334 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 391 



Limnocharis, the red leaves of the Caladium and the ele- 

 gant paper reed is rich and lasting. Caladiums are excel- 

 lent plants for tropical aquaria. The Limnocharis flowers 

 freely, producing scapes about eighteen inches high bear- 

 ing umbels of white flowers ; its leaves are, however, its 

 most decorative feature. L. Humboldtii is quite different 

 in habit, its leaves being floating, and its flowers, which 

 are produced singly on stalks a fevi' inches high, are elegant 

 yellow cups three inches across. Botanists now call the 

 last-named plant Hydrocleis Commersoni, restricting the 

 genus Limnocharis to one species, the name of which has 

 been altered to L. emarginata. Both this and the Hydro- 

 cleis are natives of South America, and belong to the order 

 Butomacere. 



Cabomba aquatica or Caroliniana is now an established 

 favorite with growers of aquatic plants in this country, 

 plants of it having been introduced to Kew from British 

 Guiana a few years ago. I suppose it is common in some 

 parts of the United States. Grown in a glass tank or large 

 bell glass it is an interesting object, the finely cut sub- 

 merged leaves and peltate floating ones, with the yellow 

 Ranunculus-like flowers, making a pleasing picture. At Kev\r 

 it is grown in the tank containing the Victoria regia, where 

 it makes a large tangled mass of stems and leaves. The 

 Australian representative of this— namely, Hydropeltis or 

 Brasenia peltata — is rarely met with in English gardens now. 



Cryptocoryne cordata. — This plant is now represented at 

 Kew, where it is grown submerged in a warm-water tank. 

 It has ovate leaves four inches long, colored dark green 

 and mottled with dark brown. The genus is a remarkable 

 member of the order Aroidea?, and contains about twenty- 

 five species, all tropical Asiatic and all aquatic, with sim- 

 ple leaves and tubular green or br(iwn spathes. The spathe 

 of Cryptocoryne cordata is a foot long and colored pur- 

 plish green. 



Thalia dealbata is one of the most striking of the plants 

 grown in the tropical aquarium at Kew, where it grows to 

 a height of about six feet and produces numerous flower- 

 spikes all through the summer. This year it has been 

 established in the lake along with Marliac's yellow Water- 

 lily and Richardia Africana, and it has grown surprisingly 

 well. If not grown as a garden-plant in the United States 

 (it is wild in South Carolina), it is worth attention. The 

 leaves are handsome, the ovate blades being covered vi'ith 

 a flour-like bloom, and the leaf-stalks are of peculiar 

 structure. The long curving spikes are very elegant, bear- 

 ing at first clusters of deep blue flowers, and afterward 

 plenty of seeds. The plant is easily multiplied by division. 

 The roots must be submerged in water during the growing 

 season. In winter the plant dies down to the soil. 



London. ' ^'- W<1/S0?1. 



Plant Notes. 



Lespedeza iiicolor. — Flowers of this shrub are now past 

 their prime, but its variety Intermedia is showing its best 

 bloom. These are two pretty medium-sized and graceful 

 shrubs with hmg arching branches, trifoliate leaves on slen- 

 der petioles, neat foliage and drooping or half-erect racemes 

 of rose-colored or purple flowers. The flowers are not as 

 large or as handsome as those of the herbaceous L(;spe- 

 deza Sieboldii, but if the stems are cut back hard in early 

 spring the individual flowers will be larger and will be 

 borne in denser clusters. L. bicolor certainly deserves a 

 more extended use than it has yet received. L. Sieboldii, 

 which has a shrubby appearance, although its stems die to 

 the ground every year, flowers later, and in time becomes 

 a very large and graceful plant. A figure of both these 

 species, with an account of their various synonyms, will be 

 found in Garden and Forest, vol. v., p. 1 12. 



Hydrangea quercifolia.— This plant, which has a pan- 

 icled inflorescence somewhat like that of the Japanese 

 Hydrangea paniculata, is still in good flower, and is really 

 one of the finest of all the Hydrangeas. It sometimes 

 approaches the habit of a tree and grows fifteen or more feet 



high in Georgia and northern Florida, where it is found 

 wild, but it is scarcely hardy in northern New England, 

 and is rarely more than four or five feet high, even in a 

 sheltered situation. It becomes a widespreading and 

 graceful shrub, however, and will flower every year, and 

 its large handsome leaves turn to a rich wine color in 

 autumn. H. radiala, which is a native of the Carolina 

 mountain country, is a smaller plant and quite hardy in 

 this latitude, and it bears abundantly its fastigiate cymes, 

 in which the sterile marginal flowers are very large and 

 pure white. The beauty of this plant, however, is its foli- 

 age, which is dark green above and covered with a silvery 

 white dovvn on the under surface. 



Pardanthus Sinensis. — Among summer-flowering plants 

 of the Ills family few are more valuable than this modest 

 ChLnese species when rightly understood. It grows to a 

 height of four feet, with glaucous, ensiform, equitant leaves. 

 The flowers are produced in a loose panicle and are about 

 two inches across, and comparatively small for the size of 

 the plant. The color is bright yellow, with dark purple spots. 

 \\'hen in full flower in a half-shady position the plant is 

 really ornamental. It will naturalize quite easily and is 

 appropriate in woodland scenery. This plant appears to 

 retain its flowers longer in this country and develops into 

 a far more beautiful object here than it does in Europe, 

 owing, perhaps, to a warmer and more suitable climate. 

 The root is tuberous and the plant may easily be increased 

 by division or by seeds, which are produced in great pro- 

 fusion. A sandy and porous, but fertile soil is most =uit- 

 able, and a half-shady position in a glade or copse seems 

 to be its ideal home. 



Phyllagathis rotundifolia. — This is a plant of the Melas- 

 toma family with large elliptical, or almost orbicular, 

 leaves. The veins are strongly marked on the upper sur- 

 face, which is of a deep olive-green color and very glossy. 

 "I he lower side is dark red, with stout ribs. The plant is of 

 a compact habit with opposite leaves, somewhat similar to 

 those of a Sphasrogyne in appearance. The rather small 

 pinkish flowers are produced in axillary heads, but are 

 insignificant. As a bold foliage plant this species is very 

 effective, and it will probably be found quite amenable to 

 open-air culture if tried, and if so it will prove an acquisi- 

 tion to subtropical gardening. The propagation is as easy 

 as it is interesting. Old well-ripened leaves when laid on 

 the surface of sand in shallow boxes, as is done with the 

 leaves of Begonia Rex, will form thousands of little plants 

 in a very short time. The principal veins should be cut 

 about an inch apart, but the leaf should otherwise be left 

 entirely whole. A temperature of about eight}' degrees 

 and careful watering is essential until the plantlets begin 

 to appear. A rich fibrous vegetable soil and plenty of 

 water is needed by the young plants, but the excessive 

 heat and atmospheric moisture required by Spha^rogynes 

 and Cyanophyllums are not needed for the full develop- 

 ment of this interesting species. 



Tradescantia Regin.F-. — This is a robust and erect-grow- 

 ing plant with very effective foliage. The lea\'es are nearly 

 sessile, ovate-acuminate, almost cordate at the base. Their 

 surface is of a very dark violet-crimson, almost black, in 

 the centre, l)ordered with sih-ery white and edged with 

 green. The lower side is a uniform reddish violet. When 

 well pinched and grown in rich fibrous soil the plant will 

 form bushy and very ornamental specimens, and as it 

 grows with the greatest ease it will prove useful for house 

 culture and home decoration. Cuttings root easily even 

 without bottom-heat. 



Pandanus Baptistii. — Unlike most Screw Pines, this spe- 

 cies is entirely unarmed. The leaves are of a less solid 

 texture than those of most other species — very long, arch- 

 ing, almost linear, an inch to an inch and a half wide by 

 several feet in length. The color is a glaucous-green, with 

 narrow pale yellow stripes. It thrives, best in compara- 

 tively small pots, exposed to the full blaze of the sun and 

 watered moderately only. If grown in a shady and moist 

 position it is apt to become very weak and tender. The 



