JOUKNAL OP HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



I Jair ISi isor. 



establishments where the beds can be watered ; for stova and 

 greenhouse plants, vineries, Peach-housea, Cucumber and 

 Melon-pits, &c., take up so much time in hot weather. It is 

 a great advantage to water them, but they ought to be mulched 

 at the same time. 



I will now state my opinion of the various sorts, which may 

 be different from the experience of other cultivators ; soil, cli- 

 mate, and treatment, I have no doubt, making a great difference. 



The best variety for pot culture, and perhaps the best for out 

 of doors, is La Constante. The fruit is of large size, regularly 

 shaped, and equal sized, while the dwarf compact habit of the 

 plant is an important feature. It ought to be planted more 

 closely than the other sorts out of doors — say 20 inches from 

 plant to plant. I generally plant them 2 feet apart. 



British Queen does well here, and comes next in favour. Dr. 

 Hogg very much resembles this variety ; when both are grown 

 together in pots they cannot be distinguished. The latter has 

 not such equal-sized fruit as British Queen, its flavour is quite 

 as good, and out of doors it is, perhaps, the higher coloured. 



President, and Sir Joseph Paxton, are sorts of which I think 

 highly ; the former is the better bearer, but the fruit of the 

 latter is more handsome. I will grow both largely next season. 



Eclipse is a very prolific variety, and good for forcing, and I 

 have seen it planted largely this season. 



Sir Charles Napier is a very tender variety. My pot plants 

 were plunged in cocoa-nut fibre in a cold frame, and most of 

 them were injured by the severe frost which we experienced 

 last winter. The fruit is too acid, but it is preferred by 

 market gardeners to any other sort, for I believe they can ob- 

 tain a larger quantity of fruit from a given number of plants, 

 than they can from any other, and it takes well in the market. 



Seedling Eliza does not do well here, it bears a good crop of 

 regular-sized fruit, but they are only of the medium size ; it 

 ia also deficient in colour. 



Due de Malakofi has fruit of the largest size, and when well 

 ripened of a good colour, but it is soft and inferior in flavour 

 to most of the other varieties which I grow. 



Prolific Hautbois will not do here (Ilford, Essex). It does 

 not bear half a crop of very inferior fruit. The plants grow 

 yery luxuriantly. 



Hooper's Seedling is a good cropper, and very much re- 

 sembles Keens' Seedling. 



The soil here is of a light sandy nature, resting on a 

 gravel subsoil, so that it is not naturally suited to Straw- 

 berries. Nevertheless we obtain good crops by manuring well, 

 and digging in large quantities of a sound yellow loam. — 

 J. Douglas. 



JOTTINGS AT SOME OF THE RECENT 

 EXHIBITIONS. 



If our friend, Mr. D. Beaton, had been spared to the present 

 day, what long and interesting descriptions be would have given 

 of the novelties that have appeared within the last year or two ! 

 He would have almost filled " our Journal " with his lucid and 

 hnmoursome descrijitions. His delight would have known no 

 bomids had he been permitted to see what grand results have 

 crowned the labours of his declining years. He, without a 

 doubt, was the pioneer who cut through all diiEculties and led 

 the way to the present splendid race of Zonal and Nosegay 

 Pelargoniums. 'The splendid baskets of Duchess of Sutherland 

 and Lady Constance Grosvenor, exhibited by Mr. Turner, and 

 the fine Nosegay Mrs. Laing, exhibited at the recent Show in 

 the Eegent's Park, illustrate the great progress that has been 

 lately made. I have also this season a large batch of seedlings 

 of great promise, amongst them many new and beautiful 

 shades of colour, with flowers very large, some of them being 

 as much as 2 inches across ; several of them are of yellow 

 shades. I feel confident that a bright yellow will be produced 

 in the course of a season or two ; if so, it will be a grand and 

 most useful addition to the flower garden. We want a good 

 yeUow-flowering plant to take the place of the yellow Calceo- 

 larias, for it appears to be quite useless to plant them in many 

 places ; the pecuhar disease that attacks them remains a 

 mystery. 



At the Eoyal Horticultural Society's Rose Show Messrs. 

 E. G. Henderson exhibited two plants that will become great 

 favourites for bedding purposes. The pretty and distinct- 

 looking Pyrethrum Golden Feather will be largely cultivated. 

 It is a most useful plant for marginal purposes ; so also is the 

 pretty dwarf and free-flowering Lobelia pumila elegans, ex- 

 hibited by them. With the following plants I could make one 



of the grandest and most compact beds ever seen. We will 

 suppose that we have a large circular bed to plant — say 12 feet 

 across. Well, we would plant it as follows, beginning with a 

 centre of, say 3 feet, of Lady Constance Grosvenor Pelargo- 

 nium ; next to this a ring, 18 inches wide, of Viola cornuta ; 

 next an 18-inch band of Verbena Princess Victoria; then 

 18 inches of Viola lutea ; next to this 18 inches of Lobelia 

 pumila elegans, finishing with a band, 18 inches wide, of Pyre- 

 thrum Golden Feather. In situations where Coleus Verschaffelti 

 will grow well, the centre of the bed would look well if com- 

 posed of it. Another plant I saw exhibited at the Eegent's 

 Park, and afterwards in a much better condition at the Koyal 

 Exotic Nursery. This in the next three or four years wiU ba 

 propagated for bedding purposes by the milUon. It is a very 

 pretty hardy Nierembergia from the Plate Eiver, introduced by 

 the Messrs. Veitch. The flowers are about IJ inch across, and 

 of a pretty white colour, elevated on a slender tube, 1 to l,j inch 

 long, above a beautiful carpet of rich green foliage. The plant 

 is perfectly hardy, and a perpetual tlowerer. Here, then, in 

 Nierembergia rivularis we have another most useful and 

 graceful addition to the flower garden. The plant grows very 

 freely, and forms a dense carpet of beautiful green foliage, 

 above which the pretty white flowers are seen with great effect. 

 They appeared like a mass of Snowdrops peeping up above 

 their foliage in early spring. I at once ordered some plants, 

 and shall propagate them as fast as possible, as I intend using 

 it extensively in the ribbon-borders, &c., next year. Being a 

 novelty of great merit it is rather expensive at present, but I 

 have no doubt it will come within the means of every one next 

 season. This might be used with great advantage instead of the 

 Pyrethrum in a similar arrangement to that mentioned above. 



Another useful Lobelia I saw at the Eegent's Park was 

 named speciosa Lindleyana. It is a dwarf-growing and a re- 

 markably free-blooming variety, of a lively shade of violet 

 blue, with a white centre. One of the best of all the Lobelias 

 for bedding purposes is a variety I obtained for Mr. Tyerman, 

 of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens, last year, under the name of 

 Blue King. It is a free-growing and remarkably free-flowering 

 variety, and the flowers are of a beautiful sky-blue shade. I 

 consider it quite an acquisition. It is so distinct from Lobelia 

 speciosa in colour, that it might be planted by the side of it. 

 It is also easily kept through the winter months. 



At the Manchester Exhibition I was vei-y much struck with 

 Viola amcena. This, no doubt, will be also a very useful plant. 

 It is very dwarf, and has an intermediate style of growth be- 

 tween V. cornuta and lutea, and may be planted between these 

 varieties with good effect. The colour is a deep violet purple. 



At the same Exhibition Mr. Watson, of the New Zealand 

 Nursery, St. Albans, exhibited a good Nosegay, which appeared 

 to be a fine improvement on Lord Palmerston. The habit 

 appeared to be good, and the truss was large and well filled up. 

 The colour is a pretty rosy salmon. Mr. Watson also exhibited 

 his Tricolors Miss Watson and Mrs. Dix at the Manchester 

 and other shows. They are certainly very pretty, and I hope 

 Mr. Watson will make his fortune with them ; if he do nofj 

 it will not be for want of energy in bringing them before 

 the public. Mr. Cunningham's pretty Ivy-leaf Pelargonium 

 L'Elegante is also a good thing, and likely to prove very useful 

 both for bedding and conservatory decoration. Mr. Bull's 

 Silver Gem is also a most useful plant for the above purposes. 

 It is certainly well named — it is a perfect gem, and if grown in 

 a cool house for some months and then placed in heat the 

 leaves will assume a pretty pink shade. I think the plant 

 exhibited at the Tricolor Show on the 21st of May as a new 

 variety was Silver Gem, grown as above described, for I have 

 had many plants this season exactly liko those shown on that 

 occasion. 



On the 3rd of July I made a hurried visit to Waltham Cross. 

 The Eoses were most beautiful although the weather was vei-y 

 much against them. We were a little too early to see Mr. Paul's 

 bedding Pelargoniums ; but from what I have seen of the 

 following, some of them under my own care and others bedded 

 out there, I have put them down as useful and very effective 

 bedders, and varieties that may at once be ordered and propa- 

 gated in quantity : — Blue Bell, flowers bluish lilac, large, and 

 the truss well formed ; pretty compact style of growth. Crim- 

 son Queen, this is a grand colour, the plants very dwarf ; this 

 will make a magnificent bed. Dr. Hogg, fine purplish rose, 

 good habit, the plant producing large quantities of immense 

 trusses of well-formed flowers. Encantress, flowers pretty 

 soft crimson with distinct scarlet eye, habit good ; this is also 

 ' a fine bedding plant. Firefly, floweis scarlet ciimsoa, good 



