352 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 179. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Pinus cembroicles. 



THE Mexican Nut Pine {Pinus cembroicles) is rather a 

 recent addition to the silva of the United States, it 

 having been detected only a few years ago for the first 

 time within our territory, on the Santa Catalina Mountains 

 of Arizona, by Mr. C. G, Pringle. Last year the same tree 

 was found by Mr. Brandegee forming a forest on the flat 

 top of the Sierra de Laguna, in Lower California, where it 

 sometimes grows to the height of fifty feet, with a short 

 stout trunk and a round top resembling in general appear- 

 ance the better-known Nut Pine of Colorado and New 

 Mexico, to which this species is very similar, except in 

 foliage, which is much thinner than that of the other Nut 

 Pines which form the small section to which Engelmann 

 has given the name Cembroides. These trees are distin- 

 guished by their short subglobose cones with thick un- 

 armed scales, large edible seeds with minute wings, and 

 usually stout leaves varying from one to five in a sheath. 

 Pinus cembroides is widely distributed through northern 

 Mexico, where it often forms open scattered forests of con- 

 siderable extent on the lower slopes of the mountain- 

 ranges. The seeds, which are sold in the markets of all 

 Mexican cities, form an important article of food, and are 

 eaten roasted like peanuts or are ground into flour. 



The illustration on page 353 is made from one of Mr. 

 Brandegee's Lower California specimens. An earlier figure 

 can be found in Forbes' "Pinetum Woburnense," an ex- 

 ceedingly rare work, of which only a hundred copies were 

 printed, and in which our tree is called Pinus Llavana. 

 This figure is reproduced in Antoine's "Conifers." 



Iris Robinsoniana. 



THIS is one of the most interesting of all cultivated 

 Iridaceous plants. It was discovered in Lord 

 Howe's Island by Mr. Charles Moore, Director of the 

 Botanical Gardens at Sydney, who wrote of it, in 1869 : 

 "A large Iridaceous plant, termed the Wedding Flower, 

 was found sparingly in two or three situations. Of this 

 only seed-vessels were obtained, but the flowers are de- 

 scribed as being very beautiful. The leaves were upward 

 of six feet long, and from two to three inches wide. In 

 appearance it resembles a large species of Moraea, but it 

 will probably prove a new genus." 



In 1872 Dr. G. Bennett communicated to the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle an account of the plant as he had seen it 

 growing in the Sydney Gardens under Mr. Moore's care. 

 Bentham, in his Flora Australiensis (1873), describes the 

 plant under Morsea, and states that it is the largest species 

 of the genus, the habit of the plant being that of the nearly 

 allied Pardanthus Chinensis, and the flowers nearly those of 

 Morcea iridioides. 



The introduction of this plant into English gardens, no 

 doubt, took place soon after it was noticed in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. There were large specimens of it in several 

 gardens known to me twelve years ago, for the plant grew 

 vigorously enough although it would not bloom. The 

 example now flowering at Kew, and of which the accom- 

 panyingfigure(p.355)isaphotograph,isgrowingin thesouth 

 end of the house devoted to large succulent plants. It is 

 close to the doors, which are open all day during summer, 

 and it is never shaded. Its habit and height are well 

 shown in the photograph. The leaves are six feet or more 

 long, by three inches in width, and the scape is six feet 

 high to the first branch. The flowers are expanded in the 

 morning and permanently close again before night. Each 

 sheath will produce nine or more flowers, one after the 

 other. The first flowers expanded on June 21st, since 

 when up to to-day, July 3d, there have been 157 flowers. 

 There is every promise that this number will be more than 

 doubled. Eighteen flowers were the most we have had 

 open together. 



Each flower measures four inches across, the segments 

 spreading almost flat, the three outer larger than the inner, 

 all of them pure white, of about the same texture as the 

 petals of Phalcenopsis grandiflora. There is a crescent- 

 shaped blotch of golden yellow at the base of each of the 

 three outer segments. 



The species is found wild only in Lord Howe's Island, 

 and it is the only Iris or Moraea known in the whole of 

 Australia. It is a noble plant, and worth cultivating for 

 its foliage, as well as an exceedingly beautiful object when 

 in flower. Unfortunately, only four flowers were ex- 

 panded at the time when the photograph was taken. 

 Kew. W. Watson. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Conference on Hardy Herbaceous Plants.— The Royal 

 Horticultural Society had arranged a two days' exhibition and 

 conference to be held at Chiswick this week, the special object 

 being the popularization of hardy herbaceous plants, which, 

 in the opening remarks at the conference, was said to be, 

 " as a rule, overlooked by gardeners." Mr. W. Robinson, of 

 The Garden, contributed a paper on Wild Gardening, in which 

 he advocated the planting among meadow-grass large quanti- 

 ties of such plants as Daffodils, Bluebells, Snowdrops, etc. It 

 was asked what chance such plants would have in the struggle 

 that would ensue between them and the grass, and particu- 

 larly such enemies to bulbs as wire-worms, etc., and some 

 one recommended feeding the worms with rapecake. 



[The baiting of wire-worms has been found the most 

 effective remedy for these pests in this country. The 

 arsenites mixed with corn-meal dough or sprinkled on 

 other baits are generally recommended. — Ed.] 



The Rev. Mr. Ewbank, of the Isle of Wight, treated upon 

 summer-gardening as practiced by himself. Mr. Ewbank is 

 one of the few amateur horticulturists in England who delight 

 in plants which other people find difficult to manage. His 

 garden is, therefore, the home of the outcast and the unknown, 

 and it is the scene of not a few very interesting experimental 

 cultures and horticultural triumphs. The next paper was con- 

 tributed by Miss Jekyll, who is known as a first authority upon 

 aesthetic gardening. Names are of no account, labels are an 

 abomination in this lady's garden, and no plant that is not de- 

 cidedly beautiful to look at and easy to grow receives any 

 attention from her. She and Mr. Ewbank practice the two 

 extremes of hardy-plant culture. Of course, every one depre- 

 cated the total removal of labels. Who has not experienced 

 the relief afforded by the label of a plant whose name' is in- 

 quired after and which one feels he ought to know? If only 

 a glimpse of the beginning or end of the name is caught it is 

 recalled at once. 



The second day's conference was devoted to strawberries 

 chiefly ; other fruits, such as gooseberries, raspberries and 

 currants, also receiving attention, both from lecturers and 

 exhibitors. The papers dealt chiefly with the cultural require- 

 ments and. merits of the different fruits treated upon, and, 

 while they contained much useful information, they revealed 

 nothing new in the shape of novelty. 



The exhibition of flowers was a pretty full one, and com- 

 prised all the popular summer-flowering herbaceous plants, 

 as well as a few which are yet scarcely known. Unfortunately, 

 the rain fell in torrents on both days, so that a most interesting 

 exhibition and instructive conference were enjoyed by very 

 few. 



LlLlUM Lown, Baker, new species. — This is a new Indian 

 Lily which has just flowered in the nurseries of Messrs. Hugh 

 Low & Co., at Clapton, and has been submitted to Mr. Baker 

 for naming. It belongs to the Polyphyllum group, and is 

 closely related to L. Nepalense, differing from this species 

 chiefly in having smaller narrower leaves, flowers more dis- 

 tinctly funnel-shaped and colored white, with a few blotches 

 of purple on the inside of the segments. 



This is the third new addition to garden Lilies made by 

 the Messrs. Low, the first being L. Nepalense, discovered by 

 Wallich fifty years ago, but never introduced into England 

 until two years ago, when the Clapton firm imported a quan- 

 tity of it from the Central Himalayas. It is a most beautiful 

 and stately Lily, a yard or more high, bearing a head of three 

 or five flowers five inches long and nearly as broad, the seg- 

 ments recurved and colored lemon-yellow, the tube deep 

 crimson inside, spots of the same color extending some dis- 



