442 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



experimental fields, with the sum of £100,000, the interest 

 of which, after his death, will be applied to the continuance of 

 the investigations which have been carried on for so many 

 years at Rothamsted. By this act of munifieence Mr. Lawes 

 lays not only the present, but also future generations of agri- 

 cultnrists under obUgation to him, and Rothamsted will thus 

 continue to be the centre from whence the light of science will 

 be shed on the culture of the soil. 

 SuNFLowEKS AS Disinfectants. — Attention is being 



directed to the sanitary advantages of cultivation of the Sun- 

 flower in malarious districts. Many facts have been adduced io 

 show that the Sunflower has the property of purifying air laden 

 with marsh miasm, absorbing a great quantity of moist and 

 noxious gases, and exhaling an ozonised oxygen. Moreover, 

 the French Sanitary Commission has lately pointed out that 

 the Sunflower is a most useful plant ; it yields about 40 per 

 cent, of good oil, the leaves furnish an excellent fodder, and 

 the stem, being rich in saltpetre and potash, makes a good fuel. 



EDWAEDSIA GEANDIFLOEA. 



It is well for the interests of horticulture that the merits of 

 old, long-neglected plants seem likely to be recognised by the 

 inquirers after something that is novel, and some of these 

 plants seem all but lost, being met with only in a few of those 

 old-fashioned places where 

 the cultivation of the present 

 day differs but little from 

 that of fifty year's ago. It is 



well there are such places, or I 



where would many of our old ' 

 plants be met with ? Fortu- 

 nately there are some plants 

 not easily lost, owing to the 

 great amount of hardship 

 they will endure ere they 

 fairly give in, and such a one 

 is the subject of these notes. 



Edwardsia grandiflora, a 

 shrub, and native of New 

 Zealand, was introduced into 

 this country before the be- 

 ginning of the present cen- 

 tury, yet it is seldom seen, 

 certaiuly not so often as it 

 deserves to be. It is much 

 hardier than the Veronica we 

 have from that country, and 

 tte bsauty of its foliage, as 

 well as the peculiar character 

 of its bloom, has certainly 

 been overlooked by those who 

 search for and appreciate the 

 ornamental. 



With us Edwardsia gran- 

 diflora ranks high as a plant 

 to be grown against a wall. 

 One that has been growing 

 for some years against a wall 

 with a south-west aspect and 

 fully exposed, has never been 

 in the least injured by frost, 

 and blooms profusely every 

 spring. It does not lose its 

 last year's foUage until about 

 the time the flowers make 

 their appearance. These are 

 produced on the almost naked 

 stems, or rather spm-s, in 

 clusters, and are of a rather 

 duU yellow, but the indivi- 

 dual flowers are amongst the 

 largest of the Leguminous 

 order, to which the plant be- 

 longs. They resemble in some measure a huge beetle, and 

 are leathery-looking. The foliage is pinnated, and the growth 

 of the plant is firmer than that of the Swainsonia, Indigofera, 

 Cassia, and Clianthus, to which it is alhed ; it resembles So- 

 phora japonica more than any of them, and I am not sure that 

 it will not be found as hardy. With us it has only been tried 



Edwardsia grandiflora. 



against a wall, where its growth has been more sturdy than 

 rapid, its roots having to contend with Roses, Ceanothus, 

 Myrtles, &c., for its supply of food. It grows faster than 

 Garrya eUiptica under some circumstances. It did not suffer 

 from the March frosts hke 

 Wistaria sinensis and the 

 /I _ YeUow Banksian Rose grow- 



■ ^ ing near it. The blooms of 



/', v^>is^ the Wistaria were killed by 



the frosts on March 23rd arid 

 ^ ' 24;th, excepting a few under 



J the shelter of a projecting 



cornice, and the Banksian 

 Rose has bloomed badly as 

 compared with former years. 

 The frosts of March and sub- 

 sequently, have done much 

 harm to flowering shrubs. 

 Even the hardy Lilac seems 

 much smaller than usual,, 

 and a Paulownia imperialis 

 that gave promise to furnish 

 an abundance of bloom, had 

 them all cut off by the frost, 

 so that the half-swelled 

 bloom-buds remain the same 

 size as they werewhen frozeUy 

 but are all killed. 



This Edwardsia, by its 

 short-jointed h.ai'dwooded ap- 

 pearance, is a plant likely to 

 withstand the most severe of 

 our winters, for I do not see 

 a tip of any of its shoots of 

 last year's growth unripened. 

 The general character of the 

 plant is that of a deciduous 

 flowering shrub that may be 

 as hardy as the .Judas 'Tree 

 (Cercis SUiquastrum), orFor- 

 sythia viridissima, more 

 hardy than the Pomegranate, 

 and well deserving a place 

 where it is necessary to cover 

 a wall of moderate height. 

 Our plant is Umited to a 

 wall 11 feet high, otherwise I 

 dare say it would soon be 

 much higher. The foUage is 

 not so liable to attacks of 

 red spider as the Clianthus, 

 but when the latter is in 

 good condition it presents a, 

 healthier appearance. The Edwardsia has seeded with us at 

 Linton, the seed-pods being, Uke the flower-buds, very singular 

 in structure, resembling in some famt degiee a pair of spec- 

 tacles. There are sometimes three or four seed-pods on the- 

 stalk, often much wider apart than in the specimen figured. — • 



J. ROBSON. 



GEOWING FEENS IN CASES. 

 I AGBEE with much that " T. B." says in the Journal of the ] case not having plenty of water, for if the weather is warm, fre- 

 Ifith inst., and I do not think that failure arises so often from quently the case seems to be full of steam when the earth is quite 

 want of management as from attempting to grow Ferns that dry. In a case which I have had since 18.36, there are two or 

 will hardly at any time grow in cases, sometimes from there not three of the Adiantums, Asplenium marinum, and Pteris sen-u- 

 f'"°8 "^*t enough, at other times from the Ferns not likiug lata, and this case, except forgiving water or to take out dead 

 the damp state of the air in the case, and very often from the Ferns, has never been opened, I may say, for ten yeai'S ; yet 



