59^ 



Garden and Forest. 



[December io, 1890. 



known as Hang-chu, because it comes from the adjacent 

 Hang-chow prefecture, is a yellow-flowered variety and sells 

 at three times the price of the other kinds. The so-called 

 Sweet Chrysanthemum is exported from Canton to the amount 

 of three tons yearly, and the flowers are probably like those 

 of some plant like Cotula anthemoides." 



Monsieur Andre, in the issue of the Revue Horticole for No- 

 vember 16th, describes, with the aid of an analytical drawing" 

 of the flowers and a beautifully colored plate of the fruit here 

 reduced to one-half its natural size, an interesting Brazilian 

 plant of the Cucumber family, Sicana odorifera, which has 

 been cultivated by our correspondent, Monsieur Naudin, the 

 great authority on this family, in the garden of the Villa 

 Thuret at Antibes, where the fruit which served for the illus- 

 tration in the Revue Horticole was produced. This fruit, which 

 is bright orange-scarlet in color, narrowly ovate and ten or 

 twelve inches long, is exceptionally ornamental and possesses 

 a penetrating and agreeable odor. It is the Curuba or Curua of 

 the Brazilians, and is used by them to perfume their houses. 

 It is edible, also, when cooked, although the flavor is not 

 agreeable to every one. According to Monsieur Andre it 

 recalls a combination of mushrooms and apple-marmalade. 



The Sicana has been known for 150 years to science, having 

 been discovered in 1636 by the German physician, George Marc- 

 graf, who had been sent to Brazil by the Duke of Nassau to ex- 

 plore the coast-region between the Rio Grande and the Pernam- 

 buco. Pison, the famous Dutch naturalist, was associated with 

 him in his scientific explorations, and between them they discov- 

 ered the Curuba and published the first description of it. Later 

 it received from Vallozo the name of Cucurbita odorifera, and 

 it was Naudin, with abundant material at his disposal, who was 

 able to discover characters which enabled him to establish his 

 genus Sicana. 



Sicana odorifera has long remained the only species of the 

 genus. Monsieur Andre", however, now calls attention to a 

 second species, of which fruit has lately been received in 

 France from Paraguay, and for which he proposes the name of 

 S. atropurpurea on account of the dark violet color of the fruit, 

 which resembles in external appearance that of a large egg- 

 plant. The fruit is much larger than that of the Brazilian spe- 

 cies ; the seeds are larger, longer, rhomboidal and not oval, 

 with the basal appendage oblique. The ripe fruit is also used 

 by the Paraguayans to perfume their dwellings. These two 

 plants, which are perennial, the first with stems extending for 

 a distance of twelve or fifteen feet, can be grown probably in 

 our southern states, where the fruit would prove a conspicu- 

 ous ornament in gardens. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



The Pelican-Flower (Aristolochia grandiflora). 



THE remarkable flower, one of the very largest known, 

 reproduced in the illustrations of the present issue 

 was grown at Bordentown, New Jersey, by Mr. E. D. Stur- 

 tevant, who communicates the following note with regard 

 to it : 



"About a year ago a wealthy amateur residing on the 

 Hudson River sent me some vines under the name of the 

 'Duck-plant/ or 'Aristolochia Pelican.' It was said to be 

 new, and I was unable to find any description of it in the 

 Gardeners' Dictionary or in the catalogue of any nursery- 

 man. Upon inquiry at Kevv I was informed that it was 

 not in cultivation there, but that it had been described and 

 figured in the Botanical Magazine under the name of 

 Aristolochia grandiflora or Pelican-flower. This plant has 

 proved easy of cultivation and rapid in growth with 

 me. In December of last year a young plant was placed 

 in a good sized box of rich soil in a warm greenhouse. 

 This plant in June had made a growth of twenty feet and 

 began flowering. Many buds are now (October ist) well 

 developed and one is open. At first sight the plant reminds 

 one of a large Morning Glory-vine. The flower-buds, 

 hanging pendent in different stages of growth, form cer- 

 tainly one of the most remarkable sights in the vegetable 

 world, and cannot fail to cause exclamations of wonder 

 from persons seeing them for the first time. The resem- 

 blance to the form of a duck or pelican is very close, the 

 head, bill, neck and body being plainly outlined. The 

 fully developed bud measures fifteen to eighteen inches in 



length, and is as large as a good sized duck. This is ex- 

 clusive of the long tail-like appendage. One flower fully 

 expanded last June measured twelve by eighteen inches 

 with forty-two inches of tail, making the total length sixty 

 inches. At the time the bud opens the tail assumes a 

 spiral form and appears to be intended as a ladder for the 

 use of insects seeking to reach the flower. The centre of 

 the flower appears like purple velvet, the inside of the throat 

 being lined with hairs turned downward, and intended, 

 apparently, to prevent the return of the insects caught 

 within. The open flower, unfortunately, emits a fetid and 

 very disagreeable odor, but this is not perceptible before 

 it expands. I find that this plant flourishes in good loam 

 mixed with old manure or other fertilizers. It may be planted 

 out in a warm greenhouse or grown in a tub which can 

 be kept in the open air during the summer and taken in 

 before frost." 



Aristolochia grandiflora * was first described by Swartz in 

 one of his works on the plants of the West Indies published 

 more than a century ago. Patrick Browne found it in 

 Jamaica and published a short account of it in his work 

 on the natural history of that island under the name of A. 

 scandens, giving to it the vernacular name of Poison 

 Hog-meat from the reputed poisonous properties of the 

 plant. Tussac, who published an excellent colored plate 

 of the flower, relates that a whole herd of swine had per- 

 ished from eating the roots and young stems of this plant. 

 Lunan, in the " Hortus Jamaicensis," appears to have first 

 given it the appropriate name of Pelican-flower, stating 

 that " the plant is so abominably fetid that it is detested 

 and shunned by most animals ; yet when hogs venture by 

 necessity to eat of it, it destroys them." 



A. grandiflora is now known to be widely distributed 

 in the West Indies, and extends to Central and South 

 America, where it is by no means rare, occurring along 

 the banks of streams usually in low, rather moist situa- 

 tions. It was introduced into cultivation from seeds sent 

 to Kew from Jamaica by Mr. Purdy. It flowered at Kevv 

 in 1848, when excellent figures of the flowers were pub- 

 lished in the Botanical Magazine and in other periodicals. 

 It appears, however, to have soon disappeared from gar- 

 dens, and Mr. Sturtevant's plants are the only ones, so far 

 as we have any knowledge of the matter, which have flow- 

 ered in gardens in recent years. 



The figure of the fruit which appears on page 597, the 

 first which has been published, has been prepared from a 

 specimen collected last winter in Guatemala by Mr. John 

 Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, to whom we are indebted for 

 the opportunity to reproduce it. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Tinted Glass. — The behavior of plants when grown under 

 colored glass has been the subject of protracted experiment 

 at Kew. About thirty years ago some of the most important 

 houses were glazed with glass more or less tinted with green, 

 from the belief that this would conduce more to healthy and 

 vigorous growth than the clear glass generally used. The 

 ferneries were glazed with glass several shades deeper in color 

 than the other houses for which green-tinted glass was pre- 

 ferred. Ferns have always been exceptionally numerous at 

 Kevv, many of the species being rare and extremely delicate. 

 Probably the value of the collection of Ferns was the reason 

 for the deeper shade of green in the glass used. Evidence 

 which told against the green-tinted glass had gradually accu- 

 mulated until last year it was decided to replace it with clear 

 glass in a portion of the large tropical fernery, the reconstruc- 

 tion of the roof offering a favorable opportunity for making 

 the change. The result has been most remarkable, the growth 

 made by the plants under the clear glass being much better 



* Aristolochia grandiflora, Swartz, " Fl. Ind. Oca," iii., 1,566. — Tussac, " Fl. des 

 Antilles," 1., t. 27. — Spreng;., "Syst.," iii., 752. — Bot. Mag., 4,368, 4,369. — " Fl. des 

 Serres," iv., t. 351, 352. 



A. scandens, P. Browne, "Nat. Hist. Jam.," 329. 



A. gigas, Lindley, Bot. Reg., t. 60. 



A. cordiflora, Mutis, HBK., "Nov. Gen. et Sp.," ii., 118. 



