^98 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTORE AND COTTAGE GAEDENKB. 



( April 9, 1874. 



" Dr. Koyle saya of this epecies :— ' In the native works on 

 Materia Medioa, as well a? in the common Persian and Hin- 

 doostanee and English dictionaries, Atees is described as 

 being the root of an Indian plant used in medicine. This, 

 the author learnt, was the produce of the Himalayas ; be 

 therefore sent to one of the commercial entrepots situated at 

 the foot of the hills, and procured some of the root, making 

 inquiries respecting the part of the mountains whence it was 

 procured. The plant-collectors, in their next excursion, were 

 directed to bring the plant with the rout attached to it as 

 the only evidence which would he admitted as satisfactory. 

 The first specimens thus procured, and the root Atees having 

 been thus ascertained to be the produce of a new species of 

 Aconite, was named Aconitum .Mees (Joiirn. Asiat. Soc, i., 

 p. 45!t) ; but which has since been asoerta'ned to be the 

 Aconitum heterophyllum of Dr. Wallich.' " — [Ibid., t. 0092.) 



PAX.iX sAMBCtnoLius. Niit. iird., Araliaceie. Linn., Poly- 

 gamia Dia-cia.— Native of New South Wales. " The singular 

 beauty of the translucent berries which persist for a long time 

 on the plant, recommend the latter for cultivation. These 

 resemble White Currants in form and transparency, but have 

 a faint blue tinge, and each is capped by a minute black calyx- 

 limb, and two thread-hke diverging or recurved styles. It is a 

 native of extra-tropical Eastern Australia, extending from 

 north of the New South Colony to Victoria; and a very simi- 

 lar plant (of which I have seen the leaves only) has been sent 

 from Tasmania. Like so many Araliaceffi the Ivy notably, the 

 leaf varies most extraordinarily, being simply or doubly pinnate, 

 and the leaflets being quite entire, toothed, lobed, or pinnatifid, 

 and the petiole flat or dilated between the leaflets. The 

 flowers are small and insignificant ; they appear in spring, and 

 the beautiful berries ripen in September. 



" Piinax sambucifolius was introduced into Kew from the 

 Melbourne Botanic (iarden by Baron Mueller, and flowered for 

 the first time in l>^TAr—ilbid., t. 009H,) 



Ei'iKENUKUM cRixiiERrji. Xut. old., Orchidaoea'. Linn., 

 (iynandria Monandria. — Native of Costa Kica. This species 

 flowered in Messrs. Veitch's splendid collection of Orchids last 

 January.— (Z&i(?., (. 6094.) 



EHor.u.v PoHLii. Nat. ord., Proteacea;. Linn., Tetrandria 

 Monogynia. — Native of Brazil. " The genus Rhopala is one of 

 the few American representatives of the Old World Proteace;B, 

 and is confined to the tropical and south temperate regions of 

 the New World, where nearly forty species have been found, 

 many of them in Brazil. They are, for the most part, exceed- 

 ingly handsome evergreen plants, with dark green shining 

 coriaceous leaves, and insignificant blossoms, usually dotted 

 with a rusty or golden pubescence. The present species is a 

 native of the province of Minas (ieraes, in Brazil, and of the 

 neighbourhood of Bio de Janeu'o, whence it was introduced 

 into Kew many years ago, from a Belgian garden I believe, 

 probably Mr. Linden's, under the name of B. corcovadensis. 

 It has flowered repeatedly in the Palm house early in the 

 year."— f/fc/i., (. (i09.3.) 



DELrHiNiuji Keteleekii. — " For this fine hardy perennial 

 Larkspur we are indebted to Mr. A. Watcrer, of Knaphill. With 

 him it grows n feet high, having bold deeply seven-parted 

 leaves, 10 inches across, with broad inciso-lobate segments : 

 and flowers in dense spikes, nearly a foot long, having several 

 short branches at the base. The blossoms are double, about 

 li inch across, cerulean-blue, the centre and base of the petals 

 tinted with rose, a tuft of small white petals forming a white 

 eye. This is a very desu'able ai-quisition among the double- 

 flowered hardy Delphiniums, whicb are plants of a remarkably 

 effective character. Of these double sorts we may just mention 

 Madame .Jacatot, large, soft blue or amethyst ; Dr. Edwards, 

 dark blue, a noble spike ; Princess of Wales, sky-blue, with 

 white centre ; Madame le Bihan, blue, shading-off to pinkish 

 violet. The most brilliant of them all, however, is D. sinense 

 flore-pleno. which we were glad to see Mr. Watei-er had taken 

 in hand, as the Knaphill soQ and situation may probably suit it 

 well. It is perfectly hardy, a true herbaceous perennial, which 

 may be readily increased in the spring, either by division or 

 from cuttings, the latter taken off when a few inches high 

 rooting freely. The colour is an intensely bright, dazzling 

 metallic blue. There are also some very fine single-flowered 

 sorts of the type of D. formosum, deep blue, with white centre ; 

 and a very effective new one, raised by Mr. Ware, called Cam- 

 bridge, of a pale grey-blue, with black centre, which is distinct 

 in character, and really attractive." — (Florist und Poniolofiist, 

 B. 3, vii. 73.) 



Peach. — Jiivers' Early Louise. — " Fruit medium size, rather 



oblate, with a deep and rather broad suture, ending in a de- 

 pression at the top of the fruit. Skin pale straw yellow where 

 shaded, mottled with crimson on the sunny side, the colouring 

 thinly flushed with crimson dots, which extend, though more 

 sparsely scattered, over most of the surface. Flesh whitish, 

 without any tint of red near the free-stone, very tender and melt- 

 ing, with abundant juice, and a sweet and remarkably pleasant 

 flavour. Ciood. Mr. Kadclyffe remarks, in a note which ac- 

 companied the fruits : — ' I send two specimens of Rivers' Early 

 Louise Peach. It is sweet, early, and delicious. They were 

 grown on a severe east-aspect wall, where all perished after 

 setting, except the Eoyal (ieorges, which are good on aU walls, 

 iu-doors and out. Early Louise has small flowers and kidney- 

 shaped glands. It is a long way earlier on a severe east wall 

 that any other early ones, such as Early York, Early Victoria, 

 and Early Alfred, are on a warm south wall. I consider it a 

 great gain, and that it adds another gem to Mr. llivers' already 

 radiant crown. They were ripe on August 1st.' ''—[Ibid., s. 3, 

 vii. 85.) 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBUEBAN GABDENING. 



The secret of obtaining a brilliant display of flowers through- 

 out the season lies more in cultivating a great quantity of good 

 plants than a great variety of sorts. Thus, at this season the 

 garden should be gay with Polyanthuses, Auriculas, double 

 Primroses, the lovely little Ompbalodes verna, Drabas, common 

 Wallflowers, various species of Arabis and Aubrietia, and many 

 other Alpine plants ; while among shrubs nothing can be more 

 beautiful at present than the various kinds of Kibes and Ber- 

 beris, with the showy Magnolia conspicua, whose pure wax- 

 like and deliciously fragi-ant flowers render it a treasure without 

 which every garden must be incomplete. These are plants 

 comparatively common and easily obtained, yet how seldom is 

 it that we see them grown in any quantity 1 In fact, these good 

 old things have been of late years altogether neglected, while we 

 have been running after Dahlias and other ephemera, which re- 

 quire great pains to cultivate them well, and w-hich frequently 

 are no sooner i.-i bloom than they are cut down by the frost. 

 This is neither good, nor good management, and therefore the 

 amateur is earnestly recommended to set about increasing his 

 stock of spring-flowering plants. Flower gardening, indeed, 

 will never be done well unless the arrangement is made as the 

 season passes on. Thus, at this period it should be determined 

 what plants are to be put in the beds next spring, and prepara- 

 tions should be made accordingly, and at the same time a similar 

 arrangement should be made for the summer and autumn dis- 

 play in the coming year. 



Gardening is an occupation wholly dependant on forethought ; 

 and although it cannot be expected that the amateur who only 

 cultivates flowers as a Uttle recreation and to vary the monotony 

 of business life, should recollect aU that requires to be grown in 

 the flower garden, yet by making memoranda at the proper 

 time, and by referring to them occasionally, he might provide 

 himself with many things which, by trusting to memory, are 

 wholly forgotten until the season arrives when the plants should 

 have been in bloom. 



What can be more beautiful than a large bed of common 

 garden Anemones? These, when selected and grouped in 

 separate beds according to the complementary colours, are 

 brilliant objects, yet how rarely do we see them extensively 

 cultivated. This is a good season to sow them, and, in fact, 

 biennials of all kinds. The Anemone deUghts in a strong rich 

 soil. The best way to sow it is to make the soil fine and light, 

 and then to mix the seed with a quantity of dry soil, scatter 

 it thinly over the prepared border, and cover it with sifted soil 

 from the potting-shed. Seed sown now will produce flowenng 

 plants this time next year, and there is an old saying, with some 

 truth in it— viz., that if you sow every month you will have 

 Anemones in bloom throughout the year. 



Seed of Auriculas and Polyanthuses must be sown in pots 

 and the seedlings transplanted into light rich soil ; and those 

 who are partial to Gladioluses could not do better than sow some 

 seed in heat and transplant towards the end of May into very 

 rich soil. Part wiU make flowering plants the first season, and 

 the whole in the second. 



In the preparation of ground for plantins and for grass, the 

 difference in the requirements will have distinctly to be kept 

 in mind. Plantations can hardly have too much good soil. A 

 thorough provision of suitable and mellow soil wiU almost 

 neutralise the disadvantages of climate or situation, and keep 

 plants always flourishing and healthy. For lawns, on the other 

 hand, a Ught, shallower, and poorer soil, if it bo properly drained 

 and worked previously to sowing, will bo preferable, as tending 

 to keep down undue'luxuriance, to promote the growth of the 

 finer grasses, and to check the development of rank weeds. 



Ground that is in any degree heavy, or that has been newly 

 drained, ought to be trenched all over, whether for grass or 

 plants. If the subsoil is clay, it may be turned up loosely in 



