6o6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 252. 



pressed. The flowers are papilionaceous, and are remarka- 

 ble for the large size of the vexillum, or standard, which in 

 some of the species measures fully two inches across. 

 They vary in color from white to rose, violet and blue, and 

 generally they are prettil}'' lined or shaded with other 

 colors. They appear to fruit as freely as the Kidney Bean, 

 the pods generally being long, narrow and four-angled. 

 C. Virginianum has produced a very large crop of good 

 seeds with us this year. The pods of some of the species 

 are eaten as we eat beans. The two species under culti- 

 vation here are stove-climbers ; at any rate, we find they 

 thrive perfectly in a stove. Possibly, however, C. Vir- 

 ginianum, which is, I perceive, a native of the southern 

 United States, may be successfully grown in an ordinary 

 greenhouse temperature, or even out-of-doors in summer. 

 It may be as hardy as the Sweet Pea, although the species 

 are most abundant in tropical regions. 



The following species appear to be worth introducing for 

 trial in the garden ; 



Centrosema platycarpum. This has exceptionally large 

 broad pods and large purple flowers. Kalbreyer, who col- 

 lected it in Ocana, describes it as a "papilionaceous twin- 

 ing half shrub, eight to ten feet high, with large single 

 deep purple flowers and large trifoliate leaves." It is also 

 found in Brazil and British Guiana. 



Centrosema coriaceum has small Willow-like leaflets, 

 and forms a suffruticose procumbent shrub with large blue 

 flowers. It is Brazilian. 



Centrosema vexillatum has ovate leaflets three inches 

 long, and beautiful flowers two inches across. Schom- 

 burgk, who collected it in Guiana, called it a herbaceous 

 twiner with large flowers, colored white, with blue streaks, 

 and a purple disk. 



Centrosema Brasilianum is another stout climbing shrub 

 with large flowers of varying shades from lilac to blue and 

 violet, some having stripes of yellow through the standard. 

 It is, or was, common in Trinidad. 



Centrosema macrocarpum has large edible pods and white 

 flowers, striped with blue. It is a native of Guiana, etc. 



Centrosema pubescens is another large handsome-flow- 

 ered species which Linden found in New Granada, and Kal- 

 breyer in Ocana at an elevation of 4,000 feet. 



Centrosema Plumieri is a coarse climber, with large 

 kidney bean-like leaves borne on stout, twining stems. 

 The peduncles are axillary, and each one bears five or 

 more purple and white flowers, one and a half inches 

 across. It was introduced from the West Indies by 

 Dean Herbert, and flowered in his hot-house in October, in 

 1837. Lindley figured it in his Botanical Register as Cli- 

 toria Plumieri. It is common in Brazil. 



Centrosema Virginianum was in cultivation in England 

 over sixty years ago, but it does not appear to have be- 

 come popular. It was introduced to Kew last year, where 

 it flow^ered most profusely in the tropical Water-lily house, 

 its thin twining stems running along the roof for about two 

 feet, and flowering from every leaf-axil. The peduncles 

 are short, and they bear two or three flowers each, the 

 flowers being one and a half inches across, pale lilac lined 

 with purple. The pods are very narrow, and about six 

 inches in length. Treated as a stove-annual, and grown 

 in pots, with the stems trained about a light trellis, this 

 plant would be decidedly attractive. According to Lind- 

 ley, who figured it as Clitoria Virginiana, it grows on 

 hedges in Virginia and Carolina, also in Jamaica and San 

 Domingo. It varies in the size of its leaves, and some of 

 the flowers are white, others lilac. 



Centrosema grandiflorum. This is described by Ben- 

 tham in Martius' Flora Brasiliensis as a climbing shrub, 

 with thin glabrous stems and trifoliate leaves, the leaflets 

 from two to four inches long by one to two inches wide, 

 smooth above, velutinous below. Peduncles axillary, short, 

 bearing from three to seven flowers, in which the vexillum 

 is one and a half inches in diameter, and silky. The pod 

 is six inches long and glabrous. The plant is wild in Cen- 

 tral Brazil and in Caldas in Minas Geraes. 



This species, or what is supposed to be this, has been 

 described by one who has it in cultivation as " a perfectly 

 hardy climbing plant, of rare and exquisite beauty, which 

 flowers early in June from seeds sown in April, and bears in 

 the greatest profusion inverted pea-shaped flowers from one 

 and a half to two and a half inches in diameter, varying in 

 color from a ros)' violet to a reddish purple, with a broad- 

 feathered white marking through the centre. The large 

 buds and the back of the flowers are pure white. Some- 

 times six or eight flowers are produced in a single cluster. 

 It is well adapted for every garden, especially as a climber, 

 running six to eight feet in a season. Even in the poorest 

 soil it will bloom freely until cut down by frost." This 

 description might easily be mistaken for that of one of 

 Mr. Eckford's latest Sweet Peas ! 



New Chinese Lilies. — The genus Lilium promises to be 

 exceptionall)' well represented in China, the number of spe- 

 cies now known from that country being twenty-four.* 

 Monsieur Franchet, of the Paris Herbarium, has recently 

 published in i)\e Jouriial de Botanique a classified list of all 

 the species of Lilium now known in China and Thibet, pre- 

 pared from the collections made in those countries by Mon- 

 sieur Delavay and others, including Dr. Henry. Mr. 

 Baker has made a brief abstract of this paper for the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, adding a few words about each of the 

 new species. Of these there are twelve, and some of them 

 are evidently very beautiful. Thus L. formosum has white 

 broadly campanulate flowers six to seven inches long ; L. 

 Delavayi has flowers like those of L. candidum in form, 

 and colored wine-red, with brown spots ; L. ochraceum has 

 flowers of the Martagon type, colored yellow, unspotted, 

 with oblong segments ; L. myriophyllum has very numer- 

 ous leaves and erect, white, large, cup-like flowers ; and so 

 on. It is to be hoped that the French collectors have sent 

 home seeds or bulbs of these plants in addition to the dried 

 specimens. The distinct, beautiful, hardy L. Henryi, 

 which, by the way, is omitted from Mr. Baker's list, was 

 introduced in this M'ay from China to Kew by Dr. Henry. 

 Collectors of plants for herbaria should alwa)'S obtain as 

 far as they can seeds or living material of some kind of all 

 interesting plants for cultivation. If these new Liliums are 

 as hardy and free-growing as those species which are 

 already established favorites in the garden, they will be a 

 very valuable addition to cultivated plants. We have 

 nothing much better than L. speciosum, L. longiflorum, L. 

 tigrinum and L. giganteum, and these are of Chinese 

 origin. Mr. Baker says : "The collections that have been 

 made lately in western China and Thibet have shown that 

 these regions are exceedingly rich in new types, belonging 

 to many of our favorite garden genera." Here is a useful 

 hint for collectors. ._,. „. 



London. W. WatSOn. 



Cultural Department. 



Irises and their Cultivation. — I. 



'X'HE publication of Mr. James Baker's Mantial of the Iridea, 

 -•- as announced lately in Garden and Forest, is sure to be 

 welcomed by every owner of a garden, where hardy plants are 

 valued and studied. There is no other important family of 

 plants about which reliable information has been more diffi- 

 cult to obtain by persons who do not have access to botanic 

 gardens. The publication of this book from such an authorita- 

 tive source is sure to give a new impulse, not only to the col- 

 lection and cultivation of the Irises, but, it is also to be hoped, of 

 the less known species of Gladiolus, which seem to have mostly 

 disappeared from cultivation. It will be a comfort to have a 

 manual, to which one can turn with confidence in the effort to 

 determine the true species, and discover synonyms, not always 

 a simple matter to one with little botanical knowledge. If 

 plants are to be labeled, it is a matter of the first importance 

 that they shall be labeled correctly, and for this we must 

 depend on the acumen of the scientific botanist. In a horti- 

 cultural way, of course, we are compelled to make certain 

 compromises with scientific knowledge when the distinc- 

 tions, botanically, seem closely drawn. Morasas", for instance. 



* Twenty-five with Lilium Henryi. 



