ass 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICULTUEj; AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ AprH 25, 18CS. 



on the same night he was no more. He was much esteemed 

 by his brother gardeners and horticulturists <;;enerally, and 

 has left a widow to lament his loss. Mr. J. .lobnstonc gar- 

 dener to the Duke of 'Wfllington, at StrathCeldsaye. a posi- 

 tion which be had held for many jeara, has likowise to ho 

 added to the list of the departed. 



ON POEM AND COLOTJE. 



(Conlinued from paje 280.) 



But. i^ may be argued, the foliage of the ordinary bedding 

 plants. Geraniums, Verbenas, Calceolai'ias, Pentstemons, &c., 

 is deficient in marked character, and, indeed, devoid of 

 beauty. Just so: everything has been sacrificed to this 

 almost childish craving for positive colour. Foliage has 

 been regarded simply with resjject to colour; the truss 

 must be so and so, the habit such. Surely the rules so 

 empirically insisted on by florists respecting the form, 

 height, and habit of flowers are akin to the barbarous treat- 

 ment of cutting trees into peacocks. Does it not savour of 

 this when tweezers and plug~ are in requisition at our exhi- 

 bitions to improve the Dahlia. Picotee, or Chrysanthemum ? 

 What a consolation it is that the queen of flowers will not 

 submit to be tamperpd with ! But why not employ, for the 

 present at least, other plants for the purpose ? As I have 

 said before, a judicious admixture of plants remarkable for 

 their ib'iage would add a charm to the flower garden at 

 present utterly wanting. The able and enterprising ma- 

 nager of Battereea Park, Mr. Gibson, has shown what can 

 be done by the use of the so-called foliaged plants. Al- 

 though it may not be advisable to have single lines of 

 Ficus elastioa, oblong beds of Cannas and Wigandias, or 

 the black Coleus with Cineraria mai'itima, wo have abundant 

 proof, from the success already attending Mr. G.'s efforts, 

 of what may be accomplished by energy and good sense to 

 make the flower garden a really interesting and delightful 

 retreat. 



I shall not presume to dictate to the intelligent readers 

 of this Journal any new system of flower-gardening, but 

 submit simply a few suggestions, to be taken, as previously 

 hintf'd. for what .they are worth. Keverting, then, to our 

 simile of the trumpet, if the resources of the establishment 

 are limited by all means attempt only a solo, but let tlicre 

 be a good accompaniment. Some of the grandest effects 

 are produced in music by a simple unison, but unison does 

 not mean restriction to one note — there are tones of colour. 

 Suppose, however, for example, we take Cerise Unique Gera- 

 nium or ShruViland Pet for a circular bed ; plant among these, 

 if not too exposed, the common Fern Filix-mas, so that the 

 fronds shall partly overshadow the cerise, and wo have then 

 a varying play of colour from the shadow of the Fern fronds. 

 Filiifcemina browns and fades too early in direct sunlight. 

 Or what an exquisite group might thus be formed, or, better 

 still, in the conservatory with Shrubland Pet, Madame 

 Vaucher, and Adiantum capillus-Vcneris. Combinations of 

 the varions shtides of blue and white are beautiful, Ijut 

 sbonld be dashed with crimson to give warmth. Avoid the 

 conjunction of scarlet and yellow, of yellow and blue, and in 

 ercry case let there be at least one plant remarkable for the 

 beauty of its foliage occupying a central position. It is the 

 key of the picture; on it the eye first rests, .and then 

 wanders at leisure over the details. C.xnnas, Wigandias, 

 Perni, largo plants of Centanrea candidissima, or even the 

 great variegated Thistle, and the Artichoke, make fine 

 centre plants : no doubt your experienced readers could 

 snggest mauy others equally or more suitable. Crimson, 

 cerise, and white, and purple and sulphur yellow, form 

 pleasing combinations; so also crimson and variegated 

 Ba'm. purple and white. Generally speaking the secondary 

 colours are more m.anngeablo and'hamionisc i)C8t. 



I will not vr'ary your renders with further detail : no 

 donbt many r,{ them have ei j .yed during' the past summer 

 more bi'aiitit'nl combinations of colour than I could possibly 

 sngireit. or than may even be found in the catalogues of 

 the aeedBmen, in which may bo discovered not only scarlet 

 and >clh)w, but Perilla and Feverfow, the baasoon, and the 

 piccolo. I may add, however, that my moot Buecossful bed 

 last Kumm'T v/«n a pear-slinped one, edge'i with variegated 

 AIys»nm, a group of Imperial crimson Geranium in the 



centre. Purple King dashed with cerise in the body of the 

 pear, and yellow Calceolaria at intervals round the inside 

 edge of variegated Alyssum. It was, however, merely a 

 colour bed. A reaction, hon-cver, has taken place already. A 

 growing improvement is manifest in the taste for plants 

 with fine foliage, and especially Ferns. It is the function of 

 horticultural societies to foster and promote this taste. How 

 may this be done? 



A complaint has long been urged against the great flower 

 shows, that there is little or no novelty in them, and this is 

 especially the case with large miscellaneous plants — the same 

 plants occupy the same places year after year. Why not, 

 in place of one of the long central stages at the Kensington 

 Gardens, allot space for groups of plants, circles, oblongs, 

 or pyramidal form, and, as an extension of the system, oifer 

 prizes for the best arrangement of flowers in beds ? It would 

 be easy for gardeners to reserve in pots or square pans suffi- 

 cient plants for the purpose. Let them be arranged by the 

 exhibitor himself, under proper regulations, on a jjiece of 

 well-kept lawn. After the decision of the judges the prize 

 groups could be re.adily removed to a more conspicuous posi- 

 tion reserved for them within the exhibition tent, or else- 

 where. The great horticultural societies would thus enable 

 the public to form for themselves an estimate of what is 

 most suitable for them, a more correct knowledge of colour 

 and form as regards gardening would be disseminated, and 

 the public taste improved. It would add, moreover, an 

 interesting and attractive feature to our metropolitan shows, 

 — T. W., Harrow. 



BULBS UNPLANTED FOR A YEAR— VIT.VLITY 

 OF SOME FLOWER SEEDS. 



In answer to a query in No. 211 (April 11th), I am able to 

 state that, having accidentallj' mislaid some Tulip and 

 Turban Ranunculus bulbs at the time of planting, they were 

 left out of the ground till the following .season, when I planted 

 them in the ordinary manner, and that both kinds flowered 

 as well as those which had only been the usual time out of 

 the ground, and, I think, a little eai-lier. I will also mention 

 that having once collected a large quantity of seed from 

 some peculiarly fine Brompton Stocks I continued sowing 

 portions of it for eight or ten years, and it did not, in the 

 least, deteriorate. 



I lately tried on experiment on some Anemone seed, 

 sowing the p"oduct of three dilTerent years in three ridges 

 in the same bed, and I could not perceive any difference, 

 either in the time of their coming up or flowering, between 

 the three-year-old seed and that which had been lately 

 gathered. — Agnes. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Select OrrhidcKcous Plants. By Kobert Warner and 

 B. S. Williams. Part 10. 

 Wk give the hi^ihest praise when wo say that this is quite 

 equal to any of its predecessors. It has portraits, with the 

 usual amount of history and cultural directions, of Gale- 

 andra Devoniana, Epidondrum Skinneri superbum, Arpo- 

 phyllum gigantcum. and Lrclia purpurala. This completes 

 tlio volume, comprising a series of forty plates, and is de- 

 serving of a place not only in the library of every lover of 

 gardening, but on every drawing-room table. Wo ai'e very 

 glad to sec the a.nuouncenient at the conclusion of the in- 

 troduction, that a second series of forty plates, forming a 

 companion volume, in preparing for issue in ten parts. 



'Jlic Clirysanlhcmriin, Us IKslory and Cnllarc. By J. Salter, 



I'.R.H.S. Groombridge & Sons. 

 Jin. S\T.TF.u, of the Versiiillcs Nursery, Hammersmith, has 

 been known for abolit thirty years as a special and most 

 Bucccisful cultivator of the Chrysanthemum. Ho has now 

 published a volume relative to this his chosen flower. It ia 

 well illustrated witli portraits of model blooms ; it gives an 

 interesting history of the introduction and progress of this 

 florists' flower, and rj mple directions for itH culture and train- 

 ing as standards, as pyramids, as Bpecimons, and for cut 



