May 14, 1892. 
582 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
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The under-mentioned plants were awarded Certifi¬ 
cates by the Committees of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, at the Drill Hall, on the 3rd inst. Orchids 
receiving honours at the same time are recorded 
under " Orchid Notes and Gleanings.” 
Caladium Souvenir de Haro. —Caladiums with 
few exceptions are too large for ordinary decorative 
purposes. That under notice may be considered an 
exception, for it grows only 6 in. to 12 in. high, with 
leaves about twice the size of those of the popular C. 
argyrites. The leaves are subpeltate, with short 
auricles, deep red, with broad green margins, and 
having a few red veins mingling with the green. 
Tillandsia Mcensii, T. Massangeana superba, 
and Aglaonema costatum.— For description of 
these three fine-foliaged plants see p. 566. They, as 
well as the Caladium, were exhibited by Messrs. J. 
Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, and all received First-class 
Certificates. 
Dracaena Coullingii.— This is a garden hybrid 
raised between D.Mooreana and D. lerminalis alba. 
The leaves are somewhat similar to those of D ter- 
minalis in width, but they are narrowed to a petiole, 
and again dilated and sheathing at the base. They 
are of a deep shining green, with a broad creamy- 
white margin, sometimes the leaves of the crown, 
and occasionally a few others, have the creamy- 
white hue extending over the greater part of the sur¬ 
face. It was shown by Messrs. B. S. Williams & 
Son, Upper Holloway, and received a First-class 
Certificate. 
Lotus peliorhynchus. — The leaflets of this 
species are linear, glaucous or hoary, and so closely 
arranged on an excessively shortened footstalk as to 
appear fascicled or somewhat verticillate, and gene¬ 
rally number about six. The flowers are crimson-red 
or scarlet, with a dark band along the centre of the 
upper petal or standard. The stems, as usually seen, 
are about 2 ft. in length, with the flowers in clusters 
on short, axillary shoots towards the apex of the main 
stems, but a specimen grown in a basket and 
exhibited by Sir Trevor'Lawrence, Bart., M.P. 
(gardener, Mr. Bain), Burford Lodge, Dorking, had 
pendulous, cord-like, leafy stems 8 ft. to 10 ft. long. 
In this form the species would make a grand subject 
for suspending from the roof of large, cool conserva¬ 
tories. The species is a native of Tenerifte, and when 
shown was honoured with a First-class Certificate. 
Rose Waban. —In this we have a sport that origi¬ 
nated in America from the Tea Rose Catherine 
Mermet. The foliage is of a rich dark green colour, 
while the flowers are of good average size for the 
class to which the variety belongs. They are of a 
warm but soft rose, fading to a rosy pink after 
a time. The petals are closely arranged, compact 
and revolute at the margins. The half-expanded buds 
are darkest in colour. It was accorded an Award of 
Merit when shown by W. F'urze, Esq., Roselands, 
Teddington. 
Auricula Golden Drop. — The flowers of this 
variety are bright lemon yellow and double, with the 
overlapping segments arranged about three tiers 
deep. The leaves are obovate, serrate, mealy, and 
sulphur-coloured on the edges owing to the quantity 
of mealy powder there. The variety w-as shown by- 
Mr. R. Dean, Ranelagh Road, Ealing, and received 
an Award of Merit. 
Rose White Lady. — The flow ers of this are white, 
with a pale blush tint in the centre, and of large size, 
as the variety is a sport from Lad}- Mary Fitz- 
william It is also described as a hybrid Tea, and 
has a somewhat massive and compact appearance. 
Rose Corinna. — The leaves of this Tea Rose are 
of a shining dark green, and the young shoots are of 
a deep red. The flowers are salmon pink, darkest 
while still in bud and in the centre of the old bloom 
It is prettiest and most attractive while still in the 
bud or even half-expanded state. A little group of 
plants was exhibited by Messrs. Wm. Paul & Son, 
Waltham Cross, and both this and the previously- 
named variety received Awards of Merit. 
-—- 
RANUNCULUS MONTANUS. 
Of all the golden yellow Buttercups, few present a 
neater appearance than R. montanus. The leaves 
are suborbicular, three-parted with wedge-shaped 
segments and form a dense green tuft surmounted 
by the flowers which are relatively large and 
produced singly on the stems. The plant may be 
compared to some of our British species such as R. 
acris, than w'hich it is smaller in all its plants with 
exception of the flowers which are larger. If 
planted in a good sized patch in the front line of the 
herbaceous border it would have a very telling effect 
during the spring and early summer months ; but 
most growers who have a rockery w’ould prefer to 
have it there, so as to be out of the way of harm and 
more under the eye. It is perfectly hardy, and 
although it grows but slowly, it may easily be pro¬ 
pagated by division. 
Hardening §[iscellanl 
“JOHN” AS A VEGETABLE GROWER. 
The habitues of Mott Street, New York, are supplied 
with vegetables a la Chinese, grown by their own 
countrymen in Long Island. Near Steinway there 
are four farms, each worked by three Chinamen, 
and a visit was recently made to the farms by a Sun 
reporter, who gleaned the following information in 
regard to the names and kinds of the vegetables 
grown. A monstrous green fuzzy Melon, that looked 
like a Water-melon covered with mouldy moss, was 
said to be a Chinese Cucumber, and was called 
wong-wa. Some Greens that resembled discarded 
Turnip tops w'ere, said the Chinaman, gui-tui, 
and the rest of the same Turnips were lou bak. 
Chinese Celery, or something identical in appearance 
with the American vegetable, was bak-tui. The 
Spinach-like Greens were hong-tui, and the China¬ 
man said the}' were used for salad. The most 
curious of all was a long, slender Melon that looked 
like a thin Cucumber covered with spikes. This was 
a lak-wa. Its seeds were cut up and boiled. The 
hedges which lined the road on the south end of the 
farm bore Chinese string Beans. “ All the seeds we 
use,” said the almond-eyed farmer, “ come from 
China. We don’t grow your vegetables, because 
Chinamen don't know how to use them. Sometimes 
we have seeds left over that we can use, but if the 
winter is cold they spoil. This has been a bad sea¬ 
son for us. It was too dry in June, July, and August, 
and too wet in September. Lots of our vegetables 
rotted before they got ripe. The biggest of these 
farms is Lee W'ah’s. He raises more than he can 
sell. We were all farmers in China, and we work 
here as we did there.”— Florists' Exchange. 
RHODODENDRON VEITCHIANUM 
Seeing that this Moulmein species can be grown to 
perfection even in a greenhouse, and that too in pots, 
there is no necessity for planting out the large- 
flowered Himalayan kinds for the sake of the effect 
they produce. In a wild state the plant attains 
a height of 6 ft., but in pots it flowers well when only 
2 ft. high. The flowers are produced in trusses of 
two or three blooms only, but such is their size, that 
a greater number could ill be accommodated. 1 his 
applies to the flowers of R. Edgeworthii. In the 
species under notice they are widely bell-shaped, 
pure white or slightly tinted with pink at the base 
outside, and the wide lobes are beautifully waved 
and crisped. The leaves are very moderate in size, 
oblong or obovate, leathery, and closely furnished 
with rusty scales beneath. The flowers are per¬ 
ceptibly and agreeably fragrant. We noted it flow¬ 
ering finely in a cool conservatory at Falkland Park, 
South Norwood Hill. 
PLANT LIFE 
In the last of a course of six lectures given by Mr. 
Alfred Moore, under the Kent County Council Tech¬ 
nical Educational Scheme, the lecturer said that al¬ 
cohol was a foe to plant life, yet nearly all forms in 
the vegetable world were most immoderate drinkers. 
Still, however, the vegetable kingdom was a great army 
of ” teetotallers,” for, though so universally thirsty, 
they drank only water. But, he must confess, they 
liked a good many things mixed up in it. Now, as 
they took in so much oxygen and hydrogen, one 
could not be surprised that a chief constituent part 
of plants was water, which formed no less than from 
about 80 to 90 per cent, of the total weight of fresh 
plants. In Turnips there was quite 90 per cent, of 
water, and it might surprise some to learn that when 
a farmer bought a ton of Turnips he really purchased 
somewhere about 18 cwt. of water. Another kind of 
food material stored up in plants was the cellulose 
group, which included starch and sugar. Another 
group of food material was that of the vegetable 
acids, one of the best known, perhaps, being malic 
acid, or the acid contained in Apples. Then, again, 
there was the fat group, a most invaluable one, 
which was found chiefly in seeds in the form of little 
globules, tiny homoeopathic pills put up in the labo¬ 
ratory of old mother nature. These oils and fats 
were probably formed by the transformation of 
starch and sugar, and many seeds were such fat 
gentlemen that, even after a large percentage of oil 
had been pressed out, the residue often contained 
enough fatty' matter to make it a very valuable 
article of food, as our Christmas bullocks would tell 
us if they could speak. Lastly, there was the albu¬ 
minoid group. ) his group was found in seeds and 
rinds, and had a most enormous value as an item 
in our daily food supplies. Everything, said the 
lecturer, came from plants, either directly or in¬ 
directly. He would say nothing either for or 
against vegetarianism, but those who most strongly 
condemned it must remember that our juicy beef¬ 
steaks themselves were the indirect product of a 
vegetable diet, for animal albuminoids, as in blood 
or muscle, had their indirect origin from plants 
EXOCHORDA GRANDIFLORA 
The flowers and foliage of this beautiful shrub, 
especially the former, are easily excited into growth 
in a mild spring, so that should frosty nights subse¬ 
quently intervene, as they frequently do, the early- 
developed leaves get browned and shrivelled up, 
leaving the plant in a sorry plight until further 
growth is induced by the accession of fine weather. 
The almost continuously cold winter and spring has 
kept the buds this season in a resting state till quite 
recently, so that now the plant presents quite a 
snowy appearance where laden with bloom. There 
is always a sufficient amount of foliage to tone it 
down. In general aspect the plant resembles a 
Spirsea, than which the flowers are much larger, and 
possess besides some botanical peculiarities which 
are sufficient from the botanist’s point of view to 
distinguish it. 
RUBUS ARCTICUS 
The Arctic Raspberry is a very diminutive and 
humble plant when compared with some of the tall- 
growing species ; but it is nevertheless pretty' and 
full of interest at this season of the year when its 
dwarf stems are terminated by bright rosy-red 
flowers having a white eye. The stems are her¬ 
baceous, about 6 in. high, and arise from long, 
creeping, underground rhizomes. A bed of peaty 
soil in a cool, half-shady situation suits it well even 
in the southern part of the country. It is a native 
of the Arctic regions, both of the Old and New 
Worlds, and is therefore perfectly hardy. 
_ - ♦ - _ 
VEGETATION OF PERU. 
Messrs. Ross & Sinclair, who, in May of last 
year, went on a mission to Peru for the purpose of 
selecting and reporting upon land suitable for agri¬ 
culture, but with more especial reference to its fitness 
for tropical products, have presented their report to 
the Directors of the Peruvian Corporation, Limited, 
which has just been published. With regard to the 
vegetation of the country visited they say :— 
"In writing of the vegetation of a country, where 
the luxuriance is such that Nature in sheer wanton¬ 
ness seems to run riot, it is difficult to keep within 
the usual bounds of an official report. There are, 
perhaps, few countries where first impressions prove 
more at fault than in Peru. Few who sail along the 
coast could imagine the luxuriance of the A alleys of 
Chiclayo, Chicama, Cartavio, ChimDote, or the 
Rimac. Few who travel by the Central Railway 
and look upon the apparently bare brown hills, could 
conceive the cereal and floral wealth which clothes 
and adorns them. We were particularly struck with 
this in climbing a few thousand feet above the Matu- 
cana Station, where the hills look so bleak in the 
distance, yet, where nearly all the most prized flowers 
of our British gardens cover the rugged ground in 
their native profusion. 
” And these modest little plants have their uses be¬ 
yond the mere gratification of the florist and botanist. 
In an economic sense their presence sufficiently in¬ 
dicates where other products, more valuable com¬ 
mercially, might also best be grown. At the same 
time they indicate the altitude more correctly than 
some of our aneroids. The Ageratum, for instance, 
so formidable an enemy to us when Coflee was at 
its best in Ceylon, serves here to show a soil suitable 
for ‘ the fragrant berry,’ though the locality may 
not in other respects be convenient. Acres of 
luxuriant Heliotrope scent the air, testifying that 
though at a height of over S,ooo ft. we are still 
safe from frost. The more hardy Calceolarias come 
next, and with the curious Cuphea, the red and the 
blue Salvia, flourish up to 10,000 ft. After these 
the chief representative is the blue Lupin, beds of 
which may be seen covering thousands of acres up to 
12,000 ft. or 13,000 ft., leaving a few Sedums 
