February 17, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



183 



Ruellia Macrantha 



Ruellia is a very nice genus of plant from the 

 Acanthaceae family nearly all coming from South 

 America and West Indies. They are very showy, bul 

 seldom seen in cultivation, and it is surprising that a 

 plant like Euellia macrantha, which is not new, but 

 certainly one of the most showy flowering plants, is not 

 more generally cultivated for Christmas -and New Year's 

 trade. It flowers for more than two months from 

 December to February, keeps well as an apartment plant 

 and for the conservatory it is of the greatest value. The 

 trumpet-shaped flowers grow in terminal bunches, two 

 to six open at one time, each bloom individually about 

 two inches broad and of a nice magenta rose color- 

 dark when grown near the light. It makes, when well- 

 grown, nice" busby plants with handsome foliage, about 

 two feet high. 



Two-year-old plants are the best. They have to be 

 cut back Late in the spring and pinched it some branches 

 have a tendency to run up. They like ;i light, rich soil 



with plenty of water and may be kept during summer 

 pot-buried in an old frame in full sun. It is well to 

 move them once in a while to keep the roots from 

 growing out of the pots. At the end of September when 

 the nights begin to cool they have to be shifted into 

 bigger pots, taken in and placed as near the glass as pos- 

 sible. In this way they will make much stronger, 

 shorter, shoots than when grown in houses and the 

 flowers will be more numerous. A little liquid manure 

 will help them. 



They are propagated from cuttings, which grow 

 readily, and when made early flower the first year, but 

 will not make the nice busby plants they will the second 

 iiml thereafter. The picture shows a three-year-old 

 ulant. 



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Pruning Ornamentals 



To the Editor of Horticulture: 



D ear si r — I W as very much interested in the article 

 upon pruning ornamentals, by E. 1>. Adams m your 

 issue of January 27. 



I heartily endorse every word of the article with the 

 exception of the paragraph in which he advises the 

 heading back of elms, oaks and maples. Head in an 

 American elm and cause it to make a low, dense head 

 and you have robbed it of its tall, straight stem and 

 long," springing branches which, surmounted by a noble 

 crown, are the features from which it derives its 

 grandeur. Also, the acute angle which is formed by 

 two or more branches as they rise from the trunk ren- 

 ders the tree liable to split in a storm. By beheading 

 a young elm this liability is increased as a cluster of 

 new leads at once forms' around the severed end; the 

 base of these new leads forms a weak and unnatural 

 union which sometimes proves disastrous as the tree 

 reaches maturity. I could point out more than one 

 fine elm which 'has suffered from this cause; and in 

 repairing one which had thus suffered, I found decided 

 evidence" of the top of the small tree which had been 



overgrown but which had proved a source of weakness 

 ami eventual ruin to the tree. The same will apply 

 in a measure to the maples. But if you want a tree 

 with a low round head why not plant a maple instead 



of an elm? 



The long, lank, appearance of the maples spoken 

 of by Mr. Adams, to be found along roadside and m 

 park's is to be accounted for by the fact that roadside 

 trees are invariably crowded, and their lower limbs are 

 trimmed off to make way for traffic. In parks where 

 they are planted in croups, those trees which grow on 

 the outside of the groups make a pathetic effort to 

 cover the naked legs of the group by producing low 

 growing limbs. The maple and the oak given plenty 

 of room to grow will produce rounded, symmetrical 

 heads, each characteristic of its species, graceful and 

 sturdy and which cannot be improved upon by the 

 work'of the skillful pruner. 



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