266 



HORTICULTURE 



August 21, 1909 



in a five or six inch pot for a centre piece. That size 

 of plant can be grown in two years, with six or seven 

 nice flowers on it, provided it be kept in vigorous growth 

 and cut back about twice. 



By a little manipulation in pruning and drying off 

 one can have Ixoras in flower at various seasons. For 

 instance, I have seen Fraseri flowered at Easter, in mid- 

 summer, and quite late in the fall, and I think if some 

 enterprising florist could get some two-year-old plants 

 that have been rested a little, and prune out the centre 

 of the shoots, in early summer, and start into vigorous 

 growth, he could flower them for Thanksgiving or 

 Christmas. After flowering, Ixoras can be rested, by 

 withholding water and lowering the temperature from 

 70 to about .55 degrees. It is astonishing, considering 

 that they are evergreens, how much drying off they will 

 stand, if not done too suddenly at the start. I have 

 seen them treated in this manner for two months, and 

 when started into growth they seem to be more vigor- 

 ous for it. If pruned at this stage, it certainly makes 

 the shoots flower more evenly together. 



Clay's fertilizer and cow manure water are good stim- 

 ulants for Ixoras when in vigorous growth if applied 

 carefully. The best thing I know of for keeping down 

 insects on them is a 2-inch potful of kerosene added to 

 three gallons of water and kept well agitated while being 

 applied. This should be done every three weeks. 



West Medford, Mass. 



The Constancy of Sweet Peas 



An interesting discussion concerning the constancy of 

 sweet peas took place last autumn and winter in the 

 columns of "The Gardener" between Mr. Eobert Syden- 

 ham, Birmingham, and Messrs. E. W. King & Co., 

 Coggeshall, Essex. Mr. Sydenham was of the opinion 

 that the new waved varieties would be liable to sport. 

 Messrs. King & Co. offered to send for trial to Univer- 

 sity College gardens, Reading, ten varieties of waved 

 flowering sweet peas, twenty seeds of each, and Mr. C. 

 Foster offered to have them grown. Mr. Sydenham 

 agreed to pay £10 to gardening charities and all ex- 

 penses if there were not more than two rogues in any 

 one variety. If any one variety produced three rogues 

 then Messrs. King & Co. were to pay. The editor of 

 "The Gardener" and Mr. Foster were to act as the 

 judges. The plants are now in flower and the judges 

 have furnished the following particulars : 



Number 



of Plants Remarks. 



Name of Variety. that grew. 



Evelyn Hemus 15 One rogue, bright 



rose color. 

 Countess Spencer 15 One rogue, rose col- 



ored. 

 White Spencer 18 True. 



Mrs. Henry Bell 15 One rogue, purple. 



Marjorie Willis 19 One rogue, light 



rose. 

 Blush Spencer 16 True. 



Paradise Ivory 15 True. 



Princess Victoria 16 True. 



Mrs. Wm. King 15 True. 



Malcolm's Waved Primrose 12 True. 



It will be apparent that the trial is In favor of Messrs. 

 King & Co., not one variety having given rise to two 

 rogues, let alone three. This trial has proved to be one 

 of great interest and value, and it is a matter for satis- 

 faction to know that Waved or Spencer varieties of 

 sweet peas will come true. 



CHARLES FOSTER, H. H. THOMAS, Judges. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum 



The Maples which belong to our most ornamental 

 trees figure among the new Chinese introductions to a 

 considerable extent and even the following enumeration 

 is not at all complete, those of doubtful hardiness in this 

 latitude having been purposely omitted. The most in- 

 teresting as well as distinct and graceful in regard to 

 their foliage are the species with trifoliate leaves, a 

 group peculiar to Central and Eastern Asia of which 

 until recently only two species from Japan, viz., Acer 

 cissif^olium and A. nikoense have been in cultivation. 

 The latter was introduced about sixteen years ago and 

 has proved perfectly hardy at the Arboretum; and is 

 particularly beautiful in autumn when the leaves turn 

 bright scarlet; recently it has been discovered also in 

 Central China. The other species of this group are all 

 Chinese and have mostly smaller and more graceful 

 foliage than A. tiikocnse. The most ornamental of 

 them is probably Acer Henryi on account of its fruits 

 which are bright red while young and disposed in pendu- 

 lous j-acemes from five to seven inches long including 

 the stalk; the elliptic or ovate leaflets are mostly entire, 

 from two to three inches long and borne on long and 

 slender stalks. Much smaller foliage has Acer griseum 

 with ovate, coarsely toothed leaflets grayish white be- 

 neath and usually less than two inches in length; its 

 fruits are disposed in small clusters. Acer sutchuense 

 has the leaflets lanceolate in outline, crenately serrate 

 and from two to three inches in length; the fruits are 

 borne in short-stalked rather small clusters. Acer 

 mandschuricum from Manchuria much resembles the 

 last named species, but there are only from one to three 

 fruits in a cluster; the leaflets are bluish white beneath 

 and borne on slender bright red stalks. A very dis- 

 tinct species with undivided leaves from Central China 

 is Acer Davidi with the fruits borne in long and droop- 

 ing racemes; the oblong crenulate leaves are from three 

 to seven inches in length and turn yellow or red in 

 aittumn. A graceful Maple is Acer ietrameruin lobu- 

 latum with birch-like leaves which are ovate in outline 

 and long-pointed, sharply toothed or even slightly lobed 

 and from two to three inches in length. Acer Fran- 

 chetii resembles somewhat the Sycomore Maple, the 

 leaves are from three to four inches long with three to 

 five short lobes. Acer sinense is also one of the large- 

 leaved Maples with five-lobed leaves of bluish green 

 color. Similar to the Norway Maple but smaller are 

 Acer laetum tricaudatum with roundish leaves from two 

 to three inches broad and furnished with three short, but 

 long-pointed lobes and Acer laetum tomentosulum with 

 somewhat larger leaves pubescent on the under surface 

 and furnished with three to five long-pointed lobes. 



A neat broad-leaved evergreen shrub which promises 

 to be hardy, as small plants of it have stood during last 

 winter uninjured, is Sarcacocca pruniformis from Cen- 

 tral China. It belongs to the Box family and is a 

 small shrub with short-stalked entire leaves ovate in 

 outline, pointed and from one to two inches long; the 

 small white flowers are borne in dense axillary clusters 

 and followed by small berry-like fruits of dark blue 

 color. 



