268 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[^September, 



the majority of hardy plants have censed for a 

 season, and it.-* compact hiibit, surely should 

 o.onimaiid respect. It is a native of Northern 

 China, but not quite liardy in our Northern 

 States, thotii^h a well-covered cold frame, or any 

 odd corner in a cool greenhouse, is good enough 

 Winter quartere for it. It has a mass of " roots," 

 or underground stems, which, if divided in 

 February, or before active growth begins, yield a 

 great increase of stock. 



FucHSi.v rnocuMBEXS.— Mr. Lcjnsdale sends us 

 a plant of this with a few open flowers on it. 

 They arc small, of a brownish tint, and with the 

 recurved sepals purple. It is not a showy plant, 

 by any means, but when closely examined, is 

 pretty. It is so very distinct from Fuchsias as 

 generally seen, that it will always interest one 

 to look at it, and perhaps when covered with 

 flowers may be more showy than in this condi- 

 tion it promises to be. 



Tropical Pitcher Plants.— Those interested 

 in Nepenthes generally, should make a point 

 of seeing the collection of Mr. Such, at South 

 Amboy, N. J., where are most luxurious plants, 

 festooned with pitchers— large, perfect, and in- 

 tensely colored. Almost every species and 

 variety in cultivation, from the tiny Cephalotus, 

 of Australia, to the N. phyllamphora and Ratfle- 

 siana, of the Indian Archipelago, are there, 

 growing to perfection. Mr. Taplin, the talented 

 manager of Mr. Such's establishment, has suc- 

 ceeded in raising a number of seedlings, many 

 of which are of sterling merit, and present char- 

 acters of distinction apart from anything at 

 present in our gardens. 



Forcing the Lily of the Valley.— A writer 

 in the Homhurger Gartemeitung gives some par- 

 ticulars of the raising and forcing of the Lily 

 of the Valley in the establishment of E. C. 

 Harmsen, of Hamburg, where it forms one of 

 the principal objects of culture. It is in this 

 and other nurseries in Holstein, not far distant 

 from Hamburg, that the Lily of the Valley is 

 cultivated in vast quantities for export. Millions 

 of crowns, it is stated, are annually sent out 

 from the one establishment named. The soil in 

 which it is growm is a sandy loam. In Autumn, 

 the ground is prepared by trenching to a good 

 depth, and liberal manuring with rotten stable 

 dung. It is then laid out in beds about four feet 

 wide, with intersecting paths a foot wide. Six 

 rows of plants are put in these beds, in furrows 



three to four inches deep, or so deep that the 

 l)ed.s are covered with at least an inch of soil. 

 When time i.s of importance, or the soil is of a 

 wetter nature, it is customary to take out the 

 soil from the first bed to the required depth and 

 wheel it to the side of the one to be planted 

 last. The plantlets are then scattered over the 

 surface and the soil from the next bed thrown 

 over them, and so on to the end. After the first 

 frost has set in sufficiently hard to facilitate the 

 operation, the beds are thoroughly mulched 

 with rotten dung, from spent hotbeds by prefer- 

 ence. A thick layer of this serves not only to 

 nourish the plants when growth commences in 

 Spring, but it also acts as a protector from frost 

 during the Winter; moreover, during the suc- 

 ceeding season it prevents annual weeds from 

 getting the upper-hand. This is all there is to 

 be done the first season, and nothing but weed- 

 ing the second and third year is necessary till 

 about the middle of October of the third season, 

 when the plants are ready to lift. The labor 

 of lifting and sorting the flowering-roots from 

 the others is quickly performed. The former 

 are stored away in a cold house after shortening 

 the roots, and the latter ranged in layers and . 

 tan-pits. For early forcing, the strongest and 

 ripest sets are selected. The bed of a propaga- 

 ting-house with bottom-heat has a layer four 

 inches thick of sand, into which the roots, 

 wrapped in moss, are plunged. With a bottom 

 heat of 65° to 75° at the beginning, the watering 

 is liberal, and after three days the heat is in- 

 creased from 88° to IOC, and maintained at this 

 until the appearance of the shoots above ground. 

 It is better to cover the beds with sashes, and 

 shade in sunny weather. To have the Lily of 

 the Valley in flower by Christmas it is only 

 necessary to commence about November 23d or 

 24th, and carry out the preceding instructions. 

 The great bottom-heat is especially necessary 

 for ver}' early forcing. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



SCBAPS AND QUERIES. 



Double White Oleander. — E. inquires 

 whether there is really a double white Oleander 

 in cultivation here? This we cannot say, but 

 there is no reason why there may not be. The 

 writer of this recently saw plenty of them for 

 sale,in the Paris flower markets. So far all that 

 he has seen in this country, in flower, were single 

 white. 



