234 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 169. 



of trees is worthy of notice for the effect its peculiar coloration 

 has on the sandy ground. It is the Thelia Lesenrii, of Sulli- 

 vant. The round and closely leaved stems are barely an inch 

 high, and of a glaucous-green hue, contrasting well with the 

 surrounding sands. The leaves are beautiful objects when 

 examined under a low power of the microscope, being thickly 

 studded with lobed or star-shaped papillae, which seem to 

 affect the light they reflect, and contribute to the charm they 

 have when seen in masses. I find this Moss nowhere except 

 in the dry sands. It is assigned a range in our literature on 

 Mosses from New Jersey south along the Atlantic, and in the 

 southern states, but is not uncommon in the Pine Barrens here. 



Englewood, Chicago. ■&• J • rill I. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Clematis connata. 



NO figure has yet appeared apparently of this hand- 

 some Indian Clematis, which produced flowers at 

 the Arnold Arboretum at the end of October of last year, 

 from a plant sent here three years before from the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew under the name of Clematis Japonica. 



Clematis connata* (see p. 235) is a stout woody climber, 

 with ample long-petioled leaves composed of three to five 

 remote leaflets, which are three or four inches long, broadly 

 ovate, cordate by a broad deep sinus, coarsely and irregu- 

 larly serrate, or sometimes slightly three-lobed and borne 

 on stout petiolules one and a half to two inches long ; they 

 are dark green on the two surfaces, with five principal 

 veins and prominent reticulated veinlets. The flowers are 

 produced in many-flowered panicles, and are campanulate, 

 an inch long, and clear light yellow in color. The sepals 

 are oblong, acute at the apex, pubescent on the outer and 

 tomentose on the inner surface, and reflexed above the 

 middle when the flower is expanded. The filaments are 

 linear, and are coated with long silky light hairs. The 

 fruit, which has not been produced here, is described as 

 "silky pubescent." 



Clematis connata is a native of the temperate Himalayas 

 from Hazara to Sikkim, at elevations varying from 4,000 

 to 10,000 feet above the sea-level. The stems suffer here 

 in winter, and are generally killed back to the ground. 

 This, perhaps, accounts for its flowering so late in the 

 season (October 27th), a peculiarity which deprives this 

 species of much value as a garden plant in New England. 

 It is, however, a rampant-growing plant with high-climbing 

 stems, large bold foliage and beautiful flowers ; and in 

 regions of longer summers and warmer autumns it will 

 doubtless prove a desirable addition to the plants of its 

 class, certainly well worth experimenting with in some 

 parts of the middle and southern states. C. S. S. 



Cultural Department. 



Cinerarias. 



THE Cinerarias at the gardens of Dr. C. E. Weld, 

 Brookline, Massachusetts, this spring, were prob- 

 ably the best, taken altogether, which have ever been 

 seen in this country. In a late number of the America?! 

 Florist Dr. Weld's gardener, Mr. Kenneth Finlayson, 

 describes his method of cultivating these plants, the main 

 portion of which we herewith reproduce : 



My experience with Cinerarias, especially with those sown 

 early, say any time in June, and for early-flowering purposes, 

 is that they require more care than most kinds of plants to 

 pull them through the hot months of summer. It is a well- 

 known fact that Cinerarias are very impatient of strong sun- 

 light, such as we get here in the months of June, July and 

 most of August, and the prime difficulty is in providing a 

 temperature which suits them. My method is simply to 

 shade the glass with a thin coating of white paint, and over this, 

 on hot, bright days, I put a lattice shading. These lattice 

 shades are made to fit over our sash (ordinary cold frame, or 



*I. Clematis connata, DeCandolle, "Prod.'M., 4. — Wallich, " Cat.," 4679. —Hooker £. 

 & Thomas, " Fl. Ind.," 11 ; " Fl. Brit. Ind.," i., 6. 

 C. venosa, Royle, "III.," 51. 

 C. amplexicaiilis, C. velutina, C. gracilis, Edgeworth, Trans. Linn. Sac, xx., 27. 



six by three feet). The bars run horizontally instead of cross- 

 ing each other ; they are one inch wide and a quarter of an inch 

 thick, the space between each bar being a trifle over half an 

 inch ; the frames on which the bars are nailed are one inch 

 square. 



These shades I consider the best of all when shade is neces- 

 sary, for the reason that they are movable, in the first place, 

 and put on when really needed, and secondly, because they 

 keep the glass cooler than any paint or canvas shading will 

 do, thereby giving, as near as possible, the conditions most 

 favorable to plants needing a shade. 



I further lower the temperature by raising the sash at both 

 ends by wooden blocks, cut longer than they are wide, and 

 wider than they are thick, so that one block will raise the sash 

 to three different heights, as necessary. 



Syringing overhead in the morning and afternoon of hot, 

 dry days is very beneficial to the plants under consideration. 



Greenfly attacks these plants at all stages of their existence, 

 but are easily kept under by fumigation. When in frames out- 

 side I strew tobacco-stems all round the pots in which the 

 plants are growing, and find no difficulty in keeping them 

 clean in that way. In the greenhouse I seldom have to resort 

 to any remedy for these pests, as they do not attack them much. 

 To some this may seem strange, but the reason is quite plain, 

 and nothing more or less, in my opinion, than that the Cinera- 

 rias are kept in a temperature admirably suited to them, but 

 less congenial to the greenfly, namely, forty and forty-two de- 

 grees Fahrenheit at night. 



The soil I use for the Cineraria in the early stages consists 

 of one-half leaf-mold and one-half good turfy loam, with a lib- 

 eral dash of sharp clean sand added. At each successive pot- 

 ting the leaf-mold is withheld partly and the loam increased 

 proportionately. The final potting soil consists of one-fifth 

 leaf-mold, one-fifth good rotten, cow-manure, the remaining 

 three-fifths turfy loam, very little sand, a liberal dash of fine 

 crushed bones. 



The stimulating begins when the pots in which they are to 

 flower are well rilled with roots ; cow-manure, liquid, I use 

 frequently, but chiefly guano and soot in equal parts mixed. 

 I put a large handful of the latter in a six-gallon can of water 

 and stir well with a stick, to incorporate the stimulating ingre- 

 dients in the water before using. I apply this dose once or twice 

 a week, as the weather demands — that is, if the weather should 

 be bright there is more demand on the water-pot than there 

 would be on cloudy days, therefore the stimulating must be 

 regulated accordingly. 



I use guano alone on almost every kind of plants, and on 

 gross feeders, like Cinerarias, Calceolarias and Chrysanthe- 

 mums, I use it in stronger solutions than do most cultivators. 



Odontoglossum coronarium and O. brevifolium. 



GREAT confusion has always prevailed among Orchid 

 growers in respect to these two species of Odonto- 

 glossum. From the descriptions which have from time 

 to time appeared in horticultural journals, it is evident 

 that but one is referred to under both names — some- 

 times O. brevifolium, sometimes 0. coronarium. This being 

 the season of flowering, it will not be inappropriate to 

 point out the differences between the two species, and to show 

 that the plant, carelessly designated under both names, is in 

 reality the true O. coronarium, as described by Lindley in his 

 " Folia Orchidacea." How the confusion arose it is difficult 

 to say. O. brevifolium was discovered about ten years before 

 0. coronarium, but does not seem to have been successfully 

 grown in Europe, and it is possible that the latter species, 

 when introduced, was, in the first place, thought to be the true 

 O. brevifolium, and was launched into commerce as such. 



To afford some means of distinguishing the two species, 

 which certainly appear to be closely related, it may be as well 

 to state that O. brevifolium, according to Lindley's description 

 in " Plantae Hartwegianae" (1839, P- l 5 2 )> nas ovate oblong 

 compressed pseudo-bulbs, surmounted by a single leaf ; the 

 leaves are two inches broad, and sometimes not much longer ; 

 the individual flowers are an inch and a half or more in diame- 

 ter, and eleven or twelve are borne on a drooping raceme, 

 being apparently purple in color. This species was collected 

 for the first time, with many other Orchids, by Theodor 

 Hartweg, who was dispatched to South America, in 1836, by 

 the Royal Horticultural Society of England, in search of new 

 and rare plants. Dried specimens and plants were sent to 

 England, but, beyond the botanical description recorded in 

 "Plantae Hartwegianae," nothing has ever since been heard of 

 them, except when the name has been misapplied to O. coro- 

 narium, which has flowered several times, and has been 



