THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 25, 1892, 
676 
THE PROPHET FLOWER. 
Onosma tauricum 
Among plants which are considered as being not 
very easy to grow successfully, Primula Reidi in a 
cool damp situation, Lewisia rediviva in good loam, 
Cypripedium acaule (large form) in moist vegetable 
soil, and Onosma tauricum on dry banks, have been 
very fine this season at Oakwood. 
Ranunculus parnassifolius has smaller flowers 
than usual, probably owing to the drought; Arnebia 
echioides in exposed situations stood the two last 
winters well. When lately showing some plants of 
this to an old Indian general and telling him the 
usual story about Mahomet having passed his hand 
over the flowers and making the five dark spots 
vanish, he gave me a new version. Thinking it to be an 
improvement on the old one, I asked to have it in 
writing. I give it as he kindly sent it to me, in his 
own words. 
“ In the trans-Indus country of our Indian 
possessions a flower grows wild in great profusion, 
both in the Peshawur and Eusoofzaie districts, which 
reminds one to a certain extent of our English 
Cowslip. The natives of these districts, almost 
exclusively Mussulmans, call it the 1 Mahommedie 
Phul,’ which we have anglicised into the ' Prophet 
Flower.’ When in the Peshawur district, many 
y'ears ago, I made friends with a man of the local 
police, who told me many interesting stories and 
legends which had come down viva voce from ancient 
times. My good friend Gul Khan amongst other 
things told me of the origin of the name given to 
the above flower. It was to the following effect. 
" Before their great Prophet Mahomet had fairly 
established himself in power and importance, in one 
of the ups and downs of his earlier fortunes, he had 
been compelled to fly' for safety into the desert, 
accompanied only by a few disheartened but faithful 
followers. There, as they rested on the dry barren 
and scorching sand, discontented murmurs arose 
amongst his companions at the hardness of their lot, 
at their being compelled to take refuge in such a 
forsaken spot, not a blade of grass to be seen, not a 
drop of water to be had—a spot cursed of God and 
avoided by man. The prophet, hearing these words 
of despair and faithlessness, roused himself from his 
apparent sleep or abstraction, and striking his open 
palm on the parched and burning sand, up sprang at 
once a green and fresh-looking plant, bearing pleasant 
scented flowers, each yellow blossom having a dark 
spot on every one of its five petals. Mahomet 
then rebuked his murmuring followers : ‘ See,’said he, 
‘ the power of Allah, even in this barren spot, can 
produce this flower ; and cannot he again restore our 
fortunes and rescue us from our present state of 
misery ? ’ The flower is therefore called the 
Mahommedie Phul, and the five brown spots, they 
say', are the marks of the thumb and four fingers of the 
prophet's hand. This flower grows amongst the 
hard and stony' tracts of the Peshawur Valley, as 
well as upon the richer soil of Eusoofzaie ; marching 
at night, I have perceived its pleasant scent when 
crushed under foot by the troops. The seed pods 
are harsh and bristly, making one’s fingers quite sore 
in collecting them .” — George F. Wilson, Heatherbanh, 
Weybridge. 
-- 4 -- 
PLANTING ASPARAGUS. 
Lecturing on vegetables to farmers and cottagers 
at the end of April in rather a bleak part of this 
county (Lancaster), I referred to Asparagus, remark¬ 
ing that I thought in that district it was not likely to 
prove a profitable crop, consequently I would not 
take up their time in explaining its cultural require¬ 
ments. However, after I had finished my address a 
gentlemen stated that the culture of Asparagus was 
just what he wanted to know something about. I 
learnt that he had planted a number of three-year- 
old roots at the end of March, with the view of 
having some to cut next year. 
Now, from my experience in planting the roots of 
this vegetable, I had no hesitation in stating that he 
might consider himself fortunate if any of his plants 
grew at all, and I have since ascertained that only a 
few have shown any signs of life and that the growth 
is veritably grass-like. The plants had been pro¬ 
cured lrom a distance where vegetation is in advance 
of the locality from whence I gave my address. A 
nurseryman’s catalogue had been consulted as to 
time and mode of planting, and that the plants 
should leave the nursery at that date or before com¬ 
mencing to grow is perfectly right, but to plant then 
is decidedly wrong. If my interrogator had laid the 
roots on some moist decayed leaves and covered 
them over with the same until they had made a few 
inches of growth and the ground had become 
warmer he might have saved his plants, but as it is 
the ground they' occupy I fear may as well lie fallow 
for the future for what Asparagus he will get from it. 
Dates are misleading in the planting of this vege¬ 
table, and it is much better to be guided by the 
season and the condition of the plants, and if I 
could not get what I considered a suitable time for 
planting I would wait until the shoots were a foot 
high rather than plant during a cold dry period. I 
planted a few quite that height one moist day during 
the past week, and they look quite as well as some 
put out three weeks earlier.— IE. P. R. 
-—*4—- 
HARDY RHODODENDRONS. 
We may, 1 presume, safely assume that the varieties 
of the fine hardy Rhododendrons seen in the present 
day have been obtained from the North Carolinian 
R. catawbiense: R. ponticum, a species peculiar in 
its distribution, one form being found in Portugal and 
another in Asia Minor, and which is remarkable for 
its hardihood ; and to some extent from R. cau- 
casicum, a native of the Caucasus, where it is found 
near the limits of perpetual snow. Possibly the 
Himalyan R. arborea has been used at some time 
and helped to give the splendid colours of crimson 
shades seen in some of the newer varieties. 
Wonders have been done in the way of improving 
the varieties during the last half century. It was 
more than fifty years ago that the great Loudon 
wrote of the Rhododendron as being the pride of 
European gardens. At the time of Loudon there 
were few species or varieties known or cultivated in 
Europe : since then it is scarcely necessary to say a 
vast and in some respects a remarkable improvement 
has been effected both in point of variety and 
quality', and sorts can now be counted by the 
hundred, embracing almost every possible shade of 
colour from delicate blush to the deepest crimson, 
and from the purest white to deep purple, while the 
flowering season extends over five or six months, in¬ 
cluding those species and varieties which bloom 
early and require the shelter of glass to preserve them 
from injury ; and as a modern writer has remarked 
with evident truth, “ Rhododendrons are now more 
emphatically than ever the pride of European gar¬ 
dens, possessing as they do the most varied attrac¬ 
tions to be found in any class of flowers, combined 
with the elegant habit and foliage of our finest ever¬ 
green shrubs, rendering them indispensable alike to 
the shrubbery', the flower garden, and the conserva¬ 
tory, in each of these occupying a unique place, and 
never failing to elicit the highest admiration of all 
who have any appreciation of the symmetrical in 
form or the beautiful in colour.” 
At a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, a well known firm of nurserymen staged a 
very large collection of cut blooms of Rhododen¬ 
drons, in all some sixty varieties. This collection 
served two excellent purposes among others : it illus¬ 
trated the range of colour to be found in the Rhodo¬ 
dendron, and it enabled those who are interested in 
this flower to select varieties by way of enriching 
their collections. Opportunity was taken to set be¬ 
fore the readers of The Gardening World a list 
of what appeared to be the finest varieties, and it 
reads as follows : - Of crimson and deep rose shades : 
Alarum, white centre, edged with very bright crim¬ 
son ; Caractacus, rosy crimson, flushed with purple, 
very fine in colour; Barclayanum, bright rose, the 
individual flowers of very fine shape, and forming a 
noble truss; Lady Armstrong, of much the same 
tint of colour but brighter, very fine; Othello, rose, 
deeply flushed with violet, very fine; Frederick 
Waterer, rich bright carmine, very fine ; Sidney 
Herbert, pale rosy-crimson, yet very fine and striking; 
Concessum, bright rose, very fine ; Charles Bagley, 
deep crimson, with slight flush of violet; Helen 
Waterer, vivid scarlet, pale centre, very bright and 
striking ; Lord Clyde, bright wine crimson, very dis¬ 
tinct and fine ; Chloe, pale bright rose, very fine ; 
Mrs. Fitz Gerald, bright crimson, very fine ; and 
Lady Claremont, dull crimson, also very fine. 
Of purple-flowered varieties, the following are very 
fine;—Nero, deep purple, pale centre ; Sir Thomas 
Sebright, bright, deep purple, extra fine ; Everestia- 
num, pale lilac pink, very fine ; and Fastuosum, pale 
purple. 
Of rose-coloured flowers, the following:—Princess 
Mary of Cambridge, pale rose, large and fine; 
Paxtoni, bright rosy pink, with dark spots; 
Kate Waterer, clear pale rose, extra fine; and 
Lady Eleanor Cathcart, an old variety, but still 
bright and charming in colour, and of a pale rosy- 
pink tint. 
Light-coloured varieties, including tinted pinks, 
blush, and white, were represented by Zuleika, blush, 
edged with pink, very delicate and pretty ; Lady 
Lopes, pink, flushed with lilac on the margins; 
Gazelle, blush, with delicate flush of lilac-pink, very 
fine ; the Queen, a fine old blush-tinted variety, 
worthy a place in every collection; Marguerite, 
blush reverse, white surface edged with lilac, very 
good ; Standish’s Perfection, pale pink, very pretty ; 
Ingrami, blush, with slight margin of pale lilac ; the 
Princess, white, with orange and pale claret spots ; 
Sappho, white, heavily spotted with claret, very fine ; 
Atherne, white, with slight edging of blush pink ; and 
Evelyn, creamy-white, with yellow spots.— R. D. 
-—- 
ORIENTAL POPPIES. 
Wherever these are grown, no matter whether in 
the garden of the cottage or the palace, they become 
one of the most conspicuous features of the border 
during the months of May and June. Being per¬ 
ennial and perfectly hardy, they thrive in any garden 
soil, and call for no special attention except to be let 
alone for the most part after they have become 
established. Being gross growing subjects, the 
richer the ground, the stronger will the stems and 
foliage be, and the larger the flowers, although 
blooms 6 in. to io in. in diameter seem to be large 
enough to satisfy the most fastidious. 
The typical Oriental Poppy (Papaver orientale) 
was introduced from Armenia in 1714. but since then 
numerous varieties have been obtained chiefly in 
gardens. The variety P. o. bracteatum was intro¬ 
duced from the Caucasus in 1817, and is still by many 
considered a distinct species, but what differences 
existed at first have all become broken down by the 
intercrossing of the flowers either naturally or artifi¬ 
cially, and the raising of seedlings. The foliage and 
the flowers of the two are so closely similar that no 
one would probably claim for them anything more 
than a varietal distinction. All of the kinds origina¬ 
ting from this source may be conveniently classed 
under the name of Oriental Poppies. 
The typical form has bright scarlet flowers with a 
black or violet blotch at the base of each petal. The 
mass of blackish-violet anthers and the rays 
of the stigma occupying the centre of the flower are 
also very conspicuous. P. o. bracteatum is chiefly 
characterised by the presence of leafy bracts under 
the flowers. Good cultivation makes a wonderful 
difference in the size of the plants and the flowers, 
and we feel little surprise that specimens have been 
disseminated in gardens under the names of P. o. 
majus and P. o. maximum. 
Within recent jears several very distinct types 
have been raised, notably one named Pink Beauty 
having pink flowers with a large black blotch at the 
base of each petal and black anthers. Hitherto this 
seems the most removed in colour from the type, and 
it is probable that others will follow' at no distant 
date Seedlings from this might give rise to a white 
variety with black blotches, and this would be more 
distinct and appreciable than Pink Beauty. Scarlet 
Queen and P. o. cardinale are brilliant scarlet kinds 
with a black blotch at the base of each petal. 
There is also a choice and distinct variety with clear, 
orange-coloured flowers. The number of petals 
varies in different individuals and varieties, and some 
of them show a tendency to become semi-double, so 
that it is possible that double flowers of P. orientale 
will be obtained as in the case of several other culti¬ 
vated species. 
- *** - 
DENDROBIUM SPLENDIDISSIMUM 
GRANDIFLORUM. 
The hybridisation of D. aureum with D. nobile was 
a lucky hit, giving us D. Ainsworthii, w hich is already 
one of the most popular of hybrid Dendrobes, on 
account of its easy culture and beautiful flowers. 
The reverse cross gave us D. Leechianum, which does 
not differ very widely as far as the flowers are con¬ 
cerned. D. splendidissimum has the same parentage 
as D. Ainsworthii, and the variety under notice and 
of which we give an illustration is certainly the 
largest and the finest of the whole group. The 
