40 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 23, 1889. 



are grown in these nurseries in surprisingly large quantities. 

 The numbers given must not be taken as exaggerations ; they 

 are astonishingly large, but they represent tlie facts. The 

 Odontoglossunis at Clapton are almost as sand on the sea- 

 shore. In their long houses they suggest huge beds of Leeks. 

 A large house is tilled with plants of Cwlogyne cristata, some 

 of them being very large specimens. They are planted out in 

 beds, and apparently this treatment agrees with them. In ad- 

 dition to the above popular Orchids, Messrs. Low & Co. have 

 a great number of varieties, Cypripediums being conspicuous 

 amongst them. But units in such an immense collection do 

 not get even passing notice from a visitor. The question one 

 naturally asks on seeing these hundreds of thousands of plants, 

 the bulk of which have closely followed after others which 

 have been sold, is, What becomes of them all ? It is almost 

 distressing to have to admit that most of them must perish 

 through improper treatment. If it were not so Messrs. Low & 

 Co. M'ould soon choke the horticultural world with Orchids. 



But Orchids are only one of the specialties of this firm. 

 Hard-wooded plants are grown in thousands, both at Clapton 

 and Enfield. At the latter nursery there are about eleven 

 acres covered with glass. The form, size, internal arrange- 

 ment and general plan of this extent of plant houses are of the 

 most perfect kind. The nursery is only young, but neither 

 pains nor expense have been spared to make it capable of 

 performing the work intended in the best and cheapest way. 

 The houses are of great length and grouped in dozens. Each 

 group has walls only on the outside, so that practically it may 

 be called a large, low house, with ridge and furrow roof. 

 Necessarily all the houses in the group are of the same tem- 

 perature. It is only when looking below the stage that the 

 absence of partition walls is seen; above the stage each divis- 

 ion appears to be a house by itself. 



Eniield is famous for its market gardens. It stands high and 

 is practically in what we call the country. The growth made 

 by the plants there is astonishing — in England, at any rate. 

 Thus, Tea Roses only ten months old have shoots six to 

 eight feet long, many of the plants having half a dozen such 

 shoots. The plants are grafted in December and ready for 

 sale by the following September. Clematis, the same age, 

 were equally large. Amongst the plants grown for their 

 flowers in winter I noted : Acacia armata, many thousands ; 

 A. Drununondii, hundreds ; Erica hyemalis, E. gracilis, E. 

 per soluta alba. Genistas, many thousands; Poly gala actnninata, 

 Choisya ternata, beautiful little pot-shrubs, well branched and 

 full of flower buds ; Tremandras, Thibautia acuminata, 

 Fabiana imbricata, a first-rate pot plant, with white, tubular 

 flowers, not unlike some Ericas ; Abutilons, many fine varie- 

 ties — Lemoine's, I believe — all in full flower at Christmas 

 time ; Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, Epiphyllums, Tecoina capen- 

 sis, with large heads of brilliant scarlet flowers, on plants 

 about two feet high ; Gardenias, Callas and Daphne Indica. 

 These are all grown in very large quantities, few, if any, being 

 in a larger pot than a six-inch. Of Palms, such as Kentias, 

 Latanias and Phcenix rupicola, there are hundreds of thou- 

 sands, from seedlings up to handsome table plants. Lo?!iaria 

 gibba is grown in thousands, and is one of tire most popular 

 of all Ferns for decorative work. Cyperus distans of gardens, 

 which is C. Meyenianus of Kunth, the handsomest of all 

 "grasses," as a pot plant fills an enormous house. Celosia 

 pyramidalis, an improved strain, is here grown for the sake of 

 its flowers in winter. The seeds are sown in July and by the 

 middle of December the plants are in full flower. There were 

 white, yellow, rose and crimson flowers amongst them. For 

 cutting, I imagine, these plants must have great value in win- 

 ter. Bouvardias are very largely grown, several large houses 

 being filled with shapely, well flowered plants when I saw 

 them. The best kinds were Humboldtii corymbiflora, Jas- 

 minoides, President Cleveland, Dazzler and Maiden's Blush. 

 A house full of Asparagus plitmosus was pointed out as " all 

 we have left." For cutting, as well as a pot plant for table 

 decoration, this graceful plant has very few equals. It is 

 easily grown, easily multiplied, and stands much longer than 

 any Fern. A large piece of naked land had just been cleared 

 of dwarf Roses, most of which had gone to America. Rhodo- 

 dendrons, the Javanese kinds, are grown in large quantities, 

 and many of them flower in midwinter. There can be no 

 question as to the large place these plants are destined to 

 soon fill in winter floral decorations. 



I have only mentioned those plants which are grown in 

 exceptionally large ([uantities, or which are comparatively 

 unknown as useful winter-flowering plants. In America most 

 things are done on a big scale, but I doubt if you have any- 

 thing in the nature of a plant factory to compare with that of 

 Messrs. Hugh Low & Co. W. Watson. 



Kew, December 28th, 1888. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Hex Amelanchier. 



THIS shrub, of which our figure upon page 41 is the 

 first which has been published, is one of the rarest 

 and least known plants of eastern North America. 



It is the Ilex Amelanchier * of M. A. Curtis, who described 

 it from specimens gathered by himself nearly thirty years 

 ago in a swamp near Society Hill, in South Carolina, the 

 only station in which this plant has been seen in recent 

 times. A specimen of what is evidently the same plant is 

 preserved in the Gray herbarium, labeled '' Prinos corym- 

 bostis, Ph. Herb. Barton (from Bartram's Garden, from 

 Machorin Rives)." No such name, however, was pub- 

 lished by Pursh, and the source whence Bartram obtained 

 his plant is, to say the least, vague. Another specimen of 

 this plant. in fruit is preserved in the Gray herbarium, 

 labeled " Drummond in Herb. Hooker, Alabama or Cov- 

 ington." It is probable, therefore, that it will be found in 

 other parts of the country besides the Society Hill swamp. 

 This plant seems to be cultivated in England, as I possess 

 a specimen made by Mr. Nicholson (No. 2,074 of the Kew 

 Arboretum herbarium) without flowers or fruit,which clearly 

 belongs here, although labeled Prinos lanceolatus , Pursh. 

 P. lanceolatus is a very doubtful plant, entirely unknown 

 to American botanists, and probably founded upon the fig- 

 ure in Hill's "Vegetable System," published in London 

 in the middle of the last century. Pursh, however, who 

 claims to have seen a specimen of this plant, describes it in 

 his Flora, ascribing it to the low country of Carolina and 

 Georgia, and his characters are copied by Chapman in the 

 "Flora of the Southern States." 



Our figure is prepared from one of Dr. Curtis' specimens, 

 who described his plant as a shrub three to six feet high. 

 It is to be hoped that its publication may draw the atten- 

 tion of botanists in the South Atlantic and Gulf States to 

 this plant, and to the other southern species of the Prinos 

 section of Ilex, which are still insufficiently represented in 

 herbaria, and very imperfectly known. C. S. S. 



Cultural Department. 

 Sub-irrigated Gardens. 



IN the advertising of Florida as it has been carried on for a 

 score of years, the pracflce has been to hold up the orange 

 as the leading attraction, while market-gardening is made to 

 figure as a secondary industry, a degree less genteel than 

 orange growing, but a very convenient resource for meeting 

 current expenses " while the grove is coming into bearing." 

 However the other industrial resources of Florida may stand 

 the test of experience, candor compels me to say that market- 

 gardening in this state, as a rule, is as precarious an industry 

 as can be engaged in. In the neighborhood of the leading 

 winter resorts, where there is a good local demand, vegetable- 

 growing may prove profitable, especially if no severe frosts 

 occur in winter. Strawberries pay well where they are 

 grown systematically, as at Lawtey, and good shipping facilities 

 are at hand ; but as a rule, market-gardeners hardly recover 

 expenses. 



With natural waste, stealage and high freight-rates, the 

 net returns from market-gardening seldom exceed the ex- 

 • penses of packing and production. Other obstacles which are 

 encountered alike by those who grow vegetables for market- 

 ing or home consumption, are found in the chances of severe 

 frosts in winter and drought in early spring, the latter amount- 

 ing almost to a certainty. In the southern half of the peninsula 

 danger from frost need hardly be taken into account, but in 

 the northern half, winter gardens, which are the only ones 

 planted for profit, are constantlv in peril. 



Droughts in Florida are particularly trying on cultivated plants 

 whose feeding roots are within a foot or two of the surface. 

 The soil in nearly all parts of the state is sandy, and lacks the 

 capillarity by which soils of firm texture are enabled to with- 

 stand droughts. This evil is increased by tillage, which sepa- 



*" Ilex Amelanchier. M. A. Curtis. Leaves oblong, barely acute at each end, 

 serrulate, pubescent, and finely reticulate beneath : truiling; pedicels solitary, as 

 lone as the petioles ; drupe large, red ; nutlets strongly three-ribbed on the back ; 

 calyx-teeth acute. Leaves about two inches long, one inch wide. Drupe three to 

 four lines in diameter." 



