74 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 365. 



plants in the order, the structure of the spadix being as 

 singular as that of the pitcher of Darlingtonia Californica. 



Aris^ema Murrayi was introduced from Bombay in 

 1847. There is a iigure of it in the Botanical Maga- 

 zine, t. 4388. It has large, potato-like tubers, a solitary 

 leaf, the stalk of which is eighteen inches long, green, 

 mottled with red-brown, and the leaflets are oblong-acu- 

 minate and six inches long; the spathe is five inches long, 

 with a green tube, the upper portion white, curved over 

 and forming a hood, the sides of which are purple. The 

 spadix is short and wholly enclosed in the spathe. 



Aris*;ma utile is a native of the Himalayas, whence it 

 was first introduced in 1879. It resembles A. Grilfithii in 

 all its characters except that the spathe is smaller and is 

 chocolate-brown in color. By some the two are considered 

 to be only forms of the same species. Sir Joseph Hooker 

 found it at an elevation of 1 3,000 feet in Sikkim ; it may there- 

 fore be hardy, but I have never seen it tried out-of-doors. 

 Sir Joseph Hooker says it is the commonest species in 

 Sikkim, where its tubers are used as food by the hill tribes 

 after they have been macerated and boiled. 



Aristema nepenthoides is another Himalayan species 

 which was first cultivated here in 1S79. It has a large 

 turnip-like tuber, leaves two feet high, with the blade 

 divided pedately into five oblong tailed leaflets, and the 

 stalks colored green, with dull red blotches. The flower- 

 stalk is nearly as high as the leaves, and the spathe is erect, 

 six inches long, shaped somewhat like the pitcher of a 

 Nepenthes, colored brown, the upper portion folded over, 

 forming a tailed flap, colored yellow-brown, the ears green 

 and brown, with dark spots ; the spadix is erect, shorter 

 than the tube and whitish in color. This is altogether a 

 pleasing plant in the singular coloration and elegant form 

 of its spathe. It is very easily kept in health. 



Aris.ema ringens (prBecox) is a Japanese plant which has 

 long been in cultivation here in the gardens of the curious. 

 At Kew it is planted among Sikkim Rhododendrons, etc., 

 in the large temperate house, where it produces very large 

 lustrous green trifoliate leaves and large hooded flowers, 

 which are green, with white stripes on the outside, black 

 purple, with white stripes inside. The top of the spathe is 

 folded over and then contracted, so as to form two round 



windovi'-like apertures, one on each side. 



London. 



W. Walsofi. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Gladiolus tristis concolor. 



THIS plant, of which a figure is published on page 75 

 of this issue, was probably much more common in 

 gardens in the early years of the century than it is now, 

 as it is one of those south African bulbous plants which 

 were once the delight of English gardeners, but now are 

 well-nigh forgotten by the present generation of plant- 

 lovers. 



Gladiolus tristis concolor is one of the group of species 

 distinguished by the oblong spathulate and acute segments 

 of the flower and by long narrow leaves so strongly ribbed 

 that a cross-section of one of them has the form of a cross. 

 This variety only differs from the typical plant in the ab- 

 sence of spots from the pal& yellow flowers, which are 

 marked down the middle with a narrow band of rather 

 deeper yellow. The flowers, which are nearly two inches 

 across the expanded segments, are produced in loose, 

 elongated, two to three flowered panicles, enclosed at the 

 base by the dark green leaves, and, although nearly scent- 

 less during the day, exhale a delicate, fragrant perfume in 

 the evening. 



The plant from which Mr. Faxon has made the drawing, 

 which is reproduced in our illustration, was raised from a 

 corm sent to us by Mrs. Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, 

 California, in whose delightful garden this Gladiolus is well 

 established, flowering there profusely in the open ground 

 in the early spring months. It was potted at the end of 

 September and placed in a cool greenhouse, where it pro- 



duced thirteen leaves from the small corms which this 

 species appears to produce freely, like several other 

 Gladioli, on top of the old corm. The leaves were about 

 two and a half feet long, and six of them bore flowers, 

 indicating the free-flowering quality of this species, which 

 is certainly one of the best winter-flowering decorative 

 plants which have come under our notice for a long time. 

 Its free habit and the size, beauty and fragrance of the 

 flowers should commend it to florists as a good companion 

 for the Freesia, which this Gladiolus, although it does not 

 produce so many flowers on a stem, surpasses in their 

 size, form and coloring. It grows so freely in a low tem- 

 perature, too, and can be had in flower so early in the 

 winter, that it would be a cheap plant to raise ; and it is not 

 improbable, too, that it would make a good house-plant, 

 although on this point we speak without experience. 



Plant Notes. 



BoRONiA MEGASTiGMA. — In the early volumes of Garden 

 AND Forest we frequently called attention to this Australian 

 shrub particularly for the delicious, and yet intense, fra- 

 grance of its flowers. At this season one or two plants 

 will perfume a very large greenhouse, and a spray or two 

 will pleasantly scent a large room. This shrub is about 

 two feet high, the main branches being erect, and the oppo- 

 site branchlets spreading, with flowers borne in the axils of 

 the sparsely set narrow leaves. They are bell-shaped or 

 semi-globular, solitary and pendulous, half an inch in 

 diameter, of a reddish chocolate-brown, or, as the cata- 

 logues say, maroon-purple on the outside, and clear yellovi^ 

 within. In a general way it may be said that this Boronia 

 needs a cool-greenhouse treatment, like the Cape Heaths, 

 but when grown from cuttings these should be taken from 

 the branches somewhat hard rather than the more sappy ones, 

 and as the plants do not require much root-room small 

 shifts are the best. When the plants are done flowering 

 they are cut back, so as to make thick, stocky plants, and 

 it is well to stop the shoots often to prevent them from 

 running up into thin and rather scraggly specimens instead 

 of well-furnished and compact bushes. It is essential that 

 the pots should be well drained as they are shifted on, 

 since stagnant water is very injurious. During the sum- 

 mer these, pots can be plunged outside in a position where 

 the midday sun does not strike them. Mr. Robert Cameron 

 writes from the Harvard Botanic Garden that he takes cut- 

 tings from the moderately hard growth, plants them in 

 four-inch pots which are filled with a compost of finely 

 sifted loam, peat and sand to within an inch of the top of 

 the pot. Over this is spread a layer of very sharp sand. 

 When the cuttings are inserted they receive a thorough 

 watering, and are then placed under a bell-glass in a green- 

 house where the temperature ranges from forty-five to fifty, 

 and are kept shaded from bright sunshine. The plants 

 blooming in the Botanic Garden now, however, were 

 raised from seed sown tvi'o years ago. Seeds germinate 

 readily in the same temperature required for cuttings, and 

 they soon make nice plants. A few years ago it w&s noted 

 in this journal that Mr. C. M. Atkinson tried the experiment 

 of cutting these plants back severely in spring and. plant- 

 ing them out in the open air. They seemed to make a 

 stronger and healthier growth than those kept in pots, and 

 they flowered equall}^ well. 



Cestrum elegans. — The flowers of this rather old-fash- 

 ioned plant are very attractive in the cool greenhouse just 

 now. When grown in large pots, the plants make shrubs 

 five feet high. The long arching branches, with their ovate 

 lanceolate leaves, are terminated with large dense cymes of 

 purplish red flowers. Besides its value for decorating the 

 conservatory, the sprays are good for cutting. In spring 

 the plants should be cut well back and repotted, and in 

 May plunged outside in the garden, where they m.ake good 

 growth during the summer. They are taken back to the 

 cool greenhouse in the fall, where they give a quantity of 

 flowers during the dull months of winter. This Cestrum 



