGsephitieslss gi avi eS.cc eee eee po ete se Assistant in Education CEPOL Dh AWW ao LOC Bee oe are en Pee Pee Mycologist RODCEG ID reSS) 60s. crccste ot eee ee Taxonomist and Editor of ANNALS Ko) Ve) BRR) B's Sec ree ener oe eae ge nn ier ELI ORR BP Bee nee Research Associate | a CAS) oh a V2) gee eee ee ee Horticulturist in charge of Experimental Greenhouse Roberts 16x Gilles pie secon seco ee eee ee ee ee eee ere ee In charge of Orchids LOLScr Veage cee CUE T-CLy 0 (1 commune iri MDa Sates Bpe aie PELE ciel e OL RRR IPM! a Pere Controller [EE TD Mots ged AC) 0 [meee een ee er eee Be eee Smee Sa ee oe Floriculturist | eaP yet cn POM] Et 80) » Beene Meee ea Ei Sip LG Rad Rae BRCORD SAE oP RAE Ret ae Rr Pie Rare Landscape Architect Viktor>-Muehlenbachs-2..-2<2..<2,.2.2-22c2cecsecse-a502<atecseecbec--fecdave2~cecstececeete-stases Research Associate AN OLCO MME selene TCM OL SO Dice sees ease cites tegen Nee eee Morphologist NSCS e Y=] eal ©.) boo | epee ae ee cesT ne ee Pe In charge of Visitors’ Activities
VIS) 03d UE ee Gs Yoh 7a 0 Lee ee eT ne Friends of the Garden Secretary LE (ay Tet SIM (SE SW = eee eee irae ee nn rere ere er eterna errs Ey a Superintendent | Sabb dp gaa ec 1 3 7 BREE ea eee I ee ane Engineer Wivlianeenteco tey erin ar Korey sees spear es, 28.3225. ste eee ee Research Associate Brankystein beng. scesccccre tote ee ee Superintendent of the Arboretum, Gray Summit Georperbs-\ an SGhaac hess 6crees eee ee ee ead oct ben es Librarian and Curator of Grasses “1 Uish goa lgn'do) ols {o) allel -t 0 eee pen annee tone eee eee eer nae ee Associate Curator of the Museum
RODE LEN Ees WOOCSO Ms. |iicscsc teen eee erie os te os ab nae een eae eae ceceetne Curator of Herbarium
SOME FACTS ABOUT SHAW’S GARDEN
The Missouri Botanical Garden (the official name chosen by Mr. Shaw) carries on the garden established by Henry Shaw over a century ago at Tower Grove, his country home. It is a private institution and has no support from city or state. The old stone walls and cast-iron fences, the Linnaean House, the Museum, the Mausoleum, and the Tower Grove mansion all date from Mr. Shaw’s time. Since his death, as directed in his will, the Garden has been in the hands of a Board of Trustees who appoint the Director.
The Garden is open every day in the year (except New Year’s and Christmas) from nine A.M. until seven P. M. spring to fall and until six in the winter time though the green- houses close at five. Towrr Grove, itself, Mr. Shaw’s old country home, is open from one until four, admission twenty- five cents, with special guides. The Garden is nearly a mile long and has several entrances. ‘The Main Entrance, the one most used by the general public, is at Tower Grove and Flora Place on the Sarah bus line (No. 42). The Park Southhampton buses (No. 80), direct from downtown, pass within three blocks of this entrance and stop directly across the street from the Administration Building at 2315 Tower Grove Avenue. The latter is the best entrance for students, visiting scientists, etc. It is open to such visitors after 8:30 A.M., but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The step-in gate (more or less concealed by the big Cleveland Ave. gate, 2221 Tower Grove) is nearly always open, and there is a service entrance on Alfred
Avenue, one block south of Shaw Avenue.
Since Mr. Shaw’s time an Arboretum has been developed at Gray Summit, Mo., adjacent to State Highways 50 and 66. It is open every day in the year and has auto roads as well as foot trails through the wild-flower reservation. There is a pinetum and an extensive display of daffodils and other narcissi which are at their best in April.