I873-] GOSSIPY GLEANINGS. 81 



GOSSIPY GLEANINGS FROM THE GREENHOUSE. 



I SHOULD recommend every one who has a conservatory to keep gay 

 all the year round to patronise Iris reticulata. A dozen of pots 

 are not too much to keep up a supply of it in bloom in winter. It is 

 beautiful as any Orchid. It is a blue of indescribable richness, while 

 each petal has a band of yellow down its centre. I. reticulata 

 is most manageable in the forcing-house when not subject to strong 

 fire-heat ; a temperature of 60° by day and 5° less at night is sufficient. 

 The most simple mode to cultivate them for this end is to lift the 

 bulbs from the open ground in September and November, and to 

 place them in 5-inch pots. The greatest proportion of the soil should 

 be light rich fibry loam, with a little sand and old cow-manure. After 

 potting, stand them in a cool house for a month, when they will have 

 appeared above the soil, and their roots will have extended through 

 the whole of the soil. Water only to sustain the soil moderately 

 moist up to this stage, but give a greater supply after they are put 

 into force. Now do not try to outdo so-and-so — your neighbours, I 

 mean — by an extravagant amount of fire-heat, else you will most 

 assuredly only come off at the latest and worst. So far at least as 

 quality goes, rather conduct the forcing with quiet moderation, and 

 success will be the result. Keep the atmosphere charged, but not over- 

 charged, with moisture, with a gentle air floating imperceptibly amongst 

 your plants. Transparent glass, of course, is most essential, both to pro- 

 duce stubby plants and rich well-coloured blooms. This applies to 

 forcing flowers in general. 



What a gem is that delightful species of Linum tryginum, and 

 how pleasant it is to have its glorious rich golden cups in the middle 

 of ''gloomy winter," just after all the yellow of the Chrysanthemums 

 has died out ! But I may inform those of my readers who are 

 unacquainted with it, that its flowers are of the brightest orange, 

 with a skin silky and solid. They are produced in clusters on the 

 apex of the shoots, and are somewhat campanulate in form; each 

 corolla has five petals, and measures 1-J inch in diameter. The leaves 

 are ovate-lanceolate, simple, their greatest dimension being 2 inches, of 

 the most pleasing pale glaucous green. It succeeds admirably with 

 the same treatment as I. reticulata. 



Eupatorium odoratum is a most useful old greenhouse plant, 

 although some of the most fastidious have given it the cold shoulder. 

 Its great umbels of sweet, white, Ageratum-like flowers, are a considera- 

 tion in late autumn, when other flowers are most scarce. Then, again, 

 its wants are so humble and simple — only a sunny aspect in the green- 

 house, a shift of pots once a-year, and liberal supplies of water when 

 the flower-crowns are in formation. It ilowers most profusely when 



