37' 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 181. 



both here and in England, and has caused serious discounts 

 upon man)' a cargo of wheat. Where this plant is mixed with 

 the grain it is very important that the reaping, threshing and 

 winnowing operations should follow each other as quickly as 

 possible;, as in practice is done by the "combined harvester 

 and thresher." Even then, if any considerable amount of the 

 seed is left with the grain, the "gingerbread" flavor will 

 gradually communicate itself to the wheat grain and through 

 it to the flour. 



The Sand Lupin is naturally at home on deep sandy soils, 

 both in the Coast ranges and in the great valley of California. 

 In these it extends its long, tough root-stocks in all directions, 

 and sometimes forms a mat-work of roots that renders it diffi- 

 cult to keep the plow in the ground. As even short pieces of 

 these root-stocks will sprout, this Lupin — one of the handsomest 

 of its tribe — is a very unwelcome denizen and difficult to ex- 

 tirpate. Its decumbent, assurgent stems form large, low 

 bushes, brilliant with purple flowers, which will shade out every 

 seedling within their reach. In heavier soils it is much more 

 easily dealt with. 



The native Licorice shares with the Lupin, as with its Asiatic 

 relative, the possession of long subterranean stems, of which 

 even short pieces will sprout into independent plants. It is 

 especially troublesome in the lighter alluvial soils, in which it 

 finds sufficient moisture throughout the season, and which are 

 its natural habitat. But it gathers fresh strength under culti- 

 vation, and if not summarily dealt with when the land is first 

 broken, will be much more difficult to eradicate after the frag- 

 ments of its root-stocks have been farther disseminated by the 

 plow. Fortunately, it is not as common in California as it is 

 in some parts of Oregon and Washington, where it is known 

 as "Buffalo Brush," and covers large areas almost exclusively. 



University of California. E. W. Hilgard. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 The Japanese Photinia. 



A FIGURE of one form of this variable plant, cultivated 

 in the Arnold Arboretum, was published in an early 

 issue of Garden and Forest (i., 67, f. 12); the illustration 

 on page 377 represents another inhabitant of the Arboretum 

 which, although very distinct in several minor characters, 

 is believed by those botanists who have had the best oppor- 

 tunities to study the flora of eastern Asia to be only a form 

 of the same plant, Photinia villosa, a species in which they 

 include a number of plants very dissimilar in the shape of 

 their leaves, in the character and amount of the pubescence 

 which clothes them, and in the size of their flowers ; and 

 which thus considered is widely distributed through Japan 

 and China. 



The plant figured in this issue appears identical with one 

 collected by Maximowicz, near Yokohama, during his 

 second journey in Japan, his " forma minor et parviftora " 

 of Photinia villosa (see "Mel. Biol.," ix., 176), the Cratcpgus 

 Icevis of Thunberg ("Fl. Jap.," 204). 



This smooth form of this Photinia was sent to the Arbore- 

 tum in 1878 by the late Monsieur Lavalle from his Arbore- 

 tum at Segrez, under the name of Pourthicea arguta, a very 

 different plant, and a native of the warmer parts of the 

 Himalaya. It forms a shrub here six or eight feet high, 

 with slender graceful branches, covered with smooth pale 

 gray bark. The leaves are ovate, usually contracted at 

 the apex into long slender points, finely and sharply ser- 

 rate, slightly hair)'-, especially along the midribs on the 

 lower surface and on the short petioles, or often at maturity 

 quite glabrous ; they are thin and membranaceous, two 

 and a half to three inches long, an inch and a half broad, 

 and turn bright red in the autumn some time before falling. 

 The white Hawthorn-like flowers are produced in few-flow- 

 ered, long-stalked, slightly pubescent corymbs, the pe- 

 duncles and pedicels being covered with lenticels, which 

 are conspicuous on the inflorescence of all the forms of this 

 plant. The flowers appear here about the 1st of June, and 

 are followed late in the autumn by brilliant bright red ob- 

 long fruit half an inch, or rather more, in length. This is 

 produced in considerable profusion, four or five fruits 

 sometimes ripening from a single corymb of flowers. 



As a garden-shrub the smooth Photinia is, perhaps, less 



desirable than the stouter pubescent plant, which was 

 figured in the first volume of Garden and Forest. It ap- 

 pears to be of more southern origin, and the ends of the 

 branches are sometimes killed back here in severe winters. 

 The habit is less compact and handsome, and the foliage 

 and flowers are smaller. It is more fruitful, however, and 

 the fruit is more brilliant in color, as is the autumn foliage. 

 Both plants are well worth cultivating, and should be much 

 better known and more often seen in gardens than they 

 are at present. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Allamanda Williamsii. — Messrs. B. S. Williams & Son, 

 of Holloway, exhibited a plant in flower under this 

 name, at the last meeting of the Horticultural Society, 

 where it received a first-class certificate. In its shrubby 

 habit it is not unlike A. neriifolia ; indeed, it is said to 

 be a hybrid of this species and A. Chelsoni, though 

 this appears to be merely a surmise. A. calharlica, 

 as known to botanists, is a very available species, and 

 it includes all those Allamandas known in gardens as A. 

 Chelsoni, A. Hendersoni, A. magnifica, etc. It varies in 

 habit as well as in the size of its flowers, and .1 think it 

 probable that A. Williamsii is merely a form of that species. 

 Compared, however, with garden Allamandas, it is a dis- 

 tinct gain. The stem and leaves are slightly tomentose, and 

 the flowers, which are as large as those of A. calharlica, are 

 slightly fragrant. The three well-known types of Alla- 

 manda in cultivation are A. grandiflora, a really beautiful 

 stove-flowering plant, smaller in leaf and less rambling in 

 habit than the second, namely, A. calharlica and its forms. 

 The third is A. neriifolia, which is a compact shrub, about 

 two feet high, with flowers two inches across. To these 

 we may now add the purple-flowered A. violacea, reintro- 

 duced through Kew two years ago, and the new plant now 

 under notice. 



Delphinium Zalil. — Flowering examples of this interest- 

 ing species were exhibited this week by Messrs. Kelway & 

 Son. Owing to what must have been an oversight, the 

 committee of the Royal Horticultural Society awarded it 

 only a botanical certificate, whereas, in its exceptional 

 color, yellow, and in its good garden qualities generally, it 

 fully merited a floral award. We are indebted to Dr. 

 Aitchison, of the Afghan Delimitation Commission, for the 

 discovery and introduction of this plant. It flowered at 

 Kew for the first time in 1889, and was figured in the 

 Botanical Magazine, where it was described as forming a 

 great portion of the rolling downs of Badghis, where, when 

 in blossom, it gave a wondrous golden hue to the pastures. 

 Its flowers are borne in erect spikes ten inches long, and 

 they are bright yellow. In the Kew Bulletin for May, 

 1S89, an account of the economic properties of the "Per- 

 sian Zalil " was published, from which it appears that the 

 flowers are collected largely for exportation for dyeing silk 

 and as a medicine. * 



Portlandia grandiflora. — This is one of some eight 

 species of Portlandia, all natives of the West Indies or 

 Mexico, and all large-flowered shrubs or trees. The genus 

 is related to the North American Pinck?ie_ya pubens, which, 

 by the way, is growing nicely in a greenhouse at Kew, as 

 well as in several other English gardens. The Portlandia 

 under notice is now in flower at Kew. It is an erect shrub, 

 one and a half feet high, branched near the top with lanceo- 

 late Laurel-like leaves and large, tubular, pure white flowers. 

 In form and size the flowers are very similar to those of 

 Lilium longiflorum-. Although scarcely known in Europe 

 yet, this Portlandia was introduced into cultivation here 

 more than a century ago. It appears to be a favorite gar- 

 den-shrub in some of the West Indian Islands. It is easily 

 raised from seeds, and flowers when about five years old. 



Lilium Grayi. — This pretty species is now nicely in 

 flower for the first time at Kew. It is growing in a bed 



