THE CALCEOLARIA. 



79 



Perhaps the worst thing that ever occurred 

 ia the progress of this plant towards perfec- 

 tion, was the awarding of prizes to herbace- 

 ous varieties, as well as shrubby khids ; for 

 it induced people to grow both, and led to a 

 degeneration of both. Wg have always main- 

 tained that the shrubby ones only deserve 

 tlie distinction of florists' flowers ; and it is 

 now difficult to find, even among those ho- 

 nored with prizes, anything like a good habit 

 of jilant. Tlie hcrbacecus varieties give us 

 the largest flowers ; and the captivatiou of 

 size with peojde who do not study all the pro- 

 perties of plants, led too many to encourage 

 the herbaceous kinds for that property only. 

 Mr. Green, gardener to Sir Edmund Antro- 

 bus, was the first and most successful exhi- 

 bitor of this elegant subject ; and the enor- 

 mous flowers on some of his herbaceous va- 

 rieties, comj letely riveted the attention of 

 those whose taste, or want of taste, induced 

 them to value flowers by measure. Mr. 

 Green, so far as our observations went, was 

 as completely in advance with calceolarias, as 

 Mr. Thom|ison of Tver was Avith pansies ; and 

 a spirit of emulation led others to buy his 

 best sorts, and set to work with seedlings 

 themselves. It is well known in the floricul- 

 tural world, that our standard of excellence 

 is a perfectly round flower, on a completely 

 shrubby plant ; and the novelties are now 

 principally estimated by that standard, though 

 there is much to do before it can be obtained, 

 even should it ever be accomjdished. Still, 

 as herbaceous varieties, and the plants par- 

 taking of that habit, afi"ord the largest blooms, 

 it is difficult to make many judges pay suffi- 

 cient attention to the superior merit of shrub- 

 by plants. The colours and the markings of 

 the calceolaria are becoming exceedingly nu- 

 merous ; and, within the last two years, they 

 have been diverted from their general charac- 

 teristic in an extraordinary manner, and from 

 speckles and blotches of all forms and sizes, 

 they have produced blossoms with stripes like 

 a carnation, ramifying from the hollow which 

 is at the top, like rays from a centre, to the 

 outer edge. The chief blemishes of these 

 have been a dulness and indefiniteness in their 

 colours and stripes. Nevertheless, there is no 

 doubt, like all other subjects taken up in 

 earnest, they will be improved; they have, 

 too, the prevailing fault of deep notches in 

 the outline. The herbaceous kinds are what 



florists technically call "miffy," a term de- 

 noting easily killed or damaged by mis- 

 management. The shrubby ones are more 

 hardy and easily managed. We succeeded 

 well for some years by the following treat- 

 ment : 



Soil. — The compost we used was clean 

 hazel loam, which, when ordinarily damp, but 

 not wet, we could squeeze into a mass, and 

 lay it down on the potting table without 

 breaking, but which a pressure of the finger 

 would crumble again readily. To two parts 

 of this, we put one of leaf mould, one of 

 mould formed by a rotten melon bed of stable 

 dung, and one of Wimbledon peat — this being 

 merely lumps of half decomposed wiry fibre 

 and sandy earth, was rubbed through a coarse 

 sieve, such as would let horse beans through. 

 The loam, and dung, and leaf mould were 

 sifted through the same sieve, and the whole 

 well amalgamated, and often turned for some 

 time. It should be mentioned, perhaps, that 

 all these should be measured after the}' have 

 been passed through the sieve, for one of 

 them may have, and the peat especially, a 

 good deal left behind, which would, of course, 

 considerably aff"ect the proportions. This soil 

 is not too retentive of moisture ; and then re- 

 quires that all plants grown in it should be 

 very carefully watched and watered. When 

 the soil is required for repotting large plants, 

 or to grow them with very large shifts from 

 small to large pots, the sieve used may be 

 coarser, large enough in the mesh to let a 

 marble through. Some cultivators were using 

 at the same time, and with equal success, three 

 instead of two parts of loam ; but very much 

 depends on the (luality of the loam, which, 

 if heavier or of a more tenacious character 

 than we have mentioned, should be rather 

 lessened in quantity. 



Choice of Plants. — As there is no me- 

 thod of choosing plants ecjual to that of se- 

 lecting those in bloom, the following points 

 should be attended to as much as possible. 

 First, that the plant be of shrubby habit, the 

 stems oeing woody and well clothed with foli- 

 age, branching well, and forming a bushy 

 shrub on a small scale. Secondly, that the 

 flower stems should not rise too high al ove 

 the foliage, for it would be desirable that no 

 bare stalks should be seen between the leafy 

 shrub and the flowers. Thirdly, that the 

 flowers should .have footstalks of such length 



