1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



169 



Shaw's garden, in St. Louis. The fruit is said to 

 be exceHcnt. The pot should be set hiijjh up 

 from the tioor, as it is best indeed witli most of 

 the climbers. Mine is forty to fifty feet lono;, 

 and hides the ceiling of ray conservatory. 

 Twining in with it is a huge Hoya which gives 

 me something over one hundred clusters of 

 bloom in the Spring, and half that in the Sum- 

 mer. 



A LARGE HELIOTROPE. 



BY. MR. TIIOS. LAAVRANCE, 0GDENSI5URG, N. Y. 



I liave noticed that you invite descriptions of 

 large or interesting.plants, and therefore send you 

 a description of a large and productive Helio- 

 trope ; I have had it nineteen years. It is 

 trained espalier-fashion under three sashes of my 

 greenhouse witliin six inches of the glass, and 

 covers a space of ten feet high and fourteen feet 

 ■wide. It attained these dimensions the second 

 year. I have frequently taken off at one cutting 

 .300 trusses of flowers. There are seldom less 

 than 100. It is of the old "Souvenir de Liege" 

 variety, and is light lavender in color, but by 

 keeping one sash whitewashed it gives me all I 

 want of blooms nearly white. It is planted in 

 a bench three feet wide, ten feet long, and eight 

 inches deep. The bench is covered with pots of 

 other plants all Winter, that will do in the shade 

 so that the under space is occupied. I dry it off 

 from' .June till August. Prune it back to five old 

 canes one inch in diameter and five feet long. 

 Take out all the earth and cut off all the roots 

 to within a foot of the trunk (which is five and a- 

 half inches through it.) Fill wdth new compost 

 and start again, allowing no shoots to grow for 

 two feet from the root. It might be grown to 

 double the dimensions, but I have not the space 

 to spare or sale for the flowers. I have tAvo 

 other varieties under similar treatment, but shall 

 discard them as they are not nearly so product- 

 ive. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



CiNERARiA.s FROM Seed — As the culture of the 

 Cineraria has reached such eminence in England, 

 the following note on raising them from the 

 London Gardeners'' Chronicle^ will be acceptable 

 to our readers : 



"The most popular method of propagating 

 the Cineraria is from seeds. Sow in May or 

 June in light soil ; when the small plants are 



large enough to handle, prick them out about 

 six or nine in a four-inch pot, and when these 

 have grown so that the leaves touch each other, 

 re-pot them simply in small pots, and treat them 

 as previously directed for named sorts. Seed- 

 lings genei'ally grow more strongly than named 

 varieties. They are less dfficult to propagate, 

 and for general decorative purposes they answer 

 equally well. Seeds from a good strain should 

 be obtained to start with. The insect pests are 

 principally greenfly and thrips, but red spider 

 will also attack the leaves. Fumigate with to- 

 bacco smoke to destroy the two first ; the other 

 will seldom appear if the best attention is given 

 to the plants. Keep the plants close to the 

 glass during the whole period of their growth. 

 AA^oid a dry atmosphere, and see that they do 

 not suffer for want of water at the roots. 



Orchid Importing. — Two of the largest 

 consignments of orchids that have probably ever 

 beeh made, have recently been received by Mr. 

 William Bull, and it must be gratifying to or- 

 chid cultivators to know that their condition on 

 arrival was very satisfactory. The number of 

 plants in the two consignments, is estimated, 

 fabulously as it may appear, at about 2,000,000. 

 The greater number of them came from Assam, 

 and certainly the plants now that they are un- 

 packed, present a perfectly astounding sight. 

 Some of the pieces sent as they Avere pulled from 

 the trees, put the usual run of " bedded-out" 

 specimens quite in the shade, so extraordinarily 

 fine is their growth. — Gardeners'' Chronide. 



Abutilon Daravini. — At a recent meeting 

 of the Germantown Horticultural Society, Mr. 

 James Barrows exhibited a plant of this pretty 

 species Avhich though only eighteen inches, had 

 thirty-three expanded fiowers. It was a fine ex- 

 ample of good culture. 



History of the Chinese Primrose. — The 

 Chinese Primrose as it first appeared in our gar- 

 dens in 1821, the date of its introduction from 

 China, was a very different floAA^er from that 

 which we now commonly cultivate under that 

 name. Much smaller in the size of its blossoms, 

 much paler in its hue of rosy pink, it differs still 

 more in having the five lobes of its corolla quite 

 smooth and even at the margin, with a terminal 

 notch only. Such flowers are rarely seen and 

 would not be tolerated now, though according 

 to the florists' canon, that plain-edged flowers 

 are to be preferred, the entire edges of these 

 old fashioned forms ought to have been main- 



