448 



HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS 



TEE 



Teesda'lia. Named after Robert Teeadale, an 

 English botanist, author of a "Catalogue of 

 Plants growing about Castle Howard." Nat. 

 Ord. CruciferoB. 



A genus of two species of inconspicuous, 

 liardy, annual plants, with minute, white flow- 

 ers and rosulate leaves, natives of western 

 Europe and the Mediterranean region. 



Tel'anthera. From televia, complete, and an^ 

 thera, an anther. Nat. Ord. AmaranthaacB. 



Kept up by Bentham arid Hooker as a sep- 

 arate genus, but cultivated. under the name 

 of AUemanthera, which see. 



Telegraph Plant. A popular name for Desmo- 

 diwm gyrana. 



Tele'kia. Name not explained; -Nat. Ord. 

 CompositcB. 



T. cordatum, the only species under cultiva- 

 tion, is a fine, robust, herbaceous plant, with 

 large, cordate leaves. The flower-heads are 

 of a rich orange color, produced in cymose 

 panicles; it is a plant well adapted for a 

 shrubbery border, as its bloom is long con- 

 tinued, which, \yith its handsome foliage, con- 

 stitutes a handsome border plant. The ro- 

 bust stems require no staking. Native of 

 southern Europe ; introduced in 1825. Prop- 

 agation by seeds and division of root in 

 spring. Syn. Buphthalmum. 



Tele'phium. Named by Linneeus after Tele- 

 phua, a son of Hercules. A genus of Illece- 

 bracece, inhabiting the Mediterranean region, 

 and found also at the Cape of Good Hope. T. 

 Imperatri, the Tree Orpine, has been intro- 

 duced, but is not worth cultivating. 



Telfai'ria. Named after Charles Telfair, an Irish 

 botanist, who died in the Mauritius, 1833. 

 Nat. Ord. CucurbitacecB. 



T. pedata, the best known species, is a tall, 

 climbing plant, a native of Zanzibar, intro- 

 duced in 1825, but rarely grown, the room 

 and care required in the green-house being 

 considered too valuable for a plant only re- 

 markable for its curious fruit, which often 

 grows three feet long, and six to eight inches 

 in diameter, containing upward of two hun- 

 dred and fifty circular seeds, about an inch in 

 diameter. These seeds yield an excellent 

 oil, and they are, moreover, as palatable as 

 almonds. T. occidentalia, introduced from 

 West Africa in 1870, is said to be cultivated 

 for its seeds, which the negroes boil and eat. 



Telli'ma. An anagram of Milella, under which 

 this genus was formerly included. Nat. Ord. 

 Saxifragacece. 



A genus of hardy, erect, annual or peren- 

 nial plants, natives of northwestern America, 

 resembling the Heuchera. T. grandiflora has 

 prettily colored and veined leaves, like Hett- 

 chera Richardsoni, and spikes of small, yel- 

 lowish, bell-like flowers. It is a good plant 

 for the rock-garden, and is increased by cut- 

 tings. 



Telo'pea. "Waratah. From telopaa, seen at a 

 distance; alluding to the great distance at 

 which its crimson-colored flowers may be seen 

 in its native country. Nat. Ord. Proteacece. 



The brilliant, scarlet flowers of this plant, 

 which are conspicuous even at a great dis- 

 tance, are said to have been one cause why 

 the coast of New South Wales was distin- 

 guished by its first visitors as Botany Bay, in 

 allusion to the great accession to botany 



TEM 



likely to be derived from a country where the 

 plants appeared so different from those of 

 Europe. The flower of the Waratah may be 

 compared to a gigantic head of clover of the 

 most intense and brilliant scarlet, but it is 

 not common, probably because it is a very 

 diSicult plant to manage. The first point to 

 be attended to is to have the pot in which it 

 is grown thoroughly well drained, and the 

 next, to allow it abundance of light and air. 

 It is propagated by cuttings or suckers, which 

 it throws up in abundance. It should be reg- 

 ularly watered in the flowering season, but it 

 may be kept almost dry during the winter 

 months. 

 Temperature. A temperature suited to the 

 nature of the plant is one of the most impor- 

 tant conditions to the well-being of plants 

 under cultivation, and the nearer we can come 

 to the conditions of temperature and moisture 

 of the native habitat of the plant the nearer 

 we come to perfection in cultivation. Thus 

 we flnd that in our garden weeds, the Chick- 

 weed (Stellaria media) is only troublesome in 

 early spring and in the fall, when the average 

 temperature is perhaps 50° or 60°, because it 

 is a native of a country (Britain) where there 

 is no higher average; while our too familiar 

 Purslane {Portulaca oleracea) only rears its 

 head to injure, in the dog days, when the ther- 

 mometer averages 70° or 80°, because it is an 

 importation from the tropics. 



A large proportion of Lima Beans, Sweet 

 Corn, and other tropical vegetable seeds, annu- 

 ally perish by being sown two or three weeks 

 tpo early by our impatient amateur horticul- 

 turalists ; while, on the other hand, the colder 

 blooded Parsnip or Carrot all but refuse to 

 germinate, and often fail to grow in the hot 

 summer weather^ Seeds of Calceolarias, Cin- 

 erarias, Primroses, Pansies, etc., which in 

 England are sown and germinate freely in 

 July, will in a majority of cases utterly fail if 

 attempted at the same date here, where we 

 have 15° to 20° higher temperature and a drier 

 atmosphere. We^ hear of hundreds of failures 

 of this kind every season, which are laid to 

 the quality of the seeds by foreign garden- 

 ers, who have not yet had experience with 

 our American climate. The same seeds 

 sown during the months of Februai-y, March, 

 or April, or September, or October, would 

 germinate without trouble, because the tem- 

 perature and atmosphere then can be made 

 inside congenial to their nature. 



The same necessity for congenial tempera- 

 ture exists in growing in matured plants, and 

 one of the main causes of want of success in 

 cultivating plants under glass is' a want of 

 knowledge, or carelessness, in keeping a tem- 

 perature unsuited to the growth of the plants. 

 In ordinary green-house collections the fault 

 is oftener in the temperature being kept too 

 high than too low, for it is usually much easier, 

 requiring far less watchfulness by the person 

 in charge, to keep up a high temperature. The 

 injury done by, this is gradual, and will not, 

 like the action of frost on the plants, show in 

 the morning. In consequence of this, we often 

 see the green houses containing Camellias, 

 Azale'as, Pelargoniums, Carnations, etc., swel- 

 tering under a continued night temperature 

 of 60" or 65°, when their nature demands 15° 

 lower. In large establishments, where there 

 are a number of green-houses, this is made an 



