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Vinca (pervinca, old Latin name of periwinkle, used by Pliny). Apocynaceae. Erect or procumbent or trailing herbs or subshrubs, some used for bloom in the flower-garden, others for decorative foliage in the greenhouse and in window-boxes and others for permanent ground-cover out-of-doors.
Leaves opposite: fls. axillary, solitary, rather large; calyx 5-parted, not glandular, lobes narrow, acuminate; corolla salver-shaped, tube cylindrical, lobes 5, large, twisted, overlapping to the left; stamens included, above the middle of the tube; disk none; ovary 2 distinct carpels, glabrous: follicles 2, erect or divergent, narrowly cylindrical.—About 12 species, Medit. region, Trop. Amer., India, and Madagascar.
One of the commonest and best plants for covering the ground in deep shade, especially under trees and in cemeteries, is V. minor. It is a hardy trailing plant with shining evergreen foliage and blue salver-shaped five-lobed flowers about an inch across, appearing in spring or early summer. It forms a dense carpet to the exclusion of other herbs. It thrives best in moist half-shaded positions, but will grow in the deepest shade even in poor soil, especially if it is stony. It is a capital plant for clothing steep banks, covering rocks, and carpeting groves. It can be planted successfully on a large scale any time from spring to fall during mild or rainy weather. It is propagated by division or by cuttings, as seeds very rarely mature. The periwinkle will live in city yards under trees where grass will not thrive. V. minor is the commonest and perhaps most variable species. Varieties with white, purple, and double flowers are kept in most nurseries, as also a form with variegated foliage. V. major is larger in all its parts than the common periwinkle and not so hardy. It is well known to florists. A variegated form of it is seen in nearly every veranda-box in the country. V. rosea is a tender plant of erect habit which is used chiefly for summer bedding. It grows about a foot high and has rosy purple or white flowers with or without a reddish eye, and often 2 inches across. The plants bloom continuously from the time they are set out until frost. It can be grown in large masses for public parks with somewhat less expense than geraniums. Mr. Stromback, head gardener of Lincoln Park, Chicago, has recorded his experience with V. rosea in Florist's Review 1:141 as follows: "The seed is sown in January or February in flats of sandy soil in a temperature of 65° to 70°. When the seedlings show the second leaf, they are pricked out about an inch apart in trays of the same soil, and when the little plants have five or six leaves they are potted into 2-inch rose-pots, and later shifted to 3-inch pots. The majority are bedded out from the 3-inch pots. The soil of the bed should be a sandy loam if possible, and the plants will not do well in a very heavy soil. In bedding, set the plants about a foot apart. They require more water than a geranium, and when the bed is watered it should be given a good soaking and then let alone for a few days. The plants require no trimming." The amateur will find V. rosea a satisfactory window-plant that can be grown with little trouble from seeds started as late as April, but of course such plants will not bloom as early as the bedding stock propagated in January or February. V. rosea is the largest-flowered vinca, and it seeds freely. (Wilhelm Miller.)
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