August 6, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



385 



Herbaceous Paeonies. 



THE flowering season just over has been one of the best I 

 remember for Paeonies. A large bed of named varieties 

 was a fine sight for the two or three weeks during which it 

 was at its best. These plants revel in well manured soil, and, 

 although they are impatient of removal, the manure may be 

 lightly dug in without causing them any injury. If it is wished 

 to move or divide any established plants, it should be borne 

 in mind that they will not flower satisfactorily the first year 

 after removal, but with generous treatment this will be the 

 extent of the loss. Care should be taken in the selection of 

 sorts, only the most robust being suitable for growing in 

 prominent positions. There are some kinds which appear to 

 have a tendency to develop a great number of small crowns 

 that are useless for flowering, and these are very disappoint- 

 ing, for it seems almost impossible to induce them to make 

 really satisfactory growth, and, at most, one or two flowers on 

 a plant are all they will produce. All such kinds are ineffec- 

 tive in a' flower-garden. The old P. officinalis is very useful 

 for planting in rough places amongst the Grass or as a fringe 

 to the shrubbery, for it does remarkably well when let alone 

 after it gets established. None of the named kinds I have seen 

 can compare with it for this sort of work. 



I append a list, selected from about thirty named sorts, 

 which have been exceptionally good here the past season : 



Candidissima. — -Pure white guard-petals, pale primrose centre. 



Carnea grandiflora. — Delicate blush, changing to pure white, 

 incurved flower, very strong and good. 



Charles Binder. — Deep rose, very full flower, scented. 



Constance Devred. — Deep carmine, large flowers. 



Dr. Calot. — Deep rose guard-petals, centre salmon. 



Festiva maxima. — Pure white, incurved, stained carmine on 

 centre petals, strong grower, magnificent. 



Isabella Karlitzky. — Carmine-rose, full centre, very fine, 

 scented. 



Louis van Houtte. — Bright, purple-lake, strong grower, very 

 large flowers, Hawthorn scented. 



Marie Dhour. — Pale flesh color, full centre, dwarf, fine and 

 free, scented. 



Mine. Muyssaert. — Bright rose, light centre. 



Mrne. Jules Calot. — Bright rose, chamois-yellow centre, 

 scented. 



Paul Rubourg. — Rose, very double, late, strong and good. 



Rosamond. — Rose, incurved, strong grower, very fine flower, 

 scented. 



Rubra triumphans. — Deep crimson, incurved, strong grower. 

 Whitleyi. — Single, pure white, large ball of golden anthers, 

 dwarf, free, and the earliest of the section. 



J . C. Tallack, in The Garden. 



Disa tripetaloides is a beautiful little species which has lately 

 attracted much attention and even admiration from members 

 of the Orchid-loving community, and it is probable that it will 

 soon become tolerably well known, for it has features which 

 will readily recommend it, viz.: the ease with which it may be 

 grown, the length of time its flowers remain in perfection, and 

 their quietand charming character — so different from that of the 

 Grandiflora section. Flowering specimens have been exhibited 

 during May and June in London. The leaves are lanceolate- 

 acute, deep glossy green, somewhat fleshy in texture, three to 

 four inches long and about half an inch broad in the widest por- 

 tion. They are clustered at the base, but pass up the scape, 

 which springs from the centre alternately, and change into green 

 bracts. The erect scape is from nine inches to a foot high, 

 and bears as many as twenty to thirty flowers, each of which is 

 about three-quarters of an inch across, and of a beautifully soft, 

 very pale lilac, handsomely speckled with deep rose. The 

 upper sepal reminds one of a monk's cowl with a short, coni- 

 cal spur at the back. The lateral sepals are, in comparison, 

 much larger, elliptic-oblong, while the small falcate petals and 

 linear lip are within the precincts of the upper sepal and re- 

 quire close inspection to make them distinguishable. 



This species, although now brought prominently before the 

 public, is by no means new, having, according to Mr. N. E. 

 Brown, of the Kew Herbarium, been discovered over a hun- 

 dred years ago in South Africa by the traveler Thunberg, 

 and named Orchis tripetaloides by the younger Linnasus. 

 Thunberg afterward confused it with his own D. excelsa, and 

 Dr. Lindley thought it to be D. venosa of Swartz, a plantwhose 

 identity has been mixed up with/?, racemosa. To make matters 

 clear Mr. Brown therefore retained the specific name given by 

 Linnaeus the younger, and re-named it Disa tripetaloides. 



Those who are in the habit of looking at every Orchid as re- 

 quiring " heat and moisture" will perhaps be agreeably sur- 



prised to learn that the subject of this note is a cool-growing 

 and even hardy species. Mr. James O'Brien, of Harrow-on- 

 the-Hill, to whom its re-introduction to cultivation is due, has 

 grown His plants in pans in a cold frame, where they have 

 freely flowered — some of them having even been subjected to 

 frost. It is evident from these facts that Disa tripetaloides 

 should grow well in a cool house, without requiring so much 

 attention as some of its larger flowered congeners. 

 London. John Weathers. 



Kniphofia (Tritoma) Saundersii. — One of the most pleasing 

 and brightest things in the garden lately has been this beauti- 

 ful Torch Flower. With its deep green, angular, rush-like 

 foliage, and massive stems surmounted by the long spike of 

 brilliant flowers, this is one of the most noble of plants. A 

 well grown clump would be an attraction in the best of gar- 

 dens. The flowers of this variety are a very pleasing orange- 

 red, shading into orange. They are individually of good size, 

 the spike being a foot or more long. Unfortunately, the plant 

 is not entirely hardy here, needing careful protection from 

 frost and wet, but well worth any amount of trouble. 



Chrysanthemum maximum. — A trade circular just received, 

 in which this is included as a choice perennial, leads me to 

 say that it is a weed, or, in other words, a plant not worth a 

 place in the garden. For three years I have been trying it 

 without discovering other merits than its neat, vigorous habit. 

 The flowers, under ordinary cultivation, are little larger than 

 those of a well grown field Daisy, but perhaps if well fertilized 

 they might be half an inch broader. The white Daisies are 

 beautiful in the meadows, but, with their present abundance, 

 it does not seem worth while even to give a slightly better 

 variety room in the garden. Fortunately, C. maximum does 

 not seem as hardy as the common White Weed. Some few 

 years ago some seed from Vilmorin produced flowers with a 

 tendency to doubling, and I notice a similar variety offered as 

 C. semi-duplex. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that such 

 flowers are abominations. If White Daisies of good size are 

 desired early in the year, it would seem that the single Hybrid 

 Pyrethrums are altogether the most useful and handsomest, 

 both in flower and foliage. In a good strain of mixed seed 

 some fine white ones will usually be found as well as the 

 ordinary reds. 



Elizabeth, N. J. G. 



Plant Notes. 



Papaver Californicum. 



THIS true Poppy, the only one indigenous to California, 

 was discovered in 1886 in the Santa Inez Mountains by 

 Mr. John Spence, of Santa Barbara. It was described by Dr. 

 Asa Gray in the Proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, vol. xxii., pp. 313-314, thus being one of the 

 last California flowers to receive a name at the hands of 

 that illustrious botanist. Not only is it one of the latest discover- 

 ies, but it justly ranks among the handsomest of the annuals 

 of the Pacific coast. 



It is rarely found except on ground which has been burnt 

 over, Mr. Spence first finding it far away from any cultivated 

 fields at an elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 feet, on ground which 

 had been covered principally with Manzanita bushes, but had 

 been burned over the year before. Probably for this reason, 

 and from its close resemblance in appearance to Meconopsis 

 heterophylla, a less showy plant, but with flowers almost iden- 

 tical in size and coloring, it owes its escape from previous 

 discovery. 



As Dr. Gray suspected, this is not a local species, but is ap- 

 parently widely distributed in southern California, having re- 

 cently been collected by several botanists in widely separated 

 localities, but everywhere under similar conditions as first 

 found — on tracts of burnt brush-lands at from one to two 

 thousand feet elevation. This spring I observed it in great 

 abundance back of San Diego, near Potrero, and also between 

 the Cajon and Santa Maria valleys, on hill-sides burned over 

 by forest or brush fires last fall. Although I have traversed 

 both sections repeatedly during the past ten years this richly 

 colored flower had never been seen before these fires had de- 

 nuded the land. 



It forms a fine, bushy plant about a foot in height and bears 

 a profusion of large, showy flowers of an average of two 

 inches in diameter. The color of the large, delicate petals is 

 a bright, saturn red to orange chrome, with a centre of a 

 delicate sulphur yellow. In cultivation it is said to make a fine 

 pot-plant, and if it improves as most of our wild flowers do 

 under the attention of horticulturists, it will prove a most 

 desirable addition to American gardens. 



