GRISELINIA. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



HEUCHERA. 



951 



fragrant than in G. Lasianthus, 3 ins. or more 

 across ; in the States tliey come early in 

 August but with us not much before Sep- 

 tember, and beginning late they are less 

 abundant. The leaves turn a fine scarlet in 

 autumn. While somewhat hardier than the 

 Loblolly Bay, it is perhaps more difficult to 

 manage in other ways. 



G. grandis, a tender kind with creamy- 

 white flowers and glossy leaves, is grown upon 

 walls in a few of the warmest gardens of 

 Cornwall, but it is really a greenhouse 

 plant. 



G-RISELINIA.— There are certain ex- 

 posed spots in our shore-gardens where 

 even the toughest of shrubs are apt to 

 fail, and in this little group we have the 

 best of all plants for such a position, 

 hardier than the Euonymus and the 

 Escallonias, thriving in any soil, and fully 

 sea-proof. The greenish flowers are in- 

 significant, and the fruits, like clusters of 

 small Ivy berries, are seldom seen in this 

 country, but the fleshy leaves are so unlike 

 any others in appearance that these are 

 among the most distinct of evergreens. 

 Of compact and fairly rapid growth, they 

 make dense bushes of 6 to 10 ft., freely 

 branched to the ground, and of so good a 

 shape that they may be almost left alone. 

 The leaves are of a light glossy green, set 

 upon tough yellow stems, irregularly 

 rounded or wedge-shaped, and with a 

 graceful droop. While hardy far into the 

 north near the sea, the Griselinias fail 

 inland save in quite the warmest places, 

 and are tender round London even upon 

 sheltered walls. The glossy leaves are 

 always attractive and seldom attacked by 

 insects, and, when safe from frost, the 

 shoots will cover a wall where even Ivy 

 fails. There are two species, both from 

 New Zealand : — 



G. littoralis, which reaches a height of 

 30 ft., with wedge-shaped leaves, greyish 

 beneath, where the veins show very faintly. 

 The appearance of the sexes (which are apart) 

 is very different, the male plant bearing small 

 oval leaves of dark green, with an erect habit, 

 and the female much larger and broader 

 leaves of yellow-green, and of a more diffuse 

 habit. 



G. lucida is the finer kind in its very glossy 

 pale green leaves, which are most unevenly 

 divided by the midrib. It is of smaller growth 

 than littoralis, reaching only 10 or 12 ft. with 

 leaves more fleshy and the veins very distinct 

 on the under side. G. macrophylla is a robust 

 natural form of this, with much larger bright 

 green leaves, so thick as to be almost suc- 

 culent. This makes a handsome bushy tree 

 of 20 to 25ft., in the gardens of Devon and 

 Cornwall. 



Cuttings of G. littoralis, made in August 

 and put under glasses in a cool house or frame 



strike freely in six or eight weeks, the half- 

 ripened weaker side-shoots rooting better than 

 the stronger tips. G. lucida is of difficult in- 

 crease by cuttings ; it is therefore usual to graft 

 it upon year-old plants of litto9-alis, choosing 

 the same month and similar conditions for the 

 work. The lower shoots of all the kinds will 

 also root slowly if layered, but where seed is 

 obtainable this is quite the best means of in- 

 crease, the plants sowing themselves in 

 favoured spots. The sexes being apart how- 

 ever in Griselinia, the plants are sterile unless 

 the male and female forms are planted together. 



GUEVINA AVELLANA {C/n/ia^i 

 Nut). — An evergreen tree of about 30 ft. 

 in its native land, and here confined to 

 favoured gardens in Devon and Cornwall, 

 the finest specimen in Britain being pro- 

 bably at Greenway on the river Dart, 

 where it flowers and fruits freely. The 

 blossoms, at their best in September, are 

 carried as erect spikes of about 4 ins., 

 each spike holding about a score of small 

 ivory-white flowers with reflexing petals 

 and protruding stamens. Although freely 

 borne, they are not at all showy, the 

 feature of the tree being its fruits, over 

 2 ins. in circumference, which become red 

 and eventually purple. They contain 

 Almond-like seeds of mild and somewhat 

 oily taste, which are eaten in Chili and 

 Peru, where the fleshy envelope is made a 

 substitute for the Pomegranate. The 

 foliage is very handsome, the great leaves, 

 often 2 ft. in length, being divided into 

 many deep green leaflets. Increase by 

 layers and by seeds — which, however, do 

 not germinate freely. 



HELONIOPSIS. — Dwarf perennial 

 plants of the Lily order, from Japan, 

 forming neat tufts of erect lance-shaped 

 leaves of a few inches high, and carrying 

 short spikes of flower in early spring. In 

 H. breviscapa they are 6 or 8 ins. long, 

 white with deep lilac stamens, the whole 

 turning a pretty rose-red before fading. 

 In H. japojtica the flowers are larger, but 

 only two or three on a stalk, their colour 

 a deep rose with blue anthers. The 

 plants thrive in moist peaty soil and in 

 sunny sheltered nooks ; H. breviscapa 

 also does well in partial shade. Increase 

 by division late in summer, or seeds sown 

 in a cold frame. 



HEUCHERA.— A few years ago this 

 little group of hardy perennials was 

 hardly known, and had there not been 

 improvement under cultivation they might 

 well have remained in abeyance, many 

 of the wild kinds have little to recom- 

 mend them save a graceful leaf, while 

 even H. sanguinea, however attractive at 

 its best, is not a good plant, dwindling 



