~GAZINE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY A union of the AmeTican Hortjcultuml Society and the American Horticultw·al Council 1600 BLADENSBURG ROAD, NORTHEAST. WASHINGTON 2, D. C. For United Horticulture *** to accumulate, increase, and disseminate horticultural int01' mation B. Y. MORRISON, Editor Directon Terms ExpiTing 1961 JAMES R. HARLOW, Managing Editor STUART M. ARMSTRONG Maryland Edi lorial Committee JOHN L. CREECH MMyland W. H. HODGE, Chairman WILLIAM H. FREDERICK, JR. Delaware JOHN L. CREECH FRANCIS PATTESON-KNIGHT FREDERIC P . LEE Virginia DO:-lALD \VYMA:-I CONRAD B. LINK Massachusetts CURTIS MAY Terms Expiring 1962 FREDERICK G . MEYER FREDERIC P. LEE WILBUR H. YOUNGMAN Maryland HENRY T. SKI NNER District of Columbia GEORGE H . SPALDING Officen California PRESIDENT RICHARD P. WHITE DONALD WYMAN District of Columbia Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts ANNE WERTSNER WOOD Pennsylvania FIRST VICE-PRF.SIDENT Terms Expiring 1963 ALBERT J . IRVING New Ym·k, New York GRETCHEN HARSHBARGER Iowa SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT MARY W. M . HAKES Maryland ANNE WERTSNER WOOD FREDERIC HEUTTE Swm·thmore, Pennsylvania Virginia w. H. HODGE SECRETARY-TREASURER PennsyZ,'ania OLIVE E. WEATHERELL ALBERT 1- IRVING W~shington, D. C. New York The Ame?·ican Horticultwral Magazine is the official publication of the American Horticultural Society and is issued four times a year during the quarters commencing with January, April, July and October. It is devoted to the dissemination of knowledge in the science and art of growing ornamental plants, fruits, vegetables, and related subjects. Original papers increasing the historical, varietal, and cultural knowledges of plant materials of economic and aesthetic importance are welcomed and will be published as early as possible. The Chairman of the Editorial Committee should be consulted for manuscript specifications. Reprints will be furnished in accordance with the following schedule of prices, plus post­ age, and should be ordered at the time the galIey proof is returned by the author: One hundred copies-2 pp $6.60; 4 pp $12.10; 8 pp $25.30; 12 pp $36.30; Covers $12.10. Entered as second class matter in the post ollice at Baltimore, Maryland, in accordance with the Act of August 24, 1912. Additional entry for Washington. D.C .• was authorized July 15. 1955. in accordance with the pro· visions of Section 132.122. Postal Manual. A subscription to The American H01 ·ticultural Magazine is included as a benefit of membership in the American Horticultural Society. Individual Membership dues being 16.00 a year. JULY. 1961 THE ~ER.ICA.N FORMERLY THE NATIONAL HORTIC ULTURAL MAGAZINE VOLUME 40 • NUMBER 3 I Contents Ginkgo-The Maidenhair Tree H UI-LIN LI ________________________________________________________ ___ _____________________________________ .__ _ 238 Horticultural Centers in Spain and Portugal FREDERICK G_ :MEYER ___________________ ____ _______________________________________________________ . __ ._ 250 Biennial Campanulas ROBERT M_ SENIOR ____________________________________________________________ ___ ___ _____ ____ ______ _______ _ 277 A Book or Two _____________________ .._ _____________________________________ .___________________________________ ___ ___ 281 The Gardeners' Pocketbook Camellia X "Little Princess." B. 'y MORRISON ____ ____ __________ _________________ ____ _ 288 Gardenia jasminoides. G. A. C. HERKLOTS _____ ___ ___ ______ ____ ___ ___________ _. ___________ 289 The Texas Persimmon. LYNN LOWREY ___________________________________ _________ __ ______ 291 I Eat One Arbutus unedo Fruit. ELIZABETH LAWRENCE ____ ___________________ 292 Experiment With Two Conifers in Alabama. E. J. HORDER _____________ _. __ 292 Anthurium wamcqueanum. ALEX D . HAWKES __________________________ ______________ 293 Concerning Tazettas. MRS. RICHARD N. DARDEN ___________ ______________________ _____ 294 Growing Tree Ferns Outdoors in Northern Florida. ALBERT M . LAESSLE __________________________________________ __________ ____________ 295 A New Lycoris, Perhaps. B. Y MORRISON _________________________________________________ 297 Mangosteen. EDWARD F. THAYER __________________________________________________ ______ ___ ___ 299 Growing Tree Peonies from Seed. HARVEY F. STOKE ___________________________ __ __ 299 JULY COVE R ILLUSTRATION Ga?-denia jasminoides (See Page 289) 'W a ter color drawing b y G. A. C. Herklots Copyright, © 1961 by T he American H orticultu ral Society, I nc. G. HAl\.'1PFLER Ginkgo biloba grown as a bonsai at Longwood Gardens Ginkgo-The Maidenhair Tree HUI-LrN LI* Ginkgo biloba, the maidenhair tree, Origin in China and Cultivation is a most unique tree in many respects. Ginkgo was unknown to the ancient As a species, it is the oldest one of all Chinese; its records in the literature can­ trees. As the only species of a whole order, GINKGOALES, botanicall y it is an not be traced definitely beyond one thou­ isolated and most distinctive one, the sand years. The earliest Chinese civiliza­ lone surviving member of a once great tion prospered along the Yellow River and dominant vegetation of the world. valley in northern China. Many plants It is a relic of the past, or, in the words h ave been domesticated there since time of Charles Darwin, a living fossil. This immemorial; among the trees there are very same tree was thriving a hundred the peach, apricot, pines, arborvitae, and a quarter million years ago when juniper, jujube, etc., but Ginkgo is con­ dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. spicuously absent. It appears first in the Indeed, it is a most precious and tenuous literature in the early Sung dynasty in link between the present and the remote the 11 th century as a plant native to east­ past. In the words of the eminent paleo­ ern China, south of the Yangtze River. botanist Sir Albert Seward [19381: "It At Kaifeng, the capital in northern appeals to the historic soul: we see it as China, it was considered a rare and pre­ an emblem of changelessness, a heritage cious "fruit." It was first sent as a tribute from worlds too remote for our human yearly from its native region to the capi­ intelligence to grasp, a tree which has in tal to be presented to the emperor. Sub­ its keeping the secrets of the immeasur­ able past." sequently a few trees were planted in the capital by Prince Li Wen-ho, and this is Ginkgo is not only a tree of great bo­ the first recorded instance of cultivation tanical interest, but one which is of great outside of its natural range. The tree horticultural value as well. As an orna­ was then named Ya Chio, meaning duck's mental, with its spreading, rigidly rallli­ foot, referring to the shape of the leaves. fied branches and curiously shaped This is evidently the earliest name of leaves, it is a tree of great distinction and dignity in a:ppearance. The fan shaped the plant and possibly the name first leaves are nearly always notched at the known in its place of origin. After the tip, hence the name "biloba." It is also nut became known in the capital, this because of the general resemblance of the name was regarded as vulgar, and an­ leaves to those of the maidenhair fern other name, Yin Hsing or silver apricot that gives it the common name maiden­ was adopted, and the two names were hair tree. often used concurrently. [Li 1956J. The original home of the tree is in After its first introduction into culti­ China. From there it has spread in cul­ vation in the capital, it also began to ap­ tivation in modern times to all parts of pear in poetry and in paintings. It was the world. It is now probably one of the eulogized by famous noets, who mostly most esteemed trees in this country, espe­ praised its "fruits" and sometimes also cially valued for this purpose because of its leaves. Undoubtedly the praise of this its upright habit, hardiness and dura­ rare "fruit" by the many renowned poets ?ility, ~ nd freedom from insect pests. It brought fame to this plant in northern IS considerably planted in Philadelphia, China. These verses also established the New York, Washington, D. c., and many fact that the tree was then growing wild other large cities especially in the east. in its native region, in the southern part It is ironical that the oldest living species of Anhwei province. is better suited to the most modern man­ It is interesting to note that the earlier made habitat than almost any other tree. in terest in the plant is because of the - Dr. Li. taxonomist of the N(orris Arboretum and edible nut and the ornamental features associate professor of botany at the University of of the plant. The "fruit," of course, is Pennsylva nia , is an au thority on Chinese horticulture and botany. His most recent book, The Garden not a true fruit, but a drupe-like seed. It Flow"rs of China [1959]. is a fascinating account of the horticultural contributions of that country. is yellowish when mature, of the size and [2391 240 THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL MAGAZINE appearance of a small apr~cot but with Introduction Into the West a silvery bloom on the outside, ~ence th~ Ginkgo was first made known to the literary name Yin Hsi?g ~r sIlver-apn­ western world by E. Kaempfer, a surgeon cot. The inside kernel IS edible. It beg~n in the employ of the Dutch East India to appear in the herbals in . the thl~' ­ Company, who first observed it in Japan teenth and fourteenth centunes. It IS in 1690 and published in 1712 a descrip­ noted in one of these early herbals that tion wi th a figure of the foliage and the nuts if eaten in excess, especially by frui t. [Kaempfer 1712]. The tree was children: may be slightly poisonous. first introduced into the Botanic Garden Ginkgo is described in detail in th~ gr~at at Utrecht. Jacquin brought it into the herbal Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu by Ll Shih­ Botanic Garden at Vienna sometime cHen in 1596. The author repeatedly after 1768.