3id 



Garden and h'orest. 



[Number 228. 



By November they have formed compact little shrubs (they 

 are stoppeil tA'ice), leafy to the pot, and from a foot to one 

 and a half feet high. 



The stems are quadrangular, the leaves opposite, lanceo- 

 late, wavy, w ith prominent veins and covered with a soft 

 dovi'n-like tor.ientum. The largest leaves are nearly a foot 

 lung by three inches in vi'idth, but the bulk of the leaves 

 are only abo; t half that size. 



The flowers, which are a rich rose-purple color, are ar- 

 ranged in tie se terminal heads, as shovv'n in the picture, 

 which has been prepared from a Kew plant. The old 

 plants — that is, those that flowered last December, and a 

 few which were preserved for the supply of cuttings — 

 are now flowering again. There are several varieties of 

 this lacobinia in cultivation, namely, J. magnifica, var. car- 

 nea, figured i 1 the Botanical Magasine, t. 33S2, as Justicia 

 carnca, and which, according to Lindley, was sent from 

 Rio to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1827. This has 

 glabrous leaves and flesh-colored flowers. The variety 

 called Pohliana is, I think, so widely distinct from what is 

 here figured as to deserve specific rank. It has ovate- 

 acuminate leaves, almost cordate at the base, thin in tex- 

 ture, t|uite glabrous and tinged with purple beneath. 



The flowers are bright crimson in color, and they differ 

 in other particulars from those of J. magnifica. It was 

 formerly called Cyrtanthera Pohliana, under which name 

 it is still known here and there. 



Other species of Jacobinia similar in habit to that here 

 figured, and well worth growing for their handsome flow- 

 ers, are J. aurantiaca, introduced by Makoy & Co., of 

 Liege, Belgium, in 1849, who distributed it as Calcostylis 

 aurantiaca. It has four-angled stems, lanceolate smooth 

 leaves and large terminal heads of yellow and orange 

 flowers. Another handsome yellow-flowered species is J. 

 catalpaefolia, which has large cordate leaves and flowers 

 arranged in tenninal heads six inches long and four inches 

 through. 



J. coccinea flowers in summer. It has rather rigid 

 cylindrical branches and lanceolate leaves, with heads of 

 crimson flowers. It is sometimes met with under the name 

 of Aphelandra cristata. 



According to the Genera Planiarum, there are about thirty 

 species of Jacobinia, all natives of tropical America. The 

 genus now includes Cyrtanthera, Libonia and Serico- 

 graphis. 



1,1'iidon. 



w. w. 



Gladiolus Armeniacus. 



THE numerous showy hybrid Gladioli have so far 

 superseded the species in cultivation that, with few 

 exceptions, one seldom sees any of the Cape or Asiatic 

 species. There are very many of these, and among them 

 a number of interesting things, but practically of little gar- 

 den value in comparison with the hybrids of the florists. 

 One of the newer species from Herr Max Leichtlin is 

 Gladiolus Armeniacus. This has proved with me en- 

 tirely hardy under cultivation. The leaves are nar- 

 row and grass-like, and the flowers, opening in May, are 

 borne on slender wiry stems, say, one foot high. In color 

 they are a violet-purple, self-colored, except that the lip has 

 markings of a deeper shade. The hood is curiously de- 

 tached and distinct. It is not a very showy plant, but a 



useful addition to the hardy border. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. _/. A. Gerard. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Shrubs. 



THE two or three species of Styrax in cultivation are 

 well worth a place in all gardens of any extent, and 

 it seems surprising that these pretty flowering shrubs are 

 not more generally seen. They do not appear to be com- 

 monly known, and onerarelyfinds them outside of a botanic 

 garden, a nursery or an enthusiast's collection. It may be that 

 they have not won greater popularity because the flowers 



do not endure very long or because they are largely hidden 

 by the foliage. The habit of the shrubs is often rather 

 open and straggly, but the foliage is clean and glossy, and, 

 apparently, they are not liable to any serious disfigure- 

 ment by insects or fungi. 



There are two species of these shrubs to be had from 

 nurseries, the Japanese (Styrax Japonica) and the American 

 (S. Americana). Both are quite hardy in this climate if 

 planted in good well-drained soil .and not too much ex- 

 posed, but if there is any difference in hardiness it seems 

 to be in favor of the Japanese species. This is also the 

 most showy and best worthy of cultivation. Its flowers, 

 each composed of five large ovate petals, are something 

 over an inch across, are of the purest white color, and are 

 borne singly on slender stalks about three-fourths of an 

 inch in length. They hang along the under side of the 

 branches and produce a very beautiful effect, especially if 

 the stems are tall enough to allow the blossoms to be seen 

 from the under side of the somewhat horizontal branches. 

 A serious detraction in the value of these flowers is that 

 the whole corolla easily and soon becomes detached and 

 falls in a single piece while yet looking pretty and fresh. 

 The corollas carry the stamens with them, and after a 

 heavy rain the ground is generally thickly strewn with the 

 blossoms. The plant comes into good bloom here about 

 the middle of June. 



Less showy and handsome than the Japanese species is 

 our native American one known as S. Americana, which 

 is indigenous from Virginia southward. Its flowers are 

 produced at the same time as those of the Japanese species, 

 and apparently quite as abundantly. But they are much 

 smaller, the petals being quite narrow, and they assume a 

 strongly recurved position instead of remaining flat and 

 horizontal like those of the Japanese species. They are 

 also borne on shorter stalks, which renders them less 

 graceful. The flowers of both have a sweet but delicate 

 fragrance. Fruit is freely produced, and has something of 

 the appearance of the dry little fruits of Linden-trees, being 

 roundish and quite bony and with the calyx persisting at 

 its base. The Styraxes, or Storaxes, as they are sometimes 

 called, may be grown either from the seed, that grown here 

 being quite good, or by layers or cuttings of the green 

 wood. Layering is probably the easiest mode by which 

 the amateur may obtain one or two new plants from one 

 already established. As the seeds are dry and bony, they 

 should either be sown as soon as ripe or they may be kept 

 in a box with moist sand and subjected to the action of 

 frost over winter and sown the following spring. Either of 

 these Styraxes may grow and thrive if grafted on stocks of 

 the Snowdrop or Silver-bell-tree (Halesia tetraptera), to 

 which they are closely related botanically. The Halesia 

 freel}' produces good seed here, and young plants for stock 

 may be easily raised. 



The recently introduced Japanese and Chinese Vibur- 

 num dilatatum, which was figured in the last volume of 

 Garden and Forest (p. 150), has again flowered profusely, 

 the blossoms being in most showy condition a day or two 

 later than the middle of June. As a flowering shrub this 

 might be called pretty, but it is hardly entitled to any more 

 consideration for its inflorescence than our common Arrow- 

 wood (V. dentatum), whose flowers appear about the same 

 time, or than the European Wayfaring-tree (V. Lantana), 

 which blossoms somewhat earlier. The flowers are not 

 very long persistent. V. dilatatum is to be valued most for 

 its bright red or somewhat orange colored fruit in autumn, 

 and for its late persisting yellowish autumn foliage. 



Of the more showy Viburnums, those with large sterile 

 flowers in addition to the perfect blossoms, we have no 

 aboriginal kind which surpasses our own High-bush 

 Cranberry (V. Opulus) in abundance and beauty of 

 bloom in early June. More beautiful than this in its 

 blossom is the Hobble-bush or American Wayfaring-tree 

 (V. lantanoides), a rather common plant in nature, 

 although it must be considered very rare in cultiva- 

 tion. This is much the earliest of all Viburnums to 



