5H 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 409. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Stapelia gigantea. 



THE illustration on p. 515 is reproduced from a pho- 

 tograph of the plant of Stapelia gigantea, which was 

 briefly referred to recently in Garden and Forest (p. 454), 

 which flowered a few weeks ago in the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew. The flowers are a foot in diameter, leather like in 

 texture, the surface wrinkled and the color pale yellow, 

 with red-brown transverse lines and covered with very fine 

 silky purplish hairs. Each flovi'er lasts two or three days, 

 and on first opening emits a disagreeable, odor. It is more 

 than thirty years since this species was introduced into 

 English gardens from Zululand, but it did not flower till 

 1888, when a plant in the collection of Sir George Macleay, 

 Pendell Court, Surrey, produced flowers in November, and 

 from these the colored plate in The Botanical Magazine was 

 prepared. Sir Joseph Hooker there speaks of it as follows : 

 "This, some Rafflesias and certain species of Aristolochia 

 are the largest flowered members of the vegetable king- 

 dom, and, what is curious, all are most fetid and have lurid 

 colors. They agree in no other characters ; they differ al- 

 together in botanical affinity ; and they inhabit widely 

 distant parts of the world, namely, south Africa, Malaya 

 and Brazil." To Ibis category may be added the great 

 Amorphophallus Titanum, which has the largest of all floral 

 structures, with lurid colors and a penetrating disagreeable 

 odor. 



The claims of Stapelias generally to the notice of horti- 

 culturists were urged in an article published in Garden and 

 Forest in 1890, page 179, where also will be found direc- 

 tions for their cultivation, based upon experience at Ivew 

 and in a few other gardens where these plants find favor. 

 The requirements of S. gigantea are somewhat exceptional. 

 It thrives only when grown in a hot moist stove from April 

 till September, when the growth matures and the flower- 

 buds show. It should then be hung up or placed upon a 

 shelf near the roof-glass in a sunny dry position in the 

 stove. It grows very freely under this treatment, the plant 

 represented in the picture being only eighteen months old 

 from a cutting. The prostrate stems branch freely and 

 produce roots from every node. 



Many of the species of Stapelia are small in flower and 

 altogether wanting in characters that would recommend 

 them for the garden ; there are, however, some which have 

 large and attractive flowers, and are to be obtained from a 

 few nurserymen. They are S. Bufonis, of which picta and 

 variegata are forms ; S. deflexa, S. grandiflora, S. Desmeti- 

 ana, S. hirsuta, S. Plantii, S. sororia and, of course, S. 

 gigantea. The first-named is the best known of all, and is 

 the common Carrion-flower. It can be grown in a cold 

 greenhouse or even in a room window where direct sun- 

 light can reach it. S. grandiflora has flowers five inches in 

 diameter and is covered with long purple hairs ; S. Plantii 

 is another large-flowered species remarkable for its stout, 

 erect, dark green stems and zebra-marked purple and yel- 

 low hairy flowers. These are all easy to manage and 

 flower every year. I may as well mention here that Sta- 

 pelias are not Cacti, but Asclepiads, although it is usual for 

 nurserymen to class them with Cacti, and I have even seen 

 them thus classed in books. They are all African. 



London. W. W. 



Plant Notes. 



PHYLLOTyENiuM LiNDENi. — Thls is One of the most beauti- 

 ful foliage-plants of the Calla family. The leaves sometimes 

 grow to a height of four or five feet, with a blade two feet 

 in length. The plant forms immense masses of foliage if 

 it is not divided too often, and while a rather moist and 

 warm atmospheric condition is best for its development, 

 it can stand drought and a certain degree of cold for a con- 

 siderable time with immunity. As a plant for the house it 

 is unequaled, and requires comparatively little attention. 

 The leaves are hastate in outline, borne on erect, rather 



fleshy, leaf-stalks ; the blade is green, marked along the 

 middle and principal veins with broad bands of white. The 

 effect is rich and luxurious. Rich loamy soil, with good 

 drainage, and a temperature of about sixty-five degrees are 

 the best conditions for success, and if it is kept moderately 

 warm, moderately moist and absolutely clean this hand- 

 some Aroid cannot fail to give satisfaction. 



Aphelandra orientalis punctata. — This is a handsome 

 stove shrub with lanceolate opposite leaves of a bright 

 green color, variegated and spotted along the midrib with 

 a broad irregular band of silvery white and more or less 

 sprinkled over with silvery dots. The habit is rather slen- 

 der, but by means of pinching the young shoots quite nice 

 and bushy plants may be had. Like most tropical plants 

 of its family (Acanthaceee), it is an exceedingly fine sub- 

 ject for table decoration if properly treated. Cuttings root 

 in about two weeks, but require a brisk bottom heat. A 

 rich vegetable soil composed of one part loam, one leaf- 

 mold, one well decayed horse-manure and one part sand 

 is the best soil that can be obtained for this and similar 

 plants. Anyone interested in fine foliage-plants for a stove 

 or warm greenhouse will find this a very rare and pleasing 

 subject. 



Dichorisandra undata. — Among the smaller foliage-plants 

 suitable for small conservatories and greenhouses, this 

 beautiful species takes a prominent place. It is nearly 

 related to Tradescantia, and is not unlike some of the large- 

 leaved forms of that genus. The leaves are subcordate, or 

 nearly orbicular, with a peculiar wavy or ruffled surface ; 

 deep olive-green, with several longitudinal grayish bands, 

 of which the middle one is broadest, about half an inch 

 wide. The stem is thick and fleshy, and the leaves are 

 produced close together at the top. The usual size of the 

 plant in greenhouses is about eight inches, although it 

 probably grows larger in its native home. To be satisfac- 

 tory, the plants should be grown into broad bushy speci- 

 mens, when they are very ornamental. Propagation, by 

 means of cuttings in bottom heat. The soil should be rich 

 and fibrous. Plenty of water is needed in summer, as well 

 as a shady position and about seventy degrees of heat. 



Cultural Department. 



Pruning of Street-trees. 



THE Parking Commission of Washington has been in exist- 

 ence for more than twenty years, and the same men who 

 were appointed at the Ijeginning, W. R. Smith, William Saun- 

 ders and John Saul, are serving on it still. As might be 

 expected from (he work of an intelligent body, much valuable 

 information has been accumulated, especially as regards the 

 system of pruning adopted. It has been the custom of the 

 Parking Commission, when planting three or four year old 

 trees on the streets, to head them back to a height of about 

 nine feet from the ground and shorten in all lateral branches. 

 This has worked satisfactorily, as it tends to make the tree 

 push out fresh growths, and at the end of the first year the 

 trees look as if they had not felt the change. 



It is in the treatment of the trees after they have attained the 

 age of a dozen years or more that the results of the different 

 methods of pruning are so very noticeable. For example, the 

 Occidental F'lane, if left to itself, will grow very irregularly, 

 become sickly, and then invite attacks by scale insects, which 

 soon threaten to kill them altogether. On several of the streets 

 a few years ago this was exactly the condition of these trees. 

 Heroic measures were decided upon in the way of cutting 

 back the branches to within a short distance of the stem. This 

 was carried out on several miles of streets, much to the horror 

 and dismay of the property-owners, who declared that the 

 members of the commission had suddenly turned insane. The 

 commissioners said nothing, probably they had some doubts 

 as to the results of the experiment. The treatment proved to 

 be the proper one, however, and within two years from the 

 date of pruning, the streets where the pruning was done had 

 the most beautiful trees in the city. The Oriental Plane grows 

 into a more symmetrical shape and does not need the knife 

 so often to keep it in shape or to give it new vigor as does 

 l-'latanus occidentalis. 



North Carolina Poplars, which have been pruned severely 



