204 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 23, 1S90. 



with red filaments and yellow anthers, form a showy mass in 

 the centre of each flower, and a series of barren yellow fila- 

 ments, arranged round the fertile stamens, also adds to their 

 good appearance. The branches and leaves and exterior 

 surface of the sepals are clothed with downy hairs. 5. Afri- 

 cana gives perfect satisfaction in an ordinary greenhouse, the 

 temperature of which never falls below thirty-five degrees. 

 Full exposure to light is at all times requisite, and a free cir- 

 culation of fresh air on favorable occasions is beneficial. 

 Specimens of all sizes will derive considerable advantage 

 from being plunged to the rim in the open garden during the 

 summer months, and when dry weather prevails a syringing 

 toward evening will add to their healthful appearance. Plants 

 should be potted early in spring. The tips of the young shoots 

 root readily in a propagating frame at a temperature of about 

 sixty degrees. 



Solanum jasminoides. — From a floricultural point of view 

 this is perhaps the most useful and beautiful species of the 

 genus to which it belongs. It is a native of South American 

 countries, but succeeds satisfactorily in a green-house, the 

 temperature of which never falls below forty degrees. Being 

 of a climbing habit, it is seen to the greatest advantage when 

 treated as a vine, and trained to walls, pillars or rafters. The 

 younger branches then hang downward gracefully, and during 

 winter and spring bear numerous racemose clusters of pretty 

 white jasmine-like flowers, that are further adorned by con- 

 spicuous bunches of yellow stamens. It is a deciduous plant, 

 the ovate-acuminate — sometimes cleft — leaves falling late in 

 summer or early in autumn, and it grows most luxuriantly 

 when planted in a prepared bed or border. When in active 

 growth it requires plenty of water, but the quantity should be 

 restricted during the season of rest, which continues from six 

 to eight weeks after the leaves have dropped. The tips of 

 firm young shoots make good cuttings, which root quickly in 

 sand with the assistance of a little bottom-heat. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Wild Flowers under Cultivation. 



EXPERIMENTS in the cultivation of wild plants often give 

 results at once surprising and gratifying. The common 

 Loosestrife (Steironema ciliatum), for example, is a plant which 

 in its wild state attracts but little attention, and which but few 

 persons will even recognize. A year or two ago I lifted a clod of 

 its roots and gave it a position in my garden on the north side 

 of a picket-fence and in the partial shade of a tree. The last 

 summer it formed a charming mass of neat, clean foliage, 

 borne on many erect, wiry, symmetrically branching stems 

 three or four feet high, a cord tied to the fence affording a 

 slight support, and when studded over with its airy, delicate, 

 golden-hued blossoms, but few plants in my garden excited 

 more interest or were more admired. It is, too, a lasting 

 bloomer, and retains the freshness of its verdure until cut 

 down by the frost. 



Another plant that has especially pleased me under domes- 

 tication is Spiraa Aruncus, or Goat's Beard. A clump among 

 the shrubs in my garden is a most effective feature, making 

 a luxuriant growth of a peculiarly picturesque habit, and the 

 flower panicles produced are of immense proportions, the 

 whole plant having improved wonderfully with the slight care 

 it has received. During the early period of their growth, or 

 until they are a foot high or more, specimens may be readily 

 removed from their native haunts to the garden, and, in a rich 

 soil, will thrive from the start. Care must be taken to discrim- 

 inate between the male and female plants, only the former 

 producing the large, showy flower-panicles. During the pe- 

 riod mentioned I have never failed to separate the sexes by the 

 marked reddish tinge of the stem and leaves of the female 

 plants — a point which seems to me an interesting and note- 

 worthy distinction. The foliage, however, of the female plant 

 is more lasting, retaining its freshness until the seeds ripen, 

 while in the male plant it begins to fade or dies soon after the 

 flowers wither. 



The Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia anstralis), ornamental in 

 flower and foliage, is an abundant strong-growing species 

 along the shore of the Ohio River within my field of observa- 

 tion. A few years ago I transferred a specimen, with its re- 

 markably deep set, strong and bulky roots, to my grounds, set- 

 ting it in an open situation in a compact sandy soil. It flow- 

 ered and did well the first season, but the next year or two it 

 was less thrifty and failed wholly to bloom. One autumn I 

 loosened the earth about its roots to the depth of eight or ten 

 inches and covered it with two or three inches of well rotted 

 manure. In the early spring I again loosened the soil and at 

 times gave it a thorough soaking, letting it take in as much as 

 a pailful. That season it made a remarkably vigorous growth, 



and produced a number of strong racemes of beautiful flow- 

 ers. These plants, in their natural state, grow in an alluvial 

 or sandy soil, and are often submerged by a full river for days 

 together, which also serves as a strong fertilizer. To attain 

 the highest success in their cultivation I am persuaded these 

 conditions must be largely imitated. 



Every one is familiar with Jack-in-the-Pulpit, or the Indian 

 Turnip, but there are but few, it is safe to say, who have any 

 knowledge of its congener, the Green Dragon (Ariscema dra- 

 contium), a scarcely less interesting plant, less common, per- 

 haps, and less conspicuous as it grows naturally, but by no 

 means rare. It could well lay claim to the distinction of bear- 

 ing one of the oddest or most grotesquely formed leaves (it 

 has but one) among native American plants. A little imagi- 

 nation might see in it a dragon's foot and claws. Whether it 

 was this that suggested it or the fiercely acrid juice of its root- 

 stock, and that of its kind, the name given to the plant is sin- 

 gularly appropriate. A bulb or corm set in my garden half a 

 dozen years ago grows uniformly a much larger leaf than I 

 have ever seen it in its wild state, measuring last summer a 

 little over a foot across, and with seventeen leaflets, instead of 

 " seven to eleven," as given by the botanies. With its very odd 

 leaf and remarkably long and slender orange colored spadix 

 it well deserves a place in the wild garden as a curiosity. Its 

 scarlet fruit cluster is no less brilliant than that of the Indian 

 Turnip. 



Another domesticated wild plant in my garden worthy to be 

 mentioned here is the Goat's Rue {Sephrosia Virginiaiia). It 

 is enough to say of it that it retains under its new conditions 

 all of its natural attractions of showy flowers and pleasing 

 foliage. Some have told me they have failed in their attempts 

 to grow it. In its natural state here it grows its long slender 

 roots in a dry slaty soil in a more or less sunny exposure. I 

 have conformed somewhat to these conditions. These are a 

 few of the experiments of a busy man who loves flowers with 

 a few plants growing wild in this region. They are presented 

 with the hope that others may be induced to make similar 

 trials and share with him much pleasure and instruction. 



Fairvievv, W. Va. IV. E. Hill. 



Hardy Plants for Cut Flowers. — I. 



"[^LOWERS for home decoration are now in universal de^ 

 *■ mand, and this is one of the uses to which hardy perennial 

 plants are specially adapted, because their requirements are 

 few and they can be successfully cultivated by anyone who can 

 command a plot of ground. Of the thousands of perennial 

 plants in cultivation, many whose flowers are beautiful, fra- 

 grant and durable when cut can be found adapted to any 

 American garden, whatever may be its situation. It is now 

 established beyond question that a selection of plants for the 

 open border can be made to yield flowers in variety and 

 profusion for nine months in the year, or from March until 

 December. 



Among the earliest of hardy subjects, the bulbous section 

 take first rank. Such harbingers of spring as Squills, Chiono- 

 doxas and Crocus cannot be considered useful for cutting and 

 it is on the numerous family of Narcissus that we most rely 

 for the first really useful cut flowers. When Easter occurs 

 well on in the season, as in the past two years, Narcissuses are 

 always plentiful in the open air with us andean be relied upon 

 for an abundance of flowers when they have become well es- 

 tablished, which is usually the second year after planting. 

 The varieties of Narcissus are numerous and naturally per- 

 plexing to the beginner, who is chiefly interested to know 

 which are a few of the best kinds that will produce the long- 

 est succession of bloom. Out of a large collection, Golden 

 Spur, one of the newer kinds, is always the first to bloom, 

 followed a day or two later by N. princeps, a noble kind, and 

 then comes Sir Watkin, the Giant Welsh Chalice-flower " with 

 foliage like leeks," as Mr. Burbidge once observed when 

 showing me his fine collection in Trinity College Gardens, 

 Dublin. N. bicolor Horsfieldi then follows, and is at once the 

 most distinct and beautiful variety in cultivation. The Jon- 

 quils should be added for their fragrance, and lastly, the beau- 

 tiful Poet's Narcissus and its varieties. Thus it will be seen 

 that some half dozen kinds, lasting over as many weeks, are to 

 be relied on as perfectly hardy and vigorous, and are sufficient 

 to form the nucleus of a collection that may be added to as 

 opportunity occurs. It should be remarked that Narcissuses 

 succeed well in shady places under trees, and may be used 

 with charming effect for naturalizing among grass, many an 

 English meadow being at the present time literally a garden 

 of Daffodils. American cultivators need not trouble them- 

 selves about the necessity of lifting the bulbs annually after 

 they have flowered, although this is practiced and preached 



