4o6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 398. 



Saintpaulia ionantha. — This beautiful Gesneriad, a 

 dwarf Gloxinia-like plant, deserves special mention among 

 the new flowering plants. Its neat, compact habit and 

 its time of flowering- make it a valuable acquisition, indeed. 

 The flowers are produced in cymes from the axils of the 

 leaves on slender peduncles, four or more together. The 

 color is a lovely lavender or pale blue, the anthers being 

 golden-yellow. The corolla about three-fourths of an inch 

 in diameter, irregularly five-cleft, almost flat, with a very 

 short tube. The leaves are cordate, fleshy and hairy, on 

 long, brittle petioles, deep green, and a very dark olive- 

 green when mature. The plant is stemless and spreading, 

 seldom more than six or eight inches high, and is very flo- 

 riferous throughout the winter months. It will, perhaps, 

 prove useful and interesting for hybridizing purposes, and 

 will, undoubtedly, be improved upon by cultivation. April 

 is a suitable month for sowing the seed, and as the plant 

 grows rapidly, large-flowering specimens can be had in 

 September or October. The seeds, which are very fine, 

 should not be covered, but merely sown on the surface of 

 the soil in a well-watered pot. They germmate in two 

 weeks. The seedlings should be pricked off in a soil com- 

 posed of equal parts loam, leaf-mold and sand as soon as 

 possible. They will be ready for planting singly in two- 

 inch pots about two months from sowing, after which they 

 grow rapidly and must be repotted twice during the sum- 

 mer — first into three-inch, then into five-inch pots, which is 

 a suitable size for flowering plants. A temperature of 

 seventy-five degrees during the summer, and about seventy 

 during the flowering season, is suflicient. The foliage 

 should be sprayed frequently, and the roots also require 

 abundant moisture. It is quite probable that this interest- 

 ing plant can be increased by means of leaf-cuttings in the 

 same way as the Gloxinia, as broken leaves always form 

 little plants wherever they happen to fall. 



AcoNiTUM FisHERii. — • This late-flowering Monkshood 

 makes a very dwarf and compact plant, hardly a foot high, 

 with large panicles of pale purplish-blue flowers. It remains 

 in bloom for a considerable time, from September until late 

 in the fall, and will grow in very dry and sunny positions. 

 During the present dry season it is one of the few hardy 

 herbaceous plants standing perfectly fresh and healthy, un- 

 injured by sun and drought. The flowers are larger and 

 of a paler color than those of the common Monkshood 

 (A. Napellus), and the inflorescence is immense, considering 

 the size of the plant. The ternate leaves are ver)!- thick 

 and leathery and of a deep green color. The compact, flo- 

 riferous habit of this plant makes it valuable for rockeries 

 and select borders. All Monkshoods are, however, very 

 poisonous, and the nearly related Delphiniums are far more 

 desirable for small lawns and gardens. 



Pleroma semidecandrum (Lasiandra macrantha). — This 

 exceedingly beautiful plant of the Melastoma family is 

 well suited for our American summers, as it will do well in 

 the open air from May until October. The flowers measure 

 four inches across and are produced in terminal cymes, one 

 at a time. They are of a deep violet-blue color, and appear 

 nearly all the year, more abundantly during the summer 

 and early autumn months. The leaves are ovate, acumi- 

 nate, dull green above, silvery beneath, on both sides 

 covered with silky hairs. When grown in the full sunlight, 

 if judiciously pruned, it will form a bushy plant or a slen- 

 der-stemmed tree as beautiful for the conservatory as for 

 the lawn. If planted out in a border in a greenhouse or 

 conservatory and trained underneath the glass in the full 

 sun it will form a strikingly beautiful object. It will do 

 equally well in pots and flower more freely, although the 

 flowers are never as large as they are on specimens planted 

 out. When planted in the open border a partial rest is 

 necessary to ripen the wood and to make sure of plenty of 

 flowers. The best soil in this country for Lasiandras, as 

 these plants are more generally called, is one composed of 

 equal parts of rich fibrous loam and peat, with a liberal 

 addition of sand. During the summer plenty of water 

 should be given if the plants are grown in pots ; in a bor- 



der the plants can easily be overwatered. Cuttings of 

 growing wood inserted singly in two-inch pots and placed 

 in bottom-heat in a close frame root readily. The plants 

 should be potted pretty firmly, and when established will 

 do well under ordinary greenhouse treatment. 



Cultural Department. 

 Late-blooming Hardy Herbaceous Plants. — II. 



OHLOX NELSON II is giving its usual autumnal bloom of small 

 -*■ stemless pure wliite flowers in sheets, which are shown off 

 Ijy its dark green moss-like foliage. Physostegia Virginiana is 

 showy with its dense heads of pink flowers, and forms a good 

 border plant some three feet high ; it is of spreading habit, yet 

 easily kept in bounds. Tall masses of Pyrelhrum uliginosum 

 are now at their best wilh their lavish supply of pure white 

 Marguerite-like flowers, admirably adapted for cutting pur- 

 poses. The double Saponaria officinalis, the old-fashioned 

 Bouncing Bet of New England farm yards, tliougli weedy and 

 not to be recommended for the flower border, is a desirable 

 plant for naturalizing, and shows dense heads of pale and deep 

 purplisli-pink double flowers. Some of tlie deeper pink forms 

 are quite effective and should be used more often where a 

 showy plant is desirable in a permanent position. 



Senecio pulcher, tliough it requires heavy winter covering, 

 abundantly repays this care and is in constant liloom from 

 August until hard frost, producing rich purplish magenta, 

 aster-like flowers, each an inch and a half to two inches across 

 and borne in showy flat clusters. 



The Pilot Weeds and Prairie Docks, such as Silphium 

 laciniatum, S. perfoliatum and S. terebinthianaceum, are now 

 giving a profusion of bloom, all with showy light yellow flowers 

 and all unusually varied and interesting in their foliage and 

 habit of growth. Solidago rigida, S. sempervirens and S. Virga- 

 aurea are among the best of tlie Golden-rods and form good 

 border plants with bright golden yellow flowers. The first- 

 named is the best, but unfortunately it is afflicted with a rust 

 that must be contended with at its season of bloom. Statice 

 Gmelenii still shows immense open heads of deep lilac blue 

 flowers — a unique plant with peculiar strap-shaped foliage and 

 a marvelous quantity of bloom. 



TroUius Europeus, tlie Globe-flower, is once more in its 

 element of temperature, and throws a constant succession of 

 sliowy globular yellow flowers, as bright as they were in early 

 spring. This is one of the finest plants to enliven the border 

 in early summer and again in fall, and very choice for cutting. 

 Stobasa purpurea now lifts up its broad candelabra-like head of 

 rich deepest purple, spiny flowers, each three inches across. 

 Tliis is one ot the most distinct of the Thistles, but its hardi- 

 ness has not yet been proved. Anthemis tinctoria, now that 

 the seed-vessels from the first crop of flowers have been re- 

 moved, is sending up a second lot of bloom, and, though 

 rather weedy, is very effective with its Marguerite-like 

 darlv lemon-yellow flowers. Ophiopogon Japonicus is throw- 

 ing up spikes of small deep blue flowers. Sedum spec- 

 tabile displays its broad flat heads of rich pink flowers ; S. Sie- 

 boldii shows small dense clusters of red flowers, while S. 

 maximum is producing heads of creamy white and pink 

 flowers. 



Hibiscus moschuetos is out of flower, but its crimson-eyed 

 variety is giving quite an effective show of large creamy white, 

 red-throated flowers ; H. Californicus is especially showy with 

 its broad trumpet-shaped, waxy petaled, creamy white flowers 

 with deep carmine centres, and these flowers are from five to 

 seven inches across. Single plants that have been established 

 are producing from 100 to 150 blooms each, giving a most 

 eftective show to the flower border. Inula glandulosa con- 

 tinues to give its showy, light yellow, finely cut rayed flowers 

 in abundance. Buphthalmum salicifolium is again at work, pro- 

 ducing its bright yellow flowers of good form, and well 

 adapted for cutting, and the dark rich purplish blue flowers of 

 tlie Aconitum autumnale are at their best. 



Campanula Carpathica and its white variety are striving to 

 excel each other in sustaining their blooming season until 

 hard frost, and they still are among the best border plants. 

 C. Van Houttei has given many spikes of second bloom, and 

 has been especially welcomed. Grindelia squarrosa is in per- 

 fection, forming a bush three feet high and two feet through, 

 witli plenty of sliowy clear yellow flowers with good centres. 



Veronica longifolia, var. subsessilis, is throwing out numer- 

 ovis side branches and promises an abundant display of rich 

 bloom for some weeks to come. Plumbago Larpentje, with 

 its broad sheets of deep blue flowers, is at its best, and Eryn- 



