556 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 20, li 



New or Little Known Plants. 



A New Winter-blooming Begonia. 



{Bcg07ua Trioinphe dc Leiiioine.) 



THIS hybrid Begonia, of which a portrait of the original 

 •plant appears on page 557, is a novelty which has 

 received much attention in Europe during the past year. It 

 is very free flowering ; it remains in flower for months, 

 and it can be grown and flowered, apparently, with very 

 little trouble. The habit of the plant, as our illustration 

 shows, is excellent. The foliage is good, and the flowers 

 are brilliant, recalling in color those of Inipatiens SuUani. 



We are indebted to Monsieur Lemoine, to whose skill in 

 hybridizing we owe this handsome plant, for the following 

 note regarding it, and for the photograph from which our 

 illustration has been prepared. 



" The new Begonia was obtained by impregnating the 

 flowers of Begonia Socolrana during the winter of 1887- 

 88 with pollen from another species, probably B. Razlii. 

 The flowers oi B. Socolrana had been fertilized by a num- 

 ber of species, but onl)^ a single cross was success- 

 ful. Whether the pollen-parent was B. Roezlii or not, the 

 seedling in less than a year formed a mass of foliage sixteen 

 inches high by twenty-eight inches in diameter. The 

 hybrid may be described as follows : 



"The stems are herbaceous, spreading, then erect and 

 branching into numerous flowering branches. The leaves 

 are large, coriaceous, orbicular, rather oblique ; the margins 

 slightly cinereous ; six inches in diameter ; those at the 

 base of the stem much the largest. The flowers are 

 produced in dichotomous cymes from the axils of the 

 leaves. The male flowers, with four petals, measure one 

 and a half inches across, and are rose-carmine in color, 

 the buds being rather brighter carmine before the flowers 

 expand. The female flowers are exceedingly rare. More 

 than 600 flowers have been open on the plant at the same 

 time, and it has been so covered with bloom as to resem- 

 ble an immense bouquet. 



"This Begonia budded the ist of December, 1888, and the 

 first flowers opened toward the middle of January. It was 

 still covered with flowers in the month of May, when it was 

 exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, and excited the admira- 

 tion of every one who saw it. 



"The plants should be plunged out-of-doors during the 

 summer, and grown in a cool house during the autumn 

 and winter." V. Lemoine. 



Nancy. ' 



Viburnum Sieboldii. 



THIS handsome plant is a native of Japan, and was 

 first described by Miquel from specimens gathered 

 by Von Siebold in 1861.=*= Here, in cultivation, it is a stout 

 shrub with spreading and finally with upright branches six 

 or ten feet high and covered with smooth, ashy-gray bark. 

 The leaves which appear early in May are, when fully 

 grown, three and a half to five inches long by an inch and a 

 half wide, and are borne on stout petioles, an inch and a 

 half long ; they are oval or obovate, sharply and remotely 

 serrate towards the extremity only, with prominent mid- 

 rib and primary veins. The lower surface, young shoots and 

 buds are covered thickly with rusty-brown hairs, which are 

 scattered also over the upper surface of the leaves. These at 

 maturity are dark green and lustrous on the upper, and paler 

 on the lower surface. The flowers with truncate calyx-limb 

 and rotate corolla, are creamy white, and produced in flat, 

 rather few-flowered cymes, terminating the branches. The 

 fruit is black, half an inch long, with nearly triangular seeds 

 conspicuously grooved on the back. The leaves when 

 bruised and the wood possess, even more strongly, the 

 peculiar disagreeable odor of our native V. Lentago. The 

 flowers open here during the first week of June and the 

 fruit ripens in September, at which time the plant is partic- 

 ularly ornamental, the stout branches of the abundant 

 cymes having turned bright scarlet. 



* Viburnum Sieboldii, Miquel Prol. Flor. Jap., 155. — Maximowicz, Mel. Biol, x., 660. 



Viburnum Sieboldii, according to Maximowicz, is not a rare 

 plant in its native country, being found along streams at the 

 foot of the mountains in dense woods. It was introduced 

 into cultivation through Mr. S. B. Parsons of the Flushing 

 Nurseries, to whom American gardens are indebted for so 

 many fine Japanese plants. He sent it to the Arboretum 

 several years ago, and has propagated it largely. It is 

 perfectly hardy, flowers freely every year, and requires no 

 special soil or care. C. S. S. 



Plant Note. 



Myrica rubra. 

 'X'HIS is a comparatively newly discovered Japanese ever- 

 -'■ green. It is a fruit tree, producing a highly flavored 

 edible fruit, an inch in length by three-quarters of an inch in 

 diameter, and in shape resembling a Blackberry. It is firm 

 and contains a single seed of light weight. The fruit is dark 

 red, almost black, but there is also a light rose colored variety 

 the fruit of which is said to be sweeter than that of the 

 one first mentioned, although it is not quite so large. The 

 fruit ripens in Japan in the early part of July and can be used 

 for many purposes. It is now used as a dessert, and is 

 sometimes preserved. The extracted juice can be used as a 

 beverage in its fresh state, and by slight fermentation produces 

 a delicious wine. The foliage resembles that of a small leaved 

 evergreen Magnolia, and is firm and leathery. The tree is 

 ornamental, and its bark can be used to make a dye of a 

 beautiful fawn color. It is not a very hardy tree, but will suc- 

 ceed well in a climate where the Fahrenheit thermometer 

 does not fall below 20°, and where the summer is sufficiently 

 hot. 



I think it would thrive in the southern part of California, in all 

 the southern states of the United States, in Central America, 

 Mexico, Italy, Spain, and the southern part of France. It is 

 questionable whether it would succeed in England, Germany, 

 and in the northern states of America ; certainly not without 

 very adequate protection during the winter. 



The propagation of Myrica rubra will be best accomplished 

 througli its seed, as the wood is too hard for cuttings. 



The growth of the tree is rather slow, but if planted exten- 

 sively it will pay well in time, as the trees not only will pro- 

 duce a delicious fruit in abundance, but will yield also a fine 

 Ijark, which can be used for dyeing piu'poses, and a splendid 

 timber showing a mottled grain better than tlie best Maple. 

 Tlie wood is light, tough and lasting, and is now used in Japan 

 for fine cabinet work. 



The seed should be sown in a light loamy soil, and placed 

 on bottom heat if obtainable. The seed should be shaded 

 with boards if possible, otherwise with a thick mulching of 

 straw or other vegetable matter about a foot deep. Seeds 

 must not be exposed to the sun's rays or to too much light. 



Plants are at present very scarce, as the Japanese have not 

 sufficiently appreciated the beauties of this tree to properly 

 propagate it, but seeds can be collected. 



Louis Boehvier, in The Garden. 



Cultural Department. 



Bromelias. 



ANY one who is acquainted with the variety of form and 

 beauty of colors which are characteristic of a large nimi- 

 ber of the Bronieliacece cannot easily comprehend the want of 

 interest shown in these plants by horticulturists generally. 

 Fashion reigns in horticulture as in many other things, and 

 fashion having decided against Bromelias, they are scarcely 

 known in gardens — always, of course, excepting that king of 

 frilits, the Pine-apple. The late Professor Edward Morren, of 

 Liege, who was not only the botanist of the order, but loved 

 and cultivated the living plants as well, had the ricliest collec- 

 fion of species known. For their accommodation he had 

 specially constructed houses, in which the requirements, real 

 or supposed, of Bromelias were as carefully provided as is 

 done for Orcliids by their admirers now. I had the pleasure 

 of seeing this collection when it was at its best, and it struck 

 me then as being not only unique in character, l)ut exceptional 

 also in the interest and charm of the plants themselves. Hud- 

 dled together, or, as is too often the case, placed in an out-of- 

 tlie-way corner and neglected, Bromelias have a woeful 

 aspect which is scarcely calculated to make people admire 

 them. But when properly cultivated and arranged with taste 

 and care, a collection of these plants forms a really fine 

 feature. 



