PITTOSPORUM 
225 
need of the drying-off essential for de- 
ciduous plants. Flowers of thick text- 
ure, to 2t> inches across. Species: — 
P. lentig'mosa. — Allied to P, stapelioides. 
Flowers whitish, distinctly barred with red- 
dish-purple. 
P. microptera. — Sepals and petals creamy- 
white ; lip white with dull red markings. 
P. Rollissoni. — Sepals and petals pale yel- 
low ; lip whitish spotted with crimson. 
P. stapelioides. — Flowers yellowish-white 
thickly barred with dark chocolate-purple. 
P. xanthina. — Flowers bright yellow with 
purple markings at the base of the lip. Syns. 
P. citrina and Zygopetalum xanthinum. 
P. X Crawshayana{stapelioides x xanthind)t\\Q 
first hybrid of the section and one of the finest 
of the Promenaeas. Flowers 2^ inches across, 
paleyellowchanging to bright light yellowwith 
reddish-purple markings on the inner parts 
of the segments, the lip being darkest. 
Keferstemia and one or two other small 
groups of little moment horticulturally, are 
also included in Zygopetalum. 
JAMES O'BRIEN. 
Harrow on the Hill. 
PITTOSPORUM. 
These evergreen shrubs or small trees 
of the southern hemisphere add much 
to the interest of outdoor gardens in the 
warmer and seashore districts of Britain 
and Ireland, where many of them are 
so hardy that they thrive even in exposed 
positions. They grow freely and if given 
plenty of room and some attention in 
shortening the leading shoots in their 
early stages, in a few years they form 
fine bushes furnished to the ground. 
While small they are best grown in a 
place apart and moved annually for four 
or five years to encourage fibrous roots. 
Under this treatment they eventually 
become nearly double the size of such 
as are put at once into permanent places . 
We grow them in this way in our home 
nursery till they are 5 or 6 feet in 
height. As to hardiness, some of the 
varieties have been growing at Castle- 
wellan for over thirty years and during 
that time have never been injured by 
the weather, but, if unprotected, rabbits 
will destroy their beauty in a very short 
time, and where black swans, Canadian 
geese, golden pheasants, and water-fowl 
have access to them, they will eat the 
leaves as high as they can reach during 
severe cold and when snow is on the 
ground. These shrubs are useful for 
covering walls as well as in the open, 
and might be tried in this way in cold 
districts. They thrive in a compost of 
loam,leaf-soil,and spent manure. There 
are manykinds,over twenty being grown 
in the gardens at Castlewellan, but the 
following half-dozen are among the 
best. 
P. Mayii, the first variety planted in the 
grounds here, is now about 25 feet high with 
a circumference of nearly 70 feet. It is fine 
inform, with the lower branches sweeping the 
turf, and blooms towards the end of April and 
early in May, the flowers being inconspicuous 
though borne in great quantity. In colour 
they are a dark chocolate-purple and towards 
evening emit a strong honey-hke fragrance 
which may be detected often 50 yards away, 
though during the daytime it is so faint as to 
be hardly perceptible. 
P. Colensoiis, one of the most beautiful ever- 
green shrubs we possess, the habit of the plant, 
though dense, being light and graceful. When 
in vigorous growth it makes shoots 2 feet long 
in the season, notwithstanding its lateness in 
starting into growth. Beginning only in July, 
; by the end of October its long leafy shoots 
; are matured, and that in all directions upon a 
plant 10 feet or more in diameter. The leaves 
are small, silvery-green, and contrast charm- 
ingly with the deep-black stems. When first 
I grown at Castlewellan it was wintered for a 
couple of years in a large orchard-house. 
