FLACOURTIA 



FLORICULTURE 



1241 



4-5, scale-like, ciliated, overlapping; petals none; 

 stamens many; styles 2 to many; ovary 2-5-celled: fr. 

 a berry, often edible, usually with 1 seed in each cell. 

 Fifteen to 20 species in Trop. Afr., Asia, and islands. 



Ramontchi, L'Her. GOVERNOR PLUM. BATOKO 

 PLTJM in the Zambesi region. Fig. 1509. An excessively 

 variable shrub or small tree, as customarily defined, 

 native in Trop. Afr. and Asia, and planted in the 

 American tropics: glabrous or nearly so, spiny or 

 spineless (spines axillary) : Ivs. oblong to elliptical and 

 obovate, obtuse or pointed, variously crenate-dentate, 

 short-petioled : sterile fls. in short racemes, the fertile 

 few or solitary or in pairs, all small; styles 5-7, very 

 short, radiate: fr. cherry-like, to 1 in. diam., roundish 

 and pulpy, with 8-10 seeds, purple, red, or blackish, 

 bearing on top the remains of the stigmas; edible, 

 ripening in the farther West Indies early in the year 

 but some specimens sometimes remaining till Sept. 

 There are various forms, as var. inermis and yar. macro- 

 carpa. Hooker & Thomson in "Flora of British India" 

 recognize 5 marked varieties, and include within the 

 species F. sapida of Roxburgh. The species is reported 

 as "common throughout India, wild or cult." and as 

 having a distribution from Madagascar to the E. 

 Archipelago. Duthie, in "Flora of the Upper Gangetic 

 Plain," says that the var. sapida (with pubescent 

 branchlets, elliptic or suborbicular Ivs. which are gla- 

 brous or puberulous only on the veins beneath) produces 

 fr. that is eaten raw or cooked, and twigs and Ivs. 

 that are used as fodder. "Ramontchi" is said to be the 

 native name in Madagascar. L. H. B. 



FLAG: Iris. Cat-tail Flag: Typha. Corn Flag: Gladiolus. 

 Sweet Flag: Acarus Calamus. Yellow Flag: Iris Pseudacorus. 



FLAMBOYANT: Poinciana. 

 FLAME-TREE: Sterculia acerifolia. 



FLAX: Linum. False Flax: Camdina. New Zealand Flax: 



Phormium tenax. Toad Flax: Linaria. 



FLEABANE: Erigeron. 



FLEMINGIA (John Fleming, Pres. Medical Board of 

 Bengal; author of "A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal 

 Plants and Drugs," 1810). Legumindsse. Of this 

 genus, two shrubs are cultivated in southern California 

 and southern Florida. 



Herbs, sub-shrubs or shrubs of the Old World tropics, 

 erect, prostrate or twining: Ivs. mostly with 3 digitate 

 Ifts., rarely 1; stipules striate, often caducous: fls. 

 papilionaceous, red or purple and mixed with yellow, 

 in crowded racemes or panicles, or sometimes solitary; 

 standard obovate or orbicular, auricled at base; wings 

 obliquely obovate or oblong, often adhering to the 

 incurved or nearly straight keel; stamens 9 and 1: 

 pod short, oblique, swollen, 2-valved. Species above 

 20, mostly of Trop. Asia, but occurring also in Trop. 

 Afr. and to the Philippines. Allied to Dalbergia and 

 Rhynchosia. 



congesta, Roxbg. Shrub, 4-6 ft., erect: Ifts. oblong or 

 broadly lanceolate, the side ones 2-nerved, middle one 

 3-nerved: racemes axillary, dense, shorter than the 

 If .-stalks; fls. purple, with a silky-hairy calyx and a 

 scarcely exserted corolla: pod ^in. long, 2-seeded. A 

 variable species of India. 



strobilifera, R. Br., has been intro. in S. Fla. It 

 is an erect shrub, 8-10 ft., with slender velvety 

 branches: Ivs. simple, oblong, subacute, rounded at 

 base, somewhat silky beneath: racemes zigzag, 3-6 in. 

 long, with very large bracts that hide the fls. ; calyx J^in. 

 long, hairy and with lanceolate teeth; corolla purple: 

 pod less than J^in. long. India. L, jj. B. 



FLOATING HEART: Limnanthemum. 

 FLOERKEA DOUGLASD: Limnanthes. 



FLORA'S PAINT-BRUSH: A common name for Emilia 

 flammea. 



FLORICULTURE, or the growing of plants for 

 ornamental purposes, particularly for flowers, is yearly 

 assuming larger proportions in the United States. The 

 industry consists in growing annual, biennial and peren- 

 nial plants either under glass or outdoors, and in the 



1509. Flacourtia Ramontchi. 



disposal of the same in wholesale or retail markets. 

 These products are sold as cut-flowers or potted plants 

 to be used for indoor or outdoor home ornamentation, 

 or for planting in public parks, about schools and 

 other puolic buildings, or in cemeteries for ornamental 

 purposes. (For home flower-gardens, see p. 1747.) 



Importance of the industry. 



The floricultural statistics taken from the census of 

 1910 show a marked increase in the importance of 

 this branch of agriculture within the previous decade. 

 The acreage, as given for this census, was 18,248 as 

 compared with 9,307 as given for the census of 1900. 

 The total valuation, as given in this census, was 

 $34,872,000, an increase of 85.9 per cent as compared 

 with the report of the census for 1900. The figures were 

 compiled in nine large geographical divisions of the 

 United States. These were New England, Middle 

 Atlantic, South Atlantic, East North Central, West 

 North Central, East South Central, West South 

 Central, Mountain, and Pacific. 



From its beginning the industry has centered around 

 such large cities as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore and Washington. The business is now assum- 

 ing considerable importance in Chicago, St. Louis and 

 other large cities in the Middle States, the South and 

 West. Statistics show that the largest floricultural 

 output comes from the Middle Atlantic section. The 

 states which compose this section are New York, New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania. The total valuation of prod- 

 ucts from this section is $11,810,076. The second 

 section of importance is the East North Central, 

 composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and 

 Wisconsin, in which the figures given were $9,029,125. 

 The third important section was New England, where 

 the total valuation was $4,677,316. The smallest out- 

 put comes from the Mountain section, composed of 

 Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Here the output was 

 $753,914. The most rapid increase in the industry dur- 

 ing the decade seems to have been in the Pacific sec- 

 tion, composed of Washington, Oregon and California, 

 where the valuation of flower products sprang from 

 $726,968 in 1899 to $2,175,572 in 1909. New York 

 leads other states in floricultural products, having an 

 output of $5,110,221. The rank of other important 

 states is Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachu- 

 setts and Ohio. 



Floriculture is intensive agriculture; consequently 

 the acreage devoted to the industry is not so large as 

 in other branches of agriculture. The amount of capital 



