Sunday 28 February 2010

Picture towns of Europe‎ 1931

One of the chief charms of Cintra consists in the innumerable beautiful walks and drives that bring fresh interest to each day spent there. Most popular of these is the drive of a few miles to the gardens of Monserrate, that are said to be unequaled in the world. Nowhere but in the unique climate of Portugal can grow in perfection the plants and trees of the tropics and of the temperate zone as well, so in the century since Beckford ransacked the world to find specimens for these gardens, which he laid out at fabulous cost, the trees and vines, and shrubs and flowers he planted there have developed into wonderful beauty. The property is now owned by the estate of Sir Frederick Cook, who spares no money to keep and increase the splendor of the place. There are palms and bamboos; oaks and evergreens; orchids and roses; vines that are perfect sheets of strange, intense color; uncanny-looking flowers lifting their blossom of flame or lavender straight from the earth; queer trees with long, pendulous blooms of scarlet; ponds where pink and blue lilies grow; Roman benches whence are views of mountains and the passing ships at sea; and in the midst the beautiful Moorish-like house where Sir Frederick lives.
Another delightful walk takes you in the opposite direction, where there is a little pink town that seems to have strayed out one day from Cintra, and, nestling down contentedly under the mountain, never returned. Tall palms grow there, and glossy-leafed magnolias which even in midSeptember were sending out a few huge, cup-like, creamy flowers. Along the street at the mountain's foot, the houses cling to terraces covered with ivy and roses of cream and pink, led up to by the most picturesque steps imaginable. At one point the rock is hollowed out, and here a fountain fills a large basin. Around are broad stone seats, and nearby a tiny public garden, where grow more beautiful begonias than I ever saw before, even in Holland. Double shell-pink blossoms, each as large as a rose, hung in clusters of six or more, literally covering the plant. They were in endless variety, white, red and white, and deepest crimson. Then there were single ones that glowed with flame, like cadmium, and all the shades of pink and red in rare profusion.

Picture towns of Europe‎

Albert B. Osborne

Saturday 27 February 2010

SIR HERBERT COOK

OBITUARIES

SIR HERBERT COOK - A tribute to the memory of the late Sir Herbert Cook - whose death, at the age of seventy, after a long and painful illness took place on May 4th - should on no account be absent from these columns. His ties with THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE were close and numerous : he belonged, indeed, to the small group of art lovers through whose efforts this journal was founded thirty-six years ago ; he always remained a good friend of this magazine, a fact of which his membership of our Consultative Commottee was appropriately symbolic ; and for many years he was a frrquent and valued contributor to these pages. Having acknowledged this, we can but give a slight outline of the incessant activities which, in the days of his health, he also, in other fields, devoted to the furthering of the study of the art of the past ; particularly memorable and fruitful was his work as organizer of many loan exhibitions at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, his Catalogue of the Milanse Exihibition in 1899 remaining to this day an extremely valuable collection of material. As heir to the Doughty House collection, it is perhaps inevitable that his activities as a collector should tend to be eclipsed by those of his grandfather ; but many of his own additions to the family collection were of an importance which it is as well here to emphasize - we will only mention two of them, the Schiavona by Titian from the Crespi collection at Milan, and the Portrait of Titus as a Boy by Rembrandt, whose departure from Althorp for America was prevented by Sir Herbert's prompt action.

The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 74, No. 435 (Jun., 1939), p. 295

Friday 26 February 2010

l’Alameda de los descalzos, à Lima (Pérou).


Fig. 354. — Profil de l’Alameda de los descalzos, à Lima (Pérou).

Les avenues « en jardin », comme celles du bois de Boulogne à Paris,
rentrent dans la composition ordinaire des parcs et jardins paysagers. Toutefois je dois citer une de ces promenades, située à Lima (Pérou) et célèbre, sous le nom « d'Alameda de los descalzos, » par la beauté de ses plantations et sa vue sur la montagne des Amancaës. J'en ai relevé le profil en 1876 (fig. 354). La chaussée de promenade A, sablée, est large de 13 mètres, et bordée de deux plates-bandes d'arbres et de fleurs des tropi- ques CC, irrigués par un petit canal (acequia) en E. Des vases BB, alter- nant avec des bancs et des lampadaires, sont placés devant la plate-bande. La promenade, longue de plus de 400 mètres, est entourée d'une grille D, et devant l'entrée sont deux beaux Araucaria excelsa, de 15 mètres de hauteur.
Les plates-bandes sont plantées de : Abutilon insigne. Abutilon striatum. Aphelandra squarrosa. Calla aethiopica. Codiaeum pictum. Cordyline australis. Datura arborea. Fuchsia variés. Globba nutans. Hibiscus Rosa sinensis. Inga pulcherrinia.. Iresine Lindeni. Magnolia grandiflora. Nerium Oleander. Pancratium caribaeum. Poinsettia pulcherrima. Rosiers variés. Russelia juncea. Sanchezia nobilis. Tamarindus indica.
Cette promenade est l'une des plus belles de l'Amérique du Sud.

Édouard André, L'ART DES JARDINS, Paris, 1879, p. 640

Thursday 25 February 2010

Trithrinax brasiliensis




Illustração Horticole: journal spécial des serres et des jardins vol. 22 (1875) p. 58-59




Pl. CCII




TRITHRINAX BRASILIENSIS, Martius




Trithrinax du Brésil




Thrinax Chuco Hort.




Ce beau palmier, qui croît au Brésil, et dont les Indiens Guarayos utilisent les gaînes épineuses pour tresser des chapeaux, se nomme Saho près de Santa-Cruz de la Serra, Utsaho chez les Guarayos, et Huaichich chez les Chiquitos. M. de Martius l'a rencontre dans le Brésil méridional, M. Weddell en Bolivie, et M. d'Orbigny près du 31e degré de latitude sud, sur le Rio-parana, en Bolivie, sous le 17e degé, croissant par bouquets et en forêts.




Indépendamment de son beau feuillage en éventail, à teintes glauques en dessous, ce Palmier brésilien offre une particularité unique : la disposition insolite des gaînes embrassantes qui accompagnent la base des frondes. Ces gaînes sont composées de fibres d'abord parallèles et longitudinales, puis obliquement entrecroisées et enfin tressées les unes avec les autres à angle droit, comme les nattes de Pandanus dans lesquelles on envoie le café des antilles et de Bourbon. Au sommet ces lanières se réunissent et forment une série d'épines robustes et très longues, recourbées brusquement en bas et destinées évidemment à protéger les fleurs et les fruits contre les incursions des animaux grimpants.




E.A. [Edouard André]

Trachycarpus fortunei


Revue horticole: journal d'horticulture practique, 1851, p.480

Saturday 20 February 2010

BRUGMANSIA sanguinea


272
BRUGMANSIA sanguinea.
Dark-red Brugmansia.

Linnean Class and Order. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Natural Order. SOLANEAE. Brown prodr. 1. p. 443.
BRUGMANSIA. Calyx tubulosus, ventricosus, 5-angulatus, persistens, apice coarctato 2-3-lobo. Corolla infundibuliformis, 5-plicata, 5-loba: lobis cuspidatis. Stamina 5, inclusa, coarctata. Antherae conglutinatae. Stigma crassum, bilobum, margine revolutum. Capsula 2-locularis, laevis, polysperma. Semina reniformia.
Arbores (Peruviani) foliis petiolatis indivisis, floribus alaribius pedunculatis maximis albis v. sanguineis, fructibus ovalibus pendulis aureis. Genus Omninò, ut videtur, naturale inter Daturam et Solandram locum tenens. D. Don. MSS.
1. B. sanguinea, foliis sinuato-lobatis subtomentosis.
Brugmansia bicolor. Persoon syn. I. p.216. Roem. et Schult.syst. 4. p. 307. Datura sanguinea. Ruiz et Pavon ft. peruv. et chil. 2. p. 15. Kunth in Humb. et Bonpl. nov. gen. et sp. pl. 3. p. 6.
Stem arboreous, rising to the height of from 3 to 12 feet, round, divided at the top, and clothed with an ash-coloured bark. Branches short and leafy, thickly clothed with white-spreading hairs. Leaves alternate, often geminate, ovate-oblong, obtuse, waved and sinuated, with short blunt lobes, copiously clothed on both sides with soft white hairs, above of a dark green, paler beneath, reticulated and rather wrinkled with prominent veins, and furnished with a stout rounded midrib, with lateral branches from 2 to 9 inches long, and from 1 to 5 broad, the base rounded and often unequal; the uppermost entire, but slightly waved. Petioles stout, from an inch to 3 inches long, nearly cylindrical, copiously hairy, slightly flattened above. Flowers solitary, pendulous, issuing from the forks of the branches. Peduncles an inch long, and as thick as a writing quill, cylindrical, copiously clothed with white hairs. Calyx large, ventricose, 5-angled, 5-ribbed, with prominent veins, copiously pubescent, rather contracted at the top, about 3 inches long, the limb cloven with concave lobes. Corolla funnel-shaped, 7 inches long, pubescent, with 15 straight prominent ribs; tube thick and fleshy, with 5 blunt angles, orange yellow, green towards the base; faux inflated, wrinkled and pitted exteriorly ; limb 5-lobed, of a deep orange-scarlet, with the lobes cuspidate and spreading, each being furnished with 3 ribs, the two lateral of which disappear before reaching the summit. Stamens 5, closely associated round the style. Filaments cylindrical, glabrous, pale green, their bases broad, flat, attached to the tube of the corolla, and clothed with shaggy hairs. Anthers erect, half an inch long, attached by their base, cream-coloured, obtuse, with parallel connate cells. Ovarium bilocular, conical, 5-sided, white, surrounded at the base by a 5-lobed fleshy disk, the parietes thick and fleshy. Placenta 2, oblong, fleshy, attached to the partition. Style filiform, glabrous, 4 inches long. Stigma projecting, with 2 short, thick, rounded lobes, revolute at the edges.
It is peculiarly gratifying to us to have to record the first introduction to our collections of this truly splendid plant, which was raised last year at Hayes Place, Kent, the seat of Miss Traill, from seeds collected at Guayaquil, in the state of Equador, by Mr. Crawley, who sent them to his aunt Lady Gibbs, by whom they were presented to Miss Traill. One of the plants survived the winter in the open border, and this also happened to be the first to show flower, which it did in October last. The rest of the plants began to blossom soon after, and all apparently varying in the degree of intensity in colour. In cultivation the plant rarely exceeds four or five feet in height, and evidently possesses a hardier constitution than arborea. It delights in a friable rich soil, and is easily increased by cuttings. In a sheltered border with a southern aspect, we have no doubt of its flowering quite as well as if retained in the conservatory. Both species are natives of Peru, but the sanguinea is found at a much greater elevation than the other. The plant is also found in New Granada, and it has been introduced into Chili, as we have seen specimens collected at Conception by Captain Beechey and Mr. Cuming. In Peru it is called Floripondia encarnado and Campanillas encarnadas, and from the bruised leaves an ointment is prepared, which is said to possess superior healing properties, and from the fruit a highly narcotic intoxicating liquor is obtained.
Our drawing was taken from flowering specimens obligingly communicated by Miss Traill, in the beginning of November.
The genus was named by Persoon after S. J. Brugmans, Professor of Natural History in the University of Leyden.

D.Don.

1. Section of the Ovarium.
Robert Sweet
The British Flower Garden, (series the Second): Containing Coloured Figures & Descriptions of the Most Ornamental and Curious Hardy Flowering Plants; Or Those that are Somewhat Tender, but may still be cultivated in a warm border, needing only a mat, or a garden pot, placed over them in a severe frost; some will require both expedients.
Vol. III Publisher J. Ridgway, M.DCCC.XXXV (1835)

Brugmansia sanguinea






1739
* BRUGMANSIA bicolor.
Two-coloured Brugmansia.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Nat. ord. SOLANEAE Juss. (Introduction to the Natural System of
Botany, p. 231.)

BRUGMANSIA Pers. Omnia Daturae nisi calyx persistens nec basi
circumscissilis deciduus.

B. bicolor; follis ovatis sinuato-lobatis, corollâ versicolore.
B. bicolor. Pers. Synops. 1. 216. Römer et Schultes, Syst. veg. 4. 307.
B. sanguinea. Don in Sweet's Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 272.
Datura sanguinea. Ruiz et Pavon. Fl. Peruv. 2. p. 15. Humb. et Kunth.
nov. gen. et sp.pl. Amer. vol. 3.6.

A shrubby plant, requiring exactly the same treatment
as the Brugmansia arborea, growing vigorously in the open
air in this climate during summer, but requiring protection
in winter.

It is on many accounts one of the most interesting plants
that have been yet brought from South America, for which
the public is indebted to Charles Crawley, Esq., who brought
it with him from Guayaquil in 1833. It was originally raised
in the garden of Miss Traill, and also by Lady Gibbs, of
Hayes Common near Bromley, by whom we were favoured
with the specimen now represented, and the sight of a beautiful
drawing of the flowers in the two conditions of colour.

In the Flora Peruviana, and the systematic work of Baron
Humboldt it is fully described; from their statements and
the materials we have received from Lady Gibbs, we are
enabled to draw up the following statement.
I
* So named in compliment to Brügmans a Professor of Natural History and
Botany at Leyden, who occupied himself with vegetable chemistry, and who is
said to have been the first to notice the secretions-of plants by their roots.



This remarkable plant is a native of elevated and cold
situations in the provinces of Tarma, Xauxa, Huarochesi,
Canta, and Humalies, where it grows among rubbish; it is
also found near the village of La Cruz, and on the banks
of the river Mayo, between Almaguer and Pasto in New
Grenada, where it was found by Humboldt and Bonpland,
at nearly 7000 feet above the sea. It begins to flower in
June and ceases in November. By the Peruvians it is called
Floripondio encarnado and Campanillas encarnadas; by the
Columbians Bovochevo. Its stature varies from 10 to 20 feet,
the stem being generally undivided and terminated bv a
roundish leafy head. The flowers are either a bright
yellowish orange colour, or the deep orange red of our figure;
we believe they change from the former to the latter. They
are succeeded by an oblong, smooth, yellow, pendulous
capsule, which is as much as eight inches long. The seeds,
like those of the common Stramonium, are narcotic in a high
degree. In the Temple of the Sun, in the city of Sogamoza,
there is a famous oracle, the priests of which inspire themselves
by chewing the intoxicating seeds of this plant, just as
the Pythoness at Delphi received the influence of her god
by chewing laurel leaves and inhaling a gaseous vapour.
From the fruit itself the Columbians prepare a drink called
Tonga, which when weak is merely soporific, but drank in
stronger doses produces frenzy, which can only be removed
by administering immediate draughts of cold water.

From deference to the authority of Mr. Don, we adopt the
genus Brugmansia; but we confess our inability to discover
any ground for separating it from Datura, except that its
calyx does not separate from its base, and drop off as in the
commoner species of the latter genus.
With regard to the specific name, however, we feel bound
to preserve that first given to the plant in Persoon's synopsis.
It would have been better, perhaps, had that Botanist retained
the specific name of the Flora Peruviana, although in transferring
the plant to a new genus he was by no means required
to do so; but as he did not, we cannot perceive either the
necessity or the expediency of creating a new name now;
while on the other hand the inconvenience of doing so must
be manifest to every one.

We were favoured by Miss Traill with the following
memorandum, concerning the management of the plant.

"Some of the plants were placed in the open ground
near the greenhouse; but they died down in the cold weather.
They have since sprung up and attained the height of about
three feet, and have borne leaves and flowers rather imperfectly
developed. The stove plants kept their leaves all the
winter, and are now between five and six feet high. The
plant will not flower in pots, as it has large and spreading
roots, and requires a constant supply of moisture."

Edwards's botanical register.
London :James Ridgway,1829-1847.

v. 20 (1835): Plate 1739


Brugmansia sanguinea D.Don
in Sweet, Brit. Flow. Gard. Ser. II. t. 272.
Ser. II. t. 272

Tuesday 16 February 2010

LES PRINCIPAUX ENNEMIS DU CACAOYER AUX ILES DE SAN-THOME, ET DE PRINCIPE

LES PRINCIPAUX ENNEMIS DU CACAOYER AUX ILES DE SAN-THOME, ET DE PRINCIPE. Rapport sur une Mission d 'Etude Agricole et Phytopathologique. By Henri C. Navel. Pp. 127; 53 photographic reproductions, 2 maps, and 4 coloured plates ; Svo, 10 X 6}. (Paris : Emile Larose, 1921.) The Direction of the Society of Emigration of San Thom and Principe, alarmed by the damage which was being caused to the plantations of those countries by the various enemies of the cocoa tree, despatched a Mission in 1919 to study the different affections and to suggest the best means of combating them. With this end in view, M. Henri C. Navel visited nearly all the plantations of both islands, and the material collected was determined at the National Museum of Natural History at Paris, M. Navel divides the principal enemies of cocoa into three groups : (i) Maladies which are not due to parasitic attacks, but are caused by wounds, the action of the soil and climatic conditions, the want of hygiene in planta- tions, the suppression of shade trees, bad procedure in planting, etc. ; (2) the parasitic insect enemies which attack with more virulence trees already under the influence of the maladies in the first group ; and (3) the cryptogamic parasitic enemies, of which a certain number attack plants in a good state of vegetation, whilst others are induced by the presence of the influences mentioned under the first two groups. The author points out the effect of erroneous cultivation, due to the suppression of shade in the drier districts, where the process of " piquage," a destruction of natural shade by ringing the forest trees, is commonly practised, and compares it with the conditions of growing cocoa without shade in the elevated regions, where rain falls more frequently and where the depressions in the soil are such that shelter and shade are naturally provided without the necessity of extraneous tree growth. With regard to insect pests, a species of thrips (Heliothrips rubrocinctus , Giard) is said to cause the greatest damage. This insect was introduced into the islands from Brazil and now occurs everywhere, being most prevalent in those parts where the diminution of shade trees is taking place. Various beetle and moth larvae are referred to, which attack the trunks by boring, and white ants are also mentioned as enemies. A beetle (Nistora theobromce, Labois) and a Helopeltis, identical with that found on the mainland of West Africa, attack the fruit and mark it with their puncturings, which permit of infestation by fungoid pests, leading to the destruction of the whole fruit. The author gives an illustration of Sahlbergella singular is, Hagl., which he records from the Belgian Congo and which with S. theobromce, Distant, is perhaps the worst pest on cocoa in the Gold Coast. Neither of these parasites appears to have been met with at San Thome or Principe. Several fungoid pests are dealt with, including a mildew (Phytophthora Faberi, Maubl.) which is very injurious to the fruit. The volume should be of great utility to planters and others in the West African cocoa plantations.

Saturday 6 February 2010

Borassus flabelliformis



Szutórisz Frigyes: A növényvilág és az ember (1905)
p.179

Forêt vierge du Brésil


Forêt vierge du Brésil, by Charles de Clarac 1819


En 1816, Charles de Clarac, savant, archéologue amateur et dessinateur de grand talent, accompagne la mission au Brésil du duc de Luxembourg.

Ambassadeur extraordinaire de Louis XVIII. Clarac dessine les éléments d’une vue de la forêt primitive qu’il complétera, à son retour en Europe, par l’étude de plantes tropicales. Sa Forêt vierge du Brésil, exposée au Salon de 1819, semble répondre aux souhaits du naturaliste Alexandre de Humboldt qui, dans l’essai sur la géographie des plantes (1805), demandait aux artistes d’aller peindre sur place la richesse prodigieuse de la végétation du Nouveau Monde.L’œuvre de Clarac a été acquise pour le département des Arts graphiques en 2004. Elle est présentée dans la salle d’actualité aux côtés de dessins illustrant la postérité de l’artiste, grâce au soutien de la Bibliothèque nationale du Brésil.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Lady Cook, 1922


Tennessee Celeste Claflin, 1846-1923
CALL NUMBER: LOT 11052-5 [item] [P&P]


Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA


Photographed 1922

Myoporum parvifolium R.Br.





Myoporum Parvifolium.
Small-leaved Myoporum.
Class and Order. Didynamia Angiospermia.

Generic Character.

Cal. 5-partitus. Cor. tubo brevi ; limbo 5-fido, subaequali. Stigma obtusum. Drupa baccata, 2 — 4-locularis. Sem. i — 2, pendula.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

MYOPORUM parvifolium ; foliis alternis clavato-linearibus ramulisque glanduloso-tuberculatis, pedunculis subbipartitis, folium subaequantibus.

MYOPORUM parvifolium; foliis alternis linearibus obtusiusculis apice nunc dentatis basi attenuatis ramulisque glandulosis, pedunculis paslim bipartilis dimidio folio longioribus, caule diffufo. Brown Prod. PL Nov. Holl. p. 516. Hort. Kew. ed. alt. 4. p. 60.

POGONIA tuberculata, aspera vel scabra Hortulanis.

This is a very pretty little shrub, with sweetist honey-scented flowers; and flowering almost the whole of the year, is a valuable ornament to our greenhouses.

Being propagated by cuttings without difficulty, it is become pretty common, though no figure of it has, we believe, been hitherto published. We have received specimens of this plant from several quarters, under the names of Pogonia tuberculata, aspera, and scabra. Our drawing was taken from a plant communicated by Messrs. Loddiges and Sons. Introduced in 1803, by Mr. Peter Good.