112 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 211. 



much attention, as each bloom has to be fertilized by hand to 

 insure the setting of seed. The pollen from the double blooms 

 is very difficult to obtain, the flowers being- so dense that they 

 have often to be removed from the plant, then placed in wet 

 sand and pulled open so as to allow the sun and the airto ripen 

 the pollen, which is carefully removed and placed on the finest 

 single blooms. The seed saved from these is called double, 

 but it is rarely possible to obtain more than twenty-five to 

 thirty per cent. 



Calceolarias are sown in July and August, and after two or 

 three shifts they are finally placed in six-inch pots about the 

 end of January. In May they are arranged upon the stages 

 outside where they are to bloom and seed. They are very shy 

 seeders, and it is only by careful hybridization that a crop can 

 be insured. Every bloom is examined, and the pollen taken 

 from the stamens and placed on the pistil, and as the opera- 

 tion must be performed when the pollen is quite ripe they 

 must be looked through nearly every day to catch each bloom 

 as it comes to maturity. 



Carnations are grown on stages, and are usually propagated 

 by layers. A collar or hoop of wood about one and a half or 

 two inches deep is placed round the top of the pot and filled 

 with soil ; into this the young shoots are layered, and when 

 sufficiently rooted they are taken off and potted, the hoop and 

 extra soil are then removed, and the mother-plant kept to ripen 

 what seed there may be on it. Seed is very difficult to obtain 

 under any circumstances, and then only in small quantities. 

 The supply is always limited, and there is not much chance of 

 its ever being much cheaper than it now is. In one establish- 

 ment I visited ten to fifteen thousand pots were kept going for 

 these alone. 



The commoner kinds of annuals are grown in quantities. 

 Mignonette and Dianthus are grown by the ton, and a single 

 firm often harvests several hundredweight of Pansy-seed. 

 Pansies require the closest attention, and must be caught at 

 the right time ; if not, the pod bursts and the seed is scattered. 

 Some seedsmen grow Everlastings, and reap many acres of 

 them under cultivation. This forms quite a business by itself. 

 They are dried in warehouses specially built for the purpose, 

 and afterward bunched and packed for export. 



The pits in which most of the plants are raised are con- 

 structed of wood, and are generally not more than nine to 

 eighteen inches high, with the soil cleared out to a depth of 

 about three feet. They are then tilled up in the following man- 

 ner : A layer of rough stalks, then a good layer of fresh manure 

 to within about nine inches of the top, and well trodden down. 

 This is allowed to settle for a day or two, and upon this 

 is placed a layer of fine soil, in which the seedlings are 

 raised. 



During summer they are used for growing some of the more 

 tender annuals, such as Cockscombs, Portulacas, etc., so that 

 protection may be given if necessary during cold nights. The 

 soil and manure is removed in the autumn and carefully put 

 away. In this manner it is being utilized while preparing it 

 for future potting operations. They are used in winter for 

 storing Wall-flowers and autumn-sown Stocks, as before men- 

 tioned. 



The plan of improving stocks of seed is as follows : As soon 

 as the plants are fully in bloom they are carefully examined, 

 and the best and truest as regards color or shapes are singled 

 out by placing a stake next them. When the seed is ripe they 

 are carefully gathered by themselves and kept for stock the 

 following year. This is very necessary in the case of some 

 annuals, which show a great tendency to revert to the wild 

 state, and, at the same time, it improves the stocks from year 

 to year, so that everything is brought as near perfection as 

 possible. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Lespedeza bicolor and Lespedeza Sieboldi. 



ONE of the most interesting and valuable plants of 

 comparatively recent introduction is that knovs^n in 

 many of our gardens as Desmodium penduliflorum, but 

 which, in some places and by a number of writers, has 

 been called Lespedeza bicolor, a name apparently belong- 

 ing to an entirely different plant. 



It is unfortunate that neither of these names is correct. 

 It appears that the plant in question, originally described 

 by Miquel in the third volume (p. 47) of the Annals of the 

 Museum at Leyden, should be called L. Sieboldi, a name 

 generally regarded as a synonym or representing a 

 variety of L. bicolor. 



L. bicolor 1 is a distinctly shrubby species first described 

 in 1840 by the Russian botanist Turczaninow, and first 

 introduced into cultivation by Maximowicz, who, in 1856, 

 sent seed to St. Petersburg from Manchuria, where the 

 plant is indigenous, as it is also in northern China and Japan. 



Desmodium penduliflorum was a name given by Pro- 

 fessor Oudemans, of Amsterdam, in 1866, to a plant sup- 

 posed to have come from Japan, and proved by later 

 importation to have been derived from that country. 



It was soon widely distributed, on account of its orna- 

 mental value ; but it was not for some years, or until the 

 name given by Oudemans had become familiar, that this 

 was announced as but another name for L. bicolor. The 

 change of name was not generally adopted by nursery- 

 men. Dr. H. Zabel {Garienjlora, 1889, p. 239) first called 

 attention to the fact that the plant should be called L. Sie- 

 boldi, as being distinct from L. bicolor. A series of speci- 

 mens, mostly of L. bicolor, from various localities in 

 their native habitats, show that the species are very va- 

 riable, especially in foliage. While it may be possible, as 

 intimated by Maximowicz, that there are intermediate 

 geographical forms or varieties which connect the two 

 species, they are so distinct when growing side by side 

 that to deny them specific rank must inevitably cause 

 much confusion. In cultivation, L. Sieboldi does not 

 prove any more shrubby in southern latitudes than in 

 northern gardens, but it blooms earlier. 



Among the published figures and descriptions of these 

 two plants there is naturally some disagreement of iden- 

 tity. The first and best figure of L. bicolor is that given 

 by Ruprecht (Decas Planlarum Amuretisium, 1859, t. 5). 

 The figure in Garienflora (vol. ix., i860, t. 299), though 

 poor, is probably L. bicolor ; that in Flore des Serres (vol. 

 xxiii., 1869-70, t. 1888-89), as Desmodium penduliflorum, 

 is a good representation of L. Sieboldi ; and so is the ex- 

 cellent figure by Riocreux, opposite p. 211 of the Revue 

 Horticole for 1873. What is figured as L. bicolor in the 

 Botanical Magazine, 1882, t. 6602, unmistakably represents 

 L. Sieboldi, although the description appears to have been 

 drawn from L. bicolor; and so does figure 133 of vol. xx. 

 (1883) of the Gardeners' Chronicle, in which it was pub- 

 lished as Desmodium penduliflorum, but corrected in the 

 index as L. bicolor. 



Lespedeza Sieboldi ^ of Miquel is a strong herbaceous, but 

 shrub-like, plant, having numerous stout pithy stems, from 

 three or four to six feet high, which annually die to the 

 ground or crown of the plant, and are replaced by new 

 shoots each season. The stems are more or less ribbed or 

 angled, and covered with a minute grayish pubescence, 

 which is hardly noticeable on the lower portions, but gives 

 them a silvery white appearance near the top. 



The leaves are trifoliolate, the terminal leaflet usually be- 

 ing the larger, the leaflets on the lower part of the stem 

 being from one and a half to two inches long, while those 

 on the upper portion and on the branchlets are often re- 

 duced to half an inch or less in length. They are smooth 

 above, and are quite densely covered with a minute ap- 

 pressed grayish pubescence beneath, which gives them a sil- 

 very aspect. They are usually elliptical-oblong in shape, 

 shortly tapering toward both ends, hardly half as broad as 

 long, and with or without a slender point or mucro at the 

 tip. The petioles are slender, varying from two or three 

 inches with the larger leaves to half an inch or less in 

 length with the smaller. They are more or less covered 



^ Lespedeza bicolor, Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Nat, Mosc, xiv. (1840), 69. — Ruprecht, 

 Dectis Plantariini Avmrensium, 1859, t. 5. — Garienflora, ix. (i860), 270, t. 299. — Maxi- 

 mowicz, Act. Hart. Petrop.. ii. (1873), 355. 



-Lespedeza Sieboldi, ^i<:^^, Aiin.Mus. Bot,Lttgd. Bat.,i\S-. (1866-67), 47. — 2abel, 

 in Garienflora, 1S89, 239. 



Desmodium racemosum, Siebold and Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. Fa7n. Nat., i., 121. (not 

 De Candolle, Prodr. ii., 337, teste iVIaximowicz, /. c.) 



Desmodium penduliflorum, Oudemans, Neerland Plantentuin, ii. (1866). — Flore 

 des Serres, xviii. (1869-70), 107, t. 1888-89.— Carriere, ^^^- ^ort., 1873, 211, and fig. — 

 Gardeners^ Chrojiicle, xx. (1S83), 749, fig. 133, 



Lespedeza bicolor, var. Sieboldi, Maximowicz in Act. Hart. Petrop,, ii. (1873), 355- 



357- 



L. bicolor. Hooker, Botanical Magazine, xx.xviii. (1882), t. 6602. — A7jt. Ag. xxxix., 

 21, f. 



D. Japonicum, Hort. ? (not Miquel). 



