March 30, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



95 



power 

 levels. 



of climbing to the high alpine and mean in shape. 



quaintance with the plant 



But on my 



first ac- 

 at home," 



I 



THE 





(S mb m tx s ' Cb tomtit 



No. 1,318.— SATURDAY, March 30, 1912. 



Dianthus neglectus is perhaps the best had not stepped two yards aside from the 



known. It is a species of limited distribu- footpath before I came on a new albino 



tion, belonging entirely to the south-wes- a tuft a yard across, with very large, 



terly ranges, right round the western wall round flowers of pure pearly-white, that 



of the Lombard Plain, from the Graian faded ultimately (or opened?) to a most 



Alps, through the Mount Cenis and Dau- exquisite, pale, shell-pink. D. alpmus 



phine, along all the Cottian uplands down takes to cultivation as a duck to water, 



to the Maritimes. Its chosen place is always In any sunny, limey loam or moraine it 



grows far and wide, and covers itself with 

 splendour in due season. There is a plant 



CONTENTS. 



Aphyllanthes monspeli- 

 ensis 



Books, notices of — 

 The Profitable Cul- 

 ture of Vegetables 



'Cytisus Dallimorei 



Elms, British 



Plowers in season 



Flowers, the preserva- 

 tion of cut 



" Geo. Monro " concert 



Helianti as a food for 

 cattle 



Hong Kong, the flora of 



Hooker, Sir Joseph, es- 

 tate of the late 



International Horticul- 

 tural Exhibition 



Ireland, notes from ... 



Larch saw-fly, the large 



L.C C. park employees 



London's open spaces... 



Manchester, horticul- 

 ture in 



Obituary — 

 Barry, William 



• Dennison, Robert ... 



Fenn, Robert 



Thomson, William ... 



Orchid notes and glean- 

 ings— 

 Odontoglossum cris- 

 pum •* Samuel Gra- 

 trix," 197; O. Jas- 

 per 



Orchid show at Berlin- 

 Parasitic fungi, the na- 

 ture of ... 



Pear tree, a prolific ... 



Pinks, the four great 



alpine 



208 



196 

 198 

 199 

 204 



205 



204 



207 



202 



204 



206 

 205 

 205 

 204 

 204 



207 



208 

 208 

 203 

 208 



204 

 206 



196 

 204 

 198 



208 

 205 



197 

 201 



198 

 199 



195 



Poisoning with Virginian 



creeper berries 

 Potato importations into 



Germany 



Pottery, visit to a 

 Rosary, the — 



Random thoughts on 



pruning 



Roses, Chinese 



Sarracenias out-of-doors 

 Scottish manse garden, 



in a 



Seeds, longevity of 



Societies — 

 Bournemouth Spring 



Flower Show 

 Brighton, Hove and 



Sussex Hort. 

 Canterbury Rose 

 Horticultural Club ... 



Linnean 



National Hardy Plant 

 Perpetual - flowering 



Carnation ... 204,209 

 Royal Horticultural 

 (Scientific Committee) 

 Stocks, cultivated, the 



origin of 



Strawberries 



Trees, subjects to plant 



under ... 



Week's work, the — 



Apiary, the 



Flower garden, th3 ... 



Fruits under glass ... 



Hardy fruit garden ... 



Kitchen garden, the... 



Orchid houses, the .. 



Plants under glass ... 

 Wheat crop, the 

 Wye College, grants to 



in the sunny mountain turf, no matter 

 though it be quite coarse and crowded. It 



ascends to about 7,500 feet, and at such a at Ribston which can only be measured by 



height develops a specially neat, stemless yards, so freely does it ramify through the 



and compact habit: whereas among the soil, forming a great, glossy turf, until the 



lower grasses on the Mount Cenis, its great green is hidden by the flowers. Alone of 



flowers flourish freely on 6-inch the four species, D. alpinus is a limestone 



stems among the violet stars of Aster plant. The others either do, or do not, 



alpinus. D. neglectus is a tap-rooted tolerate lime, but do not belong to it in 



species, forming a single tuft of foliage, nature. D. alpinus craves for lime and, 



fine and green and narrow, exactly like with me, has always given freer and more 



204 rosy 



a small neat grass. The flowers, which are 

 very freely produced, are of a singularly 



of 



210 



203 

 211 

 210 

 210 

 210 



dazzling carmine 

 dusty blue. The 



with an eye 



rose, 



reverse of the 



petals 



lasting pleasure than D. neglectus. Its 

 habit of spreading into carpets, instead of 

 forming one single tuft, is a great advan- 

 tage. It seeds well, but is more rapidly 



is washed with a soft nankeen yellow, grown from cuttings, which strike very 

 which makes it impossible ever to mistake readily. With us, like all its kindred, it 

 the species. The plant, however, is very flowers in June-July. 



variable, alike in size, shape and colour. 



D. glacialis has an august and promis- 



Care should always be taken to get it in ing name, which it does nothing to de- 



208 



205 

 208 



20* 



201 

 201 

 200 

 200 

 200 

 201 

 200 

 205 

 204 



flower, so as to secure a 



neat-habited serve, for it avoids glaciers quite as 



form, with solid, round flowers of a clear heartily as I do myself. It is a plant of 

 and brilliant pink. It is a very easy rock the high moorland turf of the granitic 



plant, in any firm, light loam, in full sun ; 

 it germinates well, and is easily multi- 

 plied by cuttings. 



Alps of the central ranges, glowing among 

 Primula intermedia on the fells of the 

 Engadine and in the roadside gutters 



Even more beautiful, to my mind, is D. above H§iligenblut, but falling short, so 

 alpinus, when once you see it. For, to far as I remember, of the elevations fav- 

 achieve'the Alpine Pink, you must travel oured by Primula glutinosa. I do not rate 



limestones of Austria. 



and southern 

 In the main 



D. glacialis very high : it is a single-tuft 

 plant, with broad, blunt and glossy 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



■ 



Cytisus Dallimorei ••♦ 



International Horticultural Exhibition, cups to be 



offered at the 



Odontoglossum crispum " Samuel Gratrix " 



Odontoglossum Jasper - 



Orchids, epiphytic, at a Berlin show 



Pear Souvenir du Congres at Ruthin Castle Gardens 

 Tutcher, W.J. , portrait of ... 



198 



206 

 197 

 196 

 203 

 199 

 202 



and rosy, but not big enough for the 

 breadth of the foliage. Their calyx, too, 



Aloine chains there is no chance of get- green leaves : the flowers that shoot out 



ting it ; but on its own hills it composes from the clump on 3-inch stems are round 

 half the turf. The Styrian ranges, from 

 5-6,000 feet, are one sheeted blaze, in 



August, of D. alpinus, from amid whose is fat, and they have a tight, podgy look, 



yard-wide colonies spring the spouting In the old days of the rock-garden, when 



blue fountains of Campanula alpina, little prescriptions of soil were made up 



hile the floor of the hill is made of like medicines and poured into " pockets," 



THE FOUR GREAT ALPINE Primula minima, with the lucent rosetted many and minute were the directions 



PINKS, 



F Pinks there are countless species, 

 clear or obscure, for the rock gar- 



den ; but many of these are 



tall- 



stemmed furnishing plants, while oJic 

 of more minute habit, are as yet too un- 

 common 



masses of P. Clusiana lying among it like given for growing D. glacialis. In point of 

 great star-fishes. Dianthus alpinus, like fact, though a capricious and short-lived 



blooms in its own plant, it is by no means a difficult one- 

 worth no fuss and demanding none. I 

 have had it vigorous in a hot and sunny 

 moraine, though cool peat is what it likes 



in nature. 



three 



all the other three, blooms in 

 home, in late July and August, when the 

 Primulas and Campanula are going to 

 seed. It ramifies freely through and 



to be of any very conspicuous through the fine mountain-grass, not grow- 



It seeds and germinates far 



moment. Therefore I will leave aside, on ing from one tap-root, but in a vast and more profusely than any of its 



the one hand, such valuable beauties as spreading mass. Its foliage hugs the 



Dianthus sylvestris and D. caesius : and ground— clumps of broad, blunt leaves, 



on the other such tiny and compact brilliantly green and brilliantly glossy 



moraine treasures as D. Freynii, D. 

 microlepis and D. Lereschei. The four 



(like D. glacialis: unlike D. neglectus): 

 the flower-stems are usually from 2 to 3 



great Alpine Pinks of the rock garden inches high— hardly ever more than 5 



inches. They are produced even more 



surpassing 



character and distinctness the charm of freely than those of D. neglectus, and are 



their larger and their smaller kindred, larger, very round and splendid, of a clear m glory and habit to 



Their " ' * * 



cousins. 



To see the most beautiful of the race, 

 you have to travel far, far East, past 

 D. glacialis, past D. alpinus, out into 

 the Transylvanian Mountains, where, 

 among the Vampires, dwells D. callizonus. 

 This wonderful plant (to which I have 

 not yet made pilgrimage) is closer akin 



D. alpinus than 



The flowers, 

 There are 



to the others. It is a loosely-ramifying 

 species, with shoots of typical Dianthus 

 foliage, grey and glaucous : the flower- 

 stems are, perhaps, 3 inches' high, and 

 of spots. On its own hills, when they are the flowers are very large and round 

 red for miles with D. alpinus, you could indeed, rosy-crimson, with a broad central 

 collect a hundred different beauties, each belt of crimson blots that give a quite 



_ _ _ _ worthy of a name. There is also in culti- especial beauty. Like all the others, it is 



mountain ' turf between 5-7~50aieet. like vation an albino, which I must confess I variable. I cannot speak, however, with 

 Gentiana verna, though without G. verna'S consider arid and dirty in tone, pinched any confidence as to its culture. I have a 



habit is dwarf and neat, their and freckled rosy-crimson, bearded^ at the 

 blossoms of rich size and splendour, their throat, with a paler zone, 

 colouring of a brilliant rose, which is all however, vary in splendour, 

 too rare in the rock garden. The four, of dark-eyed forms, and forms with^a ring 

 course, are D. neglectus, D. alpinus, D. 

 glacialis, and D. callizonus. Not one of 

 these, however, is in any way a rock plant 

 by nature, for they are all species of the 





t 





