April tg, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



177 



which require to be shielded from the sun. Our summer 

 greenhouse is built in span-roofed shape, with sides six feet 

 high ; both the sides and roof are of laths, nailed an inch apart. 

 A ffat top is just as good, but is unsightly, and if the house is 

 wide is apt to sag. Door-ways in the ends open to a central 

 walk. On the west side a step-stage accommodates large 

 plants in pots. The east side has a bed of rich soil for grow- 

 ing evergreen seedlings. Celery, etc. In one corner a bed of 

 sifted coal-ashes accommodates pots of Violets. Many years 

 ago I adopted the plan of dividing up Violets in April and set- 

 ting the young plants in three-inch pots under shade for the 

 summer. I have never had any disease in Violets treated in 

 this way, and have always found clumps grown in the open 

 ground all summer to be diseased. Such a structure can be 

 made very attractive and ornamental in any garden if built of 

 neatly dressed materials and painted. Hanging pots and bas- 

 kets of Achimenes will make it gay, and the pots of hard- 

 wooded greenhouse-plants will find here a congenial summer 

 home. Many species of Orchids will pass the summer here 

 in a more healthy condition than under glass, and the gardener 

 will always find it a comfortable place in which to work when 

 it is too hot in the open garden. The gleams of clear sunlight 

 alternating with shade give the most wholesome conditions 

 for the plants, and there is no drawing up and etiolation as 

 under heavily shaded glass. 



For all that has been said of the bedding-out qualities of the 

 tuberous Begonias, they are sorry-looking objects here in full 

 sunshine ; in a lath-covered house the plants produce fiowers 

 almost as perfect as those grown under shaded glass. For the 

 very highest development of these flowers, however, I prefer 

 the glass. I have seen pictures of fields of tuberous Begonias 

 growing out in the north and in England, but I have never 

 seen a good plant bedded out in the south. While the various 

 sorts of Coleus are usually grown only for summer bedding, 

 and serve this purpose admirably, I confess to a fancy for 

 growing specimen Coleus in pots, and in such a structure the 

 size and color of their leaves are a revelation to those who have 

 only seen these plants grown out-of-doors. The lath-screened 

 structure is as essential to a well-ordered garden in summer 

 as the greenhouse is in winter. ^,^ _ ,^ 



Raleigi?, N. c. ^- F- Massey. 



Amaryllis. 



THERE are few places in America where the showy and 

 useful kinds of Amaryllis, which fiower in spring and 

 early summer, receive the attention and prominence which 

 they deserve. The reasons why they should become popular 

 are many. Apart from an annua! repotting in spring, they 

 need very little attention besides watering, for after the flow- 

 ering period is past we place them m cold frames to grow all 

 summer, and they mature both the foliage and bulbs thor- 

 oughly in the frames and are stored away in the greenhouse 

 under the benches all winter until signs of growth appear in 

 spring. Re-potting is always done before leaf-growth has 

 advanced, as the leaves are very liable to be injured when 

 young, and if bruised they need staking to preserve their nor- 

 mal habit. The chief hindrance to the making of a collection of 

 Amaryllis is the first cost, bulbs of choice varieties being very 

 expensive, and those of common varieties, from which the 

 good ones have all been selected, are by no means cheap ; 

 but there is one way in which one can get together a very in- 

 teresting lot of plants, and that is, to raise them from seeds. 

 Some may say that it takes too long to bring them to a flower- 

 ing size, but I have found by actual comparison that it takes 

 quite as long to establish a dry imported bulb, such as are sent 

 herein the fall, without roots, as to sow seeds and flower the 

 bulbs. We are now flowering a nice lot of bulbs from seeds 

 sown in November, 1890. The seeds of Amaryllis are pecu- 

 liar in structure and lose their vitality quickly and should be 

 obtained as soon as ripe, about midsummer, from a specialist 

 who supplies seed, and when received should be sown at once 

 in a warm greenhouse. A packet containing sixty seeds was 

 sown June 30th last, and we have now fifty plants well-rooted 

 in four-inch pots, and these, if grown on all summer, will some 

 of them, perhaps, flower next spring. Seedling Amaryllis do 

 not require any period of rest until they reach maturity. When 

 they have flowered and begin to develop offsets they may be 

 kept rather dry through the winter as with older bulbs, and 

 when a quantity are grown they may be brought on in succes- 

 sion or grown to form a display at one period as suits the 

 cultivator, Thrips are very liable to disfigure the foliage when 

 young, but as we grow them indoors at this period an occa- 

 sional fumigation of tobacco smoke will put an end to this 

 pest, the only one that is likely to give any trouble. 

 This section of the Amaryllidse is now more properly known 



as Hippeastrum, and the genus is peculiar to tropical South 

 America. The original parents of our present garden forms 

 were several, and their individuality is now almost lost, as the 

 hybrids themselves easily intercross. It is rather singular that 

 to a Lancashire weaver, John Horsfleld, we owe the most beau- 

 tiful Narcissus, and so also to a Lancashire watchmaker do we 

 owe the first hybrid Amaryllis, A. Johnsoni, perhaps the best 

 known variety in gardens to-day. It was raised in 1799, ^"^^ 

 the parents were A. Regin;e and A. vittatum. There is a wide 

 field open for the further improvement of garden Amaryllis. 

 In the southern states growers could cultivate them in the 

 open air altogether, and they could be sold at very remunera- 

 tive prices if the strain were carefully selected and only the 

 best kinds used to start with. European growers realize high 

 prices for their bulbs, and even then it is sometimes difficult 

 to supply the demand. 



South Lancaster, Mass. O. O, 



The Spring Garden. 



T N this first week of April the first Daffodils are greeting 

 ■^ many of the winter flowers. Many of the Narcissi are bear- 

 ing weli-fiUed spathes, but N. Scoticus led the van in showing 

 its trumpets, closely followed by some Italian forms of N. 

 bicolor prsecox. The Daffodils which I grow under this name 

 are such as are supplied by Italian bulb merchants at a low rate, 

 and seem to be a mixture of collected wild kinds not all bi- 

 colored, but among themaresomecapital varieties in the way of 

 N. princeps, and not a few like Umberto, which has an orange 

 keel to the perianth-segments. They are not of great sub- 

 stance, but are very satisfactory for forcing or garden-culture. 

 Of the other flowers of the season a few Snowdrops are still in 

 good form, with Galanthus nivalis in its greatest beauty. 

 Among some plants of G. Imperati Atkinsi this season I have 

 noticed a strong tendency to doubling, some flowers having an 

 extra outer and also inner petal. This tendency is more inter- 

 esting botanically than aesthetically, a single Snowdrop being 

 usually a perfect gem. 



The spring Snowflakes, Leucojum vernum, with their large 

 snowy bells tipped with gold, are second to none of the flowers 

 of the season. With the exception of these and the summer 

 Snowflakes, I do not succeed well with the Leucojums, which 

 disappear or do not appear after planting. I should like to 

 know how to establish them outside. The mauve-colored 

 Crocus Imperati is a delightful plant for the early garden, 

 opening wide and making a glow of color. It is now suc- 

 ceeded by Cloth of Gold and others, the former well-known 

 kind being the brightest flower of the season, a glowing rich 

 orange, most attractive. It is a flower which, like a scarlet 

 Poppy, will fill the eye with color. 



Bulbocodium vernum, owing to its bad color, does not seem 

 worth garden-room. Of true blue flowers, always scarce, just 

 now we have Muscari lingulatum, a pure light China-blue, 

 changing to deep blue. The Grape Hyacinths, by the way, are 

 late this year. Iris reticulata is in full beauty with its fragrant 

 pure purple flowers. TheChionodoxas are also in great beauty, 

 all the varieties capital garden-plants, but C. Luciliae easily first 

 for general culture. Anemone blanda is another belated plant, 

 and will scarcely close its starry flowers before A. Apennina 

 opens. Among the herbaceous plants only English Daisies, 

 Arabis alpina. Lent Lilies and Chickweed have as yet shown 

 flowers. ~ ,, ^ 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



The Side-saddle Flower. — Besides its oddity, our Wild 

 Sarracenia purpurea has decided claims to beauty, both in 

 flower and leaf, and it is well worthy of cultivating. His often 

 found in dense Cedar swamps, where there is no undergrowth 

 except Sphagnum, in which the plants are often partially im- 

 bedded, the larger ones rooting in the soil beneath, while the 

 small ones live in the moss itself. The plant grows here, where 

 the shade is so dense as to make a constant twilight, with 

 great vigor and produces enormous pitchers. These are green, 

 however, and the plant seldom flowers. In depressions, where 

 there is a good deposit of vegetable-mold and standing water 

 most of the year, these plants, when exposed to direct sun- 

 shine for a part of the day, grow large and highly colored 

 pitchers, some of them a rich crimson-brown, in siiades of 

 varying intensity and others reticulated with rich crimson 

 veins. Where the sun shines clearly on the plants in hot sum- 

 mer days, portions of the pitchers are burned and disfigured. 

 On the banks of road-side ditches, half-shaded by sedges and 

 coarse grasses, in low spots, we occasionally find plants with 

 pitchers less highly colored, but still well developed, and they 

 produce large and fragrant nodding flowers. These are brown- 

 crimson on the outside and a pleasing greenish yellow within, 



