The Largest Flowered Vine 
A FREE-GROWING TROPICAL PLANT WITH WHITE AND GOLD FLOWERS THAT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR LARGE HOTHOUSES 
ROBABLY the largest-flowered and 
certainly one of the most delicately 
beautiful vines in the world is Camoensia 
maxima, which has recently flowered for the 
first time in the United States. Its pure 
white, fluted petals are margined with 
gold, changing to a darker tinge with age, 
and have a delicious fragrance when first 
opening. The individual flowers are some- 
times eight inches long, which we believe 
eclipses even the largest flowered hybrid 
clematis. This magnificent vine adorns 
the tops of lofty trees on the outskirts of 
forests in tropical Africa. The clusters 
are pendulous and sometimes contain nearly 
a dozen flowers. Unlike the sweet pea, the 
petals are separate — not forming wings anda 
keel. ‘The standard is fully four inches across. 
The great drawback to the cultivation of 
this noble plant is that it will bloom only 
in hothouses of considerable size, and 
hitherto it has been exiremely slow in 
coming into bloom. Plants were first dis- 
tributed by Kew in 1873, but did not flower 
in cultivation until 1882 when blooms ap- 
peared at Trinidad. However, Mr. George 
W. Oliver, propagator of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, who first bloomed 
The Camoensia maxima has flowers of white and gold, eight inches long. Must be grown in a high temperature 
229 
the Camoénsia here, thinks it ‘very likely 
that this plant will flower oftener and more 
profusely in this country than in Europe, 
particularly in England, because of our 
higher summer temperature, which enables 
the plant to grow rapidly and ripen its wood.” 
Mr. Oliver has succeeded in rooting some 
cuttings of the Camoensia which will be 
available for distribution shortly. Appli- 
cations should be addressed to David Fair- 
child, Agricultural Explorer in charge of 
Foreign Explorations, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Planters in southern Florida, Porto Rico, 
and Hawaii ought to avail themselves of 
this opportunity. 
The Camoensia is named after the Shakes- 
peare of the Portuguese, the poet Camoens, 
author of “Lusiade.”’ 
Concerning Quality in Beans 
aoe time to plant beans is any time after 
the ground has become well warmed 
in the spring, or at about the time the trees 
are well out in leaf. Nothing is gained by a 
very early planting, as a better growth is 
made and larger and finer pods produced 
if the ground is first warmed up. 
Plant seeds of the bush beans thinly, and 
cover from one to one and a half inches deep 
with fine soil. The best growth will be 
obtained where the single plants stand at a 
distance of one plant about every four 
inches apart in the row if the soil is rich. 
The pole varieties continue bearing for 
a much longer time than the bush kinds 
and the pods must be gathered as fast as 
they are ready for use to prolong the period 
of bearing. Allowing the pods to ripen 
will greatly shorten the season of production. 
The poles for the running or tall-growing 
beans should be planted before the hills are 
made, choosing a stout pole eight feet in 
length and strong enough to support the 
weight of the vines without bending over 
in the fall. After firming, the soil around 
the pole should be scraped away to a 
depth of from four to six inches and the 
manure or compost placed around the pole, 
covering this with a rounded hill of fine soil 
in which to plant the seed. 
The presence of bacteria in the soil is 
an essential to success of the pole varieties 
grown for snap-shorts and green shell-beans; 
for where planted on new land these climb- 
ing sorts frequently fail to make a satisfac- 
tory growth, even when abundantly supplied 
with manure. For this reason it is a good 
plan to plant pole beans on the same ground 
for several years. Some years ago, when 
starting to grow pole beans on land where 
only farm crops had been grown the growth 
was very poor and unsatisfactory, but now we 
can grow beans on any portion of this land, 
with a stronger growth each successive season, 
Pennsylvania. Bp Ow D 
