362 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Every year in April they presented a magnificent appearance. 

 They not only flowered profusely, but generally speaking tbe flowers 

 were fine in quality. The old Double-White maintained its high 

 character as, what shall I say? — as "a bedding plant;" Corallina 

 was, of course, a blaze of glory ; and Tricolor was gay and more of a 

 "tree carnation" than any dianthus was ever known to be. This 

 went on for six successive years, and then the killing frost of 1860 

 cut them to the ground, and the old stools were taken up and 

 destroyed. They were not, however, completely killed, and had 

 they been taken up and cut back to stumps a foot or so long, and 

 then potted in the smallest pots possible, and placed in a warm, 

 moist, darkish house, to be gently forced into growth, they would, 

 in three years, have made good bushes again. A collection growing 

 out of doors at Chandler's Nursery, Vauxhall, was also cut down in 

 the same way and at the same time. 



It will thus be seen that camellias may be grown in beds as 

 rhododendrons are, and with just the same kind of treatment. In 

 the northern counties they may not do well, but in the midland and 

 southern districts there can be no more risk attached to the growth 

 of camellias in the open-air than hundreds of other subjects that are 

 not a whit more hardy — say, for example, the lovely little Azalea 

 amoana, which does well here as an outdoor shrub, and although cut 

 down at the same time, and in the same manner as camellias, two 

 years afterwards it was as buxom with leaves and flowers as if it 

 had never been hurt. 



There is now growing in Her Majesty's gardens, at Osborne, a 

 splendid specimen of the old Variegata, which has been in the open 

 air for many years past, and was this spring a picture of health and 

 beauty ; loaded as it was with its bright and richly-coloured flowers, 

 which were quite equal to others grown under glass. 



To make the plants as secure from frost as possible, the surface 

 of the bed should be covered w T ith a good thickness of dry straw, or 

 leaves, shaken loosely amongst the plants ; and to prevent the pro- 

 tecting material being blown away, lay a few heavy stones or logs of 

 wood on the top. 



As camellias were not killed by the frost of 18G0-61, and as it 

 is likely enough there may not be such another for a century, the 

 planting of camellias out of doors is as safe a proceeding as many 

 others that find favour with spirited amateurs in decorative 

 gardening. 



The Fruit of Tacsonia Van Volxemi. — Many who admire this plant for its 

 beautiful bloom are not aware that tbe fruit is edible. Messrs. Barr and Sugden, 

 King Street, Covent Garden, have recently bad some examples, and they are not 

 only edible, but really delicious, resembling Passiflora edulis, but sweeter, and 

 superior to the Granadilla, or pumpkin-fruited passion-flower. The fruit is nearly 

 six incbes long, and about an inch and a quarter through at the widest part, with a 

 very stout stalk, tapering very gradually from the base to the apex, and irregularly 

 and obscurely ribbed. 



