1)6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 421. 



of our Susquehanna scenery will be looked upon as some- 

 thing- besides an obstacle in the way of railway enterprise, 

 and receive full appreciation of its hygienic and aesthetic 



value. TUT t n u 



Ann Arbor, Mich. ■<«• E. EOCH. 



Cultural Department. 



Hardy Shrubs for Winter Flowering in the 

 Greenhouse. 



WHERE large quantities and a variety of flowers are needed, 

 either for cutting or greenhouse decoration, many of the 

 early-flowering shrubs are invaluable. But to flower these 

 successfully, most of them need to be specially prepared for 

 the purpose. We lift ours from the borders in the spring 

 previous, selecting healthy, shapely specimens, and put them 

 in pots or neat tubs. Any long or straggling roots are cut 

 back, so that a ball of good fibrous roots may be made. The 

 pots should then be plunged in ashes or other light material to 

 protect them from the hot, drying winds of summer. The 

 shrubs must not be shaded, but exposed to full sunlight in 

 order to get well-ripened wood. Due attention must also be 

 paid to watering. Toward the endof November or beginning 

 of December wdplace them in a deep frame, admitting air on 

 all fine days. About January 1st we bring into the greenhouse, 

 where they are to flower, about one-third of the whole num- 

 ber. About the 15th of January the next lot is brought in and 

 the remainder about February 1st. A succession of bloom 

 through February, March and April is thus providedfor. The 

 greenhouse is kept at a temperature of fifty degrees at night, 

 with a rise of fifteen degrees by day. A list of the hardy shrubs 

 I have found excellent for this purpose includes Forsythia sus- 

 pensa, every branch being loaded with its beautiful golden 

 bells ; Spiraea Thunbergii, S. Van Houttei, Deutzia gracilis 

 and D. scabra, Amelanchier Canadensis, Pyrus baccata and 

 P. Japonica, Berberis Aquifohum, Prunus Cerasus, P. Sinen- 

 sis and P. Persica, Xanthorrhiza apiifolia, Syringa Persica, 

 Ligustrum lucidum, var. coriaceum, and Daphne Cneorum. 



These should all be potted in the spring. The following 

 may be lilted in the fall, taking care to choose those plants 

 well set with buds : Rhododendrons, both the evergreen and 

 deciduous kinds ; Andromeda Japonica and A. floribunda, 

 Erica Tetrahx, Vaccinium vacillans and Leucothoe Catesbasi. 

 Of this last named we have some good plants in five-inch pots 

 along the front edge of the stage, and their dark shining leaves 

 with racemes of cream-colored flowers, sessile in the axils, 

 have a particularly pleasing effect. Daphne Cneorum, with its 

 rosy pink, sweet-scented flowers, is also useful for the front 

 edges of the stage. 



Many other shrubs besides those I have enumerated might 

 be used for this purpose, and we intend to try a greater variety 

 this coming season. 



After the shrubs have finished flowering we repot them, 

 removing as much as possible ot the old soil and filling in with 

 good rich soil. They are kept in the greenhouse until spring 

 is well advanced, when they are gradually inured to the out- 

 side and again placed in their summer quarters. I ought, 

 perhaps, to have mentioned that where these shrubs are flow- 

 ered principally for cutting, it would be necessary to pot up 

 fresh plants each spring, and those that have flowered, instead 

 of being repotted, should be planted out for a year or two. 



Botanic Garden, Northampton, Mass. Edward J. Canning. 



Imantophyllums. 



BOTAN1CALLY, Imantophyllums are Clivias, and all culti- 

 vated kinds, according to competent authority, should be 

 classed as varieties of Clivia nobilis. For gardening purposes 

 they are distinct enough, and may be continued under the 

 better-known name, which was given to them as descriptive 

 of their long leathery leaves. Their characteristics are a root- 

 stock reduced almost to a crown, shortly stoloniferous above 

 the ground and hidden by the sheathing bases of the leaves. 

 These are two inches wide, from two to two and a half feet 

 long, and distichously arranged. Apparently from the centre, 

 but slightly along one side, rises a stout umbellate scape 

 about eighteen inches long, bearing trom twelve to twenty-six 

 tubular orange-colored flowers. In Imantophyllum minia- 

 tum, which is the handsomest and best known of the earlier 

 introductions, the petals and sepals are nearly equal in size 

 and spreading. The flowers measure between two and three 

 inches across and areas wide as deep. In I. cyrtanthiflorum the 

 sepals are much shorter than the petals, which are about two 



and a half inches long. The flowers are pendulous, tubular, 

 ami scarcely half as wide as they are long, but they are brighter 

 and more lustrous ; the lower half of the petals is white, making 

 a pretty contrast. 



It is evident that nearly all the forms we now have are 

 crosses between these two kinds. They can scarcely be called 

 hybrids, as competent authorities declare only one species 

 exists. Few of them are worthy the names bestowed upon 

 them. Some are remarkable for vigor, with little or no com- 

 pensating increase in size, form or coloring. Few have varied 

 much from the type of I. miniatum, or are superior from a 

 decorative point ot view. August Van Geert and Williamsii 

 are the best known of these so-called hybrids. The object of 

 the raisers of new varieties, no doubt, has been to get the good 

 coloring of I. cyrtanthiflorum infused into seedlings from I. 

 miniatum, retaining the erect, spreading flowers of the latter. 

 Mr. Harris, gardener to H. H. Hunnewell, Esq., states that out of 

 forty or more seedlings raised by him none departed from the 

 I. miniatum tvpe. Mr. Harris called my attention a few days 

 ago to one of the finest varieties either of us had ever seen. 

 Every good quality of I. miniatum was evident, with the good 

 coloring of I. cyrtanthiflorum. The upper half of the 

 segments is glowing orange-scarlet, and under sunlight 

 quite lustrous, while the lower half, forming, as it were, a 

 throat (for the segments are distinct, though touching), is 

 white. The filaments and anthers are yellow. This variety 

 was sent to Mr. Hunnewell by James Veitch & Sons, Lon- 

 don, as number thirty-three. Mr. A. H. Fewkes, of Newton 

 Highlands, Massachusetts, exhibited a handsome variety a few 

 years ago at Horticultural Hall, Boston. It is a handsome 

 kind and similar to number thirty-three. The flowers are 

 equally as large and the coloring quite as good, but in form it 

 is not quite as well finished. 



It is practicable in the United States to bloom Imantophyl- 

 lums twice in a season. Those in bloom now can be forced 

 into growth in a moderate temperature, stimulated with liquid- 

 manure, and be ready to be placed out-of-doors in June in 

 shady quarters, with less water, to ripen. They can be forced 

 again in September or October. A full sun treatment has been 

 recommended, but has not proved satisfactory with us. The 

 leaves easily burn, even in winter, and as they are remarkably 

 persistent and produced only at intervals, such disfigurement 

 remains for a year or more. 



Wellesley. Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



T I 



Acanthus mollis. 



"HIS plant is now in flower in the cool temperate house, 

 and though, perhaps, it might not be called pretty, it is 

 stately. It is, properly speaking, an herbaceous plant, and not 

 hardy in this climate, its native home being Italy. The flowers 

 are arranged decussately on the spike. I counted thirty-four 

 flowers and buds on one side. Acanthus mollis is the plant 

 in which Goethe first observed the dissemination of seeds by 

 projection when on a visit to Italy. A. mollis latifolius is also 

 in flower now, and of the two this is much more robust. The 

 leaves are large and handsome and of a deep shining green. 

 They are heart-shaped, deeply and regularly incised and 

 toothed ; like those of A. mollis, they are all radical, and as 

 beautiful as Palm leaves. This variety is a native of Portugal 

 and is also known under the name of A. Lusitanicus. From 

 the leaves of this plant architects have chosen their models. 

 Its bold and graceful appearance makes it a good subject for an 

 isolated position in the garden or lawn. Two conditions are 

 absolutely necessary — a deep rich soil, and, like most plants 

 with a large amount of respiratory surface, a good supply of 

 water. In England these plants and also A. longifolius are 

 used largely in rock gardens. The imposing effect produced 

 by their use in the rock garden at Kew, in a prominent posi- 

 tion, is impressed on my mind. They are propagated by seeds 

 and by division of the roots. 

 Botanic Garden, Northampton, Mass. Edward J. Canning. 



Succulent Plants. 



AN unusually attractive show of succulents now quite tills a 

 small house in the Missouri Botanic Gardens, and one or 

 two species appealed to me in a new way for supplying cut 

 flowers and winter-blooming house plants. A mass of Coty- 

 ledon (Echeveria) metallica, with flower-stalks three feet high, 

 was strikingly ornamental, and this would make an attractive 

 plant for a small conservatory or the window-garden, where 

 these can be easily grown. And nothing could be prettier for 

 bouquets than large panicles of the delicate white and rose flow- 

 ers Of Crassula quadriffida. They last almost indefinitely when 



