930 



CUTTINGS 



CYATHEA 



are kept in a cool greenhouse, the young bulblets will 

 appear in the course of the winter, but top growth will 

 come later, in summer. 

 This is a slow, laborious 

 process, and is seldom prac- 

 tised except in propagating 

 new varieties. The granular 

 scales of achimenes and 

 plants of like nature can be 

 used for propagating, sow- 

 ing them in a sandy soil as 

 seeds are sown; but this 

 method is not a good one in 

 ordinary cases. The scales 

 of Zamia horrida have 



been made to produce new plants, as have also the 

 tunicated scales of an amaryllis. 



For further details of cuttage, consult Lindley's 

 "Theory and Practice of Horticulture," 2d ed.; 

 Burbidge, "The Propagation and Improvement of 

 Cultivated Plants;" Peter Henderson's "Practical 

 Floriculture;" Bailey's "Nursery-Book." 



B. M. WATSON. 



CYANANTHUS (Greek for blue flower). Cam- 

 panuldcese. Ten or a dozen herbs, probably mostly 

 perennial, of the high mts. of Cent, and E. Asia, 

 with showy blue fls. terminating the ascending 

 mostly simple hairy sts. : corolla funnelform, tubu- 

 lar or bell-shaped, 5-lobed; stamens free from the 

 corolla, the ovate anthers more or less connate 

 around the pistil: fr. a caps, with persistent calyx, 

 loculicidally 3-5-valved : Ivs. alternate, usually small, 

 entire or somewhat lobed. C. lobatus, Wall., may 

 be expected in collections of choice alpines: 4-5 in.: 

 Ivs. small, narrowing to base, tooth-lobed at sum- 

 mit: fls. bright blue, 1 in. diam., resembling a shi- 

 ning periwinkle fl., funnelform with reflexed lobes, 

 the corolla exceeding the calyx-tube and hairy in 

 the throat. B.M. 6485. Other species mentioned in 

 recent horticultural literature are C. microphyllus, 

 Edgew. (C. linifdlius, Wall.), with slender wiry 

 sts., small entire Ivs., and fls. like those of C. lobatus 

 but .with very hairy throat and longer narrower 

 segms.; C. incdnus, Hook. f. & Thorns., with nu- 

 merous wiry sts., small nearly sessile Ivs., and yellow 

 campanulate fls. with hairy calyx; the W. China 

 form of this (var. leiocalyx) has a less hairy calyx; 

 C. Hodkeri, Clarke, is an annual with small stalked 

 Ivs. and blue fls., from China and India; has rigid 

 sts. with short lateral fl.-branches. L H. B. 



CYANELLA (from the blue color). Amaryllidacese; 

 it has been referred to Liliacese and also to H&mo- 

 doracese. A half-dozen or less small bulbs from S. 

 Afr., sometimes grown in the way of axias. Plants 

 with rhizomes or tunicate corms, radical or basal 

 lanceolate or linear Ivs., and simple or rarely 

 branched sts. : fls. violet, rose, yellow or white, soli- 

 tary or racemed-paniculate; perianth-tube 0, the 

 segms. distinct or very nearly so; stamens 6, 

 attached to base of segms., all perfect, often dimor- 

 phous' fr. a loculicidal 3-angled caps., on bractless 

 pedicel. The cyanellas are 

 summer- and fall -flowering 

 bulbs with us. The following 

 are the kinds likely to be 

 found: C. capensis, Linn. 

 Lvs. lanceolate, undulate: st. 

 panicled, leafy, 1 ft.: fl. pur- 

 ple. B.M. 568. C. 1ft tea, 

 Linn. f. (C. odoratissima, 

 Lindl.). Less branched: Ivs. 

 linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 not undulate: fls. rose, chang- 

 ing to yellow. B.R. 1111. 

 L. H. B. 



1178. Cyathea meridensis. 



CYANIDING, CYANIDIZING: Diseases and Insects, p. 1044, 

 discussion of fumigating by hydrocyanic acid gas. 



CYANOPHYLLUM: Tarn- 

 onea. 



CYANOTIS (Greek, 

 referring to the blue 

 petals). Commelinacese. 

 Probably 40 creeping, 

 ascending or weak 

 branching often woolly 

 or hairy herbs, much 

 like Tradescantia; they 

 are native in warm countries about the 

 globe. Lvs. sheathing, small or medium 

 in size, various: fls. in scirpioid cymes 

 or variously disposed, mostly blue or 

 rose-colored; sepals 3, lanceolate-cari- 

 nate, nearly equal, usually combined at 

 base into a short tube; petals 3, also nearly equal, 

 often connate in a tube, the limb spreading and 

 suborbicular; stamens 6, all perfect, nearly equal; 

 ovary sessile, 3-celled and each cell 2-ovuled. Easy 

 of cult.; prop, by cuttings. There are few species 

 in cult.; perennial; grown in greenhouses or warm- 

 houses. C. hirsftta, Fisch. & Mey., from Abyssinia, 

 yillous or glabrous, has erect st., globose tubers, 

 linear soft-hairy Ivs., and rose-colored perianth and 

 blue-bearded filaments. B.M. 7785. C. barbata, 

 Don, of E. India, has elongated branching nearly 

 glabrous st., narrow-oblong or nearly linear Ivs., 

 and blue spatulate- oblong petals free to the base: 

 ovary hirsute at apex and the style bearded. C. 

 kewensis, Clarke, of E. Indies, is procumbent, 

 reddish-hairy, leafy, the branches fleshy: Ivs. a 

 half or more longer than broad, sessile and 

 amplexicaul: petals rose-purple, ovate, free; fila- 

 ments bearded. B.M. 6150 (as Erythrotis Bed- 

 domei). C. nodifldra, Kunth, of S. Afr., is cobwebby 

 or woolly but becoming glabrous, the fibrous roots 

 terminating in tubercles: Ivs. narrowly lance-linear: 

 petals blue, lightly connate. B.M. 5471. L H B 



CYATHEA (Greek, a cup, alluding to the indusia). 

 Cyatheacese. A large genus of tree ferns in both 

 hemispheres, with a globose indusium which ulti- 

 mately ruptures at the apex and becomes cup- 

 shaped. All the species in cult, have decompound 

 Ivs. Most of them are large plants, species with 

 trunks 20-30 ft. high being common, but there arc 

 a few species that have Ivs. and sts. no more than 

 2 ft. long. Strictly speaking, the genus Alsophila 

 is a part of Cyathea. Many other species from 

 Colombia and the W. Indies besides those described 

 below are well worthy of cult. 



The species offer a great variety. Those of tem- 

 perate regions are mostly stout and not spiny; the 

 tropical species are more slender and in many cases 

 densely armed with stout spines. All species are 

 evergreen. The culture of cyatheas is simple in 

 warmhouses. They require an abundance of water 

 at the roots and the trunks should be kept con- 

 stantly moist. The foliage lasts 

 longer if it has been inured to 

 the sun during summer. Like all 

 other tree ferns, cyatheas need 

 little pot -room. They rarely 

 produce adventitious growths 

 along the trunk or at the base 

 and none is proliferous. The 

 plants are, therefore, usually 

 propagated by spores, which 

 germinate freely, making attrac- 

 tive young plants in two seasons. 

 (Adapted from Schneider, 

 "Book of Choice Ferns.") 



