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JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ AprU 15, 1869. 



3and after heavy rains, as is commonly the case with that grown 

 on bushes trained near the ground. — J. A., Wallhome Gardens. 



AUCUBA JiVPONICA AND ITS VARIETIES. 



Of all hardy evergreen shrubs, the Anouba is certainly the 

 most elegant; its evenly-shaped dense habit, and its fine broad 

 leaves beantifally spotted with yellow, its Reneral neat aspect, 

 and its hardiness of constitution, have combined to make it 

 the most popular of what are considered our non- flowering 

 shrubs. It delights in every soil that is not too sandy, and in 

 every situation where it is not fully exposed to the sun, and, 

 undoubtedly, stands the smoke of large towns better than most 

 other plants. 



The articles that have recently appeared in your Journal on 

 the Aucuba as a berry-bearing shrub, prompt me to add a few 

 words in the hope they may be of service to those who cul- 

 tivate the new varieties, and encourage those who do not. I 

 cannot but express my surprise at the few private collections 

 in whioh one meets with a male Aucuba, or any of the recently- 

 introduced beautiful varieties of the female. So much was 

 written about them at the time of their introduction, that it 

 was expected the country would soon be overshadowed with 

 them ; but instead of this I find very few amateurs who know 

 any beyond the old kind, also known as the Variegated or 

 Spotted Liurel, introduced into our gardens upwards of eighty 

 years ago. Such owners of gardens who have the old Aucuba 

 among their shrubs, I wish to inform (although far from being 

 the first time your columns have stated the same), that the 

 Aucuba is dioeeicus — that is, the male and female flowers are 

 borne on separate plants, and till within the last few years we 

 have only had a female variety in our collections, thereby being 

 deprived of its brilliant fruit. Owing to its native country 

 (Japan) being rigorously shut up from Europeans, we were un- 

 able till about the year 1861 to get possession of the male kind, 

 and in the spring of 1864 a green-leaved Aucuba was exhibited 

 in London, loaded with large oblong berries of a very bright 

 coral red, and four times the size of those of the Holly, thus 

 showing to the horticultural world that it had by no means 

 seen the brightest side of this favourite shrub. Two or three 

 years previous to the above dates, Siebold, a Dutch botanist, 

 long resident in Japan, introduced into Europe several diversely- 

 foliaged kinds, all female, but to Mr. Robert Fortune is due the 

 honour of having sent home the first male. That celebrated 

 traveller tells us that in its native country the Aucuba grows 

 in woods and hedges (thus verifying what is stated about its 

 not liking a very sunny situation), and so great a variety of 

 variegated forms of it are found, that scarcely two plants are 

 alike. The Japanese preferring these, it is very difficult to 

 meet with the green-leaved kinds. 



The male plants do not differ either in habit or hardiness 

 from the female, therefore one male might be planted in the 

 centre of a group of females of the same age, and would, in 

 my opinion, annually produce sufticient pollen to fertilise the 

 whole of the surrounding pistils. Some varieties of males are 

 stronger-growing than others, and produce large upright pa- 

 nicles of bloom, in size resembling those of the common Lilac ; 

 these, when agitated by the wind, or by the aid of insects, 

 would distribute suflicient pollen to cover a very large surface 

 of female bloom. One difficulty presents itself, however, by 

 the male flowers oftert opening before those of the female. 

 When this happens it only remains to gather the pollen for 

 after-application with a camel-hair brush, or to exercise judg- 

 ment in the choice of varieties, some males being later and 

 more prolific in flowers and stamens than others. In my 

 opinion, experience will ultimately show that two or three 

 bushes of the male in a large garden will be quite suflicient for 

 a tolerable number of females, even should they be scattered 

 about the grounds. For the past two years I have noticed 

 berries on the common Aucuba in my grounds, which are ex- 

 tensive, on plants not only a good distance from my males, but 

 separated from them by high Laurel hedges and large specimen 

 Conifers. Some Aucubas, too, in a private garden more than 

 a quarter of a mile from mine bore berries last year, and I 

 have ample proofs that there are no males nearer than mine, 

 and in this case several houses and hedges intervene. I by no 

 means wish your readers to entertain a hope that a male Au- 

 cuba planted near their houses will be sufficient to "berry" 

 their plants a quarter of a mile beyond. I merely wish to 

 show them that by a very small outlay they may cover their 

 Aucubas with bouquets of berries of the brightest red. 



Early in 1866 M. Gaujird, of Ghent, and later in the same 

 year Mr. Standish, of Ascot, exhibited seedling Aucubas bear- 

 ing thyrsoid panicles, of which every flower was hermaphro- 

 dite. From these great things were expected ; we were to have 

 berries without any trouble ; but since then I have had an 

 opportunity of seeing the plant in the nursery of the former 

 gentleman, and there was not the slightest trace, nor has there 

 since been, of the fruit ever setting ; therefore it has proved 

 a mere botanical curiosity. Since then I have noticed in my 

 own collection that two plants grafted from the true Aucuba 

 japonica mas bicolor produced flowers having three stamens, 

 and to all appearance a perfect pistil, but in spite of every 

 care I had no berries from them, and since then the same 

 plants have only produced perfect male blossoms. 



Two years ago an alarm was raised that the berries were 

 poisonous, in conseqnence of a poor robin having been found 

 dead with a partly-digested berry in his stomach. If this 

 alarm had not proved quite groundless, it would have tended to 

 a great extent to prevent the culture of Aucubas for berry-bear- 

 ing; still, there is no doubt that birds are attracted to the 

 berries by their brilliancy, and by the sweetness of the pulp. 



The green-leaved kinds will naturally make the most agree- 

 able contrast with the fruit, and for this purpose I would 

 heartily recommend the viridis pygmapi, as being of dwarf 

 habit and literally covering itself with bloom. 



The Aucuba is readily propagated by cuttings, or by grafting 

 on young stocks of the old kind under glass. The berries take 

 a year to ripen, and require the greater part of a year to ger- 

 minate ; but it is a mistaken idea to suppose they require heat, 

 as I have at this moment several now sprouting in the open 

 air, just where they fell from the plants. 



Subjoined are the kinds that form my collection, and I do 

 not believe there is any other distinct variety grown. I am 

 quite aware that with the exception of Yuccas there is no 

 class of plants worse named than the Aucubas. Nurserymen 

 seem to have mercilessly re-named such of Siebold's varieties 

 as they have introduced from the Continent, with a view to 

 monopolise their sale, and the result is nothing but great 

 confusion. It is also with regret that I see in the catalogue of 

 one of the English introducers of the Aucuba, that he is offer- 

 ing for sale no less than one hundred vaiieties he has raised 

 from seed, and by their descriptions I do not see six strikingly 

 distinct ones, the great probability being that the whole may 

 resemble what we already grow. Seedlings, we all know, will 

 give more luxuriant foliage in their first stages, and I am afraid 

 the novelties in question have not been sufiiciently tested, 

 neither do I find they have been exhibited publicly ; the whole 

 of them, too, have received common names, such as Ace of 

 Trumps, Blue Gown, Lucifer, Sbylock, Wilkie Collins, &c., 

 making the Aucubas at once a florists' plant. My collection 

 is as follows : — 



Fmnina albo-variegata. — Leaves a little broader and more 

 deeply serrated than maculata (the old variety), and spotted in 

 a similar manner, for the spots are nearly white in winter. A 

 robust and desirable variety. 



F. aurea. — A large thick-leaved variety, the young leaves of 

 which are of a golden yellow (not burning in the sun), after- 

 wards turning to a light green. 



F. aiireo-marginata (picta fcEmina,limbata), the most effective 

 kind for foliage. The young leaves are sometimes all yellow, 

 but eventually this colour remains as a broad golden margin 

 to every leaf; the variegation, although weakening with age, 

 is, nevertheless, always visible. The leaves of this and the 

 variety that precedes it are extremely large, and of a thick 

 leathery texture, quite different from all others. Berries large, 

 few, and of a dull red. 



F. bicolor elegans. — Very large leaf, nearly the whole of the 

 central part being occupied by a large yellow blotch, which 

 frequently causes it to curl. A very inconstant variety. Large 

 dull red berries. 



F. dentata mmo-variegata. — Very short, deeply serrated, 

 striped and spotted leaves. Distinct ; forms a neat, compact 

 bush. 



F. grandidcntata maculata. — Leaves of a rich olive green, 

 scantily spotted and splashed with yellow. This variety is re- 

 markable for the large size of its foliage, and its very robust 

 habit ; it is very short-jointed, and sets well for bloom ; berries 

 dull red. 



F. latimacnlata. — An accidental variation from the old kind, 

 from which it differs by its longer leaves, which sometimes 

 have a yellow blotch in "the centre, causing thpm to be warted 

 and twisted. An'inconstant and now undesirable variety. 



