Aupnst 21, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



147 



bright crimson colour. I have in a six-inch pot a plant with 

 twenty good trusses of bloom on it, several of which are from 

 4 to 5 inchos in diameter. On looking down upon it the foliage 

 is almost totally excluded from view by the bloom. As a bedder 

 it is also good, but like most of its kindred race the Nosegays, 

 it requires a sheltered place, as its large heads of bloom are not 

 capable of withstanding such rough weather as we have ex- 

 perienced this summer. As a suitablo companion to the 



above, I may name Magenta Qneen, which though not such a 

 telling pot plant as Lord l'almerston, is deserving a place in 

 every Mower garden, on account of its colour combined with a 

 good truss of bloom. Out of somo fifty varieties grown here 

 theso two stand first for pot culture. 



I quite agree with Mr. Robson, that there is plenty of room 

 for improvement in many varieties of bedding Pelargoniums, 

 particularly in those of the Ivy-leaved section. — J. May. 



AMONG THE SCOTTISH BRAES, LOCHS, AND MOUNTAINS.— No. 2. 



"Over the Border!" What a cluster of romantic associa- 

 tions in all past times are summoned up by those three words ! 

 Feudal affrays, raids, moss troopers, romantic marriages — all, 

 happily, now civilised away. " Gretna Green," the first rail- 

 way station, has ceased to be a refuge for impetuous lovers, 

 the law has rendered it no longer Hymen's Zoar ; but had law 

 left it unnoticed, the electric telegraph would have outstripped 

 the fugitives. The hand pauses over naming that power which 

 now is rendering the world neighbours. I was at Inellan the 

 other day, a seedling watering-place scarcely known except by 

 those on and about the Clyde, yjt the electric telegraph has 

 extended its wires thither. The Glasgow citizens have gar- 

 dened villas there, and on the day the Atlantic cable brought 

 America's reply to England's congratulation, the Inellan wire 

 conveyed an order from Glasgow for the despatch of Carrots 

 and other " garden stuff!" 



That " garden stuff," from Kale up to Roses, is of the best 

 our islands produce. The 

 thorough Englishman of 

 our southern counties, and 

 who never travelled north 

 of the Humber, thinks that 

 Scotland's climate is too in- 

 clement for any cultivated 

 plant to thrive in if less 

 robust than Scotch Curlies 

 and Oats. No conclusion is 

 more erroneous. Let that 

 southerner be landed on 

 Dunoon Pier — let him walk 

 along the shore eastward for 

 two miles until he reaches 

 the extremo end of Holy 

 Loch ; let him walk west- 

 ward for four miles until 

 he reaches Inellan, and I 

 will undertake to guaran- 

 tee that he will confess he 

 never before looked upon 

 such a six-miles unbroken 

 succession of handsome 

 well-gardened villas. Not 

 only are the gardens good, 

 but the gardening such as 

 might be expected from 

 attentive readers of The 

 Journal of Horticulture. 



In those gardens a few 

 days since I saw fine spe- 

 cimens of Arauearia im- 

 bricata, large bushes of 

 Fuchsia Riccartonii, and 

 Hydrangeas that have endured many winters unprotected and 

 uninjured. Dahlias, some of the finest I ever saw, were in full 

 ■vigour and full bloom on the 3rd inst. 



The villas and their gardens towards Inellan are at the base 

 of a mountain whose side is deeply wooded, and good taste 

 has made good use of this natural advantage, by the intro- 

 duction of paths up the wooded ascent, and the display of the 



1, Purple Orach, 1 foot high. 

 2, 2, Golden-edged Geranium, 9 ins. 

 3, 3, Yellow Calceolaria, 6 inches. 

 4, 4, Lobelia epeciosa, 4 inches. 



falls of the mountain streams. The gardens before the villas 

 are mostly lawns well garnished by flower-beds, though one 

 gentleman preferring the usefid to the ornamental, has con- 

 verted his front garden into one large Potato-bed ! This stern 

 utilitarian, however, is alone in his stoicism, for all the other 

 gardens evince, more or less, a just appreciation of the 

 beautiful. 



I had seen near London one central bod which to me was 

 novel, and as here I saw its counterpart its introduction may 

 he now permitted. The effect is excellent. Here it is sur- 

 rounded by turf, but near London by gravel ; and the gravel, 

 I think, was tho best contrasting surrounding. 



At the foot of the first mountain on the Inellan Road is a 

 combination, forming a little district, of what is comfortable 

 and beautiful both in nature and art rarely to be met with. 

 There is there a cluster of villas looking from the moun- 

 tain side over tho west bay of Dunoon ; there is a moun- 

 tain stream dashing over 

 the rocks, and winding its 

 course among the well-ar- 

 ranged, well-attended gar- 

 dens ; a lofty one arched 

 bridge takes you over that 

 stream, among the villas, 

 and to the foot of a road 

 winding up higher through 

 the garden of " the par- 

 sonage." In that garden — 

 and from it " God's acre " 

 is not separated — stands 

 a small church, its walls 

 trimly clad with Ivy and 

 Cotoneaster. All is so 

 beautiful : there is such 

 a union between the house 

 of God and the houses of 

 men — it seems to so look 

 down over them all, and 

 they so seem to look up to 

 it — that the words uttered 

 on another mount seemed 

 to be evoked as I stood by 

 that sanctuary, "It is good 

 for us to be here." Every- 

 thing was ih such exquisite 

 keeping — not a weed, not 

 a faded flower, not a thing 

 to offend the eye — I recall it 

 all, and there's not a repul- 

 sive remembrance. There 

 three brothers lie ; and I feel 

 that to pass to their side, 

 and to have " In memoriam " inscribed as it is to them, would be 

 like passing from one home to another. My old landlady, one of 

 the Covenanter Hamiltons, told me— but erroneously — "It is a 

 Puseyite place, and one Perry is minister." Without urging 

 them to change their doctrinesor their ritual, I heartily wish the 

 disciples of Knox in Mr. Perry's vicinity would emulate his good 

 taste and neatness both in externals and internals. — G. 



5, r>, Cinerariamaritiina, 2 inches. 

 Centre, turf, 8 feet in diameter. 



Each circle about 6 inches 



broad. 



THE SELECTION OF 



As the store plants of Verbenas turned out a failure last 

 winter with many, I venture to urge the importance of having 

 them well established in the store pots before winter. Here 

 (in the west of Scotland), I find that the 1st of September is 

 the latest period to which we can safely delay putting in the 

 cuttings. I generally begin to do so about the middle of 



VERBENA CUTTINGS. 



August, by which time cuttings may be obtained without in 

 the least disturbing the beds. I select shoots at least '6 inches 

 in length, without flower-buds, if possible, and with prominent 

 eyes at every joint ; for without eyes they never make good 

 plants, and to this cause I attribute the failures which occur in 

 many cases. On examining the shoots previous to taking them 



