March 18, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBE AND OOTTAGB GAEDENER. 



221 



recommended to plant at least one tree, and the State Board 

 will award a premium to tlio person who plants the largest 

 number. It ia now the custom of the Board to give a premium 

 to the landowner who has planted the most trees on any given 

 day in April, and at a recent meeting of the Board the prize 

 WPS awarded to a farmer who set out 27,800 trees on the 28th 

 of April, 187j. — [American Horticultural Journal.) 



PKIMDLA CORTUSOIDES AMCENA. 



Notices of this very beautiful Primrose have from time to 

 time been made in this Journal. Its great beauty and easy 

 culture ought to make its presence welcome in every green- 

 house, where it- cannot fail to be appreciated. The much- 

 vaunted Primula japonica is not to be compared to it in beauty, 

 though it, too, is a fine Primrose ; and although both come to 

 us from Japan, I have no hesitation in claiming for P. amojna 

 priority and extended culture. 



I have no experience of it planted outdoors, though the 

 Messrs. Veitch who introduced it state it to be perfectly hardy. 

 As a pot plant it is quite charming for the greenhouse, and is 

 admirable for window culture, it blooms so freely and requires 

 little care or attention. 



In an ordinary greenhouse — one having a temperature of 

 40° to '15° at night, and 4.5° to 50° by day from fire heat — it 

 commences to grow in February or early in March, and is in 

 ilower at the close of that month or in April. It continues a 

 considerable time in flower, the colour a rich rosy purple. In 

 a cold pit or frame it flowers later ; but it is as a greenhouse 

 plant that I wish to note it. 



Being herbaceous, or losing its leaves some time after flower- 

 ing, it ought up to that time to be kept watered, so that the 

 leaves do not flag, and when they begin to turn yellow water 

 should be withheld, removing the leaves as they decay. It is 

 the best of slight shade, as all the Primulas are. I place the 

 pots amongst those of Heaths and other hardwooded plants, 

 whose heads afford the Primula plants an agreeable shade. 

 The pots remain in such a position from the decay of the 

 foliage without water, or only a little occasionally to keep the 

 soil with a certain amount of moisture in it, though to all 

 appearance dry. 



When they begin to grow (as they will however dry the 

 soil), at their proper season the plants are potted, turning them 

 out of the pots, and removing any soil not occupied by roots. 

 The smallest size of pot used is 4-inch, and the largest (j-inch. 

 The former size will suit plants of one, two, or three crowns, 

 which are iproduced at the end of short creeping stems just 

 below the surface, lower than which they should never be 

 potted. Keep the crowns as much in the centre of the pots 

 as practicable. In the smaller size of pot I put one large or 

 two and three smaller crowns ; and these are a very useful size 

 of pot and plant for working-in between larger-sized pots and 

 plants, and for margins of stages, &c. The larger size of pots 

 takes the plants entire which were grown in 4-inch pots the 

 year previously, and these give plants with a profusion of 

 liloom as large as I care to have them. They of course may 

 bo shifted annually into pots 2 inches larger in diameter, and 

 in a few years magnificent clumps will result, luxuriating all 

 the better for the increased depth of soil. When potting from 

 the C-inch pots I divide the plants into as many divisions as 

 the plants have crowns at greater distance than 2 inches apart. 



The pots are well drained, with a little of the rough of the 

 compost placed over the drainage. The compost used is three 

 parts turfy loam, one part leaf soil, and a half part sandy peat 

 with a half part of silver sand, well mixed. I pot moderately 

 firm. Water is given in proportion to the growth, always 

 keeping moist after growth commences, and liberally when in 

 flower. If at a distance from the glass the foliage and flower 

 stems are liable to be drawn, but on the front shelf of a green- 

 house they are all that could be wished. 



There are now three varieties besides the one named — viz., 

 alba, in habit and stylo of flowering the same as the original, 

 only the flowers are white and rather more drooping ; grandi- 

 tiora, which has much larger flowers than am(Lna, concave or 

 cup-shaped, slightly drooping, the exterior of the flower deep 

 rose, inside white, forming a very pleasing contrast ; and lila- 

 eina, which is similar to the type in habit, the ground colour 

 of the flowers is greyish white, beautifully marked and streaked 

 with lilac. 



I have tried to cross the beautiful amosna with the Abys- 

 sinian Primrose (P. verticillata) with a view to scent, but 

 failed ; but the Japanese Primrose does not resist the pollen 



of that variety, and I am in hope of obtaining a break, and 

 securing perfume for both amo-na and japonica. — G. Abbet, 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



A Fruit Snow on the same extensive scale as before is to 

 be held again at EuiNiinRon on the 15th and IGth of Sep- 

 tember next. The premier prize of £10 for Grapes is for eight 

 varieties, one bunch of each. There is a second class, for 

 which those who show in the first class shall not enter. In the 

 collections of fruits the number of dishes is reduced to sixteen, 

 and the collection of sixteen to twelve. There are several pre- 

 sentation prizes offered : Messrs. Sutton & Sons of Reading 

 offer three prizes of five, three, and two guineas for four 

 varieties of Melons and the same of Cucumbers ; Messrs. Boyd, 

 the horticultural builders. Paisley, offer a silver cup for stand 

 of six varieties of Grapes ; Mr. Munro of London, three prizes 

 of three, two, and one guinea for the best brace of his new 

 Cucumber Duke of Edinburgh. 



We record, as most worthy of imitation, that on the 



evening of the 2nd inst. G. S. Boulger, Esq., gave the first of 

 a series of Educational Lectuiies on Window-gaedening in 

 St. James's School-room, Norland Square, on behalf of the 

 Notting Hill Flower Show Society. Mr. Boulger entitled his 

 lecture "Window-gardening and Floral Culture," and gave a 

 practical exposition of the domestic arrangement of plants 

 adapted to the capacity of the non-botanical, of whom, as may 

 be imagined, the Society consists. 



The Commission for the regulating of National and 



International Horticultural Exhibitions in the Palace of 

 Industry at Amsterdam has resolved, in conjunction with 

 the horticultural establishments and similar societies and 

 associations in Holland, to hold in 1870 in Amsterdam an 

 International Horticultural Exhibition and Congress on 

 an extensive scale in the Palace of Industry. 



A CORRESPONDENT Writing from Chicago informs us that 



on February 8th the thermometer was C° below zero, and had 

 during the winter been as low as 2'J° below zero. Nurserymen 

 have suffered severely, some losing all their plants. Let us 

 hope by this contrast we may not speak too hardly of the 

 severe English winter from which we are just emerging. 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBURBAN GARDENING. 



Propagating Bedding Plants. — Having last week made 

 some remarks on the raising of seedlings, I this week take up 

 the kindred subject of raising plants from cuttings. This mode 

 of propagation ought now to be in full activity, and where good 

 stocky plants of young and free growth are in request for the 

 flower garden means should be provided to give them every 

 encouragement to that end. 



It is much more satisfactory to put out a well-grown plant 

 which will under ordinary circumstances give a good effect at 

 once than to plant one that has been badly grown, and per- 

 haps in a starved condition, and which requires considerable 

 time to recover itself. I advocate spring propagation as much 

 as possible, ensuring as it does plants with good health and 

 vi gour to withstand sucoessfally the ordeal of a summer's sun 

 alternately with the smoky atmosphere so prevalent in and around 

 large towns. 



I do not advocate the growing-on of autumn-struck stock 

 plants for summer bedding of such things as Verbenas, Petunias, 

 and several other softwooded plants (the Geranium class ex- 

 cepted), which have been for months cramped thickly into pots 

 till their roots are matted together, and the wood has become 

 hard and the plants altogether out of character. Rather would 

 I advise that all such things be placed where a young growth 

 can be made from which to raise the stock of plants, throwing 

 the others away when that is done ; and it is surprising how 

 soon a stock of plants can be raised from such growth if proper 

 attention be devoted to them. 



The conditions are very simple — viz., a moderate heat with 

 a close atmosphere, not too dry nor too damp, but such as would 

 be secured by placing a handUght or two on the bed, in the 

 vinery, or even in the greenhouse or heatetl frame or pit. This 

 done, the mode of putting in the cuttings may be as follows :— 



Prepare pots of a moderate size, say 48's or large CO's. They 

 must be clean inside and out. Fill up one-third with a suit- 

 able drainage, coarse at the bottom and fine on the top, consist- 

 ing first of broken pots and then small pieces of charcoal ; cover 

 this with a very thin layer of moss, or in the absence of this 

 some fibry turf, to prevent the fine soil from running down 

 among the drainage. Next prepare the soil, which ought to be 

 fairly dry so as not to bind when handled; it may consist of 

 loam one-half, the remainder leaf soil well rotted, and good 



