n ' THE GARDENING WORLD* September 29, 1900. 
the best condition. The late planting of Martagon 
Lilies is often the^sole reason for their failure. But 
good, sound Japanese Lilies may be planted as late 
as March or April if they are fresh when received. 
Coolness at the root is also necessary to success in 
Lilium culture. In planting place the bulbs down three 
times their own depth. Around the base it is advis¬ 
able to furnish a layer of leaf mould, sea sand, and 
gritty soil, or, indeed, the bulbs, as at Colchester, 
may really be covered over with such compost. 
Mr. Wallace complained of the harmful encroach¬ 
ment of tree and shrub roots into the soil which 
ought to be specially reserved for the sustenance of 
the Lilies. To overcome this, he advised the use of 
tubs. These could be sunk in a bed of shrubs, with 
the Lilies in them, and nothing could disturb the 
latter. L. giganteum does well generally in the 
shelter of glades and woods. L. auratum, L. 
speciosum and varieties; with L. longifolium Harrisii, 
L. Henryi, L. wallichianum, do well in pots, when 
a compost of turfy loam, peat, and sand should be 
used. After potting them they should be plunged in 
a frame to be taken into the greenhouse when root 
action has started. 
Amongst the best of the newer Liliums are L. 
Lowii, L. Henryi, L. Krameri, and L. rubellum. 
The latter, however, has in many cases proved dis¬ 
appointing, as it seemingly requires very special 
conditions for growth. In conclusion, while 
lamenting the fact of somewhat slow progress in the 
evolution of new varieties of Lilies, Mr. Wallace said 
that bulbs of this genus of plants were now numerous 
and cheap. For bulbs which twenty years ago sold 
at a guinea each, the seller now only received from 
one to five shillings. Japan annually exports 
£ 25,000 worth of bulbs of all kinds. So many as 
1,400 dozen Lilium racemes have been sold in 
Covent Garden, London, in one Easter week, which 
shows the use that many of the bulbs are put in. 
IMPATIENS FULVA. 
This is another North American plant of great but 
transient beauty, which seems to have taken up its 
permanent quarters on our shores, and which is so 
rapidly extending its habitats along our rivers and 
canals, that in the future it must become a " weed ” 
of some importance. It grows from 2 ft to 4 ft. 
high, and seems quite happy in association with the 
purple Loosestrife or the hairy Herb Willow. It is 
sometimes called the American Jewel Plant. Its 
flowers are certainly curious as well as ornamental, 
and if they be not precious things they are highly 
interesting, both as to colour and contour. The 
flower possesses a remarkably long spur and 
irregular petals, which are so spotted and splashed 
with tawny-crimson as to give this colour the pre¬ 
dominance, although the groundwork is orange- 
yellow. The flowers, moreover, depend most 
gracefully and fantastically from their slender 
petioles, and thus are subject to every breeze that 
blows, so that they may be said to swing to and fro 
like tiny hammocks roped from tree to tree. These 
flowers, although they are fugaceous and fragile, 
succeed each other very quickly. The whole plant 
is like a Balsam in appearance, and, in fact, it is 
allied to the garden Balsam, and has dark red, 
swollen, brittle stems. It is a fine companion to 
that other naturalised sub-aquatic North American 
plant already noticed, the Monkey Flower (Mimu- 
lus luteus). Where the one grows the other may be 
found. 
In addition to the districts given in Pratt's British 
Flora, I have picked this “jewel” up near Kew, 
Teddington, and Twickenham, but I have never 
seen it in such great profusion as I saw it the other 
day when following, with a piscatorial friend, the 
course of the Gade from Cassiobury Park to Rick- 
mansworth, where this rapid little trout-haunted 
river loses its individuality in the larger waters of 
the Colne. 
An annual plant like the one under notice is sure 
to become freely distributed when one takes into 
account the nature of its irritable capsules, which 
burst and scatter their contents, spring-gun-like, a 
considerable distance. This can be accelerated by 
touching the capsules, hence the botanical term, 
Impatiens, or the native one, Touch-me-not. Thus 
many of the seeds are thrown on to the swirling 
waters, or are carried down by floods, and, 
adhering to the sides of the banks, germinate, form 
new plants the next season, repeat the process, and 
so on ad infinitum. 
Thus also given a suitable site at or near the 
fountain-head of any of our numerous streams its 
regular distribution will be merely a question of 
time.— C. B. G. 
-. f ■ 
HERBACEOUS PHLOXES. 
The Phlox family has been well described as a 
numerous one. The sections of it provide our gar¬ 
dens with many beautiful members, some of which 
may be had in flower for nine months out of twelve. 
In the meantime, I would merely refer to the tall 
summer and autumn-flowering perennial herbaceous 
Phloxes. They have been a long time in British 
gardens, though one might have expected P. 
decussata and P paniculata, which are wild in the 
United States, to have been introduced previous to 
1732. But the varieties of P. paniculata and P. 
decussata (P. maculata) have practically been 
“made ” in all senses of the word, since the original 
species was introduced. 
Though they are economical in their fragrance yet 
their handsome panicles of various and brightly 
coloured flowers which demand so little skill to pro¬ 
duce and which are in all ways so beautiful, win for 
them a place in every garden, and we have beds of 
Phloxes just as we have lines and clumps of Pyreth- 
rums, Paeonies or Pentstemons. The tall herba¬ 
ceous Phloxes enjoy a rich, well-worked soil and a 
light sunny position. If the border for their roots 
is cool and slightly shaded, with their heads free in 
the air, Phloxes will do immensely well. They are 
sometimes mulched in dry summers, and while it 
helps the plants it does not add to the pleasantness 
of the appearance, <%c. 
They are perfectly hardy. At this time of year 
they should all be staked. Each nursery firm has 
its own names, it would seem, for varieties, which 
are identical, are in different places differently 
named. A selection made at Messrs. Barr’s nursery 
at Long Ditton shows Toreador to be one of the 
finest and brightest of their varieties. It is a lovely 
salmon-pink sort with immense wide trusses, being 
also dwarf. Ouragon has large panicles of violet- 
purple blossoms. Le Vengeur is a bright rosy-purple 
with pyramidal, even trusses, while Lawrence is a 
good dwarf white. Hambeau, another of the rose- 
crimson class, is very telling. This is one of the 
best sorts for effect. Floreal is distinct in its way, 
after the style of Ouragon but somewhat lighter in 
colour. Champignol is a bright lilac-crimson variety. 
Henri Murger is much prized. It has a crimson 
centre and white edge, the flowers individually being 
large. Le Soleil, on the other hand, has a white 
centre and a cerise edge. Le Siecle is deep pink. 
Eugenie Danzanvilllers, a lovely soft lilac-blue with 
a white centre; and Sappho, a fine, dwarf, branch¬ 
ing white variety are also very select. Flambeau is 
a dazzling scarlet-crimson. Paul Bert takes us to 
the pale lavender shades, while in Jaconde we have 
a heliotrope coloured variety. A beautiful soft pink 
variety is that named Souvenir d’Emile Liebig. 
Adonis is a bright salmon-pink, admired by all. 
Jocelyn is deeper in colour than Flambeau, so that 
it too, may be taken. Leonardo la Vinci has noble 
trusses of snow-white and crimson-edged flowers. 
The foregoing are all worthy of a place in the best 
of hardy plant collections.— D. K. 
-- 
SEPTEMBER FLOWERS. 
From the middle of August till the first week in 
September, there is a slight cessation in the bloom- 
wealth of the garden. The summer flowers are 
then ripeniDg or spreading abroad their seeds, and 
the autumn flowers have not all begun to flower. 
These, be it noted, are largely represented by tall 
yellow flowered composites. Among the really good 
subjects in bloom in the open borders this month are: 
Achilleas, Aconitum autumnale, Anemone japonica, 
Apios tuberosa, the Ground-nut, a handsome 
leguminous climber requiring a sunny position; 
perennial Asters, Bocconia cordata, the Plume 
Poppy. There is also Calystegia (Convolvulus) 
pubescens fl. pi., a sweet rose heliotrope flower, the 
plant being suitable for hedges or pillars, &c. 
Chrysanthemums are in full blow; Chicorium 
Intybus or Wild Endive, Colchicum autumnale, 
Coreopsis in variety, Dianthus deltoides, D.hybridus, 
Funkias, Helianthus multiflorus, H. orygalis, Har- 
paulium rigidum, Eryngium giganteum, Erysimum 
pumilum.Erigeron caucasicus, and Galega officinalis. 
Fine beds of Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora are 
now prominent garden features. Hypericum caly- 
cinum has lasted on well and is still good. The 
Linums are still showy ; so are the Monardas, M. 
didyma, and M. fistulosa. Physostegias, other¬ 
wise called Dracocephalum, are fresh, P. virginiana 
being one of the best. Ononis rotundifolia and the 
pretty Origanum pulchellum are still showy; and 
so are many of the tall Polygonums of which every 
garden should have a large collection. Rudbeckias 
are still all aglow; Pyrethrum uliginosum, various 
Statices, Tritomas, Tropaeolums, Phloxes, and other 
worthy but lesser known plants are yet in bloom.— G. 
NEW STRAINS OF STREPTOCARPi. 
Of late years, nurserymen having found their efforts 
to evolve anything new or startling from the classes 
of florists' flowers which they had so long attached 
themselves to, were forced to turn their attention to 
newer genera, and it comes that the Streptocarpus, 
a lovely and easily grown greenhouse plant, was 
fixed upon for operations. Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, 
Forest Hill, London, S.E., among other firms, have 
had it in hand, and have now a strain in which 
purple, violet-purple, pure violet, amaranth-blue, 
deep indigo, light lavender and pale blue shades 
have been brought out. The flowers are long and 
funnel-shaped, borne in clusters of twos and threes 
in fine long erect stalks, the plants all being profuse 
bloomers, The foliage is peculiar, being wrinkled, 
curled, thick—indeed, almost fleshy. Streptocarpi 
are sometimes propagated by means of the leaves, 
but the practice requires skill and some amount of 
time. If seeds are sown about March, in nicely 
prepared pans of light soil, and these softly watered 
and placed in a genial propagating frame, having a 
temperature of about 65°, the seedling may Le 
expected to advance satisfactorily. From the seed- 
pan to the individual existence in thumb pots is the 
next step, still using a sandy soil. A lower tempera¬ 
ture should at the same time be accorded—say 6o°. 
Attend very carefully to the watering and keep the 
shelves and foliage slightly damped. Whenever 
they require a shift (which will be so soon as the 
pots they are in are comfortably filled with roots) do 
not delay the operation. A 6-in. pot is usually large 
enough for flowering them in. They should be 
grown all the summer of the first year in cool pits 
and kept slightly shaded. In autumn, remove them 
to the shelves of a greenhouse. They will flower 
during the spring and summer of the year following. 
The light-coloured varieties with the pencil-lined 
throat are remarkably free and exceedingly showy, 
no plant of a like nature more so. These multiflora 
hybrids are persistent bloomers, and useful either cut 
or growing. There is a delicacy, yet richness and 
beauty of form, among the plants of this strain that 
must surely appeal to all who are judges and lovers 
of plants and flowers.— R. S. N. 
-4.- 
THE GREENHOUSE AT KEW. 
Among the many subjects blooming in the green¬ 
house in the Royal Gardens, Kew, the following at 
the present time may be enumerated—-Tomato 
Cluster Currant, a fine decorative subject; Cam¬ 
panula pyramidalis, blue and white, mixed in 
groups upon the ground staging; trained specimen 
Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, Primula obconica, Agel- 
onia salicariae folia alba, Callistemon salignus, 
Cannas in masses, pink Carnations, of the variety 
Mrs. de Rothschild, well-flowered specimens being 
interspersed with Miscanthus japonicus zebrinus, a 
finely-marked hardy grass, grown in this case in 
pots. Cyperus Meyeneanus, a bright green curving 
leaved species of dwarf habit; clumps of Lilium 
speciosum album and rubrum. There are, indeed, 
some seven varieties of L. speciosum in flower 
throughout the house. Impatience Sultani is a 
sweet, salmon-pink, dwarf species. Cockscombs are 
staged and good ones they are; also Asclepias 
curassavica, Salvia Grahamii, Agapanthus umbella- 
tus, Fuchsias, mostly as roof climbers and showered 
with their beautiful flowers. Other roof decorative 
plants are Lonicera semperflorens, Tibouchna 
macrantha, Jasminum grandiflorum, Plumbago 
capensis, Maurandya scandens, Abutilon Golden 
Fleece, and other things. Mimulus cardirialis in 
7-in. or 8-in. pots is very handsome as seen in the 
mass. Begonia coccinea is exceedingly fine; B. 
semperflorens rosea on the stages, with double pink 
Petunias, Lobelia elatior, Nierembergia filicaulis, 
Bredia hirsuta, Chaenostoma hispidum, Cuphea 
