July 23, 1874 ] 



JOURNAL OF HOUTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



75 



predilection for salt as Asparagus ; and in Holland, where the 

 culture of P<;as is so extensive, salt is something lUco a neces- 

 sity. Mixed with hay in the proportion of a quarter of a pound 

 to a hundredweight, the fodder is rendered more appetising ; 

 but the best way to feed it to animals is to allow them to 

 enjoy it in the form of rock salt. It is calculated that a horse 

 appropriates daily one-tenth of an ounce of salt, au ox one-half 

 that quantity, and a sheep and a pig one-half that required 

 by an os. 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Cheysanihejiuji Catananche. Nat. ord., Compositic. Linn., 

 Syngenesia Superflua. — Dr. Plooker says, " This, which is one 

 of the most beautiful plants of the Greater Atlas, was dis- 

 covered in 1871 by Messrs. Ball, Maw, and myself, in valleys 

 of that range at elevations of 7000 to KOOO feet, flowering in 

 May, and has since been cultivated both in Mr. Maw's garden 

 and at Kaw, where it flowered for the first time in April of the 

 present year. In its native country it forms patches of a 

 silvery green hue, and of considerable size, in rocky valleys, 

 and on mountain slopes exposed to the sun. The [flowers are 

 yellow and] broad white iuvolucral bracts are conspicuous for 

 their silvery whiteness, hyaline texture, and transparency, 

 relieved by a narrow purphsh herbaceous central band; their 

 resemblance to the bracts of Catananche has suggested the 

 specific name." — {Bot. Man., '■ 0107.) 



Ekica Chamissonis. Nat. ord., EricacesE. Linn., Octandria 

 Monogynia. — Flowers dark pink. " Many years ago the Cape 

 Heaths formed a conspicuous feature in the greenhouses of 

 our grandfathers, and in the illustrated horticultural works of 

 the day, including this Magazine, wherein about fifty are 

 •figured. These have given place to the culture of softwooded 

 plants — Geraniums, Calceolarias, Fuchsias, &a. ; and the best 

 •collections of the present day are mere ghosts of the once 

 glorious Ericeta of Woburn, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Kew. 

 A vast number of the species have indeed fallen out of cul- 

 tivation, and a few easily-propagated hybrids for decorative 

 purposes are all that are to be seen of this lovely tribe in most 

 -of the best establishments of England. No less than 180 

 species of Erica were cultivated at Kew in the year 1811, now 

 we have not above fifty, together with many hybrids and 

 varieties. Besides the fact of their going out of fashion, there 

 have been two main causes for their present rarity ; of these 

 the first and most conspicuous is bad treatment. As with 

 Australian and other Cape hardwooded plants, their culture is 

 special, unknown to most gardeners of the present day, and 

 they will not survive the promiscuous use of the water-pot 

 and syringe, to which they are exposed if mixed-up with many 

 other things. The second is, that very few collectors have 

 been of late years iu the Heath district of the Cape, which is 

 almost confined to the narrow strip of country between the 

 Western coast and the coast ranges, and where were the 

 botanising grounds of the collectors sent out at the beginning 

 ■of the century. Erica Chamissonis is one of the few Heaths 

 ■that extend eastward in youth Africa, being found near 

 Graham's Town in the Albany district, about five hundred 

 miles east of Cape Town, where it grows on rocky hills at an 

 elevation of 2000 feet, flowering in October. Seeds of it were 

 Bent to the Royal Gardens by Mr. M'Owan. The plant raised 

 from these flowered iu April." — {Ibid., t. 6108.) 



EoMANZOFFiA siicHENSis. Nat. Ord., Hydroleacea). Linn., 

 Pentandria Monogynia. — Flowers white. " This very rare and 

 interesting little plant, with the habit of a Saxifrage of the 

 granulata group, is closely allied to the majestic Wigaudia of 

 our subtropical gardens, though so dissimilar in stature, 

 habit, and general characters, and in coming from so different 

 a climate and country. It is a native of a few distant spots 

 over a very wide range of country in North-Westeru America, 

 and has been gathered by very few collectors. First, by the 

 late venerable Menzies, the naturalist to Vancouver's voyage 

 -(and introducer of Araucaria imbricata), iu May, 1793, who 

 discovered a small slender variety of it on hanging rocks at 

 Trinidad, in CaUfornia, lat. 41" 10' N. ; next by Ghamiseo at 

 Sitka in the then Russian, but now American territory of 

 Alaschka, fully a thousand miles north of Trinidad, and by 

 whom it was first described ; more lately it was gathered abun- 

 dantly by Dr. Lyall, on the Cascade Mauntaius, in lat. 09° N., 

 in the bed of the Sallse river, and a large-flowered variety 

 ^R-igel's E. Rraudiflora), on the same mountains, at an ele- 

 vation of 700U feet. Lastly, we have specimens collected in 



South California (probably in the mountains), in lat. 35", by 

 Dr. Bigelow,' surgeon to Lieutenant Whipple's exploration for 

 a railway route across America in 1853-4 ; this is fully 1400 

 miles south of Sitka."— (//nti., (. 0109.) 



lias OLBiENSis. A'a(. oni., Iridacea;. Lt/m., Triandria Mo- 

 nogynia. — " This belongs to a small group of dwarf Iris, which 

 iuhabit for the most part southtrn Europe, and of which the 

 I. pumila, L. (tab. nost. 9, 1209 and 1'2G1), may be taken as 

 the type. It is a native of the south of France and North 

 Italy, from Nismes eastwards, but apparently not advancing 

 beyond Tuscany. It varies much iu the colour of the flowers 

 which [usually purplej are sometimes white. It is distinguished 

 from I. pumila by the much larger flowers, which are pudicelled 

 and less fugacious, as also by the shorter perianth-tube. The 

 I. itaUca of Parlatore appears to be only a variety of it ; and 

 it is represented by I. pseudo-pumila in Sicily. It is very 

 closely allied to, it not a mere variety of the I. Chamaciris, 

 Bertoloni, which has a wider range iu France and Italy. The 

 specimen here figured flowered in the Royal Gardens in April 

 of the present year." — {Ibid , t. 0110.) 



Campsidium chilense. Nat. ord., Biguoniacese. Linn., Te- 

 trandria Monogynia. — Flowers crimson. " This very beautiful 

 climber is a native of Chili and the Archipelago of Chiloe, and 

 was discovered on the island of Huaffo by Dr. Eights, an 

 American voyager, who sent a small collection of Chilian and 

 Fuegian plants to Sir William Hooker some fifty years ago, 

 amongst which is this plant. It has subsequently been col- 

 lected by many botanists, most recently by Dr. Cunningham, 

 naturalist to the surveying expedition of H.M.S. Nassau, who 

 gathered it as far south as Wellington Island, in lat. 40" S., 

 where it would seem to be common. Its northern limit is 

 probably Arique, near Valdivia, lat. 50" S., where it was found 

 by Lechler. It is not a little remarkable that so beautiful a 

 plant, and one found through so many degrees of latitude in 

 Chili, should have escaped the observation of C. Gay, whose 

 ' Flora Chilensis,' published in 1845, does not include it. Tho 

 equally conspicuous Berberidopsis coralliua (tab. nost. 5343), 

 which, like Campsidium, is a native of the neighbourhood of 

 the maritime capital of Valdivia, was also unknown to that 

 author, though he spent many years exploring that country 

 for the Chilian Government. With Messrs. Veitch the plant 

 flowered in Ajiril of the present year." — {Ibid., t. Gill.) 



Pyehs baccata. — Nat. ord., Eosaceae. Linn., Icosandria Di- 

 pentagynia. — Flowers white, fruit crimson and greenish yellow. 

 "This charming tree, though so long known iu cultivation, 

 has never before been well figured in this country. It has a 

 very wide distribution ; in Siberia it occurs in the eastern dis- 

 tricts of Lake Baikal and in Dahuria ; thence it passes by the 

 Amur river north of China into Japan, whence we have nu- 

 merous specimens. In the Himalaya it extends from the Indus 

 to the Kumaon, at elevations between 0000 and 11,000 feet, 

 entering the Tibetan region of Piti ; and it was gathered by 

 Dr. Thomson and myself in the Mofiong woods of the Khasia 

 mountains, at an elevation of 6000 feet. It varies very much 

 as to the pubescence of its parts ; the Siberian and Japanese 

 specimens being almost wholly glabrous ; the Western Hima- 

 layan having more or less pubescent calyces, pedicels, and 

 petioles, and sometimes young leaves beneath ; whilst those 

 from the dry region of Piti, on the border of Tibet, are as gla- 

 brous as the Siberian ; and those from the very wet region of 

 the Khasia are the most pubescent of any. 'This correlation 

 of humidity with pubescence is not unusual iu the vegetable 

 kingdom."— (/6ifZ., t. C112.) 



Ehododendeon— JSuf/d'ss of Edinburgh. — "The beautiful 

 varieties of the jasminiflorum type of Ehododeudron rank 

 amongst the choicest of conservatory ornaments, being dis- 

 tinct iu character, moderate in size, varied in colour, and 

 withal possessing a fragrance which is no small recommenda- 

 tion. The variation in colour is now extended, for to the 

 white-flowered tj-pe, and Princess Alexandra, and the pink- 

 flowered Princess Eoyal and Princess Helena, we have to add 

 the striking novelty now represented, in which the blossoms 

 are of a glowing orange-scarlet. This fine plant was raised 

 by Messrs. Veitch & Sous, of Chelsea, and was shown at South 

 Kensington early in March of the present year, when it was 

 awarded a first-class certificate. The plant, which was raised 

 between Princess Royal and Lobbii, is of the neat habit 

 peculiar to this race. The leaves are elliptic, glossy, and cori- 

 aceous, about 2 inches long. The flowers grow in terminal 

 umbels of from nine to twelve together, and have a com- 

 paratively slender curved tube 2 inches long, with an expanded 

 limb of nearly equal obtuse segments, of a rich orange-scarlet 



