DIMORPHOTHECA 



DION^A 



1011 



DIMORPHOTHECA (Greek, two-formed achenes). 

 Composite. CAPE MARIGOLD. Annual and perennial 

 herbs or sub-shrubs, some of which are excellent flower- 

 garden plants. 



Leaves alternate or radical, entire, toothed, or incised, 

 often narrow: heads solitary, long-ped uncled ; disk-fls. 

 yellow or brown or purple, the rays yellow, purple, or 

 white with purple beneath. The genus is closely allied 

 to Calendula but has straight instead of incurved 

 frs. The fls. usually close up, like those of Gazania, 

 unless they have sunlight; their backs have as great a 

 variety of coloring as their faces. About 20 species in 

 S. Afr. 



The flowers are often 3 inches across, and their long, 

 slender rays (20 or more) give a distinct and charming 

 effect. A dozen kinds are grown abroad, representing 

 a wide range of colors and foliage. They are wintered 

 in coolhouses and flowered in spring or else transplanted 

 to the open, where they flower freely during summer. 

 The shrubby kind, D. Ecklonis, has been grown as a 

 summer bedding plant, flowering from July to frost, 

 and as a coolhouse plant, making a much-branched 

 subject 3 feet high, and flowering freely all spring. 



annua. Less. (Calendula pluvialis, Linn.). Erect or 

 diffuse, simple or branched annual, rough with jointed 

 and gland-tipped hairs (seen with a small lens) : Ivs. 

 narrowly oblong or obovate-oblong, tapering to 

 the base, with a few distant teeth, pilose, the 

 uppermost smaller and narrower: peduncles ter- 

 minal, nodding in fr.; fls. white above, purple or 

 discolored beneath. J.H. III. 57:501. Var. 

 ligulosa, Voss (Calendula Pongei, Hort.), is a double 

 form (the heads full of rays) with heads white on upper 

 side and yellow or violet beneath. 



sinuata, DC. Annual, branched from the base, 

 nearly glabrous: Ivs. oblong, obtuse, sinuate, narrowed 

 at base: involucre-scales lanceolate-acuminate, quite 

 glabrous, longer than disk: achenes of ray trigonous, 

 everywhere tubercled; of disk flat with thickened rim; 

 rays orange. Grows 12-15 in. high. Fls. shading to 

 blue in center. 



aurantiaca, DC. Perennial, the st. natively more 

 or less shrubby, erect, glabrous, with rod-like branches: 

 Ivs. linear-oblong or spatulate, thickish, obtuse, entire: 

 fl.-heads large, rays orange-yellow; involucre-scales 

 linear-acuminate, exceeding the disk, with a central 

 line of hairs and paler margins. This brief botanical 

 description does not in all ways fit the plant now in 

 common cult, as D. aurantiaca, which is treated as a 

 half-hardy annual, and which is apparently more or 

 less modified by cult.; it is a very showy plant (Fig. 

 1267), 12-16 in. high, from a short-decumbent base, 

 with notched acute Ivs., and terminal heads 2-2% in. 

 across, and with curving rays of a rich glossy apricot- 

 orange and a disk of brown-black; it is one of the 

 best flower-garden subjects of recent years, the fls. 

 opening in the sun and making a brilliant display in 

 summer and till frost; of simple culture from seeds. 

 Although long described in horticultural literature, it 

 appears not to have come really into cult, until within 

 the past few years, having been offered in Eu. in the 

 fall of 1908. Recent forms under the name of D. 

 aurantiaca hybrida (hybrids with D. annua), intro. in 

 1912, range in color from white and bluish-white to 

 red, yellow, orange and salmon. B.M. 408 (as Calen- 

 dula Tragus). G.C. III. 38:127. G. 31:205. J.H. III. 

 57:37. F.E. 31:308. Winter-flowering in S. Calif. 



Ecklonis, DC. Shrubby at base, robust and erect, 

 branching at top, 2 ft. or more: Ivs. crowded, linear- 

 lanceolate or lanceolate, entire or somewhat denticu- 

 late, acute: fl.-heads terminal, the rays \Yi in. long, 

 white above and purplish beneath; involucre-scales 

 long-acuminate. B.M. 7535. Gn. 75, p. 444. G. 24: 

 424; 25:565. Not hardy north of Washington. It is 

 grown as a summer bedding plant in England. 



D. Bdrberix, Haw. Perennial: fls. purple above, paler beneath; 

 disk all purple, with corollas of 2 forms. B.M. 5337. H.F. II. 

 5:78. Var. rosea, Hort., has rose-colored fls. D. chrysanthemi- 

 fdlia, DC. Lvs. cut like a chrysanthemum: fls. yellow, reverse 

 reddish. B.M. 2218. D. cunedta, DC. Lvs. strongly cut: fls. scarlet- 

 orange. B.M. 1343. D. nudicaulis var. grammifdlia, Harv. & 

 Sond. Fls. white, with a purple ring at the base, and orange- 

 brown on the back, the disk purple. B.M. 5252. D. Trdgus, DC. 

 Perennial: Ivs. narrower than in D. Ecklonis, linear: fls. white, 

 veined purple, the rays narrower at the base, reverse orange pur- 

 plish, the disk purplish. B.M. 1981 (as Calendula). T, JJ B t 



DIOCLEA (after Diodes of Carystos, said to be 

 second only to Hippocrates among the ancients for 

 his knowledge of plants). Leguminbsse. 

 Tender shrubby twiners, with delicate 

 trifoliolate leaves and blue, violet, 

 scarlet or white flowers, sometimes 

 nearly an inch long, and borne in 

 clusters which have been roughly com- 

 pared to Wistaria. 



Flowers papilionaceous; calyx bell- 

 shaped, 4-cut, 2 lobes shorter and nar- 

 rower; standard orbicular or ovate, 

 reflexed, auricled or appendaged at 

 base; wings obovate or oblong, free; 

 keel incurved, beaked or 

 obtuse; ovary nearly 

 sessile: pod wide, the 

 1 upper suture thickened or 

 2 - winged. Perhaps 20 

 species in tropical regions, 

 chiefly in the western 

 hemisphere. What is said 

 to be the following species 

 is cult, in S. Calif., where 

 it has a moderate growth, 

 shining foliage, and clus- 

 ters of 10 or more large 

 fls. of a splendid scarlet 

 (to be considered with 

 reference to Campto- 

 sema). 



glycinoides, Hort. Fls. 

 1 in. long, bright scarlet, 

 in racemes, somewhat like 

 Wistaria: will stand some 

 cold. Prop, by seeds, cut- 

 tings, or suckers, freely 

 produced on grown - up 

 plants. Rio de la Plata. 

 Imperfectly understood 

 botanically; said to be the 

 same as Camptosema rubi- 

 cundum, Hook. & Am. 

 L. H. B.f 



DION: Dioon. 



DIOK&A (Greek name 

 for Venus). Droseraceae. 

 1267. Dimorphotheca auran- V ENUS FLY-TRAP. A 



remarkable monotypic 

 genus of insectivorous 

 plants, often grown for 

 curiosity and in botanical collections. 



Leaves 1-5 in. long, 4-8 in number, are arranged in a 

 spreading rosette over the soil, each consisting of 

 a flat expanded petiole, and terminal bilobed blade; 

 midrib of the blade contractile, the margins prolonged 

 into bristles that interlock when the halves close, while 

 each half bears 3 jointed and highly irritable hairs 

 arranged in triangular manner over its upper surface; 

 abundant sessile glands, usually of a crimson color, 

 cover this surface and render it attractive to insects; 

 but when grown in shade the glands and therefore the 

 Ivs. are quite green: a single neat touch of a hair fails 

 to cause closure, but when one of the hairs is touched 

 twice, or when two adjacent hairs are touched once 

 within a short interval apart, the halves close. Owing 



