September 13, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



387 



Hydrangea paniculata. — This plant is valued here chiefly 

 as a useful pot-shrub, which may be forced into flower in 

 early spring. It is, at least, equally valuable as a lawn- 

 shrub, as has been very fully exemplified this year at Kew, 

 where a large round bed on an open position on a lawn is 

 filled with plants four feet high, which for nearly two 

 months now have been clothed with great bunches of daz- 

 zling white flowers. We are apt to overlook the fitness of 

 many things for the shrubbery and lawn if we begin by 

 growing them in pots for the greenhouse, and this Hy- 

 drangea is an instance, so far, at least, as English horticul- 

 ture is concerned. There has been no more effective shrub 

 at Kew this summer than H. paniculata. 



[The sterile form of Hydrangea paniculata, known in gar- 

 dens as Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, has become one of 

 the most popular and universally used shrubs in the United 

 States in a surprisingly short time. It probably originated in 

 Japanese gardens, where it is much less valued than it is 

 here. The wild forms of Hydrangea paniculata, with only 

 the outer flowers of the cluster sterile, are less commonly 

 seen in this country, although many persons now consider 

 them more beautiful than the plant with the huge 

 clusters of sterile flowers. There are two quite distinct 

 forms. The first flowers in July, and produces smaller 

 panicles with small ray-flowers, and is, perhaps, a distinct 

 and undescribed species ; it was sent to the United States 

 by the late Thomas Hogg. The second is now in flower 

 with the sterile form, and produces immense, erect, broad 

 panicles, with few large ray-flowers. The three forms are 

 all hardy, grow rapidly and flower profusely. The early- 

 flowered deserves to be much better known in our gardens 

 than it is at present. — Ed.] 



The Royal Botanical Society of Reg'ents Park is in a tot- 

 tering condition, and is like to fall. Its finances are in a 

 hopeless state, and its work during the last few years has 

 been such as is not likely to win much sympathy either 

 from horticulturists or botanists. The general feeling is 

 that there is no need for a botanical collection in Regents 

 Park, when all that can be desired is to be seen and ob- 

 tained a few miles away at Kew. On the other side, the 

 assistance the society has tried to render to horticulture by 

 means of exhibitions has been almost superfluous now that 

 the Royal Horticultural Society is in vigorous activity 

 again. It would appear, therefore, that London does not 

 require such a society as that which has for so long held its 

 meetings in the enclosure at Regents Park. The sugges- 

 tion that the Botanical Gardens should be recovered by 

 Government and added to the park appears to be the best 

 course. It is scarcely likely that the 2^x8, 000 debt of the 

 society will be subscribed by a public unable to see 

 the utility of the work done by the society in recent 

 years. 



The Royal Horticultural Society is this year extending 

 its operations to the other side of the metropolis, having 

 arranged for a great exhibition of plants, flowers, fruits and 

 garden requisites of all kinds in the extensive Agricultural 

 Hall at Islington. I learn that there is every promise of a 

 great display, and as the exhibition will be open four days, 

 from August 29th to September ist, and the neighborhood 

 is a densely populated one, there is a probability that many 

 thousands will visit it. 



Co-operative Gardening. — The sixth annual exhibition of 

 the Co-operative Agri-Horticultural Association was held at 

 the Crystal Palace last week, and proved a great success. 

 The object of this association is a most laudable one — 

 namely, the encouragement of horticulture and agriculture 

 among the working classes. Three hundred pounds in 

 prizes is given, and so general is the interest that no less 

 than 4,077 entries were made, the exhibits covering nearly 

 three-quarters of a mile of tables in the Palace Hall. In the 

 workmen's section there were 1,202 entries of vegetables 

 alone, and 744 of cut flowers, 240 of fruit and 224 of plants 

 in pots; there were also 129 exhibits staged by women 

 and children. Such plants as Ferns, Begonias, Balsams, 

 Fuchsias, Musk and Pelargoniums were largely repre- 



sented, and generally they showed considerable cultural 

 skill. Vegetables, too, were, on the whole, good, and fruit 

 was in some instances worthy of first-rate gardens. The 

 success of such an exhibition is in the amount of pleasure 

 it gives and the interest it inspires among the exhibitors 

 themselves. The result cannot be other than to promote a 

 love of plants and flowers and a knowledge of the art of 

 growing them among those who have greatest need of the 

 pleasure and profit which good gardening brings. 



London. W. WalSOn. 



Cultural Department. 

 Crinum Powelli. 



THE Royal Botanical Gardens at Glasnevin, near Dub- 

 lin, have long been famous for horticultural successes, 

 and one of these is the splendid collection of Crinums, 

 formed by the present curator, Mr. F. W. Moore, and es- 

 tablished in a south border against a range of plant-houses. 

 A correspondent, who saw these plants in June, wrote us 

 at the time in praise of their excellent growth and the ad- 

 mirable flowers which some of them were already bearing, 

 and Mr. Moore himself contributed a note on the plants to 

 the Gardeners' Magazine, which contained so much useful 

 information that we give it entire. Although Dublin is 

 nearly thirteen degrees farther north than New York, its 

 mean annual temperature is a few degrees higher, and its 

 other climatic conditions are so different from ours that it 

 is hardly probable that these Crinums would be hardy 

 here. Farther south they may be expected to flourish, but 

 they can easily be kept over winter and make admirable 

 decorative plants for outdoor use here in summer. 



During the bright aad sunny weather of June no hardy plants 

 have attracted more attention in Glasnevin than Crinum 

 Powelli and Crinum Powelli alba. Fortunately, both these 

 may be described as hardy plants, for, whether planted in the 

 open border or in a sheltered warm corner, the severest win- 

 ters experienced at Glasnevin have not in any degree impaired 

 their vitality, or permanently injured them. Nothing worse 

 has happened than a browning of their old leaves, while these 

 disappear, to be replaced by a crown of fresh and vigorous 

 foliage in April. Then come the flowers. They first open in 

 June, and the early frosts of October find some still remain- 

 ing. The history of Crinum Powelli and its varieties is well 

 known. For many years Crinum longifolium had been cul- 

 tivated out-of-doors in British gardens, and had proved to be 

 quite hardy. In 1863, the late Dr. David Moore obtained seeds 

 of a Crinum which proved to be a new species, and is now 

 known as Crinum Moorei {Boi. Mag., plate 6113). This, 

 when tested beside C. longifolium in a special border in the 

 open air, grew freely and flowered, survived the winter, and 

 though more or less injured by the frosts, it has continued to 

 thrive where it was first planted more than fifteen years ago. 

 Mr. C. B. Powell crossed together C. longifolium and C. Moorei ; 

 the result of this cross gave to our gardens C. Powelli and the 

 beautiful plant C. Powelli alba. 



To fully appreciate the excellence of these plants, one must 

 see a clump which has been properly planted and left undis- 

 turbed for some years. Such a clump outside the Orchid- 

 house at Glasnevin, consisting of six bulbs, has fourteen 

 flower-scapes, two of which have twenty-three flower-seats, 

 the tallest of these scapes being three feet six inches high, and 

 the largest leaf five feet six inches long. Beside this clump 

 Crinum Powelli alba has a scape with twenty flower-seats. It 

 must be understood that all these flowers do not open simul- 

 taneously. Six is the largest number I have counted open at 

 the same time, but a circle of six waxy beautifully formed 

 flowers, either deep rose or pure white in color, each flower 

 measuring six or more inches across, forms a sight not easily 

 to be forgotten, and makes one feel deeply indebted to the 

 raiser for adding such a treasure to the list of garden-plants. 



To succeed thoroughly in growing Crinums in the open air, 

 two points need attention — plant deeply, and plant in good wel- 

 drained soil. Some of the Crinums require to be planted quite 

 three feet deep, and C. Powelli likes to be at least two feet down- 

 that is to say, the base of the bulb to be two feet below the sur- 

 face. Even, if when planting, the bulbs are not two feet long, 

 plant at that depth, and they will soon not only grow to two 

 feet, but extend for quite another foot above the surface, and 

 so planted they here require no protection whatever. Outside 



