JOURNAL OF HOBTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Jannary 1, 1874. 



ordinary sprinRS I have ever seen. They bnbble-up from the 

 chalk ; and so great is their vohime, that at 50 yards they make 

 a current sufficient to turn a mill. In fact we are surrounded 

 by springs. One rises in my garden, and I have, by means of 

 what is called in these parts a " dip," a plentiful supply of 

 water. I wish I could say it is of the best quality for gardening 

 purijoses, but as it rises in the chalk and is largely impregnated 

 with it, it is of course hard, and is, I believe, very injurious to 

 hardwooded plants. The one great want of my garden is a 

 wall, but I am in good hope of being able to remedy this want 

 before long ; if so, it will be in a good aspect for fruit, facing 

 aboiit S.S.W. I have not much shade, and am now rather in 

 a fix as to where I shall place my Auricula frames for the 

 summer if my wall is built, for the shady place they now 

 occupy will be demolished. 



My glass is not very extensive. It consists of a span-roofed 

 house about 20 feet by 10, and a smaller and lower house con- 

 nected with it. The upper house is devoted to Azaleas, Camel- 

 lias, Pelargoniums, &c. ; the lower one is filled by a couple 

 of Vines, and is used for many purposes — putting Camellias 

 in after they h.ave done blooming. Hyacinths when they are 

 first taken out of the bed of leaves in which they are plunged. 

 Chrysanthemums when they come into flower, Ac. Besides 

 this I have a five-light pit in which I winter Carnations and 

 other plants, and afterwards grow a few Melons; a small house 

 for blooming my Auriculas, and of course my Auricula frames ; 

 a large Cucumber frame ; and for my winter or rather early 

 spring salading a goodly length of Looker's Acme Protectors. 

 Besides this I have about half an acre of light sandy soil in 

 which I grow Potatoes, &c. 



It will thus be seen that in many points I am not unfavour- 

 ably situated. Soil is good except for Eoses, climate excellent, 

 and situation sheltered ; my disadvantages being the hard nature 

 of the water and want of shade. My gardener is a factotum — 

 groom, gardener, &c., does what he is told, but is not enough 

 of a gardener to fancy he knows more than his master. The 

 flowers I especially cultivate are Hyacinths, Auriculas, Eoses, 

 Gladioli, Picotees and Carnations, and the Eanunculus; and as 

 I can go on with them from March to October, I can always tell 

 my friends, " Although I cannot show you a garden, I can, if 

 you are a lover of flowers, always show you something worth 

 looking at." Such is my garden, and of the results of my gar- 

 dening during the past year I hope to teU in future papers. I 

 am sorry to say there is one thing I take shame to myself for — 

 my garden is not as tidy as it ought to be ; but it is difficult, 

 unless where you can afford plenty of labour, to keep a florist's 

 garden in good order, and I must say in extenuation of myself 

 that I never saw a garden in which weeds thrive so vigorously; 

 the Sow Thistle, especially, is a most inveterate plague. I hope 

 the garden is improving in this respect, but still it is not what 

 it ought to be, or what I hope it ere long will be. — D., Deal. 



ALPINE PLANTS FOR WINTEE BEDDING. 



The person who does not admire the great majority of hardy 

 Alpine plants is not to bo envied, for he debars himself from 

 one of the most beautiful and interesting fields of study and 

 observation which the flora of the world affords. That these, 

 in most instances, tiny gems are coming more into notice, is 

 certainly a matter for congratulation. Besides much else that 

 can be said for a great many of them, it can be said that as 

 the freshness and beauty of other hardy flowers decay, the 

 freshness and charms of many of the Alpine plants are most 

 conspicuous at the " fall of the leaf," and downwards through 

 the winter. In whatever way they are arranged or grown, 

 they are always objects of great beauty and interest. A well- 

 arranged collection of Alpines, whether in pots, in a mixed 

 border, or on a properly-constructed rockwork, is sure to give 

 much interest to their votaries every day in the year. And 

 these are common enough ways of cultivating and arranging 

 them, and not a word can be said against them. But the use 

 of these gems as carpeting or bedding plants is as yet com- 

 paratively rare. We are, however, convinced that their extreme 

 attractiveness when so used — in groups and in quantities to- 

 gether — is not so well known and appreciated as it should be, 

 and it only requires a few striking examples of Alpine bedding 

 to commend this system of planting them to all lovers of 

 winter gardening. 



Indeed, it would seem that, from the way nature nurtures 

 these lively plants, to cultivate them in large surfaces is the 

 correct way of bringing out their striking beauty to perfection. 

 Look, for instance, at a small morsel of some of the glaucous 



Sedums and beantitully-incrusted Saxifrages, and then go 

 and view the same plants by the square yard and see how very 

 much more striking they look the one way as compared to the 

 other. And this is exactly how they show themselves in their 

 natural condition. 



We would advise some of our readers who have a series or 

 group of beds not very large in their gardens, to try the bed- 

 ding of these gems after the following method. Suppose a 

 circular bed rising somewhat cone or globe shaped to its centre. 

 Let the first ring next the Box or grass edging be of Sedum 

 dasyphyllum, the second ring of Saxifraga rosularis, the third 

 of Sempervivum californicum, the fourth of Arabis lucida 

 variegata, the fifth of Saxifraga longifolia vera, and the sixth 

 or centre of the bed be Saxifraga ceratophylla. The rings 

 formed of these should be a few inches in breadth ; and seen 

 in such breadth, and in concentric rings, their individual 

 beauty is much more conspicuous than when mixed up in 

 small patches with other plants. This is just one example of 

 scores of combinations and plants that could be adopted. Then 

 for carpeting, how charmingly beautiful is a carpet of Sedum 

 dasyphyllum or Sedum acre aurenm, or Thymus tomentosus, 

 or Saxifraga glabra; Veronica repens, Veronica alpestris, Pe- 

 rinaria glabra, and many other beautiful dwarf spreading 

 plants which will occur to the minds of all acquainted with, 

 Alpine flora, and which supply colours almost as varied as the 

 summer bedding plants, and aspects of vegetation far more 

 chaste and interesting ! Take, for instance, a bed covered 

 densely over with the quite brownish grey, edge it with Saxi- 

 fraga rosularis, or S. incrustata, or even Sedum acre aureum, 

 and dot the centre or body of the bed, at intervals of 8 or 

 9 inches, with large well-developed plants of that gem among 

 Saxifrages, S. longifolia vera, and there will be produced a 

 bed that must look charming the whole winter, or, indeed, the 

 whole year. This is another combination only indicative of 

 what can be done with the family of hardy Alpines in the way 

 of grouping. 



Then for dressing the surface of beds in which Hyacinths,. 

 Crocuses, TuHps, &a., are planted for early spring-flowering, 

 what could excel as a beautiful carpeting, or what could show 

 off bulbous flowers to more advantage, than the dwarf plants 

 named above, and scores of others which might be mentioned ? 

 If these plants were difficult to propagate or keep, we would 

 hesitate to recommend them for such a purpose ; but most of 

 them are so easily managed, and propagate so rapidly, that 

 they can be grown in breadths in any out-of-the-way corner,, 

 and many of them lifted in great tufts and planted with the 

 greatest ease, and without any check or injury to themselves. 

 The low, dense-growing, surface-rooting Saxifrages, Sedums, 

 and Veronicas, Antennarias, Ac, should be planted on a few 

 inches of soil spread over a hard surface, and when required, 

 as indicated above, late in autumn for planting and carpeting, 

 they can be lifted without check in any size or shape of tufts 

 required. 



ISeautiful as are Alternantheras and other plants used for 

 summer carpeting, we do not consider it any disparagement to 

 such plants to say that they are not nearly so interesting to an 

 observant mind and eye as are these gems of beauteous hues 

 and more beautiful construction, which, in addition to their 

 beauty, are so hardy that they put on their best dress as other 

 plants unclothe themselves of foliage and flowers. We hope 

 our readers will bo induced to try this style of grouping or 

 planting Alpine plants, and that they will report on them ic 

 due time. It is a system of hardy gardening which only 

 requires to be begun to become one of extreme interest and 

 beauty. — I). Thomson (in The Gardener). 



THE POTATO DISEASE— LORD CATHCART'S 



PRIZE. 



It will be seen from the report of the Judges appointed to 

 examine the essays on the Potato disease sent-iu in competition 

 for the prize of £100 offered by Earl Cathcart, that this praise- 

 worthy attempt to arrive at some settlement of the vexed 

 question of the primary cause of the disease and the best 

 means for its prevention, has ended in a failure, notwith- 

 standing the fact that no fewer than ninety-four essays were 

 sent in. The comments of the Judges will be found below. In 

 introducing the report at a recent meeting of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, Mr. J. Dent Dent, M.P., said that the Com- 

 mittee had received the Report of the Judges who were ap- 

 pointed to award the prize offered by Earl Cathcart for the 

 best essay on the Potato disease and its prevention, and after 



