'280 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September £3, 1886. 
-exactly the same way as Pelargonium cuttings, only giving them 
a little more room and plenty of light. 
S. angustifolia is nearly allied to S. Pitcheri, both of which 
are fairly hardy in ordinary winters, and flowering late in the 
autumn, both blue-flowered, and charming in their way. On a 
south border, where they would get plenty of sun, they would no 
doubt flower earlier, and give more satisfaction in every way. 
The former is between 2 and 3 feet in height, but rather 
straggly, b. azurea, with narrow linear leaves and charming deep 
blue flowers, is a desirable plant, native of Carolina. S. aurea, 
for which ferruginea would be more descriptive, is a charming 
little plant, from 6 to 12 inches high, with hoary roundish leaves, 
native of the Cape. S. chamasdryoides is one of the most beau¬ 
tiful of the small-flowered group, and besides being a good 
border or bed plant is pretty for the rockery, where it is hardy, 
unless in severe winters; it is between 12 and 18 inches high, much- 
branched, and forming sturdy little bushes, covered with hand¬ 
some blue flowers; leaves oval, crenated at the margins, and 
rugose or rough on the upper surface, native of Mexico. S 
Greigi, a charming and easily managed plant of recent intro¬ 
duction, forms neat little bushes, the branches being thickly 
covered with lanceolate shining green leaves, the flowers intense 
scarlet, borne on short spikes; it strikes readily from cuttings, 
and prefers cool to warm treatment; a good plant for winter 
flowering in conservatory b. Grabami is an old garden favourite 
of rare merit, with bright scarlet flowers, larger, if anything, 
than the above, on more elongated stalks; the leaves are 
smaller, ovate, crenate, and rougbish on the upper surface. 
There is another, said to be a variety, but widely distinct, with 
much lighter flowers and very large leaves. Both are natives of 
Mexico. S. interrupts-, a Morocco species, with large blue and 
white cowers, is also a desirable plant. 
. S- involucrata, a rather better form of which is called Betheli 
in gardens, is a rank grower, but a most charming plant when 
well flowered. It is fairly hardy in the open against an east or 
south wall, profuse flowering, and very peculiar with its large 
coloured bracts.. S. paniculata has pale purple and white flowers, 
excellent as variety, but none of those above surpass or are even 
equal to the well-known S. patens, with its variety alba. It is a 
good habited plant, free with its numerous large and brilliant 
blue flowers; it.stands well in a cool frame, and is certainly a 
desirable plant in every garden. The white variety is particularly 
pleasing, making a handsome companion to the type. S. pseudo- 
coccinea, coccinea, and porphyranthera are all excellent plants 
of the scarlet type, the former being a valuable addition to our 
summer flowers. Besides these, S. splendens, S. rutilans, S. 
gesneriseflora, S. fulgens, S. Heeri, S. cacalicefolia, and many 
others are alike beautiful and useful. Even those of a hardy 
nature are so varied that many a collection would be consider¬ 
ably improved by a careful selection; besides, in the case of 
those, who combine a little pleasure with a little profit in keeping 
bees in their gardens, these Salvias act as loadstones to the busy 
workers. Among the best are S. sylvestris, a good form of S. 
pratensis, S. Horminum, S. glutinosa, common Sage, S. offici- 
aalis, S. verticillata, S. austriaca, S. solarea, the bracteata form, 
aurita, &c.—M. 
CUSCUTAS. 
A very interesting but pernicious plant is the Hellweed or 
Dodder, and it is perhaps at this season of the year that it chiefly 
exhibits the characteristics that render it so worthy of notice. There 
are two species, known as the Greater Dodder (Cuscuta europsea), and 
the Lesser (C. epithymum), both of which have been indigenous from 
time immemorial, and one or other of which may be found growing 
in nearly every county of England as well as in Scotland and Ireland. 
To determine the source from whence it came would be difficult, as 
may be inferred in case of the very appropriate specific name of the 
former kind, so no one in particular can be fairly reproached for 
having contributed to the British flora a plant that is so undesirable 
to possess—that is, to any great extent. One thing is certain, that 
in some districts of France and Italy its ravages, in past years, have 
been so extensive as to occasion serious loss to agriculturists, whose 
crops of Lucerne or Clover have been extensively damaged by this 
remarkable parasite. 
Although denied by Nature both roots and leaves, it is only neces¬ 
sary to introduce it amongst plants on which it is known to attach 
itself to demonstrate its destructive powers as well as its amazing 
fertility in producing seeds. These, it may be remarked, are suffi¬ 
ciently small to admit of their being present in other seeds, more 
especially in some samples of Clover, without, being detected, save by 
those who are familiar with them ; and, like many others, if allowed to 
ripen, it is by no means impossible for them to vegetate when brought 
to the surface, although the ploughshare may have buried them in the 
ground for many years. The plant cannot but be regarded as nothing 
short of a vegetable phenomenon from its very inception. The embryo 
of tfie seed is without cotyledons or seminal lobes, being simply* a 
spiral thread without roots, and the plant consists only of red-tinted, 
succulent, thread-like stalks, severing itself from the soil and twisting 
about the plant on which it grows in a spiral direction contrary to 
the sun’s motion, and drawing its nourishment from it by small suck¬ 
ing papillae fixed into the pores of the bark or rind, thereby exhaust¬ 
ing the foster plant of its juices, imbibing its virtues, and often 
destroying it. In this country the crop that is most frequently 
attacked by this pernicious parasite is Red Clover, but it will luxuriate 
on many other plants than those of this genus, notably the Hop, of 
which a very fair example has been forwarded to the Editor. It 
grows on many leguminous plants, especially Vetches and Beans, as 
well as on Flax, Thistles, Nettles, Mint, Balm, Thyme, Gorse, and 
Heather. So destructive is Dodder to the Clover crop that whole 
fields have been rendered nearly useless for fodder, and entirely so for 
seeding. It may, however, be assumed that in the majority of in¬ 
stances where a crop has been jeopardised by its presence, sufficient 
care or judgment has not been exercised in selecting the seed from 
which the crop has been produced. An erroneous notion prevails 
amongst some agriculturists that Dodder in certain samples is in¬ 
sidious rather than separable, whereas its presence can be readily 
detected. It cannot be too widely known that the boldest samples of 
seed are generally most free from if, or can easily be made so ; 
whereas it is not infrequently to be found in samples of small seed, 
especially those imported from some parts of the continent, and in 
these cases it is not only difficult to free the seed entirely from it, but 
a large proportion of the bulk must of necessity be sacrificed in 
accomplishing it effectually. 
Notwithstanding its devastating powers when luxuriating amongst 
our field ciops, there is no reason why it should be denied a place in 
our gardens, for these leafless plants produce a profusion of rather 
minute flowers in dense clusters, which partake somewhat of the 
colour of the thread-like stems, and together present not altogether an 
unpicturesque effect. In support of this it may be mentioned that in 
the first volume of Baxter’s “ British Flowering Plants,” on page 18, 
where the plant is figured, the author states that he had seen “ a large 
field of Beans completely matted together with this paraeite ; it has 
taken possession of the whole crop, and having elevated itself several 
inches above the Beans produced a very beautiful effect, especially 
when the sun shone upon it, and he truly observes further on that it 
must be a very serious evil to the farmer.” So great an evil was it 
in Tuscany as far back as the year 1825, that the crops of leguminous 
plants were so much injured by it that the method adopted by the 
farmers to become rid of it was “ either by cutting the crop frequently 
early in the season (this applied perhaps more particularly to 
Lucerne) and thus preventing the Dodder from fixing itself, or by 
paring and burning the surface, and thus destroying at once both the 
crop and the seeds of the parasite.”f But, although admittedly a 
source of great vexation and pecuniary loss to the farmer, the limits 
of the Dodders in gardens can be easily circumscribed, and they then 
become objects of interest as well as of beauty.—S. P. E. S. 
LONDON’S LESSER OPEN SPACES—THEIR TRESS AND 
PLANTS.—No. 10. 
Used in its broad sense, Lambeth is a name that covers a suburban 
district of something like twelve square miles, but, in its commoner much- 
narrowed application, it refers to a space adjacent to the Thames between 
Sruthwatk and Vauxhall. Its level is still low, and at one date much of 
the ground was really marsh, Lam-bythe, the primitive form, meaning the 
“haven of mud or dirt,” antiquaries say, though Dr. Ducarel, friend i f 
Tradescant the gardener, angrily denies this, much objecting to its being 
8 > styled. However, the moist soil, by the adoption of certain measures, was 
made suitable for horticulture, and iu the seventeenth century it looked 
very different from what it is, a site of factories, of benevolent institution' 1 , 
and streets of houses, mostly fifth or sixth rate ; we may indeed find a 
Paradise Street and a Pleasant Place, but they have lost the characteristics 
that gave their names. Vine Street tells us of a spot somewhat elevated 
formerly above the marshy flat, where once throve a plantation of Vines, 
and in the Stuart times Lambeth yielded abundant fruit and vegetables 
also; Asparagus, Peas, Melons, and Aprico's are notable of tl ese. The 
mention of sundry trees indicates the existence ot some dry spots amongst 
the lowlands. Mulberry trees there were, too ; our ancestors seemingly 
l ad more liking for that fruit than we have, and a Queen Elizabeth’s tree 
of cmrse, many Mulberries being associated with that Royal dame, 
planted perhaps in her honour, as we read she had a weakness for sitting 
under one of them when in fruit. Of Lambeth Walnuts, a m mory yet 
lingers in its Walnut Tree Walk, though the trees have been felled. Few 
gardeners know that some of our familiar evergreens, after they had been 
grown here and there as rarities in noblemen’s gardens, were first f t'rly 
cultivated at Lambeth by the Tradescants and thir friend 1 . The younger 
* ‘ Flora Scotica,” Vol. IT., p. 1090. 
t Loudon’s “ Gardeners’ Magazine," Vol. I., pr- 79 an 1197. 
