April 17, 1909 



HORTICULTURE. 



56^ 



European Horticulture 



BEOONIA SE.Ml'EEFLOEEXS IlYBraDA DOKXKOSCHEN 



This beautiful hybrid of Begonia Socotrana, fertilised 

 with B. semperflorens Liibeca was raised by Herr Moritz 

 Konig of Wiesbaden. It was, however, like so many 

 other Socotrana crosses unnoticed for years, as was the 

 case with Gloire de Lorraine which was rediscovered 9 

 years after its birth, and also with the Veitchian 

 winter-flowering begonias. The bloom is of a silky, 

 pretty rose-pink tint; the leaves are egg shaped and of 

 a fresh green color. The plant begins to form side 

 shoots while yet little more than a cutting, and at a 

 height of 9 inches has become a globular bush and be- 

 gins to bloom. The plant prefers a light soil, like that 

 found suitable for cyclamens. It is impatient of con- 

 tinuous rainy weather when employed out of doors in 

 beds and groups, the flowers dropping, to reappear on 

 the advent of sunny weathei'. In the winter season the 

 plant must be placed in a light warm and dry position. 

 If the plant has come through the winter in a good con- 

 dition, it will afford fifty or more cuttings. 



PERPETUAL FLOWEKINOx CAEKATIONS 



Whether it is the excessive size of the blooms of the 

 present race of the fine American and English carna- 

 tions and consequently their great weight, or that inter- 

 breeding has produced weakness of the stems, the droop- 

 ing poise of the blooms was very noticeable among those 

 exhibited at the recent show of the Perpetual Flowering 

 Carnation Society.- Some of the varieties, notably. 

 Enchantress and White Perfection had excessively weak 

 stems, and some of them were broken where they 

 touched the edge of the vases. We seem to need greater 

 robustness of growth if the blooms are to remain as 

 large as they now are. Or failing that improvement, a 

 reduction of size in the bloom. Perhaps the addition of 

 silica, or potash, or lime to the soil in which the plants 

 are grown, might impart strength and rigidity to the 

 stems, as these substances d( 'r. the case of wheat and 

 other cereals. A drooping carnation may do for plants 

 standing on a window sill, to be observed from below, 

 as we see them in the Tyrol and Italy, but such flowers 

 are out of place in a vase placed on a level with, or be- 

 low the eye.. 



A DISEASE OF COFFEE 



The cultivation of coffee is being seriously threatened 

 in many parts of the tropical ^vorld by a fungus, 

 Hemileia vastatrix, nearly allied to rust that infests the 

 wheat plant; and its ravages were very evident about 

 1880 in the coffee plantations in Ceylon. It is commonly 

 known as the coffee leaf disease, and may be recognized 

 by the clusters of yellow spores which appear mostly on 

 the lower sides of the leaves of affected bushes. So great 

 have been the ravages of this fungus in Ceylon that 

 whereas the exports of coffee from that island were 

 about £3,000,000 in 1880 they now amount to only 

 £25,000. Mr. G. Massee in his "Revision of the genus 

 Hemileia" (Kew Bulletin, lOOG) gives the geographical 

 distribution. "In the East it is found in India, Java, 

 Sumatra, Malacca, Singapore and the Philippines; also 

 in Mauritius, Madagascar, Fiji and Samfia. In Africa 

 tlie Arabian coffee has been attacked, namely in German 

 East Africa, Xatal, and in the vicinity ' of Victoria 

 Nyanza. In the northern part of the Transvaal, a small 

 but flourishing industry has been destroyed. The im- 



portation of coftte seeds or plant from infected countries 

 is now prohibited." 



THALICTRUM DIPTEROCAKPUM 



This is a Chinese species introduced to British gar- 

 dens by Mr. Wilson, who found it on mountains 4000 

 feet above sea level. The plant is hardy in the temper- 

 ate parts of the world, and is a welcome addition to the 

 herbaceous border; it possesses panicles of small, 

 reddish purple blooms, growing to a height of about 4 

 feet. The Thalictrums, (Meadow Eue) are mostly low 

 growing fragile plants, with, in some cases, fern-like 

 leaves: T. minus, (Maidenhair Meadow Eue) might be 

 easily mistaken for the maidenhair fern. They make 

 pretty objects on the rockery, and the leaves are very 

 suitable for mixing with flowers in bouquets. This 

 Chinese noveltv is figured in The Gardeners' Chronicle 

 for April 3 last. 



THE PROVINCIAL HORTICULTURAL UNION OF HANOVER 



As a striking instance of the great activity of a prov- 

 ince in matters connected with gardening I take the fol- 

 lowing from the recently issued report. For a number 

 of years the Union has endeavored to foster among the 

 school children a knowledge of the care and cultivation 

 of flowering plants, to which end it distributes annually 

 5,000 plants together with printed directions for their 

 cultivation. It likewise fosters the cultivation of plants 

 among the working population in general and members 

 of the Union and inaugurates flower shows and the dis- 

 tribution of plants to the value of 200 m. yearly. By 

 lectures and excursions to celebrated gardens and in 

 other directions the Union does its best to inculcate an 

 interest in all matters pertaining to the garden. At 

 the end of the year 1908 the members numbered 635 

 and the funds in hand amounted to 6,000 m. 



Adiantum Farleyense 



The subject of our cover illustration is an excel- 

 lent specimen of Adiantum Farleyense which variety we 

 believe to be the most graceful of all ferns when well 

 grown. This specimen shown, grown at the R. L. Beek- 

 man estate, Newport R. I., is barely two years old and 

 in a 10-inch pot has a circumference of nearly ten feet 

 in the condition shown. And as Mr. Urquhart, the grow- 

 er, has unfailing success with these year after year we 

 partly state the seemingly ideal conditions under which 

 they are grown. The greenhouse is a low even-span cur- 

 vilinear with ground gLiss lightly shaded throughout the 

 year. The niglit temperature is kept about 75 degrees, 

 and the day temperature higher of course. The main 

 propagating season is in March and April when old 

 plants are broken up and crowns with one eye are put in 

 the open bench of clean sharp sand where they usually 

 root well \\itliin two weeks and are potted in small pots 

 and plunged in a bench of moss till they are well estab- 

 lished then potted on into larger pots as they seem to 

 demand ; finely chopped half-rotted sod with a good mix- 

 ture of cow manure is used at each shift. Liquid manure 

 of various kinds is also freely used. This house is occu- 

 pied almost entirely by ferns of this variety, and over- 

 crowding is always avoided. 



