i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 359. 



in exposure, temperature, humidity or character of the soil. 

 The result is a check in growth, which is generally followed 

 by a degeneration of the plant, which may endure tor several 

 years, but finally dies, and what appears like success for one 

 or two years after transplanting may prove a failure at the end 

 of five or six. 



In transferring the wild plants from the woods the common 

 mistake is to select plants which are too old. Old plants may 

 be removed safely if an abundant mass of soil is moved with 

 them, so that the roots are not much disturbed, and if care is 

 taken that the new conditions do not differ too greatly from 

 the old. Wherever possible, it is always much the best plan 

 to collect small plants or seedlings, and grow them carefully 

 in a well-prepared bed, or cold frame, of sand, loam and peat 

 for a year or two before planting out permanently. They will, 

 of course, require proper shading and watering. It may be 

 supposed that seedlings are not always easily procured, and it 

 is true that few seedling plants are noticed if we look for 

 them among the heavy covering of leaves which often protect 

 the plan(s. "The best places to procure seedlings will be found 

 along old paths and cart-tracks in the woods, along railroad 

 cuts and embankments where the species abounds, and in 

 other similar situations where the ground has been disturbed 

 or a clearing made. 



After some careful observation the little plants may be easily 

 detected even when provided with only three or four small 

 leaves. With proper care these will become robust speci- 

 mens, and best adapted to thrive under conditions of culti- 

 vation. 



In localities where the Epigsea is not indigenous the modes 

 of propagation employed are division of old plants, layering or 

 by cuttings ; but these metliods are often slow and unsatisfac- 

 tory. It may naturally be asked, Why not procure seeds ? 

 Fruits and seeds of Epigaea, however, are known to few peo- 

 ple, even among professional botanists, who are familiar with 

 the sweet, fragrant, shy little flowers. Probably no one has 

 ever procured seeds from a regular dealer. The dry little 

 fruits are not likely to be noticed on the stems of the plants 

 unless they are carefully looked for, and they may be found 

 more plentifully ir; sunny open places than in more shaded 

 ones. Doubtless, also, in some parts of the country the con- 

 ditions for seed-production are much more favorable than 

 others. Where seed can be procured it may be sown in pots, 

 boxes or beds of well-prepared and well-pulverized soil com- 

 posed of loam, peat and fine clean sand in about equal parts, 

 and the whole well drained beneath. The seed should be 

 sown on the surface of the soil and have a very slight cover- 

 ing of earth sifted over it, an amount of soil equal to the 

 diameter of the seed, or scarcely enough to cover it, being 

 quite sufficient. It may then be covered with fine sphagnum 

 or dead moss, and the whole gently and thoroughly watered, 

 and the sphagnum and surface of the soil should not be 

 allowed to become dry afterward. If in a greenhouse or 

 where there is warmth, the first seedlings may appear under 

 the sphagnum in two or three weeks, and soon afterward the 

 sphagnum must be carefully removed and a very slight sifting 

 of additional soil may be added to the surface. Until they are 

 well established the little plants should be shaded from the 

 direct rays of the sun, and the more humid the atmosphere 

 the better they will grow. As soon as they have produced one 

 or two little leaves the plants may be thickly transplanted to 

 pots or shallow boxes, care being taken not to let the delicate 

 roots dry for even a moment, and as they grow and crowd 

 they may be again transplanted and given additional room 

 until they are la'rge enough to be placed in beds or permanent 

 places. Whenever practicable, it is a good plan to start the 

 seeds in a greenhouse, sowing them soon after collecting or 

 during the winter. After the first season the pots or boxes of 

 little plants may be wintered in a cold frame or pit covered 

 with leaves. Thus treated they should bloom in three or four 

 years after the seed is sown. 



One cause which contributes largely to the scarcity of seed 

 is the fact that the Epigsea repens is practically dioecious — 

 having its pollen-bearing and fruit-producing flowers on dif- 

 ferent plants — a fact which is not commonly known. An 

 examination of the blossoms from many different plants will 

 show that on some the styles are long and surmounted by 

 perfect stigmas, on others the stigmas are perfect, but styles 

 short. Both of these forms have abortive stamens, inasmuch 

 as they either do not produce good anthers and pollen or the 

 stamens are very rudimentary or entirely absent. On other 

 plants will be found the male or pollen-producing flowers with 

 perfect stamens and abundant pollen, but imperfect stigmas, 

 incapable of being fertilized. Thus not more than half of the 

 plants can ever bear fruit, and cross-fertilization is absolutely 



necessary in order to insure seed-production, and this cross- 

 fertilization is probably entirely dependent upon visits from a 

 very few kinds of insects. 



As found growing in its native habitat much variation in the 

 size and color of the blossoms of Epiggea will always be noted. 

 A careful examination of different specimens will show that 

 there is a marked tendency toward larger size and whiter color 

 among the pollen-bearing flowers, while tho^ plants which 

 produce perfect stigmas and fruiting organs'''have blossoms 

 which are smaller, but of a richer pink or rosy color. 



The flower-buds are fully developed during the summer 

 and autumn preceding the spring blossoming, and in some 

 localities it is not very unusual to find plants in bloom in the 

 late autumn. The fully budded plants are sometimes taken 

 up and potted at the end of the growing season and the l)los- 

 soms forced in the greenhouse during the winter. As these 

 plants are rarely used afterward, the practice must lie regarded 

 as a destructive one, considering the meagre results generally 

 obtained. 



Arnold Arboretum. /• G. Jack. 



Achimenes. — IV. 



T^HERE is a group, consisting of seven varieties, which re- 

 ■'■ mind us of those last mentioned, as far as colors and 

 manner of growth are concerned, as well as the flatness of the 

 flowers. They are all of medium size and all desirable ; Car- 

 minata is carmine, shaded salmon ; Aurora is much like it, 

 but darker ; Firefly, carmine shading to purple and having an 

 orange eye; Purpurea multiflora is described by its name ; 

 Williamsi is salmon-scarlet, with purple and orange eye and 

 fringed petals; Lady Littleton, rich crimson; Rose Queen, 

 rich rosy-lake, with a large orange spot. The last two are 

 extraordinarily fine. 



Of the kinds which still remain to be described. Magnet, Frau 

 Brunnow and Madame de Rougemont are all precisely alike, 

 The flowers are flat, rosy-purple, with orange-spotted throats, 

 and the plant is very free-tfowering and desirable under either 

 name. Alexandra is very much like it, but bears a trifle 

 darker flowers, and so may claim to be really distinct. Esche- 

 riana is small, flat, deep velvety-purple, with orange eye ; 

 Hirsuta splendens is another name for the same kind ; Mon- 

 sieur and Madame Miellez agree perfectly with each other- 

 color, white with orange and purple eyes. Of the three Hof- 

 gartners, Mastrand, Neuner and Wendschuch, the first is ex- 

 ceedingly unlike any other kind, its flowers being of medium 

 size, trumpet-shaped, and of a beautiful lavender color, with 

 a conspicuous white throat thickly spotted with chocolate. Alto- 

 gether, this is one of the most desirable, but, unfortunately, not 

 easily to be found, for many dealers send out under this name 

 a reddish kind, much like Leopard, which has already been 

 described. The second, Neuner, is flat, small, reddish pur- 

 ple, with yellow eye ; and the third, Wendschuch, is the same 

 in size and shape, but colored rose with violet shade. All 

 three are good, the first, perhaps, the best. 



Amabilis bears an exceedingly pretty trumpet-shaped flower, 

 small, indeed, but very desirable for its lilac tint, a color very 

 unusual in Achimenes. Camille Brozzoni and Autumnalis 

 are worth having. Both are of medium size, the former flat 

 and pink, with white throat ; the latter trumpet-shaped, very 

 deep violet, with white throat. Pink Perfection is a large flat 

 flower of a pinkish-purple color. Sir Treherne Thomas, also 

 large and flat, deep rose, with orange throat. Nisida is, to my 

 mind, one of the very best of all Achimenes ; it is a long- 

 tubed, large, flat flower, lavender; shading to white at the cen- 

 tre, with a yellow, chocolate-dotted throat ; its shape is exceed- 

 ingly graceful. The true A. hirsuta {Bof. ]\Iag., t. 4144) and A. 

 pediinculata {Bot. Mag., t. 4077) are genuine species, differing 

 liorticulturally in the color of the flowers, the latter being of an 

 orange cast where the others are rosy. Otherwise one descrip- 

 tion may serve for both: tall, strong plants, bearing in the axils 

 of the upper leaves large, trumpet-shaped flowers on long 

 flower-stalks, and, as the season advances, bulbillce of small size 

 but the same in shape as the subterranean ones. Both species 

 should be had. Skinneri is the same as A. hirsuta. Reticulata 

 is flat, of medium size, lilac-purple, with dark veins and yellow 

 throat, very neat and pretty. Semilosse is tubular, deep 

 crimson, with something of an orange cast. Ignescens (syno- 

 nym, heterophylla) has almost no expanded limb, consisting 

 of a tube only, but of an unapproachable brilliancy, a fiery 

 orange at one end gradually changing to a blazing yellow at 

 the other. Chirita, which seems identical with Plectopoma 

 Gibsoni and Scheeria Mexicana of Van Houtte's catalogue, is 

 the strongest grower in the genus, and will even do pretty 

 well out-of-doors. It grows about a foot or fifteen inches 



