470 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ Jane 12, 187S. 



One monster is labelled " Uttkon of Corea," and was, I am 

 told, brought from thence in Japanese craft, showing, if true, 

 that the country is opened to the Japanese, at any rate ; and 

 finally a lot of desiccated native delicacies— sea slugs, sea- 

 weeds, and Mushi'ooms. 



Eetracing my steps I proceeded to inspect the toilette de- 

 partment. Here are tooth powders, face powders, carnation 

 and green bronze-hned bowls for lip-tinting, hair pins in silver 

 and gold, some coral-mounted and others gold-set; combs in 

 ivory, tortoiseshell, &c. — a beautiful tortoisesheh bowl about a 

 6 inches by 4, attracted my notice ; — hair ties, wigs, chignons 

 (for the Japanese all wear chignons, or, at least, ninety-nine 

 out of a hundred women), silk sewing threads, braids and 

 cords of all breadths, colours, patterns, and sizes. Near these 

 are a number of musters of raw silk, the choicest being under 

 glass — one very coarse sample of dirty yellow ochre-colour is 

 labelled " raw silk of Corea ;"— a card of silkworm's eggs in a 

 glass case, in which some of the " seed " has hatched. Leaving 

 these I entered upon the final room of the silk department. 

 Here are scores of rich robes of bygone priests and princes, all 

 heavy with gold embroidery. The walls are hung with ancient 

 tapestry of many a wonderful design, but as there was no 

 account attached to them I cannot give you further particu- 

 lars. Here was a black gauze head-dress labelled, " a crown 

 worn by Taiko." A beautiful fan, its gold and colours as 

 fresh as if painted but yesterday, is stated to have belonged to 

 a former Empress. Patterns of sUk concluded the Exhibition, 

 and they were of great variety. 



I have given you a short account of the contents of the first 

 series of exhibitions attempted by the Japanese, and I must 

 on the whole congratulate them upon their success. I am in- 

 formed that they intend to attempt one in Yedo next year, 

 which will, no doubt, be well attended by the foreign com- 

 munity. You will, I think, agree with me that I am now 

 living in a country the most remarkable, and with a people the 

 most surprising, in the known world. — J. Taseer Foster. 



FLOWERS FOR OUR BORDERS.— No. 9. 



TROP^OIiDM SPECIOSUM.— Showy Indian-Ceesb. 



The genus Troproolum bids fair to become in time one of 

 considerable extent, for not a year now elapses in which 

 several additions are not made to it. The curious structure 

 of their showy flowers, and the freeness with which they are 

 produced by most of the species, have rendered them general 

 favourites ; and from their extensive range throughout South 

 America, where they are found from Venezuela to the most 

 southern part of Chili, generally at a considerable distance 

 above the level of the sea, species may be selected suited to 

 every class of cultivators, from those whose means enable 

 them to indulge their plants with an artificial cUmate, to 

 that more numerous section restricted to the cultivation of 

 hardy plants. 



The TropfEolum speciosum is a perennial plant, and well 

 adapted for cultivation in the open border during the summer 

 months ; whether it is in the fuUest sense of the word hardy 

 we are not yet in a condition to state, but there can be no 

 doubt that it will bear our mild winters. 



The roots are not tuberous, as in the case of T. tricolor and 

 Bome others, but fibrous, like those of Lobbianum and crenati- 

 florum. When planted in the open ground a border by a west 

 wall will be found the most suitable situation for it ; if on a 

 south wall it should be partially shaded, as the plant does not 

 well bear full exposure to sunshine : it flourishes most in a 

 compost of turfy loam, peat, and sand roughly mixed, but wUl 

 do very well in any good garden soil where these ingredients 

 are not easily attainable. It is not advisable to plant it in a 

 rich manured border, as this would result in the production 

 of foliage at the expense of the flowers. 



When the plant is grown in a pot, or preserved in one 

 through the cold season, the stems usually make their appear- 

 ance about February or March, according to the temperature 

 at which it has been kept ; but if allowed to remain in the 

 borders during winter, and covered with a hand-light, over 

 which a thick matting should be thrown in severe weather, 

 they will begin to grow in April, and as long as there is any 

 danger of frost the hand-light must be allowed to remain. In 

 May, however, all covering may be removed, and with the 

 genial temperature common to this mouth the plant will make 

 rapid progress, and speedily reach the height of 5 or G feet. 



As it is a climber, some provision must, of course, be made 

 for supporting its feeble stems ; and for this purpose we 



know of nothing more suitable than a flat wii'e trellis, or one 

 composed of narrow splines placed diagonally across each 

 other, the side pieces being of something rather more sub- 

 stantial. The lower ends of the two upright pieces should be 

 well charred, which will retard theu- decay when thrust into 

 the ground, and if to this precaution we add that of well 

 painting the whole of the treUis, it will then last for years. 

 If the trellis is of wire, it should be kept from immediate con- 

 tact with the wall to allow the stems to intertwine freely. The 

 plant forma an elegant object trained against a verandah, and 

 a striking effect may be produced by associating with it young 

 plants of the annual T. aduncum, also called canariense or 

 peregrinum, with which we anticipate it will hybridise. The 

 small wire globes and trellises may be employed for specimens 

 grown in pots, but they are quite unsuited to the plant when 

 cultivated in the open borders, where it attains a much larger 

 size. 



Tropaeolam Bpeciosuro. 



The bright carmine-tinted flowers appear in June, and ar9 

 produced in succession for at least two months. The plant 

 ripens its fruit very freely, and from the seeds thus obtained it 

 may be readDy increased, as well as by dividing the roots iQ 

 spring. 



\fe know of few summer-flowering plants that more deserve 

 the little care requisite for its management. 



We may remark, incidentally, that many of the species of 

 Tropffiolum are hardier than is commonly supposed ; ths 

 T. tricolor, in particular, flourishes in the open air in summer 

 — that is, when planted as we have recommended this speciea 

 to be, rather deeply in the open ground, and well protected 

 from frost and damp in winter by a heap of dry ashes, over 

 which a hand-glass or large flower pot is placed. It will then 

 grow prodigiously in the summer months, so as to be scarcely 

 recognisable by those who have been accustomed to see it only 

 in pots. — (W. Thompson's English Floicer Garden.) 



Sweet-scented Tulip. — I last week had the pleasure of in- 

 specting at Laurel Bank, the picturesque villa residence of 

 A. Stirling, Esq., Galashiels, an unnamed sweet-scented Tulip, 

 the hke of which I do not recollect having met with before. 

 Tulips usually are void of any pleasing odour. None that I 

 am acquainted with merits being classed with sweet-scented 

 flowers. This at Laurel Bank is equal in fragrance to the 

 (inest-scented Eose. Mrs. Stirling, who is a great lover of 

 flowers, and a good judge of them as well, told me she pre- 

 ferred it for the delicious perfume which it emitted, as a cut 

 flower in the rooms, before any Kose. It is growing in an 

 outside border in rather a shaded position, where it was placed 

 some years ago. In form the bloom is semi-double ; in colour 



