June 26, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



253 



CEnotheras on the Prairies. 



THIS g-enus of beautiful wild flowers is one of tlie 

 richest and best in its attractive species. During 

 May the blossoms are most numerous, though one species 

 or another can be found in flower at almost any season of 

 the year. Qinothera sinuata and CE. serrulata especially 

 have a long season of flowering. 



Probably the most attractive prairie species is fEnothera 

 speciosa, whose magnificent large white flowers light up 

 the gathering shadows in the ravines as the spring sun goes 

 down. The blossoms are delicate in texture and color, 

 and have a dignified grace of outline, vi'hich, expressed in 

 the pure white material of the freshly opened petals, has an 

 effect akin to what we feel in the presence of beautiful and 

 simple statuary. It has the same expression of purity so 

 characteristic of Calla Lilies and Lilium longiflorum, but 

 without the waxy appearance which makes such flowers look 

 so artificial. It is not surprising that this species is a gen- 

 eral favorite, in spite of its perishability. The bright sun 

 and a light wind in the morning soon change the petals 

 first to a beautiful rose, then to deeper pink, and soon they 

 wither entirely. 



Larger and longer in calyx tube and of more brilliant 

 features is (lEnothera Missouriensis. This species has im- 

 mense yellow flowers, often measuring two and three 

 inches in diameter, with a calyx tube three or four inches 

 long. The petals are a clear, brilliant yellow, and resist 

 the hot sun with some success. The plants are low-grow- 

 ing and coarse, but the)^ tak% to the most barren and ex- 

 posed hillsides where their rather gaudy displays are the 

 more welcome. 



QSnothera sinuata is quite a weed in some places. Mr. 

 T. O. Munson has recently related * that this species 

 " makes splendid greens, equal in my estimation to Spin- 

 ach. " The blossoms, though individually pretty, are small 

 and sessile on the coarse stem among rough leaves, so that 

 they rank_yery low in ornamental value. (T^. serrulata is 

 one of the most characteristic of prairie flowers, having a 

 wide range and a long season. It seems to have no pref- 

 erence for hillsides or hollows, but grows at large also on 

 the level areas of grass land, which in many places stretch 

 out for miles unbroken. The different botanical varieties 

 of this species are very interesting. 



QSnothera biennis is more of a coarse-looking weed, and 

 is hardly a creditable member of this genus, viewed from 

 a purely artistic point. But other species, less common 

 than those already mentioned, usually agree in enhancing 

 the attractiveness of the prairie flora. Among those more 

 or less frequently collected in this country should be men- 

 tioned CE. llartwegi, (Tl pinnalifida, CE. rhombipetala and 

 CE- linifolia. Others are found in different localities, but 

 do not seem to be so generally distributed. 



Oklahoma AgricuUui-al College. J^. A. WatwJl. 



. Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Crinum Schimperi. — This is a good plant for the cold 

 greenhouse or frame, or, indeed, any position where severe 

 frost is excluded. It thrives at Kew under treatment which 

 suits the Stenomessons, Ismenes and Belladonna Lily, 

 flowering freely in midsummer The flowers are tubular, 

 rather narrow, and not unlike those of Crinum Capense or 

 ionirifolium, but white and fragrant. When grown in a warm 

 greenhouse it flowers in May, but the leaves are somewhat 

 drawn. We are indebted to Herr Max Leichtiin for the 

 possession of this plant. It was first distributed under the 

 name of C. Abyssinicum, and is still known by some culti- 

 vators under this name. It is a native of Abyssinia, from 

 whence it was sent by Herr Schimper about twenty years 

 ago. It is one of the few Crinums from Africa which are 

 easily managed under cultivation here. A good figure of 



* Aiiiericttn Horticullnrisl, vol. v., p. 44. 



this species is published in the last number of {he Bo/a /i tea/ 

 Magazme (t. 7417), vvhere Mr. Baker describes it as a half- 

 hardy species with globose bulbs the size of a man's fist, 

 with an elongated neck ; leaves linear, recurving, glabrous 

 glaucous, three feet long, two inches wide at the base, 

 gradually tapering to the point ; peduncle stout, terete, two 

 feet long, brownish ; perianth tube four inches long, tinged 

 with red, limb funnel-shaped, four inches long, with re- 

 curved segments, pure white ; stamens white declinate, 

 shorter than the perianth-limb. It belongs to the same 

 group as C. latifolium, C. Zeylanicum and C. longifolium, 

 and closely resembles C. Abyssinicum, which Schimper 

 discovered in the mountains of Abyssinia in 1838, but 

 which has not yet been introduced into cultivation. 



SXENOMESSON iN'CARN.^TUM. — If this plant were only freer in 

 the production of flowers it would become a popular gar- 

 den bulb. Unfortunately, however, neither it nor any one 

 of the dozen species known can be depended upon to 

 bloom, although they are easily grown in pots in a cold 

 greenhouse or planted out in a sunny frame. Some of 

 them are known in gardens under the generic title of 

 Coburgia, the best form of Stenomesson incarnatum being 

 called Coburgia trichroma. This is now in flower in the 

 Cape-house at Kew, and its umbels of tubular pendent 

 flowers, each three inches long and colored carmine-red 

 and yellow and tipped with grass-green, are very attractive. 

 We flower these plants by preventing them from becoming 

 overcrowded with offsets, which they produce in abun- 

 dance, but which should be removed when the bulbs are 

 started in February. 



H.EM.4NTHUS Kalbreyeri. — Large numbers of the bulbs of 

 this handsome species from tropical Africa have been dis- 

 tributed in England recently, and consequently its brilliant 

 blossoms are not now uncommon in collections of stove- 

 plants. At the Temple Show there were some magnificent 

 heads of flowers shown by iNlessrs. J. Veitch & Sons, and 

 in the St. Albans nursery they were very numerous about 

 a month ago. At Kew they have been in flower since 

 April, and are not all over yet. When this species was first 

 introduced, now about fifteen years ago, it obtained a bad 

 name with cultivators because it generally failed to bloom 

 a second time. Now, however, that its requirements are 

 understood, it is a favorite with growers of bulbous plants. 

 The treatment essential to its success in the garden is a 

 tropical, moist, sunny house while it is growing, and a dry 

 position on a shelf in an intermediate temperature while it 

 is at rest. I suppose we ought to follow Mr. Baker and 

 call it Hsemanthus multiflora, variety, 



Cyrtanthus Huttoni, — This is one of three larger-flow- 

 ered species of Cyrtanthus, the other two being C. obliquus 

 and C, carneus. It is as easily grown as C. Mackenii, 

 which is a weed at Kew, but as yet C. Huttoni is rare, 

 although first flowered here thirty years ago. It has lorate 

 leaves, contemporary with the flowers, a foot long, nearly 

 an inch wide, and in habit suggestive of Agapanthus. The 

 scape is stout, fifteen inches long, bearing an umbel of six 

 flowers which are sub-pendent, nearly two inches long, 

 tubular, with short reflexed segments, and the color pale 

 orange-scarlet. Plants of it have been raised from seeds 

 at Kew, and several of them are now in flower. A figure 

 of it will shortly be published in the Bolankal Magazine. 

 It is a native of South Africa, in the neighborhood of- 

 Grahamstown, where I saw it in flower eight years 

 ago. 



EucHARis Lowii. — This is nothing more than an erratic 

 form of Eucharis^randiflora (Amazonica), with the three 

 inner segments of the corolla incurved and twisted toward 

 the centre, and, therefore, not quite so satisfactory as a 

 flower as E. grandiflora itself It is, however, worthy of 

 note that this character is constant in all the many plants 

 that I have seen of E. Lowii. 



EuRYCLEs SYLVESTRis is a good stovc bulbous plant, as it 

 is easily managed, and when bearing its large umbels of 

 white Eucharis like flowers it is decidedly attractive. 

 Treated exactly as we treat Ilippcastrums it is perfectly 



