i8yo.] GESNERA ZEBRINA. 19 



Potato by the dry surroundings, and it never comes away. To cut 

 Potatoes for seed after they have been allowed to grow 4 to 6 inches 

 in pits, as is often the case, cannot but be regarded as the most irra- 

 tional practice possible. 



The varieties of Potatoes now grown and offered for sale, some under 

 two or three local names, are very numerous ; yet the sorts which may 

 be regarded as sufficient to supply a family till the field-crops are ready 

 need not be numerous. The True Ash-leaved is probably yet the best 

 for early crops. Though some sorts are a little earlier, I have never 

 tried any combining so many good qualities so early. As a second 

 early Kidney, Mayatt's Early is very good, and so is Mona's Pride. 

 To succeed the two latter, the Lapstone Kidney stands unrivalled for 

 fine quality, and is a good cropper. Among early round varieties the 

 Bloomer, alias Curl Top, alias Coldstream Early, is a very good and 

 early round Potato ; but round Potatoes are not admissible in first-class 

 dining-rooms while Kidneys can be had. Daintree's Early, American 

 Early, and Dalmahoy, form good successions in the order named, and 

 are all excellent croppers, and good in quality. A variety known in 

 some localities as Rosse's Early, but which scarcely deserves being 

 called early, for it is not ready till August, is a great favourite- of 

 mine. It is an enormous cropper, and splendid in quality. At Archer- 

 field I grew this variety from the largest sets I could select, planted 

 whole, 3 feet by 1 foot 6 in., a few rows annually to produce large tubers, 

 to bake with their jackets on, and serving up whole. One season I 

 produced one tuber weighing 3| lb., and out of a few barrowfuls off 

 the same small piece of ground I picked out forty-eight tubers which 

 weighed 44 lb.— some considerably over 2 lb. and some less; and 

 every Potato was solid to the core, and there was scarcely a Potato 

 amongst them that could be termed small — a result brought about by 

 a succession of years, wide planting, and large sets. D. T. 



GESNERA ZEBRINA. 



I hIve at the present time two or three dozen pots of this most beauti- 

 ful and useful plant in full flower, and never have I before succeeded 

 so well with them. I attribute this success to some alteration in my 

 mode of treatment which I have adopted this season, and I shall be glad if 

 you will kindly spare space in the ' Gardener ' for the little I have to 

 say on the matter, hoping it will prove of use to all who are interested 

 in winter-blooming plants. During the last week in March 1869 I 

 put the tubers into a common cutting-box, and placed it in a warm pit, 



