388 



THE GABDENEBS' CHRONICLE. 



[October 6, 1888. 



sun. This knowledge, so desirable and important, 

 can only be imparted by specialists and teachers 

 devoted to such work. If we would have our pro- 

 fession keep pace with the industrial and material 

 development of our country, it is incumbent upon us 

 to dig deep, and lay wide the foundations on which 

 the future of our profession is to rest. Industrial 

 and scientific education is making remarkable pro- 

 gress the world over, and we, who have the good of 

 the profession at heart, must see to it that it is kept 

 abreast of the times. With all our boasted achieve- 

 ments in plant growing and flower production, the 

 fact remains that it has been wrought out by an 

 enormous waste of time and physical force. How to 

 correct this, by what means, is the question upper- 

 most in the minds of many thoughtful florists. Mr. 

 Thorpe, in his address to you at Philadelphia, ex- 

 pressed a desire that at no distant date there might 

 be established a National Experimental Garden ; if 

 to that could be united a school for the special train- 

 ing of persons for our vocation, where a practical 

 and scientific education would be imparted, such an 

 institution would prove of incalculable benefit to 

 every member of the trade." 



Scottish Horticultural Association — 



At a meeting held last Tuesday, the 2nd inst., Mr. 

 Hugh Fraser, Leith Walk, read an interesting 

 paper on the " Oaks of the World," Mr. M. Dunn, 

 Dalkeith, occupying the chair. The lecturer re- 

 ferred to the old and historical Oak trees in the 

 British Isles, and spoke of the merits of Q. sessili- 

 flora and Q. pedunculata as timber trees. He also 

 illustrated his remarks by a collection of about sixty 

 species and varieties of Quercus. Among the exhi- 

 bits were Aerides Rohanianum (ex Sander's impor- 

 tation, 1S86), with three fine spikes of flower, the 

 first that has flowered in Scotland ; and Catasetum 

 macrocarpum, both from Captain Maxwell, of 

 Terregles, Dumfries (Alex. Chalmers, gardener). 

 The former is obviously a very free-flowering species. 

 Mr. Grossart, gardener, Oswald House, Oswald 

 Eoad, Edinburgh, exhibited a dish of excellent Stir- 

 ling Castle Peach from the open wall, the splendid 

 colour of which was striking. Mr. Fairgrieve, 

 Dunkeld, sent ripe samples of Silver Peach from 

 the open air, showing the peculiarities of the variety, 

 and its adaptability for outdoor culture in the North. 

 They were handsome and well developed fruit, 

 having a creamy-white skin. From the same grower 

 came also samples of Hale's Early and Lord Napier 

 Nectarines, each very fine ; and also Cooper's 

 Market Apple, a handsome dessert variety of Ameri- 

 can origin, which appears to adapt itself well to the 

 climate of the North. A small branch, about 1 foot 

 long, of Abies nobilis, bearing six cones, was 

 exhibited by Mr. Fraser. It was taken from a 

 tree about 9 feet high. He also exhibited a branch 

 of Vitis purpurea. Mr. McMoran, The Gardens, 

 Glasserton, Wigtonshire, exhibited some extraordi- 

 nary fruit of a variety of Fig known locally as the 

 Glasserton Fig. The tree is over one hundred years 

 old ; fruit had been gathered from it from August 21, 

 the average weight being 5 to ok oz. The tree 

 covers an area of 600 square feet of wall, 



LOBELIA CARDINALIS — For brilliancy of foliage 

 and flower this Lobelia is almost unsurpassed. 

 Raised from seed, I rind the red Iresine-like foliage 

 varies a good deal, as many of the plants come green, 

 and others only coloured slightly, but a good per- 

 centage remains true, and these can always be kept 

 for stock. The way to increase the plant is by 

 division, or taking the offsets, In moist situations 

 it does very well outdoors, and is a striking object in 

 beds mixed with patches of Dactylis glomerata 

 variegata, or almost any other plants with a like 

 foliage, white-flowered Lilies, Gladioli, &c, to afford 

 contrast of colour. Although it will live through 

 some winters in the open, it is safer not to leave the 

 plants out, but to lift and lay them in boxes, and 

 store in cold frames, when in spring they may be 

 split up and increased. Those intended "for pots 

 should, about the end of May, be stood outdoors in 

 some shady spot, and if supplied with plenty of water 

 and liquid manure, they will be fine and strong for 

 the autumn. J. S. 



The Fernery. 



GONIOPHLEBIUM SUBAUPJCULATUM. 

 When seen under favourable conditions, this is 

 one of the most beautiful of cultivated Ferns. It is 

 especially suited for growing in hanging baskets ; in 

 fact, it can only be seen to advantage when growing in 

 a suspended position, as the long drooping pinnate 

 fronds cannot properly develope except where they 

 are free. A peculiarity of this Fern is, that the 

 fronds continue to elongate for a considerable time 

 after the lower portion is fully developed. Under 

 good treatment the fronds will attain to G feet, or 

 even more, in length. This Fern requires a stove 

 temperature, and is very easily damaged by allowing 

 the temperature to fall too low. Discoloration of the 

 fronds will surely to be the result if once allowed 

 to feel the cold. Baskets are not only prefer- 

 able, by reason that they are more suitable 

 for suspension than pots, but also allow the creep- 

 ing rhizomes to spread more freely than when 

 confined in pots. Where pots or pans, which are the 

 most suitable of the two, are used, the plant3 should 

 be kept well above the surface, using good porous 

 soil and plenty of drainage. Although this Fern 

 requires some care to succeed well with it, a well- 

 developed specimen will amply repay any extra 

 attention that may be bestowed upon it. 



Adiantum mundulum. 

 This pretty compact-growing Adiantum is some- 

 times confused with A. Pacotti, but it is quite 

 distinct from that species or variety (whichever it 

 may be considered). The habit of growth is dense 

 and compact, the fronds are erect, the side pinna; 

 curving inwards rather than outwards, which is the 

 case with A. Pacotti ; the pinnules are also smaller 

 and more distant, and of a lighter shade of green. A 

 very good example of this useful Adiantum was 

 exhibited at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society on the 11th inst, the exhibitor being under 

 the impression that it was a new variety, obtained by 

 crossing A. cuneatum with A. Pacotti. This is one 

 of the prettiest of the cuneatum section of Adian- 

 tums, and very useful for cutting from, especially for 

 button-hole work, the fronds being a nice size for 

 that purpose ; as a pot plant, too, it may be recom- 

 mended, as it forms a compact symmetrical little 

 plant, very useful for many purposes. Pteris. 



Plant Notes. 



PRIMULA RUSBYI. 



The inquiry of an English correspondent concern- 

 ing the habitat of this new Primrose prompts me to 

 send to Garden and Forest a note on the beauty of 

 the plant, its discovery and habitat. Early on the 

 morning of May 4, 1881, I had left my camp at the 

 end of a waggon road in one of the canons of the base 

 of the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona, 

 had mounted successive heights — the grassy slopes 

 covered with a sparse growth of Oaks and Arbutus, 

 the breezy ridges crowned with Pines, and the more 

 difficult steeps dark with the Douglas Spruce — and 

 was clambering painfully up the long, bare crest of 

 Mount Wrightson, the monarch of that mountain 

 group, when I was reanimated by the exclamations 

 of delight of my young assistant, then a little in 

 advance, over the prettiest flower he had yet seen in 

 Arizona, as he declared. I found it to be a Primula. 

 It was much smaller than P. Parryi of the mountains 

 of Colorado, but so nearly answering to the descrip- 

 tion of that species, that I puzzled over it, as I col- 

 lected it again and again on those summits, trying 

 to learn if it was really distinct, until Mr. Greene 

 named it and described it from specimens collected 

 by Mr. Rusby in New Mexico in August following. 

 Its habitat is the meagre soil of bare ledges, and the 

 verge and shelves of cliffs of summits of 7000 to 

 10,000 feet elevation. Its range from the mountains 

 about Clifton, New Mexico, southward along the 



Cordilleras certainly as far as 200 miles beyond the 

 boundary. The beauty of this Primula must make 

 it a choice addition to the list of plants for rockeries, 

 &c. ; and the fact that along the northern limits of 

 its distribution it must be expospd to much freezing, 

 is a guarantee of its hardiness. Garden and Forest. 



The Cape Hota (Microloma ombellata). 

 This pretty little creeper is abundant in some 

 parts of the Cape, where it clothes tall grass and 

 dwarf shrubs with a Dodder-like growth and pretty 

 button-like umbels of rosy-red urn-shaped flowers. 

 The leaves are linear, and the stems are thin and 

 wiry. The flowers are developed from the leaf-axils, 

 and they last several weeks. A plant of this species 

 has been in flower all the summer in one of the 

 houses devoted to Cape plants at Kew. It is planted 

 in a bed of loamy soil, and the shoots are twined 

 naturally about some twiggy branches. Although 

 small, yet this plant is pretty enough to be worth 

 growing for the decoration of the conservatory. 

 Some one has stated that it is hardy in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, but a plant tried out-of-doors, 

 in a sunny border at Kew, last year, did not survive 

 the winter. The root is thick and tuberous. W. W. 



The Bulb Garden. 



NOTES ON THE LILY SEASON. 



As the Lily season is now drawing to a close I 

 send you a note of what it has been with ns. The 

 early blooming Lilies were very good, we never before 

 had such fine Lilium Browni and L. Hansoni ; L. 

 Szovitzianum, L. geminifolium, and some L. longi- 

 florum bloomed well. L. candidum simplex in a few 

 situations was good, but in most the leaves were 

 attacked, became brown, and made no growth. L. 

 Hnmboldti in sheltered situations was fine, but ex- 

 posed on the hill went off quite suddenly in a few 

 cold wet days, and all the buds became brown and 

 spoilt. L. pardalinum and L. californicum, where 

 moderately sheltere:-, was fine. L. auratum in ex- 

 posed situations in full sun was good and much less 

 affected by the wet weather than most of those which 

 were sheltered from wind. It seems that with our 

 two largest beds of these the one exposed on the 

 hillside is finest in cold damp years, and the other 

 sheltered in the wood, in dry hot years. The varieties, 

 rubro-vittatum, platypetalum or platyphyllum, and 

 macranthum have had some very fine flowers, but 

 most had one or two damaged by the drip, or bruised 

 by the unusually heavy rain to which they were 

 exposed. 



The finest growths we had were in beds in a 

 wood at Weybridge, here the ordinary L. auratum 

 had several stems from 2 to 10J feet high, and per- 

 fect blooms, which showed finely among the trees ; 

 but even here, where bad weather has not 

 till this year injured them, a good many 

 were damaged. L Mart3gon dalmaticum in most 

 situations was good. L. tigrinum splendens flore- 

 pleno and Fortunei bloomed well ; but L. tigrinum 

 jucundum had its buds injured, as was also the cas* 

 with L. Batemanniaj. L. Leichtlinii and L. Parryi 

 were damaged, and had no good flowers. L. poly- 

 phyllum was not strong ; our finest plant was damaged 

 by the stem being cut to the ground for exhibition 

 last year. L. giganteum bloomed well, L. cordi- 

 folium moderately, L. superbum was very fine in 

 some situations, but very bad in others. L. 

 nilgherense has grown well, but will be too late 

 satisfactorily. The season was a late one, and I 

 feared the varieties of L. speciosum (lancifolium) 

 could not bloom before the frost came upon them, 

 but the recent hot sun has brought them on fast ; 

 those exposed on the hills had their buds damaged 

 by the heavy rain, but in most of the sheltered 

 situations they were little injured, in some not at all, 

 and are now blooming well. Lilium ICrameri bloomed 

 well; we had one of the vi ry high-coloured varie- 

 ties; L. columbianum and L. avenaceum were good. 

 George F. Wilson, Weybridge. 



