September 27. 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



373 



RAMBLING OBSERVATIONS OF 

 A ROVING GARDENER 



At a recent meeting of the Garden- 

 ers' and Florists' Club of Boston, W. 

 N. Craig, the efficient secretary, ex- 

 hibited a vase of Artemisia lactiflora 

 which aroused considerable interest, 

 as it was not recognized by many of 

 those present. This plant is one of E. 

 H. Wilson's Chinese introductions and 

 recently Mr. Wilson told me how he 

 happened to obtain it. It seems that 

 in China the plant grows wild and is a 

 great plague of the farmer, occupying 

 a place somewhat similar to the daisy 

 in this country. Mr. Wilson had gath- 

 ered a few plants and when he was 



packing a box of material for ship- 

 ment to England he came across them. 

 He considered them of almost no value 

 and for a time it was a toss-up 

 whether they should go into the box 

 or into the river close at hand. When 

 the packing had been completed, how- 

 ever, a little space remained and into 

 the box the plants of Artemisia lacti- 

 flora went. When Mr. Wilson re- 

 turned to England later and found the 

 plants flowering, he was amazed, for 

 they were very much larger and hand- 

 somer than in their native land. It was 

 simply a case where cultivation had 

 brought about a great improvement, 



literally transforming a weed of the 

 fields into a most desirable garden 

 subject. The plant was propagated by 

 the Veitches and sent by them to the 

 United States. Fortunately no such 

 blind exclusion ruling as Quarantine 

 No. 37 was in force at that time, or 

 otherwise it might never have been 

 known here. 



Artemisia lactiflora is especially 

 valuable because blooming at the end 

 of the season. It has a feathery-cream- 

 white blossom that bears a marked re- 

 semblance to the astilbes or florist's 

 spiraea, and the blooms make attrac- 

 tive cut flowers which last well. The 

 plant while thriving reasonably well in 

 any flower border, has a liking for 

 spots which are rather moist and the 

 soil must be rich in order to produce 

 good blooms. The fact must be ad- 

 mitted, too, that it has a tendency to 



Flowers of Artemisia Lactiflora 



