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- 

 ziliensis 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. 



