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here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861.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.
Digitalis purpurea L.
Fully hardy, rosette forming, variable biennial with tall. one-sided spikes of purple, pink or white flowers, with paler spots inside, in early summer. To 2m. [RHSE, Hortus].
Digitalis purpurea L. var. alba
See Digitalis purpurea L. Alba is a naturally-occuring white-flowered form.
Digitalis purpurea L. var. maculata superba
Maculata superba is a distinctly spotted form. [Hortus]. Digitalis purpurea superba, a hybrid with pink and purple flowers, was introduced in 1842. [PD]. This is probably the ‘new spotted’ form ordered by Macarthur. Whether it is a true hybrid or a variety of purpurea with particularly prominent spots is unclear.
Dioscorea alata L.
Probably a species of Yam, such as Dioscorea alata, with edible roots. Dioscorea alata is a tuberous perennial, the tubers sometimes very large, weighing up to 40kg and 2 m or more in length. Widely grown as a food source in the Pacific Islands. [RHSD, Hortus].
Dioscorea elephantipes (L’Hérit.) Engl.
Frost-tender, slow-growing, deciduous, climbing perennial with a partially buried, pyramidal, heavily fissured woody tuber, blue-green, heart-shaped leaves and dark-spotted, greenish-yellow flowers in summer. [RHSE, Hortus].
Diosma ericoides L.
Frost tender, twiggy. evergreen, heath-like shrub with crowded, blunt leaves and small white flowers, tinged red on the outside, typically in twos and threes and borne in great profusion in terminal clusters in spring. To 90cm. [RHSD, Hortus].
Diosma species unidentified
An unidentified species, no description.
Diospyros cupulosa (F.Muell.) F.Muell.
Frost tender evergreen shrub with shiny, laurel-like leaves and solitary yellow flowers in summer, followed by plum-like berries. To 1m. [RHSD].
Diospyros ebenum Koenig ex Retz.
Frost tender, large tree with smooth branchlets, thick, elliptic leaves, to 15cm long, and small white flowers. The heart wood is jet black, very heavy and strong, considered to be the best form of ebony. [RHSD, Hortus].
Diospyros lotus L.
Fully hardy, spreading deciduous tree with lance-shaped leaves, to 12cm long, and tiny, bell-shaped, red-tinged green flowers in summer, followed by inedible, spherical to ovoid, yellow to purple fruit, to 2cm across, on female plants. To 10m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Diploglottis australis (G.Don) Radlkf.
Half hardy, medium-sized to large tree, its young leaves and branches covered with rusty down, with pinnate leaves, to 60cm or more long, composed of up to 12 elliptic leaves, to 30cm long, and large, panicles of many small flowers. [RHSD, Hortus, FNSW, Beadle].
Dipodium punctatum (Sm.) R.Br.
Frost-tender, leafless, saprophytic, terrestrial orchid with reddish, usually spotted stems, to 90cm high, and terminal racemes of up to fifty, pink to dark mauve flowers, spotted white, in summer. [RHSD, Jones, FNSW, Beadle].
Dipogon lignosus (L.) Verdc.
Half-hardy perennial twining climber with attractive purple-pink flowers in decorative clusters of 3-6 blooms during summer. To 3m. [RHSD, Hortus].
Dircaea blassii Regel
Tuberous-rooted gesneriad with pointed, ovate leaves and pendant stems bearing numerous, velvety-orange tubular flowers.
Disocactus alatus (Sw.) Kimnach
Frost tender, freely-branching cactus with pendant primary stems, to 5m across, leaf-like, broadly linear, scalloped-wavy lateral stems and open funnel-shaped , yellowish cream or greenish white flowers, to 1.5cm across, in spring. To 30cm. [RHSE, Don].
