172 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 10, i5 



issued on Tuesday last. The revival of the Journal is a most 

 commendable step, and cannot fail to do the Society good. 



There was a fair number of interesting plants exhibited as 

 well as some excellent groups of cut flowers, the Daffodils 

 being the great attraction. A superb strain of Persian Cycla- 

 mens was sent by the St. George's Nursery Company, Han- 

 well, the flowers being remarkable for their large size and 

 their purity and wide range of color. Market growers in the 

 neighborhood of London are wonderfully successful with Cy- 

 clamens, and in the last ten years the improvement made in 

 the form, size and color of the flowers has been considerable. 

 Clivia (imantophyllitni) miniata, var. Lady Wolverton had 

 the honor of receiving the first certificate awarded by the So- 

 ciety for a seedling Clivia. It is by far the handsomest Clivia 

 I have ever seen, not forgetting the many fine varieties shown 

 at the great Ghent Exhibition in April last. It bore three enor- 

 mous heads of large, full, well-formed flowers, the segments 

 overlapping and spreading so as to form a perfect limb, such 

 as florists delight to see. The color was bright orange-scarlet, 

 yellow in the throat. In Belgium and in France the Clivias, 

 and particularly C. miniata, have been favorite garden plants 

 for many years. The latter species was introduced from Natal 

 by Backhouse, of York, in 1854. In 1877 Van Houtte distrib- 

 uted a hybrid raised from C. miniata and C. nobilis, which was 

 named C. cystanthiflora. It blooms at Kew every spring, but it 

 is not much better than the last-named parent as a garden plant. 

 All the best Clivias are seedling forms of C. miniata. They 

 are fast coming into favor in England on account of the time 

 they flower (February to April), the length of time the flowers 

 last and the bright colors of some of the forms. Amongst the 

 best are Ambroise Verschaffelt, Marie Reimers, Van Houtte, 

 Baroness Schrceder, Sovenir de F. Vervagne, Madame Lemo- 

 nier, Joseph Spae and Madame Donner. They grow and 

 flower best when treated as intermediate plants. 



OtherJ plants were Amaryllis, John Ruskin, a new Veitchian 

 seedling with broad, rounded petals, the flower very lai-ge and 

 crimson in color ; Iris Rosenbachiana of the Persica group, 

 dwarf, with mauve standards and stigmas, the falls orange 

 and purple, said to be quite hardy, having been tested by 

 Barr & Sons, Covent Garden, who exhibited several plants in 

 flower; Primula petiolaris, a pretty Httle Alpine species, with 

 a tuft of Auricula-like leaves and a cluster of short stalked, 

 large, pale violet flowers — a new introduction, and, if easily 

 culflvated, likely to become popular with all who admire Alpine 

 plants. Miitisia clematitis, a most delightful climbing compo- 

 site, with the leaves of a Vetch and large pendant flowers, in 

 which the thick-spreading scarlet ray florets are like those of 

 a single Dahlia, the disc florets being almost enfirely hidden 

 in the long urceolate involucre. To botanists this last was 

 much the most interesting, Mutisia being the only genus of 

 Compositce in which the leaves bear tendrils. Horticulturists 

 know the difficulties of successfully growing Mutisias in En- 

 gland. M. decurrens is one of the most beautiful of all hardy 

 plants ; so, too, is M. ilicifolia and M. grandiflora. Probably 

 you know more about these plants than we do. In a few gar- 

 dens one or other of those named are a success for a time, but 

 they perish suddenly, just when one begins to feel that he has 

 established them. If Mutisias are in American gardens, all 

 lovers of hardy plants in England would be thankful for infor- 

 mation concerning them. 



Cypripedium Rothschildianum was exhibited in flower. It is 

 a magnificent plant. The dorsal sepal two by two and a half 

 inches, buff-colored, with deep crimson lines, the lower sepals 

 smaller, but similar in color ; the petals are six inches long, 

 and half an inch broad at the base, from which they are grad- 

 ually narrowed to a deflexed point, their color being buff, with 

 crimson longitudinal lines and basal spots ; the pouch is like 

 that of C. Stonei, but vinous purple in color ; and the curved, 

 beak-like rostillum is most remarkable. The plant is as robust 

 in growth as C. Stonei, and the scape is erect, stout, a foot 

 long, with two flowers. 



By its side was a plant, also in flower, called C. Elliottianujn, 

 but I have good grounds for suspecting that some mistake has 

 been made in regard to the plants introduced and sold under 

 this name. There can be no mistake about the type plant 

 which was described by Professor Reichenbach and figured by 

 Mr. Moon, a thoroughly trustworthy artist, who has drawn 

 hundreds of Cypripediums, and who told me that C. Elliotti- 

 anum was, in his opinion, the most beautiful of all. The type 

 had white sepals widi dark red lines, drooping petals, white, 

 with purple stripes and freckles, and a brown-red pouch. But 

 the plant shown under this name was simply a diminutive 

 pale-colored form of C. Rothschildianum. The probability is 

 that two distinct species have been collected and sold under 

 one name. A splendid example of Dendrobium nobile, var. 



Wallichianum, was exhibited as a proof of the wisdom of 

 pruning, so far as regards the cultivation of this species and 

 its nearest aUies. The specimen was four feet in diameter, 

 and bore about eighty flowering pseudo-bulbs, each over two 

 feet in height and bearing numerous fascicles of flowers. 

 There must have been at least a thousand fully-opened blooms 

 upon it. All the pseudo-bulbs, save those in flower, had been 

 removed, and the grower stated that these will be cut away as 

 soon as the new growths push new roots. A hybrid Cymbid- 

 iuni from the Messrs. Veitch combined the characters of its 

 parents, C. eburneiim and C. Lowianum, but was inferior to 

 both ; the sepals and petals are pale buff, the lip creamy white, 

 with a rone of dull crimson and a white margin. 



Dendrobium Schneiderianum, a Veitchian hybrid obtained 

 from D. aureum and D. Findlayanum, was shown in flower. 

 It is dwarf in habit, the flowers are in fascicles of about three, 

 and are somewhat nodding ; they measure nearly three inches 

 across, and are ivory-white, with pink tips to the sepals and 

 petals, the lip having a yellow throat and a blotch of purple in 

 front. 



The last of the Chrysanthemums appeared under the name 

 of Mrs. J. N. Gei'ard, and was labelled as of American origin. 

 The flowers were of the flat Japanese type, six inches across, 

 lilac-purple, with pale tips, and chiefly remarkable for their 

 lateness. ^,^ „^ 



Kew, March i6th. iV. WatSOn. 



The Oriental Nelumbium Naturalized in America. 



T N the early days of my enthusiasm for aquatic plants I read 

 -•■ an item in a foreign horticultural journal stating that Nelii7n- 

 bium speciosum had been successfully grown in the open air 

 and had withstood the winter unharmed in the "Jardin des 

 Plantes " at Paris. In January, 1876, while in that city, I made a 

 search to ascertain the truth of the statement, and found an 

 artificial basin five or six feet in diameter in which were stand- 

 ing the dead flower-stalks and decaying foliage of the Nelum- 

 bium. There was one inch of ice upon the water of the pool 

 at the time, and it was but natural to infer that the plant would 

 prove hardy where lower temperatures prevail in winter than 

 at Paris. During the next few years I cultivated the Nelumbium 

 successfully in my garden here and proved its hardiness when its 

 tubers are not exposed to actual freezing. I found that a tem- 

 perature causing the formation of ten inches or more of ice on 

 the water above the dormant tubers was no obstacle to suc- 

 cessful cultivation. Having seen large ponds filled with masses 

 of our native species [N. luteum) a desire arose to see how this 

 foreign floral treasure would behave under like conditions. 



Two miles from my present home is an artificial pond, a se- 

 cluded corner of which was selected for the experiment. Many 

 years ago this spot was rich meadow-land, where farmers were 

 accustomed to cut hay. The soil is a dark, greasy clay, and, 

 since the formation of the pond, has been made richer still in 

 vegetable matter by the deposit of sediment in time of freshets 

 by the wash from adjoining hills. Nuphar advena was the 

 principal aquatic plant growing there. By the courtesy of tlie 

 farmer who owns the property the experiment was made, and 

 about nine years ago a single plant of N. speciosum was placed 

 in the centre of the little cove where the water is from one to two 

 feet deep. It soon became established and began to spread in 

 all directions, blooming profusely each year. One summer it 

 was nearly destroyed by cattle f roni an adjoining pasture. They 

 found the foliage a sweet morsel, waded in, and ate it all down. 



In a year or two the plants recovered and went on making 

 their marvelous growth, and during the past summer and au- 

 tumn they showed a solid mass of magnificent foliage and 

 bloom, covering three-quarters of an acre. Last August, at 

 the height of the blooming period, about 500 of the beautifully- 

 shaded pink flowers were open at once. In their last stages 

 of expansion they measure from ten to thirteen inches in diam- 

 eter. They stand from three to six feet above the water, and 

 in some instances, flower-stalks pulled from their base in the 

 mud, measure eight feet in length. Multitudes of leaves are 

 found twenty-four to thirty inches across, and one season I 

 found a leaf which measured thirty-six inches in diameter. 

 The tallest man is hidden from view when walking through 

 the mass of foliage. Not content with remaining in the water, 

 an occasional plant will creep a few feet out into the thicket of 

 Alders and wild Roses on the bank, apparently satisfied with a 

 moist soil without Avater on the surface. When the frosts of 

 October arrived a few buds were caught still unexpanded. 



Such a tropical aspect does this plant here present that one 

 would scarcely be surprised to see Palms and Bamboos grow- 

 ing upon the shores of the pond. Could similar pictures be 

 reproduced in the parks of our large cities they could not fail 

 to attract the admiring attention of thousands of people. 



