October 34, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUHE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



335 



is as yet not gpiiprnlly cultivated, the red nciipolitanum being 

 confounded with it, but the hitter flowers in autinriii. 



C. coum I have not found hardy, though I find it set down 

 as a hardy plant by various writers. In sonic favoured loc^a- 

 lities it may do fairly, but I have had to afford it the pro- 

 teotion of a ftnmo, and even there unprotected it perishod. 



I cannolCmcludo this communication without adverting to 

 the subject of raising Cyclamens from seed, tliat being the 

 only eligible method of obtaining plants, thoiigh occasionally 

 they may be increased by taking off the spurs that rise from 

 beneath the soil, yet this is apt to cause tlio parent root to rot 

 where the wound is made, and brings on disease, and idti- 

 mately death. It seems to mo very strange, that if we take a 

 spur, such as is frciiuuntly noticeable in Cyclamen europu'um, 

 or stem with a crown, and remove it close to the c.orni, the 

 wound on the stem wiU heal over, that on the corm not doing 

 so ; and though the spur or stem will grow, and annually pro- 

 duce leaves and flowers, it will not form a corm, though it 

 may elongate, yet that is chiefly at the point from which the 

 foliage appears. 



The seed should lie sown when fully ripe (ami wlien tliis is 

 the case the seed-pods open at thcirapex, and let the seeds fall), 

 using well-drainod pans, and a compost of sandy peat and 

 loam in equal parts. ,lust cover the seeds with soil, and after 

 giving a good watering place the pans in a cold frame, giving 

 the preference to one in a shady situation, as insuring a uni- 

 form degi-eo of moisture in the soil, and, conseqiiently, speedy 

 gennination. Sometimes .an inverted pan is placed over the 

 other to secure this ; the pan being plunged in the open ground, 

 but a better plan is to cover the surface of the pot or pan 

 lightly with moss, and to keep the moss moist by gentle sprink- 

 lings of water, removing it when the first seedlings make their 

 appearance. Both these modes have a tendency to draw the 

 plants, but without some such contrivance they do not come 

 np so soon as desired. Care must be taken to remove the in- 

 verted pot in time, and to take off the moss gradually, other- 

 wise the seedlings will receive a check, and bo a year later in 

 blooming. Keep them moderately supplied with moisture, 

 never allowing the soil to become dry, and never saturated, 

 admit abundance of fresh air, protect from heavy rains, and as 

 winter approaches lessen the supply of water, yet keep the soil 

 moist, giving air on all favourable occasions, and protecting 

 from frost. In spring water more liberally, sprinkling slightly 

 overhead, and do not "coddle" them, but use the lights more 

 by day than night, for nothing is so good for plants wanted 

 to grow fast as the evening air, the cold of night, and the 

 dew of the morning. Keep lights on during the day, and at 

 other times to keep out frost and rain ; a mat can be thrown 

 over them from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in hot weather. Persist in 

 this until August, then cease to shade, reduce the watering, 

 and expose to the sun and air continually, except when heavy 

 rains occur. Towards the end of September pot the young 

 plants singly, using small pots, but if they are still in the seed- 

 pan it would be quite as well to prick them off, about an inch 

 or so apart, into other pans. I sow the seed at such distances 

 apart that there is no necessity to remove them until they oi-e 

 potted out of the seed-pan ; but when the seeds are sown thickly 

 the seedlings are best pricked off when a year old ; for the best 

 seedlings, which are invariably the weakest, will be smothered 

 if not either potted or pricked off. I do not like to handle 

 Cyclamens when very small, otherwise I believe they would be 

 better pricked out when sufficiently large to handle. After 

 they are potted they require the same treatment as established 

 or old plants, and they will bloom at two and tlrree years old. 



In conclusion, I would enter a protest against dr;>-ing the 

 bulbs of Cj'clamens, by taking them out of the pots, or keeping 

 them in them throughout the summer on shelves in the green- 

 house, and without a drop of water. Well m,ay such plants as 

 these not be successfully cultivated in England, when they are 

 roasted in summer, and drowned in winter. When at rest 

 they should be plunged out of doors, or in a cold frame, in a 

 situation shaded from the midday sun. — G. Aueey. 



fifiHuni, the former from I.ienz (gathered on the dolomite), the latter 

 from a nionntiiiu iu llie Wueheiu, C'uruiolu. Mr. .J. Hartley hroUf^ht 

 Blechnum sjiieaut hetero}iliyllum, ii tine exuinple, found in Ihc Hebdon 

 valley, a valley than wljieh few in tlio north of Kui^biud are more rich 

 in ci-)-i»togainic plants. Mr. Xowell ul.^o submitted a very singular 

 form of the last-named Feni, eondiiuing at once thi- characteristics of 

 concinnum, nrojectnm, and strictum. ']"]iis oddity in the way of a 

 Hard Fern Mr. NowcU had likewise gathered in tlie valley of the 

 IIclMkn. 



ToDMORDEN BoTAXic.u, SociKTY, October 2nil. — On the table were 

 various examples of flowering plants and Ferns. Among the batter 

 ■was a very eurions and quite novel form of the Male Feru (Lastrea 

 Filix-mas), gathered last year in Westmoreland, and named cxcurrens, 

 all the piunee being permanently abrupt, and furnished at the apex 

 ■with a sharp excunent point ; also a form of the same Fern, regularly 

 interrupted iu the pinnre, and tasselled at the ends, very pretty indeed, 

 but whose pei-manency remains to be tested. G. C. Chnrchill, Esq., 

 of London, sent specimens of the two rare .\si)leninms Selovii and 



WHATS IN -V NAME? 



It is unparliamentary in either House of Parliament to speak 

 of wliat transpires in the other, except by the vague term 

 " another place ;" and so, I suppose, we must observe the same 

 rule in journalism, anrl merely in speaking of our contempo- 

 raries say, " It has been said elsewhere." .\nd thus I must 

 now say that there have lately appeared elsewhere cme or two 

 articles on the Rose, on which I think, as one of the " enthusias- 

 tic and good-natured correspondents of the gardening papers " 

 there alluded to, I ought to say a few words. Tlic statements 

 there made seem to require an answer, and I hope to do this 

 without the least feeling of annoyance. When 1 for one give 

 those lists of new Hoses which " Kos\ Anolica " (not, if I 

 mistake not, the usual signature of the writer), alludes to, the 

 readers of The .Icji'iinal dp Hortictslturk will bear me witness 

 that it is not for the purpose of praising them. No one has 

 more thoroughly reprehended the plethora of new things with 

 which we are every year threatened than I have, and I have 

 thereby dnawn downi on me from more than one French grower 

 letters which do not breathe that vast amount of politeness 

 for which our neighbours are celebrated ; but wlien their lists 

 are published I have generally dissected such, and from either 

 the knowledge I have bad of the growers, or of the character of 

 the flowers previously sent out by them, or from having seen tho 

 flowers, I have given my opinion or conjecture of what were likely 

 to turn out good. Sometimes one is right, and sometimes wrong ; 

 but in my opinions and conjectures in the past season, I am 

 glad to say I have been in many instances right. However, 

 I anticipate, and will take the matter in order. 



The writer names thirteen crimson Roses, and says that the 

 years 1804 and 1S(;,5 have not produced anything to equal 

 them : and I there join issue. Two of these Roses I grew and 

 discarded long ago — Souvenir de Lady Eardley and Turenne. 

 They are both, though fine in colour, far too thin to be ever o! 

 any use, except in the bud, when others are equally beautiful. 

 I am quite ready to admit that it is almost impossible to beat 

 Charles Lefebvre, but even it is faulty ; it wants a few more 

 ]ietals in the centre, although without doubt it is the grandest 

 Rose we have. Amongst the others. Due de Rohan, Alphonse 

 Damaisin, and Maurice Bernardin are all fine, but all very much 

 alike ; and I contend that Piei-re Netting of the ISfii season 

 is worthy of a place amongst the very choicest ones, superior 

 to many of those named, and equal in character to Senateur 

 Vaisse, though of a different shade of crimson. The same 

 may also be said very nearly of Rushton Radclyffe (1865) ; 

 while Madame Victor Verdier (18C4), is not one whit behind 

 any of them, and I believe will stand in our lists when Alphcaise 

 Damaisin and others he has named are forgotten. Then as 

 to rose-coloured Roses — by which, I suppose, he would include 

 deep pinks — I am vei-y much mistaken, from what I saw of 

 Duchesse de Caylus, if it is not fully equal to .lules Margottin 

 or John Hopper; it is so beautifirUy formed, and such an 

 exquisite shade of rose. Then, again, Duchesse de Momy 

 cannot be overlooked as a splendid addition to rose-colom'ed 

 flowers. With regard to white or flesh-coloured Roses the past 

 two years have certainly given us no addition worth naming. 

 I;ouise Darzens, Madame Macker, and others are rather Hybrid 

 Noisettes than Perpetuals. 



In giving the list of new Roses of last year, '• Rosa Anglica," 

 curiously enough, omits from his list of raisers, and thus puts 

 amongst the small growers, my old friend Margottin, the 

 raiser of Jules Margottin, Louise Odier, Souvenir de Comte 

 Cavour, &c. Some of the raisers he has there named do indeed 

 give us a vast deal of rubbish, and the only way for our ever 

 hoping to have a more select list is by Rose-growers resolutely 

 refusing to purchase. 



I think the test that " Rosa Anglica " gives of the goodness 

 of old Roses and the badness of new ones — that whenever he 

 detects a fine Rose in a garden or box he is sure to find it to be 

 one of his old favourites — arises from this, that wiicre he has 

 one plant of a new Rose he has twenty of asi older one. And 

 the same in stands ; very few of the new Roses appear tmtil 



