304 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 227. 



flowers in dense compound cymes, in the hot Himalayan 

 valleys climbing over trees to a height of upward of forty 

 feet, and sending down showers of pendulous flowering 

 branches from above ; it is described as one of the smallest 

 flowering species of the genus, differing from its congeners 

 in the short style and solid stigma. Eight species of 

 Porana are known in India and are spoken of as the most 

 beautiful hedge-plants of that country ; two of them are 

 particularly abundant. — the species here figured, which 

 abounds from the base of the Himalaya throughout its 

 length to Ceylon and Burmah, reappearing in Java, and 

 Porana racemosa, the "Snow Creeper" of Anglo-Indians, 

 a plant confined to the Himalaya slopes, where its masses 

 of dazzling white flowers recall patches of snow. Porana 

 grandiflora ascends to eight thousand feet in the Sikkim 

 Himalaya and produces mauve flowers an inch in length. 

 Rosa pomifera (t. 7241), a handsome species distinguished 

 by its large succulent fruit from which it has been culti- 

 vated from time immemorial. 



Begonia Haageana is handsomely figured in The Garden 

 of June 4th. This is a beautiful perennial, perpetual- 

 flowering Begonia introduced a few years ago from Brazil 

 by the nurseryman of Erfurt in Germany, whose name it 

 bears. It is described as one of the most magnificent of 

 the many Begonias known and to be as easily cultivated 

 as a Coleus. At Kew there are specimens four feet high 

 and nearly three feet through, clothed with leaves from top 

 to bottom, and covered with flowers, although the largest 

 heads of bloom are produced in autumn, when they some- 

 times measure a foot in diameter. The male and female 

 flowers are usually borne on separate cymes and are re- 

 markable from the fact that the females do not fall off but 

 remain on the plant until they become green even although 

 not fertilized. This will probably be found one of the 

 most useful of all the winter-flowering Begonias, and its 

 early introduction into the gardens of the United States is 

 certainly desirable. 



In the sixteenth number of the American edition of 

 Lindenia, Monsieur Linden's magnificent Iconography 

 of Orchids, are figures of Eulophiella Elisabethce, an in- 

 teresting plant with the general habit of a Catasetum or of 

 a Eulophia, but which, from the peculiar structure of the 

 flower, is considered the type of a new genus. The stout 

 pseudo-bulbs produce four lanceolate leaves attenuated 

 below into slender petioles and nearly two feet in length 

 with prominent veins. From the base of the pseudo- 

 bulb the scape rises to the height of nearly a foot, and 

 like the fleshy concave bracts and pedicels is a deep vi- 

 nous purple, making a handsome contrast with the white 

 flowers with broad spreading segments, which form a 

 nearly complete circle. The generic name of this interest- 

 ing plant serves to indicate the resemblance to Eulophia 

 and also the presence of the peculiar conspicuous crest. 

 The species is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth of Roumania, 

 and was introduced by the Horticulture Internationale of 

 Brussels, where it has recently flowered. The native coun- 

 try is not divulged, although we are told it should be 

 grown in a warm house and that it will succeed under 

 the treatment needed for Phajus, Eulophia and Cyrto- 

 podium. 



There are also figured in this issue Phajus tuberculosus, 

 a beautiful Madagascar species, which in recent years has 

 excited the admiration of Orchid-growers ; Cypripedium 

 exul, var. Ilschootianum, a plant at first supposed to be a 

 variety of Cypripedium insigne, to which it bears, in the 

 general form and color of the flowers, a remarkable resem- 

 blance, although it differs from that species in its erect, 

 not spreading, leaves ; and Peristeria Lindeni, a remarkable 

 and striking species with short racemes of almost globular 

 flowers with light green sepals and petals suffused with 

 dull purple, and covered throughout with deep dark purple 

 spots, the lip being margined and striated underneath with 

 the same color on a pale ground. This very striking and 

 interesting plant is a native of tropical America, whence it 

 was introduced by the Messrs. Linden. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Hypericum opacum. 



AMONG the American Hypericums are several species 

 which commend themselves to the attention of gar- 

 deners. The species are all dwarf shrubs with deciduous 

 leaves, and produce an abundance of showy yellow flow- 

 ers from midsummer to early autumn — that is at a time of 

 the year when few shrubs are in flower. 



We have, from time to time, published portraits of sev- 

 eral species, which, curiously enough, are little known except 

 to professional botanists, and in the present issue another 

 species is figured (page 305). It is the Hypericum opacum 

 of Gray, a southern plant, with a range from South Caro- 

 lina to Tennessee and to Florida and Mississippi, and pro- 

 duces erect slender stems one to four feet high, covered 

 with light red exfoliating bark and corymbosely branched 

 toward the summit. The leaves are closely sessile, linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, pellucid punctate with crowded dots, an 

 inch or an inch and a half long and a quarter of an inch 

 broad. The flowers, which appear in nearly naked divari- 

 cate cymes, are rather less than half an inch in diameter. 

 The seed-pod is ovate and a quarter of an inch long, and 

 the seeds are oblong and minutely pitted. 



Hypericum opacum is less hardy at the north than many 

 of the other species ; it will, of course, flourish in the gar- 

 dens of the southern states, and may be expected to thrive 

 as far north as the neighborhood of this city. C. i". ^. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Knap Hill Nursery. 



THIS nursery is famous the world over for its Rhodo- 

 dendrons and hardy Azaleas, and Mr. Anthony 

 Waterer, its venerable proprietor, is one of England's most 

 noted gardeners. To see the Rhododendrons and allied 

 plants in the Knap Hill nursery in June, with Mr. Waterer for 

 a guide, is to enjoy one of the most magnificent floral dis- 

 plays it is possible to conceive, and to hear a great deal of 

 exceptionally interesting information about them. "The 

 Knap Hill nursery is the most extensive, as it is the oldest, 

 establishment in England in which the cultivation of 

 American plants has been made a specialty. Its extent 

 exceeds 200 acres, of which more than 60 acres are allotted 

 to the cultivation of American plants. The beds and bor- 

 ders devoted to this class of plant extend over miles in length 

 and contain the largest quantity of the finest plants to be 

 met with in this country or in Europe." This is word for 

 word what Mr. Waterer says in his plant catalogue, and it 

 is a modest enough description to any one who has seen 

 Knap Hill. The nursery is well situated in regard to soil 

 and water, and the position, though bleak, is fortunate in 

 the surrounding scenery, which is of the delightful Surrey 

 hills and dales. Running straight through the nursery 

 there is a very long carriage-drive connecting two public 

 roads, and this drive Mr. Waterer generously permits the 

 public to use, with certain reservations as to dogs, etc. 

 Thousands of people go every year to Knap Hill to see the 

 wonderful display made by the Rhododendrons and Azaleas. 

 Whit-Monday is quite a gala day, the crowd being so great 

 that the workmen of the nursery have to act as patrols to 

 keep the visitors in order. To understand all this one must 

 see the plants for himself. I had no idea that the display was 

 so magnificent, and I do not expect to succeed in convey- 

 ing to others anything like a fair idea of this wonderful 

 collection of outdoor plants. There are masses of Rhodo- 

 dendrons, Azaleas and other similar plants in other nur- 

 series, in public gardens and parks, and in private establish- 

 ments, but they are insignificant when compared with the 

 Knap Hill collection. Of course, when it is remembered 

 that these plants have been a specialty in this nursery for 

 more than a century, thaf the best varieties have nearly all 

 been raised there, and that the Waterers have always been 



