“There is one book that I would rather have produced than all my novels,” Willa Cather rued in her most candid interview about creativity. That book was Rocky Mountain Flowers: An Illustrated Guide For Plant-Lovers and Plant-Users by the pioneering plant ecologist and botanical artist Edith Clements (1874–1971).
Together with her husband, the influential botanist Frederic Clements, she pioneered the science of plant ecology, lending empirical substantiation to her contemporary John Muir’s poetic observation that “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” In her 1960 memoir Adventures in Ecology: Half a Million Miles: From Mud to Macadam , penned shortly before Rachel Carson awakened the modern ecological conscience with Silent Spring and half a century before the climate calamity we are now living, Edith Clements prophesied:
“There seems little doubt that the application of the principles of ecology to human affairs, whether personal, national or world-wide, would go far in solving the problems that beset us.”
Herbaceous plants, and a few half shrubs. The leaves are alternate. The flowers are chiefly yellow or white, some are purple, without bracts, generally on branching stalks. The sepals of the calyx are four, falling off before the capsule is enlarged. The petals are four, cruciform, alternate with the sepals, occasionally toothed. The stamens are six, the four longest in pairs, the two short ones single and place between the pairs. On the disk are green honey-glands, between the petals and the stamens and ovary. The ovary is above the calyx and disk, with plates from the edges usually meeting in the centre. The stigmas are two, placed opposite the plate-bearing seeds. The seed-vessel is a silique, a long pod containing many seeds; or a silicule, a short pod with few seeds; opening by two valves separating from the central plate, or remaining close. The seeds are attached by a little cord in a single row to each side of the plate, generally pendulous; they have no albumen.
Whether you’re trying to beat the summer heat beneath the leafy shade or escape the winter cold inside tropical greenhouses, botanical gardens are a popular year-round destination for locals and visitors alike. Here are our picks for 10 botanic gardens you can’t miss in the U.S.
Pomona Britannica: No. 33 – Peaches, 1812–17. George Brookshaw (British, 1751-1823). Aquatint and stipple engraving printed in color and hand colored; platemark: 44.9 x 35 cm (17 11/16 x 13 3/4 in.); sheet: 57 x 47 cm (22 7/16 x 18 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.166
D. divaricatum ; caule divaricatissime ramoso, pubescenti ; foliis multipartitis, laciniis linearibus acutis ; floribus pedicellis brevioribus ; petalis integerrimis ; folliculis sericeis. Descr.—Stem very much branched and exceedingly divaricated, somewhat pubescent ;leaves with many divisions divided down to the petiole, divisions linear acute ; flowers shorter than the pedicels ; petals very entire ; follicles covered with silky hairs. Delphinium divaricatum. — Ledebour. T his beautiful annual is a native of Caucasus, on the grassy banks of the River Gandscha, where it was collected in 1834 by Mr. T. F. Hohenacker, Botanical Traveller for the Unio Itineraria. When arrived at a state of maturity, it forms a complete pyramid, upwards of five feet high, its widely spreading lower branches occupying a space of more than two feet in diameter. It will readily be conceived, therefore, that, covered with flowers from the base to the apex, it makes a most attractive appearance; and being perfectly hardy, is highly deserving of cultivation.
Our drawing was made from a plant raised from seeds sent to the Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural Society ; it flowered last summer, and is the only living plant we have at present seen. We have compared it with specimens which we received from the Unio Itineraria, and find them to agree in every particular. It appears to be nearly allied to Delphinium consolida, if we examine the character given by De Candolle in his Prodromus, or that given by the late Sir James Edward Smith in his English Flora ; but, on comparison, there can be no doubt of their being perfectly distinct. From D. consolida it differs in being very much more branched ; in its branches being more slender ; in having flowers shorter than the pedicels, with the petals very entire at the margin, not crenate, as the petals of Consolida are represented in English Botany ; and also in the colour of the flower, which approaches the purple of puniceum rather than the usual colour of the genus.
Of the other annual species of Delphinium, two are to be found in almost every garden; D. Ajacis, or rocket; and D. consolida, or field larkspur. Of the first there are many beautiful double varieties of all colours ; the merits of which are estimated by florists according as they are more or less dwarf in their mode of growth ; and produce flowers more or less double. All tall-growing, as well as single-flowered plants are generally weeded out, in order to insure genuine seeds. The tall, branching larkspurs are also of various colours, some of which produce double flowers, but have not obtained so much notice from florists. Both should be sown where they are to remain ; a portion in August for early, and a portion in March for late flowering : covered with not more than half an inch of soil. Plants of the dwarf rocket should be four inches apart ; the branching varieties should be distant from nine inches to one foot. A rich soil grows them in the greatest perfection. Can a reason be assigned why so many plants in Ranunculacem produce double flowers ?
The natural order Ranunculacece consists of herbs (very rarely shrubs) with alternate or opposite, much divided leaves ; the petiole of which is dilated at the base, and forms a kind of sheath, which half embraces the stem. For the essential botanical characters by which they are distinguished, we beg to refer our readers to Lindley’s Natural System of Botany. As regards the geographical distribution of the order, the largest proportion of them is met with in Europe ; some are found in North America, some in South America, and some in Asia. Very few are found in Africa, except on the shores of the Mediterranean. In New Holland, according to De Candolle, 18 species have been discovered.
The genus Delphinium is divided by De Candolle into four sections ; the first of which contains such species as have but one ovarium or seed-vessel, and four petals united in one, as in our present plant. They are about twelve in number, and are all annuals.
Fig 1, 4 petals united ; 2, the capsule, which (as in all the species of De CandohVs section consolida) is single.
No genus or race of Orchids that has been brought under cultivation has yielded so readily, and we may add, so strikingly, to its influence as Cypripedium. This is not only apparent in the results of hybridization, but also in the species themselves, especially in those that have been longest under the cultivator’s care. The most obvious effects of cultural influence have been the development of more robust foliage of a brighter colour; the normally one-flowered scape occasionally becomes two-flowered; the flowers are often larger and modified in colour (Veitch). Generally they are easily culti¬ vated, they flower freely and may readily be induced to mature seeds from which plants can be raised. The species, with few exceptions, readily intercross, and consequently an enormous number of hybrids have been raised artificially. Two of the three represented in the plate are true species, the third, EVENOR, is a garden hybrid. Recently the genus has been divided by botanists into four, viz.:—Cypripedium, Phragmo- pedilum, Paphiopedilum, and Selenipedium.
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Brugmansia via Instagram
Macro geranium flower via Instagram
Succulent Garden Bed Pretty little succulents all in a row in Palm Desert, California. [Photo]
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Historical Seed Catalogs: Hoveys’ illustrated guide and bulb catalogue for 1878 – 56 in a series
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