AprU 9, 1874. J 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



297 



make A. coronaria the subject of our remarks ; and shall firat 

 consider their cultivation from seed. The seed of the Anemone 

 should be gathered from time to time as it approaches maturity. 

 The earliest blossoms will be the lirst to ripen, which, if left 

 until the body of the others ripen, would be scattered by the 

 winds. It is preferable to sow the seed immediately after 

 being gathered, pursuing the same plan as has been described 

 in our paper on the llanunculus, and treating in every respect 

 the same. The downy uature of the seeds of the Anemone 

 renders their separation dillicult, and therefore it is not easy 

 to scatter the seeds equally over the bed ; so, in some degree 

 to effect a separation, it is necessary to rub up a portion of 

 sand with the seeds before attempting to sow them. In choosing 

 plants from which to gather the seed, semi-double varieties 

 that are the most brilliant in colour, with vigorous erect stems, 

 are to be preferred, as there is a greater probability of pro- 

 curing a good offspring from them than from those of weakly 

 growth and dull or run colours. 



Propagation bi/ Division of the Root^. — To' effect this it is 

 only required of the cultivator to select those varieties he 

 means to perpetuate and multiply, and divide them into as 

 many parts as there are crown buds with a knife with a keen 

 edge, being careful to make as small wounds as possible. 



Situation iind Soil. — A similar soil and situation should be 

 allotted them as has been recommended for Eanunculuses. 

 Although the Anemone will prosper in a somewhat poorer 

 compost than Ranunculuses, it will be all to their advantage 

 to have it well enriched ; and in order to have a lengthened 

 succession of bloom, it is advisable to plant at three different 

 periods throughout the autumn and winter. The first planta- 

 tion may take place in the middle of October ; and of the two 

 succeeding ones, a month later for the next, and the third in 

 Januar3'. On all occasions see that the ground is in comfort- 

 able-looking order ; give the same distance between plants, 

 and the same method of bed-preparation; indeed, with few 

 exceptions, they may be treated as directed for Ranunculuses. 

 Should winter set in severe before the roots have started, 

 there will be danger from their inactivity of injury from frost. 

 Guard against this circumstance by means of a covering of 

 mats or other protection. 



Lii'tinij-up mid Storini/ the Root.-i. — The Anemone U not 

 subject to suffer to the same extent as the Ranunculus while 

 in that semi-inactive state that succeeds the flowering, but will 

 in some seasons retain a freshness in the foliage for a con- 

 siderable time after seeding. But this state of things arises 

 from superfluity of moisture accompanied with heat. So, to 

 accelerate the ripening process, covers ought to be applied to 

 ward-oft' rain, but placed sufficiently high above the bed not to 

 interrupt the free action of the air amongst the plants. When 

 the foliage assumes generally a yellow withered look, prepare 

 to have them lifted, and be very careful in the process to pre- 

 vent the roots being broken, while at the same time as much 

 of the fibres and adhering soil as possible ought to be separated 

 from them. All their subsequent demands on attention until 

 planting-time returns is to keep mould from laying hold on 

 any broken portions of the roots ; and in all other respects 

 care for them is as necessary as for the preservation of Ranun- 

 culuses. 



Selection of Soils — Douhlen. — Admiral Zoutman, very double, 

 highly commended ; Azure Incomparable, dense blue ; Bleu 

 Celeste, fine ; Couleur de Sang, brilliant scarlet; Feu Superbe, 

 dazzling red, extra full flower; Grandeur ;> Merveille, rosy- 

 white, superior ; Keine des P8.ys-Ba3, rose and white ; Rose 

 Surpassante, white, with streaks of red, fine; Bleu Aimable, 

 blue, bordered white; Coronation, rose; Cramoisie, splendid 

 crimson, great bloomer ; Emjieror Alexander, crimson and 

 white, fine, superb scarlet; Firo King, blazing scarlet ; Ivan- 

 hoe, white, extra ; L'Oracle du Siicle, scarlet and white stripe, 

 tine; Lord Nelson, deep violet; Miss Kitty, rose-red; Queen 

 Adelaide, light purple, tine large flower ; Solfaterre, orange- 

 red and purple, striped irregularly ; Sophia, scarlet and purple ; 

 and Victoria Eegina, dense red, extra tine. 



For distributing in flower borders and shrubberies, many of 

 the single lands of Anemones are eminently suitable, some 

 displaying their abundantly-produced flowers in the spring 

 mouths, others in summer, and again, others in autumn and 

 winter. For instance, A. japonica flowered profusely in a 

 cool house over the dead of winter. Both the kinds known 

 as japonica alba and japonica elegaus succeed well in pots, as 

 well as others. There exists a splendid assortment also of the 

 old hortensis, both single and double ; and too many of either 

 class cannot be planted in mixed borders ; and they are like- 



wise very eft'eetive in the flower garden proper, either in masses 

 or isolated. — A. KEr.ii (in The Gardeiur). 



PORTKAITS OP PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



CoLCHicuM Pabkinsoni. Nat. or./., Melanthaceie. Linn , 

 Hexaudria Trigynia. — Native of the Grecian Archipelago. 

 " This charming Meadow Saffron appears to have been actu- 

 ally lost sight of by botanists for nearly two and a half cen- 

 turies. It is originally very accurately described and rudely 

 figured by Parkinson, in the ' Paradisus Terrestris,' published 

 in 1020, where it is distinguished from the other tessellated- 

 flowered Colehicums by its smaller size, brighter, clearer 

 colouring, and the undulated leaves lying flat on and ap- 

 pressed to the ground. 



" Kay, in his ' Historia Plautarum,' p. 117-!, published in 

 ItiHrt, keeps up Parkinson's plant under his name, but adds to 

 it Cornutis's C. variegatum as the same thing. In this he was 

 mistaken, for a reference to Cornutis's work, published in 1(335, 

 with a rude woodcut, proves that his is a very diti'erent plant, 

 a native of Messina, and is probably that now known as 

 C. Bivonffi, Guss. The plant now called variegatum, and 

 which is supposed to be the Liuuffian one, is also a native of 

 Greece, and is figured at tab. 102W of this work (copied and 

 reversed in Eeiehenbach's ' Flora Exotica',' t. 57, without 

 acknowledgment). This, Mr. Baker informs me, is a much 

 larger species than the subject of the present plate, with less 

 pronounced and coarser tessellation, and having sub-erect 

 leaves a foot high and less undulated. It is known under the 

 name of C. variegatum, tessellatum, and agrippinum in 

 English gardens, and is liable to be killed in severe winters. 



"With regard to Haworth's name of chionense, cited with- 

 out a reference by Kunth, I can nowhere else find it ; and 

 having no means of knowing to what plant he applied it, I 

 hesitate to apply it to this, which should henceforth bear the 

 name of the acute old botanist who first published it, and 

 whose (juaint and characteristic description I here give at 

 length ; — 



" ' This most beautiful Saffron flower riseth up with his 

 flowers in the autumn, as the others before specified do, 

 although not of so large a size, yet far more pleasant and 

 delightful in the thick, deep blew or purple-coloured beautiful 

 spots therein, which make it excel all others whatsoever : the 

 leaves rise up in the spring, being smaller then the former, for 

 the most part three in number, and of a paler or fresher green 

 colour, lying close upon the ground, broad at the bottom, a 

 little pointed at the end, and twining or folding themselves in 

 and out at the edges, as if they were indented. I have not 

 seen any seed it hath born : the root is hke unto the others of 

 this kinde, but small and long, and not so great : it flowreth 

 later for the most part then any of the other, even not until 

 November, and is very hard to be preserved with us, in that 

 for the most part the root waxeth lesse and lesse every year, 

 our cold country being so contrary unto his natural, that it 

 will scarce shew his flower ; yet when it flowreth any thing 

 earlie, that it may have any comfort of a warm sun, it is the 

 ■glory of all these kiudes.' — l-'anidism Tcncslris, p. 15(). — 

 J. D. II."—{Bvt. May., t, (3090.) 



Beschoenkbia Tonelii. Nat. ord., Amaryllidaceie. Linn., 

 Hexandria Monogynia. — Native of Mexico. " According to 

 General .Jacobi, who (in Otto's work), has given a sketch 

 of the genera and species of Agaveii , the genus Beschor- 

 neria contains four species, of which two are now figured 

 in this Magazine, and the others, B. yuccoides and B. Pai-- 

 mentieri CVucca Parmentieri, r,<ie:l), are unknown to me. 

 Unfortunately General Jacobi gives no description of B. ToneUi, 

 his conspectus of Aloinese, which was commenced in the work 

 referred to, not having been continued to Beschorneria, and I 

 am therefore dependant on the authority of Mr. Wilson 

 Saunders's garden for the name this plant bears." — (Ibid., 

 t. G091.) 



AcoNiTUM HEiEKornvLLVM. A'(((. orrf., Kanunculacea'. Linn., 

 Polyandria Trigynia. — Native of the Western Himalaya. 

 " Though a member of a most poisonous genus, it is in ex- 

 tensive use as a tonic medicine throughout K. India, under 

 the name of Atees or Atis. It inhabits the whole Western 

 Himalaya, from Kumaon to Kashmir, at elevations from 

 8-13,000 feet, growing in moist places, at the edge of forests, 

 (tc. It is a near ally of the famous Bikh poison of tke same 

 mountains, which does not seem to differ from our deadly 

 A. Napellus (Monkshood). 



