236 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 15, 1889. 



and sulTuscd with a rich rose color that becomes niiicli deeper 

 oa tlie lip. It is a native of Assam, and thrives in baskets or 

 cylinders v-'ith Sphagnum moss in the warmest house, and 

 should at no time be allowed to become dry. Of several 

 varieties of this species the rarest is called Williainsii, a pure 

 white form. 



Cyrtopodhnn Andersonii is a noble plant, and one not often 

 seen. It is only suitable for large houses, as it grows 

 nearly five feet high. The bulbs are sheathed with the bases of 

 the large lanceolate plaited leaves. The stout scapes which ap- 

 pear with the young growtlis are about five feet long, branch- 

 ing and bearing numerous rich golden flowers. It comes from 

 the West Indies, and should be girovvn in very rich, loamy soil, 

 kept open by nodules of charcoal. Steady heat, abundance of 

 water and liberal applications of liquid manure will tend to 

 make strong growths, and when these are mature the plant 

 sliOLild be removed to a cool, airy house and kept dry until the 

 flower-scapes appear. The bulbs should not be shrivelled. 



Cattleya citrina is now in full flower, and the golden-yellow, 

 tulip-like flowers hanging from among the glaucous foliage 

 and whitish bulbs, with the peculiar drooping habit of the 

 plant, combine to give it a striking appearance. This Orchid 

 has been known a great many years, and is abundant in Mex- 

 ico, where it grows on the under side of the branches of the 

 trees. In cultivation it does not remain in good condition for 

 many years, but newly imported plants grow very freely, and 

 with us last longest in good condition if wired to bare blocks 

 of wood and suspended near the glass in the Heath-house. 

 They should be drenched with water during growth, and 

 merely kept plump at other times. The flowers aredeliciously 

 fragrant, and will last fully a month in perfection. 



Kenwood, N. Y. F. GoldriusT. 



Trilliums.— Wood-Lilies, or Wake Robins, as they are often 

 called, are among the best of our native spring-flowering 

 plants. Many of the species are valuable for pot culture, and 

 when grown in this way may be easily brought into bloom 

 several weeks before their usual flowering period. To grow 

 Trilliums well a moist, shady place and rich vegetable mould 

 are necessary, for when found growing wild they are usually in 

 shady woods, where the decaying vegetable matter affords 

 abundance of rich soil for them to luxuriate in year after year. 

 T. grandijiorum is probably the best-known species, and de- 

 servedly so on account of its large flowers, snow-white when 

 first expanded, and changing to rosy-pink with age. A quan- 

 tity of this Trillium growing wild, and just in bloom, is a sight 

 to see and remember. If visited a week or two later the ap- 

 pearance of the flowers is so completely changed that the 

 place will hardly be recognized. T. ovatuin is a Pacific Coast 

 species and is as ornamental as T. grandijiorum, the flowers 

 being pure white and fully as large. These two species are 

 often confounded, but on examination are seen to be quite 

 distinct in the shape of the petals and stigma. T. erectiiin is a 

 species common in the Eastern States, having green leaves 

 with dark purple flowers. A white variety is also quite com- 

 mon, with yellowish-white petals and purple ovary, a very dis- 

 tinct plant, known as T. erectum album. Another eastern 

 species is T. cernuum, or Nodding Trillium. This also is white- 

 flowered. T. sessile is a species with purple flowers and foli- 

 age prettily blotched with purple. The variety T. sessile Cali- 

 fornicum is a plant larger in all its parts and with the coloring of 

 leaves and flowers of a much brighter color. This is a very 

 desirable plant, and worth cultivating for its foliage alone. 7! 

 nivale and T. pusillum are two dwarf species not exceeding- 

 six inches in height, both having white flowers. T. pctiolatuin 

 is very distinct in its foliage, which differs from all others in 

 being heart-shaped and borne on long petioles. All of these 

 Trilliums are of easy cultivation when given the position 

 named, and a little trouble taken to make the plants feel com- 

 fortable will be amply rewarded. Tlie best time to plant Tril- 

 liums is as soon as possible after the fohtige has died down in 

 summer or early in the fall. 



Dicentra eximia. — We received some two years ago a plant 

 of the true Dicenira eximia from a correspondent in Tennes- 

 see, and after growing it for two seasons we And that it may 

 be strongly recommended as a hardy border-plant. The. 

 flowers are borne in coinpound racemes on stems about a 

 foot high, and are produced simultaneously with the l^eautiful, 

 finely-cut foliage, which starts in April and continues until 

 autumn frosts. As a border-plant D. eximia is as ornamental 

 as the old D. spectabilis or Bleeding Heart, and is much to be 

 preferred on account of its being persistent. D. spectabilis 

 dies down during the hot summer months. We have found 

 D. eximia to be easily propagated by division and also by seed, ' 



which is ripened in fall. The plant is perfectly hardy near 

 New York. 



Passaic, N.J. E. O. Orpet. 



Summer Flowering Bulbs can be used with advantage to fill 

 vacancies in the herbaceous borders and open spaces amongst 

 dwarf shrubs, such as Ghent Azaleas and Kalmias,-when grown 

 in beds or borders by themselves. The cornmoner varieties 

 of Gladiolus brenchleyensis are often used for lines in formal 

 borders, and planted so have a very telling elTect. The rarer 

 hybrids may be planted in dozens or half dozens, at intervals, 

 in a border and are eaually effective. Other bulbs which can 

 be used in groups amt, Crocosmia aurea, orange; Montbretia 

 crocosmicejlora, orange-vermilion; M. Pottsii, red; Galtonia 

 candicans, the large white summer Hyacinth, and scarlet 

 and orange Tigridias. Dwarfer and rarer sorts for the rock- 

 garden a.i'e Milla bijlora, with pure white flowers; Cooperia 

 pedunculata with fine white .fragrant flowers ; Zephyranthes 

 Atamasco, Z. Candida and Z. rosea. T. D. Hatfield. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



Pontederia azurea. — A tropical aquatic has just flowered with 

 me, and I think for the first time in the United States. It is 

 distinct from and finer than the now popular P. crassipes, and 

 will undoubtedly flourish in the open air in summer. After 

 trial in this manner I will report further. 



Boi-dentown, N. J. E. D. Sturtevant. 



Notes from a Spring--Garden. 



Anemone Appenina is a delicate bulbous-rooted species of 

 southern Europe, with doubly pinnate leaves, the leaflets thin 

 and drooping and erect one-flowered scapes a few inches high. 

 The flowers are pale china-blue an inch or an mch and a half 

 across, delicate and rather fugacious. They appear in suc- 

 cession, however, and the plants, of which there is a broad and 

 spreading clump in the shadiest part of the rock-garden, have 

 been in flower for several days. This is a shade-loving plant, 

 and flourishes best and lasts longest in flower when it is 

 planted under trees. 



In the depth and intensity of the blue color of its flowers no 

 plant, perhaps, certainly no plant which can be cultivated in 

 our gardens, surpasses or equals Omphalodes verna, a dwarf 

 perennial a few inches high, of the Borage family, from south- 

 ern Em-ope, common in English gardens, but not very often 

 seen in those of this country, where it is rather difficult to es- 

 tablish and not long-lived, perhaps, because it is not very 

 hardy here at the north. Once established, however, this 

 charming plant spreads rapidly by rooting runners, and as it 

 remains in bloom during several weeks, and as the color of 

 the flowers is so wonderfully fine, it is worth a little extra 

 trouble and patience to secure a good mass of it on one of the 

 half-shaded slopes of the rock-garden or in some sheltered 

 nook by a wood- walk luider deciduous trees. 



The yellow-flowered' Fritillaria imperialis is at its best — a 

 stately and splendid plant, and one which, in spite of its 

 mephitic tendencies, causes as much admiration as any plant 

 in the garden. It quite eclipses the old-fashioned, dull-colored 

 Crown Imperial in habit, in brightness of foliage and in beauty 

 of flowers. The Crown Imperial has held its own in gardens 

 for centuries, and has seen the coming and the going of plants 

 and of races of plants long since forgotten. It has survived 

 many fashions, and, thanks to its tenacity of life and its real 

 beauty, it seems destined to survive many others. This yel- 

 low-flowered variety should serve to extend its popularity and 

 make it known among people who value plants largely because 

 they are new or little known ; not that the yellow-flowered 

 Crown Imperial is a particularly new plant, or one that is diffi- 

 cult to procure, for it is sold by many of the bulb-growers of 

 Holland, and the bulbs cost only a few cents apiece, but it is 

 little known, and therefore rare in the gardens of this country. 

 And this is true of another plant of this same genus — Fritil- 

 laria pallidiflora, a native of southern Siberia. This is a 

 smaller plant, rarely attaining a height of ten inches, with very 

 pale glaucous-blue leaves arranged along the stem, which bears 

 at its summit three or four large, nodding, Ijell-shaped flowers, 

 pale yellow in color, and striped and spotted on the inside with 

 deep purple. It is hardy and long-lived, and for many years 

 has flowered undisturbed in the same spot, which is one of 

 the most exposed and dryest in the whole rock-garden. It is 

 trifly a perennial source of pleasure. 



And so is the Summer Snowflake {Leucoiujn cestivum), and 

 I never look or think of it without wondering why it is 

 that I never see it in other gardens, or why everyone who 

 has a bit of ground and loves flowers does not plant a few 

 bulbs of this plant. Its long, dark green, erect leaves, its 



f^S' 



