6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 410. 



garden at Christmastide I found many of them just peeping up, 

 forced by an unseasonable spell of mild weather. It would be 

 interesting to know by what peculiararrangement the leaves and 

 flowers of these and many other plants are enabled to pass 

 through such trying temperatures without disruption of their 

 cells or apparent injury. Another interesting thing in the garden 

 in winter is the germination of the various seeds which have fallen 

 or have been sown. Scilla seeds were germinating the other 

 day, and no doubt I should have found seedlings of Snowdrops 

 had I looked for them, and, perhaps, of other plants which 

 start under slight encouragement of warmth at this season. 

 One of the primary lessons that the experimenter in hardy 

 plants learns is that seeds of many of them have peculiar habits 

 of germination difficult to tabulate. Some seeds, as those of 

 Hollyhocks, will sometimes germinate on the plant in wet 

 weather, and others germinate quickly enough, but a large 

 majority require a certain seasoning and cannot be made to 

 start without it, even though apparently well ripened. This 

 is one of nature's little devices to perpetuate the species 

 by deferring the germination to a fitting season, and we can- 

 not always make haste even when we have fresh seeds at hand. 

 Such seed the plantsman buries in earth or stratifies for such 

 time as may be necessary for its ripening ; if, in the mean 

 time, it is frozen up a few times, it receives a quickening. The 

 growing of seedlings is a fascinating pursuit too little appre- 

 ciated by impatient gardeners. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Plants for Winter-blooming. 



EUPHORBIA FULGENS is among the most beautiful of 

 winter-flowering plants, and its long wreaths of brilliant 

 scarlet flowers are effective for conservatory and house deco- 

 ration. Although considered a difficult plant to establish, we 

 have been fortunate enough to secure the conditions neces- 

 sary for its successful cultivation. It is a subshrubby peren- 

 nial which may either be pruned annually and grown on from 

 year to year into large specimens or be grown from cuttings 

 every year. The plan of annually raising new stock is gen- 

 erally the better one, and only where the proper conditions 

 can be provided in partial rest from water during the latter 

 part of the flowering season and during winter should old 

 plants be grown on. These old plants are especially suited for 

 training on pillars, rafters and walls and for conservatory 

 decoration, and used in this way no more effective plants 

 could be chosen. 



Soft cuttings are taken with a heel, and placed at once in a 

 propagating-bed with a bottom temperature of sixty-five de- 

 grees, Fahrenheit. They will be rooted in about thirty days, 

 and then are potted into thumb-pots in light soil, with some 

 charcoal for drainage. As they are needed they should be 

 shifted, without disturbing the roots, into four, and ultimately 

 into six, inch pots, in which size they bloom. We give them 

 manure-water frequently during the summer. The plants 

 grow luxuriantly, and before the flowering season they are 

 very much pot-bound, a fact to which our success is probably 

 due. A gardener of my acquaintance considers October a 

 critical month in the cultivation of this Euphorbia, as his plants 

 generally fall at this time. Although he is careful, he thinks 

 his loss due to overwatering, perhaps once only at a time when 

 the nights are cool and before fire-heat is in general use. 

 Upon turning out several pots to show the condition of the 

 roots we found all the feeders dead. With regard to fire-heat 

 his experience and mine are the same, but my plants, being 

 pot-bound, were in less danger of injury from overwatering. 

 They are now well rooted through the pots into a gravel-bed, 

 getting about all the moisture they need in this way. 



A plant of Daphne Indica is enough to fill a large conserva- 

 tory with its perfume. It is ungainly, not easy to grow, and 

 difficult to propagate from cuttings, which may in a measure 

 account for its comparative rarity. The practice of grafting 

 D. Indica and other greenhouse species does not seem to be 

 generally adopted in this country, owing probably to the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining good hardy stocks. D. Mezereum, the prin- 

 cipal species used in European countries, is doubtfully hardy 

 here. The usual plan when propagating from cuttings is to 

 take matured side shoots in the autumn and place them in pots 

 in a cool greenhouse to callous over winter. In spring they 

 are started in a gentle heat, and may be expected to root in 

 four to six weeks. I have not, however, succeeded well by 

 this plan, and last spring I tried taking half-matured shoots 

 with a heel, and placing them in an ordinary propagating bed, 

 without bottom-heat. They all calloused and some were 

 rooted in two months; all were then potted into three-inch 

 pots in a mixture of loam and peat and a little sand, with some 

 charcoal for drainage, and they are now bushy little plants 



about eight inches tall, and most of them have matured a 

 small umbel of bloom. 



Libonia Penrhosiensis is a handsome evergreen winter- 

 blooming subshrub, a hybrid between the well-known L. flori- 

 bunda and Jacobinia (Sencographis) Gheisbreghtiana. Grown 

 every year from cuttings taken early in spring and planted 

 outdoors for the summer, the plants make neat little bushes 

 about a foot in diameter and a foot high, which can easily be 

 lifted and potted into six-inch pots. The flowers are tubular, 

 orange red, about an inch long, slightly labiate, and horizon- 

 tally exserted in small panicles from the axils of opposite 

 leaves. They are produced successively, and in sufficient 

 numbers to make the plants effective and at the same time 

 never untidy for a month or more; and when out of bloom 

 these handsome little bushes of refreshing green are still 

 serviceable. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Palm Notes. 



Hydriastele Wendlandiana. — This rare and beautiful Palm is 

 rare in this country. It is a tall and slender Australian spe- 

 cies, with stems somewhat resembling those of Seaforthia 

 elegans, but more slender, with regular ringed nodes. The 

 stem, which under greenhouse cultivation is sometimes 

 seen as high as ten or fifteen feet, carries a leafy crown of 

 long, spreading, pinnate leaflets, with from twenty to thirty 

 pinnae, sometimes over a foot long, those of the apex confluent 

 at the base and very irregular, with a square-cut ragged and 

 toothed apex and slender petioles, sheathing at the base. This 

 is a moisture-loving tropical Palm of great value for small con-, 

 servatories, and one of the small Palms that ought to be intro- 

 duced and grown more commonly. The pots should be com- 

 paratively small and well drained, the soil rich and fibrous, 

 and during summer too much water can hardly be given. 

 The species thrives best in a deep shady and warm position. In 

 direct sunlight the leaves always become stunted and dis- 

 figured. Seeds are hard to obtain, but germinate readily when 

 fresh. 



Astrocaryum argenteum. — This ornamental Palm is a native of 

 the tropical valleys ot the United States of Colombia and neigh- 

 boring countries. It has a distinct and peculiar beauty, with 

 leafy crowns of silvery foliage and numerous black needle-like 

 spines, very long and exceedingly fine and sharp. The leaves 

 are wedge-shaped, pinnate and closely set at the apex of the 

 stem. The lower pinnae are comparatively narrow and dis- 

 tant, while the upper ones, especially in small specimens, are 

 very broad and confluent, with a torn and toothed apex. While 

 the upper surface is bright green, the lower side is covered 

 with a silvery (omentum which makes the species highly orna- 

 mental. Specimens grown in conservatories and greenhouses 

 are generally seen in a stemless condition, with bushy crowns 

 about twice as wide as high, owing to the almost horizontal 

 position of the leaves. Like most silvery plants, these Palms 

 grow in the full glare of the sun, often in apparently dry and 

 barren positions. Under cultivation they will thrive anywhere 

 in a moderate shade or in a quite sunny position. They are 

 of easy culture, doing well under ordinary treatment with mod- 

 erate heat and moisture. 



Triartia Bungerothii. — Sometimes when growing in moist 

 places Palms assume a peculiar and curious habit. The stem, 

 which from the first grows upward, is very slender, almost 

 thread-like, and consequently unable to support the great 

 weight of the plant in a more mature state, but as the plant 

 increases in size adventitious roots are formed from the stem ; 

 like strong and slender buttresses, these support the stem high 

 in the air. As the Palm increases in size stronger roots are 

 thrown out for support. T. Bungerothii is the most beautiful 

 example of this type. It is a rather small Palm with a stem 

 one or two inches in diameter, and, as seen in greenhouses, 

 from four to six feet high, smooth and polished. The leaves 

 are pinnate, with very broad, wedge-shaped pinnae, irregu- 

 larly disposed along the slender rhachis and obliquely cut and 

 ragged on the edges. The leaves are beautifully green and 

 shining. Lateral roots at first very slender ; later on often half 

 an inch in diameter, not unlike the well-known adventitious 

 roots of a Screw Pine. This species will thrive in ordinary 

 rich and fibrous soil in a half-shady position and an average 

 temperature of seventy degrees. 



Latania Commersonii. — This species is often grown in con- 

 servatories and greenhouses under the name of Latania rubra. 

 It is one of the most beautiful and ornamental of all lan-leaved 

 Palms, and a native of Mauritius. The leaves are spreading, 

 eighteen inches to two feet in length, as commonly seen in 

 cultivation, with from fifteen to thirty long and slender wedge- 



