128 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 12, 1890. 



seen to full advantage. The flowers are of an orange-yellow 

 color. The sepals are slightly marked with reddish brown at 

 the base, on the outside ; and an indistinct shade of the latter 

 color prevails in about two-thirds of their length, measuring 

 from the tip. The column is freely dotted with little brown 

 spots. Delicate markings of the same color appear at the 

 base of the lip, on the under side, and the thick keel is tipped 

 with a conspicuous blotch of darker tone. Both sepals and 

 petals are sometimes curled and twisted in a manner that 

 renders them additionally interesting. As grown here, in a 

 pot, the plant succeeds admirably under the treatment ordi- 

 narily accorded Maxillarias, and flowers freely during the 

 winter months. Mr. Watson, of Kew, will confer a favor by 

 saying .how far this plant resembles any there may be, under 

 the same name, in the Kew collection. Acknowledgment 

 is made to Dr. Watson, of the Harvard Herbarium, for assist- 

 ance rendered in my inquiries as to the identity of this plant. 



Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



The Day Lily of the Desert. 



ONE of the most beautiful and characteristic plants of the 

 Desert region of California is the Day Lily {Hesperocallis 

 undulata). Its flower-stems rise from one to two feet above 

 the sand, and bear from a few to thirty or more fragrant flow- 

 ers, in color, I should judge, of a pearly or greenish white, 

 with greenish stripes. I have seen only one in blossom, and 

 that was too far gone to show the genuine tint. 



This interesting species is one of the most promising nov- 

 elties of the present season, not only for its promise of fur- 

 nishing us with another lovely garden-flower, but also for its 

 probable economic value in the arid regions of the west. It 

 produces a large edible bulb, varying from one to four inches 

 in diameter, nearly round, with firm flesh. The bulb has a 

 pleasant taste, eaten either raw or cooked like onions. Our 

 party of seven have had them cooked at nearly every meal 

 since we first tested their qualities, and in the lack of other 

 vegetables find them acceptable. 



The bulb is found from six to eighteen inches below the sur- 

 face of the sand or fine gravellysoil, in which the plant thrives 

 best, and is usually found resting on moist gravel or a clay 

 subsoil. 



It is not rare on the Colorado and Mohave Deserts, and 

 usually blossoms on the Mohave in the month of May. Near 

 the boundary line it bloomed in 1889 as early as February, and 

 was in seed in April. This year only a few plants are found 

 showing as yet any signs of a flower-stem, but a few weeks 

 of warm weather will doubtless bring them forward. 



The Indians are said to obtain both food and drink from this 

 plant when crossing the plains. For eighty or a hundred miles 

 along our southern border one may travel at certain seasons 

 without finding water. The traveler is safe, however, if he 

 knows how to search successfully for this important vegetable, 

 and once found he need not fear either hunger or thirst. 



Should it prove susceptible of easy cultivation in the arid re- 

 gions of the west, it will prove a valuable addition to our list 

 of vegetables. It will certainly prove a welcome addition to 

 the garden, if not an acquisition to the farm. C. R. Or cult. 



San Diego, Cal. 



Clivia (Imantophyllum) cyrtanthiflora.— There are now many 

 splendid hybrid forms of this genus, but it is doubtful if any 

 of these will, for general purposes, prove superior to the sub- 

 ject of this note. And, by the way, this, too, is now classed 

 as a supposed hybrid between Clivia miniata and C. nobilis, 

 both natives of the Cape of Good Hope. Some years ago C. 

 cyrtanthiflora was also regarded as a species from the same 

 part of the world, and it would now be interesting to know 

 why botanists have changed their minds. It is an evergreen 

 bulbous plant that thrives most satisfactorily in an ordinary 

 greenhouse. The pointed, strap-shaped leaves, from one to 

 two feet in length, are arranged in two rows, and they all pro- 

 ceed from the root. The erect scape is almost as long as the 

 " leaves, and bears, in the form of an umbel, from twenty-five 

 to thirty cup-shaped flowers, which are from two to three 

 inches long, drooping, and of a bright salmon color ; they are 

 produced at various periods throughout the year, in fact, the 

 plant is seldom without Bowers, but most freely during the 

 winter months, and their full color and freshness are retained 

 a great while. Established plants seldom require repotting, 

 and they may be grown in a cool greenhouse during summer, 

 when they should be liberally watered ; in winter water may 

 be partially withheld, and the temperature should be main- 

 tained at about sixty degrees. To increase the stock, divide the 

 old plants after flowering; and in potting use four parts of good 

 rich loam to two of leaf-mould and one of rough charcoal. 



Cambridge, Mass. ■£>• 



Vieusseuxia Pavonia, or, as it was first called, Iris Pavonia, 

 is one of those charming old-fashioned plants which has now 

 almost disappeared from gardens. It is a native of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, like the other species of the small genus to 

 which it belongs, is distinguished from Iris by its filaments 

 united into a tube and by its minute interior perianth-seg- 

 ments. It is a greenhouse plant, but requires very little 

 artificial heat, and flowers in February in a temperature running 

 down to forty or forty-five degrees in cold nights. A pan 

 filled with one or two dozen bulbs is an attractive object when 

 the plants' are in flower. They have long, grass-like, pendu- 

 lous foliage, and flower-stems a foot high with wiry Iris-like 

 flowers about the size of silver dollars. The three outer 

 divisions of the perianth are white, with a large, conspicuous 

 blue spot at the base, its margin fringed with purple and 

 marked at the bottom with two bands, the first purple and the 

 second yellow, the whole resembling the eye in the tail- 

 feather of a peacock- — a resemblance which caused the adoption 

 of Pavonia as the distinguishing name for the plant. The 

 under side of these divisions of the flowers are beautifully 

 marked with reticulating blue or light purple lines. The 

 Peacock Iris is one of the easiest plants to cultivate success- 

 fully. The bulbs multiply rapidly, so that the stock can soon 

 be increased, and the plants had in flower during a consider- 

 able part of the winter if they are brought forward success- 

 ively in different temperatures. It is not easy to explain, there- 

 fore, why such a pretty and desirable plant should have become 

 so rare. It was one of the first plants from southern Africa 

 known and cultivated in Europe and several figures of it appear 

 in the botanical and horticultural literature of the last or of' the 

 beginning of the present century. Bulbs can be obtained from 

 the bulb-growers of Holland. 



Boston. o. 



Doronicums.— Mr. John Thorpe has done well to call atten- 

 tion to these desirable plants for winter blooming. Some 

 twelve months ago I wrote of the value of D. Caucasicum for 

 cutting purposes, and to this should be added D. filanta- 

 gineum excelsum, the flowers of which are often four inches in 

 diameter. Our plants have flowered for the past two months 

 in a house where frost was excluded. In cases where this 

 cool treatment is given the plants do not seem to suffer in any 

 way when planted out in spring, but flower right on through the 

 early summer months if placed in a rich, moist soil. With us 

 D. Clusii is not a success, owing to its provoking habit of rot- 

 ting in the centre, by which the plant is often completely de- 

 stroyed. This has been our experience during the past two 

 years with D. Clusii, both in-doors and in the open ground. 



Dianthus latifolius. — There are not many perennial Dianthuses 

 that will flower in four months from sowing the seed, but we 

 sowed a packet of seed of D. latifolius about the end of Sep- 

 tember and the plants began to flower early in the new year. 

 In habit this Dianthus resembles the Sweet William {D. bar- 

 batus), but the foliage is much broader, and the flowers are an 

 inch across and are produced in clusters on long stems, so 

 that they are very useful for cutting purposes, especially so 

 since the unopened buds expand in water. We know of no 

 Dianthus with flowers of such a brilliant, rich crimson as those 

 oiD. latifolius. It is a desirable plant where winter flowers 

 are required in quantity. 



Passaic, N.J. J ^_ E. O. Orpet. 



Italian Onions.— The introduction of this vegetable has been 

 a great boon to all the southern sections of our country, where 

 the varieties usually grown at the north will not make a crop 

 the first season from seed. Since these Onions have come 

 into use there has been a large falling off in the quantity 

 of Onion " sets " used, and the practice of using sets will soon 

 be abandoned, at least with those Onions which produce seed. 

 Those who grow the Italian Onions only from spring-sown 

 seed, however, have no conception of the size they will attain 

 if sown in autumn. How far north fall sowing can be practiced 

 I cannot say, but whenever it is practicable to carry the crop 

 through the winter the autumn is the time for sowing. The 

 Giant Rocca Onion, which is very unsatisfactory from spring- 

 sown seed, attains a size, when sown in fall, which fully justi- 

 fies its name, and the large Tripoli sorts are immense. Here 

 (latitude thirty-five degrees forty-seven minutes) we sow the 

 seed at any time in October. Northward an earlier sowing 

 would be better, so as to get the roots quite strong before winter. 

 Here bulbs and tops grow all winter, and as the bulbs gain 

 their size before extremely hot weather comes on, they reach 

 a development which we cannot get with other sorts. 



For family use and particularly for pickles the little White 

 Queen Onion is unsurpassed. With this variety we can in 



