THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



93 



TO COEEESPONDEITTS. 



Chalk Soil. — S. X. Z. is in want of advice as to 

 grasses and flowers for a chalk soil, the chalk 

 being only two or three inches from the surface. 

 " Beeches, hollies box-trees, laurestinus. Ilexes, 

 lilacs, and laburnums grow well upon it ; also, 

 the anemone, peonies, and petuuias. Roses do 

 tolerably. How often would the Editor advise 

 the grass lawn, which is extensive, to be mown 

 in summer. Intmediately after rain, the soil 

 becomes dry ; yet the lawn looks yellowish, in- 

 stead of deep green, and a deodar upon it par- 

 takes of the same hue, though some cedars grow 

 well. There is plenty of moss upon the lawn. 

 Would the Editor advise camomile seed to 

 be sown upon it? Annuals get burnt up in 

 the whitish-looking beds, and do not pros- 

 per. The place is very pretty, amongst pretty 

 scenery in Hants, but the above present great 

 and disheartening difficulties to a gardener. 

 Frosts are severe in a hard winter, the winds 

 sweeping over the Downs severely. Of course, 

 like other places, this winter hitherto we have 

 been spared. Ivy grows splendidly, verbenas 

 only tolerably ; some geraniums tolerably. 

 How is the yellow alyssum best cultivated ?" 

 — The best grasses for such a soil are the follow- 

 ing : — Agrostis stolonifera, Festuca oviua, du- 

 riuscula, elatior and heterophylla, Bromus 

 erectus, Poa pratensis, angustilolium, and 

 nemoraUs sempervirens ; Avena flavescens, 

 Lolium perenue tenue ; to which add Achillea 

 millefolium, Trifolium repens and minus, and 

 Lotus corniculatus. The best way to secure 

 as good a turf fas is possible on such a 

 soil, would be to write to a seedsman of expe- 

 rience, and tell him to supply seed of a suitable 

 kind, giving him, of course, a measurement of 

 the ground to be covered. That would be in- 

 tiaiteiy better than making up a mixture at 

 home ; and as there is plenty of time yet to get 

 a turf from seed this season, we should advise 

 that the existing turf be turned upside down to 

 make a bottom, on which to sow a proper mix- 

 ture. On such a dry soil the grass should not 

 be mown too close, or the roots will burn; 

 once in three weeks or a month, during summer, 

 would perhaps be sufficient, according to the 

 ■weather. The yellow alyssum should be taken 

 up and parted the moment its blooms are over, 

 and no seed allowed to ripen. It grows as freely 

 as a weed in almost any kind of soil, and may 

 be increased to any extent by cuttings during 

 the summer, the cuttings to be inserted in 

 sandy loam in a shady place. All the Arabis 

 and Alyssum tribes are fond of chalk. The fol- 

 lowing will prove good subjects lor you : — 

 Antirrhinum, species and varieties ; Cheiran- 

 thus ditto, especially MarshaUii, which is a 

 beautiful yellow bedder ; Anchusa, ditto ; hardy 

 succulents of ahnost any kind, especially Se- 

 dums, of which there are many beautiful 

 varieties ; Argemone and Papaver, of choice sorts ; 

 Armeria, species ; Valerian, species; Cacaliacoc- 

 cinea ; Bellis perennis in variety, if supplied 

 with plenty of water ; Fraxinella ; Doi-onicum 

 colunince and Austriacum, for bedding; Draba, 

 species ; Erinus, species ; Euphorbia, species, of 

 which amygdaloides and eharacias do weU for 

 rock-work ; Anethum fccniculum (common fen- 

 nel), very ornamental, and thrives on chalk; 

 Fumaria Burchelli, Geranium (Crane's-bill) 

 Mexicanum, rubifolium, Lancastriense, Walli- 

 chianum, and cristatum ; Grasllsiasaiifraga^tolin, 

 a pretty low-growing, white-flowered, herbace- 



ous plant ; Grammanthes chloroeflora, gen- 

 tianoides, and retroflexa, sown in heat in a mix- 

 ture of sandy loam and hme-rubbish, will be 

 useful for planting out as bedders ; the first and 

 last are orange, the other pinkish-red ; height 

 half an inch ; Gypsophila, species, sow in quan- 

 tities, tenella and viscosa wOl be good whites fur 

 bedding; prostrata and tenuilbha (red), rigida 

 (piak) . They are all pretty, and dehght m chalk. 

 Helianthemums would be likely to succeed, and 

 would almost take place of verbenas; they are 

 very hardy, with the exception of a few of the 

 best shrubby ones. There are above a hundred 

 kinds worth cultivating. Hieracium (hawk- 

 weed) : many of these would make most excel- 

 lent bedders on a chalk soil, and serve as sub- 

 stitutes for calceolarias. Lawsoni, maculatura, 

 and pulsillum are the best, but there are dozens 

 of others almost as good. Iberis, annual and 

 perennial, kinds useful for bedding and borders. 

 Aster fulvis, for autumn, most beautiful ; Lina- 

 rias, of which there are many pretty trailing 

 species, and one with variegated leaves, all use- 

 ful on banks and rock -work, but of no use in beds 

 and borders ; Malope grandiflora and trifida 

 both crimson, and alba white, may be used to 

 advantage in beds ;. they rise two feet high, and 

 would do for the centre, with a broad t;order of 

 hawkweed and edging of purple iberis. Mari- 

 gold : we think the best double kinds would be 

 most useful ; try the new double orange-coloured 

 French marigold ; it rises eighteen inches high, 

 and makes a splendid bed for distant effect. Me- 

 lilotus arborea would, we think, make you a 

 pretty border-tree. Michauxia decandra, a 

 pretty border-flower, three feet high, will do, if 

 protected in winter. Ophrys, most of the 

 British orchids, would prosper if planted in 

 clumps, and mulched with chopped moss, kept 

 in its place about their roots by willow pegs. 

 Kuta, the common rue, is a very pretty plant, 

 which is quite at home on challv. Saponaria 

 calabrica and ocymoides will make most beauti- 

 ful beds of hvely pink, and flower till cut off by 

 frost. Silene rubella alba, very compact habit 

 and snowy flowers, will be useful for beddin" if 

 kept from forming seed ; S. Schafti, and S. regia 

 are also good for bright pink in beds and 

 borders ; they make good edgings to beds in dry 

 soils. Tagetus signata would make a pretty yel- 

 low bed, or second row in a ribbon, in place of 

 Calceolarias. Tropseolum, we should expect the 

 dwarf and showy trailing kinds to make good 

 beds on the chalk, if top-dressed with manure. 

 Ulex ; we have seen the double-flowering furze 

 thriving on chalk, and there is not a more beau- 

 tiful shrub in the whole catalogue of such 

 subjects ; Viscaria suecica (pink), and neglecta 

 (white). " 



Waltonian- Case.— T. E., B. B., and others.— 

 Very many correfpondents have written to 

 thank us lor having given prominence to this 

 ingenious contrivance. Some have succeeded 

 from the first, others have found a few diffi- 

 culties, and a few are at a stand-still. T. E. 

 complains that if air is given, the heat will not 

 rise above 70^ that the sand gets drv in a day, 

 and that verbenas shrivel up and "geraniums 

 get mouldy. We have one at work now which 

 has been in use four years, and never had a coat 

 of paint, or any repairs. It contains seeds in 

 square pans, covered with squares of glass, and 

 thumb-po(s, with newly-rooted cuttings, stood 

 on the squares of glass, so as to make the heat 



