386 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 344. 



flowers, known as Sicula, which locates the home of this 

 plant as the island of Sicily, but it is probably of this 

 variety that Mr. Whitall writes that the flowers are some- 

 times five inches in diameter. There is also a very narrow- 

 leaved variety, Graeca, with flowers intermediate in size 

 between the two named above. Sternbergia lutea is said 

 to be the " Lily of the Field " referred to in the New Testa- 

 ment Scriptures. 



Cypripedium Charlesworthii. — The discovery of this plant 

 about a year ago was a sensation among Orchid growers, 

 and two flowers of it exhibited at a meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society last September sufficed to command 

 for it a first-class certificate. The novelty of a Cypripedium 

 with a dorsal sepal which was rose-colored made it very 

 interesting to hybridizers who had been long looking for 

 such a feature. The fact, also, that it blooms in late sum- 

 mer and early autumn and its close alliance with the pop- 

 ular C. Spicerianum gave it an additional value. By good 

 fortune enormous importations have been made, so that, 

 although it is such a new plant, it has already flowered 

 abundantly both in England and in America. The varia- 

 bility of color in the dorsal sepal which the plant presents 

 is noted in the current number of the Orchid Revieiv. Not 

 only does the rose-color fade in some instances until it be- 

 comes almost a pale lilac, but the marbling varies consid- 

 erably, so that it is occasionally almost absent, while in 

 other flowers the white predominates. The same variation 

 appears in the flowers which have been produced in this 

 country, where the dorsal sepal is sometimes almost iden- 

 tical in color with the rose-purple of the lip of our 

 native C. acaule. It seems to grow more freely than 

 C. Spicerianum, and its remarkable staminoide, with its 

 new departure in color, has already set the hybridists at 

 work, and some striking variations in form and color are 

 confidently anticipated. It seems strange that a plant of 

 such striking characteristics should have remained so long 

 undiscovered. 



Cultural Department. 



Oncocyclus Irises. 



I HAVE read much about these beautiful plants in Garden 

 and Forest, and have been thoroughly interested in Mr. 

 Gerard's frequent accounts of them. These notes have in- 

 duced me to plant this class of Irises in a small way myself, 

 so that I have accumulated a little experience of my own. In 

 the hope of inducing others to make a trial of these and other 

 Irises too little known in our gardens, I feel impelled to set 

 before your readers the experience of the Rev. Henry Ewbank, 

 as recorded in a recent number of The Garden (London), 

 and adapt this somewhat to American conditions. Every 

 one who knows these plants will agree that they are among 

 the brightest ornaments of the hardy garden. Mr. Ewbank 

 considers Iris Lorteti as the most beautiful of flowers, and 

 while this judgment may not be generally concurred in, few 

 people who have seen a specimen of this plant in bloom or of 

 I. Korolkowi, I. Gatesi, I. paradoxa, I. Iberica, or even of the 

 better-known I. Susiana, will deny that they take high rank 

 among flowers both for beauty of form and of color. 



Many persons who have tried to grow these plants have not 

 been perfectly successful, but our knowledge of their wants 

 and habits has been growing, so that we can now venture to 

 give general rules for their treatment, and with a little expe- 

 rience any one can plant them with a fair assurance of success. 

 Mr. Ewbank's plan of cultivation rests upon two principles, 

 which are perfectly reasonable when the climate of their native 

 country and their manner of growing are considered. In the 

 first place, in imitation of the climate of central Asia, Persia 

 and northern Syria, arrangements must be made for drying off 

 the plants perfectly in summer. Very little moisture is enough 

 to keep their roots excited after they should be soundly 

 ripened and at rest — and this means certain decay and death. 

 To prevent this it has been the practice to lift the roots and 

 dry them off, replanting them in late August or September, 

 when they will send up leaves which remain green all winter. 

 Many failures occurred when this plan was followed because 

 the species has been developed in hard dry soil, where they 

 are left under the full rays of the sun to bake in the ground, 

 and they, therefore, resent any root-disturbance, which is the 



second point to be constantly borne in mind. The problem, 

 then, is how to dry them off without removal. 



Mr. Ewbank observed Iris Susiana growing very well on a 

 raised platform, and this suggested a new idea. He, therefore, 

 placed the Irises in a plattorm-bed raised above the ground- 

 level, with paving-stones below, which allowed the moisture 

 to drain off the roots in winter, but which cut it off from below, 

 and so prevented it from rising in the summer-time. He put 

 sashes over them in early June in the expectation that they 

 would soon dry off, but they still continued to grow. The 

 truth was that the upper six inches of soil in the bed acted as 

 a mulch to the lower six inches, and kept them moist, so that 

 all his calculations were defeated. Since the roots were not to 

 be disturbed, he could not lift the plants, but he carefully re- 

 moved the top soil from among them, and left the roots on 

 little mounds in the bed, so that the sun could shine all about 

 them and evaporate all the water from the lower stratum of 

 soil. After this treatment a few dried stalks and leaves were 

 the only visible reminders that the plants had ever been in 

 bloom, and every one dried off in safety. He left them to 

 parch until the middle of September, when they seemed 

 anxious to start, and replacing the soil back on the beds, he 

 removed the sashes so that the plants could receive the rain. 

 All of them did very well during the winter, although the 

 foliage, of course, was more or less injured by storms, and 

 they flowered abundantly the next spring. 



In our dry hot summers it will not be required to remove 

 the earth from among the plants in a bed of Irises. Indeed, 

 I have seen them growing on the south side of a house-wall, 

 and in a bed not raised above the general ground-surface. 

 Here they flowered well, and a sash placed over them after 

 the blooming season and kept over them during the summer- 

 time gave them the drought and heat needed for ripening and 

 rest. Of course, they were covered early and the ground 

 became perfectly dry about them. This is the critical point, 

 for they are hardy against our winter cold and need no cover- 

 ing at that season. 



Where a house-wall at the north does not insure absolute 

 dryness for the bed in summer this must be secured in some 

 other way. The bed may be made over a layer of broken 

 stone, or, at all events, it must be so constructed that the drain- 

 age will be always perfect, so as to exclude entirely the mois- 

 ture which would naturally rise from below during the warm 

 season. With the earth perfectly dry our July and August 

 suns can be trusted to give the plants all the roasting and rest- 

 ing they require. The points to be observed are that the sash 

 shall be put over them early enough, and that the soil shall be 

 kept absolutely free from moisture. There is no danger from 

 the heat of summer or the cold of winter. We need additional 

 experience as to soils — some varieties appearing to do well in 

 one kind and others in another. But it is safe to begin experi- 

 ments in good garden-soil, where, if they are not planted too 

 deeply, and are cared for as above suggested, these Irises will 

 well reward any one who gives them this special treatment, for 

 their flowers possess an ethereal beauty and a delicacy and 

 refinement in their rich and yet subdued colors which few of 

 their rivals in the floral kingdom can show. 



Slaten Island. T. B. Ellis. 



Narcissus poeticus and its Hybrids. 



NEARLY all the cross-bred Narcissi of value for outdoor 

 planting are the offspring of Trumpet Daffodils, yel- 

 low, white or bicolor, and N. poeticus, or the Pheasant-eye 

 Narcissus. Indeed, the only notable exception is N. odorus, 

 the sweet and useful Campernelle Jonquil, which has origi- 

 nated between yellow forms of the Trumpet Daffodil and N. 

 jonquilla. It is curious, by the way, that Mr. Barr, our most 

 experienced authority upon the Narcissi, should, in his cata- 

 logue, except N. odorus from hybrids and call it a species. 

 Nothing is more certain than that N. odorus is derived from 

 this cross. To the former comprehensive cross must be 

 assigned all the flowers, now so largely grown, which are 

 grouped under the designations incomparabilis, Barri, Leedsi, 

 Humei, Nelsoni, Backhousei, montanus. I have ascertained 

 by experiments, beyond any doubt, that the many varieties of 

 Trumpet Daffodil with N. poeticus will produce all the forms 

 which we grow under these names, but that N. Burbidgei is a 

 secondary hybrid, the result of crossing N. incomparabilis 

 again with N. poeticus. The difference between N. Bur- 

 bidgei and these other classes is quite sharp and distinct, three 

 of the anthers in N. Burbidgei being raised well above the 

 others, or, in more scientific terms, being biserial visibly at 

 a glance. I find this character to be quite unfailing as a mark 

 of division. The present classification of these hybrids of N. 



