THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[August 4, is 



Its green flowers appear m May, and are scarcely 



the leaves ; the fruit on the other 



visible amongst 

 hand, which ripens in October, is very conspicuous 

 and handsome, of a pale yellow colour, and fall of 

 a white juicy pulp, that is very sweet and pleasant ; 



its fruit is 



th . , 



It would 



it was 

 inches, 

 end of 



eagerly sought after by the Lepchas, 

 who call the plant " Nomordri, 5 ' and it is the 

 "Loodooma" of the natives of Bhotan. 



inches below the usual quantity. There- 



nearly 



fore to restore the average within the year 

 necessary that 1855 should furnish 29 

 What had actually been registered at the 

 last June was as follows ;— January, 0.10; February, 

 1.35; March, 1.75 ; April, 0.26 ; May, 1.94 ; June 

 1.48; in all 6.88 inches; but this again was 3.0/ 

 below the average : the usual fall in the first six months 

 of the year being 9.95 inches. Hence there remained 

 at the end of June a deficiency of rather more than 



Now, if the last six 



8 inches of customary rain 

 months of the year furnish on an average 14 inches 

 out of the usual 24, we ought to receive 22 inches 



Midsummer and Christmas; in other 



appear to be a plant of very uncommon aspect, 

 resembling a young and very slender fast grown 

 Ash tree, among the feathery leaves of which hang 

 clusters of great yellow fruit, somewhat resembling 



ram's horns. Its learned discoverer regards it as 



well worthy of cultivation in England for its fruit between 



alone. « It would require protection from spring | words, there must be in the present half-year nea rly 



H as much rain as usually falls m a whole year, pio- 



vided the average is to be restored before Christmas. 



July usually furnishes 2.42 inches. This 

 it has produced 6.30 inches. The average 



be restored, and instead 



to look 



i 



frosts, but will, no doubt, prove otherwise hardy. 



.Vaccinium Saligntjm and Serpens. — "The genus 

 Vaccinium, which is mostly represented in northern 

 climates by deciduous-leaved^ shrubs with small 

 flowers, assumes a very different habit and appear- 

 ance in the tropical mountains of both the old and 

 new world. In the lower Eastern Himalaya, 

 Malay Peninsula, Java, and other of the Malayan 

 islands, especially, there is an extensive section-- to 

 which the two species here figured belong— which 

 could hardly be recognised as having much affinity 

 with the Whortleberry of our moors. They are all 

 epiphytical shrubs, having the lower part of the stem 

 often swelling out into a prostrate trunk, as thick as 

 the human arm or leg, and sending out branching 

 fibrous roots that attach it to the limb of the tree 

 upon which it «ro\vs. These trunks are soft and 

 spongy internally, and are resenmrs of moisture 

 and nutriment ; they send out a few slender, gene- 

 rally pendulous branches, which bear often gor- 

 geous flowers." The two plants which give rise to 

 the above remark are most beautiful shrubs w T ith 

 large crimson flowers, and would be brilliant orna- 

 ments of a greenhouse should they prove to be cul- 

 tivable. 



~*JBuddleia Colvilki. — " This is very unlike any 

 other Asiatic species of Buddleia in its size and 

 form of flower, colour, and the locality it inhabits, 

 its congeners being almost without exception tro- 

 pical or subtropical plants; in several respects it 

 more closely resembles some of the species of the 

 Andes, but it has no rival anywhere for beauty and 

 graceful habit. It is abundant towards the summit 

 of Tonglo, from 9000 feet to the top 10,000 feet, 

 and is also frequent in the Lachen and Lachoong 

 valleys at similar elevations, even ascending to 

 12,000 feet. This will probably prove perfectly 

 hardy, as I have found it in very exposed places as 

 well as in woods ; and from the abundance of its j 

 flowers, and its lasting some weeks in bloom, it' 

 would be a most desirable addition to our gardens." 

 Let us add that the flowers are as fine as those of 

 Escallonia macrantha, and as deep a red, while they 

 grow in panicles as large as that of a common Lilac. 



jEschynanthus Peem, found in the thick forests 

 wtere there has 



year 



has 



of 



for 



therefore begun to 



23 inches for six months we have 



16.70 inches in five months, or only about 2^ inches 



less than fell in all 1854. 



We draw no inferences from these facts ; but it 

 must be owned that they do not encourage us to 

 expect a dry autumn. 



Those cases, therefore 



the proper fruit, m a more or' less pX^SV 

 axis is still further elongated, and fe5 £ J^> 

 like appendages, may be referred to this'heTd H 



344. It has even been supposed that the coital 

 Mosses is capable of being so elongated and . * 

 figured by Dr. Montagne under Conomitrimn £i* 

 D Orbigny Voyage, Part 2, tab. 3, which atfirT 

 seems to indicate such a fact, but Dr Montto!* 

 doubtless attributed it to the true cause nam?*^ 1 

 germination of a spore within the capsule.' * *• 



345. It is doubtful, perhaps, whether the virii* 

 Grasses should be referred to the same grow*, n? 

 are in character nearly allied to bulbs, the 1L «2 

 being entirely suppressed. "^w 



346. The axis may be elongated either after or UU 

 the formation of perfect fruit. Perfectly formed IW 

 for instance, occasionally produce a leafy shoot uinS 

 case figured in this Journal, 1845, p. 532, and tie «■! 

 trary condition is illustrated in the « Theory of j fau 

 ture," Ed. 1, p. 61. Roses assume a variety d W« 

 according to the mode in which the : organs of ftSl 

 cation are transformed. Illustrative figures ire ^Jl 

 in Gard. C7wow.,1847,p. 171; 1845, p. 291,& c .,ol5b«k 

 one of the most characteristic is here introduced. 



We understand that Mr. N. H. Mason, a young 

 and ardent botanist, is about to visit the Azores, 

 Madeira, and the Canary Islands for purposes of 

 scientific research. He proposes to collect plants, 

 insects, shells, and objects of natural history gene- 

 rally, and will be glad to execute commissions, either 

 for living plants (especially Ferns) to be sent to 

 England in Ward's cases, or for dried collections. 

 He is well acquainted with Madeira, having resided 

 for two years in the island, and has also visited 

 Teneriffe. We have had an opportunity of seeing 

 some of his dried plants, and it is not too much to 

 say that they are among the finest that have ever 

 been prepared ; not surpassed by even those of 

 Bourgeau. In addition to the apparatus required 

 for collecting plants, Mr. Mason takes out a dredging 

 apparatus for shells and zoophytes. 



We have no doubt so favourable an opportunity 

 of procuring Madeira plants, especially the numerous 

 beautiful species of Fern will be gladly seized by 

 our horticultural friends, who can communicate 

 their wishes to Mr. Mason, at 17, Compton Terrace, 

 Islington, 





been no clearance, is perhaps a 

 more brilliant red plant than any of the gorgeous 

 species previously met with. 



. To these have to be added a Rhubarb (Rheum 

 nobile)* of most prodigious form, resembling a 

 giantess flounced from head to foot; an Oak 

 (Qiiercus lamellosa) with magnificent leaves, com- 

 parable to those of the Spanish Chesnut, rendered 

 hard and evergreen, and acorns so woody as to render 

 riding unsafe where they have fallen in large quan- 

 tities ; the Sikkim Larch now in our gardens, which 

 appears to be tender only when raised from seeds 

 gathered at 8000 feet of elevation, but to be hardy 

 if produced by seeds from 13,000 feet ; and Van da 

 Cathcarti, a fine epiphyte, with great fleshy flowers, 

 streaked with cinnamon-coloured bars. Such things 

 as these point unmistakeably to the scene of a new 

 collector's labours ; and it is to be hoped that the 

 East India Company will forthwith despatch a skilful 

 person in search of them. The Court of Directors 

 having liberally subscribed for thirty copies of the 

 work, every station of importance will be certain to 

 possess it ; and therefore the natives can have no diffi- 

 culty in understanding what it is they have to 

 search for. 



In the month of July, just passed, there fell 

 6 inches and 3-tenths of an inch of rain at Chiswick; 

 an amount only once registered in the same month 

 since 1797. Howabd, in his * Climate of London,'* 

 knew of no such rainfall in any month whatever 

 between 1797 and 1825. Since that time we have 

 had two similar cases. In July, 1834, there fell 

 6 34 inches, and m November, 1852, 6.20 inches. 

 It is worth considering how far this striking fact is 

 likely to influence the remainder of the se Ton. 



The average depth of rain near London 

 called in round numbers 24 inches. Durum 

 year # 1854 there fell so little nda that at the be- 

 ginning ofjbe present year the total amount was 



New Plants. 



1 3^. Leftodactylon californicum. Hooker and Arnott 

 in Beechey's Voyage, p. 369 t. 89; alias Gilia calif ornica, 

 Bentham in De Cand. Prodr. ix. 316. 

 When this beautiful plant was shown hy Messrs. Veitch 

 at Chiswick last June, under the name of Leptodactylon 

 californicum, we supposed that some change of tickets 

 had occurred, so entirely did it wear the appearance of 

 the prickly Phloxes of Siberia and North America. 

 Since that time we have been enabled to examine its 



structure, and it is now necessary to announce that it 

 really is what it has been called. The genus Lepto- 

 dactylon was founded upon two North American plants, 

 one of which Sir Wm. Hooker had previously called 

 Phlox Hoodii, but which have been found to differ from 

 Phlox in the ovary containing a great many ovules 

 instead of only one or two ; to which must be added the 

 division of the leaves into linear digitate segments, 

 instead of being entire ; a circumstance easily over- 

 looked in consequence of the divisions being carried to 

 the very base of the leaves. 



Since Leptodactylon was founded by Messrs. Hooker 

 and Arnott, the whole order to which it belongs has 

 been re-examined by Mr. Bentham, who reduces the 

 genus to Gilia, calling the plant before us Gilia califor- 

 nica. We own to a great difficulty in believing that 

 the alteration will be permanent, and therefore retain 

 the name first given, which is now beginning to be known 

 in gardens. Into the botanical question ot what is to be 

 done with Leptodactylon we cannot enter in this place. 



The plant before us is one of the most charming 

 acquisitions of Mr. Wm. Lobb, who found it on the 

 mountains of St. Barnardino, in California, and who 

 describes it as an evergreen shrub from 2 to 4 feet high. 

 We have before us some of his wild specimens, which 

 entirely bear out the statement. The wood is hard, the 

 branches closely covered with bright, green, stiff, finely- 

 cut leaves, and loaded with rose-coloured flowers as 

 large as those of our common Phlox. It may be com- 

 pared not inaptly to a bush of Irish Furze loaded with 

 the blossoms of Phlox maculata, only pale and delicate 

 rose colour instead of deep purple. We presume the 

 species will be a hardy greenhouse or frame plant, 

 requiring more air and dryness than heat in winter. 

 We may add that it has all the appearance of being well 

 suited for summer bedding out. ° 



may be 

 the 



VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.-No. LXXXU. 

 343. Capsomania.— 



* Of this we shall give s 



account in an early Number. 



-As the organs of fructification, 

 properly so called, are formed by the terminal spires of 

 their own individual axis, all appendages which are 

 superior to the normal fruit may without inconvenience 

 I be considered as repetitions of the carpellary whorls. 



It 



this 



is tnis latter form which in a lower ^ 

 development produces the green-centred w^^ 

 are the bane of the amateur, however ^ 

 they may be to the botanist - -onje ^ 



Roses, as for instance the Ohi, G^ J*J^ m 

 Louis, &c, are far more subject to tins co . ^ 

 others ; but the same plant does ™\"^&* 

 duce green-centred Roses; in the present ***& 

 less prevalent in my own garden and some o ^ 



I have examined than in my J*2£* Q *&+ 

 can remember : and on 



one plant which has w^ 

 .^ s I do not find a s:ru^^ 



Rose. 



many green-eyed flowers * — — - , , ^ w* 



* A mode of treatment which "f^#* 

 suppression would be gratefully received \,w ,„ 

 under such different circumstances . that P ,*, 

 : :i.i„ » „„o=* «, «,rtain remedy, tnoug" 



the soil is moaerateiy i»<.», —•• -~ . . qttrte 

 degree of consistency. It appears »t *»- J ^0* 

 that highly manured land, especially u ^ £ 

 raw and contain much nitrogenous in^tt e^ .^ 

 tendency to produce deformed «o« J^ ^ * 

 varieties as are not usually subjee t to t* - ,-l* 

 a dry sterile soil, deficient in ah ^{^ 



means necessarily exempt. J 

 h«v« therefore been brought unae^f 



wet « eeu>» ^ j* 

 tempera* 



t> -r- - <?. — . -■" . - _- ,..„*; t .,» ,i! green-e.vf^ ^ 



by no 



ditions have therefor 



It has been 



Atmospb?*^ 



a lone spring 



n supposed that warm « 



been unusually low, is P^^^mee***- 

 while other authorities attribute *e£ ^ ^ 



weather succeeding exce ^ v * 7* n dency of P**, 

 position is in harmony with the te c*«&*?L 

 elongate their terminal buds under wja^ ^^ 

 but experience does not tally * , n0 _ 

 and that of the present year, n ny ^^ 















generally borne out, K**»*2S be," J^J 

 weather in spring has in e w* ^ J , 

 cause, but, I believe, equally aiw b ?T< fr*x* 

 be any truth that nitrogenous manure 









