78 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 260. 



hybrids between this species and others which is liltely to 

 take a high position among the most useful of flowering 

 garden-plants. I hope INlr. Jennings will tell how he grew 

 his plants. I confess to having tried to grow B. Gloire de 

 Sceaux, and failed, owing, as I believe, to winter fog. 



CvRTANTHUs CARNEus. — -This is a good winter-flowering 

 Cape bulb ; at any rate, it is in flower now at Kew, and 

 from its behavior one might expect it to turn out a good 

 garden-plant. It is very similar to C. obliquus, but dif- 

 fers in the color of its flowers, which are bright red. The 

 leaves are broad, strap-shaped, a foot or more long, and 

 the scape is erect, two feet long, with a large umbel of 

 drooping, fleshy, tubular flowers two inches long. Although 

 almost unknown in cultivation now, it was introduced and 

 flowered at Chiswick sixty years ago. 



Nelumbiums. — Many of your readers evince a more than 

 ordinary interest in aquatic plants, and especially in 

 Nymphnsas and Nelumbiums. The naturalization of the 

 Nelumbium speciosum in your ponds and lagoons is a 

 gardening achievement to be proud of. Could not some 

 of your importers of Japanese plants obtain some of the 

 distinct and beautiful varieties of Nelumbium which are 

 known to grow in Japan ? A few years ago I saw in a 

 rare Japanese work of great value, called Honzo Zoufu, a 

 series of beautifully executed colored pictures of Nelumbi- 

 ums which revealed a surprising range of variation in the 

 flowers of this plant, far beyond anything we have ever 

 seen here. Altogether there were eighty-eight pictures of 

 Nelumbium, including leaves, seed-vessels, germinating 

 seeds, roots and rhizomes, besides flowers. I made tracings 

 of some of the most striking of the latter. In size the range 

 was from that of a Niphetos rose to one almost equal to the 

 flower of Victoria regia, the largest measuring eleven inches 

 in diameter. In form, in the width and number of the 

 petals, and in pose there was considerable variation, while 

 in color the variety was equally striking. My notes of the 

 colors of some are : rose, with crimson tips ; yellow and 

 white; pure white; white, golden at the base ; white, edged 

 with yellow ; white, margins crimson, flecked with maroon ; 

 crimson. In 1887 some rhizomes of Nelumbiums from 

 Japan were obtained for Kew, and among them there were 

 deep red and pure white ones. These are in the collection 

 still. The late Sir George Macleay tried several times to 

 introduce these fine Japanese Nelumbiums, but did not get 

 any except the white and rose-red kinds. Probably you 

 would meet with much better success in America. Our 

 difficulty is in establishing the plants the first year and 

 getting growth into them of sufficient strength to carry 

 them through the winter. Nelumbium is not by any means 

 a kindly plant with us. 



J.JiPANESE Bindweeds. — The picture of the double-flowered 

 Convolvulus recently published in Garden and Forest 

 (vol. v., p. 592), recalled to my mind an interesting com- 

 munication from an English correspondent in Japan in 

 1885, accompanied by a collection of seeds of garden varie- 

 ties of Convolvulus major, among which were supposed 

 to be double-flowered and many colored kinds. He wrote : 

 "Your request for some Convolvulus-seed came very op- 

 portunely, as it was at the season when the plants are 

 offered in pots in bloom for sale. I bought fifty to plant, 

 and saved the seeds from them myself. Some have sky- 

 blue, some yellow, flowers, and two of the seeds are from 

 one which had a stem like a Cockscomb, is two feet high, 

 has variegated leaves and flowers growing from the sides 

 of the stem. We have also a double Convolvulus in all 

 colors. I planted some among the single ones, and I have 

 no doubt some of the seeds sent will be from plants im- 

 pregnated from them. We grew these plants in a sunny 

 greenhouse, but found no double ones among them. There 

 were, however, some pretty colored forms among the 

 single-flowered kinds." A race of C. major with double 

 flowers in various shades would probably be of considera- 

 ble value in the garden, as the flowers would, no doubt, 

 remain fresh longer than the single forms do. It would be 

 interesting to learn how these double-flowered forms are 



obtained and perpetuated by the Japanese. [The Morning- 

 glory grown in such large quantities in Japan in pots 

 appears to be Ipomoea triloba, Mig. — Ed.] 



Narcissus Broussonetii. — This rare and interesting spe- 

 cies is said to be a good plant for cultivation in pots to 

 flower in February. The bulbs should be planted in good 

 soil in pots in October or November, and kept in a slightly 

 heated frame where they will get plenty of light after 

 growth begins. After flowering they should be plunged 

 outside for a time till growth is finished, and then shaken 

 out of the soil and thoroughly dried. The plant is a native 

 of Morocco, where it was found by Broussonet, but was not 

 introduced into cultivation until a few years ago, when it 

 was sent to Kew, where it flowered in a greenhouse in the 

 spring of 1888. It has long narrow leaves and tall scapes, 

 bearing umbels of from four to eight flowers, which are 

 pure white, trumpet-shaped, and an inch across the 

 limb. They are remarkable in having the corona reduced 

 to a mere rim and stamens much more prominent than 

 usual. They are also sweet-scented. 



Cynorchis grandiflora. — This Orchid has lately been in- 

 troduced into England and shown in flower by Messrs. 

 Lewis & Co. at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, when it received a botanical certificate. The 

 genus, which is confined to Madagascar and the adjacent 

 islands and is composed of fourteen species, belongs to 

 the Ophrydeae and is closely allied to Habenaria. C. 

 grandiflora appears to be the largest-flowered species 

 known. It has a tuberous root-stock, fleshy, green, de- 

 ciduous leaves nine inches long, one-third of an inch wide, 

 channeled, green above, striped or blotched with purple 

 below ; scape, nine inches long, erect, one-flowered. 

 Flower, of three lanceolate sepals, an inch long, white 

 with purple spots ; petals reduced to filaments ; lip, large, 

 one and a half inches long, one inch wide, three-lobed, 

 spreading, colored pale violet with a white claw ; spur, 

 straight, two inches long, slightly swollen in the lower 

 half. C. grandiflora, when wild, frequents wet places and 

 appears to require the same kind of treatment as suits Disa 

 grandiflora, with more warmth. When not in flower the 

 plant might easily be taken for a Disa. It was introduced 

 from Madagascar along with D. incarnata. I am afraid it 

 will not find much favor as a garden Orchid. 

 London. W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Fatal Club-root of Turnips. 



LAST autumn some diseased turnips were brought to the 

 station laboratory with the complaint that a large field of 

 them was rotting badly, and that the crop would be a failure. 

 An examination showed that the trouble was caused by the 

 Club-root Fungus (Plasmodiophora Brassicag, Wor.) This rot 

 of the turnip infests the cabbage also ; the Cabbage Club-root 

 has been known since 1780, or more than a hundred years. It 

 has a common name in many languages, and several in the 

 English, " Fingers-and-toes" being one of them. These 

 various names come usually from the prevailing habit of dis- 

 torting the roots of the Cabbage or Turnip into a knotty mass. 

 It is difficult to estimate the loss to the cabbage and turnip 

 crops from this enemy. Mr. Eycleshymer, in his recent paper 

 upon the "Club-root in the United States,"* states that for 

 Russia the loss for 1876 was $225,000. It must be much more 

 in this country. Much of the damage is done to seedlings, 

 which it attacks in the seed-bed, sometimes ruining eVery 

 plant ; the sickly plant is unable to form any healthy roots, and 

 therefore quickly succumbs. The fungus works below ground, 

 and is therefore difficult to detect until the plant is beyond re- 

 covery. Besides this, it is a fungus that works in the indi- 

 vidual cells of the root, and has no filaments that reach from 

 cell to cell, and no spore bodies that form outside of the 

 affected parts. The diseased root upon removal from the soil 

 will be found much knotted, with soft rotting places, which 

 give off a most disagreeable odor. New roots may start out 

 above the diseased portion, which in turn become affected, 

 and the Cabbage or the Turnip falls a victim to the countless 

 germs that have multiplied within its substance. 



* The Journal of Mycology, vol. vii., No. 2, March 10, 1892. 



