Journal of the New York Botanical Garden

              VOL. XXXII MAY, 1931 No. 377
JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
A DESTRUCTIVE RED- CEDAR RUST DISEASE
B. O. DODGE
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO VENEZUELA
H. A. GLEASON
BEGONIAS AS HOUSE PLANTS
BESSIE W. BUXTON
THE WATER- LILIES OF THE UNITED STATES
JOHN K. SMALL
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT
ACCESSIONS
PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN
AT LIME AND GREEN STREETS, LANCASTER, PA.
THE SCIENCE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY
Entered at the post- office in Lancaster, Fa., as second- class matter.
Annual subscription $ 1.00 Single copies 10 cents
Free to members of the Garden
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
BOARD OF MANAGERS
HENRY W. DE FOREST, President CLARENCE LEWIS
HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice President ADOLPH LEWISOHN
F. K. STURGIS, Vice President HENRY LOCKHART, JR.
JOHN L. MERRILL, Treasurer D. T. MACDOUGAL
E. D. MERRILL, Secretary KENNETH K. MACKENZIE
EDWARD D. ADAMS H. DE LA MONTAGNE, JR.
RAYMOND F. BACON J, PIERPONT MORGAN
CHARLES P. BERKEY LEWIS RUTHERFURD MORRIS
MARSTON T. BOGERT H. HOBART PORTER
GEORGE S. BREWSTER HENRY H. RUSBY
N. L. BRITTON GEORGE J. RYAN
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER MORTIMER L SCHIFF
THOMAS A. EDISON EDMUND W. SINNOTT
CHILDS FRICK SAM F. TRELEASE
R. A. HARPER WILLIAM H. WEBSTER
JAMES J. WALKER, Mayor of the City of New York
WALTER R. HERRICK, President of the Department of Parks
SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS
R. A. HARPER, P H . D., SC. D., Chairman D. T. MACDOUGAL, P H . D., LL. D.
RAYMOND F. BACON, P H . D., SC. D. HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D., SC. D.
CHARLES R BERKEY, P H . D SC. D. G J R LL D
MARSTON T. BOGERT, SC. D., LL. D. " J . , , ' _ ~
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, P H . D., EDMUND W. SINNOTT, P H . D.
LL. D., LITT. D. SAM F. TRELEASE, P H . D.
DIRECTOR EMERITUS
N. L. BRITTON, P H . D., SC. D., LL. D.
GARDEN STAFF
E. D. MERRILL, SC. D Director- in- Chief
MARSHALL A. HOWE, P H . D., SC. D Assistant Director
JOHN K. SMALL, P H . D., SC. D Head Curator of the Museums
A. B. STOUT, P H . D Director of the Laboratories
P. A. RYDBERG, P H . D Curator
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D Curator
FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D Curator
ARTHUR HOLLICK, P H . D Paleobotanist
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D Plant Pathologist
FORMAN T. MCLEAN, M. F., P H . D Supervisor of Public Education
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D Bibliographer
PERCY WILSON Associate Curator
PALMYRE DE C. MITCHELL Associate Curator
SARAH H. HARLOW, A. M Librarian
H. H. RUSBY, M. D Honorary Curator of the Economic Collections
ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Honorary Curator of Mosses
MARY E. EATON Artist
ROBERT S. WILLIAMS Administrative Assistant
E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator
ALBERT C. SMITH, A. B Assistant Curator
CLYDE CHANDLER, A. M Technical Assistant
MARJORIE E. SWIFT, A. M Assistant Pathologist
ROSALIE WEIKERT Technical Assistant
KENNETH R. BOYNTON, B. S Head Gardener
G. L. WITTROCK, A. M Docent
H. M. DENSLOW, A. M., D. D Honorary Custodian of Local Herbarium
ROBERT HAGELSTEIN Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes
E. B. SOUTHWICK, P H . D Custodian of Herbaceous Grounds
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM. Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections
JOHN R. BRINLEY, C. E Landscape Engineer
WALTER S. GROESBECK Clerk and Accountant
ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
V
JOURNAL
OF
The New York Botanical Garden
VOL. XXXII MAY, 1931 Xo. 377
A DESTRUCTIVE RED- CEDAR RUST DISEASE1
Two years ago Dr. G. P. Clinton, preparing a program for the
Fifth National Shade Tree Conference, asked the writer to dis­cuss
methods of controlling the apple rusts without removing the
cedar host. This was, in effect, a request to defend the red cedar,
Juniperus virginiana, against the charge of being a public nui­sance,
brought against it by apple- growers of this country.
It is claimed that the apple is subject to attack by species of
rusts belonging to the genus Gymnosporangium, which cause
losses up to 50 per cent or more in cases of certain varieties.
The red cedar is well known to be the alternate host for these
criminal fungi. Furthermore, it has been found that the ordinary
spray schedules followed to control other fungi and insect pests
of apples are not effective in preventing great losses due to the
two cedar- apple rusts. Of the two alternate hosts the apple is the
only one, it is claimed, that suffers. Only in rare cases are the
cedars so loaded with the galls as to suffer much damage. The
galls characteristic of these two species develop only from leaf
tissue and the tree rids itself of the individual infections naturally
after two or three years, because the fungus mycelium does not
become perennial by penetrating down into the branches.
In recent years it has been proved that a third species of rust,
Gymnosporangium germinale ( G. clavipes), severely attacks the
fruit of several varieties of apple, rendering it unsalable. This
species is perennial in the limbs and trunk of the cedar. The
fungus develops largely in the outer cortex just beneath the corky
bark, however, so that it does not seriously affect the cedar host.
1 Studies in the genus Gymnosporangium— V-IOI
FIGURE I. Explanation on opposite page.
103
Thus on three counts the red cedar is condemned, and the only
remedy, the apple- growers say, is to destroy all red cedars.
Some states, notably New York and Virginia among others,
have passed laws designed to compel property owners in certain
sections to cut down all red cedars on their premises which are
within infecting distance from commercial orchards. As the
apple- growers are usually well organized, these laws are more or
less effective and have been upheld in the higher courts. Against
the claim that the red cedar is of no special account as an orna­mental
may be cited the remark of a gentleman who had just
brought an apple orchard in Virginia into bearing at considerable
expense: " If it comes to a question of the apple tree against the
cedar," he said, " we shall have to cut down the apples." The
stately old cedars had long stood guard about his colonial dwell­ing
and they were not to be sacrificed.
This note is not particularly a defense of the red cedar as an
ornamental or as a welcome break in a dreary Long Island land­scape,
or as cooling shade for domestic animals in old New En­gland
pastures. Rather it is to direct attention to a rust disease
which is slowly but surely contributing to the mortality of red
cedars in the East.
Few places in this part of the country can boast of such beau­tiful
old trees of various species as can be seen in Arlington Na­tional
Cemetery, Virginia. On the east slope of the ridge on which
stands Lee Mansion, overlooking the city of Washington, are,
naturally, a number of red cedars. Ten years ago there were to
be found any number of examples of the destructive effects of
what appears to be the effuse type of infection by Gymnosporan­gium
Nidus- avis. Limbs up to six inches in diameter are fre­quently
roughly scarred for several feet, and every year such
limbs as have died are cut out. There is scarcely a tree still
standing that does not show several serious trunk and limb infec­tions.
The natural alternate hosts for G. Nidus- avis are species of
Amelanchier, but, as has been confirmed by others since then, the
writer has proved conclusively that the apple can also be infected.
FIGURE I. A. Portion of trunk of a young red cedar three years after
inoculation with Gymnosporangium. Nidus- avis. B. The same as A after
having been wet to cause the rust sori to swell. Natural size.
104
FIGURE 2. Explanation on opposite page.
IO5
It is interesting to see, however, in such places as The New York
Botanical Garden and other parks, that red cedars planted in re­cent
years show no sign of infection by this fungus, although one
can infect Amelanchier readily with the rust from the old cedars.
While making a study of the cedar rusts some fifteen years
back, it was observed how destructive to the cedar some of the
species could be. It is a pleasure to acknowledge here again the
valuable assistance in that work, rendered by Professor R. A.
Harper, in the form of enthusiasm and material things.
To quote from a paper written in 1918 : 2 " The red cedars on
Long Island and in the vicinity of New York are badly infected
with a Gymnosporangium which, if the infections are due to a
single species, is certainly multiform in its manifestations. Ame­lanchier
and Malus have been infected with spores taken from
each of the following forms, although the inoculations were not
made in each case with a single sorus: ( 1) Sori in the axils of
densely crowded acerose leaves; ( 2) sori caulicolous, large
branches forming coarse witches'- brooms; ( 3) trunk infections,
sori appearing in deep fissures in the thickened bark. There is
perhaps another form recognized by the presence of long parallel
cork ridges, about one centimeter in width, that mark the location
of sori of former years." Of one tree it was said: " The trunk
of this tree is heavily infected for a distance of several feet and
has developed a large spindle- shaped swelling three feet long
about ten feet above the ground."
The rate with which trunk infections spread is shown in FIG­URE
1. As compared with pear blight, the spread here might not
seem very rapid. It is because of this rather slow rate that the
ultimate damage done by this rust has heretofore not been real­ized.
The small potted cedar was inoculated by spraying it with
a suspension of aeciospores taken from apple leaves previously
infected with teliospore material from a witches'- broom which
involved large branches. Infection first showed two years later
2 Dodge, B. O. Studies in the genus Gymnosporangium— II. Re­port
on cultures made in 1915 and 1916. Bull. Torrey Club 45: 287-
300. 1918.
FIGURE 2. Red cedar showing swelling of trunk and excessive growth
of strips of bark in the region infected with the rust fungus Gymno­sporangium
Nidus- avis, completely encircling the tree. The black strip
on the side of the other cedar shows a more localized trunk infection by
another species of rust.
io6
FIGURE 3. Explanation on opposite page.
107
in the form of two stem sori at a point about the middle of the
spindle- shaped portion of the small trunk shown in this figure.
The infection spread at least six inches vertically in both direc­tions
and completely around the stem during the first three years.
Some of the sori were at least two inches long. At the left in the
picture is shown the infected section of the trunk in a dry condi­tion.
At the right the same part in a slightly different position is
shown as it appeared two hours later, after it had been wet to
cause the sori to swell. Just how long such a tree infected in
nature in this manner would have lived is uncertain.
The picture of a cedar by the roadside in Long Island shown
in FIGURE 2 is of a similar type of infection which must have
been of many years' standing. In such cases there are strips of
cambium and inner bark which run up and down, connecting in
a zigzag fashion, so that there is still provision for the flow of
foods. The corky strips of bark which develop over the wounded
portions between the sori are characteristic of this type of infec­tion.
A piece of limb having the same kind of infection is shown
in FIGURE 3, A. The irregular orientation of the swollen sori is
plainly indicated in this picture.
The most destructive type of infection occurs when the fungus
travels straight up and down, causing the development of long,
parallel, closely- set ridges, as shown in FIGURE 3, B, C. The
lower figure shows a piece of limb that had died because the
fungus had completely circled the limb for two or three feet. In
the center figure the region covered by the lower four or five
ridges is dead. The fungus is moving slowly around the limb, as
evidenced by the two rows of swollen sori beyond which ( above
in the picture) the fungus has not as yet penetrated. Small boys
are sometimes said to relish the cedar- apples stimulated to form
by Gymnosporangium Juniperi- virginiae. This may well be be­lieved,
because if one had cut out the ridge- like galls shown in
this figure in the spring of the year when they were alive, he
would have found them composed of rather firm cortical tissue
FIGURE 3. A. Telial sori of Gymnosporangium Nidus- avis on a limb of
red cedar. Sori irregularly oriented. B. Below are seen four or five
ridges denoting the location of sori of previous years. Above are two or
three rows of swollen sori showing that this part of the limb is still alive.
G. Remains of ridge- like galls on a limb killed by a long- standing infection
of the effuse type. Natural size.
io8
filled with rich foodstuffs of a pleasant nutty flavor. Instead of
forming " cedar- apple " galls, this species causes truncate ridge­like
galls well supplied with food for the development of the sori
to be formed. After the teliospores have matured, the gall tissue
becomes brown, more or less suberized, and transformed into a
ridge which seems to serve as a sort of cork callus.
Recent observations on the condition of trees now as compared
with what they showed fifteen years ago bear out the predictions
made at that time. Many of the old familiar trees have disap­peared,
some of them no doubt strangled by poison ivy; others,
perhaps, as some have thought, were unable to withstand con­tinued
infestation by " red spiders." It is clear that when large
numbers of branches of the tree are infected with G. Nidus- avis
so that witches'- brooms are formed all over the tree, considerable
damage is bound to follow.
Nevertheless, it is the deep- seated trunk infections which de­stroy
the cambium and inner bark that are the most serious, and
when this parasite in its effuse form becomes firmly established
on the large limbs and main trunk, the tree is, to say the least,
seriously handicapped. The great damage done the southern
white cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides, by two other species of
Gymnosporangium will be described in a later note.
B. O. DODGE.
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO VENEZUELA
The Pacaraima- Venezuela Expedition has recently published a
handsomely printed and illustrated prospectus, setting forth the
plans for the proposed expedition, which is expected to leave
New York late in the summer for an extended and comprehensive
survey of the unexplored mountain range lying on the border be­tween
Brazil and Venezuela. This expedition will be of special
interest to members and friends of The New York Botanical
Garden, since the Garden is an active participant.
This is the first expedition ever undertaken as a cooperative
project from three leading metropolitan institutions, the other two
being the American Museum of Natural History and the Amer­ican
Geographical Society. The difficulty and expense involved
in reaching this remote region make a cooperative effort essential,
109
while the fact that it is an almost completely unexplored region
gives promise of results of the highest importance in several lines
of scientific investigation, extending beyond the fields of any one
of the three organizations.
In order to facilitate the conduct of the expedition, an indepen­dent
company has been incorporated under the laws of the State
of New York governing membership corporations, with H. E.
Anthony, of the American Museum, as president, H. A. Gleason,
of the Garden, vice- president, and Raye R. Piatt, of the Geo­graphical
Society, secretary. The other members of the corpora­tion
are the directors of the three cooperating institutions. The
charter gives the expedition all necessary powers to carry on the
exploration, distribute the material collected, and publish the
scientific results.
The Pacaraima Mountains cover an area about as large as the
State of Maine, extending some 400 miles in an east- west direc­tion.
Only the mountains at the eastern and western ends of the
range have been mapped by geographers or studied by biologists.
This exploration has centered until recently around the famous
Mt. Roraima, rising to a height of about 8,600 feet at the point
where Venezuela, Brazil, and British Guiana meet. Its lower
slopes have been explored, mostly at long intervals, by various
scientists during the last 90 years, but are still imperfectly known
because of the relatively inaccessible location, entailing much ex­pense
and difficulty in transporting supplies. The mountain has
been ascended by several persons and the flora of its small flat
summit is fairly well known.
Mt. Duida, at the western end of the range, rises to a height of
more than 7,500 feet above the Orinoco lowlands in southern
Venezuela. Although known to geographers and biologists for
more than a century, it was never ascended until 1929, when Mr.
G. H. H. Tate spent several weeks on its broad summit and re­turned
with a remarkable collection of plants and animals. His
botanical collections were presented to the Garden by the Amer­ican
Museum and represent the sole basis of our limited knowl­edge
of its flora.
Between these two extremes lies the vast unexplored range of
the Pacaraimas, as yet unknown biologically and only partially
and probably inaccurately mapped. Robert Schomburgk crossed
the range in four places nearly a century ago and located a few
points by astronomical observations. Koch- Grunberg made some
studies of the Indians in 1904. More recently Desmond Hol-dredge,
of the Brooklyn Institute, has penetrated the range at a
different place. Maps generally show various rivers rising in
these mountains and flowing south toward the Amazon or north
into the Orinoco. The existence of such rivers is certain, but
their exact location, their connection with lowland rivers, or the
height of the mountains is unknown and the information given by
existing maps is largely hypothetical.
The plans of the expedition include the use of aeroplanes to
reach the Pacaraimas. An airport has already been established at
Ciudad Bolivar, on the lower Orinoco, and from there the upper
reaches of the Caroni River can be reached in a three- hour flight.
This method of transport will not only save some two or three
months of laborious travel on foot, but will save the expense of a
pack- train of probably three hundred Indians. Finding so many
Indians is itself difficult, and organizing and feeding them adds
still more trouble to the conduct of an expedition.
Three aeroplanes will be used by the party, two of them capable
of carrying each a thousand pounds of pay- load, and the third a
light plane for scouting. Several trips will be necessary to get
the whole part)', with its several tons of supplies and equipment,
to the base- camp. After that, the planes will be used in aerial
mapping of the region, In transporting its members to various
temporary camps, in returning collections to the sea- coast for
shipment to New York, and for bringing in mail and fresh sup­plies.
The leader of the expedition is H. E. Anthony, of the American
Museum, a man of wide experience in field work, and he will be
assisted by G. H. H. Tate, who has a personal acquaintance with
some of the Indians of the region, made during his trip to Mt.
Roraima a few years ago. Geographical work will be cared for
by C. B. Hitchcock, who has already mapped Mt. Duida. The
aerial geographical survey is assigned to A. C. McKinley, who
was aerial photographer on the recent Byrd expedition to Ant­arctica.
G. C. Graves, 2nd, and W. B. Millar, Jr., are the geolo­gists;
C. H. Curran, entomologist; A. G. Hassler, herpetologist;
and G. A. Thorne, chief pilot, late of the Byrd Expedition; two
or three other members will be chosen later.
The botanical interests of the party will be cared for by two
men, A. C. Smith, of the Garden staff, and N. Y. Sand with, of the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England. Mr. Smith has already
made two extensive trips in South America, the first through
Colombia in 1926- 27 and the second across Peru and down the
Amazon in 1929. Mr. Sandwith is noted as a student of the flora
of northern South America and wras a member of the Oxford
University expedition to British Guiana in 1929. Both of these
men are unusually well qualified for their positions on such an
expedition. If sufficient funds are available, an expert collector
of live plants will also be attached to the party.
Some of the remarkable floristic features of this region became
known when the Schomburgk brothers first collected there nearly
a century ago, although their botanical activities reached only the
extreme eastern end of the range, around Mt. Roraima. Since
then Roraima has been known as a center for a peculiar flora,
characterized by an extraordinary number of local endemic spe­cies
and by an unusually large proportion of plants with large
and beautiful flowers. Although several other collectors have
since then penetrated to Roraima or actually reached its summit,
it is probable that not more than half of its plant inhabitants are
as yet known. At the other extremity of the range, Mt. Duida
has been ascended but once, and the limited collections made by
Mr. Tate, a zoologist, in his spare time, contained no less than
166 species of flowering plants and ferns unknown to science.
Experience with South American plants leads one to expect not
less than 2,000 species for an area of such size, while Tate col­lected
only about 400. If the same proportion of unknown spe­cies
continues, there are probably more than 500 unknown kinds
of plants still awaiting discovery on Duida alone. No less than
207 species of plants find their only known home on higher alti­tudes
of Roraima and this number will probably be doubled by
adequate exploration.
Between these two mountains lie the unexplored parts of the
Pacaraimas, with a flora which may be conservatively estimated
to contain 4,000 different kinds of plants. Those from the low­lands
will probably be mostly well- known species, but the higher
elevations contain possibly a thousand or even more species still
unknown to botanical science. Naturally we can not even guess
what these plants will be, but we may logically expect to find
among them many of great scientific or horticultural interest, if
they follow the precedent set on Roraima and Duida.
Persons whose experience with plants is limited to the United
States do not always appreciate one of the fundamental features
of plant distribution in the tropics, which I may illustrate by com­parison.
Westchester and Putnam counties, New York, each
have a native flora of approximately a thousand species, and of
this thousand, all but a very few are found in both counties.
There are comparatively very few plants found in one county but
not in the other, and in general the flora is uniform throughout
both. In the tropics, on the other hand, an area of equivalent
size will shelter about twice as many species and there will be a
great difference between adjacent areas. This is particularly true
in a mountainous region, where every summit has its own en­demic
species. We already know that the principle holds for the
Pacaraimas. A few of the Roraima species occur on Duida, but
each peak has a very large proportion of species known from the
one mountain only. Undoubtedly the same condition prevails on
all of the unknown and unexplored mountains which lie between
them, and which will be the field for the expedition.
What is the value of such exploratory work in a region so far
from civilization, so completely remote from any of our ordinary
American activities? Each line of work which the expedition
proposes to carry on has its own important features, such as the
mapping of the longest unsurveyed boundary in America by
means of aerial photography, but the botanical results may be
anticipated under five general heads. First, it is the duty of
botanical science to make known the plant life of the world, and
here is a region as large as Maine whose plant life is completely
unknown. Secondly, the collection of these plants will throw
light on the nature of evolution in general. The different forms
of plants on the various mountains show the direction which evo­lution
takes and by comparison give some idea of what their an­cestors
were. Third, a better knowledge of the plants and ani­mals
together will aid the geologist in reconstructing the past
geological history of the country, which at present is also un­known.
There is a theory that these mountains were once con­tinuous
across the Orinoco valley westward to the Andes. If the
" 3
flora shows a considerable proportion of plants with Andean
affinities, this theory will be much strengthened. Fourthly, the
plants include many highly ornamental species which will be a
distinct asset to American horticulture, either grown under glass
in the northern states or in the open in Florida and California,
and every effort will be made to get seeds, roots, or cuttings of
many of these back to New York for cultivation or propagation.
If sufficient funds become available, an expert horticulturist will
be attached to the expedition for this particular purpose. Fifthly,
there is always the possibility of discovery of new and valuable
medicinal plants, now in use by the Indians but still unknown to
medical practice.
Space does not permit a discussion of further details of this
remarkable flora, and a single example must suffice. The largest
pitcher- plants in the world, so far as known, grow in the Pa­caraimas,
one kind on Roraima and three other kinds on Duida.
Possibly still others will be found somewhere between these two
mountains. The Duida species are the larger, standing as much
as five feet tall with flowers five inches in diameter. The pitchers
have a little hole in the side about half way from bottom to top,
so that the water which they always contain never rises beyond
this level. In another year we hope to see some of these remark­able
plants growing in the greenhouses of The New York Botan­ical
Garden.
H. A. GLEASON.
BEGONIAS AS HOUSE PLANTS1
Begonias make ideal house plants, because some varieties enjoy
a sunny window, and others are quite content with little or no
sun. They bloom at different seasons, also, so one may plan for a
succession of bloom by growing a number of varieties.
The begonia was named for Michel Begon, a French botanist
who lived on the island of Santo Domingo from 1638 to 1710.
There are from four hundred to five hundred species in the warm
countries of the world, a great many being found in Central and
South America.
1 Abstract of a lecture given March 14, 1931, at The New York
Botanical Garden by the Corresponding Secretary of the National
Council of State Garden Club Federations.
114
The best soil for begonias is a light, porous one, composed of
two parts sandy loam, one part sand, one part old leaf- mould, and
one part old cow- manure. This should be thoroughly mixed. If
it is not possible to get these materials, any greenhouse man will
sell properly mixed soil.
Begonias should be watered sparingly, for they do not like wet
feet. Some fresh air should be admitted every day, but direct
draughts should be avoided, as this will cause the leaves to drop.
If the air is hot and dry, this, too, will cause falling leaves. There
are various ways of humidifying the air, the simplest and best
being a constantly steaming tea kettle. ( Incidentally, this will
prevent the furniture from cracking, and the family will be less
apt to have head colds.) Pans of wet gravel may be kept under
the pots, and dishes of water set on the radiators will help to keep
the air moist.
The best time to propagate begonias is in the spring, when cut­tings
may be rooted in moist sand. A home substitute for a
greenhouse propagating bed may be made from a Wardian case,
an aquarium with a sheet of glass for a cover, or a glass display
jar partly filled with sand. Set this jar in a sunny window, so
that the sand may become warm, but shield the cuttings with a
paper or cloth. Care must be taken to admit some air when steam
appears on the glass. After the cuttings are well rooted, which
usually takes three or four weeks, they may be transplanted into
small pots of soil.
The blooming varieties need a sunny window, but the Rex and
spotted- leaf varieties grow nicely in a north window. For house
plants, winter- blooming kinds are most desirable. The semper­fiorens,
true to name, blooms constantly. Nitida, the oldest
begonia, was introduced into England in 1777 from Jamaica.
This, as well as its fragrant seedling, odorata alba, has smooth
green leaves and white flowers. Rosea gigantea is a seedling of
the semperfiorens, with large, glossy, green leaves and great
sprays of rose- red flowers, freely produced. It begins to bloom
about Christmas, and is constantly in flower for many months.
Schmidtiana, a Brazilian species, has small, grayish- green, vel­vety
leaves, red underneath. The small, white, pink- tinted flow­ers
are both plentiful and constant. Tcmplinii is another excel­lent
winter- bloomer. This is a tall shrubby variety with beauti-
i i5
fully mottled leaves of green and cream- yellow, with rose tints.
The large trusses of flowers are rose pink. This needs a sunny
window.
For the north window, we may choose the old favorite, ar­gentea
guttata— the " trout begonia " our grandmothers called it
— or any of the spotted- leaf varieties. The so- called " star "
begonias— B. heracleifolia and its seedlings— do well in a north
window, although a little morning sun is enjoyed by any begonia.
This plant, with its deeply cut dark- green leaves and red- spotted,
hairy stems, is handsome at any time, but when the tall sprays of
rose- pink blooms come, from January to March, it is the joy of
all beholders. Haageana is a tall, shrubby begonia, a native of
Brazil, the best known of the red- hairy type. It is very hardy,
and a good bloomer. It has big trusses of waxy- white flowers,
with a few red hairs on the under side of the petals. Pres. Carnot
and Mme. de Lesseps will both thrive in a northeast window.
Both make tall, shrubby plants that bloom well from January on.
They are somewhat alike in leaf, but Carnot has bright carmine-red
flowers, and De Lesseps white, pink- tinged.
In hanging pots, we may grow manicata aureo- macidata, of
large, smooth, waxy leaf of light green with blotches of yellowish
white, tinged with pink. It begins to bloom in February with
feathery sprays of tiny, pale- pink flowers. This begonia needs a
sunny window, but Begonia glaucophylla, with small, shiny, green
leaves and brick- red flowers, will do well in a northeast window.
This begonia may be grown on a trellis or in a hanging pot, as it
is quite vine- like. It is a native of Brazil, and a good winter-bloomer.
Begonia foliosa may also be grown in a hanging pot in
a north window. It comes from Colombia, and might well be
taken for a fern. The insignificant white flowers hang from the
axils of the leaves, under the flat, fern- like sprays.
The most difficult part of begonia culture is to get the begonia.
Florists say frankly that they are slow sellers. And people seek­ing
the choicer varieties say it is useless to go to the florists, as
they carry only a few of the old varieties. But the demand of
the amateur becomes, in time, the mainstay of the florist's busi­ness.
So if we keep on demanding begonias— and buying them—
the florist will hunt them out and grow them for us, and we shall
all be happy.
BESSIE W. BUXTON.
n6
i i7
THE WATER- LILIES OF THE UNITED STATES1
Water- lilies are now horticultural subjects, some of them very
attractive, but for many centuries before their horticultural
vogue, these plants were esteemed from a culinary standpoint.
The aborigines made use of both the rootstocks and the seeds for
food.
Since water- lilies are suggestive of wet country, we are not dis­appointed
in finding on the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, the
ultimate drainage land of the interior highlands, a considerable
development of aquatic flowering plants.
These aquatics occur in sizes ranging from the gigantic
Thalia to the almost microscopic Wolffiella. Some are firmly
anchored in the mud, others are free- floating. Some grow only
in still water, others in flowing water. Some thrive in deep water,
others in shallow water, while some readily adapt themselves to
quite sudden changes in the water level. Some have erect leaves
and flowers, others have floating leaves and flowers, while still
others have floating leaves and erect flowers. Some are floriferous
and fructiferous; others are completely barren. Some are active
throughout the year; others are dormant for a period during each
year. Some have rather small flowers; others have both large
and attractive and even showy flowers.
Following is a table of the species native in the United States:
Castalia ampla ( white or pink- tinged)— southern Texas ( Mex­ico
and West Indies to Brazil).
Castalia elegans ( blue or pale- violet)— southern Florida and
southern Texas ( Mexico).
Castalia flava ( yellow)— Florida.
Castalia lekophylla ( white or pinkish)— southern Georgia and
Florida to Louisiana ( West Indies, Mexico.)
Castalia mexicana ( yellow)— southern Louisiana and Texas
( Mexico).
Castalia minor ( white or pink)— Florida to Louisiana, and New
Jersey.
Castalia odorata ( white or pink)— Florida to Louisiana, Mani­toba
and Nova Scotia.
Castalia tetragona ( white)— southern Canada to northern Idaho.
Castalia tuberosa ( white)— New Jersey and Oklahoma to Mich­igan
and Vermont.
1The following notes and illustrations were made possible mainly
by exploration carried on through the interest of friends of the Garden.
n8
There are eight or nine species2 of Castalia in North America
north of Mexico. About half of them are confined to the At­lantic
and the Gulf Coastal Plain, while the other half occur in
various plant provinces, some of them also in the Coastal Plain.
The geographic range of the extra- Coastal Plain species in the
United States is often erratic. For example, Castalia tetragona,
which ranges nearly across southern Canada, reappears in north­ern
Asia and ranges southward to the Himalaya mountain region.
On the other hand, Castalia ampla, which occurs in southern
Texas, ranges southward through Mexico and the West Indies to
Brazil.
Of the three extra- Coastal Plain species, Castalia odorata
( FIGURE I ) , the common water- lily, has the widest range— grow­ing
naturally from Florida to Louisiana to Manitoba and Nova
Scotia. Castalia tuberosa ranges from New Jersey and Okla­homa
to Michigan and Vermont. The geographic range of the
third species, Castalia minor, as far as we know it, extends from
Florida to Louisiana and New Jersey. White or pink flowers
comprise the variety in these more generally distributed water-lilies.
The species confined to the Coastal Plain show the variety
of the other group, and in addition more color— cream, yellow,
and purple— and more variety in habit. Castalia ampla, a species
with white or pink- tinged flowers, ranges from the tropics of
Brazil and the West Indies through Mexico up to the Rio Grande
region of Texas. One of the outstanding species of the Gulf
States— following by color ( pink) or lack of color ( white)— is
Castalia lekophylla ( FIGURE 4) ( C. rcniformis Nash, not Walter).
It has the largest leaves and the largest flowers of all the North
American species. It ranges from Florida and southern Georgia
to Louisiana ( and Texas?), through the West Indies and Mex­ico,
and apparently into other parts of tropical America.
Now for a change of color. In Castalia flava ( FIGURE 2) and
C. mexicana we find cream- colored and yellow flowers. Our
studies have not yet let us decide whether these two names
represent distinct species or a single species. Castalia flava came
originally from Florida, while C. mexicana was described from
Mexican specimens. This geography is also represented in Cas­talia
elegans ( FIGURE 3), which was recently discovered in south-
" Nine species, if Castalia flava and C. mexicana are distinct.
ng
G- S
S. s
SE
- aE
• s s
a >>
G t
FIGURE 4. Castalia lekophylla in a pond near Tallahassee, Florida.
This is our largest- leaved and largest- flowered water- lily. The leaf-blades
measure up to about two feet across, frequently turning up their
edges after the manner of " Victoria." The white flowers often measure
nearly a foot across the corolla.
ern peninsular Florida. Otherwise it grows naturally in southern
Texas and in Mexico. An additional color appears with this
plant, a blue or pale- violet.
These aquatics occupy either still or flowing water. For some
reasons they have developed habitat characteristics. The white-flowered
species have, as a rule, floating leaves and floating flow­ers.
Castalia lekophylla sometimes elevates its large flowers
above the surface of the water. In the yellow- flowered species,
for some reason, the leaves and the flowers may be either erect or
floating. The purple- flowered species, Castalia elegans, in Flor­ida,
at least, is stable in character of having floating leaves and
well- elevated flowers.
The genus Castalia is characteristic of both boreal and tem­perate
regions in the United States. The northern plants are
thoroughly hardy and grow well during their short season. The
southern plants with a growing season represented by the whole
year—- although the plants have more or less of a resting season
— often grow with astonishing luxuriance.
JOHN K. SMALL.
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT
A photostat has recently been purchased by the Botanical
Garden and will soon be in operation. Its cost has been covered
by a special grant from the Carnegie Corporation.
The Gardeners' Chronicle of February 7 carries an appreciative
biographical sketch, with portrait, of Dr. A. B. Stout, Director of
the Laboratories of The New York Botanical Garden. It reviews
his work with diseases of lilies, in hybridizing daylilies ( Hemero­callis),
in breeding seedless grapes, in discovering synchronous
and reciprocating dichogamy in avocados, in investigating
sterilities of various plants, etc. On another page of the same
issue is a discussion of " The diseases of lilies," based largely on
the results of Dr. Stout's studies and illustrated by photographs
furnished by him.
Instead of attempting the well- nigh impossible task of trying
to pick out ten or twelve days in advance the one day on which
The New York Botanical Garden's display of Narcissus flowers
might be expected to be at its climax and calling it " Daffodil Day,"
the management this year issued to the members and friends of
the Garden a card announcing that the collection was expected to
reach its general climax of beauty in the period between April 20
and April 30. There is a spread of about a month between the
blooming of the earliest and the latest of the 150 varieties in the
collection, so that not all of the varieties can be found in bloom
at any one time. The naturalized plantings, designed by Mrs.
Wheeler H. Peckham, now cover four to five acres and it is prob­able
that this year's display included nearly a half million individ­ual
flowers.
Meteorology for April. The maximum temperatures recorded
at The New York Botanical Garden for each week or part of a
week were: 650 F. on the 4th; 690 on the n t h ; 76° on the 18th;
and 710 on the 21st. The minimum temperatures recorded were:
37u on the 3rd ; 32° on the 12th; $ 7U on the 16th ; 35" on the 24th;
and 340 on the 30th. The total precipitation for the month was
3.45 inches.
123
ACCESSIONS
MUSEUMS AND HERBARIUM
80 specimens of plants from the Marquesas Islands. ( By exchange
with Mr. E. P. Mumford.)
12 specimens of flowering plants from the northeastern United States.
( Given by Dr. J. A. Drushel.)
200 specimens of flowering plants from the West Indies. ( By exchange
with the Riksmuseum, Stockholm.)
984 specimens of plants from New Caledonia. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
89 specimens of plants from Kwangtung, China. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
954 specimens of plants from Kwangsi, China. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
103 specimens of plants from Anhwei, China. ( By exchange with the
National University, Nanking.)
558 specimens of plants from Yunnan, China. ( By exchange with
the Edinburgh Botanic Garden.)
99 specimens from Malaya. ( By exchange with the Singapore Bo­tanical
Garden.)
i l l specimens of Chinese plants. ( Given by Dr. E. D. Merrill.)
1 photograph of Solidago sp. from Ft. Meade, Florida. ( Given by
Mr. W. M. Buswell.)
106 specimens of Philippine ferns. ( By exchange with the Univer­sity
of California.)
2054 specimens of Chinese plants, the Bonati herbarium. ( Given by
Dr. E. D. Merrill.)
1485 specimens of Philippine plants. ( Given by Dr. E. D. Merrill.)
120 specimens of H. Handel- Mazzeti Chinese plants. ( By exchange
with the Vienna Museum of Natural History.)
1223 specimens of plants from Sumatra. ( Given by Mr. H. S. Yates.)
305 specimens of plants from Borneo. ( Given by Mr. D. D. Wood.)
83 specimens of plants from the Fiji Islands. ( By exchange with the
British Museum.)
85 specimens from Rarotonga. ( By exchange with the University of
California.)
225 specimens of Chinese plants. ( Given by Mr. C. Y. Chiao.)
156 specimens of Yunnan plants. ( By exchange with the Vienna
Museum of Natural History.)
119 specimens from Kwangtung, China. ( Given by Dr. E. D. Merrill.)
60 specimens of Asiatic plants. ( By exchange with the Singapore
Botanical Garden.)
2 specimens of Cuban mosses. ( By exchange with Brother Leon.)
12 specimens of mosses. ( By exchange with Rev. C. H. Demetrio.)
6 specimens of plants from Venezuela. ( By exchange with Mr.
Henri Pittier.)
124
8 specimens of mosses from Jamaica, West Indies, and Costa Rica.
( Given by Mr. Edwin B. Bartram.)
2 specimens of mosses from China. ( Given by Mr. A. P. Jacot and
Mr. George Marshall.)
4 specimens of mosses from Maine. ( Given by Mr. and Mrs. Frank
E. Lowe.)
5 specimens, types of moss species. ( By exchange with the Botan­ical
Garden, Dahlem, Berlin.)
2 specimens of mosses from South Dakota. ( By exchange with Mr.
A. C. Mcintosh.)
i specimen of moss from Peru. ( Given by Professor F. L. Herrera.)
I specimen of moss from Washington. ( Given by Miss Patchin.)
13 specimens of mosses from England, Scotland, and Wales. ( Given
by Mr. J. Burtt Davy.)
4 specimens of mosses from Texas, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. ( Given
by Mr. Edwin B. Bartram.)
4 specimens of Peruvian mosses. ( By exchange with the Field Mu­seum
of Natural History.)
9 specimens of mosses of Michigan and Wisconsin. ( By exchange
with the Field Museum of Natural History.)
9 specimens of mosses from Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico, Mex­ico,
and Jamaica. ( By exchange with Mr. Edwin B. Bartram.)
25 specimens, " Musci Americani Perfecti," nos. 126- 150. ( By ex­change
with Dr. A. J. Grout.)
66 specimens of flowering plants from Samoa. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
87 specimens of Malayan plants. ( By exchange with the Singapore
Botanical Garden.)
281 specimens of Siberian plants. ( By exchange with the University
of Tomsk.)
146 specimens from Nanking Province, China. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
132 specimens of Formosan plants. ( By exchange with Dr. T.
Tanaka.)
1209 specimens of plants from Borneo. ( Collected by Dr. A. D. E.
EJmer.)
45 specimens of plants from Kwangtung, China. ( Given by Dr. E. D.
Merrill.)
1705 specimens, " Filices Exsiccatae." ( Distributed by Rosenstock.)
18 specimens of Mexican mosses. ( By exchange with Brother Leon.)
6 specimens of mosses from Tennessee and Mississippi for naming.
( By exchange with Rev. C. H. Demetrio.)
173 specimens of mosses from Peru. ( By exchange with Professor
F. L. Herrera.)
5 specimens of Pentstemon from North America. ( Given by the
Carnegie Institution.)
MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION
Edward D. Adams
* Mrs. Arthur Anderson
Vincent Astor
John W. Auchincloss
Dr. Raymond F. Bacon
* Mrs. Robert Bacon
Stephen Baker
Henry de Forest Baldwin
Sherman Baldwin
Edmund L. Baylies
Prof. Charles P. Berkey
C K. G. Billings
* Mrs. T. Whitney Blake
George Blumenthal
* Mrs. Edward C. Bodman
Prof. Marston T. Bogert
George P. Brett
George S. Brewster
Prof. N. L. Britton
* Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley
Dr. Nicholas M. Butler
* Mrs. Andrew Carnegie
Prof. W. H. Carpenter
* Miss E. Mabel Clark
Richard C Colt
Marin Le Brun Cooper
James W. Cromwell
Henry W. de Forest
Rev. Dr. H. M. Denslow
• Mrs. Charles D. Dickey
•$ Mrs. John W. Draper
Thomas A. Edison
Benjamin T. Fairchild
Marshall Field
William B. O. Field
Childs Frick
* Miss Helen C Frick
* Mrs. Carl A. de Gersdorff
Murry Guggenheim
• Miss Elizabeth S. Hamilton
Edward S. Harkness
Prof. R. A. Harper
tMrs. E. Henry Harriman
T. A. Havemeyer
A. Heckscher
• Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn
• Mrs. Robert C Hill
Anton G. Hodenpyl
• Mrs. Elon H. Hooker
Dr. Marshall A. Howe
Archer M. Huntington
Adrian Iselin
• Mrs. Robert Irving Jenks
Walter Jennings
• Mrs. Walter Jennings
Otto H. Kahn
• Mrs. Delancey Kane
• Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg
Darwin P. Kingsley
• Mrs. Gustav E. Kissel
Clarence Lewis
Adolph Lewisohn
Frederick J. Lisman
Henry Lockhart, Jr.
• Mrs. William Lockwood
Dr. D. T. MacDougal
Kenneth K. Mackenzie
•|| Mrs. David Ives Mackie
Parker McCollester
• Mrs. John R. McGinley
Edgar L. Marston
George McAneny
Dr. E. D. Merrill
John L. Merrill
• Mrs. Roswell Miller
Hon. Ogden L. Mills
H. de la Montagne, Jr.
Barrington Moore
J. Pierpont Morgan
Dr. Lewis R. Morris
Dr. Robert T. Morris
Hugh Neill
Frederic R. Newbold
Prof. Henry F. Osborn
Chas. Lathrop Pack
* Mrs. James R. Parsons
Rufus L. Patterson
• Mrs. Wheeler H. Peckham
" Mrs. George W. Perkins
Howard Phipps
F. R. Pierson
James R. Pitcher
H. Hobart Porter
• Mrs. Harold I. Pratt
• Mrs. Henry St. C. Putnam
Stanley G. Ranger
Johnston L. Redmond
Ogden Mills Reid
John D. Rockefeller
• Mrs. James Roosevelt
Prof. H. H. Rusby
Hon. George J. Ryan
Mortimer L. Schiff
• Mrs. Arthur H. Scribner
Henry A. Siebrecht
Dr. Edmund W. Sinnott
• Mrs. Samuel Sloan
John K. Small
Valentine P. Snyder
James Speyer
J. E. Spingarn
• Mrs. Charles H. Stout
Frederick Strauss
• Mrs. Theron G. Strong
F. K. Sturgis
B. B. Thayer
Dr. William S. Thomas
Charles G. Thompson
Robert Thorne
Louis C Tiffany
Prof. Sam F. Trelease
• Mrs. Harold McL. Turner
Felix M. Warburg
Paul M. Warburg
Allen Wardwell
William H. Webster
H. H. Westinghouse
• Mrs. Louise Beebe Wilder
• Mrs. Nelson B. Williams
Bronson Winthrop
Grenville L. Winthrop
• Mrs. William H. Woodin
• Member also of the Advisory Council,
t Honorary member of the Advisory Council.
t Chairman of the Advisory Council.
II Secretary of the Advisory Council.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Some of the leading features of The New York Botanical Garden
are:
Four hundred acres of beautifully diversified land in the northern part
of the City of New York, through which flows the Bronx River. A native
hemlock forest is one of the features of the tract.
Plantations of thousands of native and introduced trees, shrubs, and
flowering plants.
Gardens, including a beautiful rose garden, a rock garden of rock- loving
plants, and fern and herbaceous gardens.
Greenhouses, containing thousands of interesting plants from America
and foreign countries.
Flower shows throughout the year— in the spring, summer, and autumn
displays of narcissi, daffodils, tulips, lilacs, irises, peonies, roses, lilies,
water- lilies, gladioli, dahlias, and chrysanthemums; in the winter displays
of greenhouse- blooming plants.
A museum, containing exhibits of fossil plants, existing plant families,
local plants occurring within one hundred miles of the City of New York,
and the economic uses of plants.
An herbarium, comprising more than one million specimens of Amer­ican
and foreign species.
Exploration in different parts of the United States, the West Indies,
Central and South America, for the study and collection of the character­istic
flora.
Scientific research in laboratories and in the field into the diversified
problems of plant life.
A library of botanical literature, comprising more than 41,000 books
and numerous pamphlets.
Public lectures on a great variety of botanical topics, continuing
throughout the year.
Publications on botanical subjects, partly of technical, scientific and
partly of popular, interest.
The education of school children and the public through the above
features and the giving of free information on botanical, horticultural, and
forestal subjects.
The Garden is dependent upon an annual appropriation by the
City of New York, private benefactions and membership fees. It
possesses now nearly two thousand members, and applications for
membership are always welcome. The classes of membership are:
Benefactor single contribution $ 25,000
Patron single contribution 5,000
Fellow for Life single contribution 1,000
Member for Life single contribution 250
Fellowship Member annual fee too
Sustaining Member annual fee 25
Annual Member annual fee 10
Contributions to the Garden may be deducted from taxable Incomes.
The following is an approved form of bequest:
/ hereby bequeath to The New York Botanical Garden incorporated under
the Laws of New York, Chapter 285 of 1891, the sum of
Conditional bequests may be made with income payable to donor
or any designated beneficiary during his or her lifetime.
All requests for further information should be sent to
T H E NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
BRONX PARK, NEW YORK, N. Y.