Plants in the Hortus
Many of the plants described here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861. A large number of additional plants were identified from correspondence, gardening notebooks and other documents surviving in the archives. The Hortus attempts to describe all the plants grown in the gardens at Camden Park and those grown in horticultural enterprises such as orchards and vineyards and includes plants grown outside the gardens in the park-like environs of the Camden Park estate. The Hortus plants served a wide range of purposes in the 19th century household; as ornament, living fences, fibre, dyestuffs, medicines, food and drink from the garden, orchard and vineyard and many others.
Amphiblemma cymosum (Schrad. & J.C.Wendl.) Naudin
Small tender shrub with ovate, pointed, toothed leaves and bright red flowers in terminal corymbs. [RHSD].
Anagallis arvensis L.f. var. azurea Hyl.
Annual prostrate herb, quite variable, the flowers of azurea being presumably blue. Probably similar to the variety caerulea. [RHSD, Hortus].
Anagallis linifolia ‘Breweri’
A cultivar of Anagallis linifolia L. Woody annual, to 45cm, with usually blue flowers, red beneath. [RHSD. Hortus]. The variety breweri has red flowers [RHSD]. However, this is at odds with the Floricultural Cabinet of 1850 which describes the flowers as ‘a fine large blue.’ [FC p.131/1850]. See also Anagallis linifolia ‘Splendens’ in which a red flowered form is depicted.
Anagallis linifolia ‘Splendens’
A cultivar of Anagallis linifolia L. Woody annual, to 45cm, with usually blue flowers, red beneath. [RHSD. Hortus].
Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.
Tender herbaceous perennial with a dense rosette of up to 50 leaves. up to 1.5m long, the cone-like inflorescence becoming a swollen fruit, to 30cm long, the well known pineapple. [RHSD, Hortus].
Anchusa capensis Thunb.
Frost hardy, erect biennial, often grown as an annual, with small, very bright blue flowers, resembling ‘Forget-me-not’, in summer. To 18cm. [RHSE, Hortus].
Anemone hortensis L.
The type species is a low-growing, rhizomatous perennial with solitary mauve-pink flowers held above the finely-dissected leaves in spring. To 30cm. [RHSD, Hortus].
Anemone hupehensis (Thunb.) Bowles & Stearn var. japonica
Fully-hardy, vigorous, erect, woody-based, suckering perennial with branched stems bearing umbels of semi-double flowers varying in colour from bright purple, almost scarlet, through mauve, to rose-pink and white, from late summer to autumn. To 90cm. [RHSE, Hortus]. Anemone x hybrida, a hybrid between A. hupehensis var. japonica and A. vitifolia, very similar and also known as ‘Japanese anemone’, is more common in gardens today. [RHSE].
Anemopaegma chamberlaynii Bureau & K.Schum.
Vigorous, tender climber with large, bright yellow, funnel-shaped or tubular flowers in axillary racemes. [RHSD, Hortus].
Angelonia angustifolia Benth.
Frost tender perennial sub-shrub with lance-shaped leaves, to 8cm, and slender racemes of deep mauve to violet flowers in early summer. To 45cm. [RHSD, Hortus].
Angelonia floribunda Hort.
Angelonia is a genus of about 25 tender herbs or sub-shrubs with simple, usually crnate leaves, and terminal spikes of blue or purple flowers. Angelonia floribunda is described as having purple flowers in Johnson’s Dictionary. It is probably a varient of one of the 6 or 7 species known to cultivation at this time but I have been unable to identify it further.
Angophora hispida (Sm.) Blaxell
Erect to spreading Mallee or small tree with peeling greyish bark and grey-green leaves, purplish when young, heart-shaped at the base and with wavy, scalloped margins, and corymb-like cymes of 3-7 creamy-white flowers in summer. To 8m [RHSE, Beadle, FNSW].
Annona cherimola Mill.
A large and straggling, frost tender, evergreen shrub or small tree with lance-shaped leaves, to 10cm long, fragrant yellow flowers, spotted purple at the base inside, followed by large, edible fruit, to 10cm by 20cm. To 7m.
Annona glabra L.
Large half hardy shrub or tree with oblong leaves, to 15cm long, and fragrant, yellow-white flowers, marked red at the base inside, followed by edible, smooth skinned, greenish-yellow fruit, variable but usually conical, blunt-ended, to about 15cm by 9cm, with highly fragrant, peachy-orange flesh, somewhat insipid tasting. Today grown as a root stock. To 10m. [RHSD, Hortus].
Annona squamosa L.
Frost tender evergreen or semi-deciduous shrub or small tree with blunt, oblong leaves, to 12cm, and greenish-yellow flowers, spotted purple at the base inside, in summer, followed by edible, egg-shaped, scaly-skinned, olive-green fruit, to 10cm across, with white pulp. To 8m. [RHSD, Hortus].
