228 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



good selection of rhododendrons. The 

 beds should be filled with at least two feet 

 of the best peat or peat and loam, and if 

 on a clay bottom and the top of the bed 

 a little below the grass, the best conditions 

 of success will be secured. 



SELECT HYBRID RHODODENDRONS. 



White. — Album grandiflorum; Alarm, 

 blush white, margined with crimson ; Due 

 de Brabant, salmon white ; Ebuneum ; 

 Enchantress, yellow marking ; Gloriosum ; 

 La Vivandiere ; Luciferum, clear white ; 

 Perspicum, very large. 



Rose. — Currieanum, purplish rose; 

 Egregium, light rose ; Jubar, clear rose, 

 chocolate spots ; Madame Van de Weyer ; 

 Mrs. S. Waterer, clear rose, spotted ; Om- 

 phale, scarlet ro3e, orange spots ; Roseum 

 pictum, light rose, paler centre ; Roseum 

 superbum, fine rose ; Sir Colin Campbell, 

 light rose, with black spots ; Zenobia, 

 clear rose. 



Crimson and Pink. — Barclayanum ; 

 Blandyanum, immense truss, fine foliage ; 

 Callandarianum, -with dark spots ; Cele- 

 brandum, claret ; Concessum ; Delicatis- 

 simum, tinged pink ; General Havelock, 

 late; General Canrobert, dark spots; John 

 Waterer, carmine, immense truss, finely 

 spotted ; Lady Eleanor Cathcart, choco- 

 late spots; Lady Wenlock; Lefevreanum, 

 crimson, shaded purple ; Leviathan, glow- 

 ing crimson, immense size; Prince Albert; 

 Princess Amelia, immense flower; Sun of 

 Austerlitz, brilliant scarlet; Vandyke, clear 

 rosy crimson ; Victoria, claret crimson. 



Rosy Lilac and Blush. — Aclandianum, 

 blush, chocolate spots ; Everestianum, 

 rosy lilac, prettily fringed ; Sherwoodianum, 

 rosy lilac, spotted ; Sebastian, light lilac, 

 spotted. 



Dark. — Blatteum, purplish lake, fine 

 foliage ; Melanthauma, dark purple ; Ma- 



culatum nigrum, very dark ; Nircus, light 

 purple, dark marking ; Piombo, dark 

 scarlet; Purpureum grandiflorum. 



The unnamed hybrids are of course 

 the cheapest, and many of them are little 

 less beautiful and quite as full bloom- 

 ing as the most expensive named kinds. 

 For large masses these are quite as effec- 

 tive a3 the most expensive kinds, and may 

 be had of the growers at from 30*. to 60*. 

 per dozen — a price often paid for common 

 evergreen shrubs that have not a tenth of 

 the claim to admiration which these noble 

 flowering shrubs possess. Mr. Standish 

 has a fine strain of white flowering rhodo- 

 dendrons, which have been the admiration 

 of all good judges of effect in garden de- 

 coration ; and to him we are indebted for 

 such varieties as Brilliant, the nearest ap- 

 proach to scarlet yet attained ; Minnie, the 

 most curiously-marked chocolate blotches 

 on a white ground ; Limbatum, a wonder- 

 ful bloomer, pale blush, bordered with 

 crimson; and Standish' s Perfection, peach 

 with brown ochre spots, the finest-shaped 

 rhododendron out ; and many others of 

 similarly distinct excellence. Those who 

 do not care to go to the expense of peal, 

 but who have a good sandy loam quite 

 free of chalk or lime, may plant common 

 Ponticum rhododendrons ; and if planted 

 thick, and well supplied with water in dry 

 seasons, there will be little risk of their 

 doing well. The Gem, a charming blush, 

 tipped with rose and with buff spots, will 

 grow in pure sand, and in any poor sandy 

 loam if free of chalk ; but on chalk or lime, 

 or with any admixture of it, in the soil, 

 none of the shrubs known as Americans 

 will do any good at all. The variegated 

 Ponticum and the Bride, -which has varie- 

 gated leaves, make handsome centres to 

 rhododendron beds. 



TKEE-EEKNS. 



One of the most pleasing signs of the 

 times is the increasing love for ferns. Day 

 by day the numbers of the cultivators of 

 this beautiful tribe of plants is steadily 

 increasing. The arborescent species are 

 now coming in for their share of public 

 patronage : many an homeward-bound 

 barque is bearing to our shore sundry dis- 

 eases, rudely manufactured of rough planks 

 in some primaeval forest, and containing 

 the trunks of these elegant and graceful 

 trees, torn from their native soil. A few 

 weeks since, we saw half-a-dozen such 



packages unloaded at the Docks. Some 

 of these find their way to nursery gardens, 

 especially those of Messrs. Vcitch and 

 Rollisson, and Mr. Backhouse, of York ; 

 but more than once lately there have been 

 fine stems sold by auction in the well- 

 known rooms in Covent Garden. Ten 

 years ago, and one would have had a long 

 day's journey before them, if they wished 

 to see a dozen tree-ferns, but now they are 

 becoming much more plentiful. Their 

 cultivation is a new feature of the horti- 

 cultui'e of the day, and we make no apo- 



