tS8i.] notes. 223 



plant anywhere ; but those who want a substitute equally good, equally 

 noble, and quite as lasting, will find it in the Foxglove, and they 

 may have a choice of colours. In the woods, in the poor natural soil, 

 the Foxglove is a conspicuous and noble-looking plant ; but in the 

 open, and in an ordinarily rich soil, it is splendid, and has few equals, 

 especially the Gloxiniflora variety ; and a few seeds scattered over the 

 ground is all that is needed to establish it. Reader. 



NOTES. 



All gardeners know something of grafting, but what I desire to know 

 is. Whether is it best to graft a strong-growing scion upon a weak-grow- 

 ing stock, or vice versa ? There is a tendency among some Rose-growers 

 to dispense with stocks altogether, and to depend entirely on own-root 

 Roses, An amateur wrote to tell me the other day that none of his Roses 

 on the Brier stock were killed : but he added that the stocks — i.e., the 

 Briers themselves — were killed, leaving the poor Roses rootless 'twixt 

 earth and sky. I have seen the same effect in Yorkshire many times ; 

 and it is now a well-known fact that, hardy as the Brier undoubtedly 

 is in its native lair — I mean, hedge or wood — it is very often killed in 

 the garden. Of course Briers are more exposed in the garden, but I 

 believe that they are weakened most by that miserable mop-like wisp 

 of Rose-twigs budded on their crowms. No one will for a moment deny 

 that to nurserymen, grafting is a necessary means to quick manufac- 

 ture of stock : it is convenient, but is it the best way ] 



Mr Simpson, of Wortley Hall Gardens, sends me flowers of Coelogyne 

 cristata, representing the old type, and a much "improved" form with 

 larger flowers and a deeper orange-yellow blotch on the lip. The best 

 form also blooms more profusely. It was like Cypripedium Maulei, 

 Laslia alba, Lycaste virginalis, and many other good things, imported by 

 accident as it were, and is no doubt one of nature's own " improved " 

 forms. 



It is very wicked, I know, but a malicious gardener writes to say 

 that all the " improved " strains of seeds he bought last season were 

 not equal in results to pinches of home-saved seeds that brother gar- 

 deners gave him or sent to him by post. What he suggests is that a few 

 " improved " seedsmen would be an advantage to practical gardeners. 

 All I can say is, that his heresy and schism does not apply to Mr Simp- 

 son's Coelogyne ; and I trust that with further experience he will think 

 better of the seedsmen, who unfortunately, in the matter of choice seeds, 

 are often entirely at the mercy of others. 



Why are not the varieties of Pseony Moutan, the hardy or half-hardy 



