THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\ January, 



years ago, they are still rarities in many gardens, 

 a fact to be regretted, as they are amongst the 

 earliest as well as the most beautiful of Spring 

 flowering bulbs, and the fine effect which they 

 produce in the open garden can scarcely be over- 

 estimated when seen in combination with the 

 host of fine plants now in cultivation which 

 flower about the same time. All the Puschkinias 

 are perfectly hardy, and of the simplest culture. 

 The soil best suited to them is a good sandy 

 loam, and when once established they should not 

 be disturbed, except for taking off small bulbs 

 for purposes of propagation, which may be done 

 whilst the bulbs ai'e at rest. In some seasons 

 seeds are produced, which should be sown as 

 soon as they are ripe ; flowering bulbs may be 

 obtained in this way in three or four years." 



Dwarf Pampas Grass. — The dwarf Pampas 

 Grass exhibited by Mr. C. Noble at the last 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, un- 

 der the designation of Gynerium argenteum, will 

 be found of considerable value in small gardens 

 in which the normal form would, owing to its 

 gigantic size, be out of place. This dwarf variety 

 attains, when fully developed, a height of five 

 feet, and differs from the species in size only. 



Rose Jules Chretien. — Messrs. Aug. Rolker 

 and Sons, send us a colored plate of this new 

 Hybrid Perpetual. It is in the way of the well 

 known Geant des Battailles in the color and form 

 of the flower, and measures four and a half inches 

 across. 



Magnolia stellata. — In the September 

 number of the American AgricuUurist is an article 

 evidentlj^ from the pen of that excellent botanist 

 Prof. Thurl)er, which shows that the Magnolia 

 going out in the nurseries as Magnolia Halleana 

 is really an old species named Magnolia stellata. 



Improving the Christmas Rose — A German 

 florist has succeeded in breaking up the Helle- 

 borus niger into a great number of beautiful 

 varieties. A colored plate befpi-e us represents 

 them as purple, white, yellowish, and many with 

 rose and white in many mottled and blotched 

 ways. It is a very good beginning in the im- 

 provement of an old and popular flower. 



Single Dahlias.— The Dahlia seems to have 

 been improved in the double direction, as far as 

 the florist can push it. He is now at work on the 

 single ones. Some remarkably beautiful ones 

 are said to have been produced the past year in 

 England. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Bedding Plants at Hollywood. — "Gard- 

 ener," Pottsville, Pa., inquires: "What is the 

 secret of growing one million bedding plants 

 under 40,000 square feet of glass, as this gives 

 twenty-five plants to each square foot?" When 

 in England last, in 1877, the writer was aston- 

 ished at the immense number of bedding plants 

 tvu-ned out from places with comparativeh^ little 

 glass. In one case 25,000 plants were employed 

 and there was but one small greenhouse, and a 

 few frames. In this case, we saw that an im- 

 mense number were set out of cutting boxes, 

 direct to the beds. The manner of doing the 

 work at Hollywood, would certainly form an in- 

 teresting chapter. 



Erianthus Ravenna. — Mrs. S. E. B., 

 Houston, Texas, writes : "I mailed you to-day 

 a plume of Erianthus Ravenna?, one of fifty 

 that grew upon a plant two years old. I 

 think they dried nearly as fine as the Pampas, 

 but not so graceful a lawn plant." 



[The Erianthus, is usually of a light brown, 

 with us. These specimens were as silvery as 

 the Pampas grass, though as our correspondent 

 remarks, it is not quite equal to the Pampas in 

 some respects. It is a noble grass, and its thor- 

 ough hardiness, is a point over the Pampas, in 

 its favor. — Ed. G. M.] 



Lawns. — Gardener, Baltimore, Md., writes: 

 "Will you kindly refer me to the best treatise upon 

 Lawn Culture, especially with reference to keep- 

 ing green during Summer droughts, and the ex- 

 clusion of Crab Grass, and other intruders in 

 Autumn ? Is heavy fertilizing desirable ? Any 

 danger of rendering grass coarse thereby ? I 

 have stift' subsoil." 



There is no special treatise that we know of, 

 but, on a stift' subsoil it is easy to have a lawn 

 that will not dry out in Baltimore. 



First, subsoil ; that is to say, stir up the soil 

 twenty inches deep. There are two sets of 

 roots to grasses, those which go deep down in 

 search of moisture, as the branches of a tree go 

 upward; and those which keep near the surface, 

 hunting for food, as the leaves make food for the 

 tree. For the sake of these moisture collectors, 

 the deeply loosened soil will hold something all 

 the season through. 



Secondly, use pure Blue Grass, and nothing 

 else, and sow it thickly. Xo grass keeps so 



