176 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 323. 



their cultural requirements and points connected with their 

 improvement ; the paper is, therefore, a useful supplement 

 to that read before the same society in the summer by Mr. 

 Baker, of Kew, which treated upon the botany of Carinas. 

 The principal breeder of these plants in recent years, 

 Monsieur Crozy, of Lyons, informed Mr. Paul that he 

 began to breed them about twenty years ago with C. War- 

 scewiczii and Nepalense grandiflora, and raised from them 

 C. Bonnetti, a variety much appreciated at that time. Since 

 then he has gradually improved the Canna in habit and 

 size of flower, and by the time he raised and distributed the 

 variety called Madame Crozy, one of the best ever raised, 

 he had 1,500 seedlings from which he obtained many good 

 varieties in nearly all shades of color. Recently he has 

 paid special attention to the seedlings with shades of rose 

 and carmine in the flowers, as well as white. Monsieur 

 Vilmorin, Herr Pxitzer and Mr. Paul himself have raised 

 seedling Cannas, but he modestly disclaims having pro- 

 duced anything to rival Monsieur Crozy's seedlings. The 

 value of Cannas for summer gardening is certainly very 

 great. In England they have become a prominent feature 

 in most good gardens, the London parks and Kew growing 

 them largely. They are most effective when grown in large 

 beds on lawns, and I think they look best when only one 

 sort fills each bed. In greenhouses they are equally use- 

 ful, and they grow and flower perfectly in a tropical house. 

 The most effective plants I have seen were growing in the 

 Victoria tank at Glasnevin last June, the perfect foliage and 

 large richly colored flowers being charming over the water. 

 Cannas are emphatically everybody's plants. Mr. Paul 

 gives the following list of the best varieties hitherto raised. 

 Crimson-purple : Sophie Buchner, L. H. Bailey, Alphonse 

 Bouvier, Miss Sarah Hill, C. A. de Choiseuil, Victor Hugo. 

 Salmon-red : President Hardy, Professor David, Cronstadt, 

 Souvenir d'Asa Gray, Thomas S. Ware, The Garden. Crim- 

 son-yellow : Henri L. de Vilmorin, Count deGanay. Yellow- 

 edged : Paul Sigrist, Marquise dAigle, Admiral Gervais 

 and Madame Crozy. But the greatest advance, in Mr. 

 Paul's opinion, is in the gains of the last two years in the 

 new yellow-spotted varieties. The best of these are Com- 

 tesse d'Estoile, Progression, Antoine Barton and L. H. 

 Bailey. 



London. W. WatSOtl. 



Cultural Department. 



Si- 



oring- Flowers. 



A RED-FLOWERED variety of Chionodoxa gigantea, from 

 ■**■ bulbs collected last year, has been flowering sparsely 

 with me, but the plants give promise of being a real addition 

 to their class. The flowers are as large as those of the type, 

 and in color are a deep flesh-pink, quite identical in tone with 

 that of the pink-flowered forms of C. Lucilia?, a few of which 

 have previously found their way into cultivation. A nice 

 colony of these would be very attractive in the border, and 

 give a distinct effect in the early year, for which nothing ap- 

 proaches them very closely in color at this season. Perhaps 

 the pink forms of the Johnny-jump-ups, Dodecatheon Cleve- 

 landi, of California, would produce the nearest color-effect. 

 The latter, however, are not plants which are apt to be long- 

 lived here, since they require dry summers. 



It is one of the natural results of the present interest in the 

 spring-flowering bulbous plants that new forms are becoming- 

 available both from careful search in natural habitats and also- 

 from hybridization and new seedlings. In various places 

 crosses are being made between Chionodoxas and Scillas. 

 Chionoscillas they are named, with much promise of attractive 

 flowers. The Siberian Scillas are also breaking into new 

 colors now that white and pallid forms have been found with 

 which to work. 



Iris rubro-marginata is the first dwarf-bearded Iris of the sea- 

 son. This little western Asiatic species is a very dwarf plans 

 with closely clustered, evergreen sickle-shaped leaves about 

 two inches long. It is a vinous-purple with brownish bronzy 

 reflections. The prominent crest is dark blue. The fall is 

 marked with purple veinings on a yellowish ground, and a very 

 bright purple signal. It has broad prominent standards and 

 narrow falls, which are curiously reflexed from the centre, or, 



more plainly, perhaps, perfectly folded. The styles have a 

 purple median line with a tint or suspicion of yellow. The 

 specific name comes from the reddish margins of the leaves, 

 although no such margins are to be distinguished on my 

 specimens. This, as established, appears to be a free-flower- 

 ing species with two-flowered spathes. It appears to be akin 

 to I. pumila, but is earlier in flower, and while of a very quiet 

 order of beauty, is handsomer than any I. pumila yet seen 

 by me. 



Iris Sindjarensis surprised me last week by putting forth new 

 flowers, after I had supposed that its season was past. These 

 flowers appeared from the nodes, and my previous observa- 

 tion that it differed in this respect from I. orchioides was incor- 

 rect. It certainly has maintained its habit of deliberateness, 

 though the new flowers were very welcome and attractive. 



Spring came in earnest one night last week with a gentle 

 warm rain. The next morning it appeared that a miracle had 

 been performed. The garden had been full of life before, but 

 now it was full of vigorous joyousness, and the plants and 

 flowers fairly reveled in the kindly change. It is humiliating 

 to one's cultural pride to look at the changed aspects of a gar- 

 den when nature suddenly supplies some genial impulse. Man 

 never realizes how futile are his best efforts until his garden 

 bursts out into such riotous life without any warning to him. 

 And yet the annual recurrence of these transformations, so 

 natural and yet so wonderful, is one of the assured pleasures 

 which a garden of hardy flowers brings, and such experiences 

 excite emotions which words cannot express, and suggest 

 thoughts which one shrinks from spreading out in cold type. 



Elizabeth, N. J. J . N. Gerard. 



Tulips. 



T N a bed containing a number of species of Tulips, Tulipa 

 -*• Kauffmanni is the first to flower, and it is very distinct 

 and beautiful. The large flower, borne on a short stem, is 

 clear creamy yellow, with petals orange at the base, while on 

 the outside they are bright crimson. There is no more dis- 

 tinct Tulip than this, and it is well worthy of cultivation where 

 other species are grown. It should be more generally known 

 that there are many of these Tulips that are both beautiful and 

 hardy in the open ground, and that they will flower year after 

 year when once planted. Of these we have the Parrot Tulips 

 in quantity, T. elegans, T. cornuta (the Horned Tulip), T. 

 Greigi, with prettily spotted leaves ; T. Gesneriana and its 

 many forms, T. Oculus solis (the Sun's-eye Tulip) and many 

 others. We have several that are new to me, of which I hope 

 to make note later. 



The so-called Darwin Tulips belong to the late-blooming 

 section, and they now look strong, with promise of good bloom 

 later. Their chief value to us is that they come in so late in 

 the season, and as they have very long stems they are useful 

 to cut and put in vases for house-decoration. They are, if 

 anything, hardier than the early-flowering section that are so 

 much in use as bedding Tulips, and while the colors are not so 

 gorgeous as those of the early single Tulips, they are much 

 more varied and of softer hues. The term Darwin Tulips is 

 of quite recent origin, though applied to a very old race of 

 garden Tulips, heretofore known as Breeders, in the language 

 of the old Tulip-fanciers. Once the value of these flowers is 

 known, they cannot fail to become popular as hardy border 

 bulbs, for in many respects they are capital plants for open-air 

 culture in American gardens. 

 South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Orpet. 



Notes from Baden-Baden. 



THE season of bloom for bulbous plants began here as early 

 as the first week of January, when a new species of Col- 

 chicum from Asia Minor made its lively appearance; its 

 flowers are small, like those of a Crocus, but of a very pleas- 

 ing rose-purple, and they appear from one up to fifteen, 

 making quite a bunch of flowers ; they endured seventeen de- 

 grees, Fahrenheit, quite unharmed. 



Tulipa violacea, new to cultivation, and one of my introduc- 

 tions from Persia, began blooming about the first week of 

 March. It is small-flowered, but the color is a brilliant ma- 

 genta-red. After this flowered one of my best seedlings, a 

 cross between T. Kaufmanni aurea and T. Greigi. This is 

 one of the largest-flowered and most showy Tulips ever seen ; 

 the large, thick, leathery foliage is prettily marked, like that of 

 T. Greigi ; the flowers are o£ a splendid deep yellow, with 

 some stripes of scarlet inside ; outside they are deep red, with 

 a yellow margin. After this came T. Kaufmanni in three va- 

 rieties, all good early Tulips. Then followed T. cuspidata, T, 



