570 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 7, 1887. 
A healthy, well-grown, and good-sized specimen of 
Semele androgyna, showing (lower-buds on the margins 
of its curiously-flattened branches, occupies a pillar in 
the central part of the conservatory. The difficulty of 
propagating this fine plant easily acts as a great 
hindrance to its rapid dissemination in gardens. At 
present numerous well-flowered Richardias add greatly 
to the appearance of the other plants in the house, and 
were notable for the size of the individual spathes. 
One wing of this block of buildings is occupied with 
Orchids and stove plants, while the corresponding 
wing at the other end contains Ferns. The manner in 
which tire stems of the tree Ferns were clothed with 
seedling Adiantums is very pleasing, and a thing that 
might be adopted with advantage in other establish¬ 
ments. The Azaleas—almost indispensable spring¬ 
flowering plants, next to Camellias—from having been 
kept in a remarkably cool house, are only now coming 
into flower. Owing to the fact that neither proprietor 
nor tenant reside constant^ at this place, a great 
supply of the ordinary greenhouse and stove plants is 
not required. We noticed, however, a finely-coloured 
lot of Yitis heterophylla variegata, and a good-sized 
plant of Casuarina equisetifolia, the latter being in 
flower. In front of the conservatory is a fine collec¬ 
tion of herbaceous plants in beds on the grass, and a 
much more pleasing feature than the same extent of 
bedding plants. These we must notice later in the season. 
-- 
CURIOUS PLANTS. 
A few words of explanation may not be out of place 
in introducing such a wide subject to the reader’s notice. 
A few typical instances, picked at random from the vege¬ 
table kingdom, will serve my purpose. It is popularly 
believed that plants are only to be considered curious 
that offer some remarkable peculiarities or differences 
not observable in the vast array or assemblage of 
plants we daily see around us. This interpretation is 
undoubtedly correct in the main ; but we must not 
overlook the fact that when a plant becomes common 
it ceases to be strange, although still invested with the 
peculiar habit or appearance that first struck our 
wonder. On the one hand, there are plants that never 
become common, while their rarity adds considerably 
to their interest; and on the other hand, some are 
abundant and readily discernible, or so minute as to 
require the aid of the microscope to detect them. This 
instrument reveals what the naked eye cannot follow— 
worlds within worlds, as it were—and our curiosity is 
the more excited when we consider the excessive 
minuteness of the object under our notice. 
The Yeast Plant (Torula Cerevisize). 
The Yeast Plant is a unicellular organism, not 
exceeding the two thousand five hundredth part of an 
inch, and sometimes so small that seven thousand of 
them could lie side by side on a linear inch. It multi¬ 
plies by budding -with enormous rapidity, and the 
daughter, grand-daughter, and great grand-daughter 
cells sometimes remain attached in single or compound 
strings, or become wholly detached from one another. 
The constituents of this little plant are protein, cellulose 
fat, and water. The rapidity with which it assimilates 
its food, grows, and multiplies may be guessed when a 
little yeast added to a saccharine liquid will, in a few 
days, weigh several thousand or million times its 
original weight if the conditions are favourable. This 
diminutive vegetable is of great economical importance 
in several industries, such as that of bread-making, 
wine, beer, spirits, cider, and perry-making. Its 
action in those liquids is to set up fermentation till the 
latter are so concentrated, or contain so much alcohol, 
that the yeast is unable to live. So much gas is 
generated and given off during fermentation on a large 
scale that it is convenient not to confine the liquid 
till the operation has ceased. The Yeast Plant will 
rather die than consume any more of this material; 
and may be compared to a brewer who will rather 
undergo martyrdom than drink the beer of his own 
brewing. 
The Vinegar Plant (Bacterium aceti). 
AYhen the Yeast Plant has done its work, or, in other 
words, when fermentation has reached that stage re¬ 
sulting in alcohol, another micro-organism steps in and 
converts the alcohol into acetic acid, better known as 
vinegar. This is desirable in vinegar making, but a 
misfortune to the brewer, causing his beer to turn sour. 
The organism in question is a species of Bacterium, 
namely, B. aceti, and is unicellular like the Yeast 
Plant. An idea of its absorptive capacity may be 
gathered from the fact that a single or individual cell 
in the course of twenty-four hours can convert seventy- 
five times its own weight of alcohol into vinegar. 
Were a man possessed with the same enormous faculty 
of absorption in proportion to his size or weight, he 
would devour about five tons of food daily. 
Volvox globator. 
The individuals of this minute water plant live in 
colonies. Several hundreds or even thousands arrange 
themselves around the circumference of a globular mass 
of colourless jelly, and the whole does not exceed the 
fiftieth part of an inch in diameter. The centre is 
colourless, and the outer wall appears densely studded 
with little green bodies, and these are the individuals 
that go to form a colony. Some of these individuals 
divide repeatedly, until a great number are formed ; 
these unite and form young colonies that drop into the 
interior of the mother one, and are finally released by 
the decay of the parent. From the outer end of each 
individual organism, which is unicellular, two long 
cilia or oar-like processes project into the water, and 
the thousands of cilia in continual vibratory movement 
roll the whole colony through the water in which it 
lives. The cilia move with remarkable rapidity, and 
their unity of action must be marvellous, considering 
how quickly and easily the whole colony glide through 
the water. There are two motions, namely, a rolling 
one, like our earth upon its axis ; and a progressive one, 
by which the colony may move about in quest of food. 
Yolvox globator is extremely abundant in some fresh¬ 
water ponds, and in some instances, so prodigious are 
the numbers, that they impart their own bright green 
colour to the surface of the water. 
Wellingtoxia gigantea. 
In striking contrast to either of the foregoing uni¬ 
cellular plants may be mentioned the Mammoth Tree 
of California (Wellingtonia gigantea), which sometimes 
attains the enormous height of 363 ft., with a circum¬ 
ference of 93 ft. near the base. The bark is often 18 
ins. thick, and a large portion of this was formerly set 
up in the Crystal Palace to show its enormous dimen¬ 
sions. Judging from the number of annual rings, the 
tree lives to an age of from 3,000 to 4,000 years. One 
of these gigantic trees, after being felled, had a ball¬ 
room erected over its root, which would, according to 
the dimensions above given, be 31 ft. in diameter. At 
100 ft. from the ground the trunk of the same tree 
measured 45 ft. in circumference. At one time this was 
considered the tallest tree in the world ; but a species 
of Gum Tree (Eucalyptus amygdalinus) has since been 
discovered, towering to the height of 400 ft. Although 
the Mammoth Tree is thus exceeded in stateliness, its 
portly dimensions have been rivalled by that of no 
other. The Yeast Plant consists of a single cell, and 
the 'VYellingtonia, weighing many tons, is merely an 
aggregation of single cells of no great size. — F. 
( To be continued. ) 
-- 
ARDEN1NG fflSCELLANY. 
Late Chrysanthemums. — I notice in Mr. 
Lewis Castle’s Chrysanthemum Annual mention is 
made of Geant de Yalence, as being too late for 
exhibition purposes ; and from my experience of this 
“Mum,” I am quite satisfied as to the correctness of 
this statement. I received a small plant of this variety 
from the Continent in April last year ; it did not make 
very much progress in the early part of the season— 
the natural break was somewhat late in making its 
appearance ; it carried three breaks, but it was not 
until towards the end of November that I was able to 
find a bud on the plant. I then discovered one crown- 
bud, and the other two branches came blind ; this crown- 
bud produced a very fair bloom, which I cut about 
the middle of January. About this time I discovered 
new shoots making signs of terminal buds ; these I 
watched carefully, and the result is, I have now six 
blooms on the plant. These blooms are somewhat paler 
and smaller than the first, measuring between 3 ins. 
and 4 ins. across. It is not a flower that is likely to 
be of much use, as it is one of the semi-tubulated 
varieties, of which we have had far too many from our 
friends in France ; but it is without doubt a late 
“Mum,” and, I think, in all the years’ experience I 
have had with this favourite, I have never reared a 
bloom as late as this one.— Practical. 
Cutting Proses for Exhibition. —When is 
the best time to cut the blooms is a question often put, 
and not always answered in a satisfactory manner. I 
think our great rosarians are generally agreed that the 
best time of the day to do this is at daybreak ; but then 
there is the important consideration that if a long 
journey has to be made to get to a flower show, the 
work has to be done in a hurry, and a careful selection 
of blooms cannot be made. And then supposing it 
should be wet ? why, many of the blooms will be in 
danger of becoming disfigured. If the previous day is 
dull and cool, cutting might commence in the after¬ 
noon, 'or later according to the number of flowers which 
are required. If it is a warm day, cutting will be best 
left until the cool of the evening. It is a good plan in 
cutting exhibition Roses to have the boxes on which 
they are shown ready at hand, surfaced with damp 
moss, placing the blooms in proper position as they are 
cut, and securing them by placing a little damp moss or 
saturated wadding in the tubes to keep them in a 
secure position. The great art in selecting Roses is to 
take such blooms as will be developed in their best 
character when they are staged. This is one of the 
teachings of experience, and practice makes perfect.— 
R. D. ' 
Impatiens Hawkeri. —This fine Balsam bids 
fair to become a universally popular plant. None who 
have seen it fail to admire the intensely rich carmine- 
purple tint of the flowers, especially when they first 
expand. They are of the flattened type like I. Sultani 
now grown in almost every garden in Britain. The 
flowers are not so numerous as in the latter, but much 
larger and of greater substance, and last a long time in 
great perfection. The branching of the stems and 
shoots is not so free as in I. Sultani, but all are 
much stouter and of a fine metallic-crimson colour, 
which is one of its distinctive and striking characters. 
Owing to the internodes being more elongated than in 
the older and better known species above mentioned, 
the leaves are more scattered, but this we do not con¬ 
sider a defect, as it shows off the magnificently hand¬ 
some metallic looking stems to advantage. 
Spirasa Tliunbergii. —The elegance of this plant 
is well known to those who grow it in their shrubberies. 
The slender twiggy branches are rendered conspicuous 
in spring by a profusion of small white Hawthorn-like 
blossoms ; and these are succeeded by the leaves which 
are so long, linear and slender, rendering the plant very 
distinct amongst Spirieas. Mr. Bones, of Tower. House, 
Chiswick, forces the plant along with Deutzias and 
other hard-wooded plants, such as Staphylea colchica. 
Presumably from its habit of flowering early it would 
readily respond to artificial heat, but possibly some 
might object to sprays of flowers being leafless. 
Dracuneulus vulgaris. —According to record 
this curious Aroid seems' to have been introduced to 
this country more than 300 years ago. Occasionally 
we see it in gardens, but not so frequently as its sin¬ 
gular appearance coupled with its hardy accommodating 
nature would seem to warrant. It is called in some 
books Arum Dracuneulus while its English name is the 
Common Dragon ; but Mr. Addison, of Merton Lodge, 
Chiswick, who grows the plant on the edge of a shrub¬ 
bery calls it the Tiger plant. The stem-like, long 
upright sheaths of the leaves are beautifully striped 
horizontally with brown and grey bars, giving them 
much the appearance of a snake’s body. The leaves 
are pedate, and the spathe brownish purple, but not so 
striking or interesting as the so called stems. 
Cereus flagelliformis. —The appearance of this 
plant is probably familiar to those who have been iu 
old-fashioned gardens, where variety was aimed at more 
than collections of specialities (chiefly of soft-wooded 
stuff), which are so common at the present day. Some 
gardeners call this Cereus the Rat’s-tail, from the long 
pendent whip-like thongs formed by the creeping or 
prostrate stems. The latter are densely covered with 
little tubercles, which are furnished with numerous 
bristles. On account of this habit, the best effect is 
produced when the plant is put iu a pot or pan, and hung 
up to the roof of a greenhouse or conservatory, in the 
absence of a special house for such things. The red 
flowers and fruit are also very ornamental. Mr. Beaton 
grows this species at Style Hall, Gunnersbury. 
Allamanda neriifolia.—The flowers of this 
species does not attain the dimensions of A. Schotti, or 
its variety A. S. Hendersoni, but owing to their being 
produced in clusters, a well-grown and flowered plant 
is very effective amongst a collection of stove plants. 
