BRIEF REMARKS. 251 



skill as a florist, is positively a treat, and great numbers of gentry, 

 amateurs, and professional gardeners (not a few coming from distant 

 parts of the kingdom), have already responded to his invitation, so 

 widely given by advertisement, and have inspected his truly magni- 

 ficent flowers. His splendid stock of ten thousand Hollyhocks of almost 

 every delightful shade and hue, and the great majority of which are 

 now in their blaze of beauty, bloom, and perfection, contains some 

 seedlings entirely new, and others which are manifestly grand improve- 

 ments on former named plants. His beautiful deep crimson " Comet," 

 as a standard of the perfection to which these giant productions of 

 Flora may be brought, still stands everywhere unrivalled ; its immense 

 disc of individual bloom, its stiff petals formed into a compact hemi- 

 sphere on an elegant narrow flat, and smooth-edged guard leaf, render 

 its lofty and gorgeous spikes conspicuous and attractive, even where 

 all its compeers around are beauteous and brilliant. Alike distin- 

 guished amongst his present extended collection is his " Walden Gem," 

 no plant of which he has yet parted with ; it is a flower of rare 

 qualities, a rosy, ruby red, and its properties greatly similar to " Comet," 

 of the same character also, and bidding fair to be equally valued, 

 is a seedling of last year, " Charles Baron," a pale salmon, and named 

 in honour of the amateur florist who first brought Hollyhocks into 

 superior cultivation as florist flowers at Saffron Walden. In addition 

 to these, and the beauties named in the inspections of last year, ranking 

 as first class flowers, are " Purpurea elegans ;" " Rosea alba ;" 

 " Surprise," a deep crimson ; " Rosy Queen ;" " Obscura," silver- 

 shaded puce ; " Sulphurea palmata," an early blooming flower ; 

 " Spectabilis," an exceedingly showy specimen ; " Conspicua ;" " Sul- 

 phurea perfecta ; also a new seedling, " Orion," a deep rose ; with a 

 host of other varieties whose splendour in an autumnal noonday sun 

 cannot be overdrawn by pen or pencil. — A. Barfield, Dunmow, 

 August 22. 



LiLiuM GiGANTEUM. — Gorgeous as are many of the lilies, none 

 can compete with this in magnitude of flower, altitude of growth, or in 

 fragrance. I believe it was first sent to this country by Major Madden, 

 witii a large collection of other seeds, which were distributed among 

 tlie public gardens of tiie country. Mr. Ferguson, of the Belfast Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, has been the most successful in raising this splendid 

 plant ; and, I believe, the largest bulbs of this giant of the vegetable 

 world are to be found at and near Belfast. When of full growth it 

 attains the heiglit of twelve feet, bearing very large wliite flowers, 

 8j)0tted with crimson ; and the scent is so powerful that a single flower 

 'cannot be endured in a room for any length of time. Flowering bulbs 

 are not yet in the country, but both at the Belfast Botanical Gardens 

 and this place they are coming on apace. Many persons have received 

 seed of tins plant ; but as it requires peculiar management, few of the 

 seeds vegetate. It is perfectly hardy, and will for some time be a 

 scarce and rare plant. Splendid as the above species is, there is yet 

 another which surpasses it in magnificence, flowering bulbs of which 

 &re now in the Belfast Botanical Gardens ; but more about it some 

 other time. — Keir Short, 



