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here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861.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.
Paphiopedilum insigne (Wall. ex Lind.) Pfitzer
Frost-tender terrestrial orchid with lance-shaped, yellowish leaves, to 30cm long, and solitary ladies’ slipper flowers, to 10cm across, yellow-bronze in colour, with pale green–yellow, spotted upper sepals, but very variable in colour and size. To 15cm. There are many named forms. [RHSE, Pridgeon].
Paphiopedilum purpuratum (Lindl.) Stein.
Frost-tender terrestrial orchid with white ladies’ slipper flowers, shaded green and purplish-red with dorsal stripes. [RHSD, Hortus].
Paphiopedilum venustum (Wall.) Pfitzer
Half hardy orchid with short, bluish-green leaves with purplish veins, and solitary ladies’ slipper flowers, greenish white with purplish stripes, in winter. [RHSD].
Paraserianthes lophantha (Willd.) I.C.Nielsen
Frost-tender, spineless tree or tall shrub with leaves consisting of up to 12 pairs of pinnae, each composed of up to 40 pairs of bluntish leaflets, and axillary racemes of pink or white flowers, forming bottle-brush-like spikes, in spring. To 3m. [RHSD, Beadle].
Parastranthus luteus A.DC.
Half hardy herbaceous perennial with lance shaped, serrated leaves, and loose, terminal spikes of deep yellow flowers in early summer. To 15cm. [Don].
Pardanthopsis dichotoma (Pall.) Lenz
Fully-hardy, short-lived, rhizomatous, iris-like perennial with blue-green leaves with a distinct white edge in a fan-shaped cluster, and many-branched stems to 60cm, bearing a profusion of flowers, with white falls, spotted brown-purple, and grey-white standards, faintly striped with purple. Other colour forms are known. The plant often dies after flowering but seeds readily. [RHSD, Hortus, Dykes].
Parkinsonia aculeata L.
Frost-tender, small, spreading, often weeping, deciduous tree with spiny green stems, slender, 2-pinnate leaves with many tiny leaflets which fold up at night, and racemes of 2-15 cup-shaped, sweetly scented bright yellow flowers with orange markings and stamens, to 2cm across, in spring. To 10m. In dry, frost-free areas it is suitable for hedging and screening, its light, open structure allowing turf and other plants to thrive in its shade. [RHSE, Hortus].
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.
Fully hardy, vigorous, woody climber with palmate leaves composed of usually, 5 sharply-toothed leaflets, turning brilliant red in autumn. To 15m or more. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Passiflora ‘Alato-kermesina’
Presumably a Passiflora alata C.Curtis x Passiflora raddiana DC. hybrid. I have found no description of this plant.
Passiflora ‘Blakii’
No description of this cross has been found.
Camden-bred hybrid named for Edmund Blake, convict gardener at Camden Park at this time, possibly hybridised by John Bidwill. ‘We have raised a considerable batch of seedlings from the crossed Passiflora seed, some of which are now 8 or 10 feet high and beginning to show flower buds. The most promising looking are Kermesina x caerulea [see Passiflora x floribunda [Macarthur]] and caerulea-racemosa by Kermesina. There are two other crosses supplied by you from Sydney but we do not know what they are.’ Macarthur to Bidwill, 25th November 1845 [MP A2933-2, p.98].
Passiflora ‘Camdeni’
Camden-bred hybrid. No description is extant. It may be one of the hybrids originally numbered 1 to 10 in Macarthur’s notebook and described under these numbers.
Passiflora ‘Delicata’
Camden-bred hybrid. No description is extant. It may be one of the hybrids originally numbered 1 to 10 in Macarthur’s notebook and described under these numbers.
Passiflora ‘Elegans’
Probably a Camden-bred hybrid, parentage unknown. No description is extant. It may be one of the hybrids originally numbered 1 to 10 in Macarthur’s notebook and described under these numbers.
Passiflora ‘Floribunda Minor’
Camden Park hybrid, Passiflora kermisina x Passiflora caerulea. I have found no specific description but it was probably very similar to Passiflora ‘Floribunda' which see.
Passiflora ‘Floribunda’
A Camden Park hybrid, Passiflora kermisina x Passiflora caerulea, described by William Macarthur in a gardening notebook, c.1845. ‘Corolla 4-5 inches in diameter, sepals greenish brown without, bright red lilac, approaching to crimson, within in two distinct shades of colour. Petals red lilac, filamentous appendages round throat of tube in several distinct rows, the two lower about 2 inches in diameter, coloured dark chocolate purple and bright blue separated by a band of white. [Indecipherable word] ?ths light [unclear] purple mottled with green, stigmas brownish green, pollen yellow, foot stalks 3-5 inches, flowers fragrant and of great perfection. A very distinctive plant of superior growth, flowers early.’ [MP vol. 52].
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