July 6, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
711 
disease from two opposite causes : first, from too much 
moisture, as in swampy soils, where the fronds are 
usually small and ill-formed, and the fruit scarce ; 
secondly, from lack of moisture, where the soil is hard 
and dry, the sap-hearing vessels shrink and the plant 
perishes. Amongst the insects and animals destructive 
to the Palm may be mentioned the Cocoa Nut weevil, 
which eats its way into the heart of the tree, and forms 
its cocoon there ; the Cocoa Nut beetle, the flying 
squirrel, the common striped Palm squirrel, the flying 
fox, and the tree dog. The rat family is very destruc¬ 
tive, particularly iu the Laccadives. It is exceedingly 
difficult to get at these rats—they make to themselves 
so many hiding places amongst the trees. Rat hunts 
are, however, occasionally got up, and to these all the 
inhabitants turn out with sticks and poles. While 
some of the hunters climb the trees and drive out the 
rats, the rest surround the trunks and kill the animals 
as they rush down .—From “ A Monograph on the 
Cocoa Nut Palm,” by Dr. J. Short. 
-~>X<-- 
ARDENING ffflSCELLANY. 
--j.- 
The Giant Bellflower. 
Such would be a not inappropriate designation for 
Ostrowskya magnifica, a plant closely allied to Cam¬ 
panula. The stems rise to a height of 2 ft., bearing a 
solitary widely funnel-shaped flower of great dimen¬ 
sions. Later on it spreads out till it is openly or flatly 
campanulate, disclosing the large club-shaped style. 
The colour seems to vary slightly from pink to lilac in 
different individuals, and the corolla is shallowly seven 
to eight-lobed. The leaves are arranged along the 
stem in fours at rather distant intervals, and are ovate 
and dark green in colour. The species is a native of 
Afghan, and if it prove perfectly hardy, will form an 
acquisition to the hardy plant border. It apparently 
increases but slowly at the root, and would therefore 
not be out of place on the rockery, as we noted it at 
Kew the other day. 
Gentiana Weschniakowi. 
The radical leaves of this species are linear-lanceolate, 
and from 3 ins. to 6 ins. long. Those borne on the 
stem are, on the contrary, lanceolate and remarkably 
short if compared with other species of similar habit. 
The slender stems rise to a height of 12 ins. or 15 ins., 
and bear deep blue purple-tinted flowers in a terminal 
raceme or cyme. The individual blooms are ventricose— 
that is, they are narrowed upwards, and do not expand 
widely like those of G. verna or G. acaulis. In this 
respect the species resembles the North American 
G. Andrewsi, though it is otherwise totally distinct. 
It is a native of Turkestan, in Central Asia, from whence 
Regel has introduced many choice garden subjects. A 
specimen may now be seen flowering on the rockery at 
Kew. 
Crinum longifolrum. 
Considering the hardiness of this plant, it is a matter 
for surprise that specimens are so seldom met with in 
gardens. One drawback to the plant possibly is the 
space it requires ; but there are few gardens of any 
extent to which it would not prove a decided ornament 
and well occupy the space devoted to it. The bulbs 
are 3 ins. or 4 ins. in diameter, and if these are covered 
with a few inches of soil, they pass the winter safely 
without other protection. The soil should be well drained, 
and if a good quantity of sand is incorporated with it 
so much the better for the bulbs. In cold and exposed 
localities a small quantity of dried leaves placed round 
the neck of the bulbs as the foliage dies away will ward 
off the rain, and at the same time protect from frost. 
The plants, in gardens where they are grown, are now 
finely in flower, and will continue so for the greater 
part of the summer months. The tube of the flower is 
3 ins. or 4 ins. long, and the segments as much more. 
The latter are striped with red down the back, rarely 
pure white. The species is usually known under the 
name of C. capense, and has several other names, such 
as C. riparium, Amaryllis capensis and A. bulbisperma, 
the latter appellation being given from its large seeds. 
The Eastern Thorn. 
The Thorns are beautiful little trees, valuable alike for 
their profusion of bloom or their equally or even more 
showy fruit. The Eastern Thorn (Crataegus orientalis) 
is one of the latest to come into bloom—usually about 
the middle of June, and continuing almost to the end 
of the month. They are white, similar to those of the 
common Hawthorn, but rather smaller, and produced 
in small umbels in great profusion. The haws are 
large, pale coral-red or yellowish, pleasing to the eye, 
agreeable to the taste, and ripen during August and 
September, and adorn the trees for many weeks, some¬ 
times even after the fall of the leaf. We noted a tree 
of it a short time ago at The Grange, Wallington, when 
it was in full bloom, emitting a very agreeable odour from 
the flowers. There is a variety of it in cultivation (if 
it has not been lost) under the name of C. o. sanguinea, 
with deep purplish red fruits. It may readily be 
recognised by its cuneate, three-lobed, hoary leaves, 
and its fruit, which differs from that of C. tanacetifolia 
in the absence of bracts subtending the fruit of the 
latter. 
The Blue Poppy. 
A few healthy plants of Meconopsis Wallichi have a 
fine effect in some cool recess of the garden or rockery 
when they come into bloom about midsummer. There 
is something very striking and unusual about the long 
deeply-pinnatifid leaves, which are shaggy, with long 
rusty yellow hairs. The stems rise to the height of 
from 3 ft. to 6 ft., according to the favourable nature 
of the circumstances, and bear a panicled inflorescence 
at the top. The individual flowers are of great size 
and typically pale blue, but have a rather short 
endurance, which is compensated for by the number of 
blooms produced in succession from the branches. 
There is a brownish purple variety which sometimes 
makes its appearance in cultivation, but the typical 
pale blue form is the best. Although perennial, it is 
rather short-lived, and does best when treated as a 
biennial in the same way as Meconopsis nepalensis, 
which also comes from the Himalayas. 
Lilium concolor pulchellum. 
Although introduced as long ago as 1834 from 
Mongolia, this beautiful variety is rarely seen in culti¬ 
vation. It is usually simply named L. pulchellum in 
gardens, but it is inseparable from L. concolor as far as 
botanical characters go. In a wild state the flowers 
are solitary, or mostly so ; but cultivated specimens 
bear from four to six blooms, which are erect, broadly 
bell-shaped, and bright scarlet, marked all over with 
small black spots. The stems are slender, 6 ins. to 
12 ins. high, bearing from eighteen to thirty sessile 
irregularly scattered leaves, and the bulbs are very 
small, generally about the size of a hazel nut, while 
those of the type, as well as the stems, are larger. 
Viola cornuta alba. 
The white variety of the horned Yiola is so floriferous 
when planted in open, well-exposed positions, that the 
smallness of the flowers, compared with those of the 
improved bedding kinds, need not prevent the plant 
from being more extensively cultivated than it is. The 
flowering will be the more continuous if the soil in 
which the plants are grown is rich and naturally 
moist rather than otherwise. Wonderful improvements 
have been effected in the blue-flowered, typical form, 
both with regard to the size of the flowers and the 
intensity of their colour. The same may be said, to a 
smaller extent, of Y. lutea, a variety or sub-species of 
V. tricolor, having yellow flowers. Seeing that a good 
white bedding Yiola is so much in request, V. cornuta 
alba should be improved in size by cross-breeding or 
hybridisation, till the desired size and breadth of petal 
is obtained. 
Tbe Common Lime. 
As far as British or European trees generally are con¬ 
cerned, the Limes are remarkable in flowering so late 
in the year. Tilia vulgaris, the species under notice, 
flowers at the latter end of June and in July in the 
southern counties ; but away farther north it is very 
much later. As an avenue tree, or in the pleasure 
grounds, it is strikingly handsome, owing to the long 
drooping habit of its branches, and the beauty of its 
ample obliquely heart-shaped leaves. The flowers are 
most abundantly produced, and if not very conspicuous 
by their want of bright colours, they make their pre¬ 
sence felt by the delicious odour that pervades the 
atmosphere for a considerable distance around, and 
especially to the leeward of the wind. They are pale 
yellow, and borne in clusters attached to a large and 
singular-looking bract, and they produce a large amount 
of honey, which is eagerly sought after by bees. 
A Showy Annual. 
The yellow Composites are so plentiful, especially at 
certain seasons, that they are held in disrepute in some 
gardens ; but there is a number even of the yellow 
kinds that are undoubtedly popular. Coreopsis 
Drummondi, the subject of this note, although not so 
popular as it ought to be, is an old plant—an annual 
species introduced from Texas in 1834, and is un¬ 
deniably very showy when well grown, on account of 
the large size of the flower-heads, which have long 
golden yellow rays, with a rich velvety blotch at the 
base of each. In this respect it may be compared with 
C. lanceolata, which is a much better known and 
decidedly popular perennial herbaceous species. The 
flower-heads of the latter are golden yellow, without 
spots, and this is frequently the case in perennial 
species. The annuals, on the other hand—often 
grown in gardens under the name of Calliopsis—have 
mostly spotted rays. The most frequently grown 
annual species is C. tinctoria, which has finely-cut 
leaves. Those of C. Drummondi are broad, little 
divided, and of a soft pleasing green colour. 
Philadelphus grandiflorus. 
The hardy species of Philadelphus or Mock Orange are 
now exceedingly showy in the shrubberies everywhere. 
A number of species have been introduced from time to 
time, but many of them got rooted up to make room 
for bedding plants when the craze for that style of 
gardening was at its height. One of the showiest is 
P. grandiflorus, which has flowers of great size, in 
addition to which they are fragrant, whereas those of 
P. Gordonianus, another strong-growing species with 
large and showy flowers, are not fragrant. The leaves 
are broadly or roundly ovate, sometimes pointed, and 
irregularly toothed. The shrub forms a large strong¬ 
growing bush, 6 ft. to 10 ft. in height, and although a 
native of the Southern United States is hardy in this 
country. 
New Zealand Bluebell. 
The above appellation has not inappropriately been 
given to AYahlenbergia saxicola, or the rock-loving 
Wahlenbergia, because in habit it greatly resembles a 
miniature Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), which is 
the Bluebell of Scotland. The plant under notice is, 
however, much dwarfer than S. rotundifolia, and bears 
a single erect bloom on the top of its short leafless 
flower stalk. The corolla is bell-shaped and usually 
pale blue or lilac? but seedlings vary considerably in 
the colour of their flowers, just as many other members 
of the order Campanulaceae are liable to do, especially 
the Campanulas themselves. Some blooms of Wahlen¬ 
bergia saxicola are white with blue veins, and we may 
presently get a pure white form, if it is not already in 
existence. The plant is so nearly hardy that it will 
live through several successive winters in the open 
border, or better on the rockery in the south of England, 
and flowers freely in summer. A reserve stock should, 
however, be kept in a cold frame, or even in an unheated 
hardy plant house. 
Rehmannia glutinosa. 
As a hardy or sub-hardy plant, this is certainly distinct 
from the general run of flowers grown out of doors. It 
belongs to the Scrophularia family, and although 
widely distinct, may be compared to a species of 
Digitalis in habit. The greater number of the leaves 
are radical, oval, or oblong, deeply and coarsely toothed. 
The flower stems rise to a height of 12 ins. or 18 ins., 
and bear numerous flowers in the axils of the upper 
leaves in a racemose manner. The blooms individually 
are of rather large size, tubular, and dingy or lurid 
purple, with a paler and pinkish, oblique, five-lobed 
limb. Although not particularly attractive as far as 
the colours are concerned, yet a flowering plant has a 
distinct and interesting appearance. It is sufficiently 
hardy to outlive our winters at least, if planted in a 
sheltered and rather dry border, while it grows freely 
and comes into flower in June or even earlier, and lasts 
through July. A flowering specimen may be seen in a 
border at Kew under the name of R. chinensis. It is a 
native of northern China. Only one other species is 
known, and is a native of Japan. 
Nuphar advenum. 
In ponds and ornamental water this may readily be 
recognised by its forming masses of leaves standing 
clear out of the water, whereas those of the native 
species, N. luteum and N. pumilum, have oblong or 
sub-orbicular leaves that float on the surface, except 
when large old plants get crowded, their leaves then 
rising out of the water a little way. The allied plants 
have round or terete petioles, while those of N. 
advenum are flattened on the upper side. The oblong 
heart-shaped blade of aerial leaves have the basal 
leaves widely diverging, not contiguous or closed, as in 
floating leaves. The flowers are yellow, like those of 
N. luteum, but the stamens are of a deep red, giving 
an additional attraction to the flower, and in good 
varieties the interior of the otherwise yellow sepals 
is also heavily tinged with red. The rhizomes should 
be planted in shallow ponds not exceeding 12 ins. or 
18 ins. in depth, because the plants are less vigorous 
in deep water. An open sunny position is most 
•favourable to the production of flowers. 
