294 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 492. 



according to Monsieur Voinier, it would soon cover a 

 cathedral. It has stout Rhopala-like stems and alternate 

 trifoliate leaves with long stout petioles, each leaflet being 

 oblong-obovate, four inches by five, the margins serrate, 

 the nerves very prominent, rich glossy green above, the 

 under surface covered with soft hairs. It is said to have 

 enormous grape-like fruit, with large seeds, and to be of 

 peculiar flavor. A plant of it recently added to the Kew 

 collection bears out this description in regard to vigor of 

 growth and the characters of the leaves. 



Escallonia Langleyensis. — Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons have 

 raised this hybrid Escallonia by crossing the well-known 

 E. macrantha with E. Philipiana. They showed it in flower 

 at a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 although it failed to win a certificate it was of interest to 

 growers of hardy plants by reason of its intermediate char- 

 acters, the flowers and leaves being at least twice as large 

 as those of E. Philipiana. The color of the former is pale 

 rose, and they are arranged in dense clusters on the branch- 

 lets toward the ends of the stronger shoots. It is likely 

 to find favor as a plant for gardens near the sea in the 

 warmer parts of this country where Escallonias are effec- 

 tively planted, both as fences and in shrubberies. E. 

 Philipiana is quite hardy at Kew, forming a handsome 

 shrub and flowering freely in June. 



Exacum macranthum. — For many years this beautiful 

 tropical Gentianad has been successfully cultivated at 

 Kew, but it has not yet become a popular garden plant, 

 although several market growers near London have essayed 

 its cultivation. It has numerous erect stems, from one to 

 two feet high, clothed with rich green elliptic-lanceolate 

 leaves three inches long and bearing terminal many- 

 flowered corymbs of rotate deep blue flowers nearly two 

 inches across. It is a biennial and requires the conditions 

 of an intermediate house. This year the plants at Kew are 

 exceptionally vigorous, and this is due to their having been 

 planted out in beds of loam in the newly erected Mexican 

 house. I have also seen beautiful pot specimens grown 

 along with Begonias. The plant is a native of Ceylon, 

 where it is said to be common up to 5,000 feet elevation. 

 It is the only one of the twenty species known that pos- 

 sesses any merit as a garden plant. 



Adiantum Bessonianum. — I noticed this new Fern several 

 months ago, when it received a certificate from the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. We have since grown it at Kew 

 and have now plants of it two feet across. It is, according 

 to Mr. Baker, one of the many forms of Adiantum tenerum, 

 but differs from all in its short stout fronds, the pinnae of 

 which are exceptionally thick in substance and which 

 densely overlap each other, as in the smaller A. Pacottii. 

 For the discovery and introduction of this plant we are 

 indebted to Mr. Hart, of Trinidad. Last week seventy 

 large imported plants of it were sold at one of the London 

 auction-rooms. For garden purposes the name Bessoni- 

 anum may be treated as specific, A. tenerum as now con- 

 stituted being almost generic. It includes such widely 

 different Ferns as A. Farleyense, A. Lathomi, A. Victoria', 

 A. rhodophyllum, A. princeps, etc. 



Victoria Medals.- — The Council of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society has commemorated the diamond jubilee of 

 Queen Victoria's reign by awarding medals to sixty of the 

 most distinguished horticulturists in the British Empire. It 

 is intended to maintain the number of sixty by filling up 

 the gaps made by death, so that in time the Victoria Medal 

 of Horticulture will be a coveted prize. It is as impossible 

 to find sixty horticulturists who stand above all their con- 

 temporaries in professional ability as to find the sixty 

 handsomest ladies or largest babies in a large community. 

 A considerable number of those at first selected by the 

 Council have for various reasons declined the honor. It 

 may interest many of your readers to see who have been 

 finally chosen for this distinction. 



Botanists : J. G. Baker, F.R.S. (Kew), I. B. Balfour, F.R.S. 

 (Edinburgh), Rev. Henslow, Sir J. D. Hooker, Dr. Morris, 

 (Kew). 



Curators : F. W. Burbidge (Dublin), F. W. Moore (Glas- 

 nevin), G. Nicholson (Kew). 



Breeders: J. Heal (Veitch & Sons), J. Seden (Veitch & 

 Sons). 



Gardeners : A. F. Barron, W. Crump, Mai. Dunn, J. 

 Hudson, P. Kay, J. Mclndoe, E. Molyneux, J. Smith 

 (Mentmore), H. Speed, O. Thomas (Windsor), D. Thomson 

 (Drumlanrig), G. Wythes. 



Nurserymen : P. Burr, W. Bull, G. Bunyard, R. Dean, 

 G. Dickson (Chester), J. Fraser (Lea Bridge), H. Herbst, 

 J. Laing, G. Paul, W. Paul, T F. Rivers, F. Sander, A. Sut- 

 ton, W. Thompson, H. Turner. 



Landscape-gardener : H. E. Milner. 



Scribes : G. Gordon {Gardeners' Magazme), J. O'Brien 

 (Orchids), J. Wright {Journal of Horticulture). 



Collectors : W. Boxall (Low & Co.), C. Maries (Veitch & 

 Sons). 



Salesman : G Monro (Covent Garden). 



Amateurs: E.J. Beale, Dean Hole, Rev. Dombrain, C. T. 

 Dreury, H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., Professor Foster, F.R.S., 

 Rev. F. Horner, Miss Jekyll, Hon. W. Rothschild, Baron 

 Schrceder, N. Sherwood, M. R. Smith, Miss Willmott, G. F. 

 Wilson, Rev. Wolley-Dod. 



London. 



W. Watson. 



Plant Notes. 



Rudbeckia Golden Glow. — We have no lack of bold 

 yellow flowers from midsummer onward, and yet addi- 

 tional experience with this Rudbeckia commends it for a 

 place in the wilder parts of the hardy plant border. As we 

 have before stated, it is probably a double form of R. 

 laciniata, a species which is not often seen in cultivation. 

 It is really a plant of distinct character, with attractive 

 foliage and abundant bloom. The stems are at this season 

 quite six feet high, and although they bear up fairly well 

 against storms and winds they would be the better for 

 some support. In the July number of The Mayflower it is 

 stated that this double Rudbeckia was probably sent to Mr. 

 John Lewis Childs by a correspondent from Stephenson 

 County, Illinois, where it is said to grow wild in open 

 woods, and is popularly known as the Wild Yellow Dahlia. 

 As we have before stated, the color is not a pure yellow, 

 and the flower is somewhat disheveled without having 

 the grace of the Cactus Dahlia. Nevertheless, its hardi- 

 ness, the ease with which it is propagated, the rapidity 

 with which it increases and its rather stately habit make it 

 worthy of notice. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Crinums. 



ALTHOUGH Crinum Powelli came to me with a reputation 

 for hardiness, its reappearance in the border each season 

 is always in the nature of a pleasant surprise, for it is rather a 

 tropical plant in aspect, and, with the exception of one of its 

 parents, C. longifolium (Capense), none other of the Crinums, 

 I believe, has any claims to hardiness. Yet planted out here 

 in a border sheltered, except to the south, it has endured our 

 winters with the very slight protection of a few leaves or thin 

 layer of ashes, and these possibly may not be required. It is, 

 of course, cut to the ground promptly by the first frost. It is 

 a noble plant with a globose bulb and short neck. It produces 

 fifteen or twenty leaves, some of which are fully four feet long, 

 rather soft in texture and partly channeled. The flowers, eight 

 or ten in number, are borne on a peduncle two feet or two and 

 a half feet high. Those of my specimen are a soft light pink 

 with wide petals about two inches long when well grown. 

 While the flowers are a decided improvement on those of C. 

 longifolium, they are inferior to those of its other parent, C. 

 Moorei. Where the climate is no more rigorous than this, 

 C. Powelli will prove a desirable plant in the garden for its 

 noble habit, distinctness and practical hardiness. 



But the most desirable and handsome of the Crinums is C. 

 Moorei, which is worthy of space under shelter. This species 

 has a round bulb with a straight long neck, from the top of 

 which its handsome leaves stand out obliquely, usually about 

 two feet long and evergreen. New growth commences usually 

 in the winter, and its handsome flowers are produced with 



