390 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 234. 



not an uncommon Orchid in collections, this plant 

 is only rarely flowered in Eng-land. Dendrobium Lea- 

 num, from the same collection, may be called a variety 

 of D. Phakenopsis, with narrower segments than the latter. 

 Eria vestita is a rare and handsome Orchid, of which there 

 was a tine example, a yard high, with three stems clothed 

 with leaves from the base upward and bearing five racemes 

 of flowers. The whole plant is clothed with conspicuous 

 reddish hairs, and the flowers are colored flame-red. 



Cattleya Rex was shown in flower by two amateurs, 

 and both plants were good. There can be no doubt now 

 of the distinctness of this Cattleya from all others. It has 

 the pseudo-bulbs and leaves of C. Gigas and a scape six 

 inches long bearing four flowers, the sepals of which are 

 three-fourths of an inch wide, the petals an inch in width, 

 and the lip about the size of that of C. Percivalliana, very 

 wavy and crisped ; the colors are rich red-brown in the 

 throat, crimson in front, with numerous reticulating lines 

 of gold. The flower is more like that of the rare C. tri- 

 color than any other known to me. The Messrs Linden 

 are to be congratulated on having introduced such a dis- 

 tinct and handsome flowered Cattleya. 



Nemisia strumosa. — This is a beautiful-flowered Cape 

 annual, which was shown in quantity by Messrs. Sutton & 

 Sons, of Reading. It is a charming plant, less than a foot 

 in height, with lanceolate leaves and terminal heads of 

 flowers, each flower an inch m diameter, and colored 

 almost every shade except blue. This plant was a centre 

 of attraction to gardeners, and was generally voted a first- 

 rate addition to annuals for the open border. Nemisia is a 

 genus of about twenty species of South African plants, be- 

 longing to the Scrophulariacete, and allied to Antirrhinum; 

 indeed, some of them were once included in that genus. 

 Only two of them have previously been tried in gardens, 

 but they are poor compared with this new-comer, which 

 Messrs. Sutton & Sons have introduced direct from the 

 Cape. It is very remarkable in the wide range of color in 

 its flowers. 



Crixuji Sanderianum is a very handsome stove-plant, and 

 apparently an easy one to cultivate. It was introduced by 

 Messrs. F. Sander & Co. in 1884 from Sierra Leone, and de- 

 scribed by Mr. Baker. It is a close all)^ of C. scabrum, a 

 common plant in tropical Africa, and C. Kirkii, a fairly re- 

 cent introduction from eastern Africa. These are all large- 

 bulbed, with short necks, glossy deep green leaves and 

 erect scapes from one to two feet high, bearing umbels of 

 from four to six flowers. In C. Sanderianum the flowers 

 are large, with a curved tube six inches long, and broad 

 lanceolate-connivent white segments, colored deep red 

 along the midrib or keel. A plant of this Crinum has lately 

 been an attraction in the stove at Kew. C. Americanum, 

 a handsome species from the southern United States, is 

 also in flower. It is a first-rate plant for beds in large 

 stoves ; at any rate it has stood in a bed in the Palm-house 

 at Kew for the last ten years, and has flowered annually. 

 It has an erect scape two feet high, bearing an umbel of 

 four white flowers with narrow spreading segments and 

 very fragrant. C. Moorei is at its best in the conservatory, 

 and C. capense is in full flower in the borders outside. 



H.EMANTHUS Katherin.e is a very handsome stove bulbous 

 plant, and as easy to cultivate as the Eucharis. It is 

 scarcely known in gardens, notwithstanding the enormous 

 size and rich colors of its flower-heads, and the fact that it 

 w^as introduced from Natal in 1877 and is easily propagated 

 by means of offsets and seeds. Growers of bulbs for the 

 European and American markets might do worse than 

 plant largely of this Heemanthus, the finest by far of all 

 the species known. 



Gloxinias. — Messrs. Sutton & Sons are the possessors of 

 an extra-large flowered and otherwise attractive strain of 

 these plants. They exhibited two named kinds at the last 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society which were 

 favorably noticed, their names being : Her Majesty, with 

 erect, very large, pure white flowers, the finest white yet 

 seen ; Duke of York, also erect, very large and white out- 



side, deep crimson inside, with a broad, well-defined 

 margin of pure white. They also sent some prettily re- 

 ticulated varieties. 



Mr. Eckford's Sweet Peas were a charming exhibit. I 

 noted four of the best, which are : Emily Eckford, rich vio- 

 let ; Blanche Burpee, pure white ; Peach-blossom, rich 

 blush-rose, and Ovid, rosy crimson. Another noteworthy 

 one was named Stanley, the flowers of which were deep 

 vinous purple, almost too dark in fact. I believe these 

 named Sweet Peas come true to color from seed. Mr. 

 Eckford supplies them in sealed packets at from a shilling 

 to half-a-crown a packet. Mr. H. Cannell exhibited a col- 

 lection of his large double-flowered Begonias, arranged in 

 a novel manner, each flower being mounted with Adian- 

 tum and Asparagus, and forming a really pretty button- 

 hole bouquet. A lecture by Mr. A. J. Manda, of the 

 United States Nursery, Hextable, on insectivorous plants, 

 was the means of bringing to the meeting several fine col- 

 lections, comprising Nepenthes, Sarracenias, Droseras, 

 etc. Mr. Manda himself staged a very creditable group of 

 small specimens, and the Nepenthes from Messrs. Veitch 

 & Sons were exceedingly good, the cream of them being 

 N. Burkei and its variety excellens, N. Curtisii, and, of 

 course, N. Mastersiana, which still retains premier position 

 among cultivated Nepenthes. 



Carnations. — A special exhibition of these was held at 

 the Drill Hall last Tuesday, and was a great success, the 

 flowers, generally, being above the average, while the 

 plants were mostly good in foliage and flower. The best 

 Carnation in the whole show was Dr. Hogg, exhibited by 

 Mr. C. Turner, of Slough, and the best Picotee, Mr. Doug- 

 las's Favorite. Mr. Turner's first prize collection of plants 

 in flovi'er comprised the following : Romulus, lona, Mrs. 

 L. Jamieson, C. Henvvood, King of Scarlets, Duchess of 

 Sutherland, Ruby, Favorite, Mr. Clements, Victory and 

 Mrs. Nicholay. Mr. Douglas also took first prize for 

 tvi'elve trusses of one kind of Carnation with Oriflamme, 

 a seedling border Carnation with large full flowers of a 

 rich carmine-red color, in my opinion the most meritorious 

 garden-plant in the whole lot. Another beautiful border 

 Carnation is Colin de Haselvillo, with rich scarlet full 

 flowers on stout stalks. Our exhibitions of florists' flowers 

 are often spoilt by old-fashioned fads. A Carnation is a 

 beautiful flower, seen at its best when on the plant and 

 supported onl}^ by the ordinary stake and bast-tie, but it 

 is a miserable object seen at its worst, cut and laid out on 

 a disk of white paper and deprived of half its petals, the re- 

 maining half being arranged regularly and flattened out. 

 And yet the latter is the recognized wa)^ to set up a Carna- 

 tion-flower to be judged and admired. These dressed and 

 collared flowers are worthless to every one except the 

 florist showman ; they are not Carnation-flowers at all in 

 fact, and a bunch of natural flowers direct from the plants 

 is worth a bushel of such " faked " productions. 



London. W. WatS07l. 



Cultural Department. 



• Notes on Shrubs. 



npHERE are "several species of midsummer-flowering Cle- 

 -'■ matis, distinct from the large-blossomed Florida or Jack- 

 manni types, which, although long known to cultivators, are 

 not very often met with in American gardens. The large- 

 flowered and very showy species are now well disseminated 

 and the older varieties advertise themselves. It has not taken 

 many years to make almost every amateur gardener in the 

 land familiar with such a plant as C. Jackmanni. 



Some smaller-flowered species and varieties with colored 

 flowers are in a manner quite as interesting as their more 

 showy congeners, and are well worth more general cultivation 

 in our gardens. C. Viticella is probably better known than 

 most of them, but it is quite uncomnion here. Although a 

 slender-looking vine, it grows freely and tall, and will thickly 

 cover a pillar or trellis or low wall with light graceful foliage, 

 and with flowers nearly two inches in diameter, which expand 

 most abundantly from about the end of June until the end of 

 July. The flowers are ordinarily of a reddish purple color, 



