FebruaiT 20, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



145 



nor ef en reading of it until ilr. Wills told us last August, in 

 the pages of this Journal, how he successfully adopted the 

 same plan at Oulton. A bed of the British Queen, or any of 

 the large vaiueties, when tied up and approaching maturity 

 presents a very charming appearance. 



I need not enlarge on the treatment of the plants after the 

 fruit has been gathered. Much has been said ou this subject 

 lately, and I would recommend all who are ambitious to excel 

 in Strawberry culture to consult those articles. I will, how- 

 ever, add, that I do not allow useless runners to remain on the 

 plants, and I consider it essential to keep the beds clean and 

 free from weeds, as every sprig of grass or intruding weed is 

 so much abstracted from the soil, and, consequently, from the 

 food of the future crop. Further, I still adhere to my old 

 practice of not destroying the foliage. I will not dispute that 

 Strawberries may be grown where the dangerous system of 

 cutting off the leaves is practised, but I have tried both ways 

 and consider it the better policy to allow the leaves to remain. 



Strawberries can only be had in perfection when they are 

 gathered dry, for a very httle rain will destroy their flavour. 

 Being in its natui'al habitat a rock plant, those soils contain- 

 ing the gi'eatest amount of rock in a decomposed state, or the 

 most clay, have been found to produce the fruit of the finest 

 flavour. — QuiNTiN Read, Biddulpli. 



STRIKING ROSE CUTTINGS. 



Raising Roses on their own roots has been so often treated 

 of in your Journal of late, that I have been surprised at never 

 having there met with a plan suggested by Mr. Fish many 

 years ago, in your " first series," and which I tried at the time, 

 and sometimes lately, with much success. I mean inserting 

 in April or May the soft stubby shoots of that spring, while 

 from IJ to 3 inches long. These when treated as there desired 

 (a slight hotbed, glass cap, and shade), became strong and 

 vigorous plants, which gave a few flowers that same autumn, 

 and foi-med strong plants from 18 inches to 2 feet high, which 

 bloomed well in the following June, and far surpassed any 

 other cuttings of the same age. Indeed, I have usually found 

 that cuttings require a long time before making vigorous 

 trees. One peculiarity is, that Roses raised in the manner 

 I have described generally send up two or three stems, which 

 makes them desirable tor pegging down. — Agnes. 



[We have never tried the plan fairly without being success- 

 ful. The chief secrets of success are a rather low temperature 

 befor-e the cuttings begin to callus, and more heat afterwards.] 



NOTES ON THE SPECIES OP HELLEBORUS. 



The Hellebores are all robust hardy perennials, and com- 

 prise among them some of the gayest spring-flowering plants 

 which we at present possess ; for no set of hardy perennials 

 are so attractive as the Hellebores in the earlier months of the 

 year, they producing their flowers with impunity at that sea- 

 son when few others can brave the inclemency of the weather. 

 The genus Helleborus belongs to the same natural order (Ra- 

 nimculace.'el as the Larkspur, Columbine, Monkshood, Marsh 

 Marigold, Love-in-a-Mist, and the Winter Aconite. Its name 

 HeUeborus is derived, according to some writers, from " he- 

 lien," to cause death, and " bora," food, on account of its 

 poisonous qualities ; but, according to Bergeret, it is derived 

 from the river Eleborus, the Black Hellebore being foimd 

 plentifully along its banks. 



All the Hellebores grow freely in a rather moist and some- 

 what shady situation, and in a soil with which a little peat 

 earth has been mixed. 



In the cultivation of the different species of Hellebore, the 

 principal error appears to consist in paying them too much 

 attention, for they succeed to admiration in a retentive soil, 

 rather shady and moist, and where they are allowed to remain 

 undisturbed and unacquainted with the gardener's rake and 

 hoe, for it is sufficient that the soil about them be kept clear 

 of such weeds as grow taller than the plants themselves, and 

 that they be completely free from the drip from trees. 



The Hellebores are all easily increased by dividing the old 

 plants when in a dormant state ; or by seeds, which should be 

 sown directly they are ripe. 



Hellebobus oniENTALis, Lamarck (The true Black Hellebore). 

 — Syn.H. officinalis, Salisbury; H. olympicus ruber, of gardens. 

 This is the Black Hellebore of the ancients, formerly so cele- 



brated as a medicine in mania, epilepsy, and dropsy. It is 

 still kept for medicinal pvirposes in the shops of the East, 

 where it is called "Zopteme" by the Turks. The radical 

 leaves of the oriental Hellebore are on long stalks, pedate, 

 aomewhat pubescent on the under surface when young, and 

 regularly serrated on the margins ; while those of the floral 

 leaves are without footstalks, palmate, and finely toothed. 

 The flower-stems grow about a foot high, with peduncles 

 usually forked, and bearing large solitary flowers having the 

 sepals more or less pointed, permanent, and when younig 

 white stained with purple towards the edges, but quite green 

 when old. It flowers from February to April. 



It is the opinion of botanists that in reality the Black Helle- 

 bore of the ancients was not the Helleborus niger, but another- 

 species, called by some writers, H. orientalis, and, by others, 

 H. officinalis. Dr. Lindley says, " A poison so deadly as thai/ 

 which the ancients caUed Black Hellebore would naturally 

 attract the attention of the moderns ; and accordingly from a 

 very early period a plant occurring plentifully in the middle of 

 Europe, and as far south as the Athos mountains in Greece, 

 has been selected as the classical species." 



The oriental Hellebore is found plentifully on mountains in 

 most parts of the Levant, on the Bithyniau Olympus, abouii 

 Thessalonica, and near Constantinople. The roots are an 

 acrid and \'iolent purgative. 



Helleborus nicer, Liimmus (The Christmas Rose). — This 

 kind is a native of woody mountains in many parts of Europe, 

 especially those of Austria, Piedmont, Styria, Greece, Pro- 

 vence, the Pyrenees, and Apennines, and is an old inhabitant 

 of English gardens, for it was introduced so far back as the 

 j-ear 1596. 



The Christmas Rose grows from 9 to 12 inches high, and 

 has rather large, smooth, pedate leaves, somewhat resembling 

 a large bird's foot, and produced in the spring after the flowers 

 are faded. The flowers are large, cup-shaped, with a white or 

 rose-coloured coroUa-hke calyx, and produced in scapes from 

 the end of December to March ; at first pure white, afterwards 

 rather pink, and finally they become green before fading. 



In mild seasons the flowers begin to expand towards the end 

 of December, which circumstance has gained for the plant the 

 name of Christmas Rose. 



There are two varieties of the Black Hellebore — one the 

 common kind, and the other with larger flowers and narrower 

 leaves, and which latter is an Austrian plant, sometimes 

 named vernalis in gardens on account of its flowering much 

 later in the spring than the common or broad-leaved kind. 



The virtues of the Helleborus niger were formerly too much 

 extolled in the old herbals. It is probably now imdeservediy 

 neglected, but its use requires great caution, for its effects aie 

 very uncertain and dangerous, as it loses its virtues by keep- 

 ing. Its medicinal uses are as purgatives in cases of mania, 

 melancholy, lethargy, dropsy, and for worms. Snuff made 

 from the dried leaves causes violent sneezing, while if smoked 

 Uke tobacco it is a good remedy for the toothache. 



The roots, however, are the part used in medicine, and con- 

 sist of a black furrowed roundish head, about the size of a 

 nutmeg, from which short-jointed branches arise, sending out 

 numerous fibres about the thickness of a straw, blackish out- 

 side, white or yellowish white within, and of an acrid nauseous 

 and rather bitter taste, exciting a sense of heat and numbness 

 in the tongue, and having a nauseous smell. The root is used 

 in the form of a tincture, but its effects are uncertain and 

 dangerous. — George Gordon, A.L.S. 



(To be continued.) 



THE LOVE OF ROSES AMONG THE ROMANS. 



The love of the ancients for Roses was something fanatical. 

 I do not so much refer to the poets ; for probably the modern 

 and the antique bards may vie with each other in the use of the 

 Rose as a common-place of poetical illustration ; but I allude 

 to a strong passion for the visible, tangible, scent-giving Rose, 

 as something to be enjoyed by all the five senses, scarcely 

 excluding that of hearing, for a rustle of many Boses must 

 have attended some of the more extraordinary manifestious 

 of idolatry. A time without Roses was a contingency to be 

 avoided at any cost ; and the Romans, though the mildness of 

 their climate allowed the adored flower to grow at an un- 

 usually late season, could not submit to the privations of S) 

 winter. Not only were whole shiploads of Boses brought 

 from Alexandria in the inclement season, but various means 



