PITTOSPORUM 



PLACEA 



1361 



AA. Fls. yellow or greenish yellow. 

 B. Plant glabrous throughout: sepals very short. 



3. eugenioide3, A. Cunn. Tarata. Small tree, 20-40 

 ft. hi^li: Ivs. bright yellowish greeu, shining, handsome, 

 3-4 ''2 in. long, acute; margins often undulate: fls. J4 in- 

 long or less, partially monoecious or dioecious; sepals 

 very acute: fr. % in- long, apiculate; seeds mature in 

 about 12 months. April. New Zealand. — In Calif, the 

 most extensively cult, species, much used for clipped 

 hedges and ornamental slirubbery; hardy; growth rapid. 

 A variegated variety is cult, in Europe. 



4. phillyraeoldes, DC. Small, graceful tree or slender 

 shrub with the habit of a weeping willow: Ivs. 2-4 in. 

 long, with a small hooked point: fls. % in. long, soli- 

 tary, yellow, often dioecious ; sepals very obtuse : fr. 

 % in. long, oval, much compressed, yellow; seed dark 

 or orange-red. Deserts of interior Australia. 



5. viridifldrum, Sims. Cape Pittosporum. Shrub, 

 6 ft. high : Ivs. obovate. obtuse and refuse, glabrous, 

 shining and reticulate beneath : fls. in somewhat glo- 

 bose panicles, greenish yellow, jasmine-scented: pedi- 

 cels glabrous. Cape Colony. B.M. 1684. — Int. by Fran- 

 ceschi, as also was No. 4. 



BB. Plant with lower side of Ivs., young shoots and 

 pedicels densely clothed with rusty tomentum : 

 sepals 34 in. long. 



6. revoliitum, Dryand. Tall shrub : Ivs. 23^-3 in. 

 long, 1-1 >2 in. wide, acutish: fls. /^ in. long, yellow; 

 sepals acuminate, tips recurved: fr. %-% in. long, 

 rough outside; seeds red or brown. Feb. -April. Aus- 

 tralia. B.R. 3:186. 



AAA. Fls. ivhite, greenish white or yellowish white. 

 B. Lvs. acute or acuminate . 



7. rhombifdlium, A. Cunn. Queensland Pittospo- 

 rum. Tree, 60-80 ft., or when grown as a pot shrub 4-5 

 ft. high : lvs. rhomboid-oval, coarsely and irregularly 

 toothed from the middle up; veins prominent on both 

 sides: fls. in a corymb resembling that of a Cornus; 

 sepals obtuse; petals and capsule /i in. long: seeds 2-3, 

 black. Queensland.— Franceschi says that the hand- 

 some yellow berries persist all winter in S. Calif. 



8. undulitum, Vent. Mock Orange. Fig. 1836. With 

 us a shrub or small tree: lvs. oval-oblong to lanceolate, 

 entire, flat or undulate, rich deep green, margins often 



fls. yellowish; sepals minute, pubescent, lanceolate* 

 acuminate; petals linear: capsule 4-seeded. Feb., Mar- 

 India. —Int. by Franceschi, 1897, who says it has very 

 rich foliage, silky white in the new growth. 



Pittosporum undulatum 



undulate, veins inconspicuous: inflorescence not corym- 

 bose: fls. intensely fragrant at night ; sepals acumi- 

 nate; petals 5-6 lines long: capsule 3^ in. long; seeds 

 numerous, light brown. Spring. Australia. B.R. 1:16. 

 9. tetrasp6rmum, Wight & Arn. Madras Pittospo- 

 rum. Lvs. elliptic-oblong, acute, margins slightly 

 waved and recurved : peduncles 1-2-fld., pubescent: 



1837. 



Pittosporum Tobira, var. varie- 



gatum (y.%). 



BB. Lvs. very obtuse or retuse. 



10- Tobira, Dryand. Tobira. Japanese Pittospo- 

 rum. Winter-flowering shrub: lvs. obovate, glabrous, 

 dark green above, pale beneath: fls. in a terminal ses- 

 sile umbel, pure white, fragrant. China and Japan. 

 Withstands some frost. Var. variegatum, Hort. (Fig. 

 1837), has lvs. variegated with white. — In the East this 

 variety is the favorite Pittosporum, as it makes a good 

 house plant. The typical form is also cult, in Pla. 



J. Burtt Davy. 



PIXY or Flowering Moss is Pyxidanthera barbulata. 



FLAGEA (possibly derived from a Chilean name). 

 Atnarylliddcece. Five speciq^ of rare and beautiful 

 Chilean bulbs, of dififlcult culture bearing showy fls. 

 something like an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum), the colors 

 being white or yellow, streaked with red. Botanically 

 the peculiar feature of Placea is its cup or corona, 

 which is smaller than that of Narcissus and red, instead 

 of yellow or white. The beauty of the Placeas, how- 

 ever, is of the Hippeastrum type, though the fls. are 

 not so symmetrical, for at first sight it looks as if two 

 of the perianth -segments were torn away. Placeas are 

 generally classed as autumn-flowering bulbs. Though 

 natives of the Andes at considerable elevations they 

 are not hardy. The bulbs are said to lie deep in the 

 ground in their native country, and pot culture is 

 generally considered unsuitable for deep-lying bulbs. 

 There is probably nothing in the genus finer than 

 P. ornata as depicted in The Garden, with its umbel 

 of 4 fls. each 3 in. across, and painted with red on a 

 white ground, while each perianth has a strong green 

 stripe up the middle. Yet Lemaire declares that his 

 P. grandiflora has much larger flowers, the other 

 parts of the plant being three times as large as in 

 P. ornata. P. ornata was the first species discovered, 

 but Miers, who found it in 1824, lost all his bulbs by 

 shipwreck, together with the greater part of his collec- 

 tions. 



"Placea," says Max Leichtlin, in Gn. 54, p. 510, "is 

 one of those bulbs which will not be pot-bound. I either 

 plant them in a walled frame which is kept free of 

 frost, or in a low house which has a border on the south 



