lElSn GARDENING 



115 



Large bulljs like the Criuums, Amaryllis, Paii- 

 cratiunis should be at least 9 in. below the sur- 

 face, but smaller bulbs may be in. In the 

 event of prolonged severe weather, a covering 

 of ashes or fine dry soil may be spread over the 

 surface to a depth of several inches. 



Dublin. B. 



The Genus Vella. 



By K. Lloyd Bhaiogek, B.A., B.E. 



The genus Vella is interesting for several 

 reasons. First, it is an unusually small plant 

 group, numbering only three species. Secondly, 

 —these ai-e all confined to a limited area, two 

 in Southern Spain, and one on the opposite 

 side of the Strait of Gibraltar, which suggests 

 that the genus originated within this region, 

 •and did not come, like the majority of our 

 Western European genera, from the large land 

 areas to the eastward. Again, Vella appears 

 to be the only genus of the great order Cruci- 

 ferse, which is completely shrubby in habit. It 

 is closely allied to the cabbages and turnips, 

 but its tlu'ee species differ vridely in ap])earance 

 from these, being little dense, small-leaved 

 shrubs, obviously adapted to life in a poor soil, 

 with a scanty water supply. Two out of the 

 three known si)ecies are in cultivation. V, 

 Lseudocytisus forms a twiggy bush several feet 

 high, easily recognised by its cabbage-Kke four- 

 petalled floM^ers (fig. a, p. 118), and its rougli 

 spathulate leaves [b). The petals are of uni- 

 form! intense yellow colour, very narrow below, 



broad and rounded above, and the fiowers are 

 borne on a spike which is over half a foot .long 

 when full grown. My plant forms a rounded 

 shrub '6 fet high and 5 foet across, with a stem 

 8 inches in diameter at the base. I have. not 

 seen ripe seed on it. ^ 



V. spinosa is a much smaller thing, fornijng 

 a little round thorny bush, a foot high, %yith 

 hairy, linear leaves and buff petals veined with 

 purple. The way in which the thorniness is 

 produced is interesting. The inflorescence is 

 branched, and the branches bear flowers, leaves 

 and thorns. After blossoming the flowering 

 shoot dies, and remains as a thorny mass 

 among the leafy branches, which are destined 

 to flower next year (fig. c). A precisely 

 similar arrangement is to be seen in Alyssum 

 spinosum, which is also a Crucifer. The seed- 

 I)od of V. spinosa is very curious. The young 

 ])od is egg-shaped, and covered with a long 

 ti'iangular flat beak (fig. e). When mature, 

 all that remains of the beak is the two veins 

 which ran along its outer edge, and the seed- 

 l)od has a remarkable resemblance to a spider 

 witli its legs i)ointing forward (fig. d). 

 V. ^p'nosa forms an attractive little shrub 

 for the rock garden. My plant, which is a foot 

 high and a foot and a lialf across, has been a 

 mass of flowers during the first half of June, 

 as V. Pseudocytisus was during the second half 

 of April. 



The third species of Vella V. spathulata is 

 not, I believe, in cultivation. It grows in Al- 

 geria, and is well figured in Cosson's " Illus- 

 trationes Florae Atlanticse " (Vol. I., plate 48). 

 It is in appearance intermediate between the 



Paxchatium ili,yi;icvm at The Bush, Antiuji. 



