February 4, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
359 
Gardening Miscellany. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM JOHN H. TAYLOR. 
This new American variety is said to be a great 
advance upon Miss Lizzie Cartledge, and if so it 
must be an acquisition. It is of robust constitution, 
of dwarf habit, and easily grown. Large blooms 
can be obtained from plants grown in 32-size pots. 
It is as a late variety, however, that it seems likely 
to prove of particular service to the lover of Chry¬ 
santhemums. Flowers were shown by Messrs. 
Pitcher & Manda, Hextable, Swanley, at the Royal 
Aquarium in November last, and plants of it have 
been flowering ever since. A bloom sent us the 
other day showed how useful it might prove for cut 
flower purposes. It could hardly be expected, and 
was not intended, that the blooms should be of large 
size at this period of the year ; but the flower sent 
us measured 3J in. across, and 4J in. deep. This 
latter character is due to the fact that the outer 
florets are very long and pendent, while the upper 
ones are shorter but recurved except in the very 
centre. If the lower florets were spread out the 
flower would appear very large, but we always con¬ 
sider it undesirable to give unnatural width to a 
flower by such treatment, and measure it as it 
naturally comports itself. The lower half of the 
bloom is rosy pink, and the upper half white. 
GREENHOUSE HEATING. 
No doubt there will have been many complaints 
during the last year about gas bills where this fuel 
has been used for greenhouse heating. The weather 
during the year 1892 has been most exceptional. 
We expect in this district on an average about forty 
nights and twenty days below freezing point, when 
firing is necessary to prevent damage to plants in a 
cold greenhouse. Instead of this average there were 
eighty-seven nights and fifty days, when the 
thermometer descended below freezing point, and 
twenty nights on which the temperature ranged from 
20 p to 11° Fahr. The duration of the frost and the 
continuous very low temperatures recorded means 
that the gas consumption in plant houses would be 
nearly treble the annual average.— Thos. Fletcher, 
Warrington. 
APHELANDRA AURANTIACA. 
Of the various species of Aphelandra in cultivation, 
this still remains the best, notwithstanding the showy 
character of most of them. Its dwarf character is 
a great recommendation, as it occupies but small 
space, the whole plant as a rule not exceeding 6 in. 
or 8 in. in height, terminated when in flower with a 
square spike made up of opposite and decussating 
bracts, from the axils of which the flowers are 
produced in succession over a considerable period of 
time The flowers are also in four rows-and face in 
all directions. The leaves are leathery, of a rich 
dark green in the type, and serve to set off the hand¬ 
some, crange-scarlet flowers. The latter are yellow 
while still in bud. Young plants may be raised in 
spring either from cuttings of the young growths 
produced at that time or from seeds. The latter is a 
very convenient method with this species on account 
of its slow growth and the small number of available 
shoots it produces. It is a native of Mexico and 
requires stove temperature, to be kept near the glass 
and not checked in its growth by great variations in 
the temperature, nor by drought,as, like all others of 
its congeners and many others of the family to which 
it belongs, it is very liable to drop its leaves under 
unfavourable circumstances. 
BILLBERGIA BRUANTI. 
Hybrids are now getting pretty numerous in the 
Pineapple family. They are mostly of Continental 
origin ; for cultivators in this country do not seem 
sufficiently interested in this class of plants to take 
to hybridising them. That under notice has been 
obtained from B. pallescens and B. decora, but 
seems to take most after the latter. The leaves are 
strap-shaped, spiny-serrate, thinly covered with grey 
scales, but not banded with them as in B. decora, 
and ranging from 6 in. to 24m. in length. They are 
also arranged in a vasiform tuft, and become arched 
or spreading upwards. The arching flower scape is 
arching towards the top and rosy, bearing large, 
lanceolate or elliptic deep rosy-red bracts. The 
ovary is pale green, surmounted by nearly white 
sepals with blue tips. The petals are pale yellow 
with blue tips. The anthers are golden yellow and 
the stigmas blue, thus adding considerably to the 
appearance of the whole plant when in bloom. The 
bracts, as in many other members of the order, are 
the most conspicuous part of the inflorescence. The 
plant flowered finely a short time ago in the stove at 
Kew. 
PRIMULA POISSONII FOR WINTER 
FLOWERING. 
This Chinese species is evidently one of the best, if 
not the best, and most ornamental of recently 
imported species. Already its value, both for 
summer and winter flowering, has been demon¬ 
strated. It may be that it will be necessary to 
occasionally raise fresh batches of plants from seeds 
to get them in condition to flower during winter, or 
if like some of the Himalayan species it may 
habitually flower a second time in autumn should 
the conditions as to weather prove favourable. Of 
course the conditions may be made suitable by 
placing a batch of plants in a greenhouse where the 
frost is simply kept out or where the temperature is 
kept about 40°. Under such treatment the dark, 
glaucous green foliage is always good. The flower 
scapes vary from 18 in. to 3 ft. high, producing 
whorl after whorl as they slowly elongate, varying 
in number from three to eight according to the 
strength of the plant. One plant therefore keeps 
up a succession of flowers for weeks or even months 
together during the winter months. The flowers are 
paler in winter than in spring or summer, owing 
probably to the diminished light, and vary from 
lilac to lilac-purple, with a yellow instead of an 
orange eye. 
CALLICARPA PURPUREA. 
Pot plants of this species fruit most abundantly, 
but the fruitful nature of the plant can only be seen 
to the fullest advantage when it is planted out in a 
bed of some stove or intermediate house pretty near 
to the glass and allowed to attain the dimensions of 
a large bush or little tree. The branches from top 
to bottom get laden with small violet-purple berries. 
There is a plant which has been treated in this way 
in the Begonia house at Kew, and which stands 6 ft. 
or 8 ft. high, many of the slender branches being 
borne down in a pendent position by the weight of 
the fruit. The species is a native of India, from 
whence it was introduced in 1822. The berries keep 
good all the winter, so that it should not be cut 
back till spring. For a short time previous to this 
it may be kept rather dry, and when the seeds begin to 
push afresh the plant may be repotted, if grown in 
pots, using a compost of equal parts of loam and 
peat with plenty of silver sand. Cuttings may be 
taken, if young plants are desired, just when the 
young shoots are long enough to remove as such. 
They strike root readily. 
FREES1AS. 
Of all easily-grown bulbous flowers, I think these 
are the best and sweetest. Mine have been in flower 
since Christmas, and I have them in batches that 
will continue until May at the least. The earliest 
were potted end of August, and the main crop—those 
that will flower from now onwards—in October. 
Any light sandy compost of a fairly rich nature will 
suit them. After potting, place them in a cool pit 
or frame ; in fact, treat them similar-to other bulbs 
for a month or so, but avoid having the soil too 
moist. As soon as the bulbs start, they may be 
moved to the greenhouse shelf, and have more water. 
I prefer to bring them on in batches, lifting the 
forwardest from the frame as they are wanted. 
When in growth, and showing for bloom, a little 
weak liquid manure helps them very much. They 
last a long time, both on and off of the plant, are 
very cheap, and may be forced in any ordinary 
greenhouse.— Experience. 
CYRTANTHUS LUTESCENS. 
The clear, soft yellow flowers of this species are 
both interesting and pretty during the winter months, 
and easily produced in a house with a temperature 
of 40°, or just such as is suitable for the keeping of 
Cape Heaths in this country. It is a nadve of the 
eastern provinces of Cape Colony, Natal and 
Transvaal, and does not require a high temperature. 
The scapes, about a foot high, bear from three to 
six flowers in an umbel. They are ascending and 
curved with six revolute and short segments, all of 
the same colour as the slender tube, which widens 
upwards to the mouth. The leaves are developed at 
the same time as the flowers, slender, linear, and 
3 in. to 5 in. long. The species was originally intro¬ 
duced as early as 1863, but is by no means so 
commonly cultivated as it deserves by the lovers of 
bulbous plants. It forms a suitable companion to 
the white-flowered C. Mackenii, to which it is closely 
allied. 
FICUS PARCELLI. 
The fruits of this species do not attain a large size, 
but curiously enough they are variegated, as are the 
leaves. They may be compared to a small marble 
in size, and are cream coloured, shaded with pink 
and striped with green. The leaves are of course 
*.he most important feature of the plant, and render 
it a useful subject for decorative purposes at all 
times of the year. They are oblong, unequal at the 
base and deep green, variously splashed with grey 
and silvery white, and irregularly shaped blotches 
sometimes cover nearly the whole leaf. It is a 
relatively slow growing plant, and therefore easily 
accommodated where house room is limited. Of 
course it may be kept within desirable bounds by 
pruning it back some time before growth commences 
in spring, and by having always a stock of young 
plants in small pots by striking the shoots that are 
removed from large ones. It is a native of Polynesia, 
and like most other species requires a stove tempera¬ 
ture to get it in the best possible condition. Heat and 
moisture are essential to its welfare. 
IRIS FIMBRIATA. 
It is to be regretted that such a pretty Iris as that 
under notice should be too tender for outdoor culture 
in this country. The flowering- season being in 
winter, it would fare badly, especially during such 
severe frost as prevailed during the early part of last 
month. The greenhouse is therefore the only fitting 
place for it. We have seen it grown under various 
conditions as to heat and moisture in different esta¬ 
blishments, and in each case it flowered abundantly 
and appeared happy. At present it may be seen in 
a cool greenhouse in the nurserj' of Mr. T. S. Ware, 
Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham. The falls are of 
a beautiful soft lilac, fringed along the edges and 
beautifully marked or spotted along the centre with 
yellow and white. The falls are narrower and less 
conspicuous, but they as well as the petaloid stigmas 
are lilac and serve to fill up the centre of the flower. 
The leaves are somewhat similar to those of a 
Marica, being rather slender, elegant and slightly 
drooping in the upper portion. The species is a 
native of China and Japan, and has received names 
indicating whence it came, such as I. sinensis and I. 
japonica, the latter being considered as the true 
name by botanists. 
IRIS BAKERIANA. 
The winter flowering Irises have had a bad time of 
it lately compared with last year. Whenever mild 
weather sets in however, the flowers are ready to 
push above the surface in all their freshness and 
beauty. One of the prettiest and most highly 
coloured is I. Bakeriana. The flowers keep slightly 
in advance of the leaves, and rise only about 3 in. 
above the soil. The falls are the largest and most 
conspicuous segments, being of a rich velvety violet, 
almost black, and spotted with a clearer violet on a 
white ground towards the base. The standards are* 
of a rich blue, and the petaloid stigmas somewhat 
paler. The plant belongs to the same group as the 
better known I. reticulata, but differs in its leaves 
being glaucous and ribbed, but not square as in the 
last named species. It varies considerably in the 
time it flowers, in different seasons from late autumn 
till towards spring. It may be seen in the nursery of 
Mr. T. S. Ware, of Tottenham. 
AN EASY WAY OF FORCING LILAC. 
When I called recently upon Mr. G. Latter, the 
genial gardener to F. Tooth, Esq., Park Farm, 
Sevenoaks, Kent, I was shown some branches of 
Lilac, both purple and white, in full bloom. There 
was not much in that, of course, but I was certainly 
interested in the means adopted to insure this end. 
Having some very large bushes about the pleasure 
grounds that had to be cut down, it occurred to Mr. 
Latter that it might be possible to get the bloom 
buds to expand by simply placing the branches 
