201 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 3, 1S91. 
large, upright, spreading leaves, and with heads of rather insignifi¬ 
cant flowers with purple style and stamens, and all equally with 
short peduncles, which vary in length in the same head of flowers. 
Some of these are very near to one another, the plants especially 
being undistinguishable. The plant from Japan differs from the 
rest in having very short, broad leaves, and short, blunt petals. 
The plant I have under the name of procerum is figured in the 
Botanical Magazine , 2231, as C. declinatum ; it is a very tall plant 
with broad, wavy leaves and very small flowers. C. sumatranum 
■(^Bot. Reg., 1049) has longer and wider (not upright) petals, and is 
easily known by the dull, darkish green of its broad, stiff leaves. 
O. bracteatura ( Bot . Reg., 179) is a similar plant with leaves of a 
brighter green and more shining ; a short scape and large head of 
flowers, with much broader, more upright, pure white petals. 
In C. amabile the bulb becomes conical and less leafy, resembling 
rather more a tall bulb than a column of leaves. So also in 
O. erubescens the column approaches a short conical bulb. In 
form and habit, and in being stoloniferous, this approaches 
C. americanum, and like that species comes from tropical America. 
It is easily known by its very dark green foliage, and the scape 
being mottled like Snakewood. I haye three or four varieties of 
C. americanum under various names—americanum, Oarolmianum, 
pratense from Florida, and Careyanum, the last being a large 
form and Carolinianum a somewhat smaller one, all equally 
beautiful. A plant from the seashore, Jamaica, resembles these, 
but with a very long coloured tube and buds, which are upright 
before expanding. In this respect it rather resembles the small 
plant from Fernando Po, C. purpurascens (fig. 30), which has flower- 
tubes longer than the scape. These are the principal of the star¬ 
shaped Crinums with which I am acquainted. 
There are two very distinct species which are intermediate in 
habit and form of flowers between the star-shaped and campanulate 
Crinums which I have in cultivation. One named Crassipes by 
Mr. Baker, from a plant of mine, has a chick, conical bulb, very 
thick, broad, upright leaves, ending in a long point, a short scape, 
and a few upright flowers, not opening wide, and slightly ringent. 
It differs much both in habit and form of flowers from any of the 
species which are described and figured. Unfortunately I cannot 
say whence it comes. I bought it many years ago at Henderson’s, 
where it was growing in a very cold house, and I grow it with the 
-deciduous Crinums from the Cape, which are nearly hardy. 
Then C. pratense has a distinct bulb, round at the base, with a 
tapering neck, very long, narrow-pointed deeply channelled leaves, 
growing straight upright, and a head of few upright flowers, more 
campanulate than star shaped, on a short scape. Some of the 
Australian Crinums seem to be allied to this, as far as I can judge 
from figures. - 
Of the second great group with round bulbs and campanulate 
flowers, C. giganteum and its allies approach most nearly in habit 
to the former group. They have evergreen lanceolate leaves. In 
C. giganteum and the plant sold by Mr. Bull as C. nobile, which 
appears to be a highly coloured variety of giganteum, the leaves 
are spreading immediately above the bulb, very wavy, and the 
plant altogether hardly distinguishable from that of C. zeylanicum, 
figured, in the Botanical Magazine , 2466, as C. Careyanum ; but 
there is another form of C. giganteum, with upright, petiolate 
leaves, with a stout midrib and thin blades, varying very much in 
width. C. podophyllum has the appearance of a starved variety of 
this form. 
Allied to these in habit comes the finest of the whole genus, well 
known as C. Moorei, figured and described also under the name of 
C. Macowani. It is quite distinct from all others in having a long, 
narrow neck above its large round bulb, crowned with thin, broad, 
■lanceolate leaves, with a thick midrib, springing not in a line with 
the neck, but at a very obtuse angle. It has very large campanu¬ 
late flowers, with broad petals, varying from pink to nearly white. 
The Glasnevin plant ( Botanical Magazine, 6113) has the flowers 
darker pink than I have ever seen them, arising possibly from being 
grown out of doors. 
We now come to the deciduous Crinums and those allied to 
them. These make three or four fresh leaves every year, which 
last for three years, dying down more or less completely in the 
winter, so that the three or four middle leaves are the middle part 
of last year’s leaves, and the three or four bottom leaves are the 
base of the leaves of the year before. They all have campanulate 
nodding flowers, with the ends of the petals more or less rolled 
back, and with a more or less bright red stripe down the middle of 
•each petal. I believe that all of these very beautiful plants are 
African. From C. Kirki (fig. 31) of Zanzibar to C. loDgifolium at 
the Cape, and C. yuccmflorum of the West Coast, a series of inter¬ 
mediate forms are found. One ratherextreme form is Mr. Baker’s 
C. pauciflorum, with two flowers with very long tubes, which I 
iiave from Lake Nyassa. I have two or three forms from the 
Upper Zambesi, varying in the colour and width of the leaves and 
the length of the tube; and as the interior of Africa becomes 
better known, no doubt we shall obtain from thence a great variety 
of forms of this beautiful plant, which may be called varieties of 
one species, or a dozen or more different species, according to the 
fancy of the botanist who describes and names them. They all 
have nodding campanulate flowers, with the ends of the petals 
more or less rolled back, and with a more or less distinct purplish 
red stripe along the middle of each petal. Towards the West 
Coast of Africa are some forms with somewhat narrower petals, 
less rolled back, and with a very bright stripe. C. scabrum, from 
Brazil, and a plant that seems to be common in Jamaica, resemble 
these closely. I suppose that they have been brought from Africa 
by slave ships. 
In the largest of the deciduous Crinums that I have—coming I 
believe from Natal or thereabouts—the bulb is 5 or 6 inches in 
diameter, the leaves 4 or 5 inches wide in the second year, more in 
the third year ; a large head of nearly white, bell-shaped, nodding 
flowers, with the tips of the petals rolled back. I have had it under 
the name of campanulatum, wdiich well describes it ; and as the 
plant generally known as campanulatum is figured in the Botanical 
Magazine, 2352, as C. aquaticum, which describes it far better than 
C. campanulatum does, it might perhaps be as well to keep this 
name for the large kind. Another similar large bulb has shorter 
flowers, with much more colour. Mr. Baker thought the flower the 
same as that of C. Forbesi, but it is not the same as the plant at 
Kew of that name. 
Another extreme form of the deciduous Crinums is C. campanu¬ 
latum or aquaticum, a swamp plant, with cylindrical, very deeply 
channelled leaves, and flowers very like those of the flowering Rush 
(Butomus umbellatus). I will now only notice two interesting 
species with which I am only very imperfectly acquainted— 
C. bracliynema, with small, beautiful, creamy white flowers, with 
round petals and very short stamens. The flowers are symmetrical, 
and it comes from India, so I suppose that its affinities are with 
the columnar, star-shaped group, although it has a round bulb ; 
and C. Balfouri, which has a round bulb and flaccid, shining, 
strap-shaped leaves, so that no doubt its relations are African ; 
but it has pure white flowers, and seems to differ rather widely 
from them. 
LINARIA RETICULATA AUREO-PURPUREA. 
This pretty annual Toad Flax is a useful addition to the flower 
garden where variety of colouring is an object. Well grown plants 
commence flowering directly they are put out at the end of May, and 
continue until quite the end of the summer. Like all annuals 
this plant loves the sun, but it has the advantage over others that it 
will flower fairly well without so much of it as some require to succeed 
at all. From one packet of seed as many as half a dozen colours or 
shades of colour can be had. It grows from 1 foot to 15 inches high. 
It may be grown in patches in the herbaceous border, in thick lines, or 
it answers well as an edging if pegged down once early in the season, 
afterwards being allowed to grow at will. We have it in this w r ay as a 
margin to a Begonia bed, and it looks very attractive hanging loosely 
down over a raised edging on to the grass. The bright scarlet of 
Vesuvius Begonia adds to the appearance of the Linaria. It is admired 
by all who see it. As it seeds so freely it is a good plan to save seed 
annually from all the shades of colour. Some sow it where it is to 
bloom, but a better effect is produced by sowing the seed in sandy soil 
in a cold frame about the middle of March, afterwards prickiDg out the 
seedlings in a temporary sod-pit, where they grow strongly, and throw 
up numerous sucker-like shoots from the base which flower very freely 
in advance of those which are sown in the open. The inside-raised 
plants bloom so much earlier than those sown out of doors that any 
little trouble expended is a gain in the success of the plants afterwards. 
When intended for a row in front of any other bedding plant it is wise 
to support each with a small stake, which can be neatly hidden in 
the centre, tying the branches loosely to it. Heavy rains are liable to 
beat down the plants, as the number of flowers is somewhat heavy for 
the slender stems.—E. M. 
THE VAPOURER MOTH. 
In the note to “ C. C. E.” last week on this moth there are some 
points which do not agree with my experience. It certainly feeds on 
almost everything, and is most difficult to get rid of when once estab¬ 
lished. I watched this caterpillar and its changes as a boy. Its beauty 
charmed me, and when a few years ago I found a few on a Louise Bonne 
Pear at the back of my house I allowed them to stay where they were. 
I bitterly repented this, as the following season they nearly ruined the 
tree, and were on many of the Bose trees as well. I cannot say I am 
without them now. 
One way in which I largely reduced the numbers was to brush up the 
leaves of the tree with a long stick several times a day. This was 
generally followed by several falling to the ground, and as it was paving 
under the tree they were easily seen and destroyed. They fall very 
