138 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 213. 



tional popularity in England for something like fifty years 

 should never have been figured in any English publication 

 or work until now. I have not been able to trace the origin 

 of the plant, nor find any picture of it in any book to which 

 I have access here. Nor can any of those who have paid 

 attention to garden Heaths assist me. The venerable Mr. 

 John Eraser, of the Lea Bridge Nursery, once famous for 

 its Heaths and New Holland plants, informs me that he 

 purchased three plants of it from the Pine Apple Nursery 

 about forty years ago. Cultural directions for this and E. 

 gracilis, 1 find, were given in the gardening papers of thirty 

 years ago. Probably the plant is a seedling or hybrid ; at 

 any rate, it is not represented among the wild specimens 

 in the Kew Herbarium. It is not mentioned by Andrews 

 in his beautifully illustrated work. Colored Utigravings of 

 Heaths, published in 1809. Singularly enough, Andrews 

 states, under E. Linnsea superba : "This fine plant has 

 ornamented various collections for the last five or six years. 

 In growth it is luxuriant, as we have frequently seen it two 

 feet high with numerous long-flowering branches atCovent 

 Garden among many of the most beautiful (if not most rare) 

 Ericas, v^^hich are exclusively cultivated for that well-known 

 emporium. It may certainly be considered as one of the 

 finest variations of E. Linnaea, and as such its hyperbolical 

 specific title may serve to distinguish it from most varie- 

 ties." Were it not that the plant thus described is stated 

 to flower in " May, June and July " I should have accepted 

 this as being identical with our E. hyemalis. In Loddiges' 

 Botanical Cabinet (t. 102) there is a figure of E. Linneana, 

 which is there stated to "flower rather early in spring and is 

 of pretty long duration. We consider it a very ornamental 

 sort. The buds are in general formed before the winter, 

 and if it is kept in a bad greenhouse, where the smoke 

 escapes from the flues, the buds are very apt to blight. We 

 have known them preserved exceedingly well in a frame, 

 carefully attended to in winter.'' In my opinion, E. hye- 

 malis is somewhere very near these two. In De Candolle's 

 Prodronms bothE. Linneana and E. Linnsea superba are re- 

 ferred to E. perspicua. This species, as now known, flowers 

 from April to November. It was introduced from the Cape 

 to Kew about one hundred years ago. Several varieties of 

 it are known, and, if the Prodromus is correct, we ma)' 

 conclude that E. hyemalis is probably a winter-flowering 

 variety of E. perspicua. It is difficult to believe that the 

 raiser of such a plant would not have claimed some credit 

 for it. So much for what we know of the origin of this 

 beautiful Heath. 



In its cultural requirements E. hyemalis is simple enough, 

 but the grower must stick to those requirements or he will 

 certainly fail. In the nurseries of Messrs. H. Low & Co., 

 where about thirty thousand plants such as that flgured are 

 annually grown, the method of culture for this Heath is as 

 follows : 



Propagation. — -Cuttings are selected in September or Oc- 

 tober from the branchlets which crowd the base of the 

 plants. They are cut to an inch in length, and the lower 

 half is carefully stripped of leaves. The cuttings are then 

 pricked in well-drained seven-inch pots of very sandy peat- 

 soil and covered with bell-glasses. The pots are placed in 

 a north house, where the temperature is kept at from flfty- 

 five to sixty degrees. The bell-glasses are removed and 

 wiped inside ever.y morning, and any pots which require 

 water obtain it then. The bell-glasses must not be replaced 

 until the water has drained off the cuttings. When struck, 

 the bell-glasses are removed .and the plantlets are gradually 

 hardened off. After^they have made about half an inch of 

 new growth they are topped with scissors. 



EiRST Potting. — This is done in spring when the cutting- 

 pots are shaken out and the plants placed three in a pot. 

 The pots used are small, known here as thumbs (two and 

 a half inches), and the soil is a mixture of dark peat and 

 sandj equal parts of each. When potted the plants are 

 placed in frames and kept close and shaded for a few days. 

 After twelve months in trios, as above, the plants are ready 

 for removal into separate pots. These are thumbs, as be- 



fore ; the soil used is the same as before, but less sandy. It 

 is a good plan to stake the plants before they are shifted, a 

 stout deal-stake five inches long being given to each. When 

 potted, place the plants back in the frame. Pinch out the 

 tips of the shoots again after a little growth has been made. 



Final Potting. — If the treatment hitherto has been right 

 the plants ought now to be sturdy little bushes with from 

 eight to a dozen short shoots and a thick net of white roots. 

 In December or January they may be potted into four or 

 five inch pots. The soil must not be of the light brown 

 character, such as is used for Orchids, but good black- 

 brown heather-peat. It should be broken up roughly and 

 mixed with silver sand. In potting the soil should be 

 pressed down firmly with the hand. Potting-sticks should 

 not be used. The frames are still the most suitable place 

 for the plants, where they must remain till the middle of 

 June, when they may be placed in the open. A position 

 exposed to full sunshine all day is indispensable. Beds, 

 say, four feet wide, formed of ashes, are best, the plants to 

 be stood upon or half-plunged in the ashes. 



Tejiper.\ture. — This Heath dislikes artificial heat. If 

 frost can be kept from it by protection, and if light can be 

 given occasionally in severe weather, the plants will be 

 much healthier than if fire-heat is used. At Clapton the 

 Heath-frames are made of wood, span in shape, eight feet 

 across, four feet high in the middle, with movable lights ; 

 a two and a half inch hot-water pipe runs once round the 

 frame. The lights are removed when the weather is not 

 cold, even in midwinter, except for a few weeks after re- 

 potting. Mats are thrown over the fram.es in severe 

 weather. The golden rule to be observed is that fire-heat 

 and a close atmosphere are distasteful to this Heath, and 

 that sunshine and plenty of fresh air, are its glory. 



Water. — Don't water a Heath till it is dry, and then soak 

 it, is the maxim with growers of these plants. Absolute 

 dryness, however, is dangerous, and often fatal. The 

 plants should not be allowed to "flag." In very dry 

 weather it is advisable to look over the beds twice a day, 

 watering those that are dry only. Manures, such as nitrate 

 or soot, are given when the plants are in vigorous growth. 

 Be careful in the use of stimulants, or the result will be 

 strong shoots, but all " blind " in respect of flowers. Be- 

 side the type we have two varieties — namely, superba, 

 larger-flowered, and alba, paler in color. 



London. 



W. Watson. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Clematis brevicaudata. 



THIS pretty Asiatic species, figured on page 139 of this 

 issue, is a decided acquisition to the climbing autumn- 

 flowering plants whicli can be cultivated in northern gar- 

 dens. Botanically it is closely related to the familiar 'Vir- 

 gin's Bower of our eastern meadows, and, like that species, 

 belongs to the section Flammula of the genus, distinguished 

 by cymosely.panicled, dioecious, apetalous flowers with 

 white spreading petaloid sepals and stout blunt anthers. 

 It is a graceful plant with slender stems climbing ten or 

 twelve feet high, puberulous, dark green, ternately divided 

 leaves, their divisions long-stalked and divided into three 

 ovate-acute leaflets sharply and deeply cut above the mid- 

 dle, entire and gradually rounded at the base, or three- 

 lobed, and sometimes almost entire. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in ample pubescent panicles rather shorter than the 

 leaves, and open during the first half of September; those 

 of the pistillate plants are followed by abundant showy 

 fruit with bright brown akenes covered with pale hairs 

 and slender plumose tails. 



Clematis brevicaudata was sent to the Arnold Arboretum 

 from the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, in 1886 ; in 

 the same year seeds were sent to the Arboretum by Profes- 

 sor Brooks, of the Agricultural College at Sapparo, in Japan, 

 which have produced the same plant, although this species 

 does not appear to have been found before in Japan. It 



t 



