March 7, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



21 



Cultural Notes. 



Primula Obconica. — This is a comparatively new Primrose, 

 a native of China, and one of the sweetest and loveliest, and 

 so far as I know, the most free and continuous blooming 

 of the genus. 



It was discovered in the neighborhood of Ichuny, Central 

 China, l)y Maries, collector for Veitch, of London, and first 

 bloomed in cultivation in the Veitch luu'series in September, 

 1880. In the Botanical Magazine (tab. 8582), 1881, it is figured 

 and described under the name of Primula poculiformis. In 

 The Garden, September 6th, 1884, there is an excellent colored 

 plate of it prepared from an English garden-grown plant. 



Soon after its debut into English gardens it found its way to 

 America, and so well has it behaved that it has become a fixed 

 favorite wherever grown. Indeed, so favorable an impression 

 has it made that one florist near Boston has made a specialty 

 of it for cut flowers, and the Boston seedsmen this year offer 

 it as their most important novelty. 



We have it here and are exceptionally well pleased with it. 

 We treat it as a cool green-house piot jilant, and find that it is 

 of the easiest possible culture, free growing and continuous 

 blooming, and may be treated as an annual or perennial. 

 Veitch speaks of it as " flowering continuously and profusely 

 from spring to autumn," and recommends it " during the 

 summer months for the open border." Some plants procured 

 two years ago have been in bloom continuously ever since 

 then and have more flowers now than they have had at 

 any time previous. I sowed some seed last spring, it germin- 

 ated in about two weeks, and the seedlings have grown and 

 flourished. They beg-an blooming in August and have been 

 in full bloom ever since. 



The foliage much resembles that of P. cortnsoides, a Siberian 

 species grown in our gardens as a hardy perennial, but is not 

 deciduous. The flowers are white to pale mauve-purple, 

 showy and sweetly fragrant, and are borne in loose umbels on 

 tall scapes that rise well up above the foliage ; and in thrifty 

 plants the umbels have an inclination to break off into whorls 

 after the fashion of the infloresence of P. yaponica. The 

 blossoms last well as cut flowers, and the plants make excel- 

 lent house or window plants. During the summer months 

 our plants set seeds freely and without any artificial assistance, 

 but since winter began no seeds have set e.xcapt where 

 artificial assistance has been given. \V. F. 



Leptosyne Maritima. — A perennial composite with succulent 

 stems and much divided flesliy leaves, and large showy bright 

 yellow flowers produced singly at the ends of long slender 

 stalks. The plant is indigenous to " Sea beach at San Diego, 

 and on the islands." 



1 have grown this plant for a good many years, out-of-doors 

 in summer and in the green-house in winter. Although it is 

 a perennial it is treated as an annual, it begins to bloom 

 when about four months old, and so long as it continues in 

 good healthy condition, so long it will continue in bloom. 



Planted out-of-doors in summer it grows and blooms 

 prettily, but here it does not bear as fine flowers as it does in 

 the green-house in winter. Our plants are in six-inch pots, in 

 a sunny green-house, with a night temperature of about fifty de- 

 grees, and they now have been in full bloom for more than three 

 months. This Leptosyne loves sunshine and will not thrive in 

 the shade ; and it very much dislikes a close, moist atmosphere 

 or an over-wetted soil. 



The blossoms are well adapted for cut flowers and last in 

 ' good condition for several days after they have been cut ; but 

 as they are apt to f)artially close up at night this weighs 

 heavily against them. 



L. Stillinani and L. Douglasii are both Californian annuals, 

 pretty enough in their way, but small and short-lived, and 

 without anything of the bold, showy character of L. Maritima. 



F. 



Carnations. — James Y. Murkland is the brightest scarlet we 

 have, but the flowers are not full and solid enough or the 

 plants sufficiently abundant or enduring to justify its use as a 

 main crop. Portia is our stand-by for scarlet. It is early, con- 

 tinuous, a great cropper and the flowers do not burst. Aniong 

 scarlets, E. S. Hill gives superb promise. The plants are 

 vigorous and the flowers unusually large. Marshal P. Wilder 

 has very large flowers, but they are short-stemmed and tlie 

 calyx bursts. My best white is Hinzy's. Started early and not 

 pinched after June it begins to bloom in September and lasts 

 in good condition till February. Peerless, Snowdon and De- 

 graw do not do well here. Neither do Buttercup nor Astoria 

 among yellows. Lydia, yellow striped with pink, is the best of 

 its class. Columbia, after the same fashion, but with narrower 



stripes, is an abundant bloomer, but the flowers are not very 

 firm. La Purite, carmine, is a capital grower, and it blooms 

 freely too, but the flowers burst a good deal. Charles Hender- 

 son, tall and very copious, has carmine fringed flowers, rather 

 small, but of capital form. Kaiser William has violet purple 

 flowers of good form and striking in color, but many ladies 

 object to the shade. Petunia is a slender grower, but it bears 

 a good crop of rose purple and white fidl double, though often 

 ragged, flcnvers, which are much esteemed by ladies. Crimson 

 King used to be our mainstay in its class, but it is beginning to 

 fail. Black Knight still hoids good. It is of slender growth. 

 It blooms sparingly in fall and early winter, but as January ad- 

 vances it waxes in strength. Gibbonsii is the largest and finest 

 of all our crimsons, but it is a late-blooming one-cup variety. 

 May Queen, bright rose, is a lovely, perfect flower, and unlike 

 most varieties of its class, the color of whose flowers soon 

 fades, its flowers retain their bright color for several davs after 

 they have been cut. While Grace Wilder is a very pretty car- 

 nation and of a desirable shade of blush, the color soon fades. 

 This variety is often rather refractory. \\\ F. 



Brodicea (Triteleia) Uniflora — This charming Liliaceous plant 

 we grow in pots for decoration of the conservatory, for this 

 [lurpose it is very valuable, especially at this dull season of the 

 year, besides being very pretty. It flowers in great abund- 

 ance (as many as fifty flowers may often be had in five-inch 

 pots) and will last a long time in perfection. We give them 

 the usual treatment of this class of Bullis, viz. : good rich soil 

 in well drained pots, liberal watering while growing, gradually 

 drying off for the summer months and repotting in tlie fall. 

 There are two or three varieties of this species, one a pure 

 white. It was introduced from Buenos Ayres in 1836. 



F. G. 



Grapes Under Glass. 



OL'R early vinery contains, mostly. Black Hamburgh ; our 

 medium, Muscat of Alexandria ; and our late. Lady 

 Downes, which I think is the Vjest of all late grapes. Ladv 

 Downes, Black Alicante, Gros Colman and other late sorts will 

 succeed pretty well when grown in the Muscat house, but I 

 much prefer growing them in a house by themselves. I have 

 Alnwick Seedling growing in the same house, and alongside 

 of. Lady Downes. It sets as freely as does a Black Hamburgh 

 and produces large blue-black berries and bimches of three 

 to seven lbs. each in weight, but the grapes do not keep long 

 after they are ripe. Indeetl, I have, every year, to begin cutting 

 them before I have cut half of our Muscats. Except for exhibition 

 purposes I do not regard it favorably, but it will make a good 

 enough stock on which to inarch more serviceable sorts. 

 Black Alicante lilce Lady Downes always hangs on the vines 

 phnnp and fresh till New Year's. Pearson's Golden Queen is 

 a good-looking grape, but of little merit except for exhibition. 

 After having given it a fair trial, both as an early and a late 

 grape, I have concluded to discard it. 



After the fruit is ripe in the Muscat house I bring- Dcndrobi- 

 v/n IVardiamiin and odiers of its class into it to ripen their 

 flowering pseudo-bulbs. I also use the earliest vineries for 

 Chrysanthemums in the fall, but I never bring these in before 

 all the grapes are cut, and I remove them before we begin to 

 give om' vines their anruial cleaning. On no account do I ever 

 allow any plants to be kept in or brought into the Lady Downes 

 house, as the extra moisture they would induce would be det- 

 rimental to the keeping qualities of the grapes, which we wish 

 to have in plump and good condition as late as possible — usu- 

 ally till January. I never permit any bedding or miscellaneous 

 green-house plants, apart from those mentioned above, to be 

 kept in any of the graperies under any circumstances, so as to 

 avoid all possible chance of the introduction of mealy bugs 

 or other insect vermin. 



Of recent years we have discontinued the use of the syringe 

 in our vineries except in the case of our earliest house, and in 

 that we discontinue syringing as soon as the grapes begin to 

 color. After the fruit is cut from it, however, we give the 

 vines a few heavy drenchings of a solution of whale oil soap 

 and tepid water — about two ounces of the soap to the common 

 wooden pailful of water, and applied about sunset. 



On account of the small amount of fire heat we use to help 

 ripen the fruit and wood, we are not troubled with red spider. 



We use tobacco stems as a preventive against thrips, plac- 

 ing them on the border between the bottom ventilators and 

 the front row of pipes, and in this way use at one time a bar- 

 rel of stems to every sixty feet in length of house. We renew 

 the tobacco stems three times during the summer, and each 

 time have them fresh froni the cigar factories. 



David Allan. 



