i88 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
T*. capensis. — Though a good many kinds 
come from tropical Africa, this is one of the 
few from the Cape region. It is an evergreen 
shrub or low tree with shining green leaves 
of 3 to 5 inches long, to 2 inches wide, 
tapering at either end. The flowers are small 
and yellow, followed by clusters of black fruit. 
Syn. Grumilea capensis. 
T*.cyanocarpa. — A handsome hothouse plant 
known as the Indigo Berry and much grown 
some twenty years ago though now seldom seen. 
It is a shrub of good habit with pale green 
leaves 4 to 5 inches long, strongly ribbed and 
prettily crisped around the edges. The dingy 
green flowers have no beauty but they give 
place to crowded pea-like berries in clusters 
of 30 to 40 together, which droop freely from 
all parts of the plant and continue all winter, 
the effect of their glossy blue colour being 
most beautiful. The plant is of easy culture 
in good light soil, with no care beyond that 
of other soft-wooded stove plants and a careful 
look-out for insect pests, to which it is rather 
subject. It is easily raised from seed (which 
ripens well in a stove) and from cuttings ; the 
last make plants of better habit and more freely 
fruiting. Nicaragua. Syn. "P. cyanococca. 
"iP. /sucocep/iala. — A beautiful Brazilian 
shrub, perhaps better known in British gar- 
dens as Rudgea tnacrophylla. It is of stout, 
erect growth, sparingly branched, and while 
of 12 to 15 feet in the gardens of Rio de 
Janeiro it is often not more than 2 feet high 
in the stove, with thick leathery leaves a foot 
long and half as wide, coming upon very short 
stalks in opposite pairs. The flowers are in 
large heads of a creamy-white colour borne 
at the tips of the shoots, the blooms being very 
like those of the Orange but fully twice as 
large and useful for bouquets if mounted on 
wire. They come from December to March 
when flowers are most valuable and are so 
thick and fleshy in texture as to last a long time, 
while the handsome leaves give fine effect even 
when the flowers are over. Cuttings of half- 
ripe shoots will root slowly if placed singly in 
little pots of sandy peat, under glass in the 
propagating-house. Once rooted the plants 
are as easily grown as a Gardenia, thriving 
under the same treatment, with as much Hght 
as possible during winter while the flowers 
are forming. Soil largely composed of peat 
or leaf-mould is the best, with shade from hot 
sun and free syringing to keep the leaves clean 
during summer, and careful watering in winter. 
•p. pilosa. — This comes near "P. cyanocarpa 
but is a stronger plant, hairy in all its parts and 
very handsome when well grown. The pale 
flowers are followed by fruits which are larger 
than in the Indigo Berry, containing some- 
times as many as sixty in a cluster, but they 
are also less glossy and of not quite so fine a 
blue. Nicaragua. Syn. chontalensis. 
•T*. racemosa. — A scarce stove plant of 2 to 
3 feet, with large oblong leaves tapering to- 
wards each end and clusters of small white 
flowers in early summer followed by peculiar 
five-angled berries. Guiana. Syn. ^alicoiirea 
racemosa. 
T*. sulphurea. — A small climbing shrub from 
the South Seas, with glossy leaves, handsome 
bright blue flowers borne very freely, suc- 
ceeded by pale yellow berries. A scarce and 
beautiful hothouse plant. 
T*. tabacifolia. — A Brazilian shrub with large 
tough leaves and clusters of small tubular 
flowers, hairy in texture and pale yellow 
edged with red. Syn. '•Palicourea discolor. 
T*. undata. — A West-Indian shrub with 
! shining undulate leaves tapering to a long 
point, and stemless heads of tubular white 
flowers. 
AKEBIA. 
A SMALL group of twining plants from 
China and Japan, of which two species 
— A. quifiata and A. lobata — have been 
introduced, and of these the last is still 
little known in gardens. The unintro- 
duced kinds, A. clematifolia and A, 
qtiercifolia., are mostly classed as forms 
of^. lobata rather than distinct species. 
In the far East the Akebia is as common 
as our Woodbine, growing wild upon 
the hillsides and also in gardens. The 
Japanese call it Fugi-Kadsura-Akebi 
and use the tough twining stems in the 
making of wicker-work, and the ripe 
fruits as food. 
