290 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



pleasant smell. The flowers are showy, coming 

 during winter, and bright scarlet or orange-red 

 in colour; at first nearly upright, but becoming 

 pendulous as the cluster expands fully. 



Mortola Cluster Flower (C. Mortolen- 

 sis.) — A garden hybrid between elegans and fas- 

 cicu latum, carrying distinct flowers of a bright 

 clear rose. La Mortola, Italy. 



Newell's Cluster Flower (C.Newelli) .■ — 

 A garden hybrid, good in colour and ingrowth. 

 It forms a shrub some 6 feet high, with small 

 neat leaves, quite smooth, upon light and grace- 

 ful shoots. The dense rounded clusters, borne 

 with great freedom, are of a bright clear 

 crimson. 



Fragrant Cluster Flower (C. noctur- 

 nurri). — A rather dingy plant from the West 

 Indies, with long slender flowers of yellowish 

 green, very fragrant towards evening and 

 throughout the night. 



Hardy Cluster Flower (C. Parqui). — A 

 very old greenhouse plant, found in many forms 

 all over South America, but common in the 

 Chilian Andes. In mild districts it will grow 

 out of doors, if given a sheltered wall and some 

 protection. It reaches 5 to 8 feet high, with long 

 narrow leaves of foetid odour, and funnel-shaped 

 flowers of whitish-green or dull yellow, sweet 

 atnightwitha delicate fragrance as of Jasmine. 

 The flowers, coming during summer, are fol- 

 lowed by small round black berries. 



Hairy Cluster Flower (C.tomentosus). — 

 Another Mexican kind, densely hairy in all 

 its parts, but otherwise not remarkable. 



Purple Cluster Flower (C.vespertinum). 

 — A downy shrub, bearing oblong leaves and 

 flowers of a dull purple in early summer, giving 

 place to bunches of blue berries. 



Blue Cluster Flower [C.Warscewiczii). 

 — A stout branched shrub, softer in all its tis- 

 sues, with large velvety leaves ; in habit and 

 aspect akin to the Iochromas, with which 

 it is sometimes classed. Its flowers, borne 

 in drooping clusters, are blight blue, very 

 showy and distinct. It comes readily from 

 seed. Peru. 



Errata. — Two slight errors found place upon 

 p. 230. The botanical name of the French Willow 

 should read Epilobium angustifolium ; while the pretty 

 little Toad-flax, to which reference is made in the 

 same article, is inadvertently mis-called the Common 

 Flax. 



THE GREATER TREES OF THE 

 NORTHERN FOREST: N0.9.THE 

 NORWAY SPRUCE [Picea excelsd). 

 One of the great trees of the Northern 

 Forest, and perhaps producing as large 

 an amount of useful timber as any other 

 tree, imported in vast quantities into our 

 country and others. It is so common in 

 many parts of our islands that the term 

 Common Spruce is applied to it; and 

 yet it is not like the Scotch Fir and the 

 Cedar of Lebanon, careless of soil and 

 situation, since over a large area in south- 

 ern and midland England and elsewhere 

 if the soil be dry, chalky, poor, or sandy, 

 it is a failure. It may survive the nur- 

 sery stage, and people go on planting it 

 regardless of conditions, but about the 

 time when it ought to be something like 

 a tree it is sickly, rusty, and useless. In 

 parts of the country, such as the high- 

 lands of Scotland and hills of Ireland, 

 on the west coast, and in the western 

 counties where there is a copious rain- 

 fall, this state of things does not obtain. 

 In such districts fine trees, of beautiful 

 regular colour and growth, may be seen. 

 Precious, therefore, as this tree is in 

 many places, it must never be planted 

 save where the soil is constantly cool, or 

 on low flats near streams. 



Like every other Pine of wide dis- 

 tribution and much cultivated in gar- 

 dens, it is broken into a number ofdwarf, 

 distorted, snaky-branched, variegated, 

 and other ridiculous varieties, not one 

 of them of the slightest value from the 

 forest point of view, or even for beauty. 

 Books (and even good books) tell us 

 that the only "ornamental " form for 

 the Spruce is as a completely furnished 



