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Mysteries

Help! I've got a trio of mysteries which I hope someone or several can
help me with. Well, more accurately, two are mysteries I've got, the
third is a mystery I'd LIKE to get. 

First the two I've got. 

Number 1 came from Paul Allanson on the Isle of Man, the specialist in
Australasian shrubs. He in turn got it from Graham Hutchins of County
Park Nursery, the specialist in New Zealand shrubs. The trouble is,
nobody knows what it is. The name which comes with it is Temu
divicata. (Sic. Divicata, not divaricata. I've never come across
divicata as a name and can find no reference to it. Can anyone suggest
what it might mean? Divaricata - ie, spreading or straggling - would
hardly seem to apply to the rather neat, dapper shrub I'm about to
describe.) The trouble with Temu divicata as a name is that Kew, when
Paul Allanson asked them about it, said there was no such critter. If
I describe it, can anyone (Tim? Moira?) suggest what it might be
(supposing that Temu really DOESN'T exist: even Kew can nod...)?. 

Description follows (I'm NOT a botanist or taxonomist so excuse the
vaguenesses) : mature leaves dull green, around 3cms long by .75 of a
cm wide; shape more or less obovate (if that's what I call something
that's lanceolate but has a rounded end?!); new leaves a striking red;
flowers like those of a myrtle, i.e., merely a small powder-puff of
cream stamens (Myrtaceae would indeed be my guess at the family to
which it belongs), and it's in flower at the moment; growth habit,
sturdily and (so far: my plant is only small) relatively narrowly
upright. Any suggestions as to its 'real' name?

Number 2 is a mysterious Santolina. I have it as S. magonica. Huh? No
such plant listed in The Plant Finder, my ancient Harkness or in
Andersen and I can find no reference to it - or to the specific name,
whether applied to it or to any other plant - in any of my other
books. (What could the specific name mean? Is it geographic?) Can any
of those enthusiasts for herbs and their allies on the list help with
this one - or any inhabitant of the actual Mediterranean, supposing
that that's where it probably comes from? It's a characterful rather
than beautiful plant, perhaps: the foliage makes a sort of densely
intricate, woolly grey ball of what looks like thin wire-netting,
topped by the usual rather acid yellow pompoms. I'd like to know (a)
where it comes from, (b) what its name means (supposing that THIS
name's 'real,' of course), (c) how hardy it's likely to be. That's
all...!

Finally, the lusted after but not yet got. I came across this one in
the course of my addiction to ancient gardening books. In this case,
the autobiography of the great Victorian and Edwardian gardener, plant
hunter and plant hunting patron, H.J. Elwes  ("Memories of
Travel...etc," published by Benn in 1930) . In the passage I'm about
to quote he's in Japan. Here's the quote: 

"Higher up we got into bits of nice forest in which Acanthopanax
ricinifolium was coming into leaf, and I have proved that this tree,
which attains a very large size in Japan, is quite hardy in England."

 Well, he may well have done and it may well be. Trouble is, what as?
Since all the Acanthopanax seem nowadays to have been shipped off into
genera such as Kalopanax and the impossibly named Eleutherococcus, and
since none of those genera have, so far as I've been able to discover,
a ricinifolium among'em, I'm stumped. Anybody any ideas? I'm
fascinated by  big, vaguely tropical-looking foliage plants for
gardens which aren't really tropical or even truly Mediterranean (like
mine, darn it, mine) and would dearly like to track down what sounds
like a useful addition to their number.

Solway Tim, gazing out at a
steel-grey-and-frozen-pink-and-not-at-all-Mediterranean sunset...


Tim Longville
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