August io, 1892. J 



Garden and Forest. 



377 



may not the Romans term bidens, which, under the tuition of 

 men who rarely know one tool from another, we regularly 

 translate mattocU, but which seems to have con-noted, as the 

 philosophers say, an immense variety of uses, have been a 

 generic one, covering this sort of thing as well ? I do not 

 know what especial end this horned spade may serve, and 

 would not undertake to recommend its introduction; but 

 there is a sort of Titanic trowel, common in this region, which 

 is a joy indeed in the way of transplanting shrubs and taking 

 up autumn roots, for which I venture to bespeak, as for the 

 triangular spade, an impartial trial upon our American soil. 



Siena, Italy. Louise Dodge. 



T 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Aster amethystinus. 



HIS noble Aster appears to have been long an inhab- 

 itant of European gardens, where, according to Gray, 

 it is sometimes found growing under the name of Aster 

 pilosus and of Aster Bostoniensis, although no figure, 

 strangely enough, has ever been published of it. In the 

 gardens of its native country it appears to be less well 

 knovi'n, although for many years it has been included in 

 the large collection of native plants successfully cultivated 

 in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. 



Aster amethystinus produces hirsitulous stems sometimes 

 five feet tall or more and widely branched above. It be- 

 longs to the Multiflori section of the genus as elaborated by 

 Professor Gray, and produces many small racemosely ar- 

 ranged heads with spreading herbaceous tips to the imbri- 

 cated bracts of the involucre, and purple or violet rays. 

 The cauline leaves are small and entire and are sessile, or 

 partially clasp the stem by their bases. 



Aster amethystinus (see p. 378) is found growing in low 

 moist ground in Belmont, near Boston, and ranges west to 

 Illinois and Iowa. Like all the perennial American Asters, 

 it is an easy plant to cultivate, growing vigorously and 

 rapidly in good garden-soil, and is easily multiplied by the 

 division of the roots. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Calla Pentlandii. — This is the second new yellow-flow- 

 ered Calla which has appeared in English collections re- 

 cently. It was shown in flower at a meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society last month, and it has since been de- 

 scribed in the gardening journals as superior to the older 

 C. Elliottiana. I believe Mr. Whyte, of Pentland House, 

 Lee, obtained C. Pentlandii from a few tubers presented to 

 him two years ago. It flowered in June, and he has since 

 got tvi^o offsets from it He also possesses another plant 

 which, in appearance, is precisely similar to that which 

 flowered. These four plants, the two large and the two 

 offsets, were offered for sale by Messrs. Protheroe& Morris 

 to-day, but did not change hands, although the sum of 

 ninety guineas was bid for them. The extraordinary 

 prices recently paid for these yellow-flowered Callas are 

 tempting the Orchid collectors to visit South Africa in 

 search of these and similar plants. 



The Blue Himalayan Poppy (Meconopsis Wallichii) is a 

 beautiful plant in the rock-garden at Kew in July. Planted 

 in deep moist peat-soil, in a position where tall trees afford 

 partial shade in the middle of the day, it grows to a height 

 of five feet, its tall, stout erect stem clothed with silky haired 

 leaves a foot long and numerous axillary racemes of flow- 

 ers, which expand first at the top of the stem. They are 

 two inches across and of a soft lilac-blue color, paler, no 

 doubt, than they are on the high elevations of the Sikkim 

 Himalaya, but not too pale to be called blue, nor yet too 

 flimsy to be called beautiful. Its home is the home of the 

 Sikkim Rhododendrons, and its likes and dislikes in the 

 garden are similar to those of such Rhododendrons as R. 

 ciliatum, R. glaucum, etc. The Poppy ripens seeds freely 

 at Kew, and it takes two years to grow to flowering size. 

 The first year it is kept in a cold frame in pots. 



Kniphoi'ia NorthI;^. — This gigantic species of Kniphofia 

 was found near Grahamstown and painted by Miss North 

 when on a visit to South Africa in 1883. It was soon 

 afterward introduced to Kew, where it was cultivated in 

 the succulent house along with the Agaves, etc., and 

 flowered in 1885. A stock of young plants was raised at 

 Kew from offsets, and these were eventually distributed. 

 Mr. Gumbleton, of Cork, obtained one, which he flowered 

 in July, last year. It has a short, thick stem bearing a 

 huge rosette of glaucous green leaves, four to five feet 

 long, six inches broad at the base, tapering gradually to a 

 long point, keelless, channeled and elegantly recurved. 

 The inflorescence is in the furm of a dense raceme nine 

 inches long, on a comparatively short, thick stalk, the 

 flowers an inch long, greenish yellow, the upper ones and 

 buds tinged with red. As a flowering plant this Kniphofia 

 is inferior, but as a handsome, really elegant foliage-plant 

 it is worth a place in the garden. A fine example of it is 

 now flowering at Kew, where, notwithstanding the ex- 

 cessive cold of last winter, which killed almost every one 

 of the Kniphofias outside, it has stood in a south border 

 against the Orchid house and left unprotected. It is prob- 

 able that K. Northiffi will cross with the handsome 

 flowered kinds. If we could obtain a plant which com- 

 bined the strikingly handsome habit and largeness of di- 

 mensions of K. Northiie with the tall, brilliant-colored 

 flower-spikes of the forms of K. aloides (Uvaria), and 

 bear the winters, at least, as well as the former, what a 

 grand acquisition it would be. Kniphofia breeders, please 

 note. K. pauciflora is also in flower at Kew. It is really 

 a free-flowering plant, notwithstanding its name, and it is 

 remarkable in having flowers of a primrose-yellow color. 

 A figure of it prepared from the Kew plant was lately pub- 

 lished in the Gardeners' Chronicle. The plant is about two 

 feet high, with narrow arching bright green leaves, dis- 

 tinctly ribbed, and without marginal spines. The flowers 

 are in loose racemes on slightly arching scapes two feet 

 high, each flower being an inch long, trumpet-shaped, 

 with exserted stamens. It was introduced to Kew from 

 Natal two years ago and flowered for the first time last 

 March. It is in flower again now. So far it has been 

 treated as a cool greenhouse plant. While writing upon 

 the subject of Kniphofias I may mention that there is a 

 new one at Kew which is described as having handsome 

 white flowers. 



Ptychoraphis AUGUSTA is a newly introduced Palm from 

 the Andamans, of which there are young plants at Kew. 

 It is not unlike Cocos Weddelliana in general appearance, 

 a little more robust, perhaps, when it gets up, but, at any 

 rate, a very likely plant for table-decoration, etc. The 

 genus was created by Beccari for several East Indian 

 Palms allied to Ptychosperma, and to include at least one 

 of the Rhopaloblustas, of which R. hexandra was added 

 to cultivated garden Palms last year. Ptychoraphis is 

 easily distinguished by its grooved seeds, resembling those 

 of the genus Phoenix. P. augusta was described as Areca 

 augusta by Kurz in "CaQ Journal of Botany, 1S75, page 332, 

 where it is spoken of as one of the most conspicuous fea- 

 tures of the Nicobarese vegetation, pushing its head above 

 the highest forest-trees and forming, as it were, a Palm- 

 forest above the true forest It has a thin, annulated trunk 

 one hundred feet high, and a head of unarmed pinnate 

 leaves, each twelve feet long, the petiole clothed with 

 short ferruginous scales, and the pinna; a yard long. The 

 tree fruits abundantly every year. A quantity of the seeds 

 have recently been received by and distributed from Kew. 

 Young plants appear to thrive under ordinary stove treat- 

 ment, and, as they assume an elegant appearance from 

 the earliest stage, they are certain to become popular in 

 the garden. 



LiLiuM Henry: is much stronger this year than it was 

 last, and as it has now stood two severe winters at Kew 

 without protection, it may be looked upon as perfectly- 

 hardy. It is quite distinct in habit from all other Chmese 

 Lilies ; some of the plants at Kew are over six feet high. 



