March 55, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
467 
thus completing the sum. The raising of this 
$250,000 will secure 250 acres of land in Bronx 
Park for the exclusive use of the Botanic Garden. 
By a provision in the legislative act, the city is to 
issue $500,000 in bonds, to be applied to the purposes 
of the garden. This makes a total of $750,000 that 
was virtually secured at yesterday’s meeting. The 
ground is valued at $250,000. The corporators of 
the Botanic Garden, however, are not satisfied with 
this handsome sum. In fact they say that the 
amount is entirely inadequate for a beginning, and 
that the cost of buildings, etc., will require much 
more money than has been secured. It is desired to 
increase the $250,000 which the act requires to be 
raised by private and popular subscription to a 
million. 
Rhododrendron praecox. —Any flowering shrub 
almost is welcome in the early days of March, 
when shrubbery borders everywhere are rather 
bare of ornament. Rhododendron prsecox is, how¬ 
ever, both conspicuous and effective. Its worst 
fault perhaps is that the flowers are liable to 
be destroyed by late spring frosts ; but we must 
remember that the same liability is applicable to 
most early-flowering subjects. The weather during 
March in some years leaves nothing to be desired, 
and out-door subjects are seen to advantage, 
including the subject of this note. The flowers are 
rosy-purple and intermediate in size between those of 
R. ponticum and R. dahuricum, which were the 
parents of the hybrid. The last-named species 
determines the 'earliness of R. praecox, as it often 
flowers in autumn if the weather is mild, and more 
freely again in March just about the time that 
R. praecox blooms. The latter may also be used as 
a pot plant for flowering under glass, where it re¬ 
quires little forcing to bring it into early bloom. 
-- 
MYOSOTIS ALPESTRIS 
VICTORIA. 
The wild type of this Forget-me-not is a native of 
the mountains of Europe, including Britain. The 
flowers are of a rich dark blue with a small yellowish 
eye, and highly deserving of cultivation. Much 
more can be said of the beautiful Alpine under 
notice, inasmuch as the flowers are larger and the 
central ones of each truss are double, the doubling 
often appearing as the result of two flowers grown 
together; and this in itself has the effect of making 
the flowers appear larger. The plant is suitable 
alike for borders, rockeries, or pot culture, and is 
very handsome when seen forming globular masses 
about 5 in. to 7 in. high. The plant is very neat in 
habit as the wild type is known to be, although it is 
less often seen in cultivation than it deserves. 
Flowering plants remain in beauty for a long time, 
appearing like globular, masses of bloom, which 
remain in fine condition for weeks together. It can 
be propagated by seeds or cuttings of the young 
shoots. The accompanying illustration, which we 
owe to the kindness of Messrs. Veitch & Sons, 
Chelsea, will give an idea of the habit of the plant 
and its fioriferous nature-. 
SPRING FLOWERS AT 
HOLLOWAY. 
The houses annually devoted to the display of spring 
flowering bulbous and other plants in Messrs. B. S. 
Williams & Son’s Nursery, at Upper Holloway, are 
just now very gay, and with the Amaryllis to follow 
on will be well worthy of a visit during the next few 
weeks. The Clivias are better than ever, the large 
examples for which the nursery is noted being in fine 
health and carrying superb heads of bloom. Of 
late years varieties of greatly improved form and 
substance have been introduced, and with these have 
come some amount of variation in the intensity or 
otherwise of the shade of orange or orange-red 
which constitutes the standing colour of the miniata 
section, and from which it seems well-nigh im¬ 
possible to obtain a fresh departure. We still sigh 
for a pure white and a good blue Clivia, and are 
likely to continue doing so, especially for the latter. 
Of the stock varieties at Holloway the favourites are 
Aurantiaca, robusta, Van Houttei, Baroness 
Schroeder, Miniata splendens, Surprise, very fine ; 
Ambroise Verschaffelt, Lindeni, Prince of Orange, 
extra fine ; and Meteor, about the darkest in colour 
of them all—almost red. 
The Amaryllis, a good house full, are coming 
along in grand form, but are designedly somewhat 
later than usual this season, with the object of 
lengthening the show season. In about a week 
hence there will be a fine lot of bloom. The 
collections of Hyacinths and Tulips are in very 
good order just now, and all the old well tried-sorts 
are to be seen in excellent form. Of novelties there 
are practically none, and we do not miss them, for 
seldom indeed does a really good one appear among 
them, and the days of fancy prices are passing away. 
The single reds, judging by the Messrs. Williams' 
collection, are unusually good this season, the foliage 
being short and the spikes well developed. The 
more conspicuous single reds are General Pelissier, 
very dark ; Vuurbaak, carmine-red ; Roi des Beiges, 
Von Schiller, deep red, and fine spike ; Koh-i-noor, 
salmon-pink, a very fine semi-double, with grand 
spikes; and Fabiola, rcse striped. Sir Henry 
Barkly, blue-black, is one of the darkest of all; and 
La grandesse, still one of the finest of whites. In 
the same section, Mina also holds its own. In 
single blues, King of the Blues still remains the best 
type of what a high-class Hyacinth should be, the 
spikes being long and massive, and the foliage dwarf. 
Charles Dickens and Lord Derby, as light blues, 
still remain Ai, and King of the Blacks has a fine 
dense spike. Of yellows, King of the Yellows, Ida, 
and Obelesque, are the cream, but Marchioness of 
Lome is exceedingly distinct, a buff yellow striped 
with red. 
In single Tulips, Joost van den Vondel remains 
the premier white, a grand Tulip; and in their way 
Keizerskroon, Proserpine, the Due van Thols, and 
the Pottebakkers, remain unsurpassed. In the 
double section, Count of Leicester, an old gold 
coloured flower, is regarded as of great promise, 
but it evidently does not like forcing, and should be 
allowed to come on naturally. Velvet Gem, single, 
is a rich deep heliotrope, and very fine. 
In the Orchid houses there is a good sprinkling of 
bloom, and in the cool houses, besides plenty of 
Odontoglossum crispum, there are some fine forms 
of O. c. virginale, and good types of O. triumphans, 
and O. prionopetalum, the latter giving one the 
impression that O. Andersonianum and O. Wilckea- 
num might be its parents. 
-- 
©leaning* fvrmn JDarltr 
xyf Semico 
Cockchafers.—These beetles are also known as 
May Bugs because they make their appearance in 
the perfect state about that time. There are many 
recorded instances of their destructive tendencies in 
former years ; but for some time past they have been 
comparatively quiet. Now and again we hear 
instances of their depredations, or have specimens 
sent us from plantations of Scotch Pines; but the 
cases are mostly local, and of course do not cause 
much wide-spread public interest. Several corres¬ 
pondents in Nature Notes have also testified to the 
comparative absence of Cockchafers from neighbour¬ 
hoods where they were formerly plentiful. Gar¬ 
deners and horticulturists in general will no doubt be 
pleased to learn that their numbers are thus lessen¬ 
ing, because the larvae used to do much damage to 
the roots of grass, Roses, fruit and forest trees. The 
damage they do can be readily conceived when we 
take into consideration the large size of the larvae, 
and the fact that they live for three years before 
reaching the perfect state, when they attack the 
foliage of trees. A few of them, both larvae and 
beetle, are to be met with every year in the western 
suburbs of London, but they are only sufficiently 
numerous to furnish the collectors of beetles with 
specimens for their cabinets or cases. The large 
size of the beetle, and the closer cultivation of the 
soil and the destruction of the larvae by cultivators 
may partly account for their disappearance, but not 
wholly. 
The largest flower known.—Sometimes this is 
stated to be Amorphophallus Titanum, but botanists 
and some others well know that the so-called flower 
is a large bract or modified leaf called a spathe, and 
that it encloses a large number of flowers. The re¬ 
markable parasite Rafflesia Arnoldii, discovered in 
the interior of Sumatra in 1818, is, however, a true 
flower. The fully developed flower of the plant 
when originally discovered weighed fifteen pounds. 
Since then, other species have been discovered, but 
their flowers were smaller. It is reported that Dr. 
Schadenberg with a party of botanical and ethno¬ 
graphical explorers, recently discovered, a flower 
nearly a yard in diameter and weighing twenty-two 
pounds, on a volcanic mountain situated in Mindinas, 
one of the Philippine Islands. This certainly beats 
the record, but the name of the species producing 
the enormous flower is not stated. The description 
is evidently that of a Rafflesia, but it is questionable 
whether R. Arnoldii is to be found in the Philippines. 
It was found growing on a sort of vine creeping on 
the ground, and the unopened flower-buds resembled 
large cabbage heads. Photographs of the bloom 
were taken, and some portions were dried by the 
heat of the fire. If a more detailed account of this 
remarkable discovery does not come to hand it will 
have to be consigned to the regions of myth. 
_ m ♦ m _ 
CAVENDISHIA* ACUMINATA. 
At the present day many of the species of the Heath 
family have fallen into great neglect, while others are 
amongst the most popular of cultivated plants. 
Cavendishia acuminata, sometimes included under 
the old name of Thibaudia, is one of the neglected 
plants, probably because it comes under the name of 
hard-wooded greenhouse plants which, for the 
greater part, are sadly neglected at the present day 
in spite of their beauty. The plant under notice is 
a native of Columbia and grows to a height of 3 ft. or 
4 ft., but flowers while still in a much smaller state. 
The leathery dark green leaves are generally five- 
nerved. The flowers are tubular, of a shining red, 
with a five-lobed white mouth, and are produced in 
corymbs or short racemes at the ends of the shoots. 
They are surrounded with large white bracts which 
contrast beautifully with the waxy looking and highly 
coloured flowers. 
