Agave franzosini Nissen
Vallone near Bordighera (Ludwig Winter's garden)
Die Agaven
Beiträge zu einer Monographie
Alwin Berger 1915
Friday, 24 April 2009
Agave cochlearis
Madonna della Ruota, Ludwig Winter's Garden near Bordighera
In a garden at Nice (look at the children to get an idea of size).
Die Agaven
Beiträge zu einer Monographie
Alwin Berger 1915
Die Agaven
Beiträge zu einer Monographie
Alwin Berger 1915
Agave schidigera
Die Agaven
Beiträge zu einer Monographie
Alwin Berger
1915
Notes from Hortus Mortolensis (1912)
Though closely related to Agave filifera, this is without doubt specifically distinct. It never produces offsets, but always dies after flowering.
Monserrate on ebay
Early hand-tinted postcard of palacio, shewing Triton Fountain surrounded by Yuccas. The attic windows in the tower were added sometime after initial construction (late 19th. C. ?). The very earliest postcards do not have these windows (in the cornice). Notice the tiles on lateral roof and the lead-coloured cupola - not red. Walls covered in creepers. The stone trim to the flower bed is still in place today.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
John William Lewin 1770-1819
JOHN WILLIAM LEWIN (1770-1819) The Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa) signed, inscribed and dated '--I.W.Lewin--A.L. 8 Octr--1807-/- Sydney. N.S.W.--' (lower right)watercolour on paper 21½ x 16¼in. (54.6 x 41.3cm.)
Provenance
William Bligh (1754 -1817) and thence by descent to the present owners.
William Bligh (1754 -1817) and thence by descent to the present owners.
There are two studies of the Gymea by Lewin in the Mitchell Library, and a watercolour of similar size, 'The Gigantic Lyllie of New South Wales', dated 1810, is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales ('Lewin's Gigantic Lyllie is a ... spectacular ... emblem for the colony which nourished it. If such a statement can be made of an essentially descriptive effort by a colonial illlustrator, Lewin unleashes the drama of the plant, its sensual extravagance.' (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Handbook, Sydney, 1999, p.183)Another commission including the Gymea lily is recorded: 'On 7 December 1814 the merchant and settler Alexander Riley wrote to his brother: 'Agreeable to your Wishes, I have had a pair of the most elegant Flowers painted by Mr.Lewin [sic], viz the Gigantic lily and then Warataw [Waratah] done in his good style which I have sent to Mr.Palmer ... and I may with truth remark of all who have seen them, viz "That they are worthy for the Palace of a Prince" ... Lewin has charged me £12/12/-, and from his high style of finishing them he did not earn Journey mans wages.' (J. Kerr (ed.), The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Melbourne, 1992, p.467).The son of the English ornithologist William Lewin, John William Lewin was the first free artist to visit the colony of New South Wales, arriving in January 1800. He joined two expeditions as unofficial natural history artist, to the Hunter River in 1801 and to Tahiti later the same year. He settled with his wife at Parramatta from 1802 to 1808, befriending the new governor, William Bligh, whose land grants from Governor King included 500 acres near Parramatta ('Mount Betham') and 1000 acres of the Hawkesbury River ('Copenhagen'). Lewin's commissions for Bligh include a view from Governor Bligh's farm on the Hawkesbury and his watercolour of a 'Variegated Lizard', now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Acc. no. 486.1990).The Gymea Lily was famously depicted by Ferdinand Bauer on Flinders' circumnavigation of 1801-05 and issued as plate 13 in Bauer's Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae, London, 1816.The flower (Doryanthes excelsa Correa, Gymea Lily - Doryanthaceae) is a large (growing up to 14 feet high) perennial rosette plant with red flowers in Spring, native to the sandstone country of the Sydney basin and northern New South Wales. Named 'Gymea' by the aborigines ('giant lily') who eat its roasted stem and roots, it survives fire by having its apical buds protected in leaf bases (often underground).
Lot 67 Sale 6625
Price realized : 35,850 pounds
Doryanthes excelsa 1810
J W Lewin (England; Australia, b.1770, d.1819) 1810
Watercolour pencil, watercolour on cream laid paper 53.8 x 43.1cm borderlines; 54.1x 43.6cm sheet; 68.0 x 57.5 x 4.0cm frame
At least three other studies of the Gymea lily (Doryanthes excelsa) by Lewin are known - two in the Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW) and another offered at auction by Christie's, London 26 September 2002 (67).
Drawing from life? J. W. Lewin's The gigantic lyllie of New South Wales
Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art , Annual, 2005 by Paula Dredge
Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art , Annual, 2005 by Paula Dredge
Doryanthes excelsa 1813
Ferdinandi Bauer Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae, sive Icones generum quae in prodromo florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae van diemen
Bauer, Franz Andreas Leiden 1813
Plate 13
Doryanthes excelsa 1868
La Belgique horticole, journal des jardins et des vergers
Charles François Antoine Morren
Charles Jacques Édouard Morren.
Liège, 1868, volume 18, plate 2-3.
Chromolithograph (sheet 248 x 348 mm with folds).
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Fuchsia corymbiflora 1843
Herbier général de l'amateur, contenant la description, l'histoire, les propriétés et la culture des végétaux utiles et agréables Dédié au roi, par Mordant de Launay, continué Por Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (Jean-Louis-Auguste) 1843
F. corymbiflora, R. et P., FI. Peruv. 3 , t. 326. — Foliis oppositis ternisque petiolatis, oblongis, integerrimis, tomentosis, viridibus, rugosis; corymbis terniinalibus, pendulis, multiftoris ; calycis tubo longissimo, infundibulari; laciniis reflexis; petalis liberis, patulis, acutis, staminum longitudine.
Lindl. Bot. Reg., dec. 1841, t. 70.
Nous venons tenir la promesse que nous avons faite à nos lecteurs (Voyez Hort. univ., t. II, p. 221) de leur donner la figure et la description de cette belle espèce de Fuchsie, la plus brillante, la plus noble sans contredit, parmi celles de ses nombreuses et élégantes congénères que nous connaissions jusque aujourd'hui. Pour tout dire en un seul mot, elle l'emporte même de beaucoup, en beauté et en élégance, sur la Fuchsia fulgens, aujourd'hui si répandue dans les jardins, à tant de titres, et qui va se voir détrônée par la nouvelle venue (vœ victis!),
La Fuchsia corymbiflora est un sous-arbrisseau qui paraît devoir atteindre, dans un bon sol, 2 et même 3 mètres de hauteur, et être encore plus rustique que la F. fulgens. Que d'avantages sur celle-ci! Ses racines, longues et déliées, forment un chevelu épais et comme fasciculé; sa tige, droite, comme articulée, et portant à chaque renflement une touffe de feuilles, pouvant au besoin s'allonger en branches, se divise au sommet en plusieurs rameaux flexibles munis de larges feuilles ternées, ou plus rarement opposées, alternes, et terminés par des corymbes immenses, composés de nombreuses grappes de fleurs qui atteignent jusqu'au delà de 66 centimètres dans leur plus grand développement floral. Ces corymbes, dit M. Standish (voyez plus bas), sont si amples , leurs fleurs si nombreuses et si grandes, que dans leur gracieuse courbure ils cachent la tige principale.
Comme nous l'avons dit ailleurs (l. c.), c'est à M. Standish, pépiniériste à Bagshot, comté de Surrey, que les Anglais doivent l'introduction (en 1839?) de ce très noble végétal. Ce commerçant en avait reçu des graines de ses correspondants de Mont-Real, au Canada, qui eux-mêmes les tenaient d'un des amis de l'un d'entre eux, arrivant précisément de Cuzco, au Pérou , pour les affaires de son commerce. Les auteurs de la Flore du Pérou disent qu'il atteint la hauteur d'un homme, et que la tige donne peu de branches. Ils le découvrirent dans les bois de Chinchao et de Muna, au nord de Lima, croissant dans les endroits ombragés.
« C'est dans cette partie du monde, dit M. Lindley, que les Fuchsies atteignent cette beauté extrême, ces vives couleurs et ces formes qui leur ont valu parmi les indigènes le nom de Molle Cantu (buisson de beauté). Outre celle dont il s'agit, Ruiz et Pavon en citent encore d'autres d'une apparence encore plus belle, et pour la possession future desquelles l'horticulture est réduite à former des vœux ardents. Ces auteurs regardent principalement comme au dessus de tout éloge la F. serratifolia, à fleurs roses de 0m,041 de longueur, ayant la forme de celle de la F. macrostemma; la F. denticulata, haute de 3m,898, se couvrant de fleurs pourpres plus grandes encore que celles de l'espèce que nous déci'ivons; enfin les F. simplicaulis et apetala, semblables en apparence, mais d'un aspect encore plus frappant. »
Les fouilles de l'espèce dont il s'agit atteignent de 20 à 30 cent., ou même plus, de longueur, sur une largeur de 8 à 10-12. Elles sont ovales-lancéolées, deniées sur les bords, ciliées, légèrement pubescentes, d'un vert bleuâtre (et rougeâtre par places), comme gauffrées; le pétiole est court (1-2 cent.), canaliculé en dessus. Les feuilles florales, ou bractées, sont très petites (2-3 cent. ), le pédoncule commun est cylindrique (comme la tige et les rameaux), et long de 6 à 8 cent. ; les pédicelles fort courts (3-4 cent.); ovaire ovale-cylindrique, vert; tube calycinal coloré, cylindrique-infundibuliforme (d'un pourpre violacé brillant), de 8 à 9 centimètres de longueur, partagé en 4 segments étalés-réfléchis, linéaires-lancéolés, acuminés, carénés, tomenteux, un peu plus courts que les pétales; ceux-ci, au nombre également de 4, alternant avec les segments insérés à leur base, étalés, ovales-aigus, de près de 0m,037 de longueur, veinés; étamines .....
Nous ne saurions actuellement donner de cette plante une description botanique plus complète, M. Lindley, qui en présente une excellente figure (reproduite ci-contre), se taisant complètement sur ce sujet, et M. Paxton , qui la figure également, ne parlant guère que de son mérite et de sa culture; mais tous les amateurs seront bientôt à même de suppléer à ce silence forcé, en se la procurant chez plusieurs de nos fleuristes qui se sont bâtés de la multiplier, notamment chez M. Ghauvière.
Nous répétons qu'elle aime un sol riche et profond, des arrosements fréquents pendant la belle saison, une situation ombragée. On pourra peut-être, par des semis réitérés, l'amener à passer nos hivers dehors. Il faut, en serre, lui donner de grands vases, et en renouveler la terre assez souvent. Heureux l'amateur qui, dans sa serre tempérée, pourra la planter en pleine terre !
Lem.
F. corymbiflora, R. et P., FI. Peruv. 3 , t. 326. — Foliis oppositis ternisque petiolatis, oblongis, integerrimis, tomentosis, viridibus, rugosis; corymbis terniinalibus, pendulis, multiftoris ; calycis tubo longissimo, infundibulari; laciniis reflexis; petalis liberis, patulis, acutis, staminum longitudine.
Lindl. Bot. Reg., dec. 1841, t. 70.
Nous venons tenir la promesse que nous avons faite à nos lecteurs (Voyez Hort. univ., t. II, p. 221) de leur donner la figure et la description de cette belle espèce de Fuchsie, la plus brillante, la plus noble sans contredit, parmi celles de ses nombreuses et élégantes congénères que nous connaissions jusque aujourd'hui. Pour tout dire en un seul mot, elle l'emporte même de beaucoup, en beauté et en élégance, sur la Fuchsia fulgens, aujourd'hui si répandue dans les jardins, à tant de titres, et qui va se voir détrônée par la nouvelle venue (vœ victis!),
La Fuchsia corymbiflora est un sous-arbrisseau qui paraît devoir atteindre, dans un bon sol, 2 et même 3 mètres de hauteur, et être encore plus rustique que la F. fulgens. Que d'avantages sur celle-ci! Ses racines, longues et déliées, forment un chevelu épais et comme fasciculé; sa tige, droite, comme articulée, et portant à chaque renflement une touffe de feuilles, pouvant au besoin s'allonger en branches, se divise au sommet en plusieurs rameaux flexibles munis de larges feuilles ternées, ou plus rarement opposées, alternes, et terminés par des corymbes immenses, composés de nombreuses grappes de fleurs qui atteignent jusqu'au delà de 66 centimètres dans leur plus grand développement floral. Ces corymbes, dit M. Standish (voyez plus bas), sont si amples , leurs fleurs si nombreuses et si grandes, que dans leur gracieuse courbure ils cachent la tige principale.
Comme nous l'avons dit ailleurs (l. c.), c'est à M. Standish, pépiniériste à Bagshot, comté de Surrey, que les Anglais doivent l'introduction (en 1839?) de ce très noble végétal. Ce commerçant en avait reçu des graines de ses correspondants de Mont-Real, au Canada, qui eux-mêmes les tenaient d'un des amis de l'un d'entre eux, arrivant précisément de Cuzco, au Pérou , pour les affaires de son commerce. Les auteurs de la Flore du Pérou disent qu'il atteint la hauteur d'un homme, et que la tige donne peu de branches. Ils le découvrirent dans les bois de Chinchao et de Muna, au nord de Lima, croissant dans les endroits ombragés.
« C'est dans cette partie du monde, dit M. Lindley, que les Fuchsies atteignent cette beauté extrême, ces vives couleurs et ces formes qui leur ont valu parmi les indigènes le nom de Molle Cantu (buisson de beauté). Outre celle dont il s'agit, Ruiz et Pavon en citent encore d'autres d'une apparence encore plus belle, et pour la possession future desquelles l'horticulture est réduite à former des vœux ardents. Ces auteurs regardent principalement comme au dessus de tout éloge la F. serratifolia, à fleurs roses de 0m,041 de longueur, ayant la forme de celle de la F. macrostemma; la F. denticulata, haute de 3m,898, se couvrant de fleurs pourpres plus grandes encore que celles de l'espèce que nous déci'ivons; enfin les F. simplicaulis et apetala, semblables en apparence, mais d'un aspect encore plus frappant. »
Les fouilles de l'espèce dont il s'agit atteignent de 20 à 30 cent., ou même plus, de longueur, sur une largeur de 8 à 10-12. Elles sont ovales-lancéolées, deniées sur les bords, ciliées, légèrement pubescentes, d'un vert bleuâtre (et rougeâtre par places), comme gauffrées; le pétiole est court (1-2 cent.), canaliculé en dessus. Les feuilles florales, ou bractées, sont très petites (2-3 cent. ), le pédoncule commun est cylindrique (comme la tige et les rameaux), et long de 6 à 8 cent. ; les pédicelles fort courts (3-4 cent.); ovaire ovale-cylindrique, vert; tube calycinal coloré, cylindrique-infundibuliforme (d'un pourpre violacé brillant), de 8 à 9 centimètres de longueur, partagé en 4 segments étalés-réfléchis, linéaires-lancéolés, acuminés, carénés, tomenteux, un peu plus courts que les pétales; ceux-ci, au nombre également de 4, alternant avec les segments insérés à leur base, étalés, ovales-aigus, de près de 0m,037 de longueur, veinés; étamines .....
Nous ne saurions actuellement donner de cette plante une description botanique plus complète, M. Lindley, qui en présente une excellente figure (reproduite ci-contre), se taisant complètement sur ce sujet, et M. Paxton , qui la figure également, ne parlant guère que de son mérite et de sa culture; mais tous les amateurs seront bientôt à même de suppléer à ce silence forcé, en se la procurant chez plusieurs de nos fleuristes qui se sont bâtés de la multiplier, notamment chez M. Ghauvière.
Nous répétons qu'elle aime un sol riche et profond, des arrosements fréquents pendant la belle saison, une situation ombragée. On pourra peut-être, par des semis réitérés, l'amener à passer nos hivers dehors. Il faut, en serre, lui donner de grands vases, et en renouveler la terre assez souvent. Heureux l'amateur qui, dans sa serre tempérée, pourra la planter en pleine terre !
Lem.
Salvia confertiflora 1843 (en Français)
SAUGE A FLEURS SERRÉES. SALVIA CONFERTIFLORA.
La Sauge à fleurs serrées est une plante déjà ancienne. Elle a été introduite sur le continent européen, en Angleterre, dès 1824, par un des voyageurs de la société d'horticulture de Londres, M. Macrae, qui la découvrit dans les environs de Rio-Janeiro, au Brésil. Elle est également cultivée depuis plusieurs années déjà dans les jardins du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris, où nous la fîmes figurer l'an dernier, sur l'indication de M. Neumann, jardinier en chef, qu'avaient séduit la beauté de cette plante, le grand nombre et l'éclat de ses fleurs (bien que fort petites, en comparaison de celles de beaucoup de ses congénères ). Nous jugeâmes comme lui que cette espèce méritait d'être plus répandue. C'est dans ce dessein que nous en publions aujourd'hui la figure et la description, et que nous invitons les amateurs à se la procurer (1).
C'est une plante d'une végétation vigoureuse, s'élevant à un mètre et plus de hauteur. La tige, frutiqueuse, à rameaux d'un roux tomenteux, létragones- sillonnés, et souvent marqués d'une raie pourprée dans le sillon, porte des feuilles pétiolées, ovales-oblongues,acutiuscules, créne- lées'dentées, à limbe cunéiforme à la base, subdécurrent sur le pétiole-
(1) On la trouve chez MM. Chauvière, rue de la Roquette ; Guérin-Modeste, à Belleville-Ménil-montant, etc.
Elles sont couvertes en dessus de poils couchés, qui en rendent la surface rude; en dessous d'une pubescence blanchâtre, dense et un peu plus douce; les florales sont beaucoup plus petites, ovales, acuminées, réfléchies ou caduques. L'inflorescence est en épis longs de 30 à 40 centim. et garnis de verticillastres très nombreux, très rapprochés. Les fleurs, au nombre de 8 à 12 dans chaque verticillastre, sont presque sessiles, petites, d'un rouge très brillant. Le calyce en est ovale-tubuleux, tomenteux-velu , à lèvre supérieure entière ; dents de l'inférieure ovales-aiguës ; corolle deux fois aussi longue que le calyce, en massue , à tube exsert, ventru , obtus, velu au sommet, nu à la base; à lèvres courtes, presque égales, dont deux très concaves ; la supérieure entière, à sommet ovale, aigu, réfléchi ; l'inférieure partagée en 3 lobes courbés en dedans sur eux-mêmes, dont le médian plus long, entier. Connectifs courtement prolongés en arrière, dilatés, réfléchis, connés longitudinalement; style glabre.
Cette espèce est remarquable par son port particulier et la disposition de ses fleurs, lesquelles font un joli effet, malgré leur petitesse, que rachète suffisamment le vif éclat dont elles brillent. La culture et la multiplication en sont très faciles. On peut la cultiver en pleine terre, dehors pendant la belle saison, mais mieux encore la tenir dans une bonne serre tempérée, un peu chaude même, pour jouir complètement de ses fleurs, qu'elle produit en automne. Elle se plaît dans un compost formé de terre franche, de terreau de bruyères et de terreau de couche bien consommé, mélangés par parties égales. On lui donne de fréquents arrosements en été; on en bassine le feuillage. Enfin , on la multiplie de graines et de boutures.
Ch. Lemaire.
Herbier général de l'amateur, contenant la description, l'histoire, les propriétés et la culture des végétaux utiles et agréables: Dédié au roi, par Mordant de Launay, continué
Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (Jean-Louis-Auguste)
1843
Salvia confertiflora : Botanical Register 1839
Botanical Register Vol XXV, Nº 29, 1839
John Lindley
This Sage is one of the many Brazilian species which deserve introduction to our gardens. It was found near Rio Janeiro by Mr. Macrae, while in the service of the Horticultural Society, and in other parts of the empire by Sellow and Pohl. It belongs to a small section of the genus with short woolly flowers, the only other species of which, as yet in gardens, is the Salvia leucantha of Mexico.
Its flowers are so bright and numerous as to render the plant a conspicuous object during the autumn months, at which time it blossoms. Whether or not it is sufficiently hardy to live out of doors in the summer is uncertain.
The figure was taken from a plant presented to the Horticultural Society by John Dillwyn Llewellyn, Esq.
The leaves have rather a heavy disagreeable smell of a peculiar nature, resembling perhaps a combination of the Dead-nettle and Sorrel.This species may be cultivated either in a greenhouse, or planted out in a rich border during the summer months. It is however seen in its greatest beauty when grown in a house which is intermediate between a greenhouse and stove;— that is, where the temperature in winter and spring is never below 55° of Fahr. It delights in a rich soil, composed of equal parts of loam and peat, mixed with a portion of manure and sand, and will require, when growing luxuriantly, a great quantity of water.
Of all the species of Salvia this is the most easy both to cultivate and propagate. If cuttings of the young shoots are inserted in sand, they will soon make strong plants.
PAXTON'S MAGAZINE OF BOTANY Vol. 6, MDCCCXXXIX
Salvia confertiflora. A really showy species of Salvia, with lengthened terminal spikes of rich orange-red-coloured flowers, which appear in dense whorls of less than an inch apart. It was first discovered by Mr. Macrae, near Rio Janeiro, that individual being then in the employment of the Horticultural Society. A plant was subsequently presented to that society by John Dillwyn Llewellyn, Esq., and this has flowered profusely. A house of a temperature intermediate between the stove and the greenhouse is recommended as the best situation for this plant, but it appears to thrive also in the greenhouse, or even if planted out in a rich border in the summer, and removed to some protective structure on the approach of autumn. The flowers are short and woolly, but the leaves are large, deep green, rugose, and serrated; the stem being also pleasingly marked with bright brown. Bot. Reg. 29.
Salvia confertiflora
Salvia confertiflora
Curtis's Botanical Magazine Vol 68 Nº 3899 (1842)
Salvia confertiflora, Pohl,
Pl. Brasil. Icon. Descr. 2. p. 134. t. 190 (1833)
Benth. Lab. p. 276
Lindl. Bot. Reg. vol. 25. t. 29
An extremely beautiful Brazilian Sage, at least the variety here represented is of that character. Pohl, the original discoverer (among shrubs in the Serra d'Estrella and in the Padre Correa, Brazil) and describer of this plant, distinguishes two states of it; the one corollis flavidis, the kind he figures, and the other corollis rubellis. But the blossoms of our Salvia are of a much more beautiful colour than even the latter name would indicate: these corollas are likewise longer, more protruded from the calyx, and the leaves are more acuminated than in his figure. It was discovered in the Organ Mountains of Brazil, and by him sent to the Glasgow and other Botanic Gardens, where it has flowered during the autumnal months; and though able to bear the open border in the summer months, yet it comes to greater perfection in a warm greenhouse.
Descr. Plant three to four feet high, shrubby, everywhere more or less pubescenti-hirsute. Stem quadrangular, thickened and reddish at the angles. Lower leaves very large, six inches and upwards long, all of them ovate, petiolate, acuminate, coarsely serrated, wrinkled, beneath tomentose and pale. Raceme spiciform, very long, composed of numerous whorls of rather small and nearly sessile, bright-red flowers. Calyx deeply tinged with red, densely clothed, as is the corolla, with velvety hairs or tomentum. Corolla more than twice as long as the calyx, clavate, shortly two-lipped, very obtuse; lips nearly equal, both of them very concave; upper one entire, lower cut into three incurved lobes, of which the middle one is the longest and entire. Anthers with the clubbed apex of their connectivum conjoined.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Agave HORTUS MORTOLENSIS
AGAVE
Agaves are perfectly at home at La Mortola, attaining their full size. Every year a number of interesting species throw up their tall infloresences. Only a few tropical species are liable to suffer during winter.
The foundation of the present collection was laid by a large contribution from Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, of Reigate, whose classical collection of these plants furnished much of the material for Prof. Baker's elaborate account of the genus. The first consignment was received in June 1868 ; it contained :- A. yuccaefolia, A. Saundersii, A. laxa, A. Cantala, A. Rumphii, A. angustifolia, A. stricta, A. Jacquiniana, A. elongata, and three unnamed plants. In spring, 1869, the following were received :- A. scabra, A. mitis, A. applanata, A. Bouchei, A. ferox, A. Ellemeetiana, A. filamentosa, A. lophantha, with several varieties of the last-named, and in 1870 A. Bouchei and A. xylonacantha.
Our knowledge of this interesting and beautiful genus is still very incomplete, and the confusion existing in books and gardens regarding their nomenclature is bewildering. Since Jacobi's [G.A. von Jacobi, «Versuch zu einer systematischen Ordnung der Agaveen,» in Hamburger Gartenzeitung, 1864-1867, and Abhandlungen der Schesischen Ges., Naturw. Abt. 1868-70.] and Baker's [J.G. Baker, «The Genus Agave» in Gardeners' Chronicle, 1877; reprinted in Baker's Handbook of the Amaryllidae. London, 1888.] works, the Agaves have not been comprehensively dealt with, and a new and up-to-date monograph is urgently wanted.
I am greatly indebted to Prof. Pax, Breslau, for the kind loan of General von Jacobi's drawings and photographs, which were of great help to clear up many doubtful or neglected species, and to Prof. Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for help in naming several Agaves of our garden, as well as for many of his newly described species.
The names given here can, in some cases, only be considered as provisional. I hope to give before long a full account of the Agaves grown at la mortola.
Agave americana
Agave angustifolia
Agave asperrima
Agave atrovirens
With this species is generally united the closely allied Agave Salmiana. A. atrovirens has the leaves more contracted at the base and more acuminate, with very long and slender terminal spine ; their colour is an almost shining dark green, very different from the ashy green or grey of A. Salmiana. We also grow a narrow-leaved variety, and a variegated form, A. atrovirens marginata.
Agave aurea
Agave barbadensis
Agave Beguini
Agave Bouchei
Agave Cantala
Agave dasylirioides
Agave dealbata
Agave decipens
Agave densiflora
Agave elongata
Agave Engelmannii
Agave ferox
A very stately and ornamental plant. Though nearly related to A. Salmiana and A. atrovirens it presents sufficient characters to be considered a distinct species. It was first given to La Mortola by Mr. W. Wilson Saunders in April, 1869.
Agave Franceschina
Agave Franzosini
Next to A. Salmiana the tallest species, with beautiful greyish white or bluish leaves, and called by Prof. Baker "The Prince of the Agaves." It was introduced at La Mortola about 1878, and flowered for the first time in 1889. [11 years to reach flowering size]
Agave Friderici
Agave Funkiana
Agave geminiflora
This species has leaves with fibrous margins. See also note under A. Knightiana.
Agave hanburyi
Agave haynaldi
Agave Henriquesii
Agave ingens (nom. nov.) [Agave picta]
Agave Karwinskii
Agave Knightiana
Agave Kochii
Agave latissima
Agave Legrelliana
Agave lurida
Agave macroacantha
Agave marmorata
Agave massiliensis
Agave miradorensis
Agave mortolensis Berger
Agave neglecta
Agave parrasana
Agave paucifolia
Agave potatorum
Agave portoricensis
Agave Pringlei
Agave pumila
Agave Reginae
Agave rigida Hort. (A. elongata)
Agave Rovelliana
Agave Salmiana
Though somewhat variable, this plant is generally larger than A. atrovirens, and always recognisable by its ashy-grey leaves, which are generally few in a rosette, and very thick and broad at their base ; the end-spine is stouter than in A. atrovirens. We have several forms and a narrow-leaved variety. A. Salmiana and A. atrovirens are much cultivated in Mexico for "pulque."
Agave Sartori
Agave Schlechtendalii
Agave schidigera
Agave Schottii
Agave Scolymus
Agave Shawii
Agave sisalana
This is the plant so valued and cultivated on a large scale in many tropical countries for its strong fibre, the "Sisal Hemp." It is not a variety of A. rigida nor of A. elongata, but a distinct species. It succeeds perfectly well at La Mortola, and is easily propagated by the many hundreds of bulbils, which each plant throws out after having flowered.
Agave spectabilis
Agave spicata
Agave spiralis
Agave Terraccianoi
Agave uncinata
Agave Verschaffeltii
Agave Victoria-Reginae var. laxior
Agave Villarum
Agave Weberi
Agave Wercklei
Agave Willdingii
Agave xylonacantha v. mediopicta
Agave zapupe
HORTUS MORTOLENSIS
Enumeratio plantarum in Horto Mortolensi cultarum
Alwin Berger - curator of the garden
London 1912
From NOTES pp.356-365
Agaves are perfectly at home at La Mortola, attaining their full size. Every year a number of interesting species throw up their tall infloresences. Only a few tropical species are liable to suffer during winter.
The foundation of the present collection was laid by a large contribution from Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, of Reigate, whose classical collection of these plants furnished much of the material for Prof. Baker's elaborate account of the genus. The first consignment was received in June 1868 ; it contained :- A. yuccaefolia, A. Saundersii, A. laxa, A. Cantala, A. Rumphii, A. angustifolia, A. stricta, A. Jacquiniana, A. elongata, and three unnamed plants. In spring, 1869, the following were received :- A. scabra, A. mitis, A. applanata, A. Bouchei, A. ferox, A. Ellemeetiana, A. filamentosa, A. lophantha, with several varieties of the last-named, and in 1870 A. Bouchei and A. xylonacantha.
Our knowledge of this interesting and beautiful genus is still very incomplete, and the confusion existing in books and gardens regarding their nomenclature is bewildering. Since Jacobi's [G.A. von Jacobi, «Versuch zu einer systematischen Ordnung der Agaveen,» in Hamburger Gartenzeitung, 1864-1867, and Abhandlungen der Schesischen Ges., Naturw. Abt. 1868-70.] and Baker's [J.G. Baker, «The Genus Agave» in Gardeners' Chronicle, 1877; reprinted in Baker's Handbook of the Amaryllidae. London, 1888.] works, the Agaves have not been comprehensively dealt with, and a new and up-to-date monograph is urgently wanted.
I am greatly indebted to Prof. Pax, Breslau, for the kind loan of General von Jacobi's drawings and photographs, which were of great help to clear up many doubtful or neglected species, and to Prof. Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for help in naming several Agaves of our garden, as well as for many of his newly described species.
The names given here can, in some cases, only be considered as provisional. I hope to give before long a full account of the Agaves grown at la mortola.
Agave americana
Agave angustifolia
Agave asperrima
Agave atrovirens
With this species is generally united the closely allied Agave Salmiana. A. atrovirens has the leaves more contracted at the base and more acuminate, with very long and slender terminal spine ; their colour is an almost shining dark green, very different from the ashy green or grey of A. Salmiana. We also grow a narrow-leaved variety, and a variegated form, A. atrovirens marginata.
Agave aurea
Agave barbadensis
Agave Beguini
Agave Bouchei
Agave Cantala
Agave dasylirioides
Agave dealbata
Agave decipens
Agave densiflora
Agave elongata
Agave Engelmannii
Agave ferox
A very stately and ornamental plant. Though nearly related to A. Salmiana and A. atrovirens it presents sufficient characters to be considered a distinct species. It was first given to La Mortola by Mr. W. Wilson Saunders in April, 1869.
Agave Franceschina
Agave Franzosini
Next to A. Salmiana the tallest species, with beautiful greyish white or bluish leaves, and called by Prof. Baker "The Prince of the Agaves." It was introduced at La Mortola about 1878, and flowered for the first time in 1889. [11 years to reach flowering size]
Agave Friderici
Agave Funkiana
Agave geminiflora
This species has leaves with fibrous margins. See also note under A. Knightiana.
Agave hanburyi
Agave haynaldi
Agave Henriquesii
Agave ingens (nom. nov.) [Agave picta]
Agave Karwinskii
Agave Knightiana
Agave Kochii
Agave latissima
Agave Legrelliana
Agave lurida
Agave macroacantha
Agave marmorata
Agave massiliensis
Agave miradorensis
Agave mortolensis Berger
Agave neglecta
Agave parrasana
Agave paucifolia
Agave potatorum
Agave portoricensis
Agave Pringlei
Agave pumila
Agave Reginae
Agave rigida Hort. (A. elongata)
Agave Rovelliana
Agave Salmiana
Though somewhat variable, this plant is generally larger than A. atrovirens, and always recognisable by its ashy-grey leaves, which are generally few in a rosette, and very thick and broad at their base ; the end-spine is stouter than in A. atrovirens. We have several forms and a narrow-leaved variety. A. Salmiana and A. atrovirens are much cultivated in Mexico for "pulque."
Agave Sartori
Agave Schlechtendalii
Agave schidigera
Agave Schottii
Agave Scolymus
Agave Shawii
Agave sisalana
This is the plant so valued and cultivated on a large scale in many tropical countries for its strong fibre, the "Sisal Hemp." It is not a variety of A. rigida nor of A. elongata, but a distinct species. It succeeds perfectly well at La Mortola, and is easily propagated by the many hundreds of bulbils, which each plant throws out after having flowered.
Agave spectabilis
Agave spicata
Agave spiralis
Agave Terraccianoi
Agave uncinata
Agave Verschaffeltii
Agave Victoria-Reginae var. laxior
Agave Villarum
Agave Weberi
Agave Wercklei
Agave Willdingii
Agave xylonacantha v. mediopicta
Agave zapupe
HORTUS MORTOLENSIS
Enumeratio plantarum in Horto Mortolensi cultarum
Alwin Berger - curator of the garden
London 1912
From NOTES pp.356-365
Saturday, 18 April 2009
DORYANTHES - Nicolson 1888
GEORGE NICHOLSON
of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening
A Practical and Scientific
Encyclopaedia of Horticulture
for
Gardeners and Botanists
Div. II Car. - Erl.
London 1888
DORYANTHES (from dory, a spear, and anthos, a flower ; the flower stem is from 12 ft. to 20 ft. high, like the handle of a spear, bearing flowers on the top). ORD. Amaryllidaceae. A genus of extremely beautiful amaryllids, requiring greenhouse culture, similar to Dasylirion, Fourcroua, &c. They thrive best in a compost of loam and leaf soil, in equal parts. Propagated from suckers, which should be placed in small pots, and grown on, repotting into larger sizes as becomes necessary. A comsiderable size of plant has to be obtained before flowers are produced.
D. excelsa (tall). very brilliant scarlet, each as large as the common white Lily, disposed in a globose head at the top of the bracteate stem, the base of which is surrounded by leaves. Summer. l. numerous, long lanceolate. h.8ft. to 16ft. New South Wales, 1800. See Fig. 678 (B.M. 1685)
D. Pameri (Palmer's). fl. red, with the centre lighter, large, funnel-shaped ; spike pyramidal, 1 ft to 1 1/2ft. high, and 10in. to 12in. broad, many flowered, clothed with leafy bracts. l. in a dense tuft, broad-lanceolate, each about 6ft. long by 6 in. in breadth, gracefully arching. h. 8ft. to 16ft. Queensland, 1874.
This is a very handsome species. (B.M. 6665.) [inaccuracies in description derived from Bot. Mag.]
of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening
A Practical and Scientific
Encyclopaedia of Horticulture
for
Gardeners and Botanists
Div. II Car. - Erl.
London 1888
DORYANTHES (from dory, a spear, and anthos, a flower ; the flower stem is from 12 ft. to 20 ft. high, like the handle of a spear, bearing flowers on the top). ORD. Amaryllidaceae. A genus of extremely beautiful amaryllids, requiring greenhouse culture, similar to Dasylirion, Fourcroua, &c. They thrive best in a compost of loam and leaf soil, in equal parts. Propagated from suckers, which should be placed in small pots, and grown on, repotting into larger sizes as becomes necessary. A comsiderable size of plant has to be obtained before flowers are produced.
D. excelsa (tall). very brilliant scarlet, each as large as the common white Lily, disposed in a globose head at the top of the bracteate stem, the base of which is surrounded by leaves. Summer. l. numerous, long lanceolate. h.8ft. to 16ft. New South Wales, 1800. See Fig. 678 (B.M. 1685)
D. Pameri (Palmer's). fl. red, with the centre lighter, large, funnel-shaped ; spike pyramidal, 1 ft to 1 1/2ft. high, and 10in. to 12in. broad, many flowered, clothed with leafy bracts. l. in a dense tuft, broad-lanceolate, each about 6ft. long by 6 in. in breadth, gracefully arching. h. 8ft. to 16ft. Queensland, 1874.
This is a very handsome species. (B.M. 6665.) [inaccuracies in description derived from Bot. Mag.]
Doryanthes excelsa
Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Or, Flower-garden Displayed: In which the Most Ornamental Foreign Plants, Cultivated in the Open Ground, the Green-house, and the Stove, are Accurately Represented in Their Natural Colours ...
John Sims
VOL. XLI, 1815
VOL. XLI, 1815
TAB. 1685
This magnificent plant, of the liliaceous tribe, flowered last summer in the greenhouse of the Right Hon. Charles Long, at Bromley-Hill, in Kent; probably for the first time in Europe, except the single flower produced from a portion of the stem, without roots, which had been cut many months before in New-Holland, and from which chiefly M. Correa established the genus.
From this plant we sketched the following brief description. Radical leaves about a hundred, four feet long, sword-shaped, smooth, quite entire, with a very narrow cartilaginous margin, lower ones recurved, the others erect. From the centre of these grew the stem, or scape, quite straight, ten or twelve feet high, clothed with linear-lanceolate acute leaves sheathing the item at their base and spreading upwards. Flowers of a deep crimson or morone colour, collected in a roundish terminal head, surrounded at the base by large, ovate-acuminate, green bracts within there were other lanceolate brades, of the same colour with the flowers, and separating these into fascicles of two, three, or four ; two still narrower braftes accompanied each individual flower the length of the germen and peduncle. Laciniae of the corolla fix, tongue-shaped, obtuse with a nipped point. Filaments subulate, shorter than the corolla, to which they are adnate or
soldered at the lower part : Anthers the length of the free part of the filament, erect, four-cornered, hollowed at the base and affixed over the point of the filament like an extinguisher, covered with a dark green pollen. Germen straight, obscurely three-cornered : Style three-furrowed : Stigma three-lobed.
soldered at the lower part : Anthers the length of the free part of the filament, erect, four-cornered, hollowed at the base and affixed over the point of the filament like an extinguisher, covered with a dark green pollen. Germen straight, obscurely three-cornered : Style three-furrowed : Stigma three-lobed.
In the figure of the flower given in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, the germen is very much curved, which does not seem to be natural to the plant.
We were informed that the ftem began to shoot the preceding summer, and reached to the height of three or four feet; that then, the winter coming on, it remained quiescent till the following spring, when it again resumed its growth, and the flowers began to expand by the end of July.
[Note:- though said to be drawn from life the colour of the floral bracts is erroneous - in nature these are a dark maroon brown]
Doryanthes palmeri 1883
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Vol. 109 TAB. 6665, 1883
DORYANTHES Palmeri
Native of Queensland
D. Palmeri, W. Hill MSS ; Benth. Fl. Austral. Vol vi. P. 452 ; Gard Chron. 1874, vol. i. p. 181, cum ic. Xylog. F. 44, 45 (icones in Fl. Des Serres iteratae et incaute coloratae), et 1881, vol. i. p. 408, f. 64; Regel Gartenfl. 1874
When, in the very commencement of this century, the prototype of the genus Doryanthes (D. excelsa, Plate 1685) flowered for the first time in Europe, it was regarded as one of the wonders of the vegetable kingdom ; and all the more so from the singular fact that the above mentioned flowering was that of a solitary flower “which came to perfection at Kew from a portion of stem without roots, which had been cut many months before in New Holland.” This fact, overlooked by some of the later historians of the genus is recorded by its founder, Dr. Correa de Serra, in the sixth volume of the Linnean Society’s Transactions, where the genus is well figured and described in a paper read December 2nd, 1800. Though rarely flowering in this country, D. excelsa has continued in cultivation in establishments provided with space enough for so gigantic an amaryllid, along with its allies, the Fourcroyas and
January 1st, 1883
Agaves ; but it was not untill seventy years after its discovery that the present even more gigantic species was made known by Mr. Hill, Government Botanist of Queensland, who found it on elevated rocks between Moreton Bay and Darling Downs. From the specimens then brought, which flowered in the Queensland Botanical Gardens in 1870, and were exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition in Sydney, together with a drawing made by Miss Scott, the description of D. Palmeri by Mr. Bentham, in the “Flora Australiensis,” was taken. This description, though accurate, is necessarily incomplete ; it takes no notice of the ribbing of the leaf, nor of their singular tubular brown tips, the latter a character common to both species, though exaggerated in this ; nor of the fact that the ovules and seeds, though inserted in two series, are so superposed as to form a row in each cell ; in which respect the genus differs from all others of the tribe Agaveae to which it belongs, and of which tribe it is the sole extra American representative.
Though as above stated, Doryanthes Palmeri was not known as a distinct species till 1870, it must have been discovered a considerable time before that date, for the plant which is here figured has been in the Royal Gardens for upwards of sixteen years, under the name of D. excelsa.
As a species D. Palmeri differs from D. excelsa in its much larger size, broader, longer, more ribbed leaves, thyrsoid inflorescence, short and coloured bracts, and much shorter not recurved perianth-segments, which are a pale red within, and in the short anthers : it commenced flowering in the Succulent House at Kew in 1881, and was transferred thence to the South Octagon of the Temperate House, where it commenced to open its flowers in March, and continued in beauty for two months, finally ripening its seeds in October.
The name Palmeri records the services to Horticulture of A. H. Palmer, Esq., formerly Colonial Secretary of Queensland.
DESCR. Roots fibrous. Leaves very numerous, spreading and recurved, ensiform, six to eight feet long and four to six inches broad, slightly ribbed, tip brown tubular, four to six inches long. Stem or scape eight to ten feet high, clothed with lanceolate short erect bracts. Inflorescence three feet long, thyrsoid, compact, of many short few-flowered spikes surrounded by red-brown oblong acute bracts, the inner of which are shorter than the perianth. Flowers scarlet, from the tubular ovary, which is one and a half inch long, to the tips of the segments, which are erecto-patent, narrowly oblong, obtuse, and two inches long. Stamens shorter than the perianth-segments, filaments gradually narrowed upwards ; anthers half an inch long, yellow in bud, then purple. Style deeply grooved base conical ; stigmas very minute, radiating. – J.D.H.
Vol. 109 TAB. 6665, 1883
DORYANTHES Palmeri
Native of Queensland
D. Palmeri, W. Hill MSS ; Benth. Fl. Austral. Vol vi. P. 452 ; Gard Chron. 1874, vol. i. p. 181, cum ic. Xylog. F. 44, 45 (icones in Fl. Des Serres iteratae et incaute coloratae), et 1881, vol. i. p. 408, f. 64; Regel Gartenfl. 1874
When, in the very commencement of this century, the prototype of the genus Doryanthes (D. excelsa, Plate 1685) flowered for the first time in Europe, it was regarded as one of the wonders of the vegetable kingdom ; and all the more so from the singular fact that the above mentioned flowering was that of a solitary flower “which came to perfection at Kew from a portion of stem without roots, which had been cut many months before in New Holland.” This fact, overlooked by some of the later historians of the genus is recorded by its founder, Dr. Correa de Serra, in the sixth volume of the Linnean Society’s Transactions, where the genus is well figured and described in a paper read December 2nd, 1800. Though rarely flowering in this country, D. excelsa has continued in cultivation in establishments provided with space enough for so gigantic an amaryllid, along with its allies, the Fourcroyas and
January 1st, 1883
Agaves ; but it was not untill seventy years after its discovery that the present even more gigantic species was made known by Mr. Hill, Government Botanist of Queensland, who found it on elevated rocks between Moreton Bay and Darling Downs. From the specimens then brought, which flowered in the Queensland Botanical Gardens in 1870, and were exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition in Sydney, together with a drawing made by Miss Scott, the description of D. Palmeri by Mr. Bentham, in the “Flora Australiensis,” was taken. This description, though accurate, is necessarily incomplete ; it takes no notice of the ribbing of the leaf, nor of their singular tubular brown tips, the latter a character common to both species, though exaggerated in this ; nor of the fact that the ovules and seeds, though inserted in two series, are so superposed as to form a row in each cell ; in which respect the genus differs from all others of the tribe Agaveae to which it belongs, and of which tribe it is the sole extra American representative.
Though as above stated, Doryanthes Palmeri was not known as a distinct species till 1870, it must have been discovered a considerable time before that date, for the plant which is here figured has been in the Royal Gardens for upwards of sixteen years, under the name of D. excelsa.
As a species D. Palmeri differs from D. excelsa in its much larger size, broader, longer, more ribbed leaves, thyrsoid inflorescence, short and coloured bracts, and much shorter not recurved perianth-segments, which are a pale red within, and in the short anthers : it commenced flowering in the Succulent House at Kew in 1881, and was transferred thence to the South Octagon of the Temperate House, where it commenced to open its flowers in March, and continued in beauty for two months, finally ripening its seeds in October.
The name Palmeri records the services to Horticulture of A. H. Palmer, Esq., formerly Colonial Secretary of Queensland.
DESCR. Roots fibrous. Leaves very numerous, spreading and recurved, ensiform, six to eight feet long and four to six inches broad, slightly ribbed, tip brown tubular, four to six inches long. Stem or scape eight to ten feet high, clothed with lanceolate short erect bracts. Inflorescence three feet long, thyrsoid, compact, of many short few-flowered spikes surrounded by red-brown oblong acute bracts, the inner of which are shorter than the perianth. Flowers scarlet, from the tubular ovary, which is one and a half inch long, to the tips of the segments, which are erecto-patent, narrowly oblong, obtuse, and two inches long. Stamens shorter than the perianth-segments, filaments gradually narrowed upwards ; anthers half an inch long, yellow in bud, then purple. Style deeply grooved base conical ; stigmas very minute, radiating. – J.D.H.
Doryanthes excelsa 1865
DORYANTHES EXCELSA, Correa (Pl. IX).
Le nom générique Doryanthes fait allusion aux fleur-s (anthos) disposées en une grosse inflorescence capitulée, terminant une longue hampe qui ressemble à une sorte d'épieu (en grec dory). La plante qui porte ce nom est remarquable par son port et par ses feuilles qui rappellent tout à fait certain Yucca, et plus particulièrement le Yucca treculeana. Toutes les feuilles, en effet, au nombre déplus d'un cent, sont radicales, insérées autour d'une tige très-raccourcie, et s'écartant du centre, à la manière d'une gerbe de feu d'artifice. Elles sont ensiformes, c'est-à-dire en forme de large glaive, longues de 2 mètres et plus, et la partie la plus large est de 10 centimètres; une grosse nervure la parcourt dans toute sa longueur, mais elle n'est apparente qu'à la face externe, car la face interne ou supérieure est parfaitement plane et unie ; cette nervure s'épaissit insensiblement du sommet à la base où elle forme une sorte de pétiole large de -4 à 5 centimètres, s'élargissant ensuite inférieurement pour constituer une plus large surface d'insertion; les bords sont entiers, parfois lisérés de brun, et la couleur générale est un beau vert gai luisant ou un peu glauque.
Du centre de cette touffe de feuilles s'élève une hampe cylindrico-conique, haute de 3 à 4 mètres et de 8 à 10 centimètres de diamètre à la base; elle est garnie de feuilles avortées, engaînantes, longues de 25 à 30 centimètres : pendant la première période de son élongation, cette hampe présente les charactères extérieurs d'une asperge, et qu'on me passe la comparaison, on pourrait la prendre pour une asperge colossale.
C'est au sommet de cette hampe, tout à fait à l'extremité, que naissant les fleurs, d'un magnifique cramoisi brilliant, rassemblées en grand nombre, en un sorte de capitule globuleux, qui ne mesure pas moins de 50 centimètres de diamètre ou 1 mètre 50 de circonférence ; ces fleurs sont groupées par 2, 3 ou 4, en espèces de fasicules séparés par de belles bractées rouges. Chaque fleur, accompagnée, en outre, de deux autres bractées plus petites, mais de même couleur, est tubuleuse, en entonnoir à son base, large de 15 à 20 centimètres, à 6 divisions oblongues obuses mucronées, étalées, puis réfléchies ; les étamines, ao nombre de 6, ont les filets adhérents au tube de l'enveloppe florale, arqués, subulés dans la partie libre et terminés par une grosse anthère dressée d'où s'échappe un pollen jaune verdâtre. L'ovaire est infère à 3 loges, surmonté d'un style à 3 sillons et terminé par un stigmate trilobé.
Cette magnifique plante, originaire de la région orientale de l'Australie, a fleuri l'hiver dernier dans les serres du Muséum de Paris, et c'est la seconde fois que cette espèce montre ses belles fleurs en Europe. La première floraison a eu lieu en 1814, en Angleterre, dans les serres chaudes de M. Charles Long, de Browlez-Hill [sic. read Bromley-Hill], province de Kent, et elle a présenté ce singulier phénomène : la hampe florale, qui avait commencé à se montrer dès l'été de 1813, cessa de s'allonger pendant l'hiver, et elle ne reprit son évolution qu'au printemps de l'année suivant, pour atteindre au terme de son développement, au mois de juillet seulement; ce n'est, en effet, qu'à cette époque que le Doryanthes de M. Charles Long commença à épanouir ses premières fleurs.
Le sujet qui vient de fleurir au Jardin des plantes de Paris n'a pas présenté les mêmes phénomènes d'évolution. Sa hampe, qui s'est montrée vers la fin de l'été, n'a subi aucun temps d'arrèt dans son élongation, et c'est au mois de mars que les premières fleurs ont apparu.
Actuellement, ses feuilles commencent à jaunir, et dans quelques semaines, quand les fruit auront atteint leur dernier dégré de maturité, de cette belle touffe de feuilles qui ne couvre pas moins de 5 mètres de diamètre, il ne restera plus rien. Les Doryanthes sont, comme les Agaves, des végétaux monocarpes, c'est-à-dire que chaque individu ne produit qu'une fois des fruits : il meurt aussitôt après sa fructification. Mais il peut donners des rejetons de sa souche, pour perpétuer l'espèce, et les graines qu'il produit permettent de le multiplier facilement.
Le Doryanthes excelsa est de serre chaude ou de bonne serre tempérée ; il aime beaucoup l'air et demande un sol substantiel bien drainé.
O. LESCUYER
L'Horticulteur français de mil huit cent cinquante et un
JOURNAL des amateurs et des intérêts horticoles
rédigé par F. Henicq
Attaché au Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris
Année de1865
pp. 136-139
Illustrations of Doryanthes excelsa
Iconum botanicarum index locupletissimus
Doryanthes excelsa Corr.
Bennet Australasia s.
Regel Gartenfl. 1864, 421.
Doryanthes excelsa Corr.
Bennet Australasia s.
Regel Gartenfl. 1864, 421.
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 1848
May 16th 1848
The stated monthly meeting was held on Tuesday evening May 16, 1S43. The President in the chair. The exhibition was very handsome; among the great variety of plants were a number new or rarely seen, of which were a specimen of a green Rose, Doryanthes excelsa, in full flower, shown in R. Buist's collection. Azalea variegata, presenting one mass of flowers enveloping completely the entire plant, a most beautiful sight ; also a number of fine seedling Azaleas shown by Peler McKenzie. A fine specimen of Habrothamnus elegans, Rhododendron sp. etc- by James Bisset, gardener to James Dundas. A collection of choice Roses, Paul Joseph, Louis Bonaparte, &c., by William Mall. Several tables of Pelargonia, and collections of Tulips Also Indigenous Plants by Robert Kilvingion — specimens of Double flowered Lily of the Valley by Mrs G. Billmeyer. of German-town.
The Horticulturist and journal of rural art and rural taste.
Edited by A.J. Downing
Vol. II July 1847-June 1848
Albany
p. 575
The stated monthly meeting was held on Tuesday evening May 16, 1S43. The President in the chair. The exhibition was very handsome; among the great variety of plants were a number new or rarely seen, of which were a specimen of a green Rose, Doryanthes excelsa, in full flower, shown in R. Buist's collection. Azalea variegata, presenting one mass of flowers enveloping completely the entire plant, a most beautiful sight ; also a number of fine seedling Azaleas shown by Peler McKenzie. A fine specimen of Habrothamnus elegans, Rhododendron sp. etc- by James Bisset, gardener to James Dundas. A collection of choice Roses, Paul Joseph, Louis Bonaparte, &c., by William Mall. Several tables of Pelargonia, and collections of Tulips Also Indigenous Plants by Robert Kilvingion — specimens of Double flowered Lily of the Valley by Mrs G. Billmeyer. of German-town.
The Horticulturist and journal of rural art and rural taste.
Edited by A.J. Downing
Vol. II July 1847-June 1848
Albany
p. 575
Doryanthes 1853
In the great Palm-house the plants keep progressing ; many of the tropical fruit-trees are becoming fine specimens now that they have plenty of pot and head room ; some of the Palms are getting very large and are at present in flower; one of the most interesting things in the house is the Doryanthes excelsa, a tall-growing Australian plant, with large flowers similar to an Amaryllis. This plant very rarely flowers in this country ; the stem rises from the centre of the leaves, similar to the American Aloe ; at Kew it has been fourteen feet high, there being on the apex a rather close head of bright rose-coloured flowers with green anthers, which give a lively pleasing contrast to the whole.
Royal Botanic gardens, Kew
J. Houlston
The florist, fruitist and garden miscellany
1853
p.142
Royal Botanic gardens, Kew
J. Houlston
The florist, fruitist and garden miscellany
1853
p.142
Doryanthes 1858
THE AUSTRALIAN GIGANTIC LILY— DORYANTHES EXCELSA.
BY DR. JOHN LOTSKY.
Although it has been my lot to behold, in their native soil and surrounded by their native sky, the finest specimens of the floral world — the cocoa groves, near Bahia, the arborescent Rexias and Melastomas of the same place, the mile-wide meadows of Epacris, Dalvinia, and Gomphalobium, in Australia — yet, taking it all in all, I think that the Australian Gigantic Lily is one of the finest plants in the world. In the first years of the establishment of the colony of New South Wales, it grew near Sydney, but its extreme beatify must soon have made it an object of destruction for the idle and ignorant, and we may now travel a hundred miles inland before seeing it ; the more so, as it is not a gregarious, but quite a solitarily growing plant. Its very name implies that it belongs to the sixth class of Linnaeus (Hexandria Monogynia), and the natural order of Liliacere of Jussieu. The best description and delineation of it has been given by Ferdinand Bauer, the companion of Robert Brown, in his " Illustrationes Floras Nova; Hollandire," of which very rare work, the copy formerly existing in the British Museum, is missing. The Australian Gigantic Lily has flowered once or twice in this country, and has been described in some of the botanical journals. I shall, therefore, give rather a description of its form and splendour as it grows in its native soil. Imagine a straight stem of a Liliaceous plant, twelve to fourteen feet high, on which a number of bracteae are disseminated. The base of this stem is surrounded by a number of fine lustrous lanceolate leaves, about two feet long. On the top of this stem appears the bunch of flowers, which, at a distance, seems as a piece of scarlet fluttering in the breeze. There were about twenty single flowers combined in this inflorescence, each of the size of the common white lily, but, to repeat, they are here of the most brilliant scarlet. In all my travels in Australia, I met only with one solitary flowering specimen, in the Five Islands south of Sydney. It stood on an elevation of fine alluvial soil, overshadowed by a few palms, and other semi-tropical plants. It would be impossible to dry the whole bunch of flowers for the herbarium, so I cut it into several, perhaps, twenty specimens, which became exsicated rather slow, but made fine specimens, the colours being thoroughly preserved. The Gigantic Lily has no smell, as if nature did not want to expend all merits on one single plant. I did not dig up this plant, as the tuber would have been overgrown, being that of a flowering plant, but my friend, Richard Cunningham, gave me several bulbs from the public gardens of Sydney; they were of the size of the largest Brazilian Amaryllis, but more elongated. As the great phytophile, Baron Ludwig, in Cape Town, wished to have some bulbs for trying them at the Cape, I forwarded some to him, but I have not heard whether they succeeded in that climate. The Australian Gigantic Lily is one of the plants which, if it could be grown in the Crystal Palace, would attract tens of thousands of visitors. Even a wax model of the inflorescence, in its natural size, would be highly interesting, and I made preparations to have one made; but as this could only be done from the splendid engravings of Ferdinand Bauer's work, missing in the British Museum library, I must yet bide my time.
The Floral World and Garden Guide
Vol. I
London, 1858
p.
BY DR. JOHN LOTSKY.
Although it has been my lot to behold, in their native soil and surrounded by their native sky, the finest specimens of the floral world — the cocoa groves, near Bahia, the arborescent Rexias and Melastomas of the same place, the mile-wide meadows of Epacris, Dalvinia, and Gomphalobium, in Australia — yet, taking it all in all, I think that the Australian Gigantic Lily is one of the finest plants in the world. In the first years of the establishment of the colony of New South Wales, it grew near Sydney, but its extreme beatify must soon have made it an object of destruction for the idle and ignorant, and we may now travel a hundred miles inland before seeing it ; the more so, as it is not a gregarious, but quite a solitarily growing plant. Its very name implies that it belongs to the sixth class of Linnaeus (Hexandria Monogynia), and the natural order of Liliacere of Jussieu. The best description and delineation of it has been given by Ferdinand Bauer, the companion of Robert Brown, in his " Illustrationes Floras Nova; Hollandire," of which very rare work, the copy formerly existing in the British Museum, is missing. The Australian Gigantic Lily has flowered once or twice in this country, and has been described in some of the botanical journals. I shall, therefore, give rather a description of its form and splendour as it grows in its native soil. Imagine a straight stem of a Liliaceous plant, twelve to fourteen feet high, on which a number of bracteae are disseminated. The base of this stem is surrounded by a number of fine lustrous lanceolate leaves, about two feet long. On the top of this stem appears the bunch of flowers, which, at a distance, seems as a piece of scarlet fluttering in the breeze. There were about twenty single flowers combined in this inflorescence, each of the size of the common white lily, but, to repeat, they are here of the most brilliant scarlet. In all my travels in Australia, I met only with one solitary flowering specimen, in the Five Islands south of Sydney. It stood on an elevation of fine alluvial soil, overshadowed by a few palms, and other semi-tropical plants. It would be impossible to dry the whole bunch of flowers for the herbarium, so I cut it into several, perhaps, twenty specimens, which became exsicated rather slow, but made fine specimens, the colours being thoroughly preserved. The Gigantic Lily has no smell, as if nature did not want to expend all merits on one single plant. I did not dig up this plant, as the tuber would have been overgrown, being that of a flowering plant, but my friend, Richard Cunningham, gave me several bulbs from the public gardens of Sydney; they were of the size of the largest Brazilian Amaryllis, but more elongated. As the great phytophile, Baron Ludwig, in Cape Town, wished to have some bulbs for trying them at the Cape, I forwarded some to him, but I have not heard whether they succeeded in that climate. The Australian Gigantic Lily is one of the plants which, if it could be grown in the Crystal Palace, would attract tens of thousands of visitors. Even a wax model of the inflorescence, in its natural size, would be highly interesting, and I made preparations to have one made; but as this could only be done from the splendid engravings of Ferdinand Bauer's work, missing in the British Museum library, I must yet bide my time.
The Floral World and Garden Guide
Vol. I
London, 1858
p.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Doryanthes excelsa 1834
L'Horticulteur Belge vol. 2 1834
fig. 30
Mai 1834
DORYANTHES EXCELSA Correa, Linn. Trans. VI p. 211, t. 23
(introduit en 1800 en Angleterre.) - Planches coloriées de l'Horticult. Belge, Nº 30. (Fam. des Amaryllidées.) Cette superbe plante a comme caractères génériques, une corolle à six pétales, infundibuliforme, très évasée, les pétales recourbés ; les filamens des étamines soudés par leur base au bas des pétales et presque de la même longueur qu'eux; les anthères droites, tétragones, fixées au sommet des filets, recourbées en crochets après la déhiscence des loges. Le style trigone à trois sillons; stigmate trigone. Capsule ovale turbinée, presque trigone, couronnée des vestiges de la corolle , triloculaire , trivalve, ligneuse intérieurement , extérieurement couverte d'une écorce striée, s'ouvrant par l'axe des dissipimens et par les soutures des valves. Semences bi-sériées, planes , réniformes , rugeuses ; le noyau subtriquètre, unilatéral.
Les caractères spécifiques d'après les auteurs sont ceux-ci : racines fasciculées. Feuilles radicales près de 100, de quatre pieds de longueur, de 2 pouces de largeur, ensiformes, glabres, très entières , très minces et cartilagineuses à leur bord , droites, les inférieures recourbées (acumi- nées, d'un vert pale, les caulinaires beaucoup plus petites). La tige ou la hampe naissant du centre des feuilles, droit, de 12 à 18 pieds, cylindrique, d'un vert pâle, à peine de la grosseur d'un pouce ; feuilles linéaires , lancéolées , aiguës, engainantes à la base, planes au sommet , de 2 à 3 pouces de longueur , à leur base larges de 4 à 5 lignes. Capitule presque rond formé d'épis presqu'opposés, ramassés, pauciflores. Fleurs alternes , pourpres , courteiuent pédunculées, les bractées semi-engainantes et les péduncules colorés. Bractées d edessous le capitule grandes, ovales, acuminées, vertes, quelques-unes lancéolées, pour- pres, enveloppant des facicules de 2 à 4 fleurs; deux plus petites delà longueur du germe et du péduncule à chaque fleur Tube de la corolle de 2 à 3 pouces; les pétales linguiformes, obtus , à pointe refléchie, recourbés, de 4 pouces de longueur, de 9 lignes de largeur. Les fîlamens des étamines subulés, un peu gros, pourpres. Les anthères du tiers des filamens, jaunes , le pollen vert. L'ovaire droit, à trois angles émoussés. Le style plus long que l'étamine , pourpre , à trois sillons, le stigmate , à 3 lobes. Nous avons extrait ces renseignemens du sijstema vegetahilium des frères Schultes, vol. 7, première partie, page 732; nous les ferons suivre de quelques additions et remarques.
Cette grande et magnifique plante avait fleuri eu Angleterre en mars 1823 ; elle a fleuri pour la première fois sur le continent à l'exposition jubilaire de la société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand , où elle a obtenu, le l3 mars 1834, le prix de belle culture destiné aux mem- bres delà société. Elle avait été cultivée par M. Auguste Mechelynck, un de nos plus grands amateurs de la Flandre; il nous a permis d'en prendre un dessin et la description, et en cela il a rendu un service à la science. Loddiges, dans son Botanical Cabinet, Nº 765, a publié la figure du bouquet et quelques notes sur la végétation de cette plante. L'individu qui a fleuri chez lui en 1823, était cultivé dans ses serres depuis plus de 12 ans ; en septembre 1821 , sa tige commença à pousser pour fleurir ; elle grandit seule jusqu'en mars 1823, époque de la floraison, et avait atteint en une année et demie 2o pieds de hauteur ; le capitule de fleurs devait avoir 16 pouces de diamètre. Cette plante était plus forte que celle de M. Mechelynck, qui a fleuri plus vite. Il l'avait reçue de l'Angleterre lorsqu'elle n'avait qu'un pied de hauteur , et 1 pouce et demi de diamètre ; en 7 ans elle avait acquis assez de force pour fleurir. Le 4 février 1833, sa tige commença à poindre et sa fleur s'épanouit le 13 mars 1834, lorsque la tige eut atteint 13 pieds de hauteur. La floraison dura plusieurs semaines.
Au bas de la tige était une couronne de feuilles radicales , de 2o à 30 feuilles dont les plus grandes avaient 3 pieds et demi de longueur sur 4 pouces de largeur ; dilatées et imbriquées à la base , elles se rétrécissaient ensuite pour former un limbe très long , très aigu au sommet. La tige cylindrique avait 2 pouces 1/2 de diamètre, s'amincissait insen- siblement et portait à chaque feuille un bourrelet transversal violàtre. Les feuilles caulinaires étaient élégamment disposées en spirale et avaient la plupart près d'un pied de longueur.
L'inflorescence en capitule avait 24 fleurs dont les extérieures étaient déjà flétries lorsque celles du centre n'étaient pas encore épanouies; le capitule avait un pied de diamètre; chaque branche portait 3 fleurs; les bractées lancéolées, acuminées, fortement nervées, brunes ou rouges supérieurement , étaient vertes au-dessous; les bractéoles plus petites embrassaient la fleur et étaient d'un rouge noirâtre. Les fleurs avaient 6 pouces et demi de diamètre ; les pétales sont de la même largeur à leur base que les sépales ou en diffèrent de bien peu ; les sépales ont à leur sommet un crochet très fort qui dans le bouton les tenait ensemble ; ces organes sont épais et d'un beau rouge cramoisi. Leur côté interne est appuyé surtout au bas contre l'étamine qui tandis que le sépale se déjette en dehors et se reploie, se relève au contraire en se courbant ( Voy. pl. 30 , fig. 4 et 5). L'anthère est violette , avec le dos blanchâtre, les deux locules s'ouvrent avec force et en se repliant montrent une masse prodigieuse d'un pollen vert farineux ,très pulvérulent, plus léger que l'eau dont il s'imbibe difficilement. Vu au microscope, ce pollen , quand il est sec (Fig. 6, A. B. C), se présente comme des graines de lin: il est fusiforme, quelquefois a deux pointes d'un côté. Quand on le mouille, il devient transparent , grossit d'autant plus que l'imbibition se prolonge; il montre alors une dépression qui le fait ressembler à des grains d'orge (fig. 6. D. E. F.) ; mais peu à peu la distension est complètei la fente s'évanouit et le grain pollinique est sphérique , couvert de petites granulations ( Fig. 6. G. ).
L'ovaire m'a présenté une quantité innombrable de semences triangulaires, blanches, mais non mûres. Le style a 3 pouces, 3 angles et 3 sillons; le stigmate â côtés légèrement veloutés. J'ai fécondé artificiellement ce pistil avec le pollen que le vent seul dans les circonstances naturelles aurait pu pousser jusques là.
Entre la base du style et celle des étamines on remarque dans chaque fleur plus d'une once d'une liqueur mielleuse, très sucrée, gluante , qui s'épaissit ou découle sur la tige. La plante sécrète une quantité énorme de ce suc qui continue à se former dans la fleur , détachée au bas de son ovaire; est plongée par cette partie dans un verre d'eau; pendant une nuit une fleur avait sécrété ainsi plus d'un dé à coudre de cette liqueur qui n'a présenté aucun globule au microscope.
Une observation physiologique de M. Mechelynck , c'est que la tige grandissait plus la nuit que le jour , et que lorsque le bouton se forma au mois de septembre, pendant plus de 15 jours, la tige resta stationnaire.
Explication de la planche N° 30.
Fig, 1. Doryanthes excelsa; plante entière réduite au trentième.
Fig. 2. Capitule de fleurs réduite au tiers.
Fig. 3. Stigmate une fois grossi.
Fig. 4. Etamine réduite de moitié.
Fig. 5. Anthère vue de grandeur naturelle.
Fig. 6. Grains de pollen grossi de 120 fois le diamètre.
A. Grain pollinique sec de la forme ordinaire.
B. Id. un peu plus gros.
C. Id. avec deux pointes.
D. Grain pollinique mouillé avec sa fente ou son repli,
E. Id. un peu plus imbu d'eau.
F. Id. où le repli disparait.
G. Grain pollinique pénétre d'eau sans repli et avec ses granulations.
L'Horticulteur Belge
Journal des Jardiniers et Amateurs
sous la direction de M. Ch. Morren
Tome Second
1834
pp. 64-66
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Furcraea parmentieri
Inflorescence just starting to emerge : 9th March 2009
24th March 2009
This year is going to be a Furcraea year! They are flowering all over the place. Once again this follows a cold damp winter 2008/2009.
Furcraea parmentieri ( Roezl ) García-Mend.
Bol. Soc. Bot. México 66: 115. 2000 [2002?]
nomenclatural synonym: Agavaceae Yucca parmentieri Roezl Gartenflora 8: 278. 1859
Amo-te Muito
Certainly no lover of plants! Irritating habit of teenage visitors to the garden. I used to joke that the Agaves were the only plants at Monserrate that had names upon them. But this is about to change. Topographical and botanical surveys are underway to label the gardens plants. As for the agaves they will need some even spikier ground cover around them to protect them from love-sick vandals.
Peking Nightingale
Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea)
There is a small colony of these birds (escaped or released from captivity) at Monserrate. They have persisted for some years suggesting that a breeding group has become established. Not real nightingales, nevertheless De Visme would be delighted!
In 1998, the Red-billed Leiothrix was added to Appendix II of CITES (Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species) because its native habitat is being destroyed and the demand for Leiothrix for the cage bird market.
Size: 13 cm. Weight: 21-25 gm.
Identification: The Red-billed Leiothrix is a babbler beautifully marked with bright coloring. The adults have bright red bills and a dull yellow ring around their eyes. Their backs are dull olive green and have a bright yellow-orange throat with a yellow chin. They have forked blackish tails. Female Leiothrix are similar to males but with a duller shade. Juveniles have black bills and gray coats. There are two sub-species - the rarer and western L. lutea kumaiensis (red on edge of inner primaries absent), and the eastern and relatively more common L. lutea calipyga (inner primaries edged with red).
Distribution: Red-billed Leiothrix are native to Southern Asia ranging from central Himalayas in India and Nepal, eastwards to Burma and Vietnam. Leiothrix prefer to inhabit underbrush at all elevations with a cover of dense vegetation near the ground. These birds are found at elevations 700 m to 2000 m in winters and 1500 m to 2700 m in summers. Flocks of Leiothrix's have been known to fly up to elevations of 4500 m for a short period of time. These birds favor areas with at least 40 inches of rain.
Habits: These conspicuous birds often travel in small flocks and are active fliers. In the wild the breeding pairs seem to get along well when overlapping each other's territory. To get around, these birds walk, hop, climb, and also fly. Leiothrix's frequently bathe in shallow pools. In the wild, they are generally monogamous.
Calls: The Red-billed Leiothrix is also known for it's vocalizations. It sings a loud, melodious warbling song somewhat similar to that of Red-whiskered Bulbul. While feeding it utters a clear 'pe pe pe pa' or 'pu pu pu pu'.Food: Fruits and seeds compromise the majority of their diet with the remainder made up of invertebrates. Their diet also includes: larval and adult butterflies, moths, millipedes, and spiders. They have been known to eat mealworms and mollusk. These birds often drink from pools of water on fallen leaves.Breeding: Singing is most constant during the breeding season. Nesting usually occurs in underbrush at all elevations. The nest is built shaped like a cup and consists of leaves (including bamboo), moss, and lichen, lined with fine threads of fungal substance. The nest is placed on a horizontally forked branch of may also be bound to stems or twigs. Female Leiothrix usually lay three to four eggs. The average size of an egg is around 15.4 x 20.4mm. These eggs are pale blue and contain reddish-brown spots. Since the nesting sites are so low to the ground, they are highly vulnerable to predators, especially rats. Adults may distract predators away from the nest by running and calling on the ground. Incubation takes approximately 14 days. Newly hatched nestling have a bright reddish apricot skin. Both parents take turns feeding the young. Babies are mostly fed insects and sometimes fruits.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Doryanthes excelsa in flower at Monserrate
I have corrected an error in previous posting Doryanthes. D. palmeri grows in Queensland and northern New South Wales and D. excelsa only grows in NSW. Thanks to both recent correspondent and also to commentator who first spotted mistake.
Flowering of D. excelsa is an uncommon event at Monserrate. There is only this small group of plants, whereas D. palmeri is represented throughout the garden. Since the clump does not flower every year this is always a welcome sight. Actually it has now flowered two years in succession 2008 & 2009.
D. A. Perry
Agave atrovirens
Looks a bit like what is known in California as "Green Giant"
Any suggestions on ID?
Thanks to knowledgeable friends for identifying this one as
Agave atrovirens Karw. ex Salm-Dyck
Hort. Dyck.: 302 (1834).
Grown at Monserrate since the 19th century. Early literature refers this as Agave coccinea.
Cinnamomum burmannii
Cinnamomum burmannii (Nees & T. Nees) Blume
Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië 11: 569. 1826.
family: Lauraceae Juss.
genus: Cinnamomum Schaeff.
Basionym:
Laurus burmannii Nees & T. Nees Cinnam. Disp. [Amoen. Bot. Bonn.] Fasc. 1: 57. 1823.
DESCRIPTION
“Trees; young branches terete, glabrous. Leaves glossy green, alternate, often opposite at
tips of young branches, narrowly ovate to ovate, ca. 10 cm long, 3-4 cm wide,
tripliveined, glabrous, apex gradually acute. Flowers strigose, in short, paniculate
inflorescences; tepals 6, equal, ca. 4 mm long, strigose; fertile stamens 9, outer 6 introrse,
inner 3 extrorse, staminodia present, cordate. Fruit an ellipsoid berry, subtended by a
small cupule that has the basal, truncate parts of tepals attached to the rim.” (Wagner et
al. 1999).
BIOLOGY & ECOLOGY
Cultivation: C. burmannii, along with other Cinnamomum species are cultivated for a
variety of purposes. The aromatic bark is used for making spices such as cinnamon,
perfumery, and medicine (Bailey and Bailey 1976). In Hawai’i C. burmannii has been
cultivated for ornament and for forestry plantations.
Indonesian Cassia
M. Hasanah, Y. Nuryani et al.
Indonesian cassia or Indonesian cinnamon is the dried bark of C. burmannii which is grown in the Malaysia-Indonesia regions and commercially cultivated in the Indonesian islands. It is grown most extensively in the Sumatera, Java and Jambi Islands and extends up to Timor, growing from sea level to about 2000 m. The main centre of cultivation is Padang area of Sumatra, at altitudes of 500-1300 m.
A variant of C. burmannii, which has red young leaves, is grown at a higher elevation in the region of Mount Korintji (Kerinchi). This cassia is of better quality and is traded in the international market as Korintji (Kerinci). The form having green young leaves is grown at lower elevations and is referred to in the international market as Padang cassia, batavia cassia or cassia vera. In a small scale it is also cultivated in Phillippines.
Habit
C. burmannii is a small evergreen tree, up to 15 m tall, having subopposite leaves. The petiole is 0.5-1cm long, with a blade that is oblong-elliptical to lanceolate, 4-14 cm x 1.5-6 cm; pale red and finely hairy when young. Older leaves are glabrous, glossy green above and glaucous pruinose below. Inflorescence is a short axillary panicle. Flowers are borne on 4-12 mm long pedicel, perianth 4-5 mm long and after anthesis the lobes tear off transversely about half way. Stamens about 4 mm long, staminoides 2 mm, fruit (berry) is ovoid, about 1 cm long. (Dao et al., 1999)
Cassia plants are raised from seed. Vegetative propagation is possible through cutting and layering but it is not practiced as such plants produce thinner bark of lesser quality.
Fruits are harvested at full ripening (when they become bluish black in colour), heaped for two or three days to allow the pericarp to rot, and are then washed in water to remove the fruit wall. Seeds freed from the pericarp, are dried in the shade and sown immediately in seedbeds. The viability of seeds is lost rapidly, and storing even for a few days may result in drastic reduction in germination.
Common names
CHINESE : Xiang jiao ye ? , Shan rou gui, 阴香 Yin xiang.
Batavia cinnamon (Source: World Econ Pl )
Batavia-cassia (Source: Food Feed Crops US )
Indonesian-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Java-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Korintje-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Padang cinnamon (Source: HerbSpices )
Padang-cassia (Source: World Econ Pl )
cannelier de Malaisie (Source: Dict Rehm ) [French]
Birmazimt (Source: S. Reichel, p.c.) [German]
Birmazimtbaum (Source: Dict Rehm ) [German]
Padangzimt (Source: S. Reichel, p.c.) [German]
Padangzimtbaum (Source: Dict Rehm ) [German]
falsa-canforeira (Source: Dict Rehm ) [Portuguese]
Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië 11: 569. 1826.
family: Lauraceae Juss.
genus: Cinnamomum Schaeff.
Basionym:
Laurus burmannii Nees & T. Nees Cinnam. Disp. [Amoen. Bot. Bonn.] Fasc. 1: 57. 1823.
DESCRIPTION
“Trees; young branches terete, glabrous. Leaves glossy green, alternate, often opposite at
tips of young branches, narrowly ovate to ovate, ca. 10 cm long, 3-4 cm wide,
tripliveined, glabrous, apex gradually acute. Flowers strigose, in short, paniculate
inflorescences; tepals 6, equal, ca. 4 mm long, strigose; fertile stamens 9, outer 6 introrse,
inner 3 extrorse, staminodia present, cordate. Fruit an ellipsoid berry, subtended by a
small cupule that has the basal, truncate parts of tepals attached to the rim.” (Wagner et
al. 1999).
BIOLOGY & ECOLOGY
Cultivation: C. burmannii, along with other Cinnamomum species are cultivated for a
variety of purposes. The aromatic bark is used for making spices such as cinnamon,
perfumery, and medicine (Bailey and Bailey 1976). In Hawai’i C. burmannii has been
cultivated for ornament and for forestry plantations.
Indonesian Cassia
M. Hasanah, Y. Nuryani et al.
Indonesian cassia or Indonesian cinnamon is the dried bark of C. burmannii which is grown in the Malaysia-Indonesia regions and commercially cultivated in the Indonesian islands. It is grown most extensively in the Sumatera, Java and Jambi Islands and extends up to Timor, growing from sea level to about 2000 m. The main centre of cultivation is Padang area of Sumatra, at altitudes of 500-1300 m.
A variant of C. burmannii, which has red young leaves, is grown at a higher elevation in the region of Mount Korintji (Kerinchi). This cassia is of better quality and is traded in the international market as Korintji (Kerinci). The form having green young leaves is grown at lower elevations and is referred to in the international market as Padang cassia, batavia cassia or cassia vera. In a small scale it is also cultivated in Phillippines.
Habit
C. burmannii is a small evergreen tree, up to 15 m tall, having subopposite leaves. The petiole is 0.5-1cm long, with a blade that is oblong-elliptical to lanceolate, 4-14 cm x 1.5-6 cm; pale red and finely hairy when young. Older leaves are glabrous, glossy green above and glaucous pruinose below. Inflorescence is a short axillary panicle. Flowers are borne on 4-12 mm long pedicel, perianth 4-5 mm long and after anthesis the lobes tear off transversely about half way. Stamens about 4 mm long, staminoides 2 mm, fruit (berry) is ovoid, about 1 cm long. (Dao et al., 1999)
Cassia plants are raised from seed. Vegetative propagation is possible through cutting and layering but it is not practiced as such plants produce thinner bark of lesser quality.
Fruits are harvested at full ripening (when they become bluish black in colour), heaped for two or three days to allow the pericarp to rot, and are then washed in water to remove the fruit wall. Seeds freed from the pericarp, are dried in the shade and sown immediately in seedbeds. The viability of seeds is lost rapidly, and storing even for a few days may result in drastic reduction in germination.
Common names
CHINESE : Xiang jiao ye ? , Shan rou gui, 阴香 Yin xiang.
Batavia cinnamon (Source: World Econ Pl )
Batavia-cassia (Source: Food Feed Crops US )
Indonesian-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Java-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Korintje-cassia (Source: HerbSpices )
Padang cinnamon (Source: HerbSpices )
Padang-cassia (Source: World Econ Pl )
cannelier de Malaisie (Source: Dict Rehm ) [French]
Birmazimt (Source: S. Reichel, p.c.) [German]
Birmazimtbaum (Source: Dict Rehm ) [German]
Padangzimt (Source: S. Reichel, p.c.) [German]
Padangzimtbaum (Source: Dict Rehm ) [German]
falsa-canforeira (Source: Dict Rehm ) [Portuguese]
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