136 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



handsome foliage and fine flowers of red and 

 white contrasting and mingling very prettily. 



Culture under Glass. — In northern gardens 

 or bleak exposed districts it is a good plant 

 for the conservatory, easily grown and brought 

 into flower with very little heat ; in fact, it 

 will thrive and blossom perfectly in a house 

 giving bare protection from frost. In pots 

 its habit is not so good as when the roots are 

 free, the binding allowed for the sake of forc- 

 ing flower often inducing a meagre appear- 

 ance; but young plants may be kept in order 

 by cutting back after flowering. It is quite at 

 home on the back wall of a sunny house, but 

 when planted under glass the soil should not be 

 too rich or growth becomes rank and flowers 

 few. Red-spider is its one foe when in the 

 greenhouse, and syringing is needed to keep 

 clear of this pest in warm weather. Few plants 

 are more easily increased either from layers, 

 from cuttings of the spring growths rooted in 

 gentle heat, or slips of the half-ripened shoots 

 put in sandy soil under ahandlight in early au- 

 tumn ; suckers, already rooted, are often pushed 

 from the base and are readily detached. 



//; other hands. — The Choisya is com- 

 moner upon the continent than with us, being 

 much grown for its early flowers under glass, 

 which are also in demand as a cheap substi- 

 tute for Orange flowers at marriages. In the 

 south of France the plant grows with great 

 rapidity into bushes of a naturally rounded 

 form and 6 or 8 feet high when full grown. 

 Upon such strongshrubs thesize of the clusters 

 is very large, often reaching nearly a foot round, 

 with the stout branches bending under their 

 weight, while upon the warm, calm evenings 

 of late spring one may detect their fragrance at 

 a distance of many yards. In its native country 

 the Choisya is a shrub of the uplands and the 

 mountain valleys, where it mingles with the 

 Cluster Flower (Cestrum) in rich profusion in 

 moist half-shaded dells. B. 



Inula glandulosa, var. fimbriata. — In the 

 listof Inulas given in Vol. I. of Flora (pp. 310- 

 312)1 do not find this new variety mentioned. 

 Raised by Mr. Beckett, gardener to Lord Al- 

 denham, this kind has the ray-florets divided 

 and fringed, while it is stated to show a better 

 habit of growth combined with greater free- 

 dom in flower. — -G. C. Leman. 



NEW FORMS OF JUNO IRIS * 

 The Juno group of Iris, with its easy cul - 

 ture and readiness to seed, offers a wide 

 field to the hybridiser, who, in addition 

 to the older kinds, can make use of the 

 more recent introductions in this class, 

 such as bucharica,warleyensis, JVillmot- 

 tiana, and others. With such material 

 to hand it is to be expected that many 

 handsome forms will make their appear- 

 ance either as natural hybrids or as the 

 result of studied crossing. 



The subjects of the accompanying 

 plate, Iris sind-pers and Iris purpureo- 

 persica, are two among many other hy- 

 brids which have not yet flowered. As 

 their names imply, they are intermediate 

 between Iris sindjarensis and persica- 

 purpicrea as seed parents, and the old 

 well-known /. persica as pollen bearer. 

 The first cross, /. sind-pers (No. 1 on the 

 plate), was effected some years ago with 

 the hope of improving /. persica, which 

 in our Haarlem soil, in general so well 

 suited to this class of Iris, is always more 

 or less weak as compared with other 

 free-flowering kinds. 



By the influence of the robust /. 

 sindjarensis the new gain has developed 

 into a very strong-growing plant, no- 

 ticeably dwarfer and more spreading. It 

 shows a striking combination of the cha- 

 racter of its parents ; its foliage is of a 

 deep glaucous green, but narrower than 

 I /. sindjarensis and distinctly falcate. In 

 i the delicate porcelain-blue flowers the 

 influence of persicais noticeable in the 

 i blackish tinged lips and the conspicuous 

 golden-orange crest which are both ab- 

 sent in the other parent. The size of the 

 flowers, of which five to seven are open 



* With coloured plate from a drawing by H. G. Moon at Warley Place. 



