14 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 359. 



Begonia Rex x Socotrana. — I lately saw a batch of 

 plants in flower of this interesting hybrid in the St. Albans 

 nurseries. They are likel}' to become favorites in the gar- 

 den because of their combining the characters of both 

 parents in a pleasing manner. The leaves are like those of 

 Begonia Rex in form, but shorter in the petiole and more 

 crowded on the plant, and they are prettily colored as in 

 that species. The flowers are borne in erect sturdy ra- 

 cemes, which stand well above the foliage, and have much 

 of the character of those of B. Socotrana, though they are 

 paler in color. Probably, if the hybrid were again crossed 

 with B. Socotrana a still better result would be obtained. 

 But there is much to admire in the hybrid as it stands. 

 Messrs. Sander & Co., the raisers, think very highly of it. 

 Apparently the plants are evergreen, as in B. Rex, and, 

 therefore, they may prove perpetual flowerers. Time will 

 show. The number of crosses in which B. Socotrana is 

 one of the parents far exceeds the offspring of any other 

 species of Begonia, 



Begonia Rajah. — There are thousands of this new species 

 of Begonia in the St. Albans nurseries, where it is planted 

 on rockeries in stoves, on the sides of stages or grown in 

 pots, and it is happy in every position. It was introduced 

 last year by Messrs. F. Sander & Co. from Singapore. The 

 species it most closely resembles is Begonia gogoensis, 

 also a native of Malaya, but this has peltate leaves, and is 

 not so pleasingly variegated. B. Rajah is dwarf, the 

 leaves about eight inches across, obliquely cordate, and 

 colored dark green, with large blotches of dark brown — 

 purple-brown some would call the color. The flowers are 

 small and whitish. It is only as a foliage-plant that this 

 Begonia will find favor, and in this character it is worthy 

 to be ranked with B. Rex, B. Thwaitesii, B. decora and B. 

 smaragdina. Messrs. F. Sander & Co. have crossed B. 

 Rajah with B. Socotrana, and the result is likely to be 

 something good ; indeed, no cross, so far as I know, in 

 which the last-named species has been used, has proved 

 other than good in a garden sense. 



Calceolaria Burbidgei. — This is a handsome winter- 

 flowering shrub of great value for the conservatory. It is 

 grown in quantity at Kew, where there are bushes of it 

 varying from eighteen inches to six feet in height, well 

 branched, covered with leaves and bearing numerous large, 

 loose, elegant racemes of bright yellow flowers. Spring- 

 struck cuttings of it grown out-of-doors all summer and 

 potted on as they require, much the same as Chrysanthe- 

 mums, grow to a good size by autumn, and they will keep 

 on flowering from November to May, or even longer. The 

 plant is of hybrid origin, its parents being the large, some- 

 what coarse, Peruvian shrub, Calceolaria Pavonia, which is 

 hardy against a wall at Kew, and C. fuchsiai'folia, also 

 Peruvian, and one of the most interesting of the cultivated 

 species from the fact that in foliage and habit it closely 

 mimics a Fuchsia, and in winter it produces its pretty yel- 

 low purses very freely. Here it is planted out in a bed of 

 good soil in June, lifted and potted in October, and kept in 

 a cool frame until it flowers. It is hardy in Cornwall. 



Lourya campanulata. — This plant was introduced into 

 France from Cochin China about seven years ago and was 

 described by Baillon, who named the genus in compliment 

 to the late curator of the Jardin des Plantes, Monsieur Loury. 

 It is closely related to Peliosanthesin Htemodoraceae, resem- 

 bling that genus in habit, but it has broader foliage than 

 any of the Peliosanthes known to me. The flowers and 

 fruit are also like those of Peliosanthes, but larger. L. cam- 

 panulata has a root-stock like Aspidistra, from which 

 spring numerous leaves eighteen inches long, the petiole 

 six inches and the ovate lanceolate blade twelve inches by 

 four, bright shining green, the margins conspicuously 

 crimpled ; texture thin, with numerous raised parallel veins 

 running from base to apex. The flowers are borne on a 

 short erect raceme three inches long, and they are fleshy, 

 bell-shaped, half an inch in diameter, pale yellow, with a 

 black-purple disk-like centre. The fruits are three-quarters 

 of an inch long and of a bright china-blue color. The 



plant requires stove treatment. It is likely to find favor as 

 a foliage-plant. 



Cyclea Burmanni. — The macerated leaves of this plant 

 when steeped in water form a jelly which is said to be 

 equal in flsvor and as a food to calf's-foot jelly. Dr. Mor- 

 ris recently stated in a lecture on plants which yield 

 extraordinary substances, that a few of the leaves when 

 crushed and placed in water would in a short time form a 

 thick mass of transparent jelly, and that a friend of his dur- 

 ing sickness was nourished for some time by jelly thus 

 obtained. The plant is grown in one of the stoves at Kew, 

 but it does not seem to possess this property here. It is a 

 native of Ceylon and Concan. At Kew it is a slender, 

 quick-growing climber, with peltate-oblong leaves four 

 inches long, hairy and dull green. The flowers are small, 

 greenish and borne in long drooping, branching panicles. 

 It is not a plant of any ornamental value, but its jelly-pro- 

 ducing proclivities, when grown in tropical sunshine, are 

 interesting and might be turned to account. The genus 

 belongs to the Menisperms and is related to Cissampelos. 



PoiNSETTiA. — Every one knows the value in midwinter of 

 this plant, and every one who has a stove grows it. But 

 while it is easy to grow plants to produce heads of crimson 

 leaves varying from nine inches to afoot in diameter, those 

 who can grow them to twice that size are, I opine, few in 

 number. Locality has something to, do with it, affecting 

 the color, as it does in the case of. Calanthes, which are 

 paler when grown near big towns than when removed 

 from the bad influences of smoky fog. The finest Poin- 

 settias I have ever seen, however, arrived here a few days 

 ago from Madeira. They formed the packing for some 

 fine examples of the fruits of "Choco," Sechium edule. The 

 rich crimson leaves (bracts) were of exceptional size, the 

 largest being eleven inches long by three and a quarter 

 inches wide, and the whole head was nearly two feet 

 through. Such magnificent heads may be possible in 

 Florida, for instance. They vi'ould make the fortune of an 

 English market-grower if he could produce them, or of a 

 flower-dealer if he could procure them fresh. 



Natural v. Unnatural Training for Chrysanthemums. — 

 Perhaps I have not made myself clear in my criticism on 

 painfully trained specimen Chrysanthemums. I certainly 

 never intended to discredit skill when I wrote in favor of 

 less formal training, though " R. P." suggests as much (see 

 p. 49S, vol. vii.). In Garden and Forj;st, vol. vi., p. 456, there is 

 a picture of what I mean by a naturally grown Chrysanthe- 

 mum, and I there said that the art of the skilled gardener 

 was needed for the production of such a specimen, though 

 in that case it was hidden. Training should never go in 

 the direction of distortion, unless there are very good rea- 

 sons for it. We are compelled to use balloon-trellises for 

 Allamanda, Clematis, Bougainvillea and Gloriosa, if we 

 want to exhibit them, but not so in the case of the Chrys- 

 anthemum. The Rose is sometimes maltreated by exhib- 

 itors, vi'ho twist and bind the stems with wire in all sorts of 

 odd ways to produce a thing like an umbrella or a fan or 

 some such fancy. All this is in bad taste, and, therefore, is 

 bad gardening. The same narrovv' view condemns as bad 

 in habit all plants which do not form nice bushy speci- 

 mens. Anything "leggy" is considered an abomination ! 



London. " W. Wa/SOfl. 



Plant Notes. 



Rosa Carolina. — This native Swamp Rose is one of the 

 species which flower late, with the climbing Prairie Rose 

 and Rosa Wichuriana, which trails on the ground like a 

 Dewberry. Unlike these, it has an upright habit, and 

 reaches a height of six to seven feet, being the tallest of 

 our wild bush Roses. It is common by waysides and 

 woodsides, especially where the ground is moist, and its 

 flowers, which appear in the middle of July, often last until 

 the middle of August, since they do not open simultane- 

 ously, but follow one another in succession. The indi- 

 vidual flowers are rather smaller than those of our other 



