5 i8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 357. 



Achimenes. — 111. 



PATENS VARIABILIS, Patens major, Boeckmani rubidaand 

 Francois Cardinaux are four names, but they apply to a 

 single variety of Achimenes, and that a very good one, 

 strong in growth and producing great numbers of lively rose- 

 purple blossoms. No variety, so far as I know, gives more 

 numerous flowers. Petiata, as I have it, is the same. I pro- 

 cured it from Van Houtte many years ago, but his last cata- 

 logue describes it as "ashy." These are all flat-flowered, 

 much like the varieties of A. longiflora. A. grandiflora (B. /If., 

 t. 4012, Bot. Reg,, xxxi., t. ii, both incorrect in color) is not very 

 different from Patens variabilis, named above ; it is, how- 

 ever, distinct enough to be worth growing. It is bright 

 rose, without any trace of purple. The Kleei of Pax- 

 ton's Magazine gives the color of A. grandiflora perfectly. 

 " Ghiesbreghti " is simply a synonym; Stella and Chelsoni 

 are indistinguishable from it. Carl Wolfarth is a violet- 

 shaded variety of it, and so is Louis van Houtte. Carl 

 Wolfarth is the better of the two. A. grandiflora flore pleno is 

 what its name denotes ; a more ragged, untidy, disagreeable 

 flower would be hard to find. 



Masterpiece is one of the very best varieties in every respect. 

 Its somewhat trumpet-shaped flowers are bright rosy violet, 

 with a pure white throat. They are produced in great num- 

 bers, and contrast beautifully with the vigorous bronze foliage. 

 Admiration is the same thing exactly. Perhaps two growers 

 produced this variety, and each was unwilling to discard so 

 fine a kind. 



Achimenes Georgeana (a true species) and its varieties 

 Splendens, Gigantea, Fulgens, Discolor and Leopard are six 

 names for five kinds, but all, though distinguishable from 

 each other, so much alike that one of them is enough, and 

 that one should be Fulgens, which is the same as Discolor, a 

 strong-growing erect kind with bronze foliage and large trum- 

 pet-shaped flowers of rich velvety carmine, shaded with orange 

 in the centre. Some dealers sell these varieties as Ghies- 

 breghti. 



There are many small-flowered kinds which should not be 

 passed over on account of their size, for their brilliancy or 

 beauty of a quieter kind makes them as desirable as the larger 

 ones. Dazzle is a well-known and favorite sort, and usually 

 makes one of every group entered at exhibitions. Its flowers 

 are bright, clear vermilion, about half an inch in diameter ; 

 its foliage dark green. Treviriana, Coccinea (figured in Botani- 

 cal Magazine, t. 374, as Cynlla pulchella), Splendens, Pygmasa, 

 Diadem, Feuer Konig, Frau K. Schmidt, Harry Williams, 

 Ingrami and Rouge feu dore' are all so much like Dazzle that 

 few persons who have one of them will care for any of the 

 others, unless it be Frau Schmidt, whose scarlet is of a de- 

 cidedly darker shade than that of the others. Of the same 

 general appearance as this group, but of a different color, are 

 Treviriana rosea, T. rosea magnifica and Gem, all desirable. 

 Gem has a salmon tinge ; the others are sufficiently described 

 by their names. 



I am well aware that descriptions of varieties, if too long, 

 are not exhilarating reading, and I fear that readers are tired of 

 Achimenes by this time ; but I began these papers with the 

 ambitious design of providing a resume of most of the varie- 

 ties obtainable, and if my purchase of every sort I could find 

 mentioned was an exemplification of the speedy sundering of 

 the unwise person and his money, this record may prevent 

 others from indiscriminate collecting. Another paper will 

 finish the account. 



Canton, Mass. W. E. Endicott. 



The Care of House Plants. 



IN connection with an address delivered by Mr. Robert Craig, 

 in Philadelphia, last week, on "Plants for Home Adorn- 

 ment, and How to Take Care of Them," a plant of Areca 

 lutescens was exhibited, which has been growing in the dining- 

 room of Mrs. John Burton for rather more than four years. This 

 plant was picked up from the rubbish pile, where it had been 

 thrown as worthless, because it had shown evidences of going 

 to flower, as is sometimes the habit of this Palm, and to prac- 

 tical florists it is rather too slow in outgrowing the check 

 which flowering produces. The plant is now a neat specimen 

 some four feet high and as many in diameter ; the largest leaf 

 from where it leaves the main stem is three feet and a half 

 long, and it has some twenty leaves now, large and small. In 

 the summer-time it has heretofore been placed under a Grape- 

 arbor, and some of the lower leaves show evidences of dam- 

 age from the cutting winds and driving storms which we fre- 

 quently get in this latitude during the summer season. The 

 plant has received more or less water at the roots every day, 



and this I consider the secret of successful plant-culture in 

 dwelling-houses. Of course, in city residences there may be 

 some unconsumed illuminating gas which escapes, to the det- 

 riment of plant-life, and there may be gases from the heating 

 furnaces, which sometimes do serious damage. ' I am also 

 inclined to believe that these gases receive more blame than 

 the facts justify, and I am satisfied that the greatest trouble in 

 the cultivation of plants in dwelling-houses is insufficient water 

 at the roots. The serious damage is often done the first week 

 or two after plants leave the grower. In a glass house there 

 is considerable moisture in the atmosphere continuously, 

 whereas in a dwelling-house the atmosphere is generally quite 

 dry, and as a consequence there is much more evaporation 

 from the foliage of a plant under these circumstances than 

 there is in a greenhouse. I regret to say that florists are largely 

 responsible for this state of affairs, because, as a rule, in a 

 greenhouse the instructions are generally to be careful and 

 not to give too much water to plants, and florists too often give 

 this advice to their patrons when buying plants for use for 

 home adornment, without taking into consideration the dif- 

 ferences in environment. It ought to be added that Mrs. Bur- 

 ton's dining-room has been heated by a hot-air furnace, which 

 furnishes conditions of dryness in the air generally considered 

 fatal to plants. 



Another thing which must be borne in mind is the tem- 

 perature of the living-room, which is generally from sixty-five 

 to seventy degrees. If the plant should occupy a position 

 where the temperature is lower than this, less water of course 

 will be required. 



I know of another Areca which has been in a sitting-room 

 in Chestnut Hill for three years, and it certainly is the picture 

 of health. This receives water daily, because the temperature 

 rarely falls below seventy degrees. An Adiantum Farleyense 

 has been, to my knowledge, in the residence of Edwin Lons- 

 dale since Thanksgiving Day, and it is now none the worse for 

 the change from a warm moist greenhouse to a warm dry 

 living-room. I also know of a Pandanus utilis which has been 

 three years in the dining-room of Mr. John N.May, of Summit, 

 New Jersey, and a more beautiful plant cannot be imagined. 

 Every leaf is a dark glossy green, and perfect to the very tips. 

 After breakfast every morning all the water that may remain 

 in the glasses is poured carefully upon the soil over the roots 

 of this plant. This is again done at noon, and once a week it 

 is taken out for a thorough soaking with water at the roots, 

 and allowed to remain there until the superfluous water has 

 drained away. Windmoor, Chestnut Hill and the second 

 Areca lutescens referred to, and the Adiantum Farleyense are 

 in my own home. 



I wish to add that in none of these cases cited do the men of 

 the household, although practical plantsmen, have anything to 

 do with the care of the plants. A little advice may have been 

 given in their early experience, but any counsel now offered is 

 scorned by the good ladies of the house, who feel competent 

 to attend to the needs of their pet plants. I have no doubt that 

 any intelligent woman who puts her mind to it can make 

 Palms and Ferns flourish in ordinary living-rooms. 



Philadelphia, Pa. L. 



Subirrigation. — The value of subirrigation in greenhouse 

 work is unquestioned, and it is there a perfectly practicable 

 and feasible operation. In field-work, however, it is not so 

 easily managed. Several years ago an experiment to deter- 

 mine its efficacy was started at this station. Two plots of 

 ground, each containing four square rods, were trenched with 

 ditches one foot deep and three feet eight inches apart. In one 

 plot iron pipes half an inch in diameter, punctured with 

 holes a quarter of an inch in diameter and one foot apart, were 

 laid in these ditches. In the other plot four-inch drain tiles 

 were laid in the same way as for underdraining. These were 

 covered with straw before the soil was filled in. Each line of 

 pipes was connected with a supply-pipe running along the 

 end. This supply-pipe is in turn connected with a hundred- 

 barrel tank, raised about ten feet above the ground. This was 

 first put in operation in the spring of 18S8, but has stood idle 

 much of the time since. The past season it was again tried, 

 and while the results were unquestionably in favor of the irri- 

 gated plots, when compared with those not irrigated, they 

 were still not so marked as might have been hoped for. The 

 difference became more apparent as the season progressed 

 and the dry weather continued. Undoubtedly many of the 

 pipes have become filled up, more or less, so that the water is 

 not so evenly distributed as formerly. From fifty to one hundred 

 barrels of water were used at each application. It will be 

 readily seen, therefore, that the amount of water required is 

 very considerable. Another inconvenience arises from the 

 fact that a wooden tank like this soon dries out, so that much 



