244 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ March 20, 1890. 
Horticultural Society on March 11th last, and is depicted in the illustra¬ 
tion (fig. 32). The leaves are trifoliate, rather graceful in appearance, 
but the spathe is boldly marked, being of a deep purplish maroon colour 
slightly tinged with brown, clearly and distinctly streaked from base to 
apex with white. The plant is a native of the Temperate Himalayas, 
and was introduced in 1872. 
Most of the Arisasmas succeed in an intermediate temperature, but 
some require a stove, and others, again, will thrive in a greenhouse; all, 
however, need an open soil and abundance of water during growth, 
shallow pots or pans suiting them, as they do not seem to require much 
depth of soil. 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
March 11th. 
Scientific Committee.— Professor Church in the chair. Present: 
—Messrs. Blandford, Wilks, Morris, Drs. Hugo Mliller, Frank Oliver, 
Scott, Masters, and Professor Marshall Ward. 
Effects of London Fogs on Plants. —Mr. Morris read the terms of 
an application for a sum of money from the Government grant adminis¬ 
tered by the Royal Society, to be devoted to the partial payment of the 
expenses connected with the inquiry into the composition of London 
fog, with special reference to those of its constituents that are injurious 
to plants. 
Emit of Loranthus.—^lr. Morris stated, on the authority of Pro¬ 
fessor Oliver, that the fruit of the Loranthns attached to the panicle 
of the Sugar-cane, as exhibited at a previous meeting, was L. 
americanus. 
Sugar-cane Borer. —Mr. Blandford reported that the moth men¬ 
tioned at the last meeting as injuring Sugar-canes in St. Vincent was 
Diatrasa saccharalis. The beetle alluded to on the same occasion is 
known as Xyleborus perforans, and was originally described by Wollas¬ 
ton in his “ Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Madeira,” page 96. It 
occasions great injury to the bungs of the wine casks in Madeira. 
Wollaston found it commonly feeding in the stems of Jatropha curcas. 
Seedlings of Sugar-cane. —Mr. Morris, in continuation of information 
placed before the Committee on December 10th, exhibited specimens of 
mature seeds of the common Sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum). 
There were also shown germinating seeds, some plants, drawings of the 
flower, and dissections of the fruit (caryopsis) in detail. Mr. Morris 
stated that there appeared to be no authentic record of any really wild 
station for the Sugar-cane ; further, that the fruit of the Sugar-cane 
had not hitherto been figured or described. At Barbadoes several times 
during the last twenty years, and more recently by Professor Harrison 
and Mr. Bouch, self-sown seedlings of the Sugar-cane had been observed. 
The subject was taken up systematically in 1888, and about sixty of 
the seedlings had been raised to mature canes. Many of these exhibited 
well-marked characteristics, difEering from the varieties growing near 
them. Careful inquiry had shown that canes known as the “ Purple 
Transparent ” and “ White Transparent,” and possibly also the “ Bour¬ 
bon ” cane, produced seeds in very moderate quantities. Spikelets 
received at Kew had been examined and the seed found in situ, A 
description with figures had recently been laid before the Linntean 
Society by Mr. Morris. It is anticipated that by cross-fertilisation and 
a careful selection of seedlings, it will now be possible to raise new and 
improved varieties of Sugar-cane, and renew the constitutional vigour 
of plants that have become deteriorated through continuous cultivation 
by cuttings or slips. Great importance is attached to the subject in 
sugar-producing countries, as it opens up an entirely new field of inves¬ 
tigation in regard to Sugar-cane cultivation. 
SPARMANNIA AFRICANA. 
This fine Cape plant, which has been in our gardens now for some¬ 
thing like a century, deserves more attention than is generally paid to it, 
which but too often consists in just keeping alive one or two old semi¬ 
nude plants in any convenient corner of the greenhouse or some other 
such structure. 
In May and June the Sparmannia is usually crowned with its 
numerous umbels of snow white flowers, containing as they do a multi¬ 
tude of gaudy stamens—which reminds us forcibly of the popular 
Hypericum of our borders associated with a beautifully white corolla, 
instead of its familiar guardian in gold. It possesses, however, qualities 
of -far more importance to the gardener than those we have just named. 
When a young stock is kept up—and it is easily propagated—it furnishes 
material for the cut flower basket through the greater portion of the 
year. Its double form, S. africana var. flore pleno, is the best for this 
purpose, which, though destitute of the beautiful stamens of the old 
favourite, amply compensates with an abundance of petals veined with 
deep rose. The flowers of the variety are slightly larger than those of 
the species, from which they vary in another respect—viz., their some¬ 
what pendulous habit. I cannot conceive of a more profltable cool- 
house plant where cut flowers are in demand. 
From what we gleaned in a recent visit to Messrs. B. S. Williams 
and Son’s nurseries. Upper Holloway, it appears that gardeners are 
now becoming alive to this fact, the demand being on a steady 
increase. Sparmannias are easily struck where young shoots are to 
be obtained, giving no more trouble than the ordinary tenants of 
the propagating house. Our own practice is to place one or two old 
plants, well spurred back, into an early vinery, where, by the middle of 
April, they produce plenty of young growth suitable for cuttings, which 
we insert rather thickly, to economise space, in 48-sized pots, and 
plunge in the bed of the propagating house. Bottom heat is not abso¬ 
lutely necessary for them, but they root all the quicker for it. When 
rooted, they are potted singly in CO’s in a compost of loam and leaf 
mould, with a dash of coarse silver sand to keep the whole porous. They 
are again shifted when necessary into various sizes as required, using the 
same compost. 
The Sparmannia is by no means a gross feeder, all it requires being 
plenty of light and well drained, wholesome soil. Old plants should in 
every instance be well shaken out of the old compost before being placed 
in new quarters, which should be as confined as possible, shifting into 
large sizes as required, rather than overpotting in the first instance. 
Plants thus treated will retain their foliage better than when treated in. 
a careless manner.—W. R. W. 
A NOTED BOTANIST. 
Dr. C. C. Parry died at his home in Davenport, Iowa, on the 20tb 
of last month, from pneumonia, which followed an attack of influenza, 
contracted in the east. He paid a long visit to botanical friends in the 
autumn and early winter, and while here was busy investigating various, 
matters connected with the California flora. He was then in perfect 
health apparently, active and alert in mind and body, and full of plans 
for new work. He was enthusiastic in discussing new expeditions in 
the far west, and full of reminiscences of travel and adventure. Though 
sixty-six years of age, we little thought then that our friend’s wander¬ 
ings were so near an end. 
Charles C. Parry was born in Admington, England, on August 28th, 
1823. His family emigrated to America nine years later, and settled on 
a farm in Washington County, New York. Dr. Parry was educated at 
Union College, and then studied medicine. He was interested, however, 
in botany even at this period of his life, and although he practised his 
profession for a short time in Davenport, where his family removed in 
1846, he soon abandoned it for the more congenial pursuit of natural 
history. He had devoted much attention to collecting the plants of 
New York before he moved to Iowa, and these studies secured for him 
the acquaintance of Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray. Their acquaint¬ 
ance confirmed his taste for botanical exploration, and exerted a 
powerful influence upon the remainder of his life. 
Dr. Parry’s real work as an explorer began in 1849, when he was 
atiached to David Dale Owen’s survey of Wisconsin, and made a collec¬ 
tion of plants in the valleys of the St. Croix and St. Peter Rivers. The 
next year he joined the botanical staff of the Mexican Boundary Survey, 
and crossed the California desert from San Diego to the mouth of the 
Gila River. This journey and the subsequent ones which he made as a 
member of the survey, and which extended through two or three years, 
and carried him overland from the Pacifle Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, 
were rich in botanical discoveries of the most interesting character- 
These are found recorded in the “ Report of the Mexican Boundary 
Survey,” published in 1852. Persons who cross these deserts now in 
Pullman palace cars can form a very slight idea of the sufferings and 
hardships of these early explorers, who passed months in travelling 
distances now covered in as many days. 
Dr. Parry's next conspicuous service to American botany was per¬ 
formed in 1861, when he began his examination of the flora of the 
central Rocky Mountains. This work, undertaken mainly at his own 
expense, occupied him several years. The Colorado Mountains were at 
that time a fresh field practically, their flora being known only by the 
scant material brought back many years before by the naturalist of 
Major Long’s expedition, and Dr. Parry was able to reap a rich harvest 
from the plants which extend to the summits of the alpine peaks, which 
he was the first botanist to reach. He made, too, at this time valuable 
meteorological and topographical observations, afterward elaborated by 
Dr. Engelmann. Dr. Parry was appointed in 1869 as botanist of the 
Agricultural Department at Washington, and occupied this position for 
two years. He was, however, an explorer by temperament and by habit, 
and he had little liking for the restraints of an office position. This 
taste for travel he was able to gratify for the last twenty years, during 
which he was more or less continuously in the field, either in Nevada 
and Utah, where he made many discoveries, or in Mexico and California, 
where much of the last part of his life was passed. He always kept 
his home, however, at Davenport, in whose Academy of Natural 
Sciences he was deeply interested. This he made several years ago the- 
depository of his herbarium, which was of course exceedingly rich in 
western plants, and which, besides his own collections, contained those 
of many correspondents. 
Dr. Parry discovered hundreds of new plants afterwards described- 
by Dr. Gray and by Dr. Engelmann, and his name is so firmly fixed in 
this way in the history of American botany that, although he published 
very little, it will be remembered as long as the plants of western 
America continue to interest the students of botany. Horticulturists- 
will not forget that it was Dr. Parry who discovered Picea pungens, the 
beautiful Blue Spruce of our gardens ; Pinus Engelmanni, P. Tor- 
reyana, P. Parryana, and P. aristata ; nor that it was through his zeal 
and enterprise that many plants now familiar to us were first cultivated. 
With Dr. Parry there passes away the last, with a single exception, of 
the remarkable group of men who became prominent as botanical ex¬ 
plorers soon after the great addition to the territory of the United 
