August 19 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
809 
London, anywhere on light soil, unless special 
precautions were taken and watering and mulching 
given, the soft little Pansies and Violas have been 
restrained from flowering well. Loosen Ihe soil all 
around your plants, give them a hearty soaking, and 
then if you want flowers give them a sappy mulch of 
dung or decayed mowings. 
- I «- 
KALANCHOE FLAMMEA. 
Something like forty-seven species of Kalanchoe are 
recorded in the Genera Plantarum from various parts of 
Asia and Africa, but chiefly from the latter continent 
and the neighbouring islands. Very few of them 
are in cultivation, and that chiefly in botanical gar¬ 
dens. Of these, Kalanchoe farinacea, with scarlet 
flowers, hailing from the Island of Socotra, and K. 
grandiflora, with large yellow flowers, from the East 
Indies, are the best known. There is, however, a 
K. coccinea from Tropical Africa which dees not 
seem to have been introduced. More recently K. 
carnea has been introduced, and more or less widely 
disseminated in gardens, and quite recently K. 
flammea would run up [the number to forty-nine 
species. 
bers on the corymbose, flat cyme, so that altogether 
it is a graceful and handsome plant, notwithstanding 
the fleshy and stiff nature of the foliage. The 
bright orange-scarlet flowers are such as would 
render the plant an invaluable subject for conserva¬ 
tory decoration. 
The temperature of a greenhouse meets its re¬ 
quirements admirably, and this is another recom¬ 
mendation for its general culture. Its fleshy leaves 
would also suggest that it be kept relatively dry 
overhead even while making its growth, although 
further experiment may show that it is amenable for 
a varied course of treatment. Evidently the readi¬ 
est way of increasing it would be by cutting it down 
after flowering, and making cuttings of the young 
shoots. Seeds would also give any number of 
plants. The accompanying illustration was pre¬ 
pared from a photograph of the group at Chiswick. 
We have since learnt that the whole stock of the 
plant has passed into the hands of Messrs, J Veitch 
& Sons, Ltd., Chelsea. 
HARDY ALPINE PLANTS. 
Abronia umbellata. —The sand Verbenas, as the 
Abronias are commonly called, are a lovely set of 
notched as though a railway ticket checker had 
punched them. 
Pronella grandiflora rubra. —P. grandiflora is 
blue; P. g. rubra is red ; and there is also a white 
variety. We thus have a red, white, and blue, and 
each one is handsome. P. grandiflora blooms some¬ 
what earlier than P. g. rubra, which we find at its 
best now. None of them go beyond 6 iD. or 8 in. in 
height, but the clearness and density of the spikes 
drag down one’s attention. We find them to do 
well in free but moist pockets or in the border, 
somewhat shaded by other plants. P. lacinlata is 
so called from its deeply laciniated foliage, a quality 
which is a gain to it. They all have the good points 
of being able to support themselves. By sowing 
seeds in early springtime in the open border fairly 
strong plants will develop in a single season. 
Platycodon grandiflorum is another of those 
beautiful campanulate flowered plants so valuable 
and so handsome. It has no merits from its height 
or stately carriage. Quite the opposite. For unless 
it is supported it will slush its beautiful blue-bell in 
the dusty or muddy ground. The colour of P. grandi¬ 
florum and P. g. Mariesii, are much the same but 
their height are not. P. g, Mariesii, which I really 
Kalanchoe flammea at the Chiswick Conference 
wish mostly to draw attention to, has large four 
or five lobed bell-shaped flowers. They are a deep 
violet-blue borne upon slender stalks. Owing to its 
liability to damp off when on a moist soil, the fear of 
this will be much lessened by allowing it a dry soil. 
This variety hails from Japan and will be found to 
propagate readily enough from seeds. 
Lobelia cardinalis. —For using in table decor¬ 
ations at a late period of the year, there is nothing 
surely so brilliant in its way as this scarlet flowered 
Lobelia. Of course it is mostly grown in combin¬ 
ation with bedding plants or in beds by itself, and 
in borders. Its drawback in some parts is that it 
damps off during winter. A remedy, or at least a 
great saving of the plants, will be found in lifting the 
roots in November and placing them in boxes with 
some light soil among them. They will require 
little or no water all winter. Propagate by division 
in spring, at which period the plants may be again 
placed out. As they grow to 3 ft. and 4 ft. high, a 
back position in a bright, but not too hot, part of Ihe 
rockery should be selected for them. 
-4*-- 
Slight Camphor Moistenings awaken the vitality and 
germinating power of most kinds of seeds. 
K. flammea is the most striking and evidently the 
most useful species we have seen. As our pages 
during the past few weeks will show, it made its 
appearance at the Conference on Hybridisation and 
Cross-breeding at Chiswick on the nth July last. 
The small but most effective group in the big vinery, 
put up by the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
was a great source of attraction to the Fellows and 
visitors on that occasion. We gave it as our opinion 
at the Conference that it was the most interesting 
novelty exhibited, and we have since been confirmed 
in that opinion by the awards it received from the 
Council of the Royal Horticultural Society, after 
mature consideration, and when the bustle of the 
Conference was over. A Silver Gilt Flora Medal 
was awarded to the group of Kalanchoe flammea, 
and a First-class Certificate to the plant Itself. 
As far as we remember only one plant was raised 
of the original introduction from Somaliland, 
Africa. This flowered and matured seeds from 
which the batch of plants in question was raised 
and bloomed in the course of eighteen months. The 
plants vary in height from 18 in. to 2\ ft., including 
the slender stem of the inflorescence, which rises 
clear of the obovate, fleshy leaves The flowers are 
very moderate n size, but produced in great num- 
little border or rock plants. Some of them are 
annual and others last for a lengthened time. The 
species under question is a pretty pink-flowered 
perennial which does well on a rockery facing north. 
Of course, this does not imply that they all like a 
north aspect. But, on the contrary, a sunny position 
and sheltered, at the edge of a rich south border I 
have seen them doing grandly. A. latifolia and A. 
fragrans are other two species, the first with lemon- 
yellow flowers, and the latter with white heads. They 
propagate by layering, or by cuttings. 
Anchusa capensis is yet another of the bright 
little plants of the hour. It is rather tender, and 
does all the better when given some sheltered 
position. Its flowers are blue, and produced after 
the fashion of Borageworts, but the showiness of the 
corollas stands out decidedly. 
Campanula excisa. —This is a rare species, and 
demands more care in the growing of it. The tufts 
of slender little plants growing in the rockery 
pockets with their bell-shaped pendant light blue 
flowers are reward out and out for the attention and 
care given to it. It enjoys the gritty loam and 
shady position where it will flourish. The stems 
are only a few inches high, one-flowered, and the 
base of the segments of the corolla are roundedly 
