1869 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
Australian Glory Pea.— Clianthus Dampieri. 
[• [Recently we have derived great pleasure in 
seeing the Glory Pea successfully cultivated by 
one of our horticultural friends. 
Tire plant is such a striking one, 
both in color and habit, that we 
procured from him materials for 
making an engraving, and the 
following account of his method 
of treating the plant. — Eds.] 
: In compliance with your re¬ 
quest I propose directing the at¬ 
tention of your readers to one 
of the grandest ornaments of the 
flower garden—the “ Glory Pea.” 
I flowered this plant for the 
first time in 1856, and the variety 
known as albiflora in 1867. I at 
present (Aug. 1st) have one plant 
in my garden with eleven trusses 
of its gorgeous flowers in the 
greatest perfection. To prove 
that the Glory Pea is all that the 
most enthusiastic lover of Flora’s 
gems can ask, I need but cite the 
fact, that our friend the Editor 
has visited my plant at least once 
a week for the last month. As 
evidence that it attracts others, 
less versed in floriculture, our 
friend noticed a bare strip upon 
the lawn, which led from the ad¬ 
joining path to the plant, and 
he sarcastically remarked that 
“ the path leading to the Glory 
Pea was more trodden than that 
leading to church.” The Clian¬ 
thus continues flowering for two 
or three months. The color is a 
rich, brilliant crimson, with a 
polished black boss on the upper 
petal of the flower, each margin 
of the cleft in the black boss 
being tipped with a narrow baud 
of pearly white. Tiie variety albiflora is white 
throughout the centre spaces of the flower, belt¬ 
ed with brilliant rosy crimson, and marked with 
the black boss—presenting an unique and ex¬ 
quisite combination of tints. There is no reason 
leading seedsman that the seed will succeed if 
sown in the open ground; but this we are in¬ 
clined to doubt until we have established the 
matter by experiment. Our experience teaches, 
that to insure vegetation the seeds require a 
bottom heat of from 80° to 90°. An ordinary 
hotbed is all that is required. The plant now 
blooming in my garden is one of several 
raised from seed sown on the 1st of April. 
Many have been the 
failures in cultivating 
this beautiful plant, 
owing to the fact that it 
will not bear transplant¬ 
ing from seed pots or 
the seed bed. The roots 
are very brittle, and if 
injured in any way 
rapidly decay. The only 
successful mode of cul¬ 
ture is to sow the seeds 
singly in two or three- 
inch pots in light com¬ 
post. As soon as the 
roots are found coiled 
round the ball of earth 
they must be shifted in¬ 
to 5 or 6-incli pots, in 
which they may be 
grown until about the 
second week in May, 
when they can be plant¬ 
ed out in the open 
ground. The Clianthus 
is a plant which a gardener would call 
“ miffy ”—that is, difficult to keep in health 
in its early stages of growth. If supplied 
with too much water, or if the atmosphere in 
which it is grown is too moist, it will damp off; 
and if allowed to become pot-bound in small 
pots disease will attack the roots. Another 
year we shall try the experiment of sowing seeds 
in the open ground, and will re¬ 
port the result. As regards soil 
it is easily suited; but it will 
grow and bloom all the more 
freely for a liberal allowance of 
thoroughly decomposed manure. 
I trust that your numerous read¬ 
ers will cultivate this gorgeous 
plant; and if their efforts should 
prove as successful as mine have 
been, it will gratify Al Fresco. 
The Clustered Leucothoe. 
It seems strange that a shrub 
which in May and June presents 
so fine an appearance as the 
Clustered Leucothoe, should be 
so little known. We do not rec¬ 
ollect to have- ever seen it in 
cultivation, except, perhaps, in 
Central Park, where it was left 
among other desirable native 
shrubs. The shrub grows from 
four to six feet high, and in its 
foliage and general appearance 
much resembles a huckleberry 
bush. The flowers are arranged 
in very close, one-sided racemes, 
and all point downward with 
such regularity that they have 
been compared to rows of teeth. 
They have a pearly whiteness. 
The fruit is a small, dry pod. 
The engraving gives the summit 
of a branch somewhat reduced 
in size. The botanical name of 
the shrub is Leucothoe racemosa. 
Those who studied plants many 
years ago will recognize this 
as what was then called An¬ 
dromeda racemosa. The old genus, Androm¬ 
eda, for sufficient botanical reasons, having 
been separated into several genera, this plant 
has, with several others, been placed in Leuco- 
thoe, which, being a proper name from mythol¬ 
ogy, cannot be translated. If the shrub has a 
common name in any locality, we should be 
glad to learn it. The plant grow ? s from New 
England to Virginia,and may be easily cultivated. 
why the Clianthus should not be found frequent¬ 
ly in our gardens. The plants should be grown 
and sold by our nurserymen as cheaply as ver¬ 
benas and petunias. It has been stated by a 
glory pea. —(Clianthus Dampieri.) 
Indian pipe. —{See next page.) 
