si 



JOUE>fAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



t Julj 9, 187t 



night the nearer the thermometer stands at about 45' the 

 better. Mr. Anderson, gardener to the late J. Dawson, Esq., 

 of Meadowbauk, and the Messrs. Backhouse & Sons, of York, 

 have perhaps hitherto been the most successful in flowering 

 this truly beautiful species. — Expekio Cbede. 



THE CURIOUS WAYS OF PLANTS. 



Who can account for the ways of plants, or explain why a 

 certain species will grow iu one place, and will not in another 

 exactly similar, so far as human intelligence can determine ? 

 Some wild flowers disappear on the advance of ciyilisation ; 

 while, on the other hand, the Plantain, if the truth is told, 

 goes wherever Europeans go ; and in this country was un- 

 known until after the English came, following so closely on 

 their tracks that the Indians gave it the name of " White 

 Man's Foot." 



Some species, as above intimated, may be found in a par- 

 ticular locality, and nowhere else within half a dozen miles. 

 There is, for example, in this neighbourhood, in central New 

 England, one spot where are a few shrubs of the Mountain 

 Laurel (Spoon Wood) in a little patch by the roadside ; and 

 although this would seem the natural country for it, it can be 

 discovered in no other place anywhere about. 



Then there is the Fringed Gentian, which has been seen 

 beside a secluded road some six miles away ; but, with that 

 exception, appears wholly unknown in the vicinity ; yet the 

 Closed Gentian is abundant. Another of the perversely dis- 

 appointing flowers is the Dog-tooth Violet ; not, however, 

 more capricious than the Yellow Violet and the noble Liver- 

 wort (Hepatioa triloba), which, in certain dry Maple woods in 

 the one case, and in open knoU-covered pastures in the other, 

 grow in great abundance; still, one might search acres of 

 similar woods and pastures for them, all to no purpose. 



Another case, somewhat in point, is the Holly — indigenous, 

 or at least one variety, to moist woods along the eastern border 

 of New England; but so partaking of the aforenamed eccen- 

 tricity, that he may count himself a happy man who can find 

 it, and prove his success by great armfuls of it wherewith to 

 deck his house at Christmas. One gets glimpses of it while 

 riding through some swampy tract on Cape Ann ; the bright 

 berries and evergreen leaves, so suggestive of English good 

 cheer, betraying it. There, too, in summer, by searching 

 diligently, one may find a species of Magnolia, that being 

 about its northern limit. 



No common New-England flower is so little to be depended 

 upon as the trailing Arbutus. It is difficult to determine what 

 it wants. It abounds in gravelly knolls by the wayside, and 

 thrives on the very edge of pasture bogs, and in the shade of 

 woods ; and yet, with all this versatiUty, there are many towns 

 where it is never found, and where, though transplanted and 

 tended with care, it cannot be made to live. 



Quite opposite, in these respects, is the Cardinal Flower, 

 whose home is by the water side, the only place where it grows 

 naturally, although the kind of water is not of imminent con- 

 sequence, for it will do just as well in a dark nook under the 

 upheaved root of a Willow, on the edge of a mill pond, in the 

 muddiest ooze, as in the cleanest sand along a river's bank, 

 its chief requirement seeming to be that it shall not be crowded, 

 one stalk always standing by itself, independent of its kind, 

 and not in close neighbourhood to other plants. It is so 

 adaptive that it will bear removal to a garden, taking kindly to 

 its new conditions ; and there it will come up, year after year, 

 flaming out in live scarlet, in "one glorious blood red," as if 

 nothing had happened to it. 



There are other facts, more singular, as to the ways of 

 growth and " hows " of blooming. One can understand that 

 a Grape Vine may hold to its support by means of a tendril, 

 while an Ivy or a Virginian Creeptr secures itself by thrusting 

 its rootlets into a crevice of a wall or in the bark of a tree ; 

 but why should a Honeysuckle and a Bean vine wind in op- 

 posite directions, the one going to the left and the other to 

 the right ? and either will swing on the wind, or sprawl over 

 the ground rather than turn the other way. 



The Ketmia opens at nine o'clock in the morning, and shuts 

 at ten, as if it had a visual weakness ; while a bed of Portu- 

 lacas never expands unless the sun is out, and the hotter he 

 shines the wider they spread themselves ; and the Evening 

 Primrose waits until he has gone down, and then comes open 

 with a snap, like a subdued kind of fire-cracker. 



But most unaccountable of all, perhaps, is the Night-bloom- 

 ing Jasmine. You see a simple tree-like plant, with a plain 



style of leaf, at the base of which grows a spray of yellowish 

 green tubes, like lilac buds, suggesting, more than anything 

 else, a string of small candles. You look at them in the middle 

 of the day, and they are " only that and nothing more ; " and 

 you might, if you did not know their ways, forget all about 

 them ; but when evening comes, forgetting is impossible. The 

 room is full of fragrance, rich as Orange flowers, and almost as 

 subtle as Violets ; and lo ! your little candles are all lighted : 

 and from somewhere about them comes that perfume which is 

 BO delicious and so mysterious as to its source. The next 

 morning they begin to contract; by noon, the five points are 

 all close-packed, and there is no scent to them or about them 

 at all till night comes on again ; and so they continue, scent- 

 less through daylight, but of exquisite sweetness when dark- 

 ness appears. — {American Christian Weekly.) 



DIMORPHISM IN THE ROSE. 

 It may interest some of your readers to be informed how a 

 Rose tree in my possession has lately illustrated the adage, 

 " Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurset." About nine 

 years since an Austrian Briar Rose was planted against a 

 south-west wall, and has from that time periodically produced 

 fiowers of that peculiar and attractive colour which it is very 

 difficult to define, but with which florists are well acquainted. 

 This season, however, at a distance of 7 feet 8 inches from the 

 base of the stock where the bud was inserted, a small shoot of 

 about 6 inches in length has produced six bright yellow Scotch 

 Briar blooms, whilst towards the extremity of the same branch 

 many pure Austrian Briar Roses have presented themselves. 

 It is worthy of remark that there is one strong shoot, about 

 midway between the stock and the yeUow variety, which has as 

 yet borne no flowers, although it appears to be of precisely the 

 same character as the rest of the tree, less the particular shoot 

 alluded to. This is surely a remarkable effort of Nature to 

 reproduce itself. — West-Coonthyiian. 



WEST KENT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The fourth annual gathering of the West Kent Horticultural 

 Society took place on Saturday last in Camden Park, Chisle- 

 hurst, the seat of the Empress Eugenie, by her kind permission. 

 The day was fine, and the Show was visited by a large number 

 of weU-dressed people. About 1 p.m. the Empress honoured the 

 Show by her presence, and was attended by the Committee, 

 headed by their President, Lord Sydney, and accompanied by 

 the Earl of Darnley; and during the afternoon the Committee 

 had the honour of conducting the Prince Imperial through the 

 tents, and who left a substantial present to be divided amongst 

 the cottagers. 



The Exhibition was held under canvas, and occupied three 

 tents, SOU, 200, and lUO feet long respectively. The first was 

 filled with plants of which there was a goodly representation iu 

 thirty-one classes, and various miscellaneous groups sent by 

 Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea; Messrs. Rollisson & Sons, 

 Tooting ; Carter & Co. ; and Downie, Laird, & Laing, of Forest 

 Hill. These groups formed an excellent adjunct to the Show, 

 being as varied and quite equal to the groups shown by these 

 firms at the metropolitan exhibitions. Foliage plants were 

 shown in large numbers, and of good quality. A large mis- 

 cellaneous group was shown by Mr. Shaw, gardener to E. Wil- 

 son, Esq. Cut Roses were shown by Gr. Paul & Sons, Mr. Cant, 

 of Colchester, and Mr. Cattel, of Westerham, as well as from 

 numerous amateurs living in the neighbourhood, many of which 

 were in excellent condition. 



Fruit was also well represented. There were three collections 

 of fruit, containing Pines, Grapes, Peaches, Nectarines, Melons ; 

 and there was a fair show of these kinds of fruits in the classes 

 as well as Strawberries. Vegetables were contributed largely 

 by amateurs and cottagers, the Committee encouraging the latter 

 by giving prizes for the best-arranged gardens, as well as a 

 copious schedule for the different kinds of vegetables. 



VANDA LIMBATA. 



This is a beautiful new species, now flowering (for the first 

 time, I believe, in England) in the establishment of Mr. B. 9. 

 WiUiams, of Upper Holloway. It is a small-growing plant, 

 somewhat resembling V. Roxburghii in size and habit, but it 

 diilers from that species both in the flowers and its leaves also, 

 which are not so sharply keeled below. V. limbata produces 

 leaves some 10 inches long and linch broad, channelled above 

 but rounded below, and bright green in colour; spike erect, 

 many-flowered; flowers 1 J inch in diameter; sepals and petals 

 somewhat spathulate, bright chestnut, tessellated with mark- 

 ings of a darker brown ; lip large for the size of the flowerj 



