22 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



gradually into mixed masses, in which both 

 evergreens and hardwood trees are equally 

 suitable. For it, also, the trees should be of 

 different ages, cut at different times, so that 

 the wood would never at any time be shorn of 

 its vigorous and constant forest growth. And 

 this plan would be in no way against beautiful 

 planting, as where it is in use there are not 

 only many instances of good tree growth from 

 surfaces absolutely valueless for any other use, 

 but examples without end of tree grouping as 

 an effective aid to landscape beauty. 



*i>_ j'C 4*4 



''k? ''i? 



THE BRAZILIAN SPIDER- 

 FLOWERS (Tibouchmd). 



Spite of their rich colour, their long 

 season of bloom, and their comparative 

 ease of culture, these beautiful shrubs 

 are rarely seen in gardens or in the trade 

 nurseries, and of the whole family few 

 are even in cultivation. 'Tis true that 

 botanists have done their best — or worst 

 — with the plants,which have been Lasi- 

 andra, were Pleroma, and are now Ti- 

 bouchina, though probably to ninety- 

 nine out of every hundred the best 

 known kinds are yet Lasiandra, spite of 

 it all. The reason for its English name 

 is not at first sight apparent, though 

 there is something in the tilt of the 

 flower, and the prominent curved sta- 

 mens suggestive of the garden-spider 

 when at rest, and a relation, at least in 

 colour, to the Virginian Spider-flower 

 {T'i'adescantia virgitticd). Though al- 

 most confined to Brazil the genus is 

 largeandvaried,includingshrubs, herbs, 

 andclimbers,manyof little garden value. 

 The best known are climbing bushes, 

 and nearly all bear purple flowers of 

 similar structure though differing in 

 size, while as natives of the same region 

 their culture as hot-house plants is in 



the main identical. One or two kinds, 

 being found at a considerable height in 

 the Brazilian Andes, do very well under 

 cool-house treatment, with (when in 

 pots) a spell in the open air during sum- 

 mer; but this is only safe with the hardier 

 sorts. Their habit is loose and straggling, 

 but they are easily trained as wall, pillar, 

 or roof-plants, in standard-form, or upon 

 the old balloon shaped frames once com- 

 mon; they are finest, however, planted 

 out in light rich* soil and trained near to 

 theglassof asunny house. As pot-plants 

 they soon become bare and hungry- 

 looking, without constant pinching and 

 cutting back, much of which can be 

 avoided when planted out in a border 

 of rich light soil, with free light and air 

 at all times. So treated, old plants flower 

 with great freedom, making very hand- 

 some objects. As exhibition plants or for 

 cutting they have never been a success 

 in spite of their brilliance, the flowers 

 shaking off easily and those of each day 

 falling at night, but they are so large and 

 finely coloured, and borne for so many 

 weeks or even months in unbroken suc- 

 cession, that where a long display is 

 valued in the conservatory, few plants 

 are better worth growing. During the 

 entire autumn several of these plants 

 have been in flower in the conservatories 

 at Kew, and are still showing many 

 flowers within a few days of Christmas. 

 Our engraving of a flowering-spray of 

 Tibouchina semidecandra is from a pho- 

 tograph of one of these tireless plants in 

 the Royal Gardens. As a winter flower- 

 ing shrub T. macrantha is very useful, 

 while its fine variety floribunda has an 

 even longer season of bloom. Their 



