March io, 1897 ] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



kind ever held in the south. I have before described the 

 beautiful effect produced in Mr. Robinson's garden at 

 Gravetye by planting- bedding Violas of differing kinds to 

 cover the soil of his Tea Rose beds, and I have seen equally 

 beautiful effects obtained by using these plants forordinary 

 bedding. In hot dry weather they are apt to suffer unless 

 the soil is retentive and kept moist by watering. We have 

 now a considerable number of breeders at work among 

 these plants. „; ... 1 



London. W - WatSOn. 



Fig. 12 — Agave attenuata. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Agave attenuata. 



A MAGNIFICENT specimen of this stately Agave has 

 been in bloom for several weeks in the United States 

 Botanic Garden at Washington, and is reproduced in 

 the illustration on this page. This is the first time the 

 species has flowered in Washington, and, from a rather 

 hasty examination, it appears to be the first time it has 

 flowered in this country. The plant now in flower was 

 bought in Such's nursery by Mr. W. R. Smith more than 

 twenty years ago. Its previous history is unknown, but it 



undoubtedly came from Mexico, the home of the species. 

 The flowering plant differs from figures and descriptions in 

 having a perfectly erect, stiff spike of flowers, instead of 

 being curved. In all the other characters the plant differs 

 very little from the description of A. attenuata. ' In our 

 specimen the woody stem below the crown of leaves is 

 four feet high and one foot in circumference at the thickest 

 point, which is a short distance below the crown. It is 

 marked with quadrangular scars, three to four inches wide 

 by one inch deep. The crown, which consists of twenty 

 or more immense leaves, is, indeed, a handsome sight, 

 measuring as it does nearly six feet in diameter. The 

 leaves are first erect, but when mature they are spreading, 

 and in age drooping, the lower ones gradually falling off, leav- 

 ing the peculiar scars referred to above. The larger leaves 

 are from two and a half to three feet long, from six to eight 

 inches broad at the widest point, which is about two-thirds 

 of the distance from the base, gradually tapering to near 

 the base, where they are three or four inches wide, while 

 they rapidly taper upward into long weak spines ; the 

 leaves are very glaucous on both sides, while the margin 

 is entire and thin, at first whitish, but in age brownish. 

 During the flowering period the larger leaves drop off, 

 leaving only ten to twelve, which are not more than two 

 inches in width and two feet long. The peduncle is only 

 about one foot long, but is very thickly covered with large 

 leaf-like bracts, somewhat appressed, but spreading at the 

 base, and acuminate. The flowering spike is very dense 

 and fully five feet long ; the flowers are in twos subtended 

 by bracts ; these bracts are green, attenuate, horizontal, 

 the lower ones being five inches long. The flowers are 

 mostly sterile, the perianth tube very short, the stamens 

 much longer than the petals. This plant has been in 

 bloom nearly three months, while it was nearly two months 

 in developing its flower-spike. 



The species was first described by Salm Dyck in 1S34. 

 It was afterward (1S62) described by Sir William Hooker as 

 Agave glaucescens in The Botanical Magazine, and is some- 

 times found in cultivation as A. spectabilis. It has been 

 illustrated in The Revue Horticole, figs. 31 and 32 (1S75) ; in 

 The Botanical Magazine, t. 5333 (1862), and in The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, fig. 55 (1887), figs. 63 and 64 (1895). It was 

 introduced into cultivation about 1834. It flowered first 

 at Kew in 1861, and has flowered several times since. It 

 is reported in The Gardeners Chrofiicle to have flowered in 

 the Coimbra Botanic Garden in 1886 and 1887, in the gar- 

 den of Mr. Hanbury at La Mortola in 1890, in the gardens 

 of His Majesty the King of the Belgians at Lacken in 1895. 



The plant has been widely distributed in gardens, and 

 will doubtless be frequently found in flower in the future.* 



Washington, D. C. /■ N. Rose. 



Iris Hartwegii, Baker. 



FREQUENT inquiries about this pretty Iris show that it 

 is a favorite, and lead me to put on record what I 

 know about the species. 



Iris Hartwegii occurs in California at elevations of from 

 1,300 to 4,500 feet, in a belt almost exactly coinciding with 

 that occupied by Pinus Lambertiana. Like this Pine, it 

 does far better on cool, protected northerly slopes than on 

 shallow-soiled hot slopes facing south. The fact that its 

 large clumps die out if the surrounding Pines and shrubs 

 are cleared off, proves that this Iris prefers the shelter, and 

 it does well even when the needles from the Pines smother 

 almost everything else on the ground. The tufts may be 

 small or as much as twenty-four inches in diameter. 

 I have seen whole slopes covered with them. The tender 

 India-yellow color fades in the hot sun very rapidly, but a 

 field of these flags, lit up by the rays of the sun fall- 



*The most important references to tin- species are the followin 

 Agave attenuata, Salm Dyck. Hart. (iS.;i). — Kev.Hort. 



and 32 (1875). — Gard. Chron., ser. 2, viii., 748 (1877). 



Agave glaucescens. Hooker. Bot.Mag.A. 1333 (1862).— 



219. figs. 53 and 55 (1SS7); ser. 3, viii., 560(1890); ser. 3, xvii., 1 . 



(>8 95 ). 



