THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



illustration of the Arum family as we find them 

 in our wild places. The common skunk-cabbage 

 is another of the same family ; instead of the 

 spadix rising like a rod in the centre, we have 

 but a globular mass of flowers. In our 

 greenhouses we have the common Calla or 

 Ethiopian Lily as a familiar representative, and 

 from them a good idea of the order. 



In tropical countries however, there are kinds, 

 which though we might know they were Aroids 

 by the general appearance of leaves and flowers, 

 have very different habits, for they creep up 

 trees, attaching themselves by serial roots, much 

 as poison vines or the English Ivies do, 

 though the roots are thick and fleshy, as 

 some orchid roots are. Many of these have 

 thick leaves, beautifully tinted, and must give a 

 grand effect to the forest scenery of which they 

 form a part. The species we now illustrate 

 belongs especially to this climbing class of 

 Aroids, and indeed its botanical name Philoden- 

 dron was suggested by its habit, the meaning 

 being literally "a tree lover." Some of the 

 genus have fruits which are excellent eating. In 

 our own experience we have found the fruit of 

 Philodendron pertusum, almost as good as a 

 pine apple. These striking denizens of tropical 

 forests, have proved to be among the most useful 

 and beautiful in ornamenting warm greenhouses, 

 and the present species Philodendron Carderi 

 is believed to be among the loveliest of all. In 

 England it was one of the twelve new plants with 

 which Mr. W. B. gained the first prize at the 

 Provincial show of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, at Preston, in 1878, and one of the nine 

 new plants of which Mr. W. B gained the first 

 prize at the Great Show of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society held at Kensington, in 1878. Mr. 

 Bull furnishes the following description of it : 

 " This exquisitely colored Arad is native of South 

 America, whence it was sent to England by the 

 collector, whose name it bears. The leaves are 

 cordate, broadish, of a dark shaded bottle green, 

 with a satiny lustre, the principal ribs being 

 marked out by bright green lines of a glaucous 

 or metallic hue; at the back the leaves are of a 

 shaded wine purple, the course of the veins being 

 marked by broad green lines. The glossy shaded 

 satiny surface of the leaves imparts to them a 

 wondrous degree of beauty." 



Wright's Sycamore.— This, the Platanus 

 Wrightii, first found by Charles Wright on the 

 Mexican Boundary Survey in 1851-2, was seen 



by Mr. Lemmon on the Santa Catalina Moun- 

 tains, near Tuczon, Arizona, on his recent trip. 

 It is rather smaller than other species of Plane. 

 They were about ten or fifteen feet in circum- 

 ference. 



Geooraphxcal Range of the Lily.— It is 

 remarkable that no species of Lily has been 

 found in Central Asia, so far. 



Properties of the Cola Nut.— In Japan and 

 China the fruit of the Ginko is used during the 

 many hours spent at a single fashionable dinner, 

 in order to prevent any desire to leave the table 

 before the long repast is finished. In South 

 America the Coco— Ery thro xylon coco— enables 

 the user to endure long fatigue without much 

 desire to rest. Sir Joseph Hooker finds the Cola 

 Nut— Cola acumanata — used in the west of Africa 

 to have a similar effect in arresting fatigue. 



PiNUS Arizonica. — This was once believed to 

 be but a form of P. ponderosa, but Prof. Roth- 

 rock on Wheeler's Expedition believed it might 

 be distinct, from its leaves being always in five* 

 instead of in threes— as the ponderosa. Dr. 

 Engelmann has at length decided it to be a good 

 species, and named it as above. It grows in the 

 Santa Rita Mountains, as low down as 7,000 feet, 

 but it will probably be hardy enough for culture 

 only south of the Potomac. Mr. Lemmon, who 

 has recently given some account of it in the 

 Rural Press, says that though the timber is as 

 good as that of the ponderosa, the trees do not 

 grow as large. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Coco Grass, Johnson Grass, Means Grass, Cuba 

 Grass, Guinea Grass. — " A. F. K.," Thibodaux; 

 La., writes: "In the February number of the 

 Gardener's Monthly, 'C. B.W.,' Crockett's Bluff, 

 Ark., speaks of Coco grass and Johnson's grass. 

 They are entirely distinct. Coco is, with Bermuda 

 grass, the curse of our gardens here. Coco or 

 nut grass grows rapidly, and produces nuts 

 underground at such a depth as to make it diflS.- 

 cult to eradicate it. It is extremely tenacious of 

 life, and both in nut and leaf bears a strong re- 

 semblance to Chufa. The Johnson grass is the 

 Sorghum halapense. It is also called Cuba grass, 

 Guinea grass, Egyptian grass, Means grass. I 

 think it was lately distributed by the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington, as the Johnson 



