December 1, 1904 
with blue and purple over a yellow back- 
ground, blossoms singularly beautiful and 
elegant when cut with some of their flag- 
fike foliage. One of the choicest of the 
Fiag Ivises is Monnieri, well fitted for a 
border where the soil is moist and rich, a 
late blooming, sweet-scented sort with yel- 
low flowers margined with white. L. 
Pseudo-acorus has already been alluded to, 
it ia the commonest of all, the yellow water 
Flag, and will grow in any moist and damp 
situation. I. pallida loves a moist, deep 
reot-run, but does well even when planted 
on a dry soil; the blooms, however, are 
not so fine nor do they last so long as when’ 
planted under cooler conditions. A spring 
blooming dwarf Ivis is to be found in 
pumila, seldom attaining more than a 
height of 7 in. or 8 in., flowers blue and 
purple. English Irises again belong to a 
distinct class, blooming a little later than 
the German, tall and stately, possessing 
many self-colors, having rush-like foliage. 
d. orchiogides is extremely beautiful, differ- 
ang entirely from any other, and preferring 
a warm, sheltered situation. I. asiatica 
«closely resembles the German, but the blos- 
somsare finer. Butitis doubtful whether 
any of those mentioned have ever been. so 
popular as the Spanish Irises. To say 
that they are extremely light and graceful, 
and, therefore, particularly adapted to 
table decoration, will grow in any open 
_ gituation in a free, well-drained soil, flower 
~ Freely, are possessed of delicate color, and 
that bulbs are cheap, 1s only giving expres- 
sion to facts that are now well known. Not 
many, however, when planting the bulbs 
remember to pot up a few for early spring 
biooming in the house. Not. the Spanish 
alone lend themselves to forcing, but 
many of the other sorts. if lifted from the 
open and brought under glass in spring, 
will bloom freely. Irises to be effective 
should be grouped together, and in plant- 
ing one should remember those that bloom 
Yate as well as at midsummer, kinds like 
alata, whose lilac blossoms flecked with 
yellow remain on warm and sheltered bor- 
dera many weeks, often until the later days 
»f December. 
HYBRIDIZING CANNAS. 
[From the “ Florists’ Exchange.’’] 
Success in hybridizing the canna requires 
# love for the work that will inspire the 
most painstaking and patient effort, But 
having learned the habits of the plant and 
the laws of nature as applied to plant 
hreeding, the originating of new kinds is 
very fascinating. 
it was nearly a dozen years ago when I 
first became interested in this subject, for it 
seemed to me that the canna was suscep- 
tible of vast improvements. The late M. 
Crozy, of France, was undoubtedly the 
pioneer in the field of improved canna cul- 
ture. The finest introductions which he 
gave us were Mme, Orozy and Souvenir 
_@’Antoine Orozy. They alone won for him 
an international fame, and deservedly so. 
But all his new kinds combined covered but 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
acomparatively small range of colors, and 
left stil] a vast field for the enthusiast. 
As in other lines, so in hybridising; he 
who aims to’ accomplish certain results and 
works intelligently toward them is, as a 
rule, the most successful. My first aim, 
therefore, was directed toward producing 
cannas of larger, finer flowers, with a eon- 
stitution better suited to our peculiar cli- 
mate than were the French kinds, and par- 
ticnlarly did there seem to be a field for the 
solid colors in the reds, yellows, and pinks. 
Philadelphia was one of the earliest results 
of this work (1896), and Duke. of Marlboro 
followed soon after with a shade about two 
points darker. Both these varieties still 
hold their places as two of the best of the 
red flowering sorts. 
Next came Buttercup, the yellow stand- 
by. In addition to.its excellent qualities as 
a good grower, adaptability to all localities, 
and its pure, solid color, it ts also the 
earliest to open its flowers and blooms 
latest in the autumn. E. 
At one time my principal. aim was to 
roduce a better strain of pink cannas, and 
with Pink Ehemanii to work on, the hoped- 
for improvements were finally realised in 
such kinds as Rosemawr, Luray, West 
Grove, and Betsy Ross. 
The next marked development was 
among the orchid-flowering varieties. Mr. 
Damann, of Italy, has given us some of the 
finest we have in this class, but, with the 
exception of King Humbert, nearly all have 
been of the variegated shadee; therefore it 
was most gratifying, after an extended 
effort in this direction, to be rewarded with 
the now well-known red orchid-flowering 
canna Pennsylvania. Within the present 
year a still greater improvement is found in 
the new large orchid-flowering canna 
Louisiana, which we expect to put on the 
market next spring. The color of Louisiana 
is intense rich red, the derkest of its class ; 
it is the earliest to bloom, and produces 
flowers 7 to 73 inches across. We have a 
large bed of it now in bloom at the St. 
Louis World’s Fair. 
At present the interest is centred on the 
bronze-leaved varieties. The finest of this 
class is Black Beauty, which has the 
darkest foliage of all, but very small 
flowers. The aim has been to produce 
large, fine flowers on the same dark foliage, 
and Brandywine is the best result. It is 
my favorite as a bedder because of its rich 
foliage, made more so by its beautiful, 
large, dark red flowers. Other excellent 
new lines in this class are Hiawatha, Chau- 
tauqua and Mount Etna. All of these are 
particularly fine for making grand displays 
in beds, and when. arranged with other 
colors may be made to produce most 
striking and effective contrasts. : 
But perhaps the most noteworthy achieve- 
ment of all has been the obtaining of a 
white canna with a good large flower. This 
was most difficult of all, because there was 
so little to work with. But after ten years 
of crossing and recrossing one well worthy 
of a high place in the canna world was 
finally obtained in the new white canna, 
Mont Blanc. 
The great wonder to me is that so many 
gardeners have as yet failed to appreciate 
the wonderful possibilities of the canna as 
as ever. 
ll 
a bedding plant, for frequently in parks 
and private lawus do wea still see the old, 
ungainly foliaged cannas, with very small 
flowers. zie ; 
LT look for the time when the canna will 
also take its place in the conservatory and 
forindoor decorative use, for the brighter 
of the dwarf flowering kinds, such {as the 
new Harlequin, deserve to rank even with 
the fine orchids of the wealthy. 
- The field for new varieties is still ‘very 
large, for there are many combinations of ; 
eolor in fower and leaf that may be hoped . 
for. When we consider that with all the 
work of the hybridizers in roses in recent 
years they have been unable to improve on 
the color and form of a rose that was intro- 
duced some forty years ago 
Jacqueminot), we may rightly conclude that 
(General - 
the improvements obtained in the cannain * 
the past twelve years have been very 
marked indeed. 
IRRITATION CAUSED BY HUMEA 
ELEGANS. 
By Dr, Hrarnpen. 
A female patient of mine who has a 
particularly delicate complexion, has dur- 
ing the last few months been frequently 
suffering from vesicular eruptions on the 
nose and cheeks looking like impetigo. 
They quickly subsided under treatment, 
but as there was an almost immediate re- 
Japse she consulted a specialist, who diag- 
nosed eczema, and naturally ordered a 
course of arsenic. In June I found her 
with a red, swollen face, the left eye closed, 
large vesicles containing clear serum on 
the cheeks, and a patch of eczema on the 
left side of the chin. She was greatly 
alarmed, as she supposed that she had ery- 
sipelas. Her temperature, however, was 
normal. She was unable to account for 
the attack, but first noticed it after playing: 
ping-pong. She had not been handling 
Primula obconica as she was aware of its 
dangers, but she volunteered the state- 
ments that she had been feeding chickens 
with crushed bones and that she had no- 
ticed some irritation about the nose. The 
attack subsided in the course of a few days 
under “lotio plumbi subacetatis.”” The first, 
time she went out, at the end of the week 
when her face was well, she complained of 
itching of her right eyelid, and in the 
course of a few hours her face was as bad 
She then said that she had picked 
a leaf of Humea elegans, and had smelt it, 
and that she had been in the habit during 
the last few months of picking a leaf and 
rubbing it on her veil, as she liked the per- 
fume. The position of the rash was just 
‘where a veil would touch the face and the 
patch on the chin corresponded to the place 
where the veil is screwed up and tucked in. 
No doubt this had been the cause of all. 
the trouble. 
Humea elegans, a native of New South | 
Wales, is frequently grown. in greenhouses 
for the sake of its perfume and flowers. 
The leaves are not unlike those of the to- 
bacco plant in shape, but muck more shiny, 
and they exhale a atrony smell like incense. 
