November 12, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



549 



Plant Notes. 

 Some Recent Portraits. 



H^manthus Lindeni, a beautiful new plant discovered by 

 Mr. Auguste Linden somewhere in the Congo region, which 

 has recently flowered for the first time in cultivation in the 

 nurseries of L'Horticulture Internationale, Brussels, is figured 

 in the issue of The Gardeners' Chronicle of October 18th. Mr. 

 N. E. Brown, who describes it, finds that the plant remains a 

 considerable time in flower, the head being very large, and 

 producing a hundred or more large and brilliantly colored 

 flowers, which open in succession. He kept the specimen 

 which Mr. Linden sent him in water for nearly two weeks, 

 during which time the flowers continued to expand. " This 

 species does not form a true bulb, but has a thick, solid root- 

 stock, from which arise six or eight leaves in two ranks that 

 persist for a long time, the plant being practically evergreen." 

 The scape arises from the side of the leaves, is moderately 

 stout and about eighteen inches high. The umbel of flowers 

 is six or eight inches in diameter, with a hundred or more 

 flowers opening in succession. The individual flowers are 

 two inches in diameter, with a tube nearly an inch long, and long, 

 slender lobes, which are bright salmon-scarlet color, fading to 

 pink. The long filaments are neariy of the same color as the peri- 

 anth, although whitish at the base and furnished with purple 

 anthers. Specifically, Mr. Brown points out, this species is 

 most nearly allied to H. Angolensis, 'but the flowers are much 

 larger and the leaves are dissimilar. 



P^eonia Moutan. — There is in The Garden of London, 

 published on the 18th of October, a beautifully colored plate 

 of a single white Tree Paaony, a seedling raised by Messrs. 

 Kelway & Sons, of Langport, who have been experimenting 

 during the last twenty years in raising seedlings of these plants. 

 The seed ripens in September and is sown as soon as gathered 

 in frames without artificial heat. Some of the seed vegetate 

 the following year, and the seedlings are allowed to remain in 

 the seed-bed for two years. The Langport system is to plant 

 the seedlings in the month of October, in well enriched soil, in 

 drills two feet apart and six inches between each plant in the 

 drills. Here they remain for two years more, and are then 

 finally planted three feet apart each way to bloom. The best 

 seedlings are selected for stock and propagated after grafting 

 in the following manner : "First procure a sufficient quantity 

 of tubers of P. Sinensis ; cut these into lengths of about six 

 inches ; then take grafts from the sorts you wish to increase 

 and insert these into the upper end of the tuber in the ordinary 

 way of cleft-grafting, tie securely and cover the junction with 

 grafting wax so as to exclude the air. These should now be 

 potted into five-inch pots, using a good rich compost ; the pots 

 should be plunged into frames unlieated ; give a good water- 

 ingj and cover the frames with a thin mat to partially exclude 

 light. In the winter they should have an extra mat to protect 

 them from severe frost. The best time to perform this opera- 

 tion is in the months of August and September." To show 

 the value of these plants as ornaments for the garden it is only 

 necessary to refer to a specimen which a correspondent of 

 The Garden describes as eight feet high and twelve yards in 

 circumference. This wonderful plant had never failed during 

 a quarter of a century to produce annually several hundred 

 blooms. Tree Paeonies, which start to grow early in the spring, 

 and are, therefore, liable to suffer wherever late spring frosts 

 occur, really do much better in this country than they do in 

 England, and it is surprising that their value is not more 

 generally appreciated and that they are not more frequently 

 planted. The single-flowered varieties especially are rarely 

 seen, although they are more beautiful and desirable than 

 those with double flowers. There are probably still many 

 very fine varieties to be found in Japanese gardens which have 

 not yet reached this country or Europe. 



few fruits last year for the first time. The fruit of the Ginkgo, 

 which few people who are not botanists realize is a conifer, 

 is drupe-like, with a large, hard nut surrounded by thick oily 

 flesh which soon becomes rancid and is very disagreeable. 

 The kernel of the nut, however, has a delicate almond-like 

 flavor much fiked by the Japanese, who use great quantities 

 of these seeds as dessert fruit. 



A Fruiting Ginkgo. — The Japanese Ginkgo-tree has proba- 

 bly rarely fruited in this country. The tree is not fruitful 

 until it attains a considerable age, and, as the sexes are sepa- 

 rated on different individuals, it is essential that male and 

 female trees should grow together in order to secure fertiliza- 

 tion ; and as it is impossible to distinguish the sexes until the 

 trees flower, the securing of both in the same plantation is a 

 matter of mere chance. A tree planted in the grounds of the 

 Military Academy of Kentucky produced fruit several years ago, 

 and one of the trees in Central Park in this city is now fruitful. 

 Miss Graceanna Lewis, of Media, Pennsylvania, sends us 

 an admirable drawing of the Ginkgo-fruit produced by a tree 

 in the garden of Charles J. Wistar, Esq., at Germantown, 

 Pennsylvania, now about forty years old. This tree bore a 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Autumn Colors.— The weather here for the last six weeks 

 has been remarkable for the absence of rain and an unusual 

 amount of sunshine. The effect is seen in the bedding-plants 

 and others placed out-of-doors for summer effect, which are 

 now at least as good as they have been at any time during the 

 year. Planting is delayed because of the dryness of the 

 ground ; indeed, the leaves of deciduous trees and shrubs are 

 only now assuming their autumn colors. The conditions 

 above named, coupled with a few slight frosts, have been 

 favorable to the development of color in the leaves of most 

 trees and shrubs. The Oaks, Beeches, Chestnuts, Maples, 

 Liquidambars and Poplars among trees, and the Spiraeas, 

 Sumachs, Azaleas, Vines, etc., among shrubs, are especially 

 rich in the glow of their golden, crimson, chocolate and scarlet 

 hues. The Tupelos, Nyssa multiflora and A 7 , sylvatica, are 

 like flaming fires in color. Amongst the Sumachs the most note- 

 worthy, on account of its beauty as much as its rarity, is A'. 

 cotinoides, for which Kew is indebted to Harvard. It forms a 

 compact mass two yards through, and its leaves are now 

 wholly rich orange in color. Apparently this species is quite 

 at home in an ordinary border at Kew. We have not yet 

 learned to make as much use in gardens of these autumn 

 glowing leaves as we might. One frequently notices beautiful 

 effects, which are the results of accident rather than design, 

 in plantations and even in forests. These if reproduced in the 

 garden would be delightful. We want some one to set down 

 for us the names of the plants to use for autumn effects, such 

 as those described, and the positions they thrive best in. Mr. 

 Jack and other correspondents did something toward this last 

 year in Garden and Forest. The brilliancy of color in many 

 of these leaves in autumn is quite equal in effect to anything 

 produced by flowers, and in a favorable season the leaves re- 

 main in beauty at least as long as flowers. And yet I think I 

 am right in saying that in most gardens the usefulness of 

 autumn-tinted trees and shrubs for producing a picturesque 

 effect is either unknown or ignored. The Azalea-garden at 

 Kew now is as charming in the varied hues of the leaves as it 

 was when the flowers were the attraction. This is equally 

 true of the shrubby Spiraeas and of many other Rosacea:. The 

 Sumachs are almost singular in owing their favor in most gar- 

 dens to the brilliant colors assumed by the leaves in autumn. 



The Sea Buckthorn {Hypophae rhamnoides) by the side of the 

 lake at Kew is as heavily laden with bright orange berries as 

 the best fruited Pyracantha I ever saw. Is it known as a fine 

 shrub in your gardens? Of course a male plant must be 

 planted near the females to get fruits. 



ORCHIDS. — Cattleya Bowringiana is a very useful plant, as it 

 flowers late in the autumn when there are comparatively few 

 Orchids in bloom. Its colors are warm and attractive, the 

 flowers are elegant, and they last well. It may be called an 

 autumn-flowering C. Skinneri. Another species of Cattleya 

 which is flowering now is C. maxima. There are varieties of 

 this so poor as to be scarcely worth growing; but in the va- 

 riety named Peruviensis we have a first-rate plant, very free 

 in the production of flowers, whilst the colors are brighter and 

 the size almost twice as large as in the ordinary forms. 



C. du Buyssoniana is a new species, of which plants in Bower 

 were recently exhibited in London by M. Linden's Company, 

 of Brussels. It may be called a variety of C". amethystoglossa, 

 with sepals and petals cream-yellow and a rich mauve labellum. 

 The same company exhibited a plant in flower of a magnificent 

 variety of C. aurea named Lindeni. The sepals and petals 

 were of a clear lemon-yellow color, not buff, as is usual in this 

 Cattleya, whilst the lip was enormous in size and heavily penciled 

 with golden yellow. A series of varieties of this newly intro- 

 duced Cattleya were exhibited under the name of C. Warocque- 

 ana, but which has been described by Mr. Rolfe as a variety 

 of C. labiata. It appears to be about midway between the 

 sub-species C. Triana and C. gigas, and is really distinct, large 

 flowered, handsome and apparently easily cultivated. Some 

 of the flowers exhibited measured seven inches across, the 

 sepals and petals were of good substance and two and a half 



