STREPTOCARPUS- A NEW RACE OF GARDEN PLANTS. 



|ACH summer during the last 

 three or four years, one of the 

 most charming sights in the 

 plant houses at Kew has been 

 produced by various kinds of 

 streptocarpus, a few of which 

 re true species, but the greater num- 

 hybrid origin, and raised at Kew. 

 ids of these plants are grown in ftie 

 ""yV- cactus house, the large temperate house 

 and in other places in the garden. To the 

 majority of the visitors, and even to many profes- 

 sional gardeners, the genus is quite unknown ; yet 

 it has become evident to those who have seen and 

 worked amongst these plants, that they are the fore- 

 runners of a new race of greenhouse plants whose 

 value will ^eventually equal, if not surpass, that of 

 gloxinias, cinerarias, primulas or cyclamens. The 

 beauty of the flowers, the amazing profusion in 

 which they are produced, and the adaptability of 

 the plants themselves to all sort-s of treatment, give 

 a combination of good qualities that few indeed of 

 our indoor plants possess. A representative plant, 

 grown at Veitch's, is shown in the engraving. 



The genus streptocarpus altogether comprises about a 

 dozen species, all of which are of African origin. It be- 

 longs to the natural order gesneraceae, and the flowers, 

 which are trumpet-shaped, resemble those of isoloma, 

 achimenes and gesnera itself. The species may be 

 divided into two groups, one being stemless and native 

 of south Africa exclusively, the other having erect stems 

 under a foot in height, bearing fleshy opposite leaves, 

 and natives of east tropical Africa and Madagascar. 

 It is the former alone that are here dealt with, none of 

 the caulescent species being of horticultural value. 

 Next to the long, narrow, spirally-twisted seed vessels, 

 which are implied by the generic name, the most re- 

 markable character of the genus is the huge, sprawling, 

 solitary leaf which some species develop. I recently 

 measured a leaf of 5. Dunnii whose dimensions were two 

 feet six inches in length by sixteen inches in width, and 

 others have been measured over three feet long ; those 

 of S. Saundersii are nearly as large. It is this ungainly 

 habit that constitutes the drawback to the cultivation of 

 these plants, and it is to its removal that hybridizers will 

 have to mainly direct their efforts. a5 some of these 

 one-leaved species possess the most desirable floral char- 

 acters. Sufficient, however, has already been done to 

 show that by introducing the blood of smaller and neater 

 growing kinds, and especially by selection, this defect 

 may in time be removed. The flower scapes are joined 



to the petiole and the mid-rib of the leaf, and continue 

 to develop, one after the other, in quick succession dur 

 ing the flowering season. Eight or ten flower spikes 

 may be seen standing erect from the base of the pros- 

 trate leaf, and simultaneously in flower. 



Undoubtedly the hybrids that have been raised are 

 far more suitable for horticultural purposes than the 

 species themselves are, but some of these are very orna- 

 mental and interesting. The following list is therefore 

 given of all the species that are of sufficient merit to de- 

 serve cultivation. It includes all those that up to the 

 present have been used for hybridizing : 



S. Re.xii. — This was the first species introduced to 

 England, being brought to Kew from the Cape of Good 

 Hope in 1824. It has several prostrate, oblong leaves, 

 and never bears more than two flowers on the scape. 

 The flowers are of a bluish purple and about one and 

 a-half inches long. It is a plant of neat habit and easy 

 cultivation, thriving in either the cool or warm green- 

 house. It is also known in gardens under the name 

 biflora. 



S. polyantlnts is a pretty species, with panicles of pale ^ 

 blue flowers. It was originally brought to Kew quite by 

 accident, amotigst the roots of some ferns. The tube of 

 the corolla is curved and over an inch long, the limb 

 comparatively wide. For a long time after germination 

 it has but one leaf, which is cordate and ultimately a 

 foot in length, but afterwards one or two small ones are 

 developed. It has been grown in Europe for upwards 

 of forty years. 



5. parvijlora . — This is a plant of much later introduc- 

 tion, having flowered for the first time in 1882, in the 

 Botanic Garden at Cambridge. It is found in the moun- 

 tainous districts of Cape Colony. It is of neat habit, 

 and the flowers are white, with a few streaks of yellow 

 and purple on the lower lobes of the corolla, the tube of 

 which is a little under an inch in length. 



S, Sctimdersii. — This is a remarkable species with only 

 one immense heart-shaped leaf. On some of the plants 

 in the cactus house at Kew these were two and a-half 

 feet long by one and a-half feet in width. It is a fact 

 of morphological interest that in all these stemless, 

 monophyllous species the huge so-called leaves are really 

 developments of one of the cotyledons originally en- 

 closed in the minute seed. The flowers are small, but 

 produced in great numbers on erect panicles eighteen 

 inches high. The color is a pale purplish blue. 



S. Dunnii is the last addition to the genus, and is 

 nothing less than a vegetable wonder. In the Botanical 

 Magazine , where it is figured at plate 6,903, it is hailed 

 by Sir Joseph Hooker as a magnificent plant, and the 

 " monarch of the genus." The dimensions of its huge, 

 wrinkled leaf have already been given. The flowers are 



