October 2, 1873. 1 



JOUKNAL OP HORTICULTOKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



253 



including Mrs. Harris, recently certificated ; and from Mr. 

 Eawlings, EomforJ, came a dozen fine blooms of kinds already 

 in commerce. Mr. Strahan, gardener to P. Crowley, Esq., Wad- 

 don House, Croydon, sent Ccelosyne cristata varieuata with the 

 leaves broadly striped with white. It was not in tlower, but is 

 a handsome variegated Orchid. Calver's patent flower-pot was 

 submitted to the Committee. Essentially it is a pot within a 

 pot, and the interval between the two can be filled with water, 

 which the patentee considei's will be an advantage. 



Fiue stands of cut Roses were shown by Messi-s. Paul & Son, 

 of Cheshunt, and Mr. William Paul, of Waltham Cross. The 

 former sent for this late season excellent examples of Gloire de 

 Dijon, La France, Alfred Colomb, Alice Dureau, Countess of 

 Oxford, Victor Verdier, Belle Lvonnaise, Madame Berard, La 

 Fontaine, Paul Neron, Duke of Edinburgh, Maurice Bernardiu, 

 Madame C. Joigneaux, and Marquise de Castellane, together 

 with the new pink Tea Rose, Cheshunt Hybrid. Mr. W. Paul 

 sent fine examples of La France, Alfred Colomb, Duke of Edin- 

 burgh, Princess Beatrice, Madame Trifle, Edward Morren, Paul 

 Neron, Senateur Vaisse, Lyonnais, Dr. Andry, Marquise de 

 Castellane, Gloiro de Dijon, Souvenir d'Elise Vardon, Belle 

 Lyonnaise, Dupuy-Jamaiu, Etieune Levet, and some others. 

 From Mr. R. Clarke, market gardener, Twickenham, came up- 

 wards of a hundred pots of Cyclamens in good bloom. 



PROPAGATING LOBELIA AND CENTAUREA 

 EAGUSINA. 



Mt plan is to strike a few cuttings in autumn, taken from 

 the best plants, and these cuttings constitute the stock plants. 

 The system is to strike iu saucers with sand and water, placed 

 on bottom heat : two or three days is sufficient to have them 

 ready for potting-off; but I prefer boxes, as they take less 

 space and are more convenient for moving about. After pot- 

 ting-off they are placed in heat for a few days till growth has 

 commenced, when they are gi-adually hardened-off. In spring 

 the plants are cat over, and the cuttings treated again in the 

 same way. 



In regard to propagating Centaureas by cuttings, the same 

 method may be followed with perfect success; in fact, mostly 

 all of oursoftwooded bedding plants can be struck in sand and 

 water. I have tried it successfully with some of our most 

 delicate Geraniums, such as Mrs. Pollock, Ac. It only re- 

 quires judgment in the amount of water to be kept in the 

 saucers, as some plants will stand more than others. It is 

 the simplest means of propagating Fuchsias, Verbenas, Helio- 

 tropes, and Iresines. — Robebt Stevens (iu The Gardener). 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 The battle of the site of FAr.BiN-cnoN Marret was fought out 

 at the last meeting of the Court of Common Council. Plans 

 and estimates are to be prepared for the construction of a fruit 

 and vegetable market on the site of the existing Farringdou 

 Market. Are the trade to be consulted as to their require 

 ments ? The large market gardeners and fruit-growers within 

 twenty miles of London are the persons who will bring their 

 goods to the market for sale, and should be heard as to their 

 requirements. Would it not be well to give the committee 

 power to advertise for plans and estimates, and permit the 

 architect whose plan was successful to carry out the work, and 

 obtain the proper reward for his ingenuity and industry? The 

 best intelligence and the most practical information should be 

 at the disposal of the Corporation in all these questions. This 

 can only bo obtained by open competition ; and when the 

 designs, with estimates, are obtained, the Court should select, 

 after careful consideration as to the requirements of those who 

 are to use the market. Large space is required, not, perhaps, 

 so much for the immediate nse of the present men, but for 

 the growth of the trade for twenty-five years to come. Street 

 frontage is not so essential as good waggon entrances and exits, 

 as the goods are wanted to be drawn into the market and sold 

 from the waggons. The frait trade, foreign and British, is 

 carried on wholesale, and is conveyed to the public through 

 the street hawkers and retaU shopkeepers. This would be a 

 market where the commodities would be sold wholesale. The 

 whole shoald be undercover; no goods are more injured by 

 sun and rain than gathered fruit and vegetables, and nothing 

 consumed by the public of the metropolis so much appreciated 

 bnt so rarely obtained as those articles perfectly fresh. It 

 may be broadly stated that the three-quarters of a million 

 persons who get their midday meal in the City got better and 

 fresher vegetables than the remainder of the population of the 

 metropolis. And the reason is this : The eating-house keepers 

 and cook-shop proprietors of the City make their purchases 



from the grower or wholesale vendors daily in either Farring- 

 dou or Covent Garden Markets, and take great care, in the 

 interests of their business, that the articles they purchase are 

 of that day's supply. That large portion of the public who 

 got their vegetables'from the nearest greengrocer, seldom ob- 

 tain auy that have not been gathered within four or five days; 

 vegetables leaving the market gardens on the Monday, stand- 

 ing Tuesday's market at Covent Garden ; perhaps sold ou the 

 waggon to go to Farringdou or the Borough the following day, 

 and then sold to the greengrocer. The consumer may get it 

 the same day ; and it is very seldom that all he purchases he 

 consumes that day, so those gathered on Monday are often 

 not consumed until the Friday or Saturday. But the poor of 

 London, what do they get ? In the midst of the season, when 

 the supply of all kinds of vegetables and fruit is large, and 

 there is what is called a glut, they obtain the freshest and best 

 that comes to market, through the medium of that much- 

 abused but very useful class the costerraongers — fine large 

 Lettuces three a-penny, a Cucumber and two Onions for the 

 same money. Cauliflowers a halfpenny each, and Cabbages six 

 for twopence ; but in scarce times slug-eaten Cabbages, heated 

 and yellow Turnip tops, in fact the refuse of the markets, are 

 all they can obtain. There cannot be a more fruitful source 

 of disease than the consumption of stale vegetables by the 

 poor. If it is necessary to examine and cause to be cleansed 

 the cisterns in London houses, and watch and test the articles 

 that are sold by other tradesmen as food or beverages, it is 

 equally necessary, or more so, to turn out and condemn the 

 filth often to be found iu the cellars and stores of the green- 

 grocers of London. If a better supply of vegetables could be 

 obtained iu London, so much meat would not be consumed. — 

 (City Press.) 



An International Fruit and Plant Show is to he held 



at Edinburgh in 1875, under the auspices of the Royal Cale- 

 donian Horticultural Society. 



PLANTING A FLOWER GARDEN. 



RICHNESS VEBSOS GLARE. 



A FONDNESS for tinsel, a liking for gaudy colours, is charac- 

 teristic of humanity in a savage state or in a condition of semi- 

 civilisation. The "barbaric splendour of eastern courts is pro- 

 verbial, and may be taken as conclusive evidence of the force 

 and truth of the assertion ; for the maxim, " Like master, like 

 man," holds good the world over. Civilisation, on the other 

 hand, implies culture, inclining those who are so happy as to 

 enjoy its benefits to a fondness for Nature in repose ; for soft- 

 ness, harmony, and quiet beauty ; for the play of light and 

 shade ; for that intricacy and delicacy of tint which is so won- 

 derfully interwoven in many a fair landscape ; for the brilliancy, 

 freshness, and varied beauty of the dawn, or the mellow rich- 

 ness of the setting sun, rather than the full glare of its mid- 

 day splendour. It follows, therefore, that for a work of art to 

 excite the interest and sustain the attention of persons of 

 refined taste, it must possess some of these desirable proper- 

 ties, and the degree of admiration awarded to it will be very 

 much in proportion to its excellence in this respect. 



A flower garden is a work of art. Its position is generally a 

 prominent one — often so much so, that it may very justly be 

 regarded as one of the most important adjuncts to a building 

 of stately proportions and that is rich in architectural embel- 

 lishments. The management of every part of it, but more 

 especially the tasteful arrangement of the colours of the flowers, 

 is consequently a work of much importance, and which cer- 

 tainly ought not to be undertaken by an incompetent person. 

 Whether this is so, or that sufficient thought and study are 

 not given to the work, I am unable to say, but it is an un- 

 doubted fact that delicacy of colouring and repose are fre- 

 quently wanting in combinations that are pretty satisfactory 

 in most other respects. The primary colours— scarlet, blue, 

 and yellow — prevail in endless repetition ; a bold, often glaring 

 style of colouring, which should be tolerated only in very large 

 gardens, is but too often followed in places of moderate extent, 

 to the exclusion of that repose and quiet beauty, that air of 

 refinement, which it is so eminently desirable to impart to such 

 a scene. The hard, uncompromising, almost startling effect 

 of the bright masses of colour is so pronounced as to rob the 

 surrounding beds of all interest, however lavish may be the 

 nse of neutral colours. I have actually seen the principal walk 

 of a garden, with a ribbon border on each side filled with 

 alternating rows of scarlet, yellow, and blue, that glowed in 

 the full bright sunbhine with a dazzling brilliancy that waa 



