244 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 22, 1889. 



Agapetcs buxifolia. — A handsome, Ericaceous shrub with 

 box-Hke leaves and nunierous axillary tubular flowers, one 

 inch long, and bright scarlet in color. For a cool green- 

 house, such as suits Azaleas and Rhododendrons, this plant is 

 perfectly adapted. It remains in bloom a long time — six 

 weeks or more — tlowers when quite small, and is easily culti- 

 vated, requiring a sandy peat-soil and plenty of water. 



Goodia lotifolia is an elegant Cytisus-like shrub of bushy 

 habit and very free flowering, every little branch developing a 

 spike of yellow and brown flowers. These are very fragrant, 

 and they remain on the plant a long time. Probably this 

 plant, if taken m hand by florists, would prove cjuite as useful 

 for spring flowering as the popular Cytisiis {Genista) racemosus. 

 The Goodia is a native of Australia, and has been in cultiva- 

 tion in England many years. 



Bossicea linophylla is one of the most graceful of all Aus- 

 tralian leguminous plants. At Kew there is a huge bush of 

 it eight feet high and this is a glorious picture now, every 

 branch being a long, pendant string of bright yellow and pur- 

 ple-brown flowers, very small, but in great numbers and bril- 

 liant as jewels. Small plants of this species flower just as 

 freely. There are many similar plants of Australian origin, 

 but which are now scarcely known in gardens. The Aotus, 

 Dillwynia, Chorozema, Leptospermum and several other 

 genera are in flower in the Kew collections, but notwithstand- 

 ing their beauty, they are not in favor with horticulturists gen- 

 erally. 



The illustration of Nelumbmm speciosum in New Jersey, 

 published in Garden and Forest for April loth, has created 

 quite a sensation here. The magnificence of such a picture 

 as is described by Mr. Sturtevant is enough to tempt horticul- 

 turists to America specially to see it. We have tried to culti- 

 vate this species and N. liiteuiii out-of-doors in England, but 

 widiout any success. Our summers are not, as a rule, warm 

 enough to enable these plants to make the strong growth 

 necessary to their withstanding the winter. Mr. Sturtevant 

 ought now to obtain some of the extraordinary varieties of TV. 

 speciosiim which are known to be in cultivation in Japan. I 

 have tracings of many of these, some showing double tiowers, 

 others single, others with lacinated petals and so on, whilst in 

 color they are said to be almost as variable as the garden Tu- 

 lip. At Kew, in addition to the type, there are also living 

 plants of the pure white and the deep rose-flowered varieties, 

 as well as a few of the Japanese kinds, but these have not yet 

 flowered. 



Kew, April 26lh, 1889. W. Watsoil. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Brodiasa Palmeri.* 



THE latest addition to the characteristic Californian 

 genus Brodiaea, which now numbers about twenty- 

 five species, was found by Dr. Palmer in 1887 at the ex- 

 treme southern limit of the range of the genus, near Los 

 Angeles Bay, on the gulf side of the Peninsula of Lower 

 California. It is a stout species, often two feet in height, 

 with an unusual number of long, thin leaves, and is peculiar 

 in developing a quantity of small bulblets at or below the 

 surface of the ground. The flowers are numerous in the 

 umbel, on slender pedicles about an inch long. As in many 

 other species, they are bright purple in color, rather more 

 than half an inch in length, funnel-form in shape from a 

 narrow base, and are cleft nearly to the middle. The six 

 filaments are distinctly roughened or papillose, and bear 

 linear anthers, which are attached by the base and become 

 closely coiled when old. 



The dilated staminodia that are found in some species, 

 and the wing-like appendages to the filaments in others! 

 are here replaced by a row of short scale-like processes 

 between the points of insertion of the filaments. While the 

 form of the corolla is that of the group of species which 

 constitute the section Seubertia or Triteleia, the basifixed 

 anthers and the presence of these appendages are charac- 

 ters which belong rather to the true Brodi'oea section, and 

 M^eaken the distinction that has been made between these 

 groups. The plant was found growing in abundance in 

 low places on the sandy plains about Los Angeles Bay. 

 It has not yet been tested in cultivation. 6^. W. 



* Brodi-ea Palmeri, Watson in Proc. Amer. Acad., xxiv., 78. 



Yucca angustifolia. 



ILLUSTRATIONS of two large arborescent Yuccas 

 which grow in the region adjacent to the boundary 

 between the United States and Mexico have been pub- 

 lished in earlier numbers of Garden and Forest. Yucca 

 angustifolia, which appears in the illustration on page 247 of 

 this issue, is the smallest of the Yuccas and the most north- 

 ern of the genus in its geographical distribution. Linnaeus 

 knew the three species which occur in the southern and 

 south-eastern states — Y. filamentosa, Y. aloifolia and Y. glo- 

 riosa — but no other Yucca was described until the publi- 

 cation in 18 16 of the "Flora of North America," by Fred- 

 erick Pursh, who then first made known the subject of our 

 illustration from a specimen collected on the "banks of 

 the Missouri River," and preserved in the herbarium of 

 Thomas Nuttall, who doubtless discovered it in his first 

 western journey. 



Yucca angustifolia is a stemless, or very short-stemmed, 

 species, with numerous linear, rigid, spiney-pointed leaves, 

 scarcely contracted above the broad base, nearly fiat on the 

 upper surface, convex below, with slender marginate fibres. 

 The flowers are an inch and a half to nearly two inches 

 long, in simple spike-like racemes. The fruit is erect, cap- 

 sular, six-valved, ovate-obtuse and sharply cuspidate. The 

 large seeds are half an inch in diameter, with wide margins. 



Yucca angustifolia occurs, often in great abundance, on 

 dry prairies and plains from north-western Missouri and 

 western Iowa to Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico. A 

 Yucca peculiar to some parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and 

 Texas, with wider, softer and less rigidly pointed leaves, 

 and with a more paniculate inflorescence, was considered 

 by Dr. Engelmann, whose knowledge of these plants was 

 unrivaled, to be a form of this species (var. mollis). 



Our illustration is made from a photograph taken in 

 Colorado by Dr. R. H. Lamborn, to whom we are in- 

 debted for its use. It is a characteristic view of the arid 

 western plains as they appear sometimes in early sum- 

 mer, enlivened by the beautiful flowers of this plant, the 

 most conspicuous feature of their scanty vegetation. 



c. s. s. 



Cultural Department. 



Artificial Manures for Vegetables. 



II7EW of the amateur cultivators of suburban gardens 

 -^ realize the amount of fertilizing material used by the 

 market-gardeners in their neighborhood, and they wonder 

 frequently why their own little plots fail to produce as good 

 an average as the large gardens. The amateur buys a load 

 of manure and imagines he has enriched his garden, while 

 the market-gardener would have spread five times as much 

 on tlie same area. Another difficulty in the way of amateur 

 gardeners is that few of them have gardens arranged for horse- 

 culture. No spade work short of regular trenching can com- 

 pare in thoroughness with the breaking down by a large plow 

 and a pair of heavy horses, followed by a spring-toothed har- 

 row and a home-made plank-drag. The difficulty of procur- 

 ing manure is generally a formidable one to suburban cot- 

 tagers, and at best it is disagreeable to handle and not nearly 

 so convenient as the commercial manures which are now 

 made in such a thorough manner by reliable firms. I grow 

 many acres of vegetables every year, but experience has 

 demonstrated that we can grow better crops, and cheaper, by 

 using the concentrated fertilizers on the vegetables, and let- 

 ting our accumulations of animal manures go upon our grass 

 lands. But it should not be imagined that a thin sprinkling 

 of commercial fertilizer will make a garden rich. I use from 

 600 to 1,000 pounds per acre of the best rawbone superphos- 

 phate, and for some crops mix in a portion of nitrate of soda 

 and sulphate of potash. For Peas and Beans the superphos- 

 phate and a little potash is best ; for Radishes and Lettuce 

 superphosphate and nitrate of soda, which is also good for 

 the Cabbage crop; but for these a top-dressing of nitrate of 

 soda encourages a rapid growth and enables them to out- 

 grow the worms. In using artificial manures in the garden I 

 do not use them broadcast. All my vegetable crops are 

 planted wide enough apart to allow of horse cultivation, land 

 being the cheapest thing I have and human labor the dearest. 



