Novembor28, 1866. I JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAUDENEB. 



^39 



however, I may diumiss -with the bare mention, since they do 

 not come witliiii tlio scope of my present remarks. The hiinplo 

 leaf, the trifoliolutc, tlio pinnate, the digitate, all have their 

 illustrationa in this beautiful family. Tendrils, spines, thorns, 

 wings, stipules, all may be scon and studied here to perfection : 

 so may tho endless modilications of the papilicinacoous or 

 butterfly-shaped corolla, and of thoso of tho legume wliich 

 follows on tho demise of tho many-hued flowers. Delicious 

 odours, eatable seeds, and an incredible variety of secretions 

 are also found in the liegumiuosie, as witness the gum arabic. 

 Liquorice, Senna, Peas, Beans, lentils, and Brazil-wood ; and 

 though last, not least, wo have among their variiid species 

 some of tho most etu-ious examples known of vegetable irrita- 

 bility, as in tho Sensitive-))lant and in tho Humble-plant. If 

 these be not sufficient recommendations to the culture of this 

 race of plants with any one who wants variety, a man must bo 

 hard to please indeed. 



Beginning with tho hardy herbaceous species we shall find a 

 Leguminous plant in the first rank of our spring favourites — 

 namely, the Orobus vornus, with pinnate leaves formed of two 

 pairs only of large and pointed leaflets, and racemes of purple 

 {lowers. Summer will crowd our borders, if we will, with Lu- 

 pines in a score of kinds, blue, white, yellow, and pink, and an 

 endless variety of plants belong to such genera as Astragalus 

 and Lathyrus. The last-named includes the well-kno-mi Ever- 

 lasting Pea and tho ubiquitous Sweet Pea. Lupines have 

 scveriU odd features about them. When the seeds of the 

 annual species, and jirobably of the perennials also, arc newly 

 above the soil, and their great fat cotyledons are falling apart, 

 instead of sustaining transplantation, as most other seeds do, 

 they are so averse to it as generally to be destroyed by the 

 attempt — that is, unless effected with the gi-oatest caution. 

 A similar impatience of removal is observable in Peas when 

 coming up, though not in Beans, or at least not to the same 

 extent. Grown up, and with foliage well developed, the Lupine 

 shows a very elegant kind of " vegetable sleep," the leaflets not 

 merely folding upon the midrib so as to bring the margins in 

 contact, and shut in the surface, but drooping also, each upon 

 its own hinge, so that the leaf *hile in this state of nocturnal 

 repose, reminds us, in its figure, of a lady's half-opened parasol. 

 One of the old Roman poets calls these plants tristoKiiii' Liipinl 

 — melancholy Lupines — a name that seems odd for plants ordi- 

 narily so gay and cheerful. Tasting the seeds, however, we 

 find them bitter. Those of the white Lupine were anciently 

 cultivated in Italy as pulse, and largely consumed by people of 

 the poorer classes, the corners of whose mouths being drawn 

 down by eating so much bitter food, their faces acquired a 

 dejected appearance, and hence the poet's epithet. 



Peas, in all their forms, are lovely. A collection of British 

 Leguminosic alone would make a charming flower-border for 

 the grandest garden in the country, for at the head would 

 stand that magnificent plant the good old-fashioned Lathyrus 

 latifolius. Whether a good " species," whatever that maybe, as 

 definitions now go, or only a sumptuous improvement, origi- 

 nally developed upon the continent, of that lovely ancient 

 Briton the L. sylvestris, so plentiful and so graceful in the 

 woods at Portishead, at the mouth of the Bristol Avon ; what- 

 ever its descent and history, we may search for many a mile 

 before a worthy rival can be found for it. 



Then, how lovely are our native Lotuses and the Hippo- 

 crepis that associate so prettily with the Coronillas in repre- 

 senting one of the most elegant forms of inflorescence known 

 to botany. Books call it a " depressed umbel," correct techni- 

 cally, perhaps, but ugly enough to bring another reproach on 

 nomenclature. It should be called the "coronet," tho circlet, 

 80 often goklen in hue, being in many cases almost mathe- 

 matically true, and the proportions of breadth and depth so 

 admirably symmetrical. It is fortunate for one section of 

 botanists that, by the autliority of the learned President of the 

 Linnean Society, Genetyllis and Hedaroma are to exist no 

 longer, and that Darwinia is to include both. Would that, 

 conversely, Lotus could be exchanged for something else, in 

 two out of tho three appUcations it now bears. The Lotus of 

 the Nile — that famous tree of fable, which yielded the enchant- 

 ing berries— and our little golden-tufted pasture-jjlnnt are so 

 totally unlike and unconnected, that it may well disconcert 

 beginners, who are often as much perplexed by such echoes as 

 the unfortunate Frenchman was by tho endless " box." Speak- 

 ing of the Lotus, have you noticed in reference to the specific 

 difference between L. comiculatus and L. major, both very 

 beautif il plants tor garden rockwork, that while tho uno]iened 

 buds of the former are often, indeed ordinarily, deeply suffused 



with red, those of tho Lotus major are always pure yellow? 

 Colour, as we all know, is of little value in establishing specific 

 distinctions among flowering plants, though of considerable use 

 when we dive into the realms of the Fungi, itc. ; yet it is strange 

 that if these two Lotuses be only one species, as thought by 

 many, there should be so odd an extra tinting in the one, and 

 so total a want of it in the other. Every lover of Shakspcre 

 should know these plants ; for are they not the curious little 

 sin-eading clusters of legumes that are intended by him in 

 Crow-toes? 



Tho legumes of the Medicagos and the various species of 

 Scorpiurus, I may mi.'ntion in passing, are quite enough to 

 reward the cultivator of curious plants. If Grasses be grown 

 for their dehcato panicles and spikes, as reasonably may these' 

 bo for the quaint similitude their varied produce gives in 

 relation to caterpillars and so forth. Wliat does a person 

 totally unacquainted with plants surmise, I wonder, when on 

 going into a seedsman's shop to make some casual purchase or- 

 inquiry, he sees among the names of seeds that are painted on 

 the tiers of little drawers behind tho counter, caterpillars, 

 snails, and hedgehogs ! — things likely enough to be found in a 

 garden, but not exactly what it would seem either necessary or 

 usual to raise from seed. 



Then what lovely shrubs among the hardy LegnminosoD ! 

 Cytisus in its hundred kinds. Genistas, and Caraganas, keeping 

 the garden in cheerful lieart for months together. Trees, also, 

 are reiircsented in the glorioiis old Laburnum, well-named 

 in the south the " tiolden Chains ;" with its counterpart in 

 white, the Silver Chains, or Piobinia: and again, with its coun- 

 terpart in purple, the incomparable AVistaria. What more can 

 an enthusiast in flowers desire? As for the Spartiums, loaded* 

 with their golden butterflies, no plants in nature are more 

 showy when fully out ; nor is a more powerful contrast afforded 

 by any plant than we find in the universal old Portugal White ; 

 tiie plant, I believe, intended by Cowper, though spoken of by 

 a widely different name, when he describes — 

 " Hyrcricum, all bloom, so thick a swaiin 

 Of flowers like flies, clothinR its slender rod=. 

 That scarce a leaf appears ! " 



No species of Hypericum answers more than very indif- 

 ferently to this really picturesque description, whereas Cytisus, 

 multiflorus it fits exactly. 'When a writer so recent as Cowper ig 

 so little careful in his use of names, we may well find ourselves 

 hampered in discovering what was Milton's " Harmony, " or old 

 Homer's "Moly." This year that queen of lawn trees the So- 

 phora japonica has, in the south of England, shown its flowers ; 

 and the long-continued autumn has in Lancashire ripened the 

 pods of the Acacia, here an unusual circumstance. 



In-doors the Leguminosns are even more varied than in the 

 biu-ders. That inexpressibly lovely tribe made up of such 

 genera as Eutaxia and PiUtenjea leads the way. Then come 

 the odil Holly-leaved Chore zemas and their allies ; then the 

 Swainsonias and a host of others with pinnate leaves. All the 

 Acacias, likewise, belong to this family ; for although the golden 

 yellow globes may possess little resemblance to a Pea flower, in 

 "the matter of legumes there is no organic difference. A goo'd 

 collection of Acacias is as great a treat in early spring as 

 one of Azaleas. For cutting, moreover, they are unequalled ; 

 colour, perfume, delicacy of foliage, and long endurance, all. 

 being here found in company. 



I trust accordingly that the day is not far distant when the 

 hint thrown out above may be somewhat extensively acted, 

 upon. A man might have five hundred Leguminosa; for the- 

 same money that it costs him to procure miscellaneous plants, 

 and, nicely dispersed, they would be qnite as lovely a spectacle 

 as an equal number of Ferns or Orchids ; other plants need noi 

 be excluded. It would be like a picture-gallery in which works 

 of art in all departments are admitted. — Leo. 



WHO FIRST FRUITED THK MANGOSTEEN IN 

 ENGLAND '.' 

 I n.WK read with great interest the articles of " J. H." OQ. 

 the fruiting of the Mango and Mangosteen. At page 381 

 " T. N." says " He was not aware that the latter had been 

 fruited more than once in this country, and that once at Sion. 

 House." "J. H,," in answer to " T. N.," says "I have seen 

 it gi-owing at one or two places, and, many years ago, I saw a 

 tree at Allestree, near Derby, covered with blossom, and which 

 afterwards, I believe, bore some fruit. The tree at Sion 

 House, to which ' T. N.' alludes, I only saw once, and then it. 



