170 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
majestic group of this bamboo at the corner of his house. The 
windows of my upstairs sleeping chamber opened out upon it 
and the moon was at the full. I sat for hours and gazed on this 
wonderful sight and worshipped. It was a thing of unearthly 
beauty, a vision that I shall carry with me till the end of my life. 
B. argentea, B. disticha and B. verticillata are fine and compara- 
tively hardy. <A plant sold as Phyllostachys spinosa, which 
Nehrling says is Bambusa arundinacea, is a splendid, wide-spread 
species. ' 
Begonia. Too widely known to need much comment. Some 
of the species do well in the state in good soil and sheltered, half 
shaded places. They do nicely on the walls of fern pools where 
there is shade and moisture. They are subject to a fungous 
disease which is little understood and are also subject to root 
knot. B. evansiana is quite hardy but most of them are tender. 
Bryophyllum calycinum is a well-known succulent plant with 
yellowish red, green and brown flowers; when it once becomes 
established it will take care of itself and is difficult to eradicate 
since every leaf will produce a number of plants. Tender. 
Buddleia. Ever since I was a child I have been reading about 
Buddleias and how ornamental they were, but had never seen 
any of them. Recently I obtained a couple of species, B. bra- 
giliensis with spikes of minute, dirty yellow flowers and rough, 
coarse foliage and B. hemsleyana with a little better leaves, and 
minute bluish blossoms. Both have grown fast and bloomed 
freely but neither is good enough to be called a low grade weed. 
Caladium. Jared Smith believes that most of our cultivated 
plants are forms of C. picturatum and C. bicolor. There are 
many hundreds of named varieties in cultivation and no words 
_can adequately describe the beauty of a large collection such as 
that of Professor Nehrling at Gotha. They die down in winter 
in our climate, though in Haiti they are in full glory all through 
this season. There is every conceivable shading and patterning 
of green, white, red, pink and yellow and an acre of these in their 
glory is a sight never to be forgotten. C. roezeli is probably a 
distinct species with deep green leaves and irregular gray, yellow- 
ish green and white spots. They all do best in rich moist ground 
in partial shade. 
