DORSTENIA 



DOWNING 



501 



in which the unisexual fls. are borne. The plants are 

 not in the Amer. trade, but they are often grown in 

 botanical establishments to illustrate morphology. The 

 fig is a hollow receptacle; the Dorstenia bears a flattened 

 or cup-like receptacle, and is an intermediate stage be- 

 tween the fig and other plants. One of the common spe- 

 cies is D. Contr(tjt>rvn , Linn. ( Fi ^. ~'^-), which is native 

 to trop. Amer. Both staminate and pistillate fls. are 

 without perianth ; stamens 1 or 2 : ovary 1-loculed ; 

 stigma 2-Jobed. Dorstenias are easily grown in warm, 

 shady glasshouses. L. H. B. 



DORYANTHES (Greek, spear-flower; the flowering 

 stem 8-25 ft. high, crowned by a spike of fls. 3 ft. high). 

 Aimiryllidacece. A genus of 4 species of gigantic desert 

 plants from Australia, with 100 or more Ivs. 6 ft. long 

 when full grown. Franceschi, Santa Barbara, Calif., 

 writes, "They are impressive plants for large conserva- 

 tories, or for open ground in the South, where they will 

 stand slight frosts." They belong to the same family 

 with the Century Plants, and are the only ones in the 

 tribe outside of America. The roots are fibrous and 

 clustered. The ovules and seeds, though inserted in two 

 series, are so placed abovj one another as to form one 

 row in each cell. The Ivs. have a curious brown tubular 

 tip, which is especially long in D. Palmeri. Franceschi 

 says, "/>. Gtiilfoylei and D. Larkini, recently described 

 from Queensland, are yet to be introduced to this coun- 

 try." A plant of D. Palmeri remained at Kew 16 years 

 before flowering. Plants of Doryanthes are prop, by 

 suckers, which are produced only after flowering. The 

 process is very slow. The young plants must be repotted 

 for several years until they have attained a large size. 

 They are said to do best in a compost of loam and leaf- 

 mold in equal parts. 



A. Lvs. not ribbed. 



excelsa, Correa. Lvs. sword-shaped, smooth, entire, 

 with a very narrow cartilaginous margin, lower ones re- 

 ourved. others erect: scape clothed with lanceolate Ivs., 

 whic-h sheath the stem at their base: fls. in a globular 

 head, deep crimson or maroon inside and out. B.M. 1685. 

 R.H. 1865, pp. 466, 471 ; 1891, p. 548. G.C. II. 11:339. 



AA. Lvs. slightly ribbed. 



Palmeri, W. Hill. Even more gigantic than D. excelsa, 

 Ivs. longer and broader, and a longer brown point: fls. 

 in a thyrsoid panicle, bright scarlet outside, whitish 

 within. B.M. 6665. F.S. 20:2097. R.H. 1891:548. G.C. 

 II. 17:409. "This has been flowering and fruiting sev- 

 eral times in southern California." Franceschi. 



W. M. 



DORY6PTERIS (Greek, lance-fern). Polypodiacece. 

 A genus of small sagittate or pedate greenhouse ferns, 

 with continuous marginal sori and copiously anas- 

 tomosing veins. Sometimes joined to Pteris, which see 

 for culture. Not to be confused with Dryopteris. 



palmata, J. Sm. Lvs. 4-9 in. each way, with 5 or more 

 triangular lobes or the fertile still more divided; ribs 

 black. West Indies to Brazil. 



nobilis, J. Sm. Larger: Ivs. sometimes 1 ft. long, pe- 

 dately bipinnatifid; ribs chestnut. South Brazil. 



D. decipiens, with Ivs. resembling a geranium leaf, 3-6 in. each 

 way, is sometimes cultivated, as is D. decora, with more divided 

 Ivs. Both are natives of the Hawaiian Islands. 



L. M. UNDERWOOD. 



DOSSfNIA (E. P. Dossin, Belgian botanist, 1777-1852) . 

 Orchiddcece. A genus of 2 species of terrestrial orchids, 

 allied to Ancectochilus, but lacking the bearded fringe 

 on the lower part of the labellum. The species described 

 below may possibly be cult, by a few amateurs who 

 are skilled in the cultivation of dwarf warmhouse foli- 

 age plants. 



D. marmordta, C. Morr. (Anoectochilus Lowei, Hort.). Lvs. 

 golden-veined or marbled, 4-5 in. long, elliptic: scape pubescent, 

 10 in. high: spike 5 in. long, with many white, pubescent fls. 

 Java. F.S. 4:370. There is a stronger-growing var., with 

 foliage better colored. 



DOUGLASIA (after David Douglas, the tireless Scotch 

 botanist, who explored California. Oregon and British 

 Columbia in 1823 and 1829, introduced many splendid 

 plants to cultivation, and perished in the Hawaiian 



Islands, at the age of 34, by falling into a pitfall made for 

 wild animals). Primulacece. Five species of tiny prim- 

 rose-like plants, one of which has yellow fls. and dwells 

 in the mountains of middle Europe; the rest have rosy 

 purple fls. and are found in the Rocky mountains and 

 the shores of the Arctic ocean. The genus is closely 

 allied to Androsace and Primula, but in those two genera 

 all the Ivs. come from the root, while Dcuglasia has 

 branches, though very short ones, which are densely 

 clothed with Ivs. Douglasia has a corolla-tube longer 

 than the calyx, and the capsule is 1-2-seeded. Androsace 

 has a corolla tube as long as or shorter than the calyx, 

 and its capsule may have few or many seeds. Primula 

 is usually long-tubed, always many-seeded. The secret 

 in the culture of alpine plants is a steady supply of 

 moisture. "Like all the hardy Primulacese, " writes J. B. 

 Keller, "Douglasia requires half shade and a certain 

 amount of moisture during the hot summer months. 

 Frequent and copious waterings must be administered. 

 A light mulch will assist in keeping the ground from 

 drying out too fast. A winter protection of evergreen 

 boughs is indispensable. The plants are prop, by division 

 or by seed." Some of the American species can be ob- 

 tained of foreign dealers. 



Vitaliana, Benth. and Hook. (Aretia Vitaliana, Willd. 

 Gregdria Vitaliana, Duby). Height 2 in. : stems numer- 

 ous, prostrate, somewhat woody: branches denuded of 

 Ivs. at the base, but at the tips clothed with overlapping, 

 linear, entire, pilose Ivs. : fls. nearly stalkless, solitary, 

 yellow, rather large; corolla tube 2 or 3 times longer 

 than the calyx, not dilated at the throat, the lobes ovate- 

 lanceolate, obtuse. Alps, Pyrenees. 



DOUGLAS SPRUCE. Pseitdotsuga Douglasii. 



DOWNING, ANDREW JACKSON (Plate II), the first 

 great landscape gardener of America, was born at New- 

 burg, N. Y., Oct. 30, 1815, and perished by drowning July 

 28, 1852, at the early age of 37. As a boy, he was quiet, 

 sensitive, and much alone with himself and nature. The 

 Catskills, the Hudson, and his father's nursery had much 

 to do with his development. His " Treatise on the Theory 

 and Practice of Landscape Gardening," published 1841, 

 when he was but 26 years old, is, in many respects, a 

 unique production. It was the first, and is to-day one of 

 the best American books on the subject, and has exerted a 

 greater influence upon American horticulture, it is said, 

 than any other volume. "Cottage Residences," 1841. also 

 had great popularity. In 1845 appeared simultaneously 

 in London and New York the first edition of "Fruits and 

 Fruit Trees of America," and in 1846 he founded, at Al- 

 bany, "The Horticulturist," which he edited from his 

 home at Newburg until his untimely death. His edi- 

 torials in this excellent periodical (now represented in 

 succession by American Gardening) were republished 

 after his death, with a letter to his friends by Frederika 

 Bremer, and a memoir by George William Curtis, under 

 the title of "Rural Essays." It was not until 1850 that 

 he had an opportunity to visit the great estates of Eng- 

 land, and to see with his own eyes the landscape garden- 

 ing of Europe. On hia return in 1851, he was engaged to 

 lay out the grounds near the Capitol, White House, and 

 Smithsonian Institution at Washington. On July 28, 

 1852. he left Newburg on the steamer Henry Clay for New 

 York. The Clay took fire near Yonkers, while it was 

 racing, and Downing's life was lost in an attempt to 

 save others. It would be difficult to overestimate the 

 influence of Downing. He created American landscape 

 gardening. His only predecessor, Andr6 Parmentier, is 

 little known, and his influence was not of a national 

 character. Downing's quickening influence affected 

 country life in its every aspect. He stood for the simple, 

 natural, and permanent as opposed to the intricate, 

 artificial, and ephemeral. He was the first great Ameri- 

 can practitioner of what is known in polite and technical 

 literature as the English or natural school of landscape 

 gardening in distinction from all artificial schools, as 

 the Italian and Dutch. Downing's pupils are many, and 

 his spirit still lives. He gave inspiration to Frederick 

 Law Olmsted. our next great genius in landscape gar- 

 dening, who, by his early work in Central Park, New 

 York, aroused that popular enthusiasm which has culmi- 

 nated in the American idea of great municipal park sys- 



