546 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 13, 1889. 



that made from any other fruit, that at several of the Hudson 

 Bay Company's posts large quantities are preserved and sent 

 to friends at home. The Chipvegan Indians of the Mackenzie 

 River Valley make a sugar from the juice of the birch in 

 which the Cloudberries are cooked, and, prepared in this 

 manner, they are considered a great delicacy. Few birds eat 

 the Cloudberry, so that when they are not picked by man they 

 decay slowly on the vines and finally drop to the ground. 

 Ottawa. y. M. Macoun. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



SOME of your readers may be glad to know what plants are 

 the most attractive in our warm houses at this time of 

 year. The following are exceptionally good at Kew just now. 

 They are not new, indeed some are of the oldest of garden 

 plants, still they do not appear to find much favor nowadays : 



/ESCHYNANTHUS SPECIOSUS. — This plant has been gorgeous 

 with flowers since June and there are still several specimens 

 in full bloom. There are few plants more charming than this, 

 whether it be in flower in summer or in November. It has 

 numerous erect stems, eighteen inches high, bearing opposite, 

 ovate-lanceolate, dark green leaves, three inches long. The 

 flowers are in terminal fascicles, strong stems bearing as 

 many as twenty fiowers, which all open together. They are 

 erect, and each one is composed of a five-lobed subulate calyx 

 and a tubular corolla three to four inches long, curved at the 

 top where the mouth is divided into four rounded lobes. The 

 color is bright orange, with scarlet lobes and a line of black 

 dividing the orange from the scarlet. The Howers remain 

 fresh more than a fortnight. The plants should be grown in 

 pots in a compost of turfy peat, leaf-mould and plenty of sand. 

 They like abundance of moisture and a stove temperature all 

 the year round. This species was introduced in 1847 l^Y 

 Messrs. Veitch through their collector, Lobb, who found it 

 growing freely, attached to the trunks of large trees in Java. 



COSTUS IGNEUS. — This species was introduced from Bahia 

 by Messrs. Linden in 1882. As a flowering plant it is much 

 the best of the several species of Costus that are in cultivation, 

 being of dwarf, compact habit, easy to cultivate, a free bloomer, 

 with large and bright colored flowers. Here it has been in 

 flower all summer — not a succession of plants, but the same 

 plants from June until now. Its stems are herbaceous, about 

 afoot high, with elliptical-lanceolate dark green leaves, the 

 points slender and acuminate ; their length is about six inches. 

 The flowers are in terminal clusters or heads, and each head is 

 composed of a great number of scales and buds. One or two 

 flowers are expanded at a time and remain fresh about a day. 

 Each flower is composed of a large, circular, wavy lip which 

 measures two inches across, the other lobes small, whilst in 

 the middle there is a tongue-like appendage to the sessile 

 anther. The color is bright, glistening orange red. The color 

 and form of the flowers are exceptional among stove-plants. 

 Besides this we have C. Malorteamis, which has short stems, 

 large, orbicular, fleshy, hairy, gray-green leaves and heads of 

 crimson flowers. For tropical aquaria this species is of value, 

 as it likes water and becomes attractive with liberal treatment. 

 C. speciosus has stems four feet long and crimson flowers. 

 C. spiralis is similar, but smaller in leaf and habit. The 

 genus is a large one and it occurs in all the tropics. In some 

 species, as, for instance, C. spiralis, the flowers are sometimes 

 terminal on the leafy stems and sometimes on short stems 

 which spring direct from the rhizome, as in the Gingers. 



Begonia Haageana.— The merits of this new Begonia were 

 mentioned incidentally by me in a letter last year. A year's 

 further trial has proved the plant to be of first-rate merit as a 

 garden Begonia. Among the many species of evergreen 

 Begonias grown at Kew, this one stands out prominently on 

 account of its bold haiiit, handsome foliage, floriferousness, 

 and the size and beauty of its flowers. These are colored a 

 soft rosy white, with conspicuous crimson hairs on the outside 

 of the sepals ; the male flowers are one and one-half inches 

 across, and they are in very large branching racemes, 

 strong stems producing racemes nine inches across. The 

 female flowers are smaller and in looser racemes. The plants 

 at Kew are now in full flower. In the hands of a clever hybrid- 

 izer, such as Monsieur Lemoine, this species might be made 

 much of. It was introduced from Brazil by Messrs. Haage & 

 Schmidt, of Erfurt, and it flowered for the first time, at Kew, 

 in 1887. A figure of it is given in the Botanical Magazine, 

 /. 7028, under the name of ^. Scharffii. This is, however, a 

 different species, which was introduced at the same time as 

 B. Haageana and belongs to the same section. 



DissoTis incana.— This is one of a genus of Melastomads 



found in Africa, mostly in the tropics. Until this species was 

 introdLiced, none of those tried had proved of any value for 

 the garden, but this one is handsome enough to find favor 

 with many. It has numerous, erect, four-angled stems which 

 spring freely from the root-stock and grow to a length of about 

 two and one-half feet. The leaves are three inches long, op- 

 posite, ovate-Ienceolate, with prominent nerves on the surface 

 covered with scabrid hairs. The flowers are borne in large, 

 terminal, spike-like racemes, the length of which is sometimes 

 eight inches, and thickly crowded with deep purplish crimson 

 flowers. These are one and one-half inches across, and com- 

 posed of five ovate, overlapping petals, and urn-shaped, green 

 calyx with five small sepals, purple anthers and yellow filaments. 

 They are not unlike the flowers of a Monochoetum ; but the 

 plant is more vigorous and the flowers more abundant than in 

 any of that genus. The Kew plants were introduced from 

 Natal in 1886, under the name of Osbeckia Uinlasiana. They 

 have been grown in pots plunged in a border out-of-doors all 

 summer and removed into a green-house to flower. 



Ixora macrothvrsa. — I have already described this to your 

 readers, and only refer to it now because in addition to its dis- 

 play in August it is now again beautiful with flowers. This 

 time the plants are younger, having a single stem, erect, two 

 feet high and crowned with a magnificent head of rich scarlet 

 flowers. Nothing would be finer in the stove than this. 



The meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, on Tuesday, 

 October 22d, was well attended, in spite of one of our 

 famous London fogs. The exhibits were more than usually 

 interesting, some of the groups being extremely fine. There 

 were a few good Orchids, amongst which was a very fine 

 specimen of Tantz's variety of Odontoglossiim grande, the 

 flowers remarkably large and well marked. O. Insleayi splen- 

 dens aiirea, not nearly as good as the type, has a bright yellow 

 lip, with brown markings, the sepals pale coffee colored. The 

 golden variety of 0. grande was also very fine. Dendrobiiim 

 formosiini, var. giganteiim , from Mr. Gladstone, received a cul- 

 tural commendation; the specimen, a very fine one, was well 

 flowered. Cattleya aurea, var. Blenheimensis, from the Duke 

 of Marlborough, appears to difter very little from the old 

 Dowiana, and D. StatterianiDu, from St. Albans, with fine rosy 

 purple sepals and deep purple lip, does not seem to differ 

 much from D. siiperbiens. 



Epldendriiin sceptrum, a novelty from Sir T. Lawrence, 

 received a botanical certificate. The racemes are large, 

 crowded with bright yellow, purple marked flowers — a very 

 interesting species. Ccelogyne speciosa, from the same garden, 

 was very fine. The Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, as usual, had 

 a very handsome group of mixed plants, amongst which were 

 many rare and a few new plants. Amongst the rarer plants 

 were Draccena Doiicettii, a nice habited and remarkably dis- 

 tinct form, the leaves variegated white and green, promising 

 to be a useful adjunct to table decoration and for like purposes. 

 The Crotons were very nicely colored, as were the Palms, 

 Sarracenia Chelsoni and the new S. VVrigleyana, the latter very 

 fine and distinct. Gyneriiini argenteuin variegaticm looks like 

 a hardy plant, and if so will certainly be one of the plants of 

 the future. The leaves are very handsome, the variegation 

 yellow and bright green, being very striking. A new Carex, 

 called C, species variegata, received a first class certificate. 

 The leaves are very narrow, grass-like, green on the edges, 

 with an ivory white centre. The habit resembles that of an 

 Isolepis, with broader foliage, and altogether a more attractive 

 appearance. A remarkable and very interesting new hybrid 

 Rhododendron was shown in flower, and received a first-class 

 certificate. It is called R. Indico-Javaniciiin, and is a cross 

 between R. Javanicum Lord Wolseley and Azalea indica, 

 Stella. The flowers are darker than those of the Rhodo- 

 dendron, the substance much better, and the shape altered to 

 a narrow, and, for their size, longer tube, the limb spreading 

 very little. The leaves of the specimen in flower were nearly 

 or quite those of the Rhododendron, while another speci- 

 men, not in flower, from the same seed-pod, had leaves 

 decidedly those of an Azalea. This is the first cross of its kind, 

 and, besides being full of interest botanically, will prove very 

 useful to horticulture. The Messrs. Veitch also sent a very 

 handsome collection of autumn foliage. To you in America 

 this will appear trifling perhaps, but as the productof a climate 

 like that of England, wonderful, to say the least, were Japanese 

 Maples of all shades, from blood red to golden yellow, ex- 

 quisite in shape and cutting; Popultis fastigiata, clear lemon 

 yellow; Rhus of various species; Liquidambar, and the hand- 

 some red leaved Guelder Rose. The collection was very 

 large, the leaves being simply laid on the table in bunches, 

 and were very effective. There were also close by a very fine 

 group of cut blooms of hybrid Rhododendrons and a charming 



