126 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 475. 



when developed in a little heat. Ever since its introduc- 

 tion from China in 1882 cultivators have been striving to 

 cross this species with other good garden sorts without 

 any definite result having ever been obtained, but it ap- 

 pears likely that variety, in both size and color of flowers, 

 is being gradually evolved solely by high cultivation and 

 selection. There is, for instance, a marked difference be- 

 tween the best forms of this species as now known and the 

 type as represented in The Botanical Magazine, t. 6582. 



Cyclamen Persicum again. — Two additional sports have 

 been recorded this week, namely, an exceptionally large- 

 flowered pure white form, named Grandiflorum album, the 

 petals being broad and measuring nearly three inches in 

 length. It was shown in magnificent condition by the St. 

 George's Nursery Company, Han well, and was awarded a 

 certificate by the Royal. Horticultural Society. The second 

 is a red-flowered variety of the sport with crested petals 

 which originated in a garden in France three years ago, and is 

 reproduced from seeds. It will be remembered that Messrs. 

 Low & Co. have raised a white-flowered variety with 

 crested petals, and this also comes true from seeds. Dr. 

 Masters suggests that these sports are due to hypertrophy 

 or overgrowth, caused by excessive feeding, and that they 

 maybe looked upon as a "variation formed as it were 

 beneath our eyes, and one, moreover, which in so far 

 resembles a species that its characteristics are reproduced 

 from seed. " r „ T „ , 



London. W. WatSOIl. 



Plant Notes. 



Iris Rosenbachiana. — Some mild day in March, or even 

 in late February, if genial conditions prevail, there will be 

 seen rising from the bare earth a short cluster of leaves 

 about the size of a finger-tip. Very shortly after, this 

 Bokharan Iris will expand its fair, not to say gaudy, flow- 

 ers, fully unrolling in a few hours after it shows color. In 

 the early year flowers are either short-stemmed or sessile, 

 as if they feared to trust themselves too freely to Nature's 

 buffetings. It is only as the season advances that the 

 leaves and peduncles expand to produce bolder effects in 

 the garden. Even the bold Daffodils send the smallest and 

 daintiest of the race as a courier, and Narcissus minimus, 

 which now appears as usual, is scarcely as large as a 

 Snowdrop. The early Irises have but small flowers and 

 show not much foliage, and this is linear. The best forms 

 of the Reticulata section are modest in size as well as color, 

 I. histrioides being the most prominent for mere inches. 

 Much more showy than any of these, though little exceed- 

 ing them in size, is I. Rosenbachiana, which begins to 

 show itself before the smaller Irises have passed. This has 

 an ovoid bulb with short perennial (or perhaps persistent) 

 roots very much thickened where they join the bulb. 

 Botanically it is of the Juno section, one of the most 

 striking of its characteristics being the very small stand- 

 ards, which are a perfect antithesis to the bold standards 

 of the German Irises. The flowers have very long tubes, 

 long narrow styles, still narrower claws and a short vividly 

 colored fall. They are said to vary materially in coloring, 

 from white to shades of purple. Those in my garden are 

 light purple, shading to white, except on the falls, which 

 are a rich reddish purple. The flower has a bright orange 

 ridge, bordered to the base of the claw with distinct narrow 

 lines of purple. Away from its surroundings it appears 

 only as a pretty thing, but rising from the bare earth with 

 no foil of foliage under the conditions prevailing in March, 

 it is distinctly gaudy and one of the oddest productions of 

 nature. It is a much taller flower than that of the better- 

 known I. Persica (also of the Juno section), whose coloring 

 is rather of a livid hue, though it always appears to one as 

 a surprising flower. It may be added that I. Rosenbachi- 

 ana usually has two, and sometimes three, flowers in suc- 

 cession, bears seeds in this climate, and seems fairly 

 thrifty when planted in moderately light soil, where the 

 bulbs are dry in summer. It has not increased in the three 



or four years in which it has grown and flowered here, but 

 it has never failed to flower, and has not degenerated, as 

 summer-resting bulbs often do. Slowness of increase is 

 often more the fault of the gardener than the plant. 

 Elizabeth, n. J. J- N. Gerard. 



Cultural Department. 



Erythroniums. 



TV J R. PURDY, on page 106, speaks none too highly of these 

 ■L'-*- beautiful flowers, which are among the daintiest and 

 most graceful of the early season. The cultural directions, so 

 carefully detailed, are very interesting and valuable, and any 

 further comment would seem uncalled for had not Mr. Purdy 

 rather discouraged careless growers or those who are not 

 inclined to take special pains with their plants. Eastern growers 

 do not need any special warning against native California 

 plants, which have a reputation, not wholly undeserved, of 

 being, as a rule, rather difficult subjects to retain in the garden 

 from the fact that they begin to grow too early and that it is 

 difficult to give them their natural rest. However, they are 

 mostly amenable to rational treatment, and most of them fully 

 repay any care required. But my experience with a few bulbs 

 each- of half a dozen species of Erythroniums which I had 

 from Mr. Purdy three or four years ago, does not bear out the 

 doubt expressed as to their success tinder other conditions 

 than those noted. My bulbs are planted in the stiffest of clay 

 soils in a border which has had no cultivation to speak of, and 

 certainly no manure or humus for over a decade. They are 

 in the wettest spot in the garden, where water stands if any- 

 where, yet the bulbs have always flowered, and I notice that 

 they are again showing buds. I doubt if they have increased 

 in numbers, but this does not seem surprising under the cir- 

 cumstances, and I do not know that they naturally increase as 

 fast as our local Dog-tooth Violets, which devote themselves 

 so much to vegetative growth that one cannot in some seasons 

 find a flower on a thousand plants. If they have the same 

 extraordinary underground growth asoureastern Erythronium, 

 which, by its lengthening stolons, plants new buds generously 

 in every direction and at all depths, perhaps culture in stiff 

 soil may act as a repression to increase of growth, but be 

 helpful to number of flowers. 



These two experiences are only an illustration of the fact 

 that many plants have a great range of adaptability to varying 

 conditions, and that in the garden one may have success with 

 the same plants under widely different cultures. Gardening is 

 very empirical, and cannot be confined to rigid rules. No 

 garden is a true home for all plants, and no grower succeeds 

 with all ; in fact, the specialist of a few species is apt to find 

 that as soon as " he knows it all " this is a pride which cometh 

 before a fall, and that any plant may be as capricious as, say, 

 the gentler sex, and more interesting in either case because 

 capricious. 

 Elizabeth, n.j. J.N.Gerard. 



Fancy-leaved Caladiums. 



"THE tubers of these plants which are intended for the deco- 

 *- ration ot the greenhouse during summer should now be 

 started into active growth, while those which are to be cut up to 

 multiply any desirable sort should be selected, labeled and 

 kept in dry sand till a little later in the season. Tubers best 

 suited for the latter purpose are the ones which show signs of 

 starting around the sides, while for growing into plants with 

 large leaves in a reasonably short period, those of a fairly large 

 size without side growths are preferred. To save space for a 

 few weeks the tubers can be started rather closely together in 

 shallow boxes or on benches, with finely chopped moss or rough 

 sand as a cover ; but this method, although it saves space, has 

 its drawbacks. The tubers do not all break into growth at one 

 time, some of them being almost in a dormant state, while 

 others are ready to be put in pots ; again, the roots are apt to 

 get mutilated in the transfer, which causes a serious check to 

 many of the finer kinds. I prefer to use small pots for 

 starting the tubers, as it is a very much more satisfactory 

 method. Three and four inch pots will be found large enough 

 for the purpose ; where three-inch is too large, then two or 

 more small tubers of a kind maybe put together. 



To grow a plant successfully a great deal depends upon 

 securing thick healthy roots at the start. These roots are pro- 

 duced at the top of the tuber just at the base of the growing 

 leaf-shoot, so that the tubers should be planted deep enough 

 to insure good rooting conditions on the top instead of at the 

 bottom. I find the best potting material for starting tubers to 



