Bulletin of the merican Rock Garden S@cietu VOL. 40 FALL 1982 NO. 4 THE BULLETIN Editor Emeritus ... Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, Philadelphia, Pa. Editor. Laura Louise Foster, Falls Village, Conn. 06031 Assistant Editor . Harry Dewey, 4605 Brandon Lane, Beltsville, Md. 20705 Contributing Editors . .. Roy Davidson, Anita Kistler, H. Lincoln Foster, Owen Pearce, H.N. Porter Layout Designer. Buffy Parker Advertising Manager ... Anita Kistler, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380 CONTENTS VOL. 40 NO. 4 FALL 1982 Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, 1885 - 1982 157 Western American Iris — Roy Davidson 163 Some Small Eastern Iris Iris lacustris and Iris cristata — Roy Davidson 166 Iris cristata and Iris verna — L.L.F 170 Two Crested Iris from Japan Iris tectorum — Edward Leimseider 172 Iris gracilipes — Sara Faust 173 Gardens in Ithaca — William J. Hamilton, Jr 175 Cyclamen Data — Carol Sienko 178 Non-hardy Cyclamen in a Cold Climate — Maryann Collins 180 Protection for a National Treasure: The Columbia River Gorge — Faith Mackaness 183 Award Winners - 1982: Francis H. Cabot; Panayoti P. Callas; George M. Schenk; Sharon Sutton; T. Paul Maslin; Ruth Ashton Nelson . 187 The Show Bench — Evelyn Murrow 193 Book Reviews: The Iris by Brian Mathew; The Bulb Book by Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips 194 Campanula x 'Justiniana' — Vaughn Aiello 196 Collector's Notebook: Two Columbia Plateau Albinos — Roy Davidson .... 197 A Baker's Dozen for Beginners — Dorothea DeVault 198 Notes from Alaska: Alaskan Willows — Helen A. White 200 Of Cabbages and Kings 200 Cover Picture — Iris tenuis — Jean Witt, Seattle, Washington Published quarterly by the AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY, incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey. You are invited to join. Annual dues (Bulletin included) are: Ordinary Membership, $9.00; Family Membership (two per family), $10.00; Overseas Membership, $8.00 each to be submitted in U.S. funds or In• ternational Postal Money Order; Patron's Membership, $25; Life Membership, $250. Membership inquiries and dues should be sent to Norman Singer, Secretary, Norfolk Rd., South Sandis- field, Mass. 01255. The office of publication is located at Norfolk Rd., S. Sandisfield, Mass. 01255. Address editorial matters pertaining to the Bulletin to the Editor, Laura Louise Foster, Falls Village, Conn. 06031. Ad• dress advertising matters to Anita Kistler, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380. Second class postage paid in S. Sandisfield, Mass. and additional offices. Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society (ISSN 0003- 0863). Printed by the Deer Spring Press, Norfolk, CT VOL. 40 FALL 1982 NO. 4 Bulletin of the merican Rock Garden etu Dr. Edgar T. Wherry 1885 - 1982 This issue of the Bulletin, the last one class young Edgar was awarded a four in which his name appears at the top of year college scholarship and entered the the masthead as Editor Emeritus, is dedi• University of Pennsylvania in 1902, tak• cated to Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, who died ing all available courses in chemistry and May 19 at the age of 97. A charter geology. member of the American Rock Garden In May of that year a notice on the Uni• Society, Dr. Wherry served the Society versity Bulletin Board announced a trip devotedly in many capacities ever since by the Mineralogical and Geological sec• it started and made countless warm tion of the Academy of Natural Sciences friends throughout the horticultural and of Philadelphia to "Pink Hill" in the botanical world. Taylor Arboretum. Taking a trolly to Born and raised in Philadelphia, Lime he debarked at the foot of a pink- Edgar Wherry attended Friends Central carpeted rise; it was clothed in a copious School where he became acquainted growth of Phlox subulata. The leaders of with the natural world. As a boy he also the group pointed out that this plant attended lectures in various fields at the grows here only on serpentine rock, Wagner Free Institute of Science near his never spreading to other formations. No home. Here he became fascinated by one knew why and then and there young the experimental demonstrations in Wherry resolved to make a chemical chemistry and decided to make this his study of the problem if he ever had-a career. Standing near the head of his chance. 157 Meanwhile he continued his studies at tion as Assistant Curator of Mineralogy at the University of Pennsylvania receiving the United States National Museum. The his BS in Chemistry in 1906 and his following year he married E. Gertrude PhD. in 1909. He was then invited to Smith and moved to Chevy Chase, teach mineralogy at Lehigh University Maryland, where he built a small house and carry out geological mapping as field for himself and his bride on a wooded assistant to Professor Florence Bascom hill. It was here that he developed his first of Bryn Mawr College. He also lectured wildflower garden and was able to pur• on chemistry and geology at the Wagner sue his interest in soil chemistry as re• Free Institute of Sciences where he had lated to plants, a problem first suggested received his early inspiration. In the sum• by the phlox on "Pink Hill" so many mer of 1910 he studied crystallography years before. He divided his garden into with the eminent Victor Goldschmidt of soils of two reaction types, acid and cir- Heidelberg, Germany. cum-neutral and tested various plants in His combined interest in the field of the two soils. In this connection he in• mineralogy and chemistry led him to vented the simple soil "test kit" which originate a simple method of detecting determines the pH of soil by color reac• the presence of the non-metallic chemi• tion, a method still used extensively cal boron in silicates, a valuable con• today by horticulturists. tribution, as this element is used exten• Dr. Wherry had become so proficient sively as a constituent of boric acid, while at the National Museum in identify• soaps, water softeners, enamels, glass ing minerals by their crystallographic and pottery. While on his field trips he properties that he was asked to transfer discovered and published notes on a to the Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S. number of rare minerals in Pennsyl• Dept. of Agriculture to become the coun• vania, among them the first discovery of try's first official Crystallographer. In this Triassic basalt in this state. His PhD dis• capacity he applied his methods of iden• sertation concerned the geology, tification to chemical compounds in the mineralogy and chemistry of igneous food and drug field, work which gave rocks of Triassic age, including the him an increasing interest in plants. On basalt, southeast of Reading, Pa. As is one occasion he was called to Perry often true of such discoveries, his finding County, Pa., to investigate the complaint of camotite, a uranium-vanadium min• of a beekeeper whose honey was being eral, occurred as a happy accident com• spoiled by unusual summer crystalliza• bined with acute curiosity and considera• tion. Dr. Wherry found that the cause ble knowledge. A rock with a brilliant yel• was not the work of foreign spies as the low coating had fallen off the cliff above beekeeper thought but the fact that the onto the trolly tracks along which young insects were collecting honey-dew sec• Wherry was walking. He immediately reted by aphids on the local pine trees. recognized its similarity to the camotite While in the area Dr. Wherry consulted a first discovered in Colorado shortly be• booklet on plants native to the area. This fore. He picked it up and checked it out. led him to search for and find a stand of "A thrill that comes once in a lifetime," the rare Gaylussacia brachycera growing was his comment. This was a phrase he in intensely acid soil. Dr. Wherry dug up would repeat many times during his long a small piece to take home to his garden life. for experimental purposes. In 1913 he moved to Washington, When Dr. Frederich V. Coville, Chief D.C., where he had been offered a posi• Botanist of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 158 heard of his find, he called Dr. Wherry Flowers of Mt. Desert Island. Thus into his office where he related that he Acadia National Park was another result himself had been unsuccessfully search• of Dr. Wherry's explorations. ing for years for gaylussacia as he wished In 1930 he was offered a position as to use this species in connection with his Associate Professor of Botany-Ecology project of developing the commercial at the University of Pennsylvania. As this culture of blueberries. He indicated to post would give him the advantage of Dr. Wherry that he wondered how a long summer vacations during which he mere chemist-crystallographer had man• would be able to do field studies of west• aged to find this elusive plant and asked ern American flora he willingly agreed the young crystallographer if he would and, selling his house in Chevy Chase, be willing to search for a "lost" colony in he bought one in Swarthmore, Pa. Like Delaware. This search ended success• the true gardener he was, Dr. Wherry fully and Dr. Wherry, by cross-pollinat• moved as many species as possible from ing the Delaware clone with that he had his old garden to his new one. His teach• found in Perry County, obtained the first ing career at the U. of Penn. lasted until viable seed and seedling of the species his retirement from this career in 1955. known to science. Gaylussacia is not self- In 1932 when the University of fertile and as each enormous colony, Pennsylvania assumed administration of some several acres in extent and in some the property of John and Lydia Morris, cases thought to be over 13,000 years Dr.