54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Notes from the Green and Hot Houses. 
A NEW DEPARTMENT. 
We commence with this numbe:, to give cur¬ 
rent notes of valuable old and new plants, as we 
find them growing from month to month in the 
best American Green and Hot Houses. Notices 
of this kind are quite too frequently taken direct 
from foreign works, and therefore not specially 
useful here. We hope to thus supply a want for 
a long tune felt ny American Horticulturists and 
amateurs. 
By the way. we invite Horticulturists generally 
to assist in sustaining a vigorous horticultural de¬ 
partment m the Agriculturist. With a circulation 
unequalled by any similar periodical in the coun¬ 
try, and with ample room in our pages, we think 
this journal may well be adopted as a medium 
for the interchange of opinions, experiences, que¬ 
ries, &c., among persons interested in Horticul¬ 
ture generally. 
GREEN HOUSE PLANTS. 
Vcacia pubesccns — 
The Acacias are a beautiful and very extensive 
tribe of plants, natives of Australia, where they 
are scattered over the whole country in great va¬ 
riety. There are more than a hundred distinct 
species now known, some of them large trees from 
fifty to a hundred feet high, while most of them 
are shrubs growing from four and five, to ten or 
twenty feet in bight, and are all quite ornamental 
The genus is represented in South America and 
other parts of the world by the “ Mimosas ” which 
all bear compound leaves. The peculiarity of the 
New-IIolland Acacias, is that of being Aphyllous; 
the dilated, foliaceous footstalk performing the 
functions of the true compound leaf. The great 
number of species of Acacia having this remark¬ 
able economy m Australia, forms one of the most 
striking peculiarities of its vegetation. Many 
valuable additions have been made to our collec¬ 
tions of this genus, within the past few years. 
Several of these, from their dwarf habit, can be 
grown to perfection in the smallest sized green¬ 
house. 
“ Acacia pubesccns ” has been long known, and 
is, perhaps, the finest of all those varieties capa¬ 
ble of being grown to perfection in a moderate 
sized glass structure. This variety developes its 
true leaves. The habit of the plant is very grace¬ 
ful, with slender branches, inclined to weep. The 
foliage very fine and dense, of a pale green color; 
flowers of a pale lemon color, produced in im¬ 
mense masses on plants a few years old. With 
a few exceptions the Acacia grows well in a rath¬ 
er strong loam ; pubescens, however, especially 
when young, requires a light soil, enriched with 
good leaf mould, and well drained ; it needs very 
careful watering during the Winter season, as the 
least over watering destroys the young roots, and 
the foliage becomes yellow and speedily falls off. 
It is one of the most difficult plants to recover 
when once brought into a sickly state by this 
means. 
ore viLLE a Tillermanii —( Tillerman's Grevillea). 
A handsome evergreen shrub of very neat habit. 
It is a “ Protead,” a family of plants remarkable 
for their curiously formed flowers, many of them 
very showy and among the best of Winter flow¬ 
ering plants. They are mostly natives of New- 
Holland , some, however, are found at the Cape 
of Good Hope and a few species orny in South 
America, where they are found growing on the 
barren hills and wastes in great abundance. The 
subject of our nonce is from New-Holland; it 
bears large clusters of bright red flowers in great 
abundance, which remain for two or three months. 
It is readilv cultivated, requiring the ordinary 
treatment of hard wooded Green House plants. 
orrvii.lea Sttrnbc’-git. 
Another very beautiful “ Protead,” with white 
flowers, which are produced in immense clusters. 
The leaves are wedge shaped, of a dull green col¬ 
or Very bushy and compact in habit. It is es¬ 
pecially desirable on account of the few Winter 
flowering plants we have which produce pure 
■white flowers in any abundance. 
pentas rosea. 
Very similar to the old and well known “ Pen¬ 
tas cornea ”—but in most respects superior, es¬ 
pecially in the form and color of the flowers. It 
is a fine Summer bedding plant—although tender 
and requiring the warmest part of the Green 
House in Winter. It is from South America, it 
does not grow so straggling as carnea, and the 
trusses are more compact in form. Color rosy 
lavender. It is a good dwarf growing plant and 
will be desirable for massing in the flower garden 
It is quite new, being only introduced here the 
past Summer. 
STOVE OR HOT HOUSE PLANTS. 
Aphelandra rot Leopold — 
We have now in flower this lovely plant, which 
is one of the very best of this class. The leaves 
are of a light velvet green, broadly veined and 
edged with silver white, very distinctly marked 
It bears corymbs of bright canary colored flowers, 
which, with its splendid foliage, make a most 
suberb object. It is a tropical plant, requiring 
shade in the hot season and rather a moist at¬ 
mosphere to grow it successfully. Soil, rich 
sandy loam, well drained. 
Aphelandria squarrosa citrina. 
This is another Acanthad, with more brilliant 
flowers than the above, but has not so handsome 
a foliage. It is, however, more hardy, and ean be 
grown in the warm part of the Green house with 
careful treatment. The flowers are of a rich 
lemon color. 
Eschynanthus splendidus 
This is a new variety of the genus, recently in¬ 
troduced. It is of erect habit, and very showy. 
Each shoot is terminated by a large cluster of 
tubular flowers of orange and crimson. It is 
something like the well known “ Eschynanthus 
speciosus , ” but much superior to that variety. 
The flowers are higher colored, and larger, and it 
produces them in greater abundance. We have 
now a number of distinct species of this genus, 
and although of tropical origin, they adapt them¬ 
selves to the temperature of the Green house 
very readily. Most of them are semi-parasilical 
in habit, and can, if desired, be grown upon a 
block of wood with a little moss and fibrous peat 
attached, and suspended from the roof or wall of 
the hot house. In this way, they flower more 
freely in stove heat, than when grown in a pot. 
Eschynanthus Lobbianus. 
Another new species, with very dark red flow¬ 
ers, and grown to the best advantage suspended 
either in a pot or on a block of wood, the habit be¬ 
ing drooping, and shoots rather slender. All these 
plants are of a succulent character, and to insure* 
a profusion of bloom, should be kept rather dry 
after they have completed the season’s growth, 
until the flower buds are formed, when moisture 
may be gradually increased. They grow freely 
in any well drained soil. 
Rqiiera cordata. 
This fine plant is half shrubby in habit, with 
dark green leaves, and bears large clusters of 
bright pinx colored flowers, It is a very profuse 
bloomer and flowers throughout the Winter 
\ 
months It is allied to the “ Rondoletias,” or is 
merely a section of that beautiful tribe of plants, 
and is cultivated with the same facility. From 
the delicate nature of their roots, they require 
a light sandy loam, with a little leaf mold, and 
plenty of drainage. 
Rojiera arnmna. 
This is distinct from cordata —growing larger, 
foliage rough, hirsute, and of a reddish color. 
The color of the flowers is rosy lilac, produced in 
the same profusion, but later in the season than 
cordata. 3t is a neat and pretty plant, well worthy 
of cultivation. 
-*—<- — - *-» - 
Thinning and Pruning Woodlands, 
To the owner of “ woods,” as they are usually 
called in the United States, the terms at our head¬ 
ing may appear strange and superfluous. A great 
many of our readers, who have scarcely got be¬ 
yond the “ cut and slash ” habits of new set¬ 
tlers in heavily timbered lands, may wonder why 
anybody need talk of either thinning, or far worse, 
pruning his wood lot. To such we have little to 
say, other than while his wood is yet plenty, be 
sure and take good care of it. The time may 
come when you will mourn over the waste your 
own thoughtlessness had caused. 
All through the best populated portions of the 
old States the land has been denuded of nearly or 
quite all the wood that should have been spared 
generations ago, with some exceptions. In the 
newer parts of these States and in considerable 
portions of the recently settled ones, the cutting 
and destroying process is yet at work with ener¬ 
getic intensity ; and since the railway system has 
been so widely extended,the havoc among the trees 
has grown still more fast and furious. And scarce 
now’ except in the wide prairie regions of the 
West, has any like a careful looking to, and pre¬ 
servation of the remaining forest lands attracted 
the attention to which they are entitled. 
In most of the older States there are consider¬ 
able tracts of land so broken and unfit for tillage 
or even pasturage uses that wood will grow on 
them more profitably than anything else, and have 
thus a self-protecting power of their own—no 
thanks to their owners. Yet there are thousands 
ot farmers where wood, if not absolutely neces¬ 
sary for fuel—coal superseding it, both in econo¬ 
my and convenience—woodlands for other pur¬ 
poses are no less a necessity and convenience 
than they were a century ago. Wood and water, 
are choice gifts of nature, little appreciated where 
they abound, and only properly valued where 
there is want of both, or either has been stinted 
in the supply. Of late years our “ wood-lots ’ 
have rapidly decreased. The multiplication ot 
manufactories t and the extension of railways have 
fast denuded them, and many otherwise thoughtful 
landholders, and farmers have awaked to the 
conviction that they must husband those which 
remain with all possible care and economy, ot 
lose absolutely valuable parts of their estates 
which they can never regain. 
We are not about to read a homily to our farm¬ 
ers on the subject of preserving their forest lands, 
or wood-lots, which our remarks just written might 
seem to imply, but in this season of comparative 
leisure on the farm, advise them somewhat in re¬ 
gard to taking care of some pleasant little patch, 
or grove of woodland on their premises, or per¬ 
chance some “ slashing,” the remains of a de¬ 
nuded piece of wood recently taken off where the 
young brush-wood and saplings have taken vigor¬ 
ous hold to renew it once more in shade and beau 
ty. For many years we have watched sundry 
spots of the kind, both of our own and those of 
