WIGANDIA 



WILDER 



1975 



doubly crenate margins and lax, terminal, cyniose pani- 

 cles, the branches o£ which are 1-sided spikes or ra- 

 cemes: calyx - segments linear; corolla broadly bell- 

 shaped, with a short tube and 5 spreading lobes; stamens 

 5, usually exserted: styles 2, distinct at base: capsule 

 2-valved: seeds small and numerous, pitted-wrinkled. 



The species of Wigandia are endlessly confused in 

 current reference books, as well as in the trade, and 

 Index Kewensis reflects the general perplexity. The 

 following account is based upon Andrews revision of the 

 genus in K.H. 1861:371, with an important change in 

 the name of one species which requires a somewhat 

 tedious explanation. In respect to W. urens, Andr6 

 follows the previous revision by Choisy in DC. Prod. 

 10:184. The name Wigandia urens was first used by 

 Kunth, who applied it to a Mexican plant. Before this, 

 however, another plant of the same family but a native 

 of Peru had been called Hydrolea urens. Now when 

 Choisy came to monograph the whole family he trans- 

 ferred Hydrolea urens to the genus Wigandia and called 

 it Wigandia urens, Choisy. He, therefore, had to in- 

 vent a new name for the Mexican plant, and this be 

 called Wigandia Kunthii. Choisy's action would be 

 approved by the radical school of American botanists, 

 but not by the international rules of nomenclature 

 known as the Paris Code of 1867. Hence it is necessary 

 to give the Peruvian plant a new name, and it is here 

 called IF. Peruviana. The "common" or English names 

 suggested below may be convenient in explaining the 

 difficulties of the genus. (Kunth=HBK. ) 



A. Color of fls. lilac or violet. 



B. Spikes 1-sided but IB-ranked, the 

 fls. pointing in two directions. 



c. Plant with rusty hairs macrophylla 



cc. Plant without rusty hairs Peruviana 



bb. Spikes 1-sided but not t-ranked, 

 the fls. all pointing in one direc- 

 tion. 



C. Capsule densely hairy urens 



CC. Capsule slightly hoary -pabes- 



ce ut Caracasana 



aa. Color of fls. wine-red Vigieri 



macrophylla, Cham. & Schlecht. Large-leaved 

 Wigandia. Tender Mexican perennial plant, attaining 

 a blight of 6 ft. or more in a season when treated as a 

 subtropical bedding plant : plant covered with two 

 kinds of hairs, long white, stiff, spreading, prickly ones 

 and short rusty hairs: only the lower surface of lvs. 

 covered with a thick, white felt : spikes 1-sided, 2- 

 ranked: fls. violet, with a white tube. R.H. 1861:371.— 

 The above is Andre's conception of the species, but 

 some writers would make it a variety of W. urens, 

 Kunth. The lvs. attain nearly 3 ft. in length under per- 

 fect conditions. Lvs. oval-elliptic, base more or less 

 heart-shaped. 



Peruviana ( IT. urens, Choisy, not Kunth.). Peruvian 

 Wigandia. Tender Peruvian subshrub, distinguished 

 by the absence of rusty hairs and by the 2-ranked spikes 

 of violet flowers. Very hispid with long, stiff, spread- 

 ing hairs: lvs. 5-6 in. long in their native place, ovate- 

 cordate, covered with a white felt below. R.H. 1867, p. 

 470 (same as N. 4:208; doubtful). 



urens, Kunth, not Choisy (W. Kunthii, Choisy). 

 Mexican Wigandia. Tender Mexican subshrub, distin- 

 guished by its 1-sided but not 2-ranked spikes of violet 

 fls. and densely hairy capsule. Very hispid: lvs. ovate- 

 cordate, pilose on both sides, rusty hairy above. 



Caracasana, Kunth. Venezuelan Wigandia. Fig. 

 2722. Tender Venezuelan subshrub, distinguished by 

 its 1 -sided but not 2-ranked spikes which are revolute 

 at the apex and by the capsule which is merely hoary- 

 pubescent. Hairy: lvs. elliptic-cordate, hairy on both 

 sides, rusty-hairv above: fls. pale violet or lilac. B.M. 

 457.". I adapted in Fig. 2722). B.R. 23:1966. P.S. 8:755 

 (page 17). Gn. 4, p. 503; 8, p. 198. R.H. 1859, p. 653. 

 (The first three pictures are authentic — The lvs. are 

 longer and more acute than those of W. urens. It 

 is probable that the plants cult, under this name are 

 really IT. macrophylla. Andre' found it so in 1861, and 

 the trade is conservative about changing names. 



Vigieri, Carr. Imperfectly described species of un- 

 known nativity. Carriere merely said it was a silvery 

 plant instead of somber and glutinous "like W. Cara- 

 casana " (by which he perhaps meant W. macrophylla). 

 Nicholson says the fls. are lilac-blue, passing through 

 vinous red to fawn-color before fading. In the Ameri- 

 can trade the red color of the fls. is considered distinc- 

 tive. N. 4:209. vy. jj. 



WIKSTR(EMIA (after a'Swedish botanist). Thyme- 

 loeacece. W. pauciflora is offered by importers of Japa- 

 nese plants. "From its bark the celebrated Japanese 

 copying paper is made." Wikstrcernia is a genus of 

 about 20 species of trees or shrubs native to tropical 

 and eastern Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands. 

 Lvs. opposite, rarely alternate: fls. hermaphrodite, in 

 terminal racemes or spikes; periantb-ttibe long; lobes 

 4, spreading; stamens 8, in 2 series; filaments short; 

 disc of 1-4 scales: ovary villous, 1-Ioculed; style short; 

 stigma large, globose: fr. fleshy and naked or more or 

 less included in the base of the perianth. 



canescens, Meissn. ( W. pauciflora, Franch. & Sav.). 

 Small shrub, 1-3 ft. high: lvs. 1-3 in. long, thin, alter- 

 nate and opposite, oblong-lanceolate: perianth 3—4 lines 

 long: fr. silky. Himalayas,, Ceylon, China, 



WILDER, MARSHALL PINCKNEY (Plate XLI), 

 distinguished amateur pomologist and patron of horti- 

 culture, died at his home near Boston, Dec. 16, 1886, in 

 his eighty-ninth year. He was born at Rindge, N. H., 

 Sept. 22, 1798. His inherited love of country life soon 

 showed itself, and at the age of sixteen he chose farm 

 work in preference to a college course. At twenty-seven 

 he moved to Boston, where he was long known as a pros- 

 perous merchant and president of many societies and 

 institutions. His active interest in horticulture may be 

 dated from 1832, when he purchased a suburban home at 

 Dorchester, where he lived for more than half a cen- 

 tury. His pear orchard at one time contained 2,500 

 trees, representing 800 varieties. During his life he 

 tested 1,200 kinds of pears and in 1873 he exhibited 404 

 varieties. He produced several new pears. In 1844 he 

 introduced the Anjou. He imported many fruits and 

 flowers new to America, and from 1833 to the end of his 

 life he was constantly contributing to the society exhibi- 

 tions the products of his garden. He carried a camel's 

 hair brush in his pocket and was always hybridizing 

 plants. 



He delighted in floriculture, and his camellia collec- 

 tion, comprising at one time 300 varieties, was the best 

 in America. He raised many new kinds of camellias, 

 though he lost 500 seedlings by fire. His Camellia 

 Wilderi he sold to florists for $1,000. He also had a 

 notable collection of azaleas. As early as 1834 he pro- 

 duced a double California poppy. Among the many 

 floral novelties which he was first to import, cultivate 

 or exhibit in America were Diervilla rosea (1851), 

 hardy kinds of Azalea mollis (1874), Cissus discolor 

 (1854), "the harbinger of the infinite variety of orna- 

 mental-leaved plants now so generally cultivated and 

 admired," Clematis cozrulea, var. grandiflora (1841), 

 Lilium. lancifolium, var. album, the first of Japanese 

 lilies, Gladiolus floribundus (1836), and Onciilium 

 flexuosum (1837), a plant of which bore ninety-seven 

 fully expanded flowers and was the first orchid reported 

 at any American exhibition. The Marshall P. Wilder 

 rose makes his name familiar to a later generation. 



Wilder's greatest services to horticulture were in- 

 timately connected with the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society and the American Pomological Society. Of the 

 former he was a member for fifty-six years, and presi- 

 dent from 1841 to 1848. He was one of the founders of 

 the American Pomological Society, and with the excep- 

 tion of a single term was its president from its organi- 

 zation in 1848 until his death in 1886. 



Wilder was an organizer. He is counted one of the 

 founders of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture 

 and of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and of 

 the United States Agricultural Society (1852). He was 

 president of the last from its foundation until 1857. and 

 from 1868 until his death he was president of the New 

 England Historic Genealogical Society. At twenty-six 

 he was a colonel, and in 1857, after declining the nomi- 



