378 



JOUENAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 7, ISes. 



imposing ; the one, horizontal ami floating on the water ; the 

 other, lifting its magnificent shields to the height of many 

 feet — great fiat green disks poised, as it were, upon reeds. The 

 strange and foreign air of the latter is gi'eatly intensified by 

 the capsules, which are like broad cones with the bottom 

 upwards, and are excavated all over the flattened surface. 

 Seeds have several times been ripened at Chatsworth, but as 

 a nile they are prone to fail. Ai'ouud a plant of such history 

 as the Nelumbinm there clings quite a fascination. Figured 

 in one kind of art or another upon the ancient monuments of 

 Egy]it and India, the sight of the living individual carries the 

 mind to the days of the building of the Pyramids. Looking at 

 it, we seem transferred from modern to primaeval times, and 

 it wants but a mental step or two, and we stand in imagination 

 among Sigillarias and Lepidodendra. 



Around the tank that liolds the Victoria, which, by the way, 

 first flowered as regards Europe in this garden, there are 

 many capital plants — not that they are uncommon ones, but 

 the condition is so fine. The Papyrus, for instance, owing to 

 the abundant supply of moisture and the freedom with which 

 it can grow, has grand rhizomes resembling those of the English 

 Acorus calamus ; while barely at arm's length is Coix lachryraa 

 hanging out plenty of those strange grey fruits, which in due 

 time are to seem beads made of lilac enamel. In one corner 

 is a great mass of that rare and striking plant, the Thalia 

 dealbata. Petioles 5 feet long £U]i]iort gi'eat oval leaves, and 

 higher still above the sui'face of the soil are the racemes of 

 rather inconspicuous purple flowers, made, however, eminently 

 remarkable by the whole of the exterior portion of the inflo- 

 rescence being covered with white meal, that rubs off with the 

 sUghtest touch. The student of flower-structure, who thinks 

 he has obtained all he needs to learn from the dissection of a 

 Primrose or a Violet, should obtain, when he has a chance, a 

 blossom of a Thalia or some such plant. Orchids, with all 

 their quaintness, are plain English compared with the Thalia, 

 andthe educational. value is, of course, great in proportion. A 

 Testudinaria, with a huge irregularly conical rhizome nearly 

 4 feet high in the middle, and surmounted by a bush of green 

 shoots, must not be forgotten ; nor yet some jiretty plants of 

 Eusselia juncea, resembhug juvenile Casuarinas, excepting 

 that some of the younger branches are crowded with little 

 ovate leaves that are mostly disposed in whorls of three. The 

 Mango, the Guava, the Cherimoyer, Ilex paraguensis, Jam- 

 bosa vulgaris, Sec, are here as a matter of course, and mostly 

 exuberant in foliage. 



A delightful walk of twenty minutes through the park brings 

 the visitor to the entrance-gates of the Hall. For beauty this 

 park cannot be excelled, the gi'ound being eveiTwhere agreeably 

 undulated, and the extensive area enclosed in the most pic- 

 tm'esque manner by gently rising hills. Everi' portion is well 

 studded with trees, a large number of them fit subjects for the 

 artist ; and the herds of dappled deer give that exciting sense 

 of life wliich is so agreeable an adjunct to, if not an essential 

 element in, the sense of the beautiful. Before proceeding to 

 the grand conservatory, the visitor is led through the Camellia- 

 house, and under and along the glazed trellises that form a 

 sort of botanical and floricultural cloisters. In the latter all 

 is good. Indigofera tinctoria, with large pinnate leaves, and 

 dense racemes of pretty pale pink flowers ; Schinus Mulli (uot 

 molle, as often improperly Avritten), again with neat pinnate 

 leaves ; Mimosa prostrata, the beau-ideal of an aiiy climber ; 

 and Camellia reticulata, 20 feet high, are but a few of the 

 gi-atifying ornaments here associated. This Camellia is a 

 species seen very seldom, yet the very plant for those who like 

 a large flower, the scarlet blossom, which is not very double, 

 being often a foot across ! Shaddock trees, loaded with green 

 fruit, are seen every here and there, being grown for the pur- 

 pose of making marmalade of the produce. What a strange 

 extension of meaning that word "marmalade" has acquired 

 with us ! Properly and orig nally, a preserve made from the 

 Quince marmelos, the Bitter Apple, first it was passed on 

 to the bitter conserve made of the peel of Seville Oranges ; and 

 now in many a shop it is the appellation of a sweet j'ellow 

 pulp, called facetiously " Orange marmalade," but in reality 

 manufactured out of Carrots ! One of the prettiest plants in 

 this department just now is Solanum capsicastnmi. trained 

 against the walls, and absolutely loaded with its scarlet fruit, 

 no d <ubt through the influence of the kindly atmosphere pro- 

 vided for the Camellias. It is a plant diiiicult to keep free 

 from green fly and red spider ; here, as managed by llr. Taplin, 

 it is perfectly clean. 



On the way hence towards the conservatory through the 



grounds, the eye is caught by many things — a tree of Hippophiie 

 rhamnoides, for instance, willow-like, and 25 feet high. After 

 the manner of the ^\^lite Poplar and many other trees, it sends 

 out long underground suckers, which emerge from the soil at 

 a lUstance of 30 or 40 feet. The individual here referred to 

 is a male, therefore not embellished in autumn with those 

 crowded masses of orange-coloured berries that render the 

 female so conspicuous. Ctmifers are plentiful, and in many 

 cases very striking. How oddly the cones of Pinus Bauksiana 

 cling to the branches ! After enduring the rigours of two or 

 three winters they seem to become a part of the branch, stand- 

 ing upon it like woody excrescences, or half consolidated with 

 the stem, like the fruits of some of those outlandish Australian 

 shrubs — Melaleucas to wit, that seem indisposed ever to quit 

 their birthplace. On the grass are innumerable shrubs and 

 small trees. Once, it is said, the arboretum was one of the 

 most complete in the country ; circumstances, however, and 

 an inhospitable climate — for in winter it is often very trying — 

 have considerably interfered with the maintenance of its ancient 

 character. Casually examining a Caragaua, I noticed that the 

 sjjines are the extremities of the central stalks of pinnate 

 leaves, the thorns holding the same position that tendrils do 

 in Vetches. This is very curious, and I think it must', be 

 nearly pecuUar. 



The conser\'atory is known too well to need a description. 

 The Palms, though uot many, are grand ones of their kind ; 

 while the Cycadaceous plants, the Musas, and the Furcrceas, hold 

 our gaze as if by enchantment. Then there is the grand 

 rockery for the Ferns, 20 feet high, with a tasteful intermixture 

 of Begonias and "cool-culture" Orchids. Araucaria brasili- 

 ensis touches the roof with its head, and hangs down branches 

 that we may handle, so near do they come to the ground. 

 Linum flavum forms great bushes 4 feet high, and in its season 

 bears thousands of flowers ; and to stop somewhere, for stop 

 I must, lastly there are noble plants of Dichorizandra with 

 purple-violet spikes. Dr. Lindley, in the " Vegetable King- 

 dom," says of the Commelinacete, to which order this plant 

 belongs, " Sepals herbaceous," and " some of the stnmens 

 deformed," giving us plainly to understand that these are ab- 

 solute and universal characters. In Dichorizandra, however, 

 the sepals are petaloid, violet externally, and white on the 

 inside, and the six stamens are all perfect ; and in Trades- 

 cantia, the commonest species of the order, the stamens are 

 again all perfect. It would not be worth pointing out only 

 that with many similar statements (that, for instance, of Sar- 

 racenias having a hinged lip to the pitcher), for some reason 

 that does not appear, the error is made a standard one by being 

 continued in one edition after another. So much for " au- 

 thority." One other plant I must mention, and I have done — 

 Cadia, or, as it was formerly called, Spajndoncea. tamarindifolia. 

 The foliage is strikingly like that of the true Tamarind. The 

 solitary and axillary blossoms are not unUke a small Fritillary, 

 an inch in length, pendulous, and dull pink. — Leo. 



THE CYCLAMEN WHEN AT HOME. 



Havtxo cultivated Cyclamens for many years with varied suc- 

 cess, I have read with great interest the remarks of Mr. Abbey, 

 the more so because I have always felt that there was some pecu- 

 liarity in the natm-al habit of the plant, which reqmred atten- 

 tion to insure a more certain success in flowering the plants 

 than usually falls to the lot of amateurs, myself amongst the 

 rest ; and because one season I might have a fair show of bloom, 

 and the following one, with the same care and treatment, I 

 could not obtain a flower, I felt that my Cyclamens wanted 

 something that they did not get. As a tour in the spring of 

 the present year through Sicily, and afterwards through Pales- 

 tine, Syria, and Turkey, gave me a fair opportunity of seeing 

 the Cyclamen "at home," I made a few notes which I venture 

 to send for the perusal of Mr. Abbey and your readers. 



1st. Although I searched diligently, I never could find a Cy- 

 clamen growing with the bulb or corm exposed or uncovered. 



2nd. I never could find the plant growing on a level surface, 

 or in an open plain, away from the shade of a bank, rocks, or 

 trees. 



3rd. The places where it grew in the greatest profusion and 

 perfection were dry elevated banks, partially shaded by bushes 

 and trees, amongst rocks and stones, and invariably with the 

 bulbs buried 4 or 6 inches deep in loose friable soil and decayed 

 leaves. 



I was not able during the whole of my tour to find one un- 



