342 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 178. 



fifty strong plants having flowered well. The cultivation of 

 this very old, rare and very handsome Iris is but little under- 

 stood. It should here be planted in the open border, or in a 

 bed of rich soil, in a sunny position, in November, and let 

 alone until its leaves begin to turn yellow, say in July, when 

 the plants should be lifted and dried exactly as though they 

 were Tulips. This is the practice of the Dutch growers, who 

 understand this Iris and all the species of its section better 

 than we do. A well-known Dutch bulb-merchant recom- 

 mended this treatment to be tried at Kew, and it has been fol- 

 lowed with excellent results. I. Gatesii is at present somewhat 

 expensive, but it will probably soon become as plentiful as 

 /. Susiana is at present in Holland. 



A trio OF giants are now flowering at Kewforthe first time 

 in England ; they are Cerens gigantens, the Mexican colossal 

 Cactus which we know so well in pictures but have never seen 

 alive until last year, when a specimen, fourteen feet high and 

 weighing over half a ton, was obtained from Messrs. Blanc & 

 Co. It is now in flower in the large Palm-house, where its tall 

 columnar shape is an object of more than ordinary interest to 

 visitors, some of whom have named it the Vegetable Cleo- 

 patra's Needle, from its resemblance to the column on the 

 Thames embankment. The second of the trio is Primula 

 imperialis, which is by far the largest of all Primulas. By the 

 way, Sir Joseph Hooker has altered his opinion with regard to 

 this plant and the Himalayan P. prolifera, which he once 

 thought to be identical, but which, after seeing the two to- 

 gether in cultivation, he now admits to be both very well- 

 marked species. I am certain that P. imperialis will fill a large 

 place among popular cool-house, and possibly even hardy, 

 plants before very long. Iris Robinsoniana is the third in the 

 trio. Up to the present this plant at Kew has produced no 

 less than 167 flowers since it first began to bloom on June 21st. 

 I shall refer to it again next week ; meanwhile I can say that 

 it is the most interesting plant flowered at Kew since the 

 time of the big Amorphophallus. It ought to become very 

 popular in California, where, no doubt, it would be as happy 

 as Agave Americana. 



Weigelia hortensis, var. nivea, is a first-rate shrub with large 

 pure white flowers, which are produced in clusters all along 

 every branch. It was recently shown by Messrs. Veitch & 

 Sons' from their nurseries at Coombe Wood, where it forms 

 handsome compact bushes, perfectly hardy, of course, and 

 wreathed in flowers in June. Indigofera Gerardiana, var. 

 alba, was also shown by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, and it is a 

 good plant, too. The flowers are in erect axillary racemes, 

 each about as large as the type, but pure white. Experience 

 with it out-of-doors up to the present points to the necessity of 

 some protection for it in winter, either by planting it against a 

 wall or covering it during severe weather. Equally interest- 

 ing with the above were two named varieties of Azalea Indica 

 which Messrs. Veitch introduced a few years ago from Japan, 

 and which have proved as hardy as the hardiest of Japanese 

 shrubs. They differ in habit and foliage from the ordinary 

 forms of the type, being dwarf and spreading, while the leaves 

 are broader and thinner than in the greenhouse varieties of 

 this species. In a few gardens near London A. amcena, which 

 is also a small-leaved form of A. Indica, is grown in shrub- 

 beries and beds out-of-doors, and it thrives well without pro- 

 tection. But these new varieties, which are named Damio and 

 The Mikado, respectively, have flowers as large as many of 

 the greenhouse Azaleas, their color being rosy salmon. Both 

 kinds had stood the past severe winter unprotected, and they 

 were shown thickly laden with bloom. 



Dwarf Cannas. — I believe these beautiful creations of the 

 French nurserymen are the most talked-about greenhouse- 

 plants in London at the present time. At the exhibitions and 

 in public gardens they win universal admiration on account of 

 their dwarfness, the elegance and sometimes purple hue of 

 their foliage, but mostly because of the size, substance and 

 beautiful colors of their flowers. Grown in a sunny green- 

 house, and well fed at the roots, they form sturdy plants less 

 than two feet in height, and each bearing several large spikes 

 of handsome bloom. Everybody seems to be inquiring where 

 these plants are to be obtained. 



A Hybrid Lilium.— Mr. C. G. Van Tabergen, of Haarlem, 

 has succeeded in crossing L. Martagon album with L. Hansoni, 

 and he has recently sent flowers of the hybrid to Mr. Baker, 

 of Kew. He writes : "The cross was effected by me in 1886, 

 and, singularly enough, all the seedlings have proved common 

 red L. Martagon, except some five or six, in which the charac- 

 ters of both parents are clearly blended. The foliage is that 

 of L. Martagon, but broader, and there are fewer leaves in a 

 whorl." As a decorative plant this hybrid has little to recom- 

 mend it, but it is most interesting, because of its being one of the 



very few known instances of Lilium hybridization. It is remark- 

 able that, notwithstanding the efforts of many cultivators to 

 obtain a good hybrid Lilium, not a single well-authenticated 

 instance of success is known. Of course, we have several 

 supposed hybrid Liliums, i.e., L.Parkmani, of American origin, 

 and said to be from L. auratum X L. speciosum, but now gen- 

 erally considered to be merely a variety of L. auratum. Mr. 

 T. S. Ware, of Tottenham, also claims to have crossed Z. 

 pardaliniD/i and L. parvum, but the result was a plant very 

 like the first-named species. Good hybrid Liliums, such as, 

 for instance, L. auratum with L. longifioruin, or L. croceum or 

 L. umbellatum with L. superbum, ought to be possible, 

 but apparently they are not. Can the physiologists tell us 

 why ? 



Verbascum Olympicum is a giant Mullein which few people 

 attempt to cultivate, possibly from a belief that it is not easily 

 accommodated, or that it is rarely satisfactory in the garden. 

 I believe it is a very good-natured plant if only its real needs 

 are considered and supplied. Planted in well-drained, deep 

 soil, and let alone, except in very dry weather, when it should 

 be watered, it soon develops into a huge rosette of leaves, 

 from which, in its second year, it pushes up a stout, tall, leafy 

 scape, which branches freely, and finally develops hundreds 

 of beautiful yellow flowers. Mr. Cannell showed three spikes 

 of it last week which were fully eight feet high and simply 

 sheaves of golden flowers. In a bed adjoining a greenhouse 

 at Kew a fine example of it has been most attractive for weeks, 

 and is still very handsome. So stately a plant deserves to be 

 universally grown. I know one garden near Cambridge in 

 which these giant Mulleins are a magnificent sight every 

 summer. Tr _ Trr 



Kew. vv. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Stray Notes from the Arnold Arboretum. — V. 



IT is not necessary to say that Lilacs are beautiful and valu- 

 able shrubs. Some of the species are as well known and 

 as generally cultivated, in all temperate parts of the world, as 

 any other shrub except the Rose, and it would be difficult to 

 find a garden, here or in Europe, especially a garden of the 

 old-fashioned sort, in which a Rose was growing, where there 

 was not a clump also of the so-called common Lilac {Syringa 

 vulgaris). This plant deserves its popularity ; there is not a 

 better garden-plant. Tough, reliable and long-lived, the Lilac 

 goes on growing and spreading, year after year, and through 

 generation after generation of human lives ; every year it 

 flowers, and every year the flowers are abundant, beautiful 

 and fragrant. A Lilac-bush appeals to every one who sees it 

 in flower, and the feeling for it grows continually stronger, as 

 it does in the case of all plants with which we have been asso- 

 ciated from childhood. There are certain plants which always 

 appeal to the human heart and move its deepest sympathies 

 — the Rose, the Violet, the Lily, the Lilac and a few others — 

 different plants in different countries. Other plants produce 

 more beautiful flowers, others are rarer and more wonder- 

 fully constructed, and a hundred times more expensive, per- 

 haps, but none of these, not even the rarest and the most ex- 

 pensive Orchid, produces that peculiar sentiment which the 

 true lover of nature feels for the humble Violet or the com- 

 monest Wild Rose. 



The Lilac has been cultivated during so many years, and 

 has been such a favorite, it is not strange that gardeners have 

 paid much attention to producing improved varieties by selec- 

 tion, and, in some cases, by hybridization. There are now 

 hundreds of these varieties in cultivation, and among those 

 produced in comparatively recent years there are a few of 

 extraordinary beauty and value. There is a collection of about 

 a hundred of these varieties in the Arboretum, taken from the 

 best French and German nurseries, and believed to contain all 

 the best and most distinct forms. It is not my purpose to 

 speak of the value of these varieties now, as they have not 

 been sufficiently tested here yet to make it desirable to do so. 

 It is proposed, next year, to gather them into one bed, three or 

 four hundred feet long by twenty feet wide, at the foot of one 

 of the road-slopes, where, once established, they should make 

 a remarkable display, and, in time, show their individual 

 peculiarities to the best advantage. 



It may be mentioned that, among varieties that have been 

 thoroughly tested here, none are better than Marie Lagrange, 

 a variety with very large, pure white flowers in long clusters, 

 the well-known Charles X. and Philamon. This last has dark 

 red-purple flowers of immense size. The man who possesses 

 well-established clumps of these three Lilacs in his garden 



