242 
THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 
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V 
SUB-TROPICAL PLANTS FOR 
WARM GARDENS. 
r 
Cordylines. 
Cordyline australis, better known as 
Dracsena australis, is an extremely hand¬ 
some object in the early summer, when bear¬ 
ing its great white flower panicles. 
It is a very common plant in Devon and 
Cornwall^ and in every town fine plants 
are to be seen on every side. In Torquay 
alone there must be some thousands, for 
in the public gardens there are nearly two 
hundred splendid specimens, and they are 
of the plants, but generally a number of 
suckers are, later on, thrown up from the 
base. 
The finest specimen of Cordyline australis 
in the south-west is probably that at Enys. 
It is twenty feet in height, with a trunk 
circumference of six feet at one foot from 
the ground. A short distance above the 
ground level it divides into four main 
branches, which are sub-divided into about 
thirty heads, about ten of which usually 
flower annually. It is fifty years of age. 
Apbil 5, 1913. 
u. isanksi is also a native of \ew 7 ^ 
land, and is easily distinguishwl from eiX”; 
of the above-named species. It is of mode 
rate grwth, and rarely attains a greater' 
height than six feet, and is generally 
clothed to the ground level with archinir 
leaves four inches in breadth. 
branch lets of its flower spikes are far fewer 
than those of C. australis, so that the 
white^blossomed panicles are lighter in ap. 
pearance. Cordyline Banksi ervthroracte 
is a variety with bright red midribs to the 
leaves. 
Ag^aves. 
The aloes, or agaves, succeed well in 
the south-west. In 1892 a splendid plant 
flowered at Kingswear. It was twenty-fire 
feet in height, and bore over thirty flower 
clusters. In the torrid climes, the home 
of the aloe, its colour seems to merge into 
-I L.\BGE GROUP OF CORDYLINE AUSTRALIS IN THE GARDENS AT EOZELLE, TORQUAY. 
also to be found in almost every private 
garden. One fine example in the public 
gardens, twelve feet in height, carried no 
fewer than seventeen huge flower heads, 
a number almost unprecedented on a single 
•^ 1 ^* • ? cordylines present very beau¬ 
tiful sight when in full flower, the great 
branching bloom-sprays, three feet or more 
m length, crowded with white blossoms, 
lesembhng giant plumes. They are very 
sweetly scented, and are all day long 
haunted by insects innumerable. ^ 
In the type the leaves are narrow, but 
the seedlings, which are raised in great 
niunbers in the south-west, vary consider¬ 
ably in their foliage, the leaves of some 
being fully three inches in breadth, these 
widedeaved forms being far handsomer than 
the type. Cordyline australis is considered 
perfectly hardy in Devon and Cornwall. 
Exceptionally severe frosts, followed by 
a sunny day, sometimes kill the heads 
and was raised from seed sent from Aus¬ 
tralia. 
C. indivisa is very distinct from C. aus¬ 
tralis, though often confounde<l with it, 
and illustrations of C. australis have re- 
peateclly appeared above the title of C. 
indivisa, while in many gardens C. aus¬ 
tralis is still grown under the latter name. 
C. indivisa is a native of New Zealand, 
where it grows at a consider able altitude. 
Tlie leaves are very handsome, 'being about 
five feet in length, and five inches in 
breadth, blue-grey in colour, with a mid¬ 
rib of bright red. It first flowered in the 
Tresco Abbey gardens. Isles of Scilly, in 
1895, and bloomed at Enys three years 
ago. The flower shoot is pendent, and is 
composed of countless minute blossoms, the 
spike yellow and blue-black in colour, l^ino- 
niore curious than beautiful. It is a rare 
plant, but there are a dozen or more spe¬ 
cimens in Cornwall. 
t of the stone and sand of its surround- 
s, and strikes no note of 
prevailing monotony of the sun-scoren 
dscape, but where, ais in this 
strong curves of the massive leaves are 
own into high relief by infinite 
is of tender green, ranging in 
m the sombre tint of the yew to 
3 hues of some of the Japanese map 
'orms a pleasing and effective incK^’ 
the colour scheme. The bloom stem 
duced at the expense of the ,P 
ie flowering is the “ swan song ‘ 
ve, as it is of the bamboo, the p 
ariably dying after it has 
s a matter of regret, rather than _ 
on, to view the throwing-up of th^ 
ibrum-Iike flower spike that . 
loss of a plant, which 1ms foi • 
rs proved a noble feature in the jj 
he finest specimen of Agave amen 
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