96 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 367. 



naturally they can be transplanted into gardens, frames or 

 pots, and with ordinary care they will continue to thrive 

 year after year. They will grow well in almost any good 

 soil, one composed of sand and loam being apparently most 

 congenial, and they luxuriate where they get plenty of 

 moisture in the growing season, but are not too wet. They 

 may often be found in great profusion on rocky hills near 

 the seashore, where there is very little soil, but plenty of 

 moisture from frequent mists or fogs, and where few larger 

 plants get a foothold and overshade them. When potted 

 and kept in a cold frame they can be forced into a profu- 

 sion of bloom in midwinter, when the delicate beauty of 

 the flowers is happily displayed above a low, close mat of 

 green foliage. The flowering stems are rarely more than 

 three or four inches long, and bear tiny yellow-centred, 

 four-petaled flowers, which vary from almost pure white to 

 a rosy lilac or light blue on different individuals. To the 

 botanist these blossoms possess a peculiar interest on 

 account of the fact that they are dimorphous, being of two 

 form.s of structure, some flowers having protruding sta- 

 mens and short styles, and others having the stamens 

 included within the tubes, while the styles are long and 

 the stigmas exserted. This little Houstonia, sometimes 

 called Bluets and Innocence, among other local popular 

 names, being a perennial, will in time form quite a broad 

 tuft by spreading from a single stem by slender thread-like 

 root-stocks or creeping stems. The plants can be propa- 

 gated by seeds or by division of the delicate masses of 

 roots, which must then be carefully grown until they again 

 form good independent tufts. 



NYMPHiEA O'Marana. — This is a hybrid between Nym- 

 phaja dentata and N. Sturtevantii, raised by Mr. Peter 

 Bisset, gardener to G. G. Hubbard, Esq, Twin Oaks, 

 Washington, D. C. , and now in flovi^er in the glass-covered 

 tank of Mr. John McElvery, which was described in our 

 issue for January 9th. Indeed, it has been blooming every 

 day since early in September, and it is constantly showing 

 new buds, being more floriferous than N. Uevoniensis at 

 this season, and not excelled by any Water-lily in persist- 

 ent and continuous bloom. This is particularly remark- 

 able from the fact that the plant is growing in a pot only 

 ten inches in diameter. After having passed through the 

 shortest days of the year it seems now as vigorous as most 

 Nymphseas do in July. Its large metallic green leaves 

 resemble those of N. dentata, being strongly toothed at the 

 margin, but they have a wider cleft. The full flowers are 

 shaped like those of the same parent, are borne on stout 

 petioles which lift them well above the water, and they 

 measure eight or nine inches across. The color is a beau- 

 tiful glowing pink, without any of the shading of magenta 

 which is seen in N. Devoniensis. The stamens are of an 

 orange color, with the marked incurved form which shows 

 the blood of N. Sturtevantii, and they tint the petals with a 

 beautiful reflection. The flower is rather lighter than that 

 of N. Sturtevantii, but, unlike most other pink Water-lilies, 

 they grow darker with age, instead of fading out. 



Begonias President Carnot and B. FRAN901S Gaulin are 

 among the showiest and most effective winter-blooming 

 shrubby Begonias. They are French hybrids produced by 

 Monsieur Crozy, and are crosses of B. rubra with probably 

 B. Olbia. They resemble B. rubra in habit, well-grown 

 plants forming strong, straight shoots with flowering side 

 branches. The foliage is distinct from either of the parent 

 species, being oblique, smooth-veined, large, light green 

 above, and sometimes suffused with red below and on the 

 edges. The plants produce freely well-furnished racemes 

 of large flowers, some two inches long, and mostly female. 

 There is a difference in the coloring of the two hybrids, the 

 latter being the lightest. The coloring is not as pure in 

 tone as that of B. rubra, having a somewhat bluish cast in 

 the pink of its flowers. Plants are easily propagated, and 

 cuttings struck now will make strong plants for ne.x't winter. 

 B. Franfois Gaulin was figured in Garden and Forest (vol. 

 vi., page 123), but the raceme there shown was smaller 

 than those on well-grown plants. 



Bomarea Carderi. — Bomareas are somewhat rare plants 

 in this country, although they were grown in English gar- 

 dens nearly twenty years ago, and have been known more 

 than tifty years in botanical collections. They belong to 

 the Amaryllida;, being closely related to the Alstromerias, 

 but they have long, slender, twining stems with bright 

 green leaves, and bear flowers in terminal umbels. A 

 plant of B. Carderi in a private house near this city is now 

 in bloom, and, indeed, it has been in bloom since midsum- 

 mer, and its flowers are almost as large as those of a Lapa- 

 geria. The color of the flower is a rich rose, with con- 

 spicuous brown spots near the tips of the outer segment, 

 and larger purplish spots on the inner segments, which are 

 greenish white. In large plants the umbel will contain 

 forty of these flowers, and will measure as much as two 

 feet or two and a half feet across. The roots produce 

 fleshy tubers, but they have no buds, and, therefore, are 

 not useful in propagation. They are multiplied by the 

 means of seeds or by dividing the root-stalks in the spring. 

 They seem to do best in a well-drained border in a warm 

 sunny greenhouse. The stems of B. Carderi often grovv to 

 a length of ten or twelve feet, and being covered with broad, 

 ovate, bright green leaves, they are striking plants, and 

 commend themselves as suitable for every considerable 

 greenhouse collection. 



Cultural Department. 



Grapes in N(.)rth-eastern Vermont. 



TT was in 1867 that I planted my first Grape-vines on the shore 

 ■'■ of Lake Memphremao;og ; the first, I think, that were ever 

 planted there. Hartford I^rolific was the variety, and the only 

 one I had any hope of even partially ripening. It is the short- 

 ness o£ the season alone which forbids grape-growing in this 

 locality. Otherwise, it is an ideal spot for the purpose. Fog 

 is unknown, and dull days unfretiuent ; but frost comes in 

 .September, and it sometimes does not wait many days after 

 the end of August. There are exceptional years, perhaps one 

 in six, when frost holds off much longer; but the Grape we 

 want is one which will be ready to cut by the tenth of Sep- 

 tember. 



The orchard on my old place, but a few rods from the east 

 shore of the lake, is very well protected from light frosts ; but 

 until near the first of June, and sometimes as late as the tenth, 

 we are liable to have a killing frost. This, however, is not 

 common, having occurred but thrice in twenty-five years. 

 My Grape-vines are on a light trellis, in front of a high 

 and tight fence, eight hundred feet long and facing soulh ; 

 stakes are also used, and the summer pruning is less 

 severe than is usual in commercial vineyards, as I am not 

 growing for marlvet ; and handsome clusters not being imper- 

 ative, while protection from frost or chill is, I do but a mode- 

 rate amount of pinching. The result is, not so many handsome 

 clusters, but more ripe ones. 



As to varieties, I liave invested in every new early sort as 

 it has come out, so that I have a much larger assortment than 

 I should plant if I were to begin afresh. Hartford Prolific 

 has been quite discarded, not only for shelling, but because it 

 is too poor in quality. Eumelau has also been dropped, 

 though only lately, to give place to more promising sorts. In 

 fact, none of Dr. Grant's seedlings have proved very useful. 

 Salem is the only one of the Rogers hybrids. It ripens so as 

 to be eatable in about half the seasons. Israelia is too late, 

 though it has sometimes ripened quite nicely. Delaware gets 

 fairly sweet in most years, and is regarded as the best of the 

 older sorts. In a hot summer Brighton ripens perfectly; but 

 in a steadily cool one it will not ripen at all, while the vine is 

 very apt to die after such a season. Moore's Early colors, but 

 very rarely gets sweet. It is, however, a good culinary sort, 

 especially for jelly. 



I had got pretty fully convinced that this was as far as we 

 should ever get in grape-growing in northern Vermont, wlien, 

 at the meeting of the American Pomological Society at Bos- 

 ton, in 1887, my eyes lighted upon specimens of the " Green 

 Mountain," dead ripe, when not a single other variety on exhi- 

 bition was eatable. Here was a grape which I felt sure would 

 ripen every year on Lake Memphremagog ; and it does so. 

 Since then I have fruited the Diamond, and find that it is but 

 very little behind the Green Mountain in season ; while I can- 

 not see why it will not prove a good commercial vai'iety, which 

 Green Mountain never can be, on account of the feeble adhe- 



