148 



GARDENING. 



Feb. 



touch it, it isn't in their Hne of bu 

 It has its bad points too, for sometimes 

 it refuses to be comforted, at others it 

 grows nicely and all of a sudden rots off 

 at the neck. W ith care, however, any 

 one can grow some plants of it satisfac- 

 torily enough and then it is grand, espec- 

 ially when its leaves assumetbeir brilliant 

 hues about midsummer. 



The Greenhouse. 



GREENiiOUSE PLflKTS m BLOOM. 



The handsomest of the greenhouse vines 

 now in flower is 



BiGNONiA VENUSTA, a trumpet flower 

 from Brazil. The scarlet-colored flowers 

 are exceedingly pretty either in the bud 

 state or when tully expanded. This plant 

 does not show to itself to advantage in a 

 small state, consequently it should be 

 planted oi:t in a box or border inside the 

 greenhouse and the vines trained along 

 the rafters; it is one of the best vines for 

 this purpose. After it has finished flow- 

 ering it should be pruned to keepit within 

 bounds. 



Pavonia Wioti.— This little Brazilian 

 shrub belongs to the Hibiscus family. It 

 may be said to be a flower of many col- 

 ors, the stamens are bluish, styles and 

 stigmas crimson, petals purple and the 

 whorl of long narrow bractlets at the 

 base ol the flower are bright red. The 

 Correct name of it is Goethea wultiSora, 

 the generic namebeingin honor of Goethe, 

 the German poet, who was a great lover 

 of plants. 



PiTTOSPORt'M UNDL'LATUM.a cool green- 

 house shrub from Australia, is hardy in 

 the extreme southern states and deserves 

 to be better known. Its flowers are small, 

 white, and in clusters at the ends of the 

 branches. Its main attractiin is the ex- 

 quisite perfume, which resembles that of 

 the Dutch hyacinth. [It is one of the 

 kinds of seeds sent to us recently from 

 New South Wales and which we have dis- 

 tributed among our readers so far as they 

 have applied for them. Ed.] 



OcHNA MULTIFLORA begins flowering 

 with the new year. It is a small shrub 

 from Sierra Leone with yellow drooping 

 flowers not unlike those of a yellow 

 cinquefoil. The flowers are not pretty 

 enough to find favor with amateurs, but 

 its beauty lies in the fruit and receptacle, 

 the latter being bright red, with the fruit 

 at first green, then deep purple, arranged 

 on the receptacle in a circle. The seeds 

 sprout easily and the seedlings flo a er the 

 second year. 



The Fragrant Olive (Osmanthus 

 I'ragrans.) .\ small plant of this well- 

 known shrub, if at all in a healthy state, 

 can be relied upon to flower all winter. 

 The flowers, which look like those of the 

 common holly bush, are inconspicuous, 

 buL the perfume from a few of them is suf- 

 ficient to scent a good-sized house. 



Strobila.xthes (GoMfussia) aniso- 

 I'HVLLis and S. /sopij'y/usareexceedingly 

 showy, light purple flowered greenhouse 

 plants which spend the summer in mak- 

 ing immense numbers of slender twiggy 

 growths. These are covered for several 

 weeks in winter withtheir pretty flowers. 

 They require little care in summer beyond 

 planting cr plunging out in a sunny situ- 

 ation. 



Orchids.— In the orchid collection at 

 the White House conservatories La'lia 

 anccjis and L. Ariioldiarui arc in fine 



flower; the last named is the mostflorifer- 

 ous of the two, many of the spikes hav- 

 ing 8x10 blossoms. Cattleya Triaua; 

 and its numerous»varieties are well repre- 

 sented; this is one of the most gorgeous 

 flowered orchids and plants of it are 

 cheip enough nowadays for even thoseof 

 limited means and accommodation to 

 experiment with. Cypripediam insigne 

 is grown here on a large scale; 3,000 

 blooms of it «ere used on the dinner 

 table here at the cabinet dinner last week. 

 It is the best known of all the tropical 

 ladj-'s slippers, and should be in every 



mend this book to ourr. aders. It has 

 none of the twaddle and nonsense pecu- 

 liar to many works on this subject. It 

 may be had from the publishers of Gar- 

 dening at the Chicago ofiice. 



Copyright, 1895, by Chas. Scribuer's Sons. 

 — From Window and Parlor Gardening. 



greenhouse collection, as it is as easy to 

 grow as a geranium and needs no more 

 heat. G. W. Oliver. 



Washington, D. C. 



WINDOW AND PARLOR OflRDENlNO. 



This is a beautifully gotten up, reliable 

 and most helpful book of 164 pages, by 

 N. Jonsson Rose and published by Charles 

 Scribner's Sons, New York. Price 1.25. 



The author is an educated practical 

 horticulturist; he knows the plants inti- 

 mately and how to grow them, and has 

 the happy faculty ot communicating this 

 information to others in a terse, intelligi- 

 ble way. He is also an artist and has 

 illustrated his book with fifty-three en- 

 gravings, every one of them original and 

 the work of his own pen. What a relief 

 this is! The illustrations are true to life; 

 they are the pictures of plants, flowers, 

 implements etc. as they exist, and have 

 none of the exaggeration of made-up fig- 

 ures. Through the courtesy of Messrs. 

 Seribner we are enabled to show you two 

 of these picture-; one is from the chapter 

 on propagation and shows how to make 

 cuttings ol diffijrent plants; the otherisof 

 the mother-of thousands saxifrage (Saxi- 

 fraga sarmentosa) as a bracket plant in 

 the parlor window. The book begins by 

 telling us of the advantages and pleasures 

 of window gardening, and then the differ- 

 ent partsof the plants areexplained tous. 

 Now follow chapters on appliances, soils 

 and manures, propagation, potting, forc- 

 ing, watering, cleaning, special windows 

 and terrariums, frames and pits, light, 

 temperature and moisture, insects and 

 diseases, decorations, baskets, vases and 

 window boxes, and the veranda and 

 how to adorn it. Then come chapters on 

 the selection of house plants, in which 

 these are classified, enumerated and sev- 

 erally dealt with. We heartily reionu 



THE NEWER REX BEGONIAS. 



The finest of the newer begonias is 

 Mrs. E. Bonner, a cross between B. Rex 

 and the old B. discolor, it has marvel- 

 ously fine leaves with a tendency to make 

 a joint growth. 



Bertha Morrison is the result of cross- 

 ing the variety Comtesse Louise Erdody 

 with old Queen of Hanover, and it is one 

 of the most distinct of the whorled type. 

 The Infanta is also another new whorled 

 variety showing a character cjuite its 

 own, it is not so twisted as some of the 

 others, but enough so to command atten- 

 tion. Perle Humfeld. Bertha McGregor, 

 Wm. Robinson, Mrs. Sheppard, Mme. 

 Mcntetand Robt. Jenkins are all modified 

 forms of the Rex, and brought about by 

 crossing it with the better class of the 

 shrubby or "flowering" kinds. No col- 

 lection, however, should be without Louis 

 Closson, Lesondsi, Siebold, Belle Poite- 

 vine, Monge and Desfontaines, thefe are 

 all distinct in either form or color of leaf- 

 age. It may be remarked that all the 

 Rex type enjoy being outside in summer 

 time in shaded positions. I have seen 

 some very fine beJs on the north side of 

 building screened from the sun. 



I hope some one may be induced to try 

 cross fertilizing the newer Rex varieties 

 with such kinds as Thurstonii, Mn.e 

 Lionuet, Duchartre, metatlica, manicata, 

 an 1 the ranker shrubby varieties. I see 

 no reason why we should not have the 

 charniy leafage and bright coloring of the 

 Rex on stems three to four feet in length. 

 Let some of your amateur readers try 

 inter-crossing on the lines suggested; it 

 would beinteresting anda source of much 

 pleasure, to say nothing about the pros 

 pective pecuniary reward which would 

 accrue to the raiser of a new variety pos- 

 sessing strong stems studded with the 

 leafage of the Rex. [It was Mr. Hill who 

 had the collection of magnificent speci- 

 mens of Rex begonias that were exhibited 

 in Horticultural Hall at the World's Fair. 

 —Ed.] E. G. Hill. 



Richmond, Indiana. 



CHRYSANTflEMUMS AND DAALIflb FROM 

 SEED. 

 P.J. v., Stc. Marie, 111., writes-; "Please 

 tell me how to raise and cultivate from 

 seed (1) chrysanthemums, (2) dahlias, so 

 I may have flowers this fall." 



1. Chrysanthemu.ms are as easily 

 raised from seed as are ten week stocks or 

 China asters, except that you must sow 

 them early, say in February or March to 

 have the seedlings bloom well next fall. 

 Sow the seeds in a pot, pan, or box in the 

 window or greenhouse and treat them 

 much as you would pepper plants or 

 tomatoes Use fight soil. Prick off the 

 seedlings singly as soon as they ate fit to 

 handle. When the}' grow big enough to 

 touch one another transplant them 

 farther apart in the pans or boxes or pot 

 them singly. Don't let frost touch them. 

 Gradually harden them off in spring and 

 plant them out early in May, and after 

 that, so far as watering, cultivating, 

 staking, disbudding, lifting and potting 

 and other cultural details go treat them 

 precisely as if they were other chrysan- 

 themums raised from cuttings. 



2. Dahlias.— -"Double flowered" dah- 

 lias from seed are generally a medley lot 

 of vcrv little account, so we seldom 



