ArfiiL 



iSgS-l 



Garden and Forest. 



133 



select and sort at the time of picking. Only perfect and healthv 

 fruit should go into such bins. Cellars should be ventilateil 

 so that advantage of any change in the temperature can be 

 taken and the fruit kept as nearly as possible at the required 

 coolness. When the average temperature has been above 

 forty-five degrees from the time of sorting up to December 

 15th apples should be marketed as soon after the turn of the 

 year as possible. When they are kept in the bin after this time 

 they will not stand rough usage and will not answer to ship to 

 Europe in barrels. One reason why fall fruit does not pay 

 arises from the fact that large quantities of delicate fruit is 

 placed in one compartment, which, because it is air-tight, be- 

 comes overheated. Such delicate fruit ought never to be 

 placed in barrels, except for near-by markets, and then only 

 under the most favorable conditions of weather. Were Ameri- 

 can apples marketed in as sound condition as oranges are, if 

 they were graded as oranges are as to quality and size, if they 

 were wrapped and packed as oranges are, they would be worth 

 three times as much as they now command in Liverpool. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



As.\RUM MA.xiMUM. — The genus Asarum has not hitherto 

 claimed much attention from horticulturists, but A. maxi- 

 mum, now in flower at Kew, is certain to become gen- 

 erally liked on account of the large size and beauty of its 

 flowers. It was first described by Mr. Hemsley, in The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, in 1890, from specimens collected in cen- 

 tral China by Dr. Henry, who stated that it occurs in glens 

 about Ichang Gorge on sides of cliffs, always some dis- 

 tance up, and that it is called '^ Ma-ti-hsiang " by the 

 Chinese, who use the root medicinally. Mr. Hemsley de- 

 scribed it as the largest of the genus knovv'n, the leaves 

 being as much as eight inches across and eighteen inches 

 high and the flowers two and a half inches in diameter, 

 dull green, colored outside dark maroon-purple and velvety 

 within, with a three-lobed conspicuous eye-like blotch of 

 vi-hite surrounding the mouth of the tube. Except that the 

 leaves are smaller, this description fits the plant now flow- 

 ering at Kew. The leaves are not unlike those of Cycla- 

 men in form and substance. In some species of Asarum 

 the flowers have a strong aromatic odor, which is distaste- 

 ful to some people, but A. maximum is odorless. The Kew 

 plant was received from Hong Kong last year, and it has 

 been grown in an intermediate temperature along with 

 A. macranthum, A. geophilum, A. Thunbergi and A. cau- 

 digerum, all of which are natives of China. The genus 

 Asarum is allied to Aristolochia. About a score of species 

 are known, all of them being dwarf, with creeping rhi- 

 zomes, cordate leaves, and short-stalked flowers, which are 

 developed from the axils of the leaves, generally in tufts, 

 the perianth being fleshy, tubular, with three broad spread- 

 ing lobes. A figure of A. maximum has been prepared for 

 the Botanical Rlagazine. 



Shortia galacifolia. — This is not merely a botanical curi- 

 osity ; when well grown it is a very pretty plant, quite 

 equal in attractiveness to many of our most popular alpines. 

 This week a plant of it was shown from the garden of Lady 

 Bowman, Joldwynds, Surrey, which was awarded cultural 

 commendation by the Royal Horticultural Society. It was 

 in a pan nine inches in diameter, and was a large tuft of 

 healthy green, brown-tinted leaves, from which sprung 

 over fifty flower-scapes, each six inches long, many of 

 them bearing a pair of open flowers. The bell-shaped 

 corollas were an inch long and wide, white, with a pale 

 flush of rose. Mr. Cornish, Lady Bowman's gardener, who 

 is a clever cultivator of herbaceous and alpine plants, 

 grows the Shortia in a mixture of sandstone and peat and 

 keeps it in a cold frame, where it is sheltered from bright 

 sunshine during the summer. We owe the Shortia to the 

 Alleghanies, and possibly it is grown in American gardens 

 better even than at Joldwynds ; if not, then it is certainly 

 worth trying. 



Viburnum rugosum. — This is the Laurestinusof the Canary 

 Islands, whence it was introduced into English gardens 



about a century ago and is still in cultivation here, though 

 sparingly, as a greenhouse plant. It deserves to be better 

 known, as it forms a sturdy shrub, is evergreen, its leathery, 

 corrugated ovate leaves being five inches long and covered 

 with a ferruginous down. The flower-heads, which are 

 terminal, are like those of the common Laurestinus, but 

 much larger, being four inches across and densely packed 

 with pure white flowers, in which the pink stigma is an 

 additional charm, and the odor powerful and agreeable. 

 Some plants of it at Kew, raised from cuttings rooted two 

 years ago, are now nice little shrubs two feet high, with 

 fine heads of bloom, and they have been in flower several 

 weeks. In places where this plant could be giown in 

 the open air it would be an excellent spring-flowering 

 shrub. 



EucHARis Stevensi. — Examples of this plant were ex- 

 hibited last Tuesday and obtained an award of merit. It 

 is said to be a hybrid between Eucharis Sanderi and E. 

 Candida, and it closely resembles the former, which Mr. 

 Baker believes to be a natural hybrid between E. Candida 

 and E. grandiflora (Amazonica). The flowers of E. Stevensi 

 are of medium size, and they are borne on long scapes, the 

 plants flowering freely. It was first flowered in 1885, when 

 it was supposed to be E. Mastersii, a species introduced by 

 Messrs. Sander & Co. from New Granada in 1885. The plants 

 shown last Tuesday were from the garden of the Duke of 

 Sutherland at Trentham. They were in five-inch pots, and 

 each bore one or two strong scapes of bloom. There is 

 one grand Eucharis and about half a dozen others, which 

 would be considered first-rate were it not for this one, 

 namely, E. grandiflora, the most useful of all tropical 

 bulbous plants. The habitat of this Eucharis is still un- 

 known. 



Begonia, Paul Bruant. — I noted this useful hybrid as 

 being in flower at Kew in February last year. This year 

 it is later, a group of it being at its best now, the middle of 

 March. The plants were struck in the summer of last year, 

 and they are now a foot high, and bear large drooping 

 clusters of elegant pale pink flowers, which remain fresh on 

 the plant for several weeks, as they are nearly all female. 

 There is a good picture of this Begonia in the Gardeners 

 Magazine for this week. 



Begonia, Gloire de Sceaux, is much better this year than 

 it has ever been, plants nearly a yard high being clothed 

 with shining bronze-tinted foliage and bearing large erect 

 trusses of rose-pink flowers. It was figured in Garden and 

 Forest last year, page 185, the plant represented there, 

 however, being small compared with those in flower now 

 at Kew. I consider this one of the best of the winter- 

 flowering Begonias and one of the most distinct. It is one 

 of the now numerous progeny of B. Socotrana. 



Three Good Greenhouse Primulas. — In the conservatory 

 at Kew there are nov\' groups of many kinds of spring 

 flowers, and three of the most attractive are composed as 

 follows : (i) Primula floribunda, rich yellow, and the double 

 Chinese Primula ; (2) P. verticillata, pale yellow, and Lily- 

 of-the-valley ; (3) P. obconica and red single Chinese 

 Primula. A pleasing effect is obtained by arranging the 

 plants in groups composed of one or two distinct things, 

 much more so than when the plants are mixed indiscrimi- 

 nately. There is no need to recommend P. obconica as a 

 garden-plant. It is a beautiful and most useful early spring- 

 flowering plant for the conservatory. P. floribunda is not 

 so well known. It was introduced to Kew from the Hima- 

 layas in 1883, and has been grown here ever since. Treated 

 in the same way as P. obconica, it forms compact leafy 

 plants in five-in61i pots, the whorled leaves bright green, 

 and the. flowers crowded on erect scapes nine inches high, 

 their color rich egg-yellow, and, although only half an inch 

 across, they made a good show. P. verticillata is the third 

 good greenhouse species, which is not generally grown. 

 It forms a tuft of leaves nine inches across, something like 

 P. vulgaris, but thinner, more distinctly toothed, and the 

 surface covered with whitish flour, as in P. farinosa. The 

 flower-stems are a foot high, and they bear several whorls 



