September 11, 1909 



HORTICULTURE 



369 



Promising Shrub Introductions at 

 the Arnold Arboretum 



While the well-known Bladder Senna, Colutea arhor- 

 escens, is out of bloom or bears only a few flowers to- 

 gether with its peculiar bladder-like pods, the Colutea 

 cilicica, a species from Asia Minor recently introduced 

 shows its numerous clusters of yellow flowers. The C. 

 cilicica was brought into cultivation some years ago 

 under the name of C. melanocaiyx which, however, be- 

 longs to a different species; afterwards it was called C. 

 longialata, but quite recently it was foimd out that it is 

 the previously described C. cilicica. It is a bushy shrub, 

 resembling C. arborescens, but apparently lower and 

 with the foliage of a distinctly pale bluish green color. 

 The flowers are clear yellow and appear when the other 

 species of Colutea are out of bloom. 



A very late flowering shrub which just now begins to 

 open its first flowers is Elsholtzia Staunionvi recently in- 

 troduced from northern China by Mr. J. G. Jack of the 

 Arnold Arboretum. It is a bushy plant, more half- 

 shrubby than really shrubb}', from three to five feet high 

 with numerous upright stems bearing at the end manj' 

 dense lilac spikes from four to seven inches long; the 

 small and slender individual flowers are two-lipped with 

 long protruding stamens and styles. The lanceolate leaves 

 are from four to six inches long, glabrous and coarsely 

 serrate ; when bruised they exhale an agreeable mint-like 

 odor, which betrays at once the fact that it belongs to the 

 same family, viz., the Labiatae. Though the shrub is 

 not very showy, it makes a pleasing effect, when cov- 

 ered with its lilac flowers and its late flowerinsr time 

 renders it the more valuable. It has proved perfectly 

 hardy at the Arboretum. 



Though not new the little known Vitex incisa from 

 Northern China may be mentioned here as another late 

 flowering shrub. It is of loose and open habit and 

 reaches six feet in height or more. The graceful deeply 

 cut foliage adds to its light and loose appearance and so 

 do the loosely branched large flower clusters with their 

 small violet flowers. The bruised leaves emit a spicy 

 odor. At the Arboretum it suffers only during severe 

 winters, but even when part of the plant is killed, the 

 young growth flowers the same year. 



A new Lespedeza allied to L. bicolor which is now in 

 full bloom and very pretty with its large and loose pan- 

 icles of purple flowers, is L. cyrtobotrys, a native of 

 Corea and Japan. It differs from the former in its 

 short and dense flower spikes which are much shorter 

 than the leaves tfnd partly hidden by them. The shrub 

 is therefore less handsome and hardly of any horticul- 

 tural value. 



The Cyclamen 



(See cover illustration.) 



Xo more serviceable winter flowering plant than the 

 cyclamen can be named for house decoration, its value 

 being due greatly to its durability under the varied at- 

 mospheric conditions in the room and its flowering sea- 

 son, which extends from November until March and 

 often April. If we take the beautiful Lorraine begonia, 

 or the geranium and many others and try them under 

 the same conditions, in a few days the flowers begin to 

 drop and the foliage turns yeUow, but the cyclamen has 

 no equal either for market or private use. 



As regards strain it is immaterial as all the named 

 varieties from a reliable firm are good under a skilful 

 grower. Seed purchased from any of the special adver- 

 tisers of cyclamen seed in this paper will give good re- 

 sults if handled as indicated below. Mr. Donnellan. who 

 is so successful as a grower of cyclamens for E. & J. 

 Farquhar & Co., recommends the following method of 

 cultivation. 



The seed should be sown not later than October. The 

 skilful grower attaches greater importance to the way 

 in which this is sown than does the average gardener, to 

 avoid crowding the plants. Press the seed singly into 

 the soil about lio inches apart. The general rule is 

 to cover the seed lightly and this is the greatest initial 

 mistake. The seed should be covered to such a depth 

 that when the small corms are formed they will be under 

 the soil, not on the surface as is too frequently the case, 

 and should the corms appear on the surface before they 

 are large enough for potting they should be covered with 

 moss to prevent their becoming dr^', as the most impor- 

 tant item in the cultivation of the cyclamen is to keep 

 the corm elastic throughout all stages of its growth. 

 The most common and the most unnatural method to ac- 

 complish this is to plant your corm on the surface and 

 grow in a humid atmosphere; the other method is to 

 bury the corm and give abundance of ventilation. Your 

 results from the former method would be spindly leaves 

 with flowers too high above the foliage and the plants 

 from 6 to 35 per cent good. The results of the later 

 method are stocky leaves, the flower just a little above 

 the foliage and the plants 95 per cent good. When they 

 have made four or five leaves shift them into 2% inch 

 pots taking care not to break any roots and remembering 

 always to put the corms a little further down in the 

 soil with each successive potting. A little below the 

 crown will invariably give better results than a little 

 above. 



The plants whicli are intended for Christmas will be 

 large enough for their final potting bv the second or 

 third week in July. These should not be moved into 

 too large pots as a small plant well covered with flowers 

 will give more satisfaction than a large plant with few 

 fiowers. Pans are preierable to pots for house decora- 

 tion ; if too much of the pot is seen it is unsightly and is 

 really not necessary as just as good cj'clamen can be 

 grown in pans as in pots. The crown of the corm after 



