520 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CUPRESSUS. 



which they may be grown with great 

 advantage — on low treUises ; depending 

 from the edges of raised beds ; the smaller 

 and medium-sized trained over arches or 

 arched trellis-work, covering banks, or 

 growing on the level earth. Isolated, too, 

 some kinds would look very effective ; in 

 fact, there is hardly any limit to their use. 

 They cover arches, and the large leaves 

 make a perfect summer roof A cool 

 tent might be made with free-growing 

 Gourds, and it would have the additional 

 merit of suspending some of the most 

 singular, graceful, and gigantic of fruits 

 from the roof A bold and effective use 

 may now and then be made of them on 

 walls and on the roofs of sheds or out- 

 houses, as the roofs " carry " the large 

 leaves and showy fruit so well. 



A Selection of Gourds. — Amongst 

 the most beautiful are the Turk's-cap 

 varieties, such as Grand Mogul, Pasha of 

 Egypt, Viceroy, Empress, Bishop's Hat, 

 &c. ; the Serpent Gourd, Gooseberry 

 Gourd, Hercules' Club, Gorilla, St. Aig- 

 nan, M. Fould, Siphon, Half-moon, Giant's 

 Punchbowl, and the Mammoth, weighing 

 from 170 lbs. to upwards of 200 lbs. ; 

 while amongst the miniature varieties the 

 Fig, Cricket-ball, Thumb, Cherry, Striped 

 Custard, Hen's-egg, Pear, Bottle, Orange, 

 Plover's-egg, &c., are very pretty examples, 

 and very serviceable for ornament. All 

 these are well suited to our climate, and 

 there are many others equally suitable. 

 Mr. W. Young, indeed, exhibited a collec- 

 tion of 500 varieties, all English-grown, 

 the greater number of which had been 

 sown where grown, and had come to 

 maturity without protection. The ground 

 being manured and dug one spit deep, 

 the seed was sown the second week in 

 May. Many of the plants had no water 

 through the season, but others had it in 

 various quantities, and the more the water 

 the larger, freer, and better the produce. 

 Sowing in a frame at the end of April, 

 and exposing the plants to the air during 

 the day to prevent their being drawn, and 

 then removing the frame altogether to 

 harden them off before planting out, is the 

 best way to secure an early growth. Sow- 

 ing in the open ground under hand-lights 

 would do, but not so well. Where there 

 are waste heaps of rubbish or manure it is 

 a good plan to cover them with Gourds. 

 Although they grow under the conditions 

 described above, they do best with plenty 

 of manure, and should be mulched or well 

 watered if the soil be not deep and rich. 



CUPHEA. —Pretty plants, of which C. 

 platyceiiti-a (Cigar-plant; is useful for the 

 summer flower garden. It is a dwarf 



plant, about 12 in. high, with vermilion 

 tube-shaped blossoms. Easily propagated 

 by cuttings taken in September or April, 

 and put in slight heat, and also raised 

 from seed sown in heat in spring. C. 

 strigulosa is a pretty variety, useful for 

 planting out as single plants in the mixed 

 border for cutting from, but chiefly used 

 as a pot plant for the autumn greenhouse. 

 C. Ziinapani is a most useful annual, grow- 

 ing about \h ft. high, with flowers of 

 a rich deep purple bordered with a lighter 

 hue, resembling those of a Sweet Pea, 

 and of about the same size. They are 

 well fitted for cutting, as the branches 

 lengthen and the flowers expand a long 

 time in water. Other kinds are C 

 eminens., Galeottiana, 7niniata, ocytnoides,. 

 pKfpurea., Roez/i, and silenoides, all of less 

 importance for the flower garden than 

 those before named. 



CUPRESSUS {Cypress). - Graceful 

 evergreen trees, forming charming 

 backgrounds, but not many really 

 hardy, save in seashore and in warm 

 southern districts, and even there they 

 often perish in hard winters. The Mon- 

 terey Cypress is beautiful in Ireland 

 and in the western coast gardens, but 

 even there it perishes in hard winters. 

 The beautiful Eastern Cypress, so fine in 

 the Italian and Eastern landscape, is 

 worth planting under the best conditions ; 

 so distinct a tree would, if hardy, have 

 been everywhere planted long ago. I have 

 seen very fine specimens of it here and 

 there, as at White Knights. 



Many know the beauty of a few of 

 these trees in the small state, but few 

 realise their dignity and beauty as forest 

 trees, such as the great Japanese 

 Cypress, and if we take the trouble to 

 grow and group them well there are na 

 more effective trees in their perennial 

 verdure. But the system of increasing 

 them adopted in nurseries by which these 

 trees, being very free in growth, lend them- 

 selves to increase from cuttings like 

 verbenas and geraniums, does not help 

 to the possession of the trees in all their 

 dignity. Trees we should raise always in 

 the natural way, i.e. from seed, and I 

 find some of these cypresses and their 

 allies break into a number of stems and 

 lose the tree form, the result of this 

 cutting propagation, so entirely needless 

 in the case of forest trees of the highest 

 beauty which some of these are. In the 

 case of the numerous variegated and 

 other garden varieties, cuttings or graft- 

 ing must be followed in order that one 

 particular variety may be preserved. In 

 the tree this is quite needless and wrong ; 



