4 2 



coloured red, which sometimes spreads to the 

 entire leaf. A grower at Hyeres, some years 

 ago, raised a batch of young Cordylines of a 

 deep claret-red, very fine in contrast with the 

 common form, and apparently retaining their 

 beauty of colour. The pick of the batch were 

 secured for one garden; but a few fine plants of 

 this deep red strain may still be found, though 

 many intermediate forms offered under the 

 same name, but in which the colouring is 

 feeble, are not worth growing. There is also 

 a scarce dwarf form of the hardy Club^Palm 

 which, even under glass, never rises higher 

 than a few feet, spreading into a dense much- 

 branched mass which, as regards habit, has 

 more in common with certain Yuccas than 

 with the bare-stemmed Cordyline australis. Its 

 leaves, borne in rounded compact heads, are 

 short, leathery, and rather rigid ; it is very 

 hardy, plants passing the winter uninjured in 

 the rock-garden at Kew, and at Veitch's nur- 

 sery, Coombe Wood. It is, however, a rare 

 plant, and has, so far, never flowered, differing 

 in this particular from the common form, 

 which does not break into heads until it has 

 flowered. Until it has done so its precise status 

 is in doubt, little being known of it save as a 

 native of New Zealand, where the forms of 

 Cordyline are so many and interblending that 

 names are much confused. It may not im- 

 probably prove to be a mountain form to 

 which increase by offsets is more natural than 

 seed-bearing. Though rarely hardy enough 

 for growth in gardens, there are two or three 

 other kinds which do well in the warmest 

 parts of the country, and are therefore given 

 place in our brief descriptions. 



Common Club-Palm [Cordyline australis). 

 — A plant well-known for its stately growth 

 in warm and sheltered spots of our southern 

 coastlands, and well seen in many parts of 

 Ireland. In New Zealand it sometimes reaches 

 a height of 40 feet either as a single stem or 

 branched; in this country it rarely much ex- | 

 ceeds 20 feet, though a very tall unbranched 

 plant is growing in the Temperate House at 

 Kew. Strong plants bloom freely, bearing as 

 many as a score dense clusters of sweet starry 

 flowers in which insects delight. In fine sea- 

 sons these are followed by berries of a pretty 

 bluish-white, changing to dusky pink and 

 brown before ripening ; in warm countries the 



blue colour is more decided and very orna- 

 mental. Plants are easily raised from this seed, 

 or from sections of the stem or thick white 

 roots in gentle heat. Amongst the Maories 

 these roots are used as food. In placing young 

 plants outside damp is more to be feared than 

 frost, and it is well to plant in a dry spot, rais- 

 ing a mound of ashes at the base of the stem 

 during winter. Variations in leaf and habit are 

 many, but few are named; amongst the most 

 marked is a form in which the darker green 

 leaves are suffused with red at the base, the 

 colour mounting the leaf by the midrib. There 

 are also several variegated kinds too tender for 

 use in the open, and the dwarf and copper- 

 leaved varieties just noticed. 



Banks' Club-Palm {C.Banksii). — A scarce 

 plant confined to a few of the most sheltered 

 gardens in the country, and remarkable in 

 appearance by reason of its great length of leaf. 

 These sometimes reach 6 feet with a maximum 

 width of 2 inches. Its stem is shorter than that 

 of australis, and commonly simple but at times 

 sparingly branched. The leaves are further 

 characterised by six to eight veins, running 

 the length of the leaf on either side of the 

 prominent midrib. 



Norfolk Island Club-Palm (C. Baueri). 

 — A broad-leaved kind of vigorous growth 

 (reaching 40 feet) and a native of Norfolk 

 Island. It is very handsome, especially when 

 branched, but though used for summer effect 

 is too tender to stand a winter in the open. 



The Broad-Leaved Club-Palm (C. indi- 

 visa). — The finest plant among the cool- 

 grown Cordylines, but rarely seen in its best 

 forms and often quite wrongly named through 

 the confusion between this and forms of the 

 Common Club-Palm. It is difficult to grow in 

 pots, the roots getting out of health in winter 

 without great care, but it is far more easily 

 kept when planted out in the open where that 

 is possible without risk, or under glass in colder 

 districts. Once seen in its true character it is 

 impossible to mistake it for the commoner 

 kind ; its forms are, however, very variable in 

 length, and especially in width of leaf and in 

 the shading of the leaf-veins, which in some 

 varieties are richly coloured. Its broad pen- 

 dant leaves taper far more than in australis, 

 and are often of a peculiar bluish or glaucous 

 green ; one form shows a dark green with 



