May 15, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



393 



in the same class with gentlemen who only have occasional 

 help. It may be true that the man constantly employed is not 

 a skilful gardener, but it would open the door to difficulties 

 and unfairness to attempt to define the amount of skUl per- 

 toissible. — Eds.] 



IBERIS GIBEALTABICA. 



I LATELY saw in a collection of herbaceous plants, one named 

 Iberis gibraltarica i-era. I know there are several different 

 plants in cultivation under this name, and this which professed 

 to be vera produced white flowers. On reference to the " Bo- 

 tanical Magazine," t. 124, I find the plant there figured with 

 flesh-coloured flowers, and with the following description : — 



" This plant is easily raised from cuttings, and easily pro- 

 served; it may be kept through the winter in a common hot- 

 bed frame, and in mild winters wUl stand abroad, especially if 

 sheltered amongst rockwork. Its greatest enemy is moisture 

 in the winter season ; this often proves fatal to it, as indeed a 

 long-continued damp atmosphere does to many others. The 

 nurserymen about London complain of losing more plants the 

 ^ last mild winter, from this cause than they generally do from 

 severe frosts. In a little greenhouse which I had in my late 

 garden, Lambeth Marsh, most of the plants became absolutely 

 mouldy; in such seasons then, though in point of cold the 

 plants may not reqnu'e it, we must dissipate the superfluous 

 moisture by a gentle heat." 



Can this be the same plant as grows so freely now in open 

 borders and produces white flowers ? I shall be glad if some of 

 your correspondents will give their views on the subject. — K. A. 



POETEAITS OP PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Ph.uus BLDMEira?'. Beknaysii. Nat.ord.,Ovchidace8s. Linn., 

 Gynandria Monandria. — Native of Queensland. " P. Blumei, 

 var. Bernaysii, whether a species or variety, differs from aU 

 others in the sulphur-coloured inner surfjice of the petals, 

 sepals, and lip; its tending to a triandrous column, which it 

 shares with P. Blumei, is rather an abnormal condition of that 

 organ than a specific character. The spur is shorter than in 

 the figure of grandifoUus. P. veratrifolius, Lindl., of Silhet, 

 is stated to be yellow-flowered, and Blume describes a P. flavus 

 from Java, so the colour is not peculiar to P. Bernaysii. 



" This beautiful plant was communicated from the stoves of 

 Messrs. Veitch, with whom it flowered early in the present 

 year. It was named Bernaysii by Dr. Rowland, in compliment 

 to A. Bernays, Esq., one of the most active promoters of the 

 Acclimatisation Society of its native country, Queensland, and 

 a valued correspondent of Kew." — [Bnt. Slag., t. 6032.) 



XiPHioN HisTEio. Nat. ord., Iridacese. Linn., Triandria 

 Monogynia. — Native of Mount Lebanon. Flowers purple, 

 variously spotted and blotched with darker purple. " Mr. 

 Berberey states that it is the Lis Libani of his late lamented 

 friend M. Renter's manuscripts, and was sent about ten years 

 ago to M. Boissier by M. GaiUardot, who found it on Mount 

 Lebanon and on Mount Gerizim, in Palestine ; as also that its 

 nearest ally is X. reticulatum, M. Bieb., from which it differs not 

 only in structural characters but in its paler colour, in flowering 

 fully six weeks earUer, and in being inodorous. A comparison 

 with X. reticulatum shows that this is further abundantly 

 different, in its much smaller size, copious finely-reticulated 

 sheaths of the corm, much fewer shorter broader stout leaves 

 often not exceeding the scape, broader spathes, and differently- 

 shaped inner perianth-segments, which are notched at the tip. 

 It is a very beautiful plant, but whether hardy in this country 

 remains to be proved. As a pot plant it cannot faU to be 

 highly prized."— (rt/d., (. 6033.) 



AcKAXTHDs AR.icHNiiis. Nut. Ord., Orchidaceaj. Linn., 

 Gynandria Monandria. — Native of Madagascar. Flowers yel- 

 lowish green. More curious than handsome. — [Ibid., t. 6031.) 



Htpoxis LONGIFOLIA. lYflf. or<Z., Hypoxldacese. Lj?!j!.,Hex- 

 andria Monogynia. — Native of Algoa Bay. Flowers yellow. 

 " A vei-y distinct species of Hypoxis, brought by Mr. Cooper 

 from Algoa Bay when collecting for W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., 

 remarkable for tlie great length of its narrow, flaccid, grass- 

 like leaves. Our plant flowered in the Royal Gardens, August, 

 1S71."— {Ibid., t. 0035.) 



Crocus Sieberi. Nat. ord., Iridacea;. Linn., Triandria 

 Monogynia. — Flowers some purple and some white. " A com- 

 mon Greek plant, and, in fact, the commonest Crocus of that 

 country, found at an elevation between 1000 and 7000 feet, 



according to Professor Orphanides ; also occurring iii Bosnia, 

 Crete, and Herzegovina, flowering frequently near the melting 

 snow. It is a very early blooming species, and Dr. Hooker 

 received flowering specimens from Giles Mumby, Esq., Messrs. 

 Ware of Tottenham, and the Iloyal Gardens, all about the 

 middle of January and beginning of April. The very closely 

 allied C. veluchensis of Herbert, which inhabits the Morea and 

 Transylvania, differs chiefly in wanting the orange colour on 

 the throat."— (Ziid., t. 603C.) 



Primrose — Violet Gem. — " The new hardy Primrose called 

 Violet Gem was exhibited by Mr. R. Dean at the meeting of 

 the Floral Committee on March 5th, and then received a first- 

 class certificate. Violet Gem is remarkable for the dense rich 

 violet hue of its flowers, and its charming bouquet-like habit 

 of throwing its blooms up in a rounded bunch, which is well 

 protected by the foUage ; still it is a pin-eyed flower, but the 

 pistil is so far down the throat of the tube as to be quite out 

 of sight. In other seedlings both the thrum-eye and excellent 

 form are found combined with pure white, sulphur, lilac, rose, 

 rosy red, magenta, purple, crimson, and various intervening 

 shades of colour, all of them true Primroses, and as early to 

 flower as are the commonest kinds found in our hedgerows. 



" These new forms of the Primrose are not only perfectly 

 hardy, but under proper cultivation can be easily propagated. 

 The greatest danger to the Primrose arises from drought at 

 the roots during the heat of summer ; but if the soil in which 

 they grow be moist, then they bear solar heat with considerable 

 impunity. In the case of scarce kinds it would be wise to 

 grow them in pots for a year or two, keeping them in a cool 

 frame in the winter, or in the greenhouse when in bloom, and 

 then having them plunged in ashes under a north wall in the 

 summer, and kept well watered. 



" In autumn, about the end of September, the plants should 

 be carefully divided, and be either repotted or planted out into 

 beds, and they will get well rooted and throw up good heads 

 of bloom early in the spring. In any after-cultivation care 

 should be always taken to keep the plants growing all the 

 summer, as that is the great secret of successlul Primrose 

 culture. When the foUage is bui-nt up by heat the old crowns 

 become stunted, the young ones cease to grow, and the plants 

 rapidly become smaller. Therefore, where possible, in hot 

 weather give a little shade, but never allow the plants to suffer 

 from the want of water." — {Florist and Pomologist, 3 B., vl., 97.) 



LATE GRAPES. 



I HAVE always liked Mrs. Pince's Black Muscat, and as your 

 readers know have contended that it was a really good Grape. 

 It has always done well with me, and has kept better than 

 Lady Downe's every year since it first fruited here. I have to- 

 day eaten pai't of a bunch grown by that veteran Grape grower, 

 Mr. Hill, of Keele Hall, who says he considers it the best of all 

 late Grapes. I can only say I never eat any so good at this 

 time of the year in my life. When a new variety of fruit fails 

 with any of us it would be well to think twice before condemn- 

 ing it, I am convinced many a good thing is thrown away be- 

 cause the treatment it requires is not understood. I destroyed 

 Golden Champion in a pet, and afterwards saw it so good at 

 Mioat Bank, with Mr. A. Bass, that I felt vexed at my pre- 

 cipitancy, and if it were not that I think the Duke of Bnccleuch 

 an improvement on it in every respect, should be inclined to 

 try it again. I thought so much of the Duke at Mr. Thomson's 

 that I bought fifty plants of it. — J. E. Pearson, Chilwell. 



TEACHERS OF CULTURE— LIEBIG.— No. 1. 

 Bt Cdthbert W. Johnson, F.E.S. 

 When, on the evening of AprU 20th, amid the tears of his 

 fellow citizens, with his coffin deeply covered with wreaths of 

 flowers, the grave closed over the Baron Justus Von Liebig, 

 the agriculturist — nay, all classes of men, lost one of their 

 ablest and most laborious friends — a true philosopher, who 

 only laboured for the elucidation of truth. His researches in 

 organic chemistry wiU be long recorded as indeed invaluable 

 to the cultivator. Let us only remember one of his great and 

 enduring services to the farmer — viz., the introduction of 

 superphosphate of lime. It is true that he did not discover 

 that salt. Phosphate of lime, the basis of bones, was dis- 

 covered by Scheele, a celebrated Swedish chemist, in the year 

 1774; and it was not until the year 1795 that two eminent 

 French chemists, Fourcroy and VauqueUn, by adding sulphuric 

 acid to bones, produced the salt to which they gave the name 



