Juonary 14, 1869. I 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



23 



GROWING ORANGES FOR DESSERT. 



RANGES will be grown largely in this country 

 lor their fruit. I once laughed at the idea of 

 Orange trees being grown for their fruit in 

 England when these could be bought in the 

 streets at one penny, or even a halfpenny 

 each. At that time I did not know how 

 superior a well-grown Orange was to one im- 

 ported, nor did I take several other tilings 

 into consideration. 



In the first place. Oranges grow well under 

 the shade of Vines ; and secondly, what a strong partiality 

 most persons show for tlie Orange tree. Whether the fine 

 evergreen foliage, the deUciously-scented flower, or the 

 golden fruit is the chief attraction, or the romance and 

 poetry that attach to the Orange, I do not know, but 

 certainly almost all persons who have glass desire to grow 

 an Orange tree. 



The principal enemy of the Orange tribe is the scale 

 insect, but I have proved that a single dip into a solution 

 of Fowler's Insecticide will kill almost every scale ; so that 

 enemy is no longer to be feared. 



A large double-roofed house, 100 by oO feet, filled with 

 Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Limes, &c., in all their variety, 

 and covered with Vines in full bearing, would be a grand 

 sight. 



Oranges will grow well without bottom heat, but they 

 grow much better with it. Heated beds for the Oranges, 

 with a contrivance for keeping the Vines cool during winter, 

 would be perfection. Brick beds covered with slates, under 

 which two 4-inch hot-water pipes were placed, would 

 provide the bottom heat ; and the Vines might easily be 

 taken out of the house, and laid at length in a narrow 

 cold frame at the side of the building. During the winter 

 such a house would be full of fine evergreen foliage, beau- 

 tiful fruit, and fragrant flowers ; whilst in summer, to 

 add to the beauty, tliero would be the Vine-covered 

 roof. What house could be more enjoyable '.' — J. R. Pear- 

 son, ChilweU. 



[After what wo have seen effected in the cultivation of 

 Oranges by ordinary care, wc do not hesitate to say that 

 ore long ■.ve shall find them as commonly g;-o-,vn as Vines 

 and Cucumbers now are. — Eds. J. of H.] 



SPRING FLOWERS. 



I AM delighted to see Mr. Pearson's notes on spring 

 (lowers at Belvoir and elsewhere, and I am pleased to 

 read his favourable mention of one of my great favourites, 

 Doronicum caucasicum. This plant is so tidy in its growth, 

 and so profuse, gay, and protracted in its manner and time 

 of inflorescence, that I wonder any garden is without it. 

 I never tried a bed of it, but I am sure the efiect would be 

 magnificent. Studded here and there in a mixed herbaceous 

 border, I do not know its equal. 



Its congeners, D. plantaginrum and pardalianches are to 

 my mind very ornamental in a shrubbery border ; they will 



No. 407.- Vol. XVI., New Sekiib 



grow where scarcely anything else thrives, and increase with 

 great rapidity. 



Pulmonaria alba is another most lovely plant which 

 everyone ought to grow. It completely smothers itseU' 

 with bloom for some weeks, and its spotted leaves are 

 almost as pretty as the flowers. Its various blue, red, and 

 purple congeners are by no means to be despised. 



I have for several years past had a bed of Dodecatheon 

 meadia elegans, and it has been the admiration of all who 

 have seen it. 



Dodecatheon .Jeffreyanum is a very handsome and strik- 

 ing plant. As I was fortunate enough to secure well- 

 ripened seed last summer from my single specimen, I hope 

 yet to try the efiect of a bed of this species also. 



Why does not everyone grow Primula cortusoides ? It 

 is raised with the greatest ease from seed, which it ripens 

 freely, and in a sheltered spot makes a lovely spring bed. 

 In the autumn of 1^07 I suiTounded a small bed of this 

 little gem with a border of Saxifraga cymbalaria, and 

 put in at each comer a plant of a large, deep orange, 

 single Polyanthus, and I shall not easily forget the pleasure 

 it gave me in May, though the hot dry weather sadly 

 spoiled the efiect. 



How few people know or grow Waldsteinia geoides ! but 

 who, if they once had it, would wish to part with it ? It 

 looks like a little tuft of briglit yellow Hepatica. I leave 

 my readers to imagine what that must be. 



Who can tire of admiring that most lovely Iris, I. grami- 

 nifolia, or its quaint and curious relative Iris tuberosa. 

 with its black and green flowers, recalling to the winter 

 sojourner in Rome many a pleasant stroll in the Villa 

 Doria, and delightful excursion to Gcnzano and the wooded 

 banks of the Lake of Nemi ? And whilst lingering amidst 

 the beauties of the Italian flora, let me recommend to every 

 lover of spring and winter gardening two lovely little plants, 

 which seem to thrive as well in my somewhat cold and 

 cliilly sou as on the sunny slopes of Nice or the warm 

 banks of the Campagna. I am sure no one will regret to 

 be reminded of the flower-vendors of the Corso, and the 

 fair faces and floral fights which decked it with beauty 

 and filled it with fun during the pleasant week of the 

 Carnival, by seeing tlie little golden stars of the " Primo 

 Fiore," Calendula ofticinalis, bespangling a sheltered nook 

 in his garden during the gloomy months of November and 

 December ; and when a bright little patch of Erodium 

 rumanum meets his eye some sunny morning in May, it 

 will recall no unpleasant reminiscences of the lovely little 

 tufts of pink and green which studded the banks as he rode 

 or drove along the Appian Way to the meet of the Roman 

 fox hounds at the tomb of CKcUia Sletella. 



I might go on to talk of the exquisitely beautiful hite 

 variety of Anemone ranunculoides, which every visitor to 

 Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli will remember, and the blue 

 spi'jes of ScUla bifolia, wliich enUvened the corn fields on 

 the route thither from Rome ; or the bunches of white and 

 shining stars with which that pretty little pigmy Omi- 

 thogalum nanum (?) bestrewed every Campagnan meadow. 

 But I shall get wearisome, and will only speak of the de- 

 light it has given me to find that these denizens of the 



No. 1059.— Vol. XLl, Olb Sbnbs. 



