54 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 311. 



large Elms that grass would not grow there, but by plant- 

 ing it with the Ferns and Cyclamen it has become an 

 interesting plot at all seasons. Trees and shrubs are being 

 quickened into growth by the exceptionally mild sunny 

 weather of the last week or so, and such early-flowering 

 plants as the Hamamelis arborea, Daphne Mezereum, 

 Lonicera Standishii, Rhododendron Nobleanum and Nut- 

 talia cerasiformis already are clothed with flowers that are 

 precious at this season. The several varieties of Iris sty- 

 losa have not been out of flower since the end of Novem- 

 ber. 



Willows with bright-colored bark are a charming feature 

 in the winter shrubbery here. Two varieties of Salix vitel- 

 lina are particularly attractive at Kew. They are planted 

 on the edge of an island in the middle of the lake, and the 

 rich yellow color of the one and bright crimson of the 

 other are most effective even from a long distance. I re- 

 member noting some years ago the red-barked Willow in 

 winter in Birkenhead Park, where it is represented by large 

 clumps about the ornamental water. The uses to which 

 these plants may be put in garden-making are obvious. 

 They are, at least, as attractive in winter as the Siberian 

 Cornus, and they will grow in almost any situation. The 

 best of' them are S. vitellina, the golden-yellow Willow ; S. 

 vitellina, var. Britzensis, the blood-red Willow ; S. vitellina, 

 var. rubra, the Cardinal Willow, and S. vitellina purpurea. 



Strobilanthes Dyerianus.— This plant has disappointed 

 some cultivators because of its having lost the brilliant 

 purplish hue of its leaves, which was very attractive on the 

 young plants in summer, but which has changed to a dull 

 gray-purple in winter. I believe it will only prove satis- 

 factory as a foliage-plant when kept soft and growing. 

 There are at Kew old plants which have lost all attraction, 

 whereas young plants from autumn-struck cuttings are 

 bright enough in color. I stated last year that this species 

 would probably prove useful as a flowering plant in addi- 

 tion to its ornateness of leaf. It has lately flowered in the 

 Cambridge Botanic Garden, producing simple axillary ra- 

 cemes about three inches long, clothed with green-tipped, 

 white hairy bracts and tubular blue flowers. I saw a plant 

 of it in flower at the St. Albans Nursery last spring with a 

 terminal raceme only, and this was about nine inches long. 

 Dracaena thalioides.— This is an interesting species of 

 Dracaena which was found by Gustav Mann when col- 

 lecting for Kew on the west coast of tropical Africa about 

 forty years ago, and was soon afterward introduced into the 

 Belgian gardens. A figure of it was published by Morren 

 in the Belgique Horticole, in i860. It also bore the name of 

 D. Aubryana. Plants of it are in cultivation at Kew, where 

 it forms a healthy specimen a yard high and flowers an- 

 nually. It is remarkable for its Thalia-like foliage, the 

 leaves being glaucous green, semi-erect, over two feet 

 long, the lower half narrow and petiole-like, the upper half 

 lanceolate, two and a half inches wide at the base, narrow- 

 ing upward to an acute point. The flowers, which are 

 white, very narrow, and two inches long, are borne in 

 crowded fascicles on an erect spike two feet long, and they 

 open in batches. It is a striking plant, both when in flower 

 and as a foliage-plant. It suckers freely. 



African Aloes. — A considerable number of species of 

 Aloe' are worth a place among conservatory and green- 

 house plants which flower in winter. They are not grown 

 in gardens now for no other reason, I believe, than because 

 their beauty is unknown. In several of the Kew houses 

 they have been an attraction for some weeks, their tall, 

 often-branched spikes, clothed with tubular orange-red or 

 crimson and yellow flowers, being as beautiful as anything 

 to be seen at this time of year. Tall specimens, with stems 

 from six to ten feet high, and others only a foot or so in 

 height, bearing a crown of succulent green or mottled 

 leaves, from the centre of which rises a spike of flowers 

 suggestive of Kniphofias, or a glorified Lachenalia, are 

 worth a place in any conservatory. The best of those in 

 flower now are A. arborescens, A. supralsevis, A. Succo- 



trina, A. Greenii, A. Lynchii, A. pluridens, A. tricolor, A. 

 chloroleuca and A. platylepis. 



Freesia refracta alba. — This is a most useful winter- 

 flowering plant for the conservatory, but it has not yet 

 found general favor with cultivators here, as it seems to 

 have done in America. A group of about fifty plants was 

 shown this week from a garden near London ; they were 

 about two feet high, the spikes stiff, erect, well branched, 

 and crowded with flowers which were good in substance, 

 large, pure white, and, of course, deliciously scented. At 

 Kew we grow a great number of pots of this plant for the 

 conservatory, and they have been a delightful feature for 

 the past month. Mixed with Poinsettias or Centropogon 

 Lucyanus, they are all the more telling in effect. Although 

 introduced from the Cape many years ago, it is only within 

 the last twelve years that Freesias have attracted the atten- 

 tion of cultivators here, and it is chiefly owing to the efforts 

 of Professor Michael Foster that their charm and usefulness- 

 have become known. 



New Hybrid Orchids. — Phaio-Calanthe Arnoldise is a new 

 hybrid between Phajus grandifolius and Calanthe Regnierii, 

 which was shown in flower by Messrs. F. Sander & Co. It 

 has large, handsome yellow-brown flowers, partaking more 

 of the Phajus than the Calanthe. It obtained an award of 

 merit. Dendrobium Hebe and D. Dido were shown by 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, in whose garden they had been raised 

 from a cross between D. Findlayanum and D. Ainsworthii. 

 Cypripedium Morganae, var. Langleyense, is a new hybrid 

 raised by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons in their Langley nurse- 

 ries. It is interesting on account of its being the first hybrid 

 in which C. Stonei, var. platytfenium, is a parent, that and 

 superbiens having been crossed by Mr. Seden. The hybrid 

 possesses a good deal of the character of the precious form 

 of C. Stonei, and differs from C. Morgana; in its broader 

 petals. It was awarded a first-class certificate. C. Adras- 

 tus, a hybrid between C. Boxalli and C. Leeanum, received 

 a similar award. 



L^lia anceps. — The richness and variety of this beautiful 

 species were abundantly displayed in a large group of 

 plants exhibited this week by Sander & Co. Every plant 

 was well flowered and every flower was perfect. There 

 were probably 250 flowers altogether, on some sixty spikes, 

 and they were all forms of what is collectively known as 

 White Anceps. All the best varieties were included, and, 

 in addition, two new ones, named Ashworthiana and Hol- 

 lidayana. These are said to be from a new district in 

 Mexico, Orizaba, and, whatever their source, they are of 

 superior merit, the flowers being large, with broad seg- 

 ments. Ashworthiana was snow-white, with pencilings of 

 mauve on the lateral lobes of the labellum. It was awarded 

 a first-class certificate. Hollidayana was pure white, with 

 a crimson blotch on the front lobe, and crimson lines on 

 the side lobes of the labellum. One plant of the variety 

 Sanderiana bore no less than sixty expanded flowers. 



. , W. Watson. 



London. . 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Pyrus Tschonoskii. 



THIS interesting and handsome Japanese tree was first 

 described by Maximowicz,* whose collector, Tscho- 

 noski, brought to him from the slopes of Fugi-san a single 

 fruit and a portion of a leaf, now preserved in the herbarium 

 of the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg. Nothing 

 more was seen of it until Mr. J. H. Veitch and I encountered 

 in the woods nearNikko a single tree of a Pyrus, which, by 

 subsequent comparison with Tschonoski's specimen, proved 

 to have been this tree. It is evidently rare, for I only saw 

 it in two other localities— in the grounds of a temple near 

 Nekatsu-gawa, where there was a single specimen, and in 

 the woods at the head of the Ysui-toge, near Kamizawa, at 

 the base of the volcano Asama-gawa, in central Hondo, 

 where there were two or three trees. 



*Mil. Biol., xii., 165 (1873). 



