AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



367 



CONCRETE. A cement composed of pebbles, lime 

 and sand. It is largely employed for walks and for the 

 foundations of buildings. See also Walks. 



CONCRETE. Formed into one mass, or joined 

 together. 



CONDOR VINE. See Gonolobus Cunclurango. 



CONDUFLICATE. In vernation, folded face to face. 



CONE. The strobilus or scaly fruit of a Pine or Fir tree. 



CONE FLOWER. See Rudbeckia. 



CONE HEAD. See Strobilantb.es. 



CONFLUENT. Gradually united. 



CONIFERS!. A large order of trees or shrubs, mostly 

 evergreen, and with resinous secretions. Flowers monoe- 

 cious or dioecious, naked, disposed either in cylindrical or 

 short catkins, with closely-packed scales. The females 

 are sometimes solitary. Ovules and seeds naked. Leaves 

 alternate, opposite, or fascicled in a membranous sheath, 

 often narrow, needle-like, or rigid, or reduced to dense im- 

 bricating scales, rarely with a flattened limb. Bentham 

 and Hooker divide this large family into six tribes, viz. : 

 ABIETINE.E, containing Abies, Cedrus, Larix, Picea, Pinus, 

 Pseudotsuga, and Tsuga ; ABATJCABUE, containing Agaihis, 

 Araucaria, and Cunninghamia ; C r/PRESSiNE^:, containing 

 Actinostrobus, Callitris, Cupressus, Fitzroya, Juniperus, 

 Libocedrus, and Thuja; PODOCABPEJE, containing Micro- 

 cachrys, Podocarpus, and Saxegothea ; TAXEJE, containing 

 Dacrydium, Ginkgo, Pherosphaera, Phyllocladu*, Taxus, and 

 Torreya ; TAXODIXJK, containing Athrotaxus, Cephalotaxu* 

 Cryptomeria, Sequoia, and Taxodium. 



CONIUM (from konao, to whirl around; in reference 

 to the giddiness caused by eating the leaves). Hemlock. 

 OBD. UmbellifercB. Biennial poisonous herbs. Involucre 

 of three to five leaves; involucels dimidiate. Leaves 

 decompound. Stem terete, branched. Root fusiform. Not 

 more than two or three species are known, of which one 

 (C. chcerophylloides) is South African and Abyssinian. The 

 Common Hemlock (C. maculatum) is widely spread over 

 Europe, North Asia, and Siberia. It has long been used in 

 medicine. 



CONJUGATE. When a leafstalk bears but a single 

 pair of leaflets. 



CONNARACE.ZE. An order of trees or shrubs, 

 closely allied to Leguminosx, but having perfectly regular 

 flowers. Flowers small, in axillary or terminal racemes or 

 panicles. Leaves alternate, usually pinnate, stipulate. 

 The best-known genus is Connarus. 



CONN ARUS (from Konnaros, the name of an unknown 

 tree, described at length by Athenaaus). STN. Omphalobium. 

 OBD. Connaraceoe. A large genus of ornamental stove 

 evergreen shrubs. Most of them are natives of tropical 

 Asia and America. Flowers white, disposed in racemose 

 panicles. Leaves alternate, leathery, impari-pinnate. A 

 mixture of loam and peat will answer well for these plants. 

 Cuttings of firm shoots, taken in April, will root, if planted 

 in sand and placed in bottom heat, under a bell glass. 

 C. pubescens (downy), fl. white, sweet-scented, disposed in 

 axillary and terminal panicles. 1., leaflets five, oval, acute, 



smooth above, covered beneath with rather white pubescence. 



h. 5ft. French Guiana, 1822. SY.V. Robergia frutesceii*. 



Other species known to cultivation are : nitidus and paniculatw. 



FIG. 506. CONNATE LEAP. 



CONNATE. Where the bases of opposite leaves are 

 joined together. See Fig. 506. 



Converging; having a gradually 



CONNTVENT. 



inward direction. 



CONOCARFUS (from konot, a cone, and karpot, a 

 fruit; in reference to the scale-formed fruit being so 

 closely imbricated in a head as to resemble a small Fir- 

 cone). Button-tree. OBD. Combretacea. The only species 

 is a stove evergreen shrub. Heads of flowers peduncu- 

 late; flowers crowded; petals absent. Leaves alternate, 

 quite entire. This plant thrives in a mixture of loam 

 and peat. Cuttings of firm shoots, taken in April, will 

 root in sand, if placed under a bell glass, in bottom 

 heat. 



C. erectus (upright).* fl. white, in panicled heads. J. oblong- 

 lanceolate, tapering to both ends, thickish, glabrous, or, when 

 young, rather downy, biglandular at the base. A. 6ft to 8ft. 

 Tropical America, 1752. 



CONOSFERMUM (from konos, a oone, and sperma, 

 a seed; the fruit or carpels growing close together, and 

 forming a cone). OBD. Proteaceas. Greenhouse evergreen 

 shrubs, from extra-tropical (mostly Western) Australia, 

 principally white-flowered. This genus does not appear 

 to be much known in horticultural circles. Of more than 

 thirty species known to science, eight or nine are reputed 

 to have been introduced. 



CONOSTECtIA (from konos, a cone, and stege, a 

 covering; in reference to the conical calyptriform calyx 

 falling off in one piece). OBD. Melaatomaceas. Stove 

 evergreen trees or small shrubs. Flowers in terminal 

 panicles. Leaves petiolate, entire or denticulate, three 

 to five-nerved. For culture, see Melastoma. 



C. Balblslana (Balbis's). This species is a twining shrub, of 

 which the leaves are oval and blunt, with a point. 



C. procera (tall). /. rosy or white, large, on simply-divided 

 panicles. June. L elliptical-oblong, sub-triplinerved. h. 25ft. 

 Jamaica, 1825. 



CONOSTEFHIUM (from konos, a cone, and ttephos, 

 a crown ; referring to the disposition of the flowers). 

 OBD. Epacridece. An ornamental greenhouse evergreen 

 shrub. Flowers solitary, recurved, axillary. Fruit a hard 

 indehiscent drupe, one-celled by abortion of the other four 

 cells. Leaves scattered. It thrives in a compost of peat 

 and sandy loam. Cuttings of young shoots, taken in 

 April, will root in sand. 



C. pendulum (hanging down), fl. red. April, h. bin. to 18in. 

 West Australia. 



CONRADIA. See Fentarhaphia. 



CONSERVATORY. This structure is distinguished 

 from a greenhouse by having central beds, in which per- 

 manent plants are placed, in addition to those arranged 

 to form a continued floral display on the side shelves. 

 The term is also applied to small glass structures where 

 a few creepers are planted for covering the roof or back 

 wall, and the remaining space occupied by decorative 

 foliage or flowering plants. The greatest enjoyment is 

 obtained from a Conservatory either joined to the mansion 

 or connected with it by means of a suitable corridor. An 

 opportunity is then afforded of visiting and admiring the 

 flowers in any weather or at any season. This arrangement 

 is not always practicable with large glass houses, on 

 account of the position of the mansion, or its style of 

 architecture ; consequently, the plan of having an isolated 

 building has to be adopted. The latter is, as a rule, better 

 suited to good cultivation, and gives greater facilities to 

 the gardener for renewing and arranging the movable 

 plants. In the other case, only a very limited time can be 

 allowed each morning for such work. Conservatories found 

 in gardens of an early period, have, in many cases, been 

 built to correspond, and produce with the mansion an archi- 

 tectural effect. This much they may do, but they are 

 wholly unsuited to good plant culture. If the external 

 architecture of a Conservatory has to coincide with that 

 of another building, the important^ and primary point of 

 making suitable provision for the well-being of the plants 



