1544 



ROMNEYA 



RONDELETIA 



B0MN£;YA (after the astronomer T. Romney Rob- 

 inson, friend of T. Coulter, who discovered it about 

 1845). Papaverdcfce. The California Tree Poppy 

 (Fig. 2142) is a somewhat shrubby plant with splen- 

 did 6-petaled white Us. measuring 6 in. or more across. 

 Botanically, the genus is unique, having only one spe- 

 cies and being distinguished from the other members of 

 the poppy family by the fact that the numerous stigmas 

 are connate at the base into a little ring, and are diver- 

 gent at the apex. It is one of the few long-known plants 

 that has acquired no synonym. Generic characters: 

 sepals 3, with a broad, membranous, dorsal wing; pet- 

 als 6, all alike; stamens very numerous, free; filaments 

 filiform but thickened above; stigmas free: capsule 

 7-l]-loculed, dehiscing to the middle, the valves separat- 

 ing by their margins from the firm persistent placentas. 



Coiilteri, Harv. California Tree Poppy. Matilija 

 Poppy. Lvs. glaucous, 3-5 in. long, pinnately cut: 

 petals broadly obovate: seeds black, a line or less 

 long. Gn. 13:129; 26:465; 29, pp. 207, 211; 46, p. 405; 

 55, p. 208; 56, p. 239; 57, p. 263. G.F. 10:353. P.M. 

 1877:252. A.F.'5:397. A.G. 19:314 (sup. Apr. 16, 1898). 

 — Ever since 1889 and 1890, when it was one of the lead- 

 ing novelties, the California Tree Poppy has been a 

 much-talked-of plant, owing to its extraordinary beauty 

 and the difficulties of cultivation. It has the largest 

 flowers of any member of the poppy family, except pos- 

 sibly Papaver orientale. Though not considered hardy 

 in the eastern states, it has been successfully grown in 

 the open in northern New Jersey. 



Romneya grows wild in California from San Diego 

 to Santa Barbara county; also in Mexico. In the wild it 

 blooms chiefly during June and July, but in cultivation 

 from May to August. It is one of the characteristic 

 features of California floriculture. Ernest Braunton 

 writes from Los Angeles: "It should be grown here on 

 dry, rocky soil ; it will positively not grow in a wet or 

 heavy soil. It needs no water here except the winter 

 rains. It is very hard to grow either from seed or divi- 

 sions." W. M. 



2142. 



Top sprig of Romneya 



Coulteri (XVs). 



Romneya is difficult to transplant, due to the scarcity 

 of fibrous roots; in middle California we transplant 

 suckers (which are produced in great abundance) with- 

 out any loss, provided a good, firm ball of earth is kept 

 around the stout, thick roots in transit, and if the stems 

 are cut well back, almost to the base. At San Francisco 

 it grows luxuriantly in a heavy adobe sdil, jjroducing 

 immense flowers. The name IMatilija Poppy (proiidunccd 

 Ma-til'li-ha) is the favorite in California. It conies from 

 the Matilija canyon, Ventura county, where the plant 

 grows in particular abundance. Miss Parsons writes: 

 "Many people have the mistaken idea that it grows only 

 in that region. It is not common by any means; but it 

 is found in scattered localities from Santa Barbara 

 southward into Mexico. It is very abundant near River- 

 .side, and also upon the southern boundary and below 

 in Lower California, where the plants cover large areas. 

 It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclu- 



sion of remote canyons, and nothing more magnificent 

 could be imagined than a steep canyon-side covered with 

 the great bushy plants, thickly covered with the enor- 

 mous white fls." The blossoms remain open for many 

 ^^y^- J. BuRTT Davy. 



The Romneya can be transplanted safely if cut to 

 the ground before lifting and the transplanting is done 

 during its dormant season and soon before growth 

 commences. The writer has transplanted it— and that 

 without cutting it all back — twice a year; in fall into a 

 cold pit, and in April back from the pit to the bed in the 

 garden, and with perfect success. There is no difficulty 

 in growing it from seed; any careful person can do it. 

 Get fresh seed, — that is the only secret, and this is im- 

 perative in all papaveraceous plants. But under artifi- 

 cial conditions in localities where the Romneya is not 

 hardy, it requires a few years between the germination 

 of the seeds and the blooming of the seedlings; hence 

 the people will not bother with raising it in this way. 



William Falconer. 



ROMnL£]A {Botnnlus, fabled as one of the founders 

 of lionie). Iriddcece. A genus of about 33 species of 

 crocus-like bulbs from the Mediterranean region of Eu- 

 rope, the Cape and tropical Africa. They are small and 

 slender plants with fls. an inch or so across, varying 

 from crimson and purple through rose and lilac to white 

 and also yellow. They are closely allied to Crocus, but 

 differ in being less hardy, and in having a long peduncle 

 and short flower-tube. Generic characters: lvs. linear, 

 radical, with a few similar but smaller ones on the 

 scape: fls. solitary in a spathe, on a simple or branch- 

 ing peduncle; perianth-segments oblong, much exceed- 

 ing the short tube ; spathe valves herbaceous. These 

 bulbs seem to be unknown to the American trade. 

 a. Fls. rosy or crimson. 



rosea, Eckl. {Tricnonema rosea, Ker.). Corm glo- 

 bose, /^3-% in. thick: lvs. 3^-1 ft. long, setaceous: pe- 

 duncle 1-6 in. long, 1-3-fld.: outer spathe % in. long: 

 perianth with a short funnel-shaped tube with a yellow 

 throat and a red-lilac limb, about 1 in. long, the outer 

 segments with 3 faint purple stripes outside. S. Africa. 

 B.M. 1225 (as T. roseiini). F.S. 8:799 (as Jf. Celsii). 

 Var. specidsa, Baker (T. speciosum, Ker.), has a, larger 

 perianth and outer segments, with 3-5 dark purple stripes 

 of which the outer ai-e feathered. B.M. 1476. 

 a. Fls. yellow or white. 



Clusiana, Baker (Triconema Cliisiana, Lange). Fls. 

 bright yellow, tipped with lilac. Spain. A white var. 

 has been int. by Barr, of England. p_ -^^ Barclay. 



EONDELfiTIA (Rondelet, 1507-1566, physician and 

 naturalist of Montpellier, France). Utihidcew. About 

 60 species of tropical American shrubs and trees, with 

 small 5- or 4-lobed, salver-shaped fls. of red, yellow or 

 white, generally borne in showy terminal corymbs. The 

 whole family is noted as furnishing numerous desirable 

 stove plants, and Rondeletia is a highly esteemed genus. 

 The following species are shrubs growing 4 ft. or more 

 high. The flowers are generally fragrant, and the clus- 

 ters 4 in. or more across. In the favorite species (S. 

 odorata) the flowers number 10-30 in a cluster, each 

 flower being fully an inch across; in the other species 

 the flowers may number 150-200 to a cluster, each flower 

 being less than % in. across. Known also as liogiera. 



Generic characters : calyx-lobes short or long, equal : 

 corolla-tube usually slender, swelled or not, tliroat gla- 

 brous or bearded, mouth with or withotit a ring; limb 

 5-lobed (in some species 4-lobed) ; stamens inserted in 

 the throat, included: ovary 2-loculed: capsule loculicidal. 



R. anomala is the only species described below that 

 does not have opposite lvs. If. cordafa is often said to 

 have a 4-lobed flower, a mistake that dates back half a 

 century to a typographical error. -^y, ji, 



Mondelefia anomala is a half-shrubby plant, stool- 

 ing out when given root -room, but when confined to 

 a pot it makes a compact mass of shoots, about two 

 feet high, which bloom in the winter time, in termi- 

 nal, flat-topped clusters of rosy purple flowers. It is not 

 profuse at any time, but continues in bloom for two or 

 three months. An additional good feature is handsome 

 foliage, so that it is always presentable. Cuttings root 



