September 22, 1863. ] 



JOUEFAIi OF HOETICTJLTXJRE iND COTTAGE GAUDENEE. 



237 



and in the same style as the Peach-case, terminates the 

 range in this direction. — R. Fish. 



{To be continued.) 



COLEUS VEESCHAPFELTI AS A BEDDING 

 PLANT. 



In reference to the communications in the August Niun- 

 bers of The Jouenai- of HoKTicxn-roEE, by Mi'. Adey and 

 "D.," of Deal, pages 103 and liG, respecting- the Coleus 

 Verschaifelti, wherein Mr. Adey states, " It is sentenced 

 to perpetual impiisonment in the greenhouse;" and "D.," 

 of Deal, that " it is a complete failure," I beg to make the 

 following observations : — 



In the first week of June I planted a small bed, sheltei-ed 

 fi»m the north and east winds, with the Coleus VerschafFelti, 

 the plants being only aboiit 6 inches in height, having been 

 struck late in the spring. They were planted 10 inches 

 apart. In the first part of the season they made very slow 

 progress, but since then they have grown remai'kably well, 

 filled lip the bed, and are now sufficiently large to enable me 

 to take between twenty and thirty cuttings from each plant. 

 The colour is very rich, much more so than that of the 

 Amaa-anthus melancholicus i-uber, and particularly so when 

 the sun is shining upon the bed. 



My motive for writing these few remarks is, to suggest 

 that before we discard, as a bedding plant, the Coleus Ver- 

 schafFelti, wliich is so beautiful in foUage and easy of culture, 

 I hope our friends will give it a further trial, and that we 

 may hear the results of such trials in the pages of The 

 JoTTENAL OF HoKTiCTJlTUEE. — Wm. Potten, Gardener to 

 Mr. Wilson, Camden Lodge, Sissinghurst. 



I CAN fully bear out what Mr. Eaiiey says respecting this 

 plant for bedding. 



I had one plant last spring, and having made a small flower 

 garden where we wanted ajl the vaiiety we could obtain, 

 I thought I would try it. I took off every cutting as soon 

 as the young plants made three or four eyes, till the first 

 week in April. They were gi'own as fast as we could with- 

 out their being diuwn tiU the first week in May. They were 

 then put in a cooler pit for a week, and afterwards removed 

 to a cool Peach-house till the 9th of June, when they were 

 planted out. They were covered for about a week with 

 mats at night, and they have been admii'ed the season 

 through by all who have seen them, and they are looking 

 well now. — J. GouGH, Lea Castle Gardens, Kidderminster. 



FLOWEE-BEDS ON A TEIANGULAE PIECE 

 OF LAWN. 



In the garden at the back of ovi house we have a trian- 

 gular piece of grass. There are three beds of evergi-eens, 

 one at each corner, and on the grass are four round beds, 

 each 10 feet 4 inches in diameter, and we find a gi-eat diffi- 

 culty in endeavouring to fill these with flowers of heights 

 and colours corresponding. This year we had two filled with 

 a'scarlet Verbena, and dotted with the Oak -leaved Geranium, 

 and the other two were filled with Gazania splendens, dotted 

 with Cineraria maritima, but they were not satisfactory, 

 and we ars anxious to fix how they are to be filled next 

 summer, in order that our gardener may know what to pi'o- 

 pagate now. 



A bed neai' those I speak of was filled with Lobelia 

 speciosa, dotted with Cloth of Gold Geranium, and three 

 other and larger beds on another piece of grass were fQled, 

 one with Phlox Drummoudi, one with Calceolaria Aurea 

 floribunda, and the other with Tropaeolum elegans. — An 

 Old Suesceieee. 



[From your description of the plot of ground with the 

 evergreens at the corners, we presume that the four beds for 

 flowers consist of three beds altemating.^th the evergreens, 

 and the fourth a centre one. If this should be the case, the 

 three ought to resemble each other in the height and habit of 

 the plants grown, but the centre one may be different.. And 

 in many similar cases we would have said. Make the three 

 outside beds Verbenas of different colours, but alike in 



gTOwth, and the foiu'th Geranium ; but as you say Verbenas 

 have not been satisfactory, something else might be tried. 

 In a general way, dotted or mixed beds look best in isolated 

 positions, and but rarely look well as forming featm'es in a 

 series of beds ; and as youi' beds are small, we would plant 

 the centre all with one kind, and edge it with another. If 

 your beds would allow of a small dot in the centre, you 

 might make three very effective beds, by planting a small 

 centre piece — say 18 inches in diameter, with Alyssum varie- 

 gatum, then a ring of something more than a foot wide with 

 Lobelia speciosa, and an outer edging of Cerastium tomen- 

 tosum. These three beds would by tlus means be all blue 

 and white, the latter being foliage wiU be more durable 

 than any flower; but the Lobelia is, perhaps, the most 

 lasting of any floweiing plant oiu' gardens possess. Now, 

 supposing these three beds form the outer sexies, and, as 

 above advised, to be all blue and white alike, we must have 

 something else for the centre — say Tom Thumb Geranium, 

 with an edging of Mangles', or it may be Golden Chain. If 

 this bed be only 3 feet in diameter, there is only room for 

 one kind of plant for the centre and main portion of the bed, 

 and one for the edge. As foliage is always of longer duration 

 than flowers, the appearance of Golden Chain and Cerastium 

 as edgings to beds wOl always be good fi-om the time of 

 planting up to the latest period in the season. If your beds 

 had been larger, more vai-iety might have been obtained, but 

 in small beds only low-growing plants, in a general way, 

 ought to be grown ; and as you possess other beds where 

 Tropasolums, Calceolai'ias, and other things may be grown, 

 the mere fact of limiting those beds in question to so small 

 a collection of plants need not be found fault with. The 

 prettiest designs in flower-garden i n g contain but few colours, 

 and a repetition of the same fonn is met with in all objects 

 of art. If your garden possessed only the four beds alluded 

 to, we might have advised more variety ; but as it is, we 

 should in our own case be content, for one season at least, 

 with planting the beds in the manner advised.] 



PEONUNCIATION OF GLADIOLUS. 



It is very amusing to read in your No. 127, " that there 

 is no doubt" as to the proper pronunciation of Gladiolus, 

 and that it is to be pronounced Gladilus. In the first place 

 there is very gi-eat uncertainty, until the dictionary has been 

 consulted, as to how it ought to be pronounced ; and after 

 that has been done I will engage that there is not a Latin 

 scholar in the kingdom who would pronounce the word as if 

 there were no o in it — Gladius, a sword ; Gladiolus, a little 

 sword. So far fi'om omitting the o, the modern Italian lays 

 the accent on the o, Gladiola or Gladola, omitting the i. 

 So that not only is there great doubt about it, inasmuch 

 as the modern and ancient tongues of Italy differ about the 

 word; but that Tinder no supposition whatever can your 

 dictatorial correspondent be light in his assertion. If he is 

 one of your staff, pray fine him a week's pay. — F. Cook. 



[We are exceedingly obliged by the note of " D.," of Deal, 

 which we published in our last Number, and by the above 

 communication, and we assent to most that they advance ; 

 and if Pliny, Columella, Palladius, and Apuleius, the only 

 ancients who employ the word, we believe, had written in 

 verse, they would have sustained, probably, by its metrical 

 employment, all the short syBables claimed for the word by 

 our friendly critics. 



But that is not the question. The question to be an- 

 swered in our pages is. What is the pronunciation accepted 

 among gardeners ? We rei)lied, and we adhere to our 

 reply, GladUus. If we are asked for evidence to sustain 

 our statement, we replace in the witness-box Mr. Beaton, 

 who wrote as follows in our earliest volume ; — " It may be 

 as well to put you on yoiu- guai-d against a common provincial 

 way some people have of pronouncing the word Gladiolus, 

 by putting the accent, or stress, on the letter o ; whereas 

 the true way of uttering the same is as if written Glad-eye- 

 lus, putting the accent on the {."—{Cottage Gardener, i., 100.) 

 Mr. Beaton was the right-hand man of Dr. Herbert, and 

 others, who devoted great attention to this genus of bulbs, 

 and, therefore, he knows how they pronounced the word, 

 and, as we have already observed, the pronunciation gene- 

 rally accepted by gardeners is the pronunciation we accept. 



