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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[November, 



Mrs. D. B. Worrell had a plant of Epiphyllum 

 latifrons in flower, which the officers of the 

 Society had labelled " Night-blooming cereus," 

 and the public were educated to believe that the 

 famous old favorite was before them in this miser- 

 able counterfeit. 



Joseph Kift & Sons made their usual exhibit of 

 articles to aid floral decoration. One of the 

 prettiest on this occasion was, little golden baskets 

 attached to polished black slate slabs, with easel 

 supports. These baskets are filled each with a 

 small bouquet. In the filled illustrations, ferns 

 chiefly were employed. 



In several collections, and especially that of 

 Jos. W. Metz, were plants of the Asparagus 

 plumosus, a plant belonging to the florists' 

 " Smilax " family. It is mist-like and green, and 

 will for years keep popular. There was much 

 novelty in this collection, though the plants might 

 not be quite as well grown as in some others. A 

 variety of the old Gesneria discolor, known as G. i 

 nigrescens ; and the Campylobotrix Ghiesbrech- 

 tiana, with very pretty green and silver marked 

 leaves, which are rosy below, are plants that are not 

 often seen. The ferns in this collection were very 

 well grown. A Microlepis hirto-cristata in a 1 2-inch 

 pot, had three dozen fronds, and after rising 2 

 feet drooped very gracefully. Adiantum concin- 

 num, A. laetum, A. amabile, and some other 

 favorite species formed dense plants about 2 feet 

 by 2. A Nephrolepis tuberosa had fronds about 

 3 feet long, and only 2 inches wide, forming a 

 striking object. The remarkable plant, Dracaena 

 Goldiana, which has green-barred leaves on gray 

 ground, was in this and many other collections, 

 showing its growth in popular estimation of culti- 

 vators. Echeverias by the same exhibitor were 

 attractive. As probably desirable for carpet bed- 

 ding, we noted E. navicularis, and Sempervivum 

 Californicum, both of which had the gray-green 

 leaves, rosy-tipped. 



The prince of good cultivators, however, is Mr. 

 John Warne, gardener to Clarence H. Clark, Esq. 

 Imagine among ferns Adiantum gracillimum about 

 2^ hy2}4 feet, with millionsoflittlefrondlets, which 

 it would drive one crazy to count. Nephrolepis 

 davalloides, one of the crested ferns, with fronds 

 only about 4 inches wide, but about 3 feet in 

 length, terminating in regular " crow-feet. It is one 

 of the most striking of all ferns. A stag's-horn fern, 

 Platycerium alcicorne, with over a hundred fronds, 

 and one of the pretty climbing ferns, Gleicheina 

 spelunea, is one of the most graceful of the family. 

 The pinnules are less than a quarter of an inch 



wide, but range from 2 to 4 inches long. An As- 

 paragus tenuissimus in a 15-inch pot was about 4 

 feet high by 3 wide. Even common things are 

 not neglected by this good cultivator. Imagine a 

 Sago palm only about 6 feet high, and yet with no 

 less than 50 fronds of 3-feet lengths on it, and a 

 a palm, Latania Borbonica, with a trunk of only 

 18 inches high, bearing nineteen huge fronds. 



Mr. Charles Fox had also some well-grown 

 palms. A Latania with nine fronds, a Sago with 

 fifteen annual rings in a growth of 3 feet, and a 

 very pretty species of Date palm. Phoenix rupicola, 

 in a 15-inch pot with fifteen fronds; the whole 

 plant making a specimen about 4 feet by 4. 



Fergusson Sons' collection was rich in Crotons. 

 The Queen Victoria being particularly striking be- 

 cause of the rich crimson tints among the green 

 and gold. Somewhat of novelties here were An- 

 thurium crystallinum, a plant of which about 2 

 feet diameter had no less than eight of its white- 

 veined green leaves, and the still rarer Anthurium 

 Veitchii. There is no variegation in this, but the 

 leaves are peculiar among aroids for their length 

 in proportion to their breadth, about 18 inches by 

 5 or 6, and the veins have the fashion of starting 

 on a downward incline, and then recurving up- 

 wards towards the edge. It is a very pleasing 

 style of leaf to those who love to study the ele- 

 ments of beauty in lines and curves. 



There are few prettier things than ferns and 

 leaf plants, and yet one misses the beautiful 

 flowers that used to grace exhibitions in the olden 

 time. Craig Brothers were up to the modern 

 times by beautiful ferns — in a splendid specimen 

 of Adiantum caudatum, with fronds but once pin- 

 nate, and yet 2-3 feet long; but they brought 

 back old memories by mixing flowering carnations 

 through the ferns. 



Mr. E. D. Sturtevant had one of the best novel- 

 ties in the shape of cut flowers of Zanzibar water 

 lily, Nymphaea Zanzibarensis. This is a deep 

 blue, and about 10 inches across. It is nearly 

 double the size of the better known blue lily, N. 

 coerulea. The rich red Nymphaea Devoniana, 

 and the lighter pink Nelumbium speciosum, were 

 also in the collection. 



Mr. Charles D. Ball deserves compliments not 

 only for good plants, but for neat labels, placed on 

 long slender stakes, which anyone could read with- 

 out having to hunt for the ordinary pot label, and 

 which even when found, requires often a post- 

 office clerk, gray with age, to make out. If one 

 tires of the continuous maiden-hair style of ferns, 

 here there was relief in a plant of Hymenodium 



