248 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
entering. These cases are built up with rockwork, containing a considerable bulk 
of very sandy peat and broken stone, and the roots of the filmy ferns are fixed on 
the rock by means of pebbles and pegs, and they soon take hold and root freely 
into the stony soil, and clothe the rockwork with the most delicious deep green 
growth imaginable. After the first start they have very little attention, for they 
do not often need either water or air, though they do certainly require plenty of 
atmospheric humidity, which is in part secured by keeping them close, so as to 
reduce evaporation to the least possible. An immense number of rare ferns will be 
found here in the finest condition. Here is the scarce Hymenodium crinitum, the 
lovely Lepidopteris plumosa, the delicate Heea spicata, Hymenophyllum demissum, 
Trichomanes fimbriatum, etc. Indeed, we noted about sixty different sorts of filmy 
ferns in all, and of tree ferns not less than fifty sorts certainly, the Dicksonias and 
Alsophilas being of course the most conspicuous. 
Turning about in the open ground, we are charmed with the plantations of roses, 
the collection of hardy herbaceous plants, the hardy trees and shrubs, and the 
strawberries. There is a fine piece of water on the property, wherein we see 
numbers of the rarer water plants, not in groups of two or three, but in great sheets, 
that it would be scarcely an exaggeration to speak of as we heard some one say, 
“there are acres of them.” The roses have been as grand here as in most other 
places, the soil suiting them admirably. But after all, the great feature of the 
Tooting Nurseries, is the collection of heaths and hard-wooded plants generally. 
All the ericas here are in splendid health, and it is a fact of very great importance 
that these delicately constituted plants thrive as well near London as far away in 
the country. This is at once a curious and interesting circumstance, account ed 
for, perhaps, in some degree, by the fact that the best soil for the purpose is obtain- 
able near London ; for, indeed,the Surrey peat is sent hundreds of miles by railway 
for heath-growing, because there is nothing in the British Isles to equal it for the 
purpose. Whatever be the explanation, it is at all events the fact that, while 
Messrs. Rollison have one of the most complete and extensive collections of ericas 
ever formed, they have also the healthiest plants ever seen, and their steadfastness to 
first-class plant-growing ought to bring about a revival of the higher tastes that 
prevailed half a century ago, when this house had fewer competitors, and 
plant-growing was in higher favour than now. 
PAPAVER UMBROSUM, introduced from the region of the Caspian by Mr. W. 
Thompson, of Ipswich, is a very showy poppy, which will probably be found an 
acquisition to our flower gardens. It is, no doubt, closely related to Papaver Rheas, 
of which it has the habit, but it differs somewhat in the leaves, and also in the very 
deep crimson of the flowers, the petals of which have a black spot near their centre 
which adds much to the richness of their colouring. Mr. Thompson states that it 
seems to need sowing in autumn. 
Tux Istanp oF RucEN, in the Baltic Sea, like many other small islands separated 
only by a very short distance from the nearest mainland, presents many interesting 
facts in its flora. The holly, according to the ‘‘ Monatschrift,”’ occurs in a wild state 
there, as well as the box. Some of the finer examples of the former are nearly 
twenty feet high, and very handsome in growth. The most easterly station for this 
tree in North Germany is in the Greifswald-ce. Schiibeler, in his “ Pflanzengeo- 
graphischen Karte tiber das Kénigreich Norwegen,” gives the northern limit of the 
holly as 63° 7'in 25° 23' KE. longitude, near Christiansund; and near Bergen 
there is a fine cultivated specimen upwards of forty-five feet high, with a trunk 
about thirty-three inches in diameter. 
Bosst#A LINOPHYLLA, which has recently bloomed in the botanic gardens at 
Kew, is well deserving the attention of cultivators of greenhouse piants grown for 
their flowers, as it has every appearance of being suitable for specimenculture. It 
is of elegant growth, the branches being slender and pendulous, and attractive in 
colour, for the pretty pea-shaped flowers are of a rich orange, and produced in great 
profusion. It appears to have been introduced from Australia rather more than 
seventy years since. 
