582 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 250. 



to Bromeliacecej a most useful book to the few who are 

 interested in these beautiful but hitherto neglected plants. 

 Uniform with these two is the Handbook of the Fern Al- 

 lies, as Lycopodiums, Selaginellas, Equisetums, and the 

 like, and now we have this book, which is devoted to the 

 Iris family. Mr. Baker says it is the last of the series, and 

 that they are the outcome of special attention to their re- 

 spective subjects since 1866, when he first joined the her- 

 barium staff at Kew, of which he is now the head. 



The sister order, Liliaceae, he dealt with in an exhaustive 

 series of papers published in the Journal of the Linnasan 

 Society, but I feel certain that I speak for a large number 

 of horticulturists in urging upon Mr. Baker the need of a 

 similar work on Liliaceae to those which he has now pro- 

 duced on Irids, Amaryllids and Bromeliads. 



In the classification of the genera and species Mr. Baker 

 has followed the Genera Plantarum of Bentham and Hooker 

 with very slight exception. 



Iris is limited to 161 species found in the North Tem- 

 perate Zone, the South African Morseas being still retained 

 as a distinct genus, although there does not appear any 

 good reason for keeping them separate from Iris other 

 than their geographical position. The great "Iris" from 

 Lord Howe's Island, figured in Garden and Forest (vol. iv., 

 P- 355)> he places along with the Moraeas. Vieusseuxia 

 and Dietes are also sunk under this genus. 



There are no less than 133 species of Iris with rhizoma- 

 tous stems, the remaining twenty-eight species being bulb- 

 ous. Of the section Oncocyclus twelve species are de-- 

 scribed, most of which are in cultivation. The beautiful 

 I. Susiana, I. Gatesii, I. Sari and I. Iberica belong to this 

 section, all of them remarkable for the large size and great 

 beauty of their flowers, and perhaps no less remarkable 

 for their refractory behavior under cultivation. 



MoR^A has fifty-four species. These lovely flowered, 

 easily cultivated plants are not so much cultivated as they 

 deserve to be. We have few more charming flowers than 

 those of the plants hitherto known as Viesseuxias, and 

 almost as much may be said of many of the Moroeas 

 proper. M. Robinsoniana is one of the handsomest plants 

 in the whole order. 



Marica is a genus of stove-plants as easily grown as 

 Aspidistra and nearly as useful for its foliage effect. At 

 Kew we find the several species of the greatest service in 

 the large houses, their evergreen, dark flag-like leaves al- 

 ways looking healthy, and their habit of producing suckers 

 in abundance rendering them serviceable for planting in 

 the beds or for borders. Mr. Baker describes eleven spe- 

 cies, of which the best in cultivation at Kew are M. coerulea, 

 M. Northiana and M. gracilis. 



Tigridia is allowed eight species, of which the best is 

 T. Pavonia, though some of those which are not known in 

 gardens, for instance, T. Dugesii and T. buccifera, are 

 likely garden plants, from the description of them. There 

 does not appear to be any good reason for keeping up T. 

 Pringlei as a species distinct from T. Pavonia. 



Crocus had already a splendid illustrated monograph b)^ 

 Mr. G. Maw, F. R. S., but it is too expensive for the gar- 

 den library. Mr. Baker divides the sixty-six species into 

 three sections, which are again divided into spring and 

 autumn flowering groups. Those who are only acquainted 

 with the ordinary garden Croci, which flower in the spring, 

 will be surprised to learn that of the true species no less 

 than forty-two flower in the autumn, twenty-four only 

 flowering in the early months of the year. C. Susianus, 

 from the Crimea, is the "Cloth of Gold Crocus " of gar- 

 dens ; C. Msesiacus, or luteus, is the well-known Dutch 

 Crocus, and C. biflorus, the Scotch Crocus. C. versicolor, 

 from the mountains of southern France, is the purplish 

 feathered Crocus so common among spring bulbs, and C. 

 vernus is the parent of the cultivated lilac and white varie- 

 ties. Mr. Baker places C. obovatus, the Neapolitan Crocus, 

 as a variety of C. vernus. I have before given a list in 

 Garden and Forest of the best of the autumn-flowering 

 species, but I would recommend Mr. Baker's book to any 



cultivator who wishes to take in hand these beautiful and 

 most useful species with a view to breeding from them a 

 race of as great value in autumn as are the common 

 spring-flowering kinds, a very possible and certainly most 

 desirable object. 



Romulea has thirty-three species, among them being 

 some very pretty Crocus-like summer-flowering plants 

 such as R. bulbocodium, R. Clusiana and R. rosea, grown 

 in quantity by the Dutch bulb nurserymen. There are 

 eighteen species of the Australian genus Patersonia, which 

 is represented in a few gardens by P. longiscapa and P. 

 sericea, plants worthy of a place in many gardens. The 

 same remark applies to Aristea, of which there are twenty- 

 seven species, including the pretty blue-flowered A. corym- 

 bosa, generally known in gardens under Witsenia. 



The Ixias are allowed twenty-four species, but they cross 

 so freely, even in a wild state, that it must be very difficult 

 to draw the line between one species and another, as, in- 

 deed, is intimated by Mr. Baker. Freesia is limited to one 

 species with iwo varieties, alba and odorata. 



Watsonia, a genus quite as worthy the attention of culti- 

 vators and breeders as its all}', the Gladiolus, is composed 

 of fifteen species, nearly every one of which is cultivated 

 at Kew. There are few more beautiful bulbous plants than 

 W. angusta (in flower now), W. Meriana and its varieties, 

 W. coccinea, W. densiflora, W. rosea and W. marginata. 

 They are as easily cultivated as the common Gladioli, and 

 they flower freely and continuously. There are twenty- 

 seven species of Babiana, all African ; seventeen species of 

 Acidanthera, of which, so far as I know, the handsome A. 

 bicolor, figured in Garden and Forest (vol. i., pp. 486, 487) 

 is the only one in cultivation. They, too, are all African. 



Crocosma aurea is the accepted name for the plant known 

 as Tritonia aurea, while of Tritonia proper there are thirty- 

 one species, included in which is the plant known in gar- 

 dens as Montbretia Pottsii, the parent with the Crocosma 

 of a race of most beautiful and easily grown hardy bulbs, 

 which we owe chiefly to Monsieur Lemoine, of Nancy. 



Gladiolus comprises no less than 132 species, fifteen of 

 them natives of Europe and western Asia, all the others 

 being African. Of the latter there are fifty-seven species 

 with linear or rush-like foliage, and thirty-seven with ensi- 

 form leaves. Comparatively few of these have been intro- 

 duced into gardens, although many of those not yet tried 

 are evidently worth looking after, and they are generally na- 

 tives of easily accessible places. Mr. Baker gives the fol- 

 lowing as the principal of those bred for garden-plants : 

 G. psittacinus (Natalensis), G. cardinalis, G. oppositiflorus, 

 G. blandus, G. tristes, G. purpureo-auratus and G. Saun- 

 dersii. From these seven species have been obtained the 

 four distinct races of Gl'adioli, the Colevillei, Gandavensis, 

 Lemoinei and Nanceianus sections. 



I have purposely gone into detail that the attention of 

 readers interested, or wishing to be interested, in bulbous 

 plants may obtain some idea of the interesting character of 

 the Order Irideae and of the waj^ it has been dealt with by 

 Mr. Baker. The whole of the work is in English.; good 

 plain English, I might say. The book is published by G. 

 Bell & Son, London and New York. 



Zonal Pelargoniums. — American growers of so-called Ge- 

 raniums may be interested by an account of the way these 

 plants are treated by our best English growers who want 

 them for winter effect. The Geranium, as this section of 

 Pelargonium is popularly named, is emphatically every- 

 body's plant. It will live and grow and flower under the 

 most indifferent treatment, but, like all plants of this nature, 

 it pays for good cultivation. There are not many growers 

 in England who can produce such fine plants, large trusses 

 and large well-colored flowers of Geraniums as Mr. Can- 

 nell, of Swanley. Mr. Pearson, of Chilwell, Nottingham, 

 is, perhaps, as clever with them, and the Right Hon. 

 Joseph Chamberlain is a very successful amateur-grower. 

 Mr. Cannell has shown trusses almost as large as a child'si 

 head, composed of flowers nearly two inches in diameter. 

 The Messrs. Pearson have long been specially interested in 



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