Garden and Forest. 



[Number 358. 



thirty inches, the shortest twelve inches high, all crowded 

 with flowers. There must have been at least one hundred 

 open together. 



When properly treated this is a noble plant, quite excep- 

 tional in its beauty and habit. Seeds sown in March will pro- 

 duce flowering plants by April of the following year. They 

 should be grown in light soil in an intermediate tempera- 

 ture and a sunny position. In America they would prob- 

 ably grow well and flower freely in the open air if treated 

 as bedding-plants. The species ripen seeds freely, but 

 these first hybrids do not. Streptocarpus Dyeri has not 

 ripened any seeds with us, and, as the plants perish after 

 flowering, to obtain the hybrid again the cross must be 

 repeated. This, fortunately, is easily done. All the mono- 

 phyllous species of Streptocarpus die after they have once 

 flowered ; the others are all perennial. 



London. 



w. w. 



Plant Notes. 



Iris Pal.istina. — Well distributed in the Holy Land, there 

 grows a little bulbous Iris of the Juno section, which flowers 

 at this season. It has the usual ovoid bulb, with brown 

 coating and persistent roots characteristic of the group. It 

 can be flowered here only under glass. The small flowers 

 are greenish yellow, not striking or specially attractive. 

 The variety with purplish blue flowers known as coerulea 

 is much more attractive and much resembles I. alata, 

 but has not the winged claws of that species and is inferior 

 in size. The showiest Iris of the season is I. stylosa, to 

 which we lately referred (vol. vii., p. 454). This species, 

 if strongly grown outside during the summer, will now 

 provide a supply of attractive fragrant flowers in a cool 

 house. 



Jacobinia magnifica. — This is one of the most floriferous 

 plants of this season in the greenhouse. It is showy, too, 

 and it is grown in quantities on account of its compact 

 habit and its general usefulness as a decorative plant. Old 

 plants grown on from year to year do not make such good 

 plants as those that are raised annually from cuttings. 

 Therefore, when they are done flowering they can be thrown 

 away, except a few that should be kept as stock plants. 

 Cuttings taken in March root easily with the aid of a little 

 bottom-heat. When rooted they are put into small pots of 

 rich open soil and placed in a moist warm house until the 

 end of May. Then they can be planted out in the garden 

 in a sunny position. They require a Uberal supply of water 

 during the summer, and attention must be paid to pinching 

 the young shoots so as to make them stocky and keep them 

 from flowering. If properly treated, by the end of August 

 they make handsome little shrubby plants, and should be 

 then taken up and potted in rich light soil. They should 

 be syringed often until they recover from the effects of their 

 change. When the nights grow chilly in September they 

 should be placed in a cool greenhouse where they will get 

 an abundance of light. In a short time they will be cov- 

 ered with large clusters of showy reddish purple flowers, 

 which grow profusely at the ends of the branches, and the 

 plants remain showy for a long time; the flowers do not 

 last long after they are cut. 



Crotalaria longirostrata. — Mr. Cameron writes that this 

 plant is now attracting attention in a cool greenhouse at the 

 Botanical Garden in Cambridge. It is a Genista-like plant, 

 introduced from Mexico a few years ago, and is not 

 plentiful in cultivation yet ; but when better known, he 

 thinks, it will become a favorite as a cool greenhouse plant. 

 It is a rapid grower, and does not make a shapely plant if 

 it is not pinched frequently when the young shoots are 

 growing vigorously in summer. Well-grown specimens are 

 clothed abundantly with ternate leaves, and the orange- 

 yellow, pea-shaped flowers are produced in terminal 

 racemes. The plants ripen seed and can be increased either 

 by seed or by cuttings ; those raised from cuttings in 

 spring make good winter-flowering plants. 



Stigmaphyllon ciliatum. — This is a climbmg plant from 

 Brazil, and it is sometimes called the Golden Vine, from its 



yellow flowers, which at once suggest those of an Onci- 

 dium, both in their form and in their color. It is a sum- 

 mer-flowering twiner, and it was once thought to require 

 stove treatment, but ordinary greenhouse temperature is 

 what it needs, and in our southern and central states it will 

 flourish out-of-doors and bear its bright blossoms in great 

 abundance. When planted in a greenhouse its flowers 

 cover the young shoots, and in autumn, if it is cut back 

 hard, it will at once begin to make new wood for flowers, 

 which will appear as soon as the lengthening days bring 

 enough sunshine. If it is left, however, and cut back but 

 slightly in the greenhouse, it will bear a fevv flowers all 

 winter long. This plant does better when planted in the 

 ground than when grown in a pot, and during the hot 

 weather it needs to be syringed quite frequently to over- 

 come the red spider. It is easily propagated by cuttings. 



Cultural Department. 



Germinating Nuts and Acorns. 



T^O the amateur planter no class of the larger seeds of trees 

 -'■ and shrubs causes more disappointments and elicits as 

 many questions as do the various kinds of fruits known as 

 nuts. The cause is generally a lack of knowledge, of proper 

 treatment, or carelessness. It does not seem to be generally 

 understood, although the fact has been stated over and over 

 again in horticultural journals, that many of these seeds retain 

 their germinative power for a comparatively short time after 

 maturity, unless they find the proper conditions for their pres- 

 ervation. The acorns of the White Oak, Ouercus alba, for in- 

 stance, often crack and sprout and show the so-called root 

 before the fruit falls from the tree. If these acorns are gath- 

 ered and allowed to dry for a few weeks before planting it is 

 unlikely that any of them will grow. The same result follows 

 in nature if they fall on ground which is hard and dry and con- 

 tinues so for some time afterward, but if the ground is moist 

 the radicle or incipient root will soon enter it and be secured 

 from drying, unless the soil itself should be deprived of mois- 

 ture. What is true of the White Oak is true ot other species, 

 although often in a much less marked degree. Some of the 

 Black Oak group, for instance, bear acorns which are slower 

 in germinating and appear to preserve their vitality better . 

 under adverse conditions. It is destructive to the vegetative 

 power of all acorns to collect them in the autumn and keep 

 them uncovered in an ordinary dry room, to be planted in 

 spring. But any of them may be preserved for months if 

 simply packed or mixed with moist, but not wet, sand, soil or 

 moss, and kept in a cool temperature, such as would prevail 

 under a light covering of leaves or soil in the open air. Similar 

 treatment must be given to Hazel-nuts, chestnuts and to 

 Beech-nuts. In all cases care should be taken to mix in plenty 

 of soil, or to place the nuts in layers so that they do not touch 

 each other, and any tendency to heat and consequent mold- 

 ing should be guarded against. Butternuts, walnuts and Hick- 

 ory-nuts will not grow readily, or at ail, if allowed to become 

 thoroughly dried or cured, although the kernels may preserve 

 a fresh appearance for years after germinative power is lost. 

 They will, however, keep their vitality much better and 

 longer than acorns under the same conditions. 



As a rule, direct planting in the open ground as soon as the 

 seed is collected is to be preferred, wherever practicable, for 

 most kinds of nuts and acorns. Among objections to this 

 system are (i) the liability of the larger nuts to destruction by 

 squirrels, ot the thinner-shelled ones by mice and some other 

 rodents, or by birds ; and (2) the action of frost in heaving 

 the nuts out of the ground. Where the depredators can be 

 guarded against, the heaving action of frost may be obviated 

 by a covering of leaves or boards laid over the seed. Some 

 growers aim to plant after hard freezing weather has set in, 

 because there is then less liability to disturbance by animals. 

 In this system of planting an extra quantity of seed is required 

 to allow for failures or mishaps, just as is the rule with many 

 field crops. 



Walnuts, Hickories and Oaks generally form long tap-roots, 

 and some persons consider it an advantage to have the seed 

 planted where the trees are to remain permanently, as it is 

 generally found expedient to cut the tap-root when transplant- 

 ing. When the seed is planted where the tree is to remain 

 experiments have shown that these undisturbed trees make a 

 much faster growth, in their early years at least, than those 

 whose main roots have been cut. In growing a limited num- 



