718 



HOBTICULTUKE 



November 21, 1914 



small bloom. So the plant is as near a solid mass of 

 color as anything I have ever seen in cultivation. It is 

 a very shy seeder, some plants producing no seed at all, 

 and others only a dozen or two. It is in my judgment, 

 the best and most showy all-around annual in cultivation. 

 The color of the flower head is rich crimson, and on 

 measurement the circumference was 13^ in. The stems 

 are half an inch thick. 



Ilex opaca 



The American Holly is very well known as a 

 Christmas decoration but in plantings and as a garden 

 ornament it is altogether too little used. The northern 

 limit of this plant is in the country just south of Boston, 

 Mass., but with a slight protection or in the right situa- 

 tion, a northern exposure on sloping ground, it will 

 prove fairly reliable — in fact there are several large 

 specimens in and about Boston. It is the only holly that 

 can withstand the rigor of our New England winters 

 without injury and without protection other than as 

 above mentioned. Sometimes its leaves may be injured 

 if it is too openly planted and does not receive partial 

 shade from neighboring trees. 



(Ilex Perneyi, one of Wilson's Chinese discoveries, 

 gives good promise of being hardy in Boston. It is very 

 heautiful.—Ed.) 



Ilex opaca will form a small tree up to fifty feet in 

 height, with short, stout branches, and a narrow pyra- 

 midal head. The leaves are too well known to need 

 description. The berries on the American variety are 

 not as handsome as those of Ilex aquifoliuni, the Euro- 

 pean variety, nor are the leaves as highly polished, but in 

 that the shmb is considerably more hardy this extra 

 beauty can easily be dispensed with. 



The American Holly cannot be said to transplant en- 

 tirely successfully when collected from the woods for it 

 then takes on a blacker look and appears sickly. How- 

 ever, plants arc raised easily enough in other ways. In 

 procuring stock one should be careful to get only that 

 from the coldest and highest attitudes where the plant 

 is found wild, as this tends to make hardier trees. Care 

 should also be used in selecting stock from a fruiting 

 tree, for being a dioecious plant, the beauty of the berries 

 will be lost unless good selection is made. Propagation 

 may be effected by division, by which method a fruiting 

 plant may be procured, but a very prolific individual 

 should bo selected from which to make the divisions. 

 This process, however, is necessary when only one or two 

 plants can be aflforded, but where possible, propagation 

 from seeds is the best. Where there are a large number, 

 seedlings can no doubt be easily selected, as there will be 

 among them a sufficient number of fruiting plants to 

 make the collection interesting. The seeds germinate 

 slowly, sometimes not producing plantlets till the second 

 season. Dry gravelly soil is generally conceded as the 

 best for the development and growth of the species. 



Hex opaca would doubtless prove a valuable hedge 

 plant in the latitude of southern New York and Pennsyl- 



vania, if it could be purchased at reasonable prices. 

 Especially would this be true in the region near the sea- 

 coast for it seems to thrive especially well in the salt air. 

 It is interesting to note that often some of the leaves 

 are wholly without spines and the margin becomes en- 

 tire. Often it is found that the lower branches are 

 clothed in spiny leaves and the upper in the entire and 

 spineless ones. This is also true of the English holly. 



^.JCJcaA % 



Jamaica Plain, Mass. 



Cattleya Dowiana Memoria Julius 

 Roehrs 



Toi- — Dowi.vNA Type. 



Bottom — Mkmohia Jilius Roehrs 



The beautiful cattleya which is the subject of our cover 

 illustration this week has recently appeared, flowering 

 for the first time, in a lot of imported Cattleya Dowiana 

 and has been named Memoria Julius Roehrs in respect 

 to the late Julius Roehrs of Rutherford, N. J., — a well 

 merited compliment to a man who during his life did 

 much for the cause of orchid culture in the United 

 States. The flower differs from the type in that the 

 lip is gold and orange-veined, without a trace of any 

 other color. In fact it is an all-yellow Dowiana and 

 for hybridization purjDoses to get an absolutely pure 

 yellow cattleya its value cannot be estimated. On this 

 page we again show the flower, with a bloom of true 

 Dowiana above it for the purpose of comparison. 



TIH A. IM K SO I \/ 1 IM O 



IM 



lOI 



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