March 4, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



sometimes bursting irregularly at maturity, one to two 

 celled, with an obovoid or globose seed in each cell. 



Of the dozen species of Molina which have been de- 

 scribed by botanists at least nine inhabit the territory of the 

 United States, including the type of the genus, Nolina 

 Georgiana. Of the United States species nearly all are 

 stemless or form short thick stems rarely more than three 

 or four feet high, but Nolina Bigelovii, of the mountains of 



the life histories, specific characters and distribution of 

 Nolinas remarkably little is yet known, considering the 

 length of time some of the species have been cultivated 

 and their value as decorative plants. 



The flowering plant of Nolina recurvata, whose por- 

 trait appears on this page, is one of a pair imported 

 from Belgium nearly twenty years ago. It is four feet ten 

 inches in height from the surface of the soil to the base of 

 the crown of leaves. The stem is two inches in 

 diameter at the apex and twenty inches across 

 the bottom of the bulb-like base, and is covered 

 with pale rugose bark. The leaves are lanceolate, 

 gradually narrowed from the broad clasping base, 

 thin but very tough, nearly three feet long, three- 

 quarters of an inch wide near the middle, where 

 they are broadest, dark green and lustrous except 

 at the apex, which is brown and scarious, con- 

 spicuously veined, and roughened on the pale 

 margins with minute serratures, closely imbri- 

 cated, and pendulous. Early in December the 

 pale yellow glabrous panicle appeared, and 

 was fully grown "at the end of six weeks, 

 when it was four feet high, with a stout pe- 

 duncle furnished with leaf-like bracts nearly two 

 feet long, and slender branches slightly angled 

 above, flattened below, twelve or fourteen inches 

 long, and produced from the axils of leaf-like 

 bracts, clasping, while, and more or less tinged 

 with pink at the base, and six or seven inches 

 long ; the secondary branches, which are in- 

 serted at acute angles, are slender, six inches 

 long at the base of the branch, and not more 

 than two inches in length at the apex ; on these 

 the flowers, which are all staminate and fall a 

 day after they open, are remotely scattered, 

 usually in one, or, occasionally, in two or three 

 flowered clusters, and are borne on slender 

 pedicels about an eighth of an inch long from 

 the axils of scarious white bractlets from an 

 eighth to a quarter of an inch in length. The 

 flower when fully expanded is a quarter of an 

 inch across, and slightly and pleasantly fragrant, 

 with white boat-shaped, nearly equal, segments, 

 which are rounded at the apex and not more 

 than half as long as the stamens ; these spread 

 outward and are composed of flat white fila- 

 ments, narrowed upward from a broad base and 

 crowned with oblong, cordate, slightly emarginate, 

 light yellow anthers. The ovary is reduced to a 

 cushion-like three-lobed body covered with nectar. 

 Nolina recurvata* requires the same treat- 

 ment as the Agaves, and can be wintered in a 

 dry house in which the temperature is not al- 

 lowed to fall much below forty degrees, Fahren- 

 heit. It is an excellent plant for the summer 

 decoration of terraces and other exposed situa- 

 tions, as its tough leaves are not torn by wind 

 or burnt by the sun. Like the Yuccas, Agaves and 

 other so-called succulent plants, it will, of course, 

 flourish in southern California in the open ground. 



Fig. 10. — Nolina recurvata. — See page 94. 



San Diego County, California, often produces a taller 

 trunk, and may, perhaps, properly be considered a tree ; 

 and in Lower California Nolinas grow to a still larger size 

 with stout trunks and broad heads of foliage. All the 

 Nolinas, with, perhaps, the exception of Nolina Georgiana, 

 are desirable ornamental plants, especially for dry warm 

 regions, although many of the species flourish when culti- 

 vated in pots and protected from cold in glass houses. Of 



Plant Notes. 



Bowiea volubilis. — This interesting plant, dis- 

 covered in 1866 in south Africa by J. Bowie, a 

 botanical collector for the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 London, and named in his honor, belongs to 

 the Lily family. As its specific name indicates, it is a 

 twining plant and admirably adapted for the pillars or 

 supports of a greenhouse, and it has a bulb not unlike a 



* Nolina recurvata, Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cei:!.. iii., 



Beaucarnea recurvata, Lemaire, 111. Hort.. 1861, Misc., 59. 1.— 1 . >S;o, 



1445, f. 254.— Ft. ,/es Serrts, xviii., Misc., 26, t— Baker, Jou 

 Sac., xviii., 234 



Beaucarnea stricta, Lemaire, 1. c. (1861). 



Pincenictetia tuberculata, Hort. 



