4o; 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 450. 



producing annually sturdy scapes bearing large umbels of 

 white flowers. These have a tube three inches long, ele- 

 gantly curved segments of the same length, and' aMfinnel- 

 shaped cup two inches wide and long. They remain fresh 

 several weeks and emit a powerful and delicious odor. The 

 origin of this plant is obscure. It was first described in 

 1879 by Mr. Baker from plants grown in the Duke of 

 Northumberland's garden at Syon House, where it is still 

 grown in quantity for the supply of cut flowers. Mr. Baker 

 surmises that it is the hybrid between H. speciosa and H. 

 (Ismene) calathina, known to Dean Herbert early in the 

 century. 



Crinum Moorei and Agapanthus umbellatus are two of 

 the most useful plants for the conservatory that we owe to 

 the Cape. They are alike in their good-natured behavior 

 under ordinary cultivation, forming large masses if grown 

 on, and filling in a few years the largest pots or tubs. They 

 do not object to being cramped at the root if supplied with 

 manure-water when in growth, and they may be grown in 

 cold latitudes in gardens where there is no glass accommo- 

 dation, if placed in the open air during the summer and 

 wintered in a dry shed. For placing in conspicuous posi- 

 tions on terraces or lawns or in corners where flowers are 

 wanted to combine with architecture or statuary for sum- 

 mer effect they are of the greatest value. The Agapanthus 

 is frequently grown for such purposes, but the Crinum is 

 scarcely known in this character. Of course, large speci- 

 mens are needed, but once obtained they are not easily lost. 

 This year they have been exceptionally good with us, but 

 I have been surprised by the number of inquiries as to the 

 name and history of the Crinum. 



Watsonia iridifolia Ardernei. — Messss. R. Wallace & 

 Co., Colchester, have exhibited this plant at several flower 

 shows lately, and it has won general admiration on account 

 of its tall stems and large, numerous pure white flowers. 

 Apparently it is identical with the white Watsonia intro- 

 duced in 1889 by Mr. J. O'Brien and described by Mr. 

 N. E. Brown as W. iridifolia O'Brieni. This plant has been 

 grown annually out-of-doors at Kew since that time, where, 

 in a bed in a sunny position, and when treated like Gladioli, 

 it develops branched spikes three or four feet high bear- 

 ing numerous flowers with a tube two inches long and a 

 spreading regular limb of oblong segments nearly an inch 

 long. The plant, however, appears to have failed to attract 

 the"attention of horticulturists until now. Messrs. Wallace 

 offer the bulbs of it at thirty-six shillings a dozen and 

 describe and prescribe for it as follows : 



This grand new bulbous plant, which in habit much resem- 

 bles a Gladiolus, throws up strong branching flower-stems 

 three to four feet high, carrying from fifty to one hundred 

 flowers, which are of the purest white and of fine size and 

 shape, much resembling a gigantic white Freesia. It is a 

 lovely plant, and one we have every confidence in recom- 

 mending. It is best started in a greenhouse in April and then 

 planted out in June, though in warm districts it may be planted 

 outside, or may be treated as a greenhouse plant entirely. 

 After flowering, the bulbs should be lifted, thoroughly rested 

 and dried off and kept free from frost. „. „. 



London. W. WillSOn. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Diervilla Japonica. 



DURING a journey which I made in northern and cen- 

 tral Japan in the summer and autumn of 1892 I tried 

 to obtain some information of the wild types of Diervilla 

 from which the numerous garden forms are derived, gath- 

 ering specimens and seeds of the wild plants I encountered 

 from the Hakone Mountains, on the south, to Sapparo, in 

 the island of Yezo, at the north. Plants raised from these 

 seeds have flowered this summer in the Arnold Arboretum, 

 and the illustration of the flowering branch, on page 405 of 

 this issue, is made from one of these plants. The fruiting 

 branch is from a wild plant. 



In central and northern Japan, Diervilla is a common 

 shrub on the borders of mountain woods and by the banks 



of mountain streams, where it frequently grows fifteen feet 

 high and from ten to twenty feet through, with numerous 

 stout branches. It has ovate, acute or acuminate leaves, 

 which are nearly glabrous, with the exception of a few 

 hairs on the lower surface of the midribs and veins, or on 

 some individuals these are clothed more or less thickly 

 with soft pale pubescence. The flowers are borne in few 

 or many-flo wered clusters, which are long-stalked, or nearly 

 sessile, the two forms appearing on the same plant, and 

 they are rose-color, pale yellow, dark red or nearly white 

 on the same branch or on different branches of the 

 same plant, and flowers, which are pale when they open, 

 often become rose-color in fading. I am satisfied that I 

 only saw owe species in Japan, and, in spite of the judg- 

 ment of ]\Tax.imowicz (Mel. Biol., xii., 484), who had much 

 better opportunities for studying these plants in Japan than 

 I had, I am inclined to agree with Franchet (Franchet & 

 Savatier, Enum. PL Jap., i., 205) that Diervilla Japonica, 

 Diervilla grandiflqra and Diervilla floribunda must be re- 

 duced to a single sp/ecies which is widely scattered through 

 all the mountain districts of Japan, and varies in size, in 

 the amount of the pubescence on the lower surface of the 

 leaves, in the number of flowers and in the length of the 

 peduncles of the flower-clusters. Diervilla Japonica of 

 Thunberg appears to be the name for this species. 



c. s. s. 



w 



Cultural Department. 



Asiatic Cantaloupes. 



E have a large extent of country where this fruit can be 

 cultivated, and some of our^fdfls and climates are better 

 adapted to their growth than others. This year has been 

 almost a fatal one in much of New Jersey by reason of the 

 drought and insects. Delaware has done better, and Maryland 

 has furnished a fair crop. Degeneration of a variety takes 

 place in some localities much sooner than -in others, and all im- 

 ported seeds become smaller and of a light yellow. Some 

 oriental seeds are dark-colored and quite large, particularly of 

 the large varieties ; but they at once become yellow and 

 smaller, and in a few years are of the size obtained from our 

 smaller melons, so that they cannot be told apart. All Turkish 

 and Russian cantaloupe-seeds are large ; some are gray, 

 others are very dark yellow, and others, again, bright yellow. 

 Turkish seeds degenerate in size in Turkey, but not as they do 

 here even in a single season. Our seeds are nearly all light 

 yellow. I have once seen a bright yellow seed, and once a 

 brown seed, but the latter when planted here became light 

 yellow. It came from Louisiana, and produced an Acme. 



Oriental cantaloupes are generally green-fleshed, well netted, 

 and grow readily here, except those of Russia, from Odessa, 

 where they are said to be abundant, cheap and fine. Japanese 

 Melons are a failure here, and have very tiny seeds and no 

 netting. In size the best oriental melons vary very much ; 

 some weigh a pound, others twenty-five pounds. The best 

 come from Armenia, Persia, and Turkey in Asia. They are 

 round, oval, very long (fifteen to twenty-five inches) and drupe- 

 shaped. We have had in our country four varieties from 

 Armenia, fourteen from Persia and six from Turkey in Asia. 

 Five have not been tried yet. 



The Cassabah (accent on the bah) is not a Persian Melon, as 

 nearly all of the seedsmen have it in their annuals, but origi- 

 nated in a town of the same name north-east of Smyrna. In 

 some of the English maps it is spelled Kassaba, but my spell- 

 ing came from a native of Smyrna, where the fruit is sold. 

 Tliis Melon came to our country more than twenty years ago, 

 and is still grown, though it has degenerated in most places. 

 It is the parent on one side of many hybrids, conspicuous 

 among which was the Bayview, which appears to have run 

 out. The original Melon was grown in 1896 in Cape May 

 County, New Jersey, and three fruits weighed together more 

 than thirty-seven pounds. In Turkey it grows fifteen inches 

 long and weighs as many or more pounds. It is densely 

 netted, is generally flattened by its weight in growing and is 

 pointed at the stem-end. The flesh is green, the fibre rather 

 coarse and flavor very good. A new hybrid has appeared in 

 Maryland that is a very showy melon — the handsomest large 

 melon that I have cut in twenty years — weight, eight pounds; 

 dimensions, nine inches by seven and three-quarters and 

 seven and a quarter ; densely netted all over (it was grown on 



