180 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[August 18, 1888. 



cither by divisions of the roots being transplanted 

 to where they are intended to flower, or potted up 

 into 4J-inch and 6-inch pots, in rich soil, or by seed 

 in shallow pans, in March or August. By adopting 

 the latter method of procedure new shades of colour 

 maybe obtained. The pans containing the seed should 

 be put into a close frame, and watered through a fine 

 rose. As soon as the seedling plants appear 

 give sufficient air to secure a sturdy growth, 

 and as soon as large enough prick out, at 2 inches 

 apart, in shallow boxes filled with a mixture of light 

 sandy loam and leaf-mould in the proportion of 

 three parts of the former to one of the latter ; return 

 to the frame, giving them a position near to the glass, 

 and shade from sunshine until the roots have taken 

 to the soil, subsequently potting the plants singly 

 into 3-inch and 4£-inch pots ; then stand the pots 

 on coal-ashes in shallow frames or pits, water, 

 and keep close for a few days until they have 

 pushed into the soil, after which a free circu- 

 lation of fresh air should be admitted. As the 

 plants show signs of going to rest water should be 

 given less frequently at the roots : keeping them on 

 the dry side during the winter months. Towards 

 the end of February remove the loose surface soil, 

 and top-dress with the mixture indicated above prior 

 to placing the plants in gentle heat — say a vinery or 

 Peach-house just started — when they will soon start 

 into growth. H. W. W, 



The Mimulds. 

 The richly marked flowers of this hardy perennial, 

 together with its easy culture, renders it a very 

 desirable and effective border and pot plant for con- 

 servatory and greenhouse decoration during the 

 spring months. The plant is easily propagated by 

 transplanting or potting up divisions of the roots 

 in moderately rich soil, and from seed sown in 

 March or August ; afterwards treating the seedling 

 plants in the manner recommended above for Aqui- 

 legias, tying out the plants subjected to pot culture 

 as soon as the flower-spikes appear. H. W. W. 



EpiI.OBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUU. 



This, just now, is very gay and effective in gar- 

 dens, and is a very telling and desirable plant for 

 certain situations ; the places, perhaps, for which it is 

 best adapted being half-cultivated spots, such as 

 woodland walks or shrubbery borders, where it raises 

 its tall spikes of flowers and looks quite at home. 

 This Willow-herb comes readily from seed, sown as 

 soon as ripe, or in the spring, and it may also be 

 increased readily by division, and when once planted 

 it spreads and takes care of itself. 



Pyrethrums. 

 Por flowering in the herbaceous border during 

 spring and early summer, and for cutting purposes, 

 Pyrethrums are very valuable, and especially the 

 single forms. These may be raised readily from 

 seed, and much variety obtained ; but to have really 

 showy, good sorts, the better way is to get a few 

 distinct named ones. Seed may be sown at once. 

 Prepare some soil by sifting, spread it on the ground, 

 make firm and water, after which the seed may be 

 scattered thinly over the surface, and slightly 

 covered, and then place over it a handlight to assist 

 it to germinate. As soon as this takes place air 

 must be given, increasing the quantity as the plants 

 gain size, till they are fully exposed to the weather. 

 The pricking out is best done during a dull showery 

 day, when the plants should be dibbled in rows, and 

 there left till they bloom, when those worth saving 

 can be selected and marked, or the inferior ones 

 pulled up and destroyed. If plants are to be pur- 

 chased, it is advisable to have them in pots at this 

 season, as then they suffer no check, and take to the 

 ground at once, but to enable them to do this they 

 must be kept well watered till the roots get a start. 

 Pyrethrums, both double and single, do well in 

 almost any kind of soil, but in the spring they 

 quickly suffer from drought, and it is only those that 

 have plenty of moisture that carry fine blooms. 

 Liquid manure is a great help to them when they 

 are.flowering, a period at which they will take any 

 quantity. The double kinds of Pyrethrum admit of 



ready propagation in spring, when they may be 

 divided by simply cutting them through, or by lifting 

 the plants and pulling them apart, as any that have 

 stood a year or two have numerous crowns, and each 

 piece with roots will grow. Division may also be 

 carried out in the autumn. J. 8. 



CYETOPODIUM SAINT- 

 LEGERIANTJM. 



This may be regarded as the showiest form of the 

 variable C. punctatum, from which it does not seem 

 to differ in botanical features ; it is, however, far 

 handsomer than the general run of the species, and 

 the bracts, which are highly developed, are barred 

 and blotched with chestnut-red of the same bright hue 

 as that seen on the yellow flower-segments. A glance 

 at the Botanical Magazine figure of C. punctatum, 

 t. 3507, which represents one of the lightest coloured 

 forms with greenish-yellow bracts without spotting, 

 shows how wide the range is between the variety there 

 depicted and the one we here illustrate (fig. 20) ; but 

 those who know the plant will have seen many forms 

 intermediate between the two. C. Saintlegerianum 

 was discovered in Central Paraguay by M. de St. 

 Leger, the finder of the pretty Oncidium Jonesia- 

 num, and was exhibited by Mr. Cumming, gardener 

 to A. H. Smee, Esq., of Hackbridge, at the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, March 9, 1886, when it 

 received a Pirst-class Certificate. On March 13 of 

 this year it was again shown, on which occasion our 

 illustration was taken. 



Florists' Flowers. 



THE FLORISTS' TULIP. 



Tulip growers have had to wait and watch for a 

 suitable dry time in which to take up their bulbs ; 

 and all are, no doubt, out of the soil by this time, 

 and enjoying that dry rest above the ground which 

 is always considered by Tulip growers to be better 

 for it than a wet one below ; and we are informed by 

 men of experience that the bulb which has been 

 kept cool and dry strikes root with far greater force 

 at its natural time for rooting, which is about the 

 month of September. 



It must not be supposed that when the Tulip bulb 

 is lifted and dry that, though life is dormant, it is 

 actually stagnant. As the Rev. F. D. Horner has 

 stated, in one of his pleasant papers on this gorgeous 

 flower, " There is no suspended animation in the 

 Tulip bulb. It is full of ripe and ready active juices, 

 and these are stirred by such nerve and pulse as may 

 be in vegetable life, and are used at once, though 

 invisibly, in building up tissue and structure of next 

 year's foliage, stem, blossom, and seed-pod, together 

 with, not least among the hidden wonders, the germ 

 of the bulb to follow. Cut through the bulb when 

 newly ripe in June and you will see nothing but so 

 many fleshyjuicy layers, united on a base, or radical 

 plate; but watch the bulb from time to time, as 

 autumn draws on, and you will see that its very 

 shape has been gradually altering. Instead of losing 

 flesh, it seems to have gained it, and its tissues are 

 fuller of sap than ever. They are tense, and bright, 

 and fervent ; while at the vital base of the bulb — its 

 most vulnerable part — the coronal of fibres, with the 

 point of every future rootlet almost pricking through, 

 is very prominent. Probably the pale tip of the 

 young shoot, the ' guard-leaf as it afterwards be- 

 comes, is already visible ; but, if not, dissection 

 would reveal every leaf of the future foliage — every 

 petal of the coming flower, with every chance notch 

 and imperfection of shape pre-figured in it — every 

 stamen, and the seed-pod with its triple stigma, only 

 at this early stage the proportions of the various 

 parts are not in their final order ; for the embryo 

 stamens are larger than the petals of the unborn 

 flower, and there is little or no visible stem. Close 

 by, and upon the radical plate, like the rest, will be 

 s^en a far tinier shoot, or eye, and this is the crescent 

 bulb for a year beyond the present. Contemporary 



offsets are similar germs, attached also to the radical 

 plate, and lying between folds of the parent bulb. 

 If they are large they may be seen attached in the 

 same way to the outer layer of the bulb." 



This passage, while it teaches some iuteresting 

 physiological facts connected with the Tulip, also 

 shows how necessary it is that the utmost care should 

 be observed in preserving the bulbs from the time of 

 lifting until that of planting. 



The Tulip appears to prefer a rather heavy in pre- 

 ference to a light soil. I think one reason why Mr. 

 Barlow's Tulips were below their usual mark this 

 season was the lightness of the soil in which they 

 were grown. While the incidence of the season had 

 something to do with the unequal growth — and this was 

 observed all round among the growers — the spongy 

 character of the soil had something to do with it. 

 Mr. Barlow finds great difficulty in getting suitable 

 soil in his district ; it is more or less impregnated 

 with metallic oxides, and these the Tulip does not 

 like. Old Tulip growers hold the opinion that a soil 

 that will grow good Wheat and Beans will grow 

 good Tulips also. A rather stiff and deep loam suits 

 it best ; and should it be too clayey, a balance can 

 be struck by mixing with it some chopped-up sods of 

 decayed turf and coarse river-sand. 



Mr. Horner has stated that he never had Tulips 

 better than when once, by change of residence, he 

 had to plant them after Potatos, in a clayey soil that 

 was well-drained and worked. If the soil is good, 

 there is no need to dig manure into it at the time of 

 planting; it is enough to give a surface mulching of 

 short manure after planting is done. The Tulip 

 likes a little salt in the soil. Mr. Horner further 

 states : — " I use the same ground every year for 

 Tulips, and nearly every summer, just after taking 

 them up, give the beds a fair sprinkling of common 

 salt, till they seem as if whitened by a slight fall of 

 snow, not quite enough to cover the ground." 



Some years ago a discussion took place in one of 

 the floricultural publications of that day on the sub- 

 ject, " What is it kills Tulips ? " The conclusion 

 reached — and it is, no doubt, the correct one — was, 

 it is wet, rather than frost, which kills Tulips. It is 

 the necessity .for drainage that illustrates the practice 

 of raising the Tulip bed above the level of the sur- 

 rounding ground. Wet is the most deadly foe of 

 the Tulip, and the moister the position of the bed, 

 the higher should it be raised ; in such a case 

 18 inches would be none too much. If there is a 

 good deep soil drought may not be feared, as the 

 fibres strike down very deeply into it. If a very dry 

 time sets in, and the plants show signs of suffering 

 from it, a good surface watering can be given with 



November 9 is the traditional time for planting 

 Tulips. In the days when such a fine collection 

 was grown at the Royal Nursery, Slough, planting 

 was always done wi Jim a day or two of Lord Mayor's 

 Lay. The later the district, the earlier should 

 planting be done. Something depends upon the 

 weather, for planting is best performed when the soil 

 is friable and fairly dry. This operation might be 

 performed during the last two weeks in October. 



What sorts of Tulips can be obtained by those 

 who are desirous of entering upon their culture ? No 

 one in this country publishes a catalogue of late 

 florists' Tulips ; but the following are grown by the 

 Northern florists, and they can, no doubt, be had : — 

 Feathered bizarres : Garibaldi, rich golden-vellow 

 ground, best in its feathered form ; George Hay- 

 ward, finely feathered with dark crimson-maroon — a 

 variety that generally comes in good form ; Storer's 

 William Lea, rich deep golden ground, and fine 

 bronzy-maroon feather ; Hepworth's General Grant, 

 a rich scarlet-feathered bizarre of the colour of 

 Orion and Dr. Hardy; Masterpiece, good pure 

 golden ground colour, finely feathered; William 

 Wilson, said to have originated from Masterpiece, 

 also very fine ; Ashmole's Lord Raglan, very finely 

 pencilled, and golden ground colour ; and Sir Joseph 

 Paxton, always good. Flamed bizarres : Sir J. Pax- 

 ton, Dr. Hardy, Orion, all to be depended upon ; 

 Excelsior, a fine dark flower, one of the late Dr. 



