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here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861.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.
Artabotrys hexapetalus (L.f.) Bhandari
Frost tender shrub with shiny, lance-shaped leaves, to 20cm, scrambling by means of hooks on the leaves and stems, and very fragrant, sometimes paired, whitish-yellow and reddish-brown flowers in summer. To 4m. [RHSD, Hortus].
Artemisia abrotanum L.
Fully hardy, erect, deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub with aromatic pinnatisect leaves and yellowish-grey flower heads, in dense panicles, to 30cm long, in summer. To 1m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Arthropodium cirrhatum R.Br.
Frost-hardy, tufted, rhizomatous, evergreen perennial with lance-shaped leaves and nodding, star-shaped white flowers, flecked purple and yellow, in lax panicles, in early summer. To 90cm. [RHSE, Hortus].
Asclepias curassavica L.
Frost tender, evergreen sub-shrub, often grown as an annual, with upright branches and lance-shaped leaves, and axillary, umbel-like cymes of red or orange-red flowers, with orange-yellow hoods, from summer to autumn. To 1m. There is also a white-flowered form. [RHSE, Hortus].
Asimina triloba Dun.
Fully hardy deciduous shrub or small tree with large obovate leaves, turning yellow in autumn, and cup-shaped flowers in spring, followed by edible, ovoid, bottle-shaped, yellow-brown fruit. To 6m. [RHSE, Hortus].
Asparagus medeoloides (L.f.) Thunb.
Frost tender twining sub-shrub with leathery, ovate cladophylles and small, solitary or paired greenish-white flowers followed by red berries. To 1.5m. [RHSD, Hortus].
Asphodeline lutea Rchb.
Hardy herbaceous plant, the leaves numerous, tufted at the base, the flowers yellow, fragrant, in a dense, long, leafy but un-branched raceme. [RHSD, Hortus].
Asphodelus aestivus Brot.
Stout, erect stem to 90cm, the leaves flat, broad, linear to linear-lanceolate, to 3cm wide, leathery, thick, long, pointed, the flowers white with a reddish middle stripe in densely-flowered panicles, the branches to 30cm long, in spring. [RHSD, Hortus].
Asplenium australasicum (Smith) Hook.
Large, usually epiphytic fern with simple, stiff, erect, bright green fronds arranged in a circular form to resemble a large bird’s nest. [RHSD, Hortus, FNSW].
Asystasia scandens Hook.
Frost tender, evergreen twining plant or straggling shrub with terminal racemes of delicate, creamy white petunia-like flowers produced in abundance in racemes at the axils of every leaf. Flowers for several months. To 2m. [RHSD].
Atherosperma moschatum Labill.
Frost hardy, conical, evergreen tree with lance-shaped, nutmeg-scented leaves and solitary, saucer-shaped, fragrant, creamy white flowers, produced from the upper leaf axils in early spring. To 6m. [RHSE, Hilliers’, FNSW, Beadle].
Athrotaxis cupressoides D.Don
Athrotaxus is a genus of two species of Tasmanian conifers although a number of hybrids were given specific status in the early literature. Athrotaxis cupressoides D.Don is a small erect tree with small, dark-green, scale-like leaves pressed close to the stems. To 10m. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’, APNI].
Athrotaxis selaginoides D.Don
Athrotaxus is a genus of two species of Tasmanian conifers although a number of hybrids were given specific status in the early literature. Athrotaxis selaginoides D.Don is usually a small to medium tree, although the largest of the genus. Leaves pointed, to 12mm long with glaucous bands above. To 30m. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’, APNI].
Athrotaxis selaginoides D.Don
Athrotaxus is a genus of two species of Tasmanian conifers although a number of hybrids were given specific status in the early literature. Athrotaxis selaginoides D.Don is usually a small to medium tree, although the largest of the genus. Leaves pointed, to 12mm long with glaucous bands above. To 30m. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’, APNI].
Athrotaxis x laxifolia Hook.
Athrotaxus is a genus of two species of Tasmanian conifers although a number of hybrids were given specific status in the early literature. Athrotaxis x laxifolia Hook. is a hybrid, the parents being Athrotaxis selaginoides and Athrotaxis cupressoides. Such hybrid individuals are widespread although not common in areas where the two parent species occur, and the name Athrotaxis laxifolia has been widely used for these. [APNI]. Similar to Athrotaxis cupressoides but of laxer habit and usually somewhat larger. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’, APNI].
