556 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 248. 



in its glory. The bright crimson fruit, drooping on long pe- 

 duncles, continue on the stems through the winter, as grateful 

 to the eve as the Palm of the desert. nr -r 



Horndlsville, N. Y. K. M. I. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



The Chrysanthemum, Golden Wedding. 



IT is the boast of American Chrysanthemum-growers that 

 they are producing home-grown seedhngs which average 

 as good, or better, than importations from abroad, and yet 

 we are still receiving varieties from Japan which are of con- 

 spicuous excellence. The famous Neesima collection of 

 twelve plants, for example, not only contained Mrs. Hardy, 

 which was then an entirely new departure, but such stand- 

 ard varieties as W. H. Lincoln, Mrs. Fottler, Kioto, Lillian 

 Bird and others. Last year Peter Henderson & Co. imported 

 a variety from Japan from which they secured three or four 

 plants, which flowered in time to be exhibited at the Chrys- 

 anthemum show in Philadelphia, where it received a silver 

 medal. It was happily named Golden Wedding, and at 

 that time was described in this journal as a "flower of 

 the largest size, high in the centre, with petals incurved 

 and loosely twisted, while the outer ones are some- 

 what drooping and reflexed. It is a bold flower of uncom- 

 mon form and great sturdiness in stem and foliage." 



This year the plant has continued to show the same vigor 

 of growth, and in the New York show it was the variety 

 used in successful competition for the Garden and Forest 

 cup for a vase of the best six blooms of any variety. It was 

 the flower which also won the cup offered by Mrs. W. 

 Bayard Cutting for a vase of fifty blooms of any given va- 

 riety. It also received a premium as the best yellow flower 

 at the same exhibition. It was again shown in Philadel- 

 phia, and, while not entered for competition, the judges 

 pronounced it, in their judgment, the best yellow Chrysan- 

 themum in commerce. We may add that while the flower 

 has great size and substance, it has not a coarse line, and 

 its color, while a pure yellow, is unusually deep and rich. 

 The illustration on page 559 shows the character of the 

 flower, but it does not give an adequate idea of its extraor- 

 dinary depth. It is so double that it never shows an eye. 

 A large vase in which a number of these flowers are loosely 

 arranged on long stems makes a decorative object of most 

 striking character. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Conifers. — The most successful, and, in some respects, 

 the most important of the various conferences or plant 

 congresses arranged by the Royal Horticultural Society 

 was that devoted to Coniferte, and which was held at 

 Chiswick in October of last year. The report of the pro- 

 ceedings, which forms Volume XIV. of the Journal of the 

 Society, has just been published. It fills nearly six hun- 

 dred pages, and is made up of papers contributed by spe- 

 cialists, both scientific and practical, who are eminent 

 authorities on Coniferee. The botany and scientific aspect 

 generally of the order are dealt with by Dr. Masters, Pro- 

 fessor Carl Hansen, Professor Marshall Ward and Mr. W. F. 

 Blandford, the economic and decorative value of the order 

 being treated upon by Mr. H. Veitch, Mr. G. Nicholson, 

 Mr. Malcolm Dunn, Mr. E. J. Baillie and others. 



The list of Conifers and Taxads in cultivation in the 

 open air in Great Britain and Ireland by Dr. Masters, 

 F. R. S., fills seventy-seven closely printed pages. The 

 Genera Planlartcm, of Bentham and Hooker, has been fol- 

 lowed as the standard authority for the generic names, and 

 for the species, De Candolle's Prodromus, "but with con- 

 siderable modification." This list will, no doubt, become 

 the recognized authority for the names of Coniferas, in 

 England at any rate. Of Professor Hansen's paper on the 

 Conifers of Denmark, Dr. Masters, who is the first Eng- 



lish authority on Coniferre, remarks, "nowhere is there 

 collected together so much interesting information as in 

 this paper of Professor Hansen's." 



" The Diseases of Conifers," by Professor Ward, is a most 

 valuable contribution to the literature of this order. The 

 same may be said of the whole of the papers which deal 

 with the more practical questions, such as planting, the 

 value of Conifers in the garden, etc. Although called a 

 "Report," this volume is really an encyclopedia of infor- 

 mation on Coniferee, and should be in the possession of every 

 one interested in this most important family of plants. 



Nepenthes. — A well-grown collection of these plants is a 

 most attractive as well as interesting feature in a garden. 

 Unfortunately, it is only in very warm houses and with 

 otherwise exceptional conditions that such a collection is 

 attainable. Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, have 

 made Nepenthes a specialty for many years, and their col- 

 lection now is an exceptionally rich one. They have 

 raised numerous hybrids, among them being the best of all 

 Nepenthes, species or hybrids, N. Mastersiana. A collec- 

 tion of thirty kinds, all beautifully grown and laden with 

 fine, well-colored pitchers, was exhibited by them at the 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society held this week. 

 There were no less than thirteen species among them — N. 

 Burkei, N. Rafflesiana, N. sanguinea, N. distillatorea, N. 

 cincta, N. Veitchii, N. Northiana, N. Curtisii, N. albo-mar- 

 ginata, N. bicalcarata, N. hirsuta, N. ampullaria and N. 

 stenophylla. Besides these the best of the hybrids vs'ere 

 represented together with a new hybrid, raised by Messrs. 

 Veitch from N. Northiana and N. Curtisii, and to which 

 they have given the meaningless name N. Northisii. It is 

 a beautiful plant, and if it only inherits the constitution of 

 N. Curtisii it will become a favorite in gardens. It has 

 broad leaves, the pitchers of the same size as those of N. 

 Northiana, and colored better than either of its parents, 

 being nearly yellow, with numerous large crimson blotches 

 and rim. I have never seen a more creditable collection 

 of Nepenthes than these. 



Pandanus Baptistii is a new plant recently introduced 

 from New Caledonia to Kew and elsewhere, and exhibited 

 this week by Messrs. Veitch. It was shown in the sum- 

 mer by Messrs. Sander & Co. under the name of P. Dj^eriana. 

 When the Kew plant arrived from Australia it had grace- 

 fully arching leaves colored glaucous green and striped 

 with cream-yellow. Under cultivation here, however, it 

 has lost the clearness of its variegation, although the lines, 

 now yellowish green, are still present. If it can be grown 

 to assume the color it had when first imported it will proba- 

 bly become a favorite plant for table decoration. It is, I 

 believe, only a variegated form of P. inermis, a well-known 

 variety in botanical collections, and which is remarkable 

 in having elegant channeled glaucous green leaves a yard 

 long and one and a half inches wide, with spineless mar- 

 gins. The absence of spines distinguishes this species 

 from all other garden Pandani. According to some authori- 

 ties P. inermis is the same as P. laevis of Rumphius. 



Cymbidium Winnianum. — This is the best hybrid Cym- 

 bidium yet raised. It is the result of crossing C. eburneum 

 and C. giganteum, the latter the seed-bearer, and was 

 raised by Mr. C. Winn, of Birmingham, a well-known ama- 

 teur grower of Orchids. The plant, which bore five racemes 

 of flowers, is like C. eburneum in foliage and habit, and also 

 in the length and curve of its flower-spikes, each of which 

 carried about a dozen flowers nearly as large as those of 

 C. giganteum, and colored cream-yellow, with spots of red 

 on the labellum. The plant was exhibited by Messrs. F. 

 Sander & Co., and was awarded a first-class certificate. 



Spathoglottis Viellardii, var. rubra. — This is a rich- 

 colored variety of a pretty free-flowering stove Orchid in- 

 troduced about ten years ago from Polynesia by Messrs. 

 Linden, and at first called S. Augustorum. The type has 

 broad plaited leaves and an erect stout scape, two or three 

 feet high, bearing a cluster of whitish Phalfenopsis-like 

 flowers, which spring from among numerous boat-shaped 

 green bracts. The variety, of which a plant was exhibited 



