AagQBt 26, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



187 



Abystabia. — When at Kew some yeftra ago we had a very 

 fine basket plant of this genus, but I forget its specific name. 

 It was an herbaceous plant with fragile stems that depended 

 some 12 or 15 inches below the baskets, and thickly laden with 

 whitish funnel-shaped flowers. We grew it in the tropical 

 aquarium and stoves. 



Begonia glaucophylla scandens. — This is decidedly one of 

 the best of plants for growing alone in a suspended pot or 

 basket. I prefer the pot. It produces quite a compact drapery 

 of green, depending for some 20 inches below the pot, each 

 branch being tipped with a cluster of bright red waxy flowers. 

 The finest specimen I ever saw of it was at Mr. Such's nur- 

 series, South Amboy, N.J. ; but Mr. Taplin complained to me 

 that it did not flower so freely as he would wish, but always 

 kept on growing. This is quite contrary to my experience of 

 it, as we had a plant of the same from Such's some two years 

 since, and so determined is it to bloom that it is with difficulty 

 we can obtain a cutting from it. It is partial to a stove or 

 warm greenhouse temperature. This is the only Begonia that 

 I can confidently recommend for this purpose, for no matter 

 how fine the numerous other species and garden hybrids may 

 be for pot culture, they are unequal to this one for basket 

 work. 



Cissus DISCOLOR. — A climber or trailer of good constitution, 

 its leaves being extensively coloured. It is an excellent subject 

 for large baskets in stoves, but for window or cool-house work 

 it is not very satisfactory. It propagates so readily from cut- 

 tings that every joint will make a plant. It requires partial 

 rest in winter, and at no time to be subjected to a temperature 

 under 40° or 45°, to be cut well back late in autumn or winter, 

 and started in a brisk temperature in spring. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the best way to grow this plant is to train its 

 shoots on stringj along the inside of the sashes, and then leave 

 it till it has nearly finished growing, when the strings may be 

 cut and the vines trained around a treUis. — W. F. — {American 

 Gardener's Monthly.) 



HERB GAEDENS AND NO BEES! 

 The market gardens around the metropolis have long been 

 famous, not only for producing the best vegetables possible, 

 but for producing them in abundance. To do this it is neces- 

 sary to have a great amount of experience, and the necessity 

 of such experience has resulted in certain vegetables and herbs 

 being grown almost exclusively in certain districts. At one 

 time an area lying between Kensington and Brompton was 

 largely devoted to the cultivation of Lettuces and CauUflowers, 

 more especially early ones, for which there has always been 

 a great demand, and which always command renumerative 

 prices. The rapid growth of the metropoUs, which encroaches 

 year by year most perceptibly upon the green fields and open 

 spaces of the suburbs, or the cheaper and more rapid transit 

 by rail, has done away with market gardens so near the centre 

 of the town ; the earUast Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Lettuces, itc, 

 are now sent from Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, and it is only 

 the more distant market gardens which retain their original 

 characters. Mitcham is one of these : its open fields, lying 

 fully exposed to the summer sun, are still covered each year 

 with fragrant herbs and flowers, although the greater part of 

 the acreage is devoted to medicinal or aromatic plants, yet 

 there are greater breadths of savoury pot herbs, and sweet 

 herbs for culinary use. The cultivation of these latter is here, 

 however, not so extended as it is in the market gardens of 

 Fnlham, where Lemon and common Thyme, Sweet Basil, 

 Maijoram, and many other aromatic ingredients for stnfliDg 

 or soup are largely grown, especially for sale at Covent Garden 

 Market. On hearing of acres of Lavender, Peppermint, &c., 

 visions of rural beauty, peace and plenty, naturally arise, and 

 if we do not expect to see a perfect arcadia in the village with 

 such sweet surroundings, at least we expect homely comfort. 

 Mitcham, with its acres of beautiful common, extending as far 

 as the eye could reach, with its hundreds of acres of aromatic 

 plants, presented no unusual picture of rural prosperity ; in 

 fact rather the contrary. It scarcely presented, that is to say 

 as far as the cottages and their entourages were concerned, the 

 pleasant appearance of an ordinary EngUsh hamlet. There 

 was an air of untidiness, a want of that knowledge which 

 makes the best of everything, apparent even to a stranger. 

 Most of the cottages had gardens, not very extensive ones 

 perhaps, but large enough to grow flowers, herbs, and hold a 

 stand of bee hives ; yet the plot of ground was in general not 

 at all, or very indifferently, cultivated, and a prolonged tour 



of inspection around the placo did not show us a single bee 

 hive ! Hundreds upon hundreds of acres of aromatic plants 

 only harvested in full blossom, and not a single bee ! Acres 

 upon acres of common land, where the air was scented with 

 the perfume of the wild Thyme, lying in beautiful purple 

 patches at the feet, and not a single bee ! During all our walk 

 of many hours about the place we never heard the happy 

 hum of this busy worker for man's benefit. Are the villagers 

 of Mitcham asleep that they do not see what a mine of wealth 

 lies before their doors ? Are they so indifferent to worldly 

 prosperity that they do not care to increase their means, and 

 thus increase the comfort and happiness of their homes ? or 

 are they so little versed in rural economy as never to have 

 heard of the profitable keeping of bees ? Neither the exteriors, 

 nor the glimpses we caught of the interiors, of these cottage 

 homes of England bespoke too much comfort, and yet fields 

 full of blossom, each blossom bearing in its nectary the drop 

 which might become honey, were wasting their sweetness, if 

 not on desert, yet on unprofitable air, whUe the workers amid 

 all that sweetness toil for the miserable pay of the rural 

 labourer, and never see that they might obtain comfort, if not 

 plenty, by availing themselves of those resources which nature 

 has spread so plentifully around, and of which anyone might 

 avail themselves by the exercise of the very smallest amount 

 of trouble and care. 



Agricultural la'oourers cannot keep fowls nor rabbits ; such 

 live stock is forbidden by harsh masters on pain of dismissal, 

 and they do not keep bees. The most inveterate money- 

 grubber who ever breathed would surely find no excuse for 

 forbidding a man to erect a stand of hives at his cottage door; 

 he could not lay an embargo upon the nectar which fills each 

 blossom of Bean or Clover. There could be no inducement to 

 petty larceny to find food for bees. The industrious insects 

 find their own sustenance, they rifle the wild flower of its 

 sweets, and what they take from the farmers' fields is never 

 known and never missed. Should prolonged wet or cold 

 weather compel man to give them a little food during winter, 

 he does not return them one-twentieth part of that which 

 he has taken during summer. Yet there is scarcely a hamlet 

 in England where the number of the hives could not be counted 

 upon the fingers of one hand. We live in the midst of fertile 

 fields. Oar Gorse and Heath-covered commons might prove a 

 mine of wealth for the industrious poor living in their vicinity ; 

 yet the Gorse flowers more or less from the commencement 

 to the end of the year, the Heather blossoms unprofitably on 

 the plain, they distil their sweetness to the winds alone, save 

 for the modicum of nectar gathered by the few wild bees who 

 seek from them their store of food. 



We pay thousands of pounds annually for honey and wax 

 garnered by the careful French peasants, whUe such money 

 paid for the fruits of home industry would elevate the social 

 status of the rustic toiler, and add to the prosperity of the 

 whole country. All money spent upon imported food is a 

 confession of weakness ; a nation which does not feed itself 

 dare not resent an affront, a sudden stoppage of foreign 

 supplies would leave the bulk of the people in a state of 

 starvation. 



With thousands of acres of wild heath and woodland, only 

 utiUeed to provide game for the sportman's gun, and which do 

 not help one iota towards cheapening food for the people, we 

 go on from year to year ; we import our beef and mutton, we 

 import our poultry and eggs, and we import our honey ! — 

 {The National Food and Fuel Reformer.) 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBUKBAN GARDENING. 



Caknations and Zinsias. — Taking plants for ease of caltura 

 and an abundant return in the way of fiowerB, there is scarcely 

 anything more worthy of recommending to an amateur's notice 

 than the above. The different varieties of Asters are also com- 

 mendable, but there is not that abundance of bloom that the 

 two former give. From a packet of mixed &eei of Carnations 

 there come numerous double flowers of more or less merit and 

 perfume ; and even some of the single ones — some of which 

 must be expected — are thoroughly useful in the vase or flower- 

 stand when cut; and they all have the merit of lasting in this 

 way a much longer time than many flowers of a choicer cha- 

 racter. Twelve months ago last March I advised an amateur 

 to purchase of a well known seedsman a packet of Carnation 

 seed at 5s., and he sowed the seed under two handglasses on a 

 bed of made-np soU. In due time the seedlings came up, and 

 were pricked-out on another bed till they were large enough to 

 finally plant out on a properly piepared bed consisting of at 

 least 18 inches in depth of common garden soU, with fresn loam 



