November io, 1S97. j 



Garden and Forest. 



443 



Streftocarpus — We have now a great range of flower 

 color among the hybrid Streptocarpus, and along with it a 

 habit and leafage which commend the plants tothegrower 

 of decorative plants more than the earlier crosses did. It 

 is now generally known that several species were originally 

 crossed to produce this race, the species used being widely 

 different from each other. This fact makes it very remarka- 

 ble that the crosses are now so far fixed in character that 

 the various colors will come true from seeds. In the case 

 of Primula Sinensis, the garden Cineraria, and the Persian 

 Cyclamen the colors generally are reproduced from seeds, 

 but I do not know of another instance where distinct spe- 

 cies have been crossed for the progeny to be thus exactly 

 reproduced. In the Gladiolus, Begonia and other genera 

 seeds are of no value for purposes of propagation if the 

 reproduction of the characters of the seed-bearer is desired. 



those of size, and there are specimens in the Kew Her- 

 barium of P. involucrata quite as large as his plant. The 

 dimensions of this are : Breadth of tuft, twelve inches : 

 length of leaf, including oblong blade, six inches ; flower- 

 stems, of which his plant produced ten, sixteen inches: 

 umbels three to six flowered. It is a charming Primrose 

 for a cosy corner of the rock garden. 



Callistephus hortensis. — This is the plant popularly 

 known as the China Aster, the Aster Chinensis of Linnasus. 

 It was introduced into the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, from 

 China, about a century ago. The many changes wrought 

 in its character, amounting to racial distinctions almost, we 

 owe chiefly to French breeders, first among whom we may 

 mention Monsieur Vilmorin. The type had long ago dis- 

 appeared from cultivation, and so far as I can gather, no 

 colored picture of it existed, so that we knew little of the 



Fig. 56. — Spiraea arguta. — See page 442. 



Messrs. Veitch & Sons have now many new hybrids of this 

 genus. 



Primula Trailli. — This is a form of Primula involucrata 

 (Munroi), one of the many species of Primula found on the 

 Himalaya, where it grows at an altitude of from 12,000 to 

 15,000 feet. Forms of it are also found in Europe, northern 

 Asia and Arctic America. It is hardy at Kew and is 

 remarkable for its tall scapes bearing nodding umbels of 

 about half a dozen pure white, very fragrant flowers. A 

 figure of the type will be found in Lindley's Botanical 

 Register, 1846, t. 31. Mr. G. F. Wilson, who has lately 

 raised, flowered and exhibited plants of P. Trailli, is of 

 opinion that it differs specifically from P. involucrata, but 

 the differences as set forth by him in 'Hie Gardeners' 

 Chronicle this week, where his plant is figured, are only 



character of the progenitor of the China Aster beyond what 

 herbarium specimens showed. Now, however, thanks to 

 a French missionary in China and Messrs. Vilmorin & Co., 

 we have the type again in cultivation, and a batch of plants 

 raised from seeds supplied by the latter and grown in a 

 border at Kew reveal it as a plant of decided beauty, " far 

 more elegant in habit and beautiful in flower than any 

 China Aster I have ever seen," was the remark of a gar- 

 dener-artist who saw the Kew plants. These formed an 

 irregular group from twelve to eighteen inches high, 

 branched freely and clothed with healthy dark g 

 toothed leaves. The flowers were from three to five inches 

 in diameter, with a broad yellow disc surrounded by a 

 single row of broad strap-shaped ray florets, colored pale 

 mauve. The charm of the flowers was in their elegant 



