18^6.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



t3 



Our readers are so widely extended that for the 

 benefit of the most favored, we rather advanced 

 our hints as to season, last month. To the bulk, 

 they will still be in order. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



A FEW FACTS ABOUT CALLAS. 



BY W. T. HARDING, COLUMBUS, OHIO. 



Excepting the Rose, I know of but few plants 

 having more admirers, or of which so much has 

 been said or w-ritten, as the well-known Calla 

 ^thiopica — or, more correctly, Richardia ^thi- 

 opica. Of all plants, it seems the one with which 

 everybody excels their neighbors in cultivation, 

 and on that account is so justly popular. The 

 first essays of amateurs generally begin with 

 them, and then follows, as is very natural, their 

 initial communication "to the editor," to an- 

 nounce their success. When we take into con- 

 sideration the combined beauty of flower and fo- 

 liage, and admit the fact of no one ever failing to 

 produce the finest flowers that ever grew, there 

 is no wonder why in every window stands a Stately 

 Calla. The latest remarks I quote from the 

 January number of the Monthly and Horticulturist, 

 in which a writer says : " I give the Callas very 

 little rest ; some of them none whatever. By this 

 system of culture, the roots do not die, and the 

 plants certainly produce finer flowers." 



A more liberal supply of fair flowers, healthy 

 green leaves, or sturdier plants, I never saw under 

 any system of cultivation than which grew in 

 the basin of a water fountain in a Cleveland con- 

 servatory. For seven long years, through all 

 seasons, the pots stood up to their rims in water. 

 Were never dried off, had no rest — as they were 

 never weary of well-doing, did not require any 

 — and so they wept on blooming without ceasing. 

 More fortunate than poor Ponce de Leon, they 

 had found the fountain of life; and while enjo}'- 

 ing a perpetual spring, with all the vigor of im- 

 mortal youth, they freely imbibed the life-giving 

 water. 



Years before, at the junction of the Black and 

 Yellow rivers, at the Cape of Good Hope, the 

 writer saw untold millions of them growing in the 

 swamps, lakes and lagoons. I believe they never 

 dry up there, in that particular region, during the 

 hot and droughty seasons peculiar to Africa, but 

 are at all times submerged. Who knows but 

 what the Arundinarias, Imperatas, Cj'perus, Arun- 



dos, Papyrus, Nymphias, and Callas, overshad- 

 owed the ancient crocodile and hippopotamus 

 many thousands of years before Vasco de Gama 

 doubled the Cape. 



There are but few plants capable of existing under 

 such dissimilar conditions as the Calla. Treated 

 as an aquatic, a terrestrial, or sub-aquatic, it 

 readily adapts itself to the situation, and flour- 

 ishes finely. Chilly winds and frosty weather are 

 more fatal to them than any other causes. Not- 

 withstanding they succumb to zero's icy touch, 

 they will endure considerable cold, and live, if 

 preserved fi'om frost. 



It may be argued, for argument's sake, per- 

 haps, that, as they are tuberous plants, nature 

 intended them to have a period of rest, and it 

 would be folly to attempt to change such immu- 

 table laws. Such views may accord with the 

 ideas of those who consider' nature's law's as 

 austere and rigorous as were "the decrees and 

 statutes," right or wrong, " of the Medes and 

 Persians, which altereth not." As regards vege- 

 tation, I honestly entertain a contrary opinion, 

 and candidly believe, kind nature is neither so 

 unyielding or inflexible as the Solons insist, but 

 is, to a certain extent, governed by circumstances. 

 That nature often deviates from accustomed 

 ways, and seems none the worse for the change, 

 is obvious to all intelligent observers. In cor- 

 roboration of my assertion, Iwill cite but one more 

 instance, which came under my notice in South 

 Africa, namely the Erica, which is a 'very inter- 

 esting and elegant genus, always considered 

 so difficult to manage under cultivation. Of 

 all the plants which come under a gardener's 

 care. Cape Heaths require, probably, a higher 

 order of floricultural skill than most other plants 

 do to insure success. No mere novice, or pre- 

 tender, should be allowed to meddle or tamper 

 with them, as disappointment and loss will 

 inevitably follow. It is well said, " These plants- 

 are among the most beautiful in the world." 

 Such a gentleman as Mr. Munroe deserves 

 all the success he obtains with them, as well as 

 the hearty thanks of every Heath grower for his 

 pains. 



At the Cape of Good Hope, Erica impe- 

 rialis, E. pellucida, E. grandiflora, E. viridiflora, 

 E. vestita alba, E. mirabihs, E. princeps, E. 

 blanda, and many others, the writer saw spring- 

 ing from slight cracks and openings in the rocks, 

 and growing amazingly, with apparently little or 

 no soil to support them, and where the sun's rays 

 literally blazed upon them. The same kinds, 



