AUBRIETIA 



AUCUBA 



429 





^r 



AUBRIETIA (Claude Aubriet, French natural his- 

 tory painter of last century). Cruciferse. Purple 

 Rock-Cress. Showy iierennial more or less evergreen 

 trailers, excellent for rockwork or edgings. 



Alhed to Alyssum and Vesicaria: distinguished 

 chiefly by the outer sepals being saccate at base, the 

 shorter filaments 

 toothed, and the 

 valves of the oblong 

 or globose silique 

 convex and not 

 ribbed: Ivs. entire or 

 angular-toothed : fls. 

 in shades of violet 

 or purple, in few-fld. 

 bractless racemes: 

 plant canescent or 

 tonientose. — About a 

 half-dozen species, 

 Italy to Persia. The 

 aubrietias are of 

 simple eult. Prop, by 

 seeds, layers or cut- 

 tings. They make excellent mats 

 of fohage and bloom. 



deltoidea, DC. Fig. 438. Lvs. 

 oblong - spatulate, deltoid or 

 rhomboid, with 1 or 2 teeth on 

 either side, grayish, narrowed 

 into a very short petiole: fls. in 

 few-fid. lax clusters, the violet 

 or purple petals twice the length 

 of the calyx. — Grows 2-12 in. 

 high. Pretty spring and sum- 

 mer bloomer. Hardy in the N. 

 Very variable, some of the forms 

 being named as if of specific 

 rank. Var. Bougainvfllei, Hort. 



dwarf and compact. Var. Campbellii, Hort. Fls. large, 

 purple: plant large. Var. Eyrei, Hort. Fls. large and 

 long, deep violet. Var. grseca, Hort. (var. suyerha). 

 Dwarf and compact, large-fld. One of the best. Var. 

 Hendersonii, Hort., probably the same as Campbellii. 

 Var. Leichtlinii, Hort. Profuse bloomer, pink fls. Var. 

 olympica, Hort. Fls. large, violet, hke var. Eyrei. Var. 

 violacea, Hort. One of the largest forms. Var. Moore- 

 ana, Hort. Compact: fls. blue. Var. Perkinsii, Hort. 

 Fls. deep purple with tiny white eye, the petals rounded: 

 plant strong, 10 in., making a large mat. Gn. 67, p. 

 344. Raised by F. Perkins, Stratford-on-Avon. Var. 

 Moerheimii, Lemoine. Fls. large, rosy pink or mauve, 

 blooming all summer. Var. purpurea, Hort. Erect in 

 habit: fls. large, purple. Var. variegata, Hort. Lvs. 

 variegated. L_ jj g_ 



AUCUBA (Latinized for Aokiba, its Japanese name). 

 Cornaceie. Ornamental plants grown for their large 

 evergreen foliage, often handsomely variegated, and 

 also for the bright scarlet fruits. 



Shrubs with stout forked branches: lvs. opposite, 

 remotely serrate or nearly entire: fls. dicocious, small; 

 calyx minute, 4-toothed; petals 4; staminate fls. with 4 

 stamens, filaments short., with a large ili.sk in the 

 middle; pistillate with an inferior 1-celled ovar>', style 

 short with an oblique stigma: fr. a 1 -seeded berry-like 

 drupe. — Three species in E. Asia extending west to W. 

 China and E. Himalayas, often considered varieties 

 of one polymorphous species. 



The aucubas are evergreens with large, lustrous, 

 and often handsomely variegated leaves, small purple 

 flowers in terminal panicles, elongated in the staminate, 

 short and rattier dense in the pistillate plant and with 

 bright scarlet oblong berries forming terminal clusters. 

 Hardy in the southern states about as far north as 

 Washington, D. C, and in sheltered localities even 

 farther north; they are well adapted for city gar- 



J!#^' 



r 



437. Attalea Coliiuie. 



Fls. Ught violet: 



dens as they withstand dust and smoke to a consider- 

 able degree. 



In the northern states, aucubas are grown in cool- 

 houses — those adapted to azaleas are excellent — and 

 they are kept evergreen by keeping them in a pit dur- 

 ing winter, or by holding them cool and partially dry 

 in the house. They will stand five or 

 six degrees of frost in a pit. From cut- 

 tings of half-ripened wood, good speci- 

 men plants may be had in two or three 

 years. Fruiting plants, with their numer- 

 ous bright scarlet berries, are exceedingly 

 attractive, but as the plant is dioecious, 

 there must be male plants with the 

 female ones. If grown in pots and under 

 glass, the plant must be fertilized by 

 shaking the flowering male plant over 

 the female, or by applying the pollen 

 with a camel's-hair pencil. If the male 

 plant flowers earlier, the pollen may be 

 collected and kept dry until the female 

 . plant is in flower; it remains effective 

 for some weeks. In the open, aucuba 

 grows well in any good, somewhat moist though well- 

 drained soil, in a half-shaded position. In pots, it wiU 

 thrive in a sandy loam with sufficient drainage, and 

 requires plenty of water during its growing period. 

 Fruiting plants should not have too large pots. 



They are propagated very easily by half-ripened 

 greenwood cuttings at nearly any time of the year, 

 under glass, and by seeds sown soon after maturity; 

 the varieties are sometimes grafted on the common 

 form in early spring, under glass. 



japonica, Thunb. A stout shrub, 4-1.5 ft.: Iva. 

 usually ovate, 3-8 in. long, remotely and coarsely 

 dentate, obtusely aciuninate, shining: petals obtusely 

 acuminate: berries scarlet, rarely white or yellow, 

 usually oblong. From Himalayas to Japan. B.M. 5512. 

 I.H. l"l:399. S.I.F. 2:.59. F.S. 16:1609. F. 1865: 65.— 

 There are a great number of garden fonns in culti- 

 vation, mostly with variegated leaves; the latter are 

 more often cult, than the green forms. Handsome 

 variegated forms are: Var. latimaculata, Kirchn.(var. 

 aureo-macuUda, Dombrain). Lvs. ovate-oblong with a 

 large irregular yellow blotch in the middle and smaller 

 yellow dots around it. F.M. 10:527. F.W. 1876:353. 

 Var. variegata, Dombrain, not Regel (var. maeulala, 

 Regel, var. picta-, Hort., var. punctata, Hort.). Gold 

 Dust Tree. Fig. 439. Lvs. with numerous yellow spots. 

 — The most commonly cult. form. B.M. 1197. F.M. 

 5:277. R.H. 1866:292. Var. limbata, BuU. Lvs. large, 

 coarsely dentate, with a greenish yellow margin. Var. 

 bicolor, Regel. Lvs. with a large yellow blotch in the 

 middle, ovate to ovate-oblong, remotely dentate. The 

 following forms have green lvs.: Var. angustif61ia, 

 Regel (var. salicifdlia, Hort.). Lvs. narrowly oblong- 

 lanceolate. Var. concolor, Regel (var. vlridis, Hort.). 

 Lvs. ovate -lanceolate 

 or elliptic - ovate, re- 

 motely and coarsely 

 serrate. Gt. 25:859. 

 Var. dentata, Carr. 

 (var. macroddnla, 

 Hort.). Lvs. elhptic, 

 coarsely and long-den- 

 tate. Var. macrophylla, 

 Bull. Lvs. large and 

 broad, remotely and 

 slightly dentate. Var. 

 ovata, Regel. Lvs. 

 ovate, coarsely sin- 

 uately dentate, dark 

 green, lustrous. Var. 

 pygmaa, Regel. Low: 

 lvs. ovate-oblong, re- 

 motely and sharply 438. Aubrietia deltoidea. (plant X H) 



