Acanthus latifolius (lusitanicus).
Ornamental foliaged herbaceous Section; retaining its leaves till very late in the year. The leaves of this are bold and noble in outline, and the plant has a tendency, rare in some hardy things with otherwise fine qualities, to retain them till the end of the season without losing a particle of their freshness and polished verdure. In fact, the only thing we have to decide about this subject is, what is the best place for it? Now, it is one of those things that will not disgrace any position, and will prove equally at home in the centre of the mixed border, projected in the grass a little from the edge of a choice shrubbery, or in the flower-garden; nobody need fear its displaying anything like the seediness which such things as the Heracleums show at the end of summer.
Acokanthera spectabilis
Acokanthera spectabilis
Adenium multiflorum
Adenium multiflorum
Agapanthus Umbellatus
Agapanthus Umbellatus
Aloe Pienaarii
Aloe Pienaarii
Aloe pretoriensis
Aloe pretoriensis
Aloe Globuligemma
Aloe Globuligemma
Arctotis Decurrens
Arctotis Decurrens
Blossom of Cucurbita
Mother-Aphis and Her Army of Children on Tube Whilst engaged some few years ago in the study of the species that affects the blossoms of one of our gourds—the Cucurbita ovifera of botanists—certain phenomena were observed, which promised an easy and speedy solution of the problem. Gathered in compact masses, like companies of soldiery preparing for a foray, hundreds of aphides were seen, busily feeding, all over the flowers. There were old and young, not an indiscriminate mingling of ages and sizes, but an orderly arrangement of families, each family preceded by its own appropriate head. First came the very young of each family, only to be followed by those that were older, leaving the oldest of all to lead up the rear.
Bolusanthus speciosus
Bolusanthus speciosus
Ceropegia Meyeri
Ceropegia Meyeri
Ceropegia Rendallii
Ceropegia Rendallii
Clerodendron triphyllum
Clerodendron triphyllum
Clivia miniata
Clivia miniata
Crassula falcata
Cyrtanthus Angustifolius
Cyrtanthus Angustifolius
Cyrtanthus McKenii
Cyrtanthus McKenii
Cyrtanthus obliquus
Cyrtanthus obliquus
Cyrtanthus rotundilobus
Cyrtanthus rotundilobus
Cyrtanthus sanguineus
Cyrtanthus sanguineus
Empress of China climbing rose
Formal arrangements in London parks
The formality of the true geometrical garden is charming to many to whom this style is offensive; and there is not the slightest reason why the most beautiful combinations of fine-leaved and fine-flowered plants should not be made in any kind of geometrical garden.
Freesia refracta
Freesia refracta
Gardenia globosa
Gardenia globosa
Gerbera Jamesoni
Gerbera Jamesoni
Gladiolus psittacinus
Gladiolus psittacinus
Gladiolus Rehmanni
Gladiolus Rehmanni
Gourds
The Gourd tribe is capable, if properly used, of adding much remarkable beauty and character to the garden; yet, as a rule, it is seldom used. There is no natural order more wonderful in the variety and singular shapes of its fruit than that to which the melon, cucumber, and vegetable marrow belong. From the writhing Snake-cucumber, which hangs down four or five feet long from its stem, to the round enormous giant pumpkin or gourd, the grotesque variation, both in colour and shape and size, is marvellous.
Haemanthus natalensis
Haemanthus natalensis
Leucadendron Stokoei
Leucadendron Stokoei
Leucadendron Stokoei
Leucadendron Stokoei
Mimetes palustris
Mimetes palustris
Moraea iridioides
Moraea iridioides
Nymphaea stellata
Nymphaea stellata
Orothamnus Zeyheri
Orothamnus Zeyheri
Pachypodium succulentum
Pachypodium succulentum
Protea abyssinica
Protea abyssinica
Richardia angustiloba
Richardia angustiloba
Richardia Rehmanni
Richardia Rehmanni
Round-Leaved Sundew
Growing in poor peaty soil, and sometimes along the borders of ponds where nothing else can grow, certain low herbaceous plants, called Droseras, abound. So small and apparently insignificant are they, that to the ordinary observer they are almost unnoticed. But they have peculiarities of structure and nature that readily distinguish them. Scattered thickly over their leaves are reddish bristles or tentacles, each surmounted by a gland, from which an extremely viscid fluid, sparkling in the sunlight like dew, exudes in transparent drops. Hence the common name of Sundew by which the half-dozen species found in the United States east of the Mississippi River are known. A one-sided raceme, whose flowers open only when the sun shines, crowns a smooth scape, which is devoid of tentacles. Drosera rotundifolia, our commonest species, has a wide range, being indigenous to both Europe and America. In the United States it extends from New England to Florida and westward, and is occasionally associated with Drosera longifolia, a form with long strap-shaped leaves, but whose distribution is mostly restricted to maritime regions, from Massachusetts to Florida.
Sarcocaulon rigidum
Sarcocaulon rigidum
Senecio stapeliaeformis
Senecio stapeliaeformis
Shady and sheltered Dell
Shady and sheltered Dell, with Tree Ferns and other Stove Plants placed out for the summer.
Stapelia Gettleffii
Stapelia Gettleffii
Streptocarpus Dunnii
Streptocarpus Dunnii
Tulbaghia violacea
Tulbaghia violacea
Venus’s Fly-trap
No better example of carnivorous plants could be taken than Dionæa muscipula, or to use the common name, Venus’s Fly-trap. It is a species that is indigenous to North Carolina and the adjacent parts of South Carolina, affecting sandy bogs in the pine forests from April to June, and a representative of the Droscraceæ, or Sundew Family. One cannot fail after once seeing it of becoming impressed with its peculiar characteristics. It is a smooth perennial herb with tufted radical leaves on broadly-winged, spatulate stems, the limb orbicular, notched at both ends, and fringed on the margins with strong bristles. From the centre of the rosette of leaves proceeds at the proper time a scape or leafless stalk which terminates in an umbel-like cyme of from eight to ten white bracted flowers, each flower being one inch in diameter. The roots are small and consist of two branches each an inch in length springing from a bulbous enlargement. Like an epiphytic orchid, these plants can be grown in well-drained damp moss without any soil, thus showing that the roots probably serve for the absorption of water solely. Three minute pointed processes or filaments, placed triangularly, project from the upper surface of each lobe of the bi-lobed leaf, although cases are observed where four and even ten filaments are found. These filaments are remarkable for their extreme sensitiveness to touch, as shown not only by their own movement, but by that of the lobes also. Sharp, rigid projections, diminutive spikes as it were, stand out from the leaf-margins, each of which being entered by a bundle of spiral vessels. They are so arranged that when the lobes close they interlock like the teeth of an old-fashioned rat-trap. That considerable strength may be had, the mid-rib of the leaf, on the lower side, is quite largely developed.
Witsenia maura
Witsenia maura