tiny 28, 1874. | 



JOtRjiAIi OP HObTIOULTDRS AND OOttAGE GAtliJENEa, 



m 



another collector fonnd nests of the same species at Seal, on 

 the Chart. As the insect is gregarious throughout the larval, 

 and even in the papal condition, it must be pretty noticeable; 

 and should it show a tendency to increase and distribute itself 

 would have to bo reckoned in the list of our enemies. More- 

 over, the hairs of this and the allied species have a particularly 

 unpleasant effect on the human skin, to which only a few 

 individuals can bid defiance. This was a fact, curiously 

 enough, known to the Romans, who forbad the administration 

 of the hairs of the " moth of the Fir " as a poison under severe 

 penalties, so at least the naturahst Pliny tells us. — J. B. S. C. 



MR. WILLIAM PAUL'SliROSSS AT THE 

 CRYSTAL PALACE. 



I WENT down to the Crystal Palace, not a day after the fair, 

 but alas ! several days after the private view, and departed 

 glories were but too evident. I went down specially to see 

 Peach Blossom. How delightful at last to get a good sensible 

 and descriptive English name ! How delightfully redolent of 

 " A Midsummer Night's Dream ! " But alas ! Peach Blossom 

 was conspicuous for her absence. She had overbloomed herself, 

 it was confided to mo by an attendant. Princesses Beatrice and 

 Christian there were in full glory and great abundance, but no 

 Peach Blossom. Happily, now, there is no dilliculty in making 

 her acquaintance. Of the Fioses that struck ma most perhaps 

 Coeur de Lion should be first mentioned, which is, I believe, of 

 Mr. W. Paul's own raising ; there was a very fine plant of it, 

 the flower being of a bright fresh rose colour and of good 

 solid substance. Firebrand disappointed me, there is hardly 

 enough solidity; and Madame Lacharme, except as a white 

 H.P., did not appear to be a first-class Rose. Louis Van 

 Houtte was very grand, and Ferdinand de Lesseps as bright as 

 ever. Richard Wallace, among the dark reds, appears to be 

 an acquisition. Barouue L. Uxkull (will the names ever grow 

 shorter ?) was in much beauty, as an improved Julca Margottin, 

 and Madame Bellon, which latter is of a colour much wanted 

 and is also of good substance. 



Among the Teas immense specimens of Celine Forestier 

 were conspicuous ; Le Mont Blanc, with its pretty Tuhp- 

 shaped blooms, by no means as white as its name imports ; 

 President, very grand, and Perfection de Monplaisir, a pretty 

 light yellow with enough solidity, apparently, to make it an 

 exhibition Rose. But where were Diana, St. George, and 

 Peach Blossom ? Echo, in the person of an obliging atten- 

 dant, answered. At home; and no doubt during the season 

 they will have there many admiring visitors. 



The arrangement of the Roses was, of course, in every way 

 worthy of Mr. Paul's well-known taste, and the public is 

 greatly indebted to him for those so-much-longer-lasting 

 springtide pot-Roso exhibtions. — A. C. 



AURICULA SEEDLINGS. 



" G. S." will be glad of any little hint that may savebim time 

 and labour over choice seedlings, and therefore he is welcome 

 to anything from my own experience that I can tell Lira. If 

 he will sow Auricula seed as soon as it is ripo and dry, which 

 will be in August, there is no need for anything like several 

 years to elapse before the set of young plants, at any rate, 

 begins to bloom. Seed sown August, 187i, and fairly grown- 

 on (not neglected I mean), will produce many plants so large 

 by August, 1875, as to bloom the ensuing spring. This looks 

 very good work and quick, compared with the blooming of 

 Tulips from seed. Wo cannot do this in less than four years, 

 and I have seedling Tulips first blooming this year which are 

 the last of sets sown in 1867. 



Let me commend Auricula seed to be sown on a firm well- 

 drained soil, say sandy loam or something free from perishable 

 materials that will fall away and leave it light and unsub- 

 stantial. Sow the seed upon the soil, not under it, and have 

 a square of glass with which to cover the pan when the seed 

 is sown. Let it lie bare upon the smooth moist surface of the 

 soil, and begin in three weeks or so to watch for the Uttle 

 white early tails of the sprouting seed. Prick these in just 

 overhead as they appear, and keep all genially moist during 

 the lengthened period of germination. This sowing bare and 

 prioking-in is a wrinkle impressed upon me uuiler the tuition 

 of patient George Lightbody. It secures the life of the 

 valuable weaker seeds, which if put underground might never, 

 of their delicacy, get a start at all. 



The young seedlings will require keeping neither very 



' close nor very dry the first winter. In fact, they will want 

 watching. If mosses grow, keep them down hj wateriuj with 

 clear lime water. It will not hurt tho higher organism of 

 the seedUngs. Kill the mosses early, or the decay of a larger 

 growth going on round about the young Auriculas may injure 

 some. Prick them out in spring as they get well into rough 

 leaf, and mind they have no check by drought, or sun, or 

 wind. Their roots for a long time are a good deal about 

 the surface, often running along it, and formed from tho 

 leafy stem above ground, and so aro peculiarly liable to suffer 

 from dry exposure. By no means neglect or cast away the 

 less inviting late and weak plants. Take pains with them 

 in all faith and patience. These will often be a year behind 

 the stronger in blooming, but may produce tho best flowers. 

 The coarser natures ever get on fastest. Keep the seed-pans 

 a long time, for stragglers may be coming-up till sowing-time 

 again. 



I would not trust unbloomed seedlings to a common open 

 border ; but still, as I grow a good number, I cannot pot them 

 all. Some, therefore, I plant out in frames looking north and 

 filled with turfy loam to within a foot of tho glass. For other 

 lots I make up a bed looking east, boarded and raised above 

 the ground level C inches or more. The plants thrive hero with 

 just a frame-light set on bricks at the corners to turn off wet. 



It may be of interest to state that last autumn I put out 

 rooted young plants of such free sorts as Lovely Ann, General 

 Neill, Lady WUbraham, Beeston's Apollo, Lord Palmerston, 

 and others into an east border, and they have had no protection 

 whatsoever from all the weather. None have died from frost 

 or wet, but they bloomed later, and the plants are smaller and 

 tougher, and the flowers were of less size than those in the 

 frames. Of course I tried none of the more precious kinds ; 

 but I know the time was when many a good old thing, rare 

 now, was grown in Lancashire and Yorkshire cottage-garden 

 borders and sold by the handful, more for love than money, 

 judging by the price. 



Circumstances so much alter oases that I ought to say I live 

 near the fresh and bracing moors, and so the air with me is 

 pure and free and dry. I3ut many years ago my father and 

 myself used to rear our seedling Auriculas in the ready outdoor 

 way I have spoken of, within a mile of Hull. — F. D. Hobnee, 

 Kirkby Mahcard, Ripon. 



AMONG THE PLANTS AT GLASNEVIN. 

 Whenever one takes a run to the Glasneviu Botanic Garden, 

 no matter what the season may be, he is sure to come away 

 gratified. He is sure to find the houses gay with plants in 

 flower, many of them of special interest from their rarity, 

 novelty, or singularity ; and he will rarely come away without 

 his attention being directed to something either absolutely 

 new or with which he has not previously made his acquaintance. 

 In fact, he will always find " something new, something to 

 please, and something to instruct." When there is an hour 

 to spare there is no more agreeable place to spend it ; and in 

 the early part of last week we availed ourselves of that relic of 

 the past, the lumbering 'bus, which, in the regretable absence 

 of the pleasant tram car, still plies between the Bank and the 

 Botanic Garden, and after a not particularly agreeable ride we 

 were soon face to face with the inmates of the Orchid house, 

 which was quite lit up and gay with plants in flower. More 

 especially was this the case as regards the stage which faces 

 the entrance. Here were in flower stately specimens of Vanda 

 suavis, and the finest variety of V. tricolor, Phaius Wallichu, 

 and P. intermedia, all with numerous flower spikes ; tho 

 lovely Cattleya Meudelii and C. bogotensis, Epidendrum ma- 

 chrochilum, and Blunt's charming variety of Odontoglossum 

 Alexandra;, &c. The effect of the Orchids was by no 

 means lessened by the soft voluptuous tints of some beautiful 

 Gloxinias ranged in front, or a fine plant of the large-flowered 

 variety of the brilliant Anthurium Scherzerianum which 

 formed the centre " bit " and lit up the picture, and was in 

 striking contrast with the dingy but most singular floral de- 

 velopments of the weird-Uke Attaccia cristata alongside it. 

 Passing on to the next compartment, the eye was at once 

 arrested by a fine plant of Cypripedium caudatum roseum, 

 with some dozen or more flowers, each drooping perpendi- 

 cularly two tail-like appendages or rather elongations of the 

 sepals, each some twenty or more inches in length, hanging 

 down like the dripping locks of the fabled syren. We re- 

 gard this as about the finest and most striking of the genus, 

 though for modest beauty commend us to the exquisite little 



