RAILROAD-GARDENING 



RAMONDIA 



2903 



the department may legitimately be made to yield 

 substantial financial returns. This feature of the 

 department work is as yet in a preliminary stage that 

 makes definite conclusions as to the extent of its bene- 

 fits impossible, but enough has already been accomp- 

 lished to demonstrate the usefulness of a well-conceived 

 and correctly developed policy of protective and eco- 

 nomic planting. 



The attainable ideals are many. Railway companies 

 can do no more effective advertising than by demon- 

 strating the possibilities of the country traversed for 

 home-making. Instead of dreary wastes of dust and 

 cinders, their way-station grounds should present 

 refreshing scenes of shade and verdure. Their grounds 

 should be treated according to the rules of landscape 

 art that hold good in all planting. When adjacent 

 land drops away, giving good vistas, these should be 

 preserved; objectionable features should, as far as pos- 

 sible, be "planted out;'' sky-lines should be varied, 

 banks clothed, and variety and views supplied, particu- 

 larly in flat and uninteresting regions. Railroad- 

 gardens should be in the hands of those who will 

 adorn instead of deface them; who will look to the 

 formation of features that will take care of themselves 

 after planting is established features that require 

 considerable expenditure, a good knowledge of trees 

 and of shrubs, and a large amount of taste in the 

 designer at the outset, but after being established, 

 like the island gardens of Paris, "the hand of man 

 might be withheld for half a century without their 

 suffering in the least." This conception of railroad 

 improvement is therefore much larger and more inclu- 

 sive than the mere adornment of station grounds; 

 eventually it will modify the development of the entire 

 property over which passengers ride. 



FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 



RAISIN: Grape, page 1386. 



RAJANIA (named in honor of John Ray, 1628-1705). 

 Dioscoredcese. Sts. from tubers, twining, and the habit 

 of Dioscorea: Ivs. alternate, undivided, hastate, cordate- 

 oblong or linear: fls. dioecious, small, racemose, the 

 male along the rachis often fascicled or in very short 

 racemes, the female and sometimes both sexes simple 

 and on short slender pedicels; perianth-segms. 6; sta- 

 mens 6 in the male fls. ; ovary ovoid or oblong: fr. reduced 

 to one carpel through abortion, key-like, indehiscent. 

 About 10 species, W. Indies. 



pleioneura, Griseb. Fig. 3338. Tubers very irregular 

 cocks-combed: plant subshrubby, 5-6 ft. high: Ivs. cor- 

 date-roundish or cordate-ovate, 2-5 in. diam., deltoid- 

 pointed or cuspidate, 9-nerved; petiole about as long 

 as or shorter than the If., the aerial tubers produced at 

 the base of the petiole: fls. dioecious, in racemes which 

 are often fascicled, the male racemes compound, 

 3 8-fld., flexuose, the female simple: samara semi- 

 obovate-oblong, bluntish, wing twice as long as the 

 seed. Cuba and other islands of the W. Indies. 



F. TRACY HUBBARD. 



RAMIE: Boehmeria nirta, a fiber plant. See Cyclopedia of 

 American Agriculture, Vol. IL 



RAMONDA: Ramondia. 



RAMONDIA (named for L. F. E. von Ramond de 

 Carbonnieres, French botanist and traveler, 1753- 

 1827). Usually spelled Ramondia, but first written 

 Ramonda. Gesneriaceae . Subacaulescent herbs with 

 reddish lanate-villous hairs, suitable for rockwork. 



Leaves basal, softly rugose: scapes leafless, 1- to 

 few-fld.: fls. violet or pale purple; calyx free, 4-5- 

 rarely 6-parted, the segms. ovate or oblong; corolla with 

 scarcely any tube, rotate or broad-campanulate, 4-5- 

 rarely 6-cleft, the lobes broad; perfect stamens as 

 many as the corolla-lobes, affixed at the base of the 



184 



corolla; ovary superior, conical: caps, oblong, rather 

 acute. About 10 species, mountains of Eu. 



Ramondia pyrenaica is one of the choicest and most 

 interesting alpine plants. Few, if any, inhabitants of rock- 

 gardens have been so often pictured. It is a small 

 tufted, hardy perennial herb, like most alpine plants, 

 and its scapes bear one or few flowers in spring. These 

 are an inch or so across, and normally purple or violet, 

 but there is a pure white variety which is in much favor. 

 The ramondias vary in the number of their petals, or 

 rather corolla-lobes. For example, P. Nathalie often 

 has four-lobed and five-lobed flowers on the same plant. 

 The floral parts in the genus are in fours, fives, or 

 sixes. These plants are rare and local in Europe and are 

 interesting as being among the few alpine survivors 

 of a family that is now essentially tropical. Although 

 several ramondias are in the trade, only one is well 

 known. This is R. pyrenaica, which is hardy in the 

 eastern states. It is a beautiful dwarf alpine plant 

 well adapted for the rock-garden. It is rather hard to 

 establish but can be easily grown from seed. If seeds 



3338. Rajania pleioneura, showing aerial tuber. ( x M) 



are sown in the spring, and the small plants grown along 

 in pots for the first summer and kept in a cool shady 

 position, they will make neat little plants by the end 

 of autumn. They should be kept in a coldframe for 

 the winter. These one-year-old plants grown in pots 

 are much easier to establish than younger plants. They 

 may be planted in small pockets in the rockery in a 

 slightly shaded and elevated position, and given good 

 deep peaty soil. When the plants become established 

 they will blossom freely, and if allowed to ripen their 

 seed they will sow themselves freely amongst the rocks. 

 Old plants can also be increased by division. They 

 ought to be covered in winter with hay or dry leaves 

 so that they will not be heaved out of the ground by 

 the alternate thawing and freezing. The plants require 

 perfect drainage. 



A. Color of fls. purple or white. 

 B. Corolla 5-parted, rotate. 



pyrenaica, Rich. Sometimes called ROSETTE MUL- 

 LEIN. Fig. 3339. About 3 in. high: Ivs. ovate, deeply 

 toothed, hirsute with long rufous hairs: scapes many, 

 several-fld., rarely 1-fld.; fls. purple; calyx and corolla 

 5-parted, the latter with subobovate lobes. May. Pyre- 

 nees. B.M. 236 (as Verbascum Myconi). G.C. III. 

 12:vii. Gn. 26, p. 129; 27, p. 197; 29, p. 343; 37:30 



