424 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 452. 



Cattleya elongata. — This is the correct name for the 

 plant introduced and distributed in 1892 under the name of 

 Cattleya Alexandra;. It is now in flower at Kew, and I 

 have seen other cultivated examples of it in bloom, but so 

 far none with more than four flowers on a spike, although 

 I have seen wild specimens showing ten flowers on a scape. 

 It belongs to the same group as C. guttata ; indeed, many 

 look upon it as a variety of that species, differing only in 

 the color of its flowers, which are yellowish brown, with a 

 rose-purple lip. Several named varieties are recorded — 

 namely, elegans, with larger, brighter-colored flowers than 

 the type, and tuberosa, with darker-colored flowers. As a 

 garden Orchid it is inferior to such forms of C. guttata as 

 Leopoldii, amethystoglossa, etc. It requires the heat of a 

 stove when making fresh growth. 



Cypripedium Charxesworthii. — This is a first-class gar- 

 den Orchid, deserving to rank among the best half-dozen 

 Cypripediums known. It grows freely, is easily kept in 

 health, blooms with moderate freedom, and its flowers are 

 distinct, elegant in form and beautiful in color. There is 

 sufficient variety in the color of the flowers to keep up the 

 interest of collectors and give zest to the cultivation of 

 newly imported plants. Traders know the importance of 

 this quality, even in Orchids of the commonest character. 

 It accounts for the ready sale of newly imported plants of 

 Dendrobium nobile, Cypripedium insigne, Odontoglossum 

 crispum and similar " barn-door " kinds, and if the vender 

 can add that the plants are from an entirely new district so 

 much the better for him. Probably no Orchid shows such 

 range of variation in the size, form and marking of its 

 flowers as Odontoglossum crispum, next to it, perhaps, 

 coming Cattleya Triana?. On the other hand, many Orchids 

 vary comparatively little. 



Vanda ccerulea. — Large importations of this beautiful 

 Vanda were distributed in England a year or so ago, and 

 consequently its glorious flowers are now a prominent 

 feature in collections, and even in the flower shops in the 

 West End of London. I have seen some exceptionally fine 

 varieties lately ; we have one at Kew, the spike of which 

 now carries seventeen flowers, each over four inches across, 

 the segments wide and almost imbricating, and the color a 

 beautiful pale blue, richly tessellated with a darker shade of 

 blue. A plant of similar character was sold at the auction 

 rooms lately for twelve guineas. Good varieties make the 

 inferior ones look very poor in comparison, and yet I have 

 never seen one that was not really handsome. For the 

 cultivation of V. ccerulea less heat is needed than for most 

 Vandas. We grow it in a moist corner of the Cattleya- 

 house close to a door, where it gets plenty of ventilation. 

 Some successful cultivators recommend the conditions of 

 an ordinary vinery for it. As a rule, the plants grow well 

 and flower annually for about five years after they have 

 been imported ; after that they get weak and flower poorly. 



Dendrobium Phalangitis. — The number of plants of this 

 Denbrobe that have been imported into England during 

 the last five years is probably in excess of that of any other 

 Orchid in the same period. And yet more are announced 

 for sale, Messrs. F. Sander & Co. intending to offer seven 

 thousand newly imported plants of it next week. This 

 firm alone have imported over one hundred thousand plants 

 of this Dendrobium. It is generally supposed that tropi- 

 cal Orchids are going out of favor, but the sale this 

 ultra-tropical plant has commanded would appear to 

 disprove this. No Dendrobium requires a higher tem- 

 perature during its growing season — May to August — 

 a hot, steamy atmosphere and plenty of sunlight being 

 essential to the full development of its pseudo-bulbs. 

 It is, moreover, superior to all other species from New 

 Guinea and neighborhood in its good behavior under artifi- 

 cial treatment. Growers of cut flowers for the London market 

 have secured quantities of it, finding that its long, elegant 

 spikes of beautiful flowers fetch a high price, coming as 

 they do at a time when they are most useful, namely from 

 October to March. 



London. W. Watson. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Rhamnus crenata. 



THIS shrub, which is a native of Japan and central and 

 northern China, I found in Japan in the autumn of 

 1892, growing near the Nagascendo, the great mountain 

 road of central Hondo, near the village of Agamatsu, and 

 on the Pine-barrens near Gifu, where it is very abundant 

 on sterile soil with stunted plants of Ilex crenata and 

 Juniperus rigida in the shade of Pinus Thunbergii. It is 

 an unarmed, erect, glabrous shrub from six to ten feet in 

 height, with stout branches, thin light yellow-green, oblong 

 or oblong-obovate, wedge-shaped leaves from two to four 

 inches in length and from one-half of an inch to an inch and a 

 half in width ; minute orange-colored umbellate flowers, and 

 abundant black fruit half an inch in diameter. Plants in the 

 Arnold Arboretum, raised from seeds which I gathered in 

 Japan, have proved perfectly hardy in exposed situations 

 and on cold wet peat soil ; they are now nearly five feet high, 

 and flowered abundantly last spring, the flowering speci- 

 men which is produced in our illustration, on page 425 of 

 this issue, being taken from one of these cultivated plants. 

 The fruiting branch is from a specimen gathered near Gifu. 

 Rhamnus crenata * has proved a useful shrub in the 

 Arboretum, and if it fruits as freely here as in Japan it will 

 be decorative in the autumn. As a flowering plant it is not 

 showy. The foliage, however, is lustrous and of a pleasing 

 color, and has not been attacked by insects or disease. 



c. s. s. 



Cultural Department. 



The Flower Border in Autumn. 



""THE white-flowered Anemone Japonica is an old and 

 -^ well-known plant which deserves a place in every col- 

 lection of hardy herbaceous perennials. It delights in a rich, 

 moist soil, where it produces its large, pure white flowers in 

 great abundance from early in September until cut down by 

 frost. This, with other varieties of the type, is well adapted 

 for planting near the coast, and the long, graceful stems and 

 good-keeping qualities render the flowers very useful for cut- 

 ting. North of this city it ought to be grown in pots, since the 

 frost too often catches it when out-of-doors. It then makes 

 an admirable plant for greenhouse or piazza decoration in 

 autumn. 



Boltonia asteroides is one of the indispensable plants for 

 early autumn when large and impressive specimens are 

 desired. Its loose, graceful branches form a dense bush in 

 well-established plants, which are literally smothered with 

 Aster-like flowers, pure white with yellow disk. This is a 

 noble plant for a background, as it grows four feet high when 

 staked or tied up, but this support should not be obtrusive. 

 Lower plants may be set in front of it ; in any case, the branches 

 should be allowed to spread naturally and gracefully. The 

 flowers are useful for cutting, and the plant will thrive in any 

 garden soil, but delights in moist places along- streams, and is 

 well adapted for planting near the coast. B. latisquama is 

 another native of our western states which grows somewhat 

 stronger and has purple-pink flowers a little larger than the 

 preceding; its habit of growth is the same. 



Funkia subcordata, the white Plantain Lily, another favorite 

 of old gardens, is the best of all the Day Lilies, with bold foli- 

 age and large, pure white flowers which everybody associates 

 with late summer in the garden. Very attractive are the 

 spikes of glittering flowers above the shining green foliage, 

 and yet it is not as common as it once was. Why does the 

 young generation of gardeners neglect it ? 



Caryopteris Mastacanthus, so much talked about lately, 

 proves perfectly hardy here, and a plant of three years' stand- 

 ing is a marvel of beauty at this season with its profusion of 

 sott sky-blue flowers. The plants are very vigorous, and 

 young ones set out in spring form dense bushes in one season 

 and produce flowers from midsummer until cut off by frost. 

 It is strange how slowly a good plant makes its way into gen- 

 eral cultivation. Garden and Forest, as I remember, described 



* Rhamnus crenata, Siebold & Zuccarini. Abbild. Akad. Munch., iv., 146 (1843).— 

 Maximowicz, Me"m. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, x., 18. — Franchet & Savatier, Enum. 

 PL Jap.. i„ 1S2.— Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mas., ser. 2, v. 73 (PI. David, i.)— Forbes & 

 Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Sac, xxiii , 128. 



Fran'gula crenata, Miquel. Ann. Mils. Lugd. Bat., iii. 32 (Pral. Ft. Jap.) (1S67.) 

 Rhamnus oreigenes, Hance, Jour. Bo.'., vii., no (1869) ; viii., 312. 



