174 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 480. 



each about two inches across. A variegated Potato, the 

 leaves heavily and attractively variegated with creamy 

 white, was awarded a certificate ; we may therefore now 

 include the Potato among decorative herbaceous plants. 

 In effect it is not unlike a dwarf variegated Elder. Fuchsia 

 Addington, shown by Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons, is a new 

 hybrid between F. fulgens and F. splendens, with large 

 pendent clusters of bright crimson flowers of distinctly 

 decorative character ; it was awarded a certificate. 



Hippeastrums were exhibited by several specialists, and 

 some of the new seedlings obtained certificates. Growers 

 of these plants find it preferable to raise stock from seeds 

 rather than depend on the same bulbs year after year, and 

 as they mature seeds freely and, moreover, are easily 

 crossed one with the other, one gets novelty and improve- 

 ment as well as vigor in the seedlings thus obtained. The 

 predominant influence of H. aulicum is a well-marked 

 feature of all the large-flowered seedlings of Hippeastrum in 

 cultivation to-day, while H. equestre and H. reticulatum are 

 very much in evidence among the smaller forms. These 

 plants are now being grown in large numbers in some 

 tropical countries where the conditions are suitable, and 

 the bulbs are sent to England to be sold by auction in the 

 same way as Lilium Harrisii, from Bermuda, is. By the 

 way, I notice that an enterprising planter in Natal has dis- 

 covered that this Lily may be grown as a field crop there, 

 and he has just sent over four thousand bulbs to be sold in 

 London as an experiment. Yellow-spathed Richardias are, 

 I am told, being farmed in the same way, so that before 

 long we shall be able to buy tubers of these plants at as 

 cheap a rate as Tuberoses. All the so-called new yellow 

 Richardias that we have heard of lately are either R. 

 Elliottiana or R. Pentlandii. TIT „, 



London. W. WatsOfl. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Sambucus leiosperma. 



IN our number of April 7th last a figure and short descrip- 

 tion were printed of the black-fruited Elder of the Rocky 

 Mountains, Sambucus melanocarpa, and on page 175 of 

 this issue appears the figure of the red-fruited Elder of the 

 high Cascade Mountains, which Mr. John B. Leiberg has 

 distinguished from Sambucus racemosa and recently de- 

 scribed as Sambucus leiosperma.* 



It is a stout shrub with spreading branches six or seven 

 feet high, leaves composed of from five to seven nearly 

 glabrous leaflets varying from oblong to lanceolate, acute 

 or acuminate and sharply serrate, oblong, somewhat flat- 

 tened cymes of yellowish white flowers and scarlet berries 

 in which are from three to five smooth nutlets. 



Sambucus leiosperma is the red-fruited Elder of the high 

 mountains of Oregon and Washington, extending, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Leiberg, northward to Alaska. Whether the 

 character, the smoothness of the nutlets, by which it is pro- 

 posed to distinguish Sambucus leiosperma, will prove 

 constant, we have now no means of judging. The speci- 

 mens collected near Crater Lake, Oregon, last summer by 

 Mr. Leiberg and Dr. Coville, of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, are certainly very distinct, as appears in our figure. 

 The red-fruited Elder, "however, on the Oregon and Wash- 

 ington coast region, judging by a single specimen only, 

 has the distinctly pitted nutlets of Sambucus racemosa. 



Plant Notes. 



Tulipa Greigi aurea. — All lovers of Tulips are famil- 

 iar with the species introduced some years ago by Regel 

 and named Tulipa Greigi. It is the most handsome 

 and striking of wild Tulips, having light, glaucous spotted 

 leaves, which are very ornamental, and bold flowers with 

 large wavy petals. The form originally introduced was a 

 brilliant salmon-red in color. Although a most desirable 

 plant, T. Greigi is not apt to prove more than a transient 



* Proc. Biological Society of Washington, xi., 40 (1897). 



visitor in gardens unless cultivated under special condi- 

 tions, and as, unlike most Tulips, it does not make surplus 

 buds or offsets, we have until lately been dependent on 

 seedlings for increase of stock. These seedlings usually 

 show some variations in color in reds and yellows. Lat- 

 terly, large numbers of the bulbs have been collected in the 

 Sir Darja region of Turkestan, and it is said that practically 

 there are two types, the red one usually known and the 

 yellow form lately introduced as variety aurea. The latter 

 differs from the older type only in the color of the flowers, 

 which may be feebly described as a singularly deep, glow- 

 ing yellow, with red markings on the exterior of the petals 

 and red blotches over black eyes on their bases within. 

 We can think of no flower with a richer color than that of 

 one of these Tulips, which was sent to this office last week 

 by Mr. Gerard. 



Tulipa Greigi bears every indication of being a vigorous 

 plant, and its failure to become established in gardens is 

 probably only owing to the unnatural conditions under 

 which it is grown. On the steppes in which it occurs no 

 rain falls, it is said, during five months. This indicates, 

 of course, that the bulbs should be kept perfectly dry after 

 flowering, and the simplest plan, evidently, is to lift them as 

 the leaves die down and store them in a hot dry place till 

 late in the year. 



Cultural Department. 



The Hippeastrums. — II. 



SPECIES AND VARIETIES — CONTINUED. 



TJ IPPEASTRUM stylosum, the salmon-colored Amaryllis, 

 *■ *■ fromGuiana and the valley of the Amazon, isan interesting 

 species. It bears an umbel of from three to eight flowers of a 

 bright salmon color. Although growing easily in a warm room, 

 it deteriorates rapidly in the moist greenhouse in winter. I re- 

 ceived a plant from Mr. Henry Pfister, head gardener of the 

 Executive Mansion, Washington, to whom it had come from 

 the Sandwich Islands under the name of Amaryllis Honolulu- 

 ensis. Lately I have been informed that this species, together 

 with H. equestre, is common in the gardens of Honolulu. It 

 needs tropical treatment in summer, but in the greenhouse it 

 must be kept in a dry warm place during the winter. 



Hippeastrum solandrsetlorum, the Long-tubed Amaryllis, is 

 another tropical species. It is a native of Venezuela, Guiana, 

 northern Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and the Lesser 

 Antilles. G. F. Appun, in his interesting work, Unter den 

 Tropen (vol. i., p. 240), informs us that it is called " Lino " in 

 Venezuela, and that it grows abundantly on the dry south- 

 western slope of the coast Andes, where it is a great ornament 

 when the rainy season begins. It flourishes in the open, tree- 

 less region among the grass. In cultivation its leaves grow to 

 a height of from twenty-six to thirty inches, and the flower- 

 scape is otten more than a yard high, crowned with a magnifi- 

 cent umbel of from four to six long-tubed lily-like very fragrant 

 flowers. The color varies very much, some flowers being 

 milky white, others creamy, and still others almost pure white 

 with red veinings and lines ; the interior of the tube is green. 

 In congenial soil and in a tropical climate the bulb grows to a 

 large size, often five to six inches in diameter. Of the variety 

 H. conspicuum I have received bulbs fifteen and sixteen inches 

 in circumference. Through the kindness of Dr. A. Ernst, of 

 Caracas, I came in possession of bulbs of the variety Striatum. 

 The flowers of this form are exceedingly fragrant, and though 

 more brilliant and conspicuous, their long-tubed shape reminds 

 us of the Lilium longiflorum. Thecolorot the blossoms is white, 

 veined with dark crimson. The best of all the varieties is, 

 without doubt, Conspicuum, which was introduced into culti- 

 vation in large quantities by Haage & Schmidt, of Erfurt, about 

 fifteen years ago. A good picture of itappeared in Regel's Gar- 

 tenflora (plates 949 and 956). The very symmetrical flowers, of 

 which six to eight are borne on a strong scape, a meter high, 

 are creamy white with a delicate rosy blush, veined and lined 

 with purplish crimson. It grows vigorously in a warm atmos- 

 phere and develops its strong scapes of deliciously scented 

 flowers before the leaves appear. None of these plants are 

 easily kept in good health in the greenhouse. They really 

 need stove temperature all the year round. In winter they 

 must be placed in a warm, dry position in the stove, and should 

 never be watered until the flower-scape has attained a height 

 of three or four inches. In Herbert's time H. solandrifolium 

 was used freely in cross-fertilization, but of late it has been 



