July 8, I860. ] 



JOUBNAIi OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



23 



dragons give a charming appearance, especially where backed 

 np, as here, with Rhododendrons. To fill up the ground Mr. 

 Kerr has a variety of the best annuals among the Roses. 



The stove and Orchid houses, however, are the prominent 

 attractions of this pleasing residence. I will here note a few of 

 the plants I saw in the houses during a recent visit ; and I 

 may state that Mrs. Pearce feels a pleasure in allowing those 

 interested to inspect her Orchids, of which no other such col- 

 lection is anywhere in the neighbourhood of Southampton. 



One small house is filled with Caladiums. These Oaladiums 

 at once show how highly they are valued here, and that 

 Mr. Kerr understands their cultivation. I noticed the follow- 

 ing : — C. Chantinii, a large plant, about 6 feet in diameter, 

 some of its leaves being nearly 2 feet long by 18 inches wide; 

 C. Wightii, of similar dimensions, only the leaves not so large ; 

 C. Brongniarti, as large ; C. bicolor splendens, 4 feet in dia- 

 meter ; C. marmoratum, with very dark gieen foliage mottled 

 ■with lightish blotches ; C. pcecile ; C. argyrites, prettily mottled 

 ■with white upon a green ground ; C. Belleymei, very effective, 

 almost white leaves with green veins and margin. There are 

 several others, most of them very large plants. 



The Orchid house is not very large, but filled with good 

 plants in excellent condition, and many of them producing 

 a remarkable display of bloom, both as regards the length of 

 the spikes and the number of flowers upon each. I will here 

 only note a few of them — viz., Lslia purpurata, two spikes, 

 with nine flowers, large and fully developed ; Saccolabium re- 

 tnsum, beautiful ; Oncidium roseum, with six spikes full of 

 flowers ; Phalienopsis grandiflora, with two spikes 3 feet long, 

 three times branched, and having twenty-four blooms — the same 

 spikes flowered in the end of last summer ; some Aurides in 

 fine bloom; Miltonia spectabilis coming into flower, with four- 

 teen spikes ; of Cattleya lobata upwards of a dozen large plants ; 

 Brassavola Digbyana ; handsome plants of Cattleya Mosei* 

 Pearcei, a very handsome variety ; Brassia verrucosa with 

 twelve spikes, occupying a low basket 3 feet square, the flowers 

 with long spider-like segments, 8 or 9 inches across ; Mil- 

 tonia Moreliana, growing in a broad basket 2 feet (J inches 

 square, a fine plant with twelve spikes of dark bronzed-purple 

 flowers; Oncidium Cavendishianum, throwing noble spikes; 

 Cattleya Leopoldi with thirteen blooms ; C. tigrina with four- 

 teen blooms ; and Oncidium leucochilum with three spikes 

 7 feet long, and upwards of a hundred flowers on each. There 

 are twelve very large plants of different Oncidiums ; pulvinatum 

 having two spikes upwards of C feet long, and each spike more 

 than three hundred blooms. Another plant had five spikes 

 almost equal to those just mentioned. One had thirty side 

 branches to the spike. Another plant had six spikes 2 feet 

 6 inches long. 0. sphacelatum had eight spikes. One plant 

 of Peristeria elata imported three years ago has two large bulbs 

 like Spanish Onions, each bulb throwing up a very thick strong 

 spike for flowering, now 3 feet long, but not yet offering to open 

 its blooms. A young plant of Dendrobium giganteum had 

 twenty-eight blooms, and Lcelia superba had sixteen flowers on 

 one spike. There were many others worthy of note, but the 

 preceding will indicate the interest and care which is bestowed 

 upon this class of plants by Mrs. Pearce. 



I shall here note a few of the Ferns, and with these my notes 

 will close for the present. In the Fern house are several Adi- 

 antums, always graceful when well grown. Some of them are 

 very large specimens, and in very good health. Of Polystichum 

 coriacenm capense there was a noble plant ; of Gymnogramma 

 Laucheana and G. Martensii, fine plants ; G. Wettenhalliana, 

 crested, silvery all over ; Nephrodium molle corymbiferum, 

 crested, intense green ; Lomaria gibba, very healthy ; Blechnum 

 corcovadense ; Platyloma flexuosum, fine large plant ; and 

 Thamnopteris nidus, with 4-feet fronds. — G. Dawson. 



paler, almost lilac in colour. My friend was told that this 

 change was produced by grafting, but this appears rather pro- 

 blematic. Roses are never known to fall back into the habit of 

 their stock. 



This singular caprieiousness reminds me of a similar change 

 in an Oak-leaved Pelargonium. I purchased one of these 

 plants for the sake of past associations. I knew the old- 

 fashioned Oak-leaved Pelargonium fifty years ago, so common 

 in cottage windows in Stallordshire. We also cultivated it, 

 admiring its finely formed flowers of a pink-violet colour with 

 crimson lines ; " coarse-growing," we used to say, but very 

 effective. However, when my plant flowered the petals were of 

 a rich crims«n, quite unlike my early favourite, though very 

 handsome. In process of time the plant became large and 

 " leggy," and was turned out into the borders. In a few weeks 

 its bloom changed. There were still heads of crimson, but 

 others of the true old-fashioned; colour, while some bore parti- 

 coloured flowers, or the two tints side by side. I have a dried 

 specimen which I have kept as a proof that, do what you will, 

 the old nature stiU asserts itself. Will this at all explain thp 

 anomaly in the Laburnum '? — Anxa Haeeisos. 



[In all probability the branch of Laburnum with varions- 

 coloured flowers was Cytisus Adami, which was originally pro- 

 duced upwards of forty years ago in budding Cytisus purpureuB 

 on the common Laburnum. In this process it is supposed 

 that a cell of the one species became divided and united to a 

 cell of the other, and the result has been a plant producing not 

 only flowers of each species separately, but others partaking of 

 the characters of both. There are other instances in the vege- 

 table kingdom in which a similar union of cells is believed to 

 have taken place, but Cytisus Adami is the best known and 

 best established. Mr. Fish has added the following interesting 

 notes on the subject : — " The changes produced on the Labur- 

 num when grafted are sometimes wonderful and wholly unac- 

 countable. We have rarely seen the common or Scotch Labur- 

 num sport into other varieties. We recollect of only one 

 instance in which flowers of purpurascens appeared. But if 

 you graft either of the Laburnums with Cytisus purpmeus or 

 Cytisus supinas, the vagaries which sometimes take place are 

 astonishing. I can see any day a small standard of Cytisus 

 alpinus which was grafted with Cytisus purpureus, and on the 

 same branch will sometimes be found small pieces of yellow 

 and purple, and at the very point strong shoots of the Cytisus 

 alpinus, the ' blood ' of the stock finding its way through the 

 more weakly growth of the scion. What is remarkable is, that 

 grafting or budding with one variety will frequently, as the 

 plant grows, present jou with three or four varieties, or what 

 are called ' species.' 



" Such sports as you allude to in your Pelargonium aremoie 

 common. From sports some fine varieties are produced. For 

 instance, RoUisson's Unique Pelargonium is very fine when 

 well grown. A lilac variety now becoming common was merely 

 a sport from a single shoot that came on the rich crimson kind, 

 and having been propagated maintains its distinct colour. We 

 should be inclined to say that your plant would have exhibited 

 similar features if you had not planted it out, though the fresh 

 soil and freer growth might have had some effect in making 

 the plant return to its more normal type. 



" The coloured Lotus is the corniculatus ruber. There are 

 two varieties of it — one with more fibrous roots, and one with 

 roots somewhat tuberous. The latter stands the winter in the 

 open gronud the better. All coloured-foliaged plants have a 

 tendency to revert to the original type."] 



VAKIATIONS OF CYTISUS AND 

 PELARGONIUMS. 

 LcDDON, in his " Hortus Britanicus," gives Cytisus Labur- 

 num and C. alpinus, the gardeners' lists add to these the purple. 

 When we were living near Leicester we had in our garden all 

 these, the purple bearing its racemes of a brownish purple 

 colour. A few days ago I received from a friend visiting at 

 Springford Park, near Ripon, a branch of Laburnum bearing at 

 the apex the fine yellow bloom of alpinus, and, growing on the 

 stem below, erect purple racemes, while the yellow bloom was 

 drooping. On other branches of the tree the flowers were mach 



CULVER-KEYS. 



A ■WEiTER in " Notes and Queries" states that he has a note 

 that the Oxlip is called " Cover-keys " in Kent. This is a mis- 

 take. In that coimty the Cowslip is often called '• Lady's- 

 keys," and only occasionally " Coney-keys." The latter, I 

 believe, is a Sussex name rather than a Kentish one, and may 

 have been given in consequence of rabbits being so fond of the 

 flower spike of this plant. I may, however, add that in all 

 places where I have heard the above name given. Cowslip was 

 also understood as being one of the flower's names, even among 

 the poorest and most illiterate. 



The Oxlip, a sort of intermediate between the Primrose and 

 Cowslip, is sometimes met with in Kent, but rarely, and not 

 plentifully-enough to obtain a distinctive name amongst those 

 who gather Cowslips by the bushel for May garlands and other 

 purposes. Primroses of a dull colour are not uncommon in a 



