DRACÆNA.
This is a valuable genus of ornamental plants, specially fine for the center of vases, and for pot culture. Although their culture is on the increase, they are not so frequently grown as they deserve. The species are very numerous, and are found in tropical countries, especially in the islands of the tropics. Many of them assume the proportions of trees. The largest specimen ever known was one of Dracæna Draco, or the Dragon tree of Oratava in Teneriffe, one of the Canary Islands. This tree was remarkable for its monstrous dimensions and prodigious longevity. About ten years since, or in the autumn of 1867, this magnificent specimen was destroyed by a gale of wind. It was a special object of interest in the Canary Islands, and received the attention and veneration of visitors, as do the great Seguvia trees of California. Its trunk below the lowest branches was eighty feet in height, and ten men holding hands could scarcely encircle it; by one measurement this span around it was seventy-nine feet. The trunk was hollow, and in the interior was a winding stair-case, by which one might ascend as far as the part from which the branches sprang. It is affirmed by tradition that, when the island of Teneriffe was discovered in 1402, this tree was as large, and the cavity in the trunk as great, as at the time of its destruction. We are even assured that in the fifteenth century, at the time of the conquest of the Canaries by the Normans and Spaniards, they celebrated mass on a little altar erected in this cavity. From the slow growth of the young Dragon trees in the Canaries, it has been estimated that this monster tree before it was destroyed, was the oldest plant upon the globe. A writer in describing it says: "Long leaves pointed like swords, crowned the extremities of the branches, and white panicles, which developed in autumn, threw a mantle of flowers upon this dome of verdure." The popular name of this species is Dragon's-blood Tree, because of a resinous juice of a red color which exudes from the cracks in its trunk. At one time this resin formed a considerable branch of commerce, as it was used medicinally as an astringent, but it has fallen into disuse.
The Dracænas belong to the Lily family, and they afford a remarkable contrast to the palms and other arborescent endogens, by their branching heads. The young trees of Dracæna Draco do not, however, send out any branches, even in their native localities, until they are thirty years old or more. The small plants of this species, cultivated for ornament, have always a single, straight stem; but are much more robust, and quickly assume more stately proportions than those of the other kinds that will be mentioned.
The Dracæna is admired for its peculiar grace of form—it would be in vain in common house culture to expect flowers. To admire a plant for its well developed and graceful form, marks an advancement in refined taste beyond that which would induce one to exclaim, "Oh!" at the sight of a brilliantly colored flower. Even in rearing a plant for flowers, the first object should be to develop it to the fullest extent in size and shape and strength—to make a beautiful object of the plant itself; just as the first and main attention given to a child, for years, should be to develop and build up its physical system.
The Dracæna is a good house plant, a good balcony and veranda plant, good for the vase in the open air, and in a handsome pot is a fine ornament for table decoration. Its culture is of the simplest kind, adapting itself to any ordinarily good soil, it only requires to be supplied moderately with moisture and to have a temperature ranging upward from sixty-five degrees. It delights in a moist air, and whenever possible, water should be kept where it will rapidly evaporate, and thus ameliorate the atmosphere in this respect for the plant. This condition, moreover, is conducive to the well-being of most plants, and no good plant-grower can disregard it with impunity. Washing the leaves and stem of the plant frequently with a wet sponge, is favorable to its health and vigor, and one of the best preventives of the attack of insects. With dust on the leaves the plants look dingy, while frequent washing keeps them bright and lustrous.
Dracæna indivisa has long, slender, dark green leaves, about three-quarters of an inch or an inch in width, and from two and a half feet to three feet in length, and the lower ones especially are very much recurved or gracefully drooping. This species is among the hardiest of the Dracænas, and is frequently wintered in the open ground, with some protection in climates where the temperature frequently descends several degrees below the freezing point.
Dracæna terminalis is the most popular of the whole family in this country, and is worthy of all the admiration bestowed upon it. The leaves are broader and more erect than those of the preceding species, and of a dark green suffused with red, or having streaks of a reddish color; the young leaves nearly pink, but assuming a dark bronzy copper color afterward. It is a very distinct and showy plant, and adapted to a great variety of ornamental purposes. The propagation and sale of it is rapidly increasing every year, and it is already widely disseminated. At the Sandwich Islands it is cultivated to a considerable extent for its roots, which are baked and eaten. A fermented beverage is also made from the juice, and its leaves are employed as fodder for cattle, and for clothing and other domestic purposes.
Dracæna Shepherdii is of a most noble form, and is one of the finest yet in cultivation. It has long, spreading leaves, of a metallic green, with stripes and border of bronzy-orange, and is a very free grower. Unlike most of the forms already known, which color most on the free young growth of vigorous plants, this plant takes on its distinctive coloring gradually on the older leaves.
Dracæna cannæfolia is an interesting species. Its peculiarity consists in the length of petiole, which is as long as the rest of the leaf. The blade of the leaf is elliptical in form, from fifteen to twenty inches in length, firm, and of a glaucous green.
Within a few years past much attention has been given by cultivators in Great Britain and Europe to hybridizing the Dracæna, and producing new varieties. The most remarkable success has attended the efforts in this direction, of Mr. Bause, in the establishment of Mr. Wills, of Anerly, England. The variety is wonderful—"broad-leaved, medium-leaved and narrow-leaved; bronzy and green, crimson, rose, pink, violet and white variegations; drooping, spreading, and erect habits, are blended in all sorts of combinations."
One of the sorts produced is described as "a most important acquisition, having quite the habit and character of the well-known favorite terminalis, but with white variegation. The ground color is a bright green, with bold, white variegation, the upper leaves being white, with here and there a bar of green."—Vick's Magazine.