4i8 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 27, 1890. 



Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums. — The great improvement recently 

 made in this really useful section of Pelargonium by Monsieur 

 Lemoine and others is thoroughly recognized in England, 

 where the finest of the newer seedlings are now amongst the 

 most popular of greenhouse plants. By crossing the old kinds 

 with others Monsieur Lemoine obtained new breaks, which 

 retained the loose habit and ivy-like foliage of the old forms, 

 but instead of the small loose trusses and dull colors pf the 

 Mowers which characterized them, the new seedlings have 

 trusses as large and colors almost as varied and bright as those 

 of the best of the Zonal section. A few days ago I saw a very 

 fine collection of these new Ivy-leaved kinds at Chiswick, where 

 they are exceptionally well grown, some of the specimens 

 being quite a yard through and bearing scores of large Mower 

 trusses. The best of those noted were the following: Abel 

 Carriere, large flowered and bright cerise in color ; Bridal 

 Wreath, white, with a few spots of rose ; Charles Turner, a 

 rich rosy carmine ; De Ouateriages, large, rich red, with a tinge 

 of violet; Madame Crousse, Madame Thibaut, Emile Le- 

 moine, Le Printemps and Isidore Feral ; these are all remark- 

 able for the size and substance of their flowers and their clear, 

 attractive colors. If it be true that all the Ivy-leaved Pelargo- 

 niums known in gardens are the progeny of P. peltatuni, 

 touched with forms of P. zonule-, one cannot but wonder at the 

 extraordinary improvement wrought by breeders in this one 

 section of the genus. 



Liliitm Wallichianum. — The variety Superbum of this fine 

 Indian Lily, introduced a year or two ago by Messrs. Hugh 

 Low & Co., is much superior to the type, both in regard to 

 vigor of constitution and the size and beauty of its flowers. It 

 is now dowering at Kew, a bulb which last year had but one 

 stem bearing three stems this year, each with three or four 

 flowers, which are as large as those of the Bermuda Lily (L. 

 ' Harrisii), but creamy white, with the inside of the tube 

 colored canary yellow. This is the plant of which a colored 

 plate recently appeared in The Garden under the name of L. 

 ochreleucum, a name which used to belong to the species now 

 known as L. nepalense. Hitherto L. Wallichianum has been 

 known as a refractory garden plant, but the variety, at all 

 events, has so far proved perfectly amenable to cultivation here. 



Humea elegans. — A short time ago there appeared in an 

 Australian publication a figure and notice of a form of this 

 plant which in some part of Queensland attained a height of 

 about twenty feet. Seeds of this variety were obtained for 

 Kew, and from them plants were raised which are now ten 

 feet high, and have not yet shown any disposition to bloom. 

 By the side of them are some of the ordinary form of this 

 plant, the two kinds having been grown together from the 

 commencement. The latter are, however, now covered with 

 their elegant plumes, and are nine feet high. There is a 

 marked difference in the foliage of the two kinds, the Austra- 

 lian form having much broader, longer, less acuminated 

 leaves, the base more markedly decurrent, whilst the stem is 

 covered with a thick coat of felt-like white wool. It is possible 

 that this may prove a new species, but whatever it may be it 

 is certainly a very striking plant, and if it can be got to flower 

 under cultivation in England it will be quite sensational. 



Rehmannia rupestris. — This is another of Dr. Henry's dis- 

 coveries in western China, and of which plants raised from 

 seeds taken from dried specimens are now in flower at Kew. 

 The genus Rehmannia is composed of about six species, all 

 natives of China and Japan. It is closely related to Digitalis, 

 but its appearance suggests Gesneraceae rather than Scrophu- 

 larineas. One species — namely, R. glutinosa, generally known 

 as R. Chinensis — has long been known in England as a hardy 

 herbaceous plant. It is figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 

 3653, and in the last number of the Gardeners' 1 Chronicle, from 

 a plant grown in a sunny border at Kew. The new one is 

 about eighteen inches high, the central growth erect, the 

 laterals all drooping. The leaves are large, ovate, fleshy, 

 toothed and thickly covered with silky white hairs, giving the 

 whole plant a silvery appearance. The flowers are not unlike 

 those of the Foxglove in shape, and they are white, tinged 

 with rose ; they are produced singly from the axils of the 

 leaves. Grown in pots this plant is pretty enough to please, 

 and should it prove hardy it will be a useful acquisition as a 

 front-row plant for the herbaceous border. Mr. Hemsley, who 

 described this species in his "Index Florae Sinensis," quotes 

 Dr. Henry's note to the effect that in China this plant is known 

 as Cliff Cabbage, and that it is much esteemed as a medical 

 simple. It is said to grow in almost inaccessible places on 

 the faces of cliffs. At Kew it has grown well planted in a 

 roomy pot in rich soil. 



Campanula Vidalii is one of the handsomest greenhouse 

 plants in flower at Kew. It is quite distinct from all other 



garden Campanulas in its shrubby habit, the main stem de- 

 •veloping a head of about a dozen sturdy semi-erect branches, 

 each a foot long, and clothed with oblong, fleshy, dark green, 

 glossy leaves, and from the end of each of these branches 

 is pushed a long, erect spike of waxy white flowers. After 

 once flowering the plants are done for, as they never again 

 make good, shapely plants. Seeds are ripened freely by culti- 

 vated plants, and from these it takes three years to produce a 

 full-sized flowering specimen. Cuttings never grow into good 

 plants. The species is a native of the Azores, and it is figured 

 in the Botanical Magazine, t. 4748. r ,, „, 



London. W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Training up an Orchard. 



IT is not very difficult to prepare the land and set out 500 or 

 1,000 young Apple-trees. By this I do not mean that such 

 work can be well done without much knowledge and consid- 

 erable practical experience. The selection of trees from the 

 nursery, the choice of varieties suitable to the locality and the 

 market, the due preparation of the ground and the practical 

 work of setting out the trees, all require knowledge and skill, 

 for lack of which many orchards are more or less failures. 



But when all of these beginnings have been well accom- 

 plished, not much more has been done toward a successful 

 and profitable orchard than is done when we equip a son 

 with the supposed requirements for entering college. We 

 have a young orchard before us, and our duty is to keep each 

 tree in the best shape and condition, so that when it begins to 

 produce fruit it will not begin to show defects and suffer injury. 

 Correct pruning is the first requisite of success, and it should 

 be mainly knife-pruning — that is, a good orchardist will not 

 allow any limbs that must finally come out to reach a large size. 



One who thinks this a small undertaking will find himself 

 mistaken. To keep an orchard properly pruned requires a 

 well developed imagination. The orchardist must be able to 

 see his trees in the mind's eye, as they will appear in three, six 

 or twelve years. But to know how they will look implies a 

 knowledge of the habits of growth of the different varieties under 

 culture. So it might be said that an orchardist needs to spoil 

 one orchard before he can know how to direct the growth of a 

 second. It is only when the beginner has had the advantage 

 of training under an expert that he will be likely to succeed at 

 the first attempt. 



The Apple has been so long under cultivation that very wide 

 variations exist in its habits of growth. It is likely, also, that 

 among our numerous varieties there exists considerable hy- 

 bridity. We have not yet been able to produce any hybrids 

 between the European Apple and our native species, and Pro- 

 fessor Budd's experience seems to indicate that it will be a dif- 

 ficult task. But there is good reason to believe that the Apples 

 of Europe are not all descended from a single species. Many 

 of the recently imported varieties from Russia show remarka- 

 ble distinctions from the older sorts, not only in habits of 

 growth, but in microscopic differences in the structure of their 

 leaves. It is being remarked, also, that they have, as a class, 

 a more vigorous inflorescence, and that the texture of the flesh, 

 and the flavors of these fruits, are more or less characteristic. 

 In this country hybrids, both accidental and worked, between 

 our old stock and the Siberian Crabs, have been produced and 

 are in fruit in various localities. 



Now all these matters affecting the habits of growth in so 

 widely separated varieties are important to be known, before 

 we can form a true conception of the work of pruning a young 

 orchard and giving to each tree its proper form. 



But the forming of the tree is only a single division of the 

 task. We must know much about the habits of and means of 

 checking and destroying the many insects, quadrupeds and 

 birds which will interfere with our work. Unless these ver- 

 min can be promptly subjected and controlled, we may find 

 our young trees much more than decimated at any time. 

 Mice have been known to destroy hundreds of trees in one 

 orchard in a single winter — gnawing the bark from the ground 

 up into the larger limbs. There are remedies for a moderate 

 amount of this barking by rodents, but a tree once thoroughly 

 girdled by them is a hospital specimen forever after, no mat- 

 ter how skillfully treated. Bark lice come, sometimes, as 

 though blown in clouds through an orchard, and only the 

 most active treatment will subdue them. It is the same with 

 the attacks of aphids, the tent and forest caterpillars, the web 

 worms, the rank worms, and the borers. In short, the orchard- 

 ist of the greatest skill and experience is many times " put to 

 his trumps " successfully to meet emergencies and maintain 

 the thrifty and uniform growth of his trees. 



