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Garden and Forest. 



[January i6, 1889, 



with the exception of the second, all common upon Key 

 West, where they form, especially E. buxifolia, a large 

 part of the forest scrub, and have been known as North 

 American plants for half a century, or since their discovery 

 on the Florida Keys by Dr. J. L. Blodget, who first made 

 the botany of this region known. 



The Eugenias are members of the Myrtle family. No 

 less than 750 species have been described by botanists, 

 of which nearly two-thirds are found in tropical and sub- 

 tropical America. The genus, however, is widely and 

 quite generally distributed through the warmer parts of 

 the two hemispheres. Several of the species produce 

 valuable fruit. The most important is E. Pimenta, which 

 produces the allspice of commerce, and is largely culti- 

 vated in some of the West Indian Islands, especially in 

 Jamaica. The well-known Jabuticaba fruit of Brazil is 

 produced by E. cauliflora, and the Rose Apples of the 

 East are the fruit of E. Malacensis and E. Janibos. Several 

 species are grown in tropical gardens for their handsome 

 evergreen foliage and fragrant flo\\'ers. C. S. S. 



Cultural Department. 



Lachenalias. 



'X'HE Lachenalias are bulbous plants, natives of south Africa. 



-^ Their flowers are all pretty and interesting ; some are 



very beautiful and a few are fragrant. They deserve to be 



better known and more widely cultivated than they are. 



Their needs are few and easily provided for. Briefly stated, 

 their requirements are : (i) A season of complete rest in the 

 summer, when the bulbs may be left in the pot where they 

 grew, or, better, may be taken out of the earth and put away 

 in boxes or bags ; (2) a good supply of water and a moderate 

 heat in their growing season ; and (3) an open soil. Their cul- 

 ture being so easy and their habit of growth very neat and 

 compact, and their spike of flowers so sure to appear, they are 

 excellent for window-gardening as well as for more extensive 

 planting in green-houses or frames. 



•' I propose in this paper to name all the species of the genus, 

 giving notes and descriptions of the kinds I have grown, Avith 

 some account of a few of the varieties which occur in a natural 

 state. Of hybrids there are as yet very few. Neither L. Nel- 

 soni nor L. Cami is an improvement upon the best forms of 

 L. tricolor, from which both are descended. I have not yet 

 flowered the series of hybrids offered by Dammann & Co., 

 nor do I expect to be very much pleased with them, for the 

 pendulous-flowered species are not the most promising. 



Lachenalia pendiila is an exceedingly beautiful species. Its 

 flowers are of a bright coral color; the three inner segments — 

 which, as in all the species, form a tube inside of the three 

 shorter outside ones — are tipped with deep purple and green. 

 This species is the earliest of all to blossom. If its bulbs are 

 potted, as they should be, about September loth, they will be 

 in blossom by the end of November. Although so showy, L. 

 pendula does not depend upon insect-fertilization, but forms 

 fertile seed abundantly, being the only species, so far as I 

 know, which does this. Bulbs pui'chased under the name of 

 L. pendula very often prove to be L. tricolor. 



The last named species, though very pretty, is inferior to L. 

 pendula. It is of weaker growth, and its flowers are much 

 smaller, being usually not over seven-eighths of an inch long. 

 The colors are deep yellow as a ground, with green on the 

 tips of all six segments and deep red at the base of the flower. 

 As the flower grows older the red and green fade, and the yel- 

 low alone remains. 



L. tricolor has two varieties, which are almost, if not quite, 

 equal in beauty to L. pendula. These are var. luteola, which 

 is twice as large in flower as the type, and much superior in 

 color, which is a full, deep golden yellow, and var. quadricolor, 

 a magnificent kind, whose colors are crimson, deep yellow, 

 emerald green and violet in about equal proportions. Both of 

 these varieties are larger than the type in all their parts, and 

 increase by offsets much more rapidly ; they have the same 

 beautifully spotted leaves. The variety quadricolor is often 

 sold under the names of superba and versicolor. 



L. rubida is rarely found under its true name in catalogues, 

 but is usually offered as L. contaminata, a widely different 

 plant. A few years ago I bought as L. rubida and L. stoloni- 

 fera two bulbs which I found would not blossom under ordi- 

 nary conditions, though they multiplied rapidly. Tired of the 

 vain attempt, I planted them out-of-doors and let them take 

 their chance. The next spring they came up, much to my 



surprise, and grew vigorously, but did not flower. I spoke of 

 the hardiness of these Cape bulbs to several persons, who 

 were as much surprised as I had been. A few weeks ago a 

 note appeared in an English paper to the effect that the writer 

 had persuaded both of these to blossom, and found that they 

 were identical, and not Lachenalias at all, but Scillas. Since 

 then I have had the true L. rubida (there is no L. stolonifera). 

 It is a very pretty kind, with broad leaves, faintly marked with 

 dark green. Its flowers are eight to ten in number, an inch 

 and a quarter long, deep pink, spotted and freckled with other 

 shapes of the same color. It is Jacquin's L. tigritta. 



L. contaminata has four or five long, narrow leaves, and a 

 flower-stalk thickly set with greenish-white flowers, with 

 brownish-purple-tipped segments and conspicuous green 

 seed-vessel. The position of the flowers is as nearly erect as 

 their crowded condition will allow. The flowers are not 

 showy, but they have the merit of fragrance. It is sometimes 

 sold as L. orchioides, but the true L. orchioides is very different. 



L. orthopetela has from twenty to thirty white flowers, some- 

 what tinged outside with purple, and not very showy. 



L. orchioides is very variable, and not easy to get in any 

 form. The one I have shows numerous yellow, red-tipped 

 flowers, purple in the bud, and very fragrant. Plate 854 of the 

 Botanical Magaziite re^vQsents, a far less showy variety, having 

 the outer segments green and the inner dark purple. 



L. glaucina is exceedingly variable, and highly ornamental 

 in all of its forms. Andrews {Botanical Repository, t. 460) gives, 

 under the name of L. sessiliflora, a bright rose-pink variety of 

 this species, and the Botanical Magazine it. 3552) gives one 

 almost white, tinged with purple and spotted with blue. The 

 form I have is, I think, the most beautiful of all Lachenalias. 

 Its leaves and flower-stems are strongly and thickly mottled 

 with chocolate-purple. The flowers are about twenty-five in 

 number, violet and indigo in bud, becoming, when open, the 

 color of a robin's-egg, with white or flesh-colored tips, and 

 shading off in sea-green. They are about an inch in length, 

 and incline upward. This is sometimes sold as Z. reflexa j 

 sometimes as Ccelanikus complicatiis. 



L. pallida, sold sometimes as L. ccerulescens, is exceedingly 

 beautiful, being, in its best form, light blue, with one inner 

 segment much expanded like a lip and marked with lemon- 

 yellow. Another inferior form has outer segments dark blue 

 and inner ones light green. There are one or two other forms 

 which I have not seen. 



L. tmifolia has a single roUed-up leaf, expanding, however, 

 as it rises, the lower part of which is mottled and lined with 

 crimson and gray, like a water-snake. The flowers are short 

 and broad, much like the Lily-of-the- Valley. The outer seg- 

 ments are blue, running to red ; the inner, white and green. 



L. isopetala is very handsome in its best form, having bright 

 rosy flowers an inch long. Another variety is so inferior as 

 not to be worth describing. I see no reason for its name. 



L. pustulata has erect flowers of small size, light green and 

 very fragrant. The leaves are curiously blistered. 



L. anguinea has most singular leaves, so strongly blotched 

 with light green on a dark-green ground, as to resemble a 

 snake. The flowers are whitish and not attractive. 



L. lucida has nothing of horticultural interest except the 

 perfume of its flowers, and even that has a somewhat disa- 

 greeable sweetness. I have grown it for many years as L. 

 fragrans, under which name it is sometimes sold. 



L. racemosa has postulate leaves, and flowers which are 

 placed horizontally on the stem, whose three inner segments 

 are white, tipped with purple, and whose outer are much 

 shorter, white, tipped with olive. About thirty are borne on a 

 stem, and are somewhat fragrant. 



L. purpureo-ccerulea has blue and dulhred flowers and blis- 

 tered leaves. It is not very attractive. 



L. reflexa (syn. Coelanthus complicatus) is the least showy of 

 all I have seen. The flowers are very small and few, green- 

 ish-yellow, marked with dull red. 



The following species constitute the remainder of the genus. 

 I have some of them, but they have not yet blossomed, and I 

 cannot describe them : L. patula, liliiflora, carnosa, Zeyheri, 

 convallarioides, hirta, Cooperi, jiincifolia, versicolor, violacea, 

 nervosa, Bowieatia, bifolia. yrr r^ t- j- 



Canton, Massachusetts. W. E. EndlCOtt. 



The Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi seems a much neglected ever- 

 green. I passed a clump of it to-day that covered a space of 

 six square feet. Planted in light, sandy soil, it is exactly 

 suited, and soon spreads so that the ground is completely 

 covered. At this season of the year its shining leaves are of a 

 dark chocolate color above and redder beneath. There are 

 many positions which it would fill well. 

 Germantown, Pa. Joseph Mechan, 



