496 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 459. 



during any month of the year. In all parts of the country 

 exhibitions have this year been large and generally a suc- 

 cess. Even our provincial botanic gardens and public 

 parks grow enormous numbers of these plants and make a 

 special feature of them. 



Anthony Waterer died on November 16th, in his seventy- 

 fifth year. He was one of England's greatest nurserymen, 

 no man having done more than he to further the cause of 

 horticulture by the introduction and distribution of first- 

 rate hardy trees and shrubs of all kinds. He raised most 

 of the best of the hardy Rhododendrons and Azaleas, and 

 so exacting was he that even seedlings which others voted 

 excellent would be destroyed by him on account of some 

 slight defect of habit or color. His nursery at Knap Hill, in 

 Surrey, has long been famous for its rich collections of 

 hardy plants, and his exactitude in respect of the names 

 and quality of his plants and care in transplanting them 

 won him the confidence of buyers, not only in this country, 

 but in Continental and American countries also. He had 

 all the pride and a fair share of the prejudices of a success- 

 ful Englishman of the old school, and just as a plant to be 

 called "good" by him had to be of very clear merit, 

 indeed, so likewise in his judgment of men was he severe, 

 and to be called "respectable" by Anthony Waterer was 

 the highest compliment. His knowledge of hardy plants 

 was exceptional, for he knew them not only by name, but 

 their history in horticulture also, as well as their capabili- 

 ties in the garden or park. Many plants in his nursery he 

 kept solely out of love for them. The collection of Rhodo- 

 dendrons and Azaleas at Knap Hill is probably the most 

 extensive and richest in the world. Many of the specimens 

 are of enormous size. In the rich peat-soil of this nursery 

 they grow and flower with a vigor and profuseness not to 

 be equaled elsewhere, so that in their season, June, thou- 

 sands of horticulturists and others visit the nursery to see 

 them in bloom. For many years a large collection of big 

 specimen Rhododendrons from Knap Hill has been an 

 annual feature in Hyde Park, London. Tlr Tr , 



London. ^____ W. WcilSOJl. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Lonicera sempervirens. 



EVERY one who loves a northern garden knows the 

 scarlet Trumpet Honeysuckle, which grows naturally 

 in low glades from southern New England and Indiana 

 southward, and has been a popular garden plant from time 

 immemorial. There is a light yellow-flowered form of this 

 plant which is attractive ; and another form is figured on 

 page 495 °f tm 's issue. This is the plant cultivated in gar- 

 dens as Lonicera fuchsioides (not the Chinese Lonicera 

 fuchsioides of Hemsley). From the common type of Loni- 

 cera sempervirens it only differs in its rather dwarfer habit 

 and in its slightly broader corollas, which are borne in 

 denser clusters of more numerous flowers. The origin and 

 history of this plant are unknown to us, but whether it is a 

 wild form picked up in the woods and propagated by some 

 intelligent cultivator, or a nursery seedling, it is one of the 

 most beautiful of all hardy climbing Honeysuckles. 



Our illustration is from a drawing made by Mr. Faxon in 

 the Arnold Arboretum. 



Isoloma Jaliscanum. 



THE genus Isoloma is represented in most gardens. 

 The species are grown for their showy blossoms and 

 their handsome foliage, and I. Jaliscanum is among the 

 most striking of them. For the past five or six weeks this 

 plant has been flowering in a warm greenhouse and has 

 attracted much attention. The plants in bloom here were 

 raised from seed taken from dried specimens in the Gray 

 Herbarium about eighteen months ago. The seeds are 

 small and require careful treatment until they germinate. 

 When the plants are large enough to handle they may be 

 pricked off into small shallow pans, using a compost of 



finely sifted soil mixed with leaf-mold and sharp sand. 

 The seedlings may be placed in a position where they can 

 get plenty of light, but must be shaded during the hottest 

 part of the day. When they are about one inch high they 

 can be potted off singly into small pots and potted on 

 afterward as they need it. The plants are about eighteen 

 inches high and are well branched, and the bright scarlet 

 flowers are produced in umbels on the upper part of the 

 branches, and although the individual blossoms do not 

 last very long, yet the flowers appear in succession, so that 

 the plants, in their season, are never without a number of 

 flowers. The plants blossomed last spring, but not so 

 profusely as they have done now. As far as I know, this 

 handsome Isoloma has not been grown elsewhere ; and, 

 judging from its behavior here, I think it will be a valuable 

 addition to our warm greenhouse plants. It is a native of 

 Mexico, and was collected by Dr. Palmer on the Rio 

 Blanco, Jalisco, and was described by the late Dr. Sereno 

 Watson. Perhaps, as this plant is little known, Dr. Wat- 

 son's description would not be out of place here : 



Stems herbaceous or somewhat woody at the base, decum- 

 bent, about a foot high, pubescent throughout ; leaves oppo- 

 site, oblong-lanceolate, short-acuminate, rounded or aculish 

 at base, serrate, one to three inches long, shortly petiolate ; 

 peduncles axillary, one-half to one inch long, bearing an 

 umbel of two to four flowers on pedicels becoming one-half 

 to one and a half inches long; calyx-lobes acuminate, four to 

 six lines long in fruit ; carolla an inch long, scarlet, pubescent, 

 nearly straight, cylindric-funnel form, moderately dilated 

 upward, and throat but little contracted ; capsule turbinate- 

 oblong included. 



Harvard Bolanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. Robert Cameron. 



Cultural Department. 



Greenhouse Plants. 



STATICE HALFORDI is the garden name for a hybrid 

 form of S. macrophylla. It is an old greenhouse plant, a 

 nalive of Teneriffe, and was introduced to English gardens in 

 1828. It is seen occasionally, but not as frequently as it 

 should be. Old plants are subject to stem-rot, and since 

 few, if any, side shoots are thrown out, the plants often have 

 a scraggy appearance ; this, together with the fact that it is 

 slow and uncertain of propagation by ordinary methods, is a 

 sufficient reason, no doubt, why it is so seldom met with. 

 Plants a year old are of the most serviceable size. By al- 

 lowing cuttings a long time to callous in a cool propagating 

 bed I have raised them in this way, but have usually had more 

 success by layering. Old plants may be shaken out and an 

 incision made in the stems just below the leaf-growth and 

 planted out for the summer. I find they do well in any com- 

 mon garden soil, and if buried below the incisions most of 

 them will have struck root at these points, and may be potted 

 into separate plants. A friend of mine who gave me the idea 

 always plants his in the Asparagus bed, considering shade 

 essential. I prefer to use undersized pots and light soil, with 

 some charcoal incorporated. Excessive moisture at the roots 

 is fatal. The sinuate shining leaves are nearly all radical, or 

 tufted on short, scarious stems. The flattened, leafy compound 

 panicles of white flowers arise from the junction of two diver- 

 gent crowns. The corollas are papery in texture and ex- 

 tremely fugacious. It is seldom we see more than half a dozen 

 flowers open at a time. The deep blue and persistent invo- 

 lucre like bracts form the most conspicuous part of the inflo- 

 rescence, lasting for the greater part of the winter. Even when 

 pot-bound these Statices can be kept vigorous by the use of 

 manure-water and produce a surprising amount of bloom. 



Poinsettia, or botanically Euphorbia pulcherrima, is among 

 the showiest of winter-blooming plants. About this time of the 

 year they are a great feature in Covent Garden Market, Lon- 

 don. A specialty is made of them in many places in the neigh- 

 borhood, and their cultivation confined to a limited purpose, 

 that of producing single heads of bloom on as short stems as 

 possible. Much skill is required to do this, and often a whole 

 hatch will be re-rooted as late as September. If done success- 

 fully it will not be uncommon to see heads of deeply colored 

 leaf-like bracts, a foot or more in diameter, on stems not more 

 than eighteen inches long. If not subjected to this treatment 

 the stems would grow, in many plants, to more than six feet 

 in height. Poinsettias are considered invaluable for church 

 decoration during Christmas-time. Summer-struck cuttings 



