July 27, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



71 



potted" in very sandy soil containing about a third of peat, 

 giving^ the usual after-treatment necessary to plants of this 

 nature — that is, watering sparingly at first, increasing the 

 supply with the growth of the plants, affording them little or 

 no moisture when in a dormant state. They are greenhouse 

 bulbs. The genus was named in honour of E. J. Wachendorf, 

 a Dutch botanist. They are readily increased by seeds or 

 offsets. — K. 



GLOBIOSA SUPERBA. 



It is quite true as suggested by " W. T. S." on page 45 

 that thiB plant is highly worthy of culture. The flowers are 

 truly striking and remarkable, and cannot fail to arreBt atten- 

 tion wherever they are seen. They are both quaint and beauti- 

 ful — quaint in form and beautiful in colour. This is, as your 

 correspondent has stated, a very old plant, and also in a great 

 measure a forgotten plant, and it is now rarely seen in culti- 

 vation. The on-looker at the Aquarium who described it as 

 a " Lily of some sort " was not far wrong, for it is allied to 

 the Lily, and has as one of its several synonyms Lilium 

 zeylanioum superbum. It is also known as Methonica superba, 

 that being the name by which the plant is known in Mala- 

 bar. It was figured more than half a century ago in the 

 " Botanical Register," and in the first volume of that work its 

 name is referred to as being " more worthy of the whim of a 

 Dutch florist than of the taste of Linnaeus," and where the 

 plant is also well described as follows : — 



" The plant is singular as well as beautiful. The scarlet 

 undulate retroverted ascending segments of the corolla are 

 likened by Linnteus to so many flames. The style points hori- 

 zontally, and appears as if broken at the base and fallen on 

 its side. The root is a fleshy, brittle, elongated, somewhat 

 flattened tuber, bent downwards on each side from the middle 

 into a kind of arch, from the upper part of the centre of which 

 the stem rises. The stem is from 6 to 10 feet high, weak, and 

 supported by the hold the leaves take of the neighbouring 

 plants by means of a spiral tendril growing from their point. 

 The corolla varies from 2 to 3 inches in depth. Its place in 

 the natural system is among the Lilia, near to Erythronium 

 and Uvularia. • It is a native of the East Indies, and was in- 

 troduced by Mr. Bentinck, afterwards Lord Portland, in 1690." 



Although this plant is generally known by the fanciful name 

 of Gloriosa, its true name, says the " Cottage Gardener's Dic- 

 tionary," is Clynostylis, in reference to the way the style bends 

 to one side away from the stamens. In that work the cultiva- 

 tion of the plant is thus concisely given : — 



" It is increased by divisions of the roots and seeds ; if by 

 the former take a pot that has been kept dry all the winter, 

 say in March, turn it out, and separate the bulbs carefully 

 without bruising them. Place each bulb, with the end farthest 

 from the old tuber, uppermost in the centre of a clean pot, 

 covering it with an inch or two of soil, the pot being 5 or 

 10 inches, or any intermediate size, in diameter, according to 

 the size of the bulb; peat, loam, leaf mould, old cow dung, 

 and sand in equal proportions, with good drainage. Give no 

 water until the bud appears above ground, then water and 

 place in a strong moist heat, growing vigorously, and training 

 as the plant proceeds. When done flowering, and the leaves 

 turn yellow, refrain from watering, and shortly after turn the 

 plants on their broadsides in a dry place, and allow them to 

 rest until next season." 



To that it is only necessary to add that the plants after 

 starting into growth in the hotbed in which the pots have 

 been plunged, will grow freely in an ordinary stove, or even in 

 an intermediate house where light and a moist genial atmo- 

 sphere is afforded. They grow and flower freely, and where 

 a suitable house is provided there is no difficulty in growing 

 this remarkable plant— or plant with remarkable flowers — 

 satisfactorily. It is to be hoped that these singularly beautiful 

 flowers will not be so rare in the future as they have been in 

 the past, for none are more striking, and they are also easily 

 produced. — F. H. S. 



TAKE-UP THE EARLY POTATOES. 

 The growth of the early Potatoes, somewhat retarded by 

 the cold inclement weather of spring and early summer, has 

 been brought to maturity with great rapidity by the late hot 

 dry weather. I do not mean by maturity that the haulm is 

 decayed, for with the exception of a tinge of yellowness in 

 the lower leaves it iB as green and vigorous-looking as that of 



the late sorts, but that the tubers have ceased to grow, and 

 are therefore ready for lifting, which should be done with the 

 greatest possible promptitude and dispatch, because it is 

 precisely at this point that they become susceptible to blight. 

 An abundant crop of Myatt's Prolific Ashleaf and Royal Ash- 

 leaf is already in the store-Bhed in splendid condition without 

 a blemish ; other kinds will follow in due course, and judging 

 from present appearances I anticipate having the entire crop 

 lifted and housed by the third week in August. 



Let me repeat the warning so often given before — Watch 

 your Potatoes closely during the next two or three weeks, and 

 as soon aa you are convinced that the tubers have done 

 growing take them up at once however green the haulm may 

 be, store them in as dry a condition as possible, let the air 

 play freely among them afterwards, turn them occasionally 

 till they are thoroughly dry, and you may laugh at the disease 

 and have no need to trouble your mind about blight-proof 

 sorts — fungi, resting spores, or kindred subjects. 



As the crop is taken up carefully select seed for planting 

 next season, laying it out thinly at once upon shelves specially 

 set apart for that purpose. Avoid greening or any other 

 fanciful process ; only lift the tubers in a sound condition, and 

 there need be no fear of their not keeping well provided they 

 receive due attention in the store-shed. — Edwaed Luckhobst. 



FEATHERED HELPS IN GARDENS. 



I was pleased to see more than one notice of the usefulness 

 in gardens of that sprightly and unique bird the peewit, or 

 plover, or lapwing, for the bird is known by all these names — 

 in the eastern counties by the first name, in the western by the 

 second, and in books on natural history by the third. 



Having kept peewits I can speak much in their praise. If 

 I had a walled garden I should have them now; but wall 

 there must be, for this little bird is at the breeding season as 

 determined to escape as is that strange crafty creature the 

 tortoise, which when the time comes round will do its utmost 

 to get away, rearing its ungainly self on its hind legs and 

 trying every fence and bar : so likewise in its own peculiar 

 way will the peewit act. 



First I would say do not pinion the little bird ; it injures it 

 permanently. Cat the feathers of one wing (don't pluok them, 

 as they would soon grow again) ; cut them, and that will last 

 a year. Let them have a shallow dish or pan to drink from 

 and bathe in; then, not only in frosty weather, but in very 

 dry summers, when slugs cannot be found and the earth yields 

 no worms as now, feed them. I used to cut raw liver into 

 narrow worm-like pieces, and the birds fed close by me and 

 did well. 



Recently I saw a peewit in a walled garden in Hampshire — 

 a very good garden by the way — and he came to us at tea near 

 the summer-house and had breadcrumbs ; but the bird did 

 not look in good feather, for worms and animalculte are their 

 natural food, and failing them raw meat. I know no pet more 

 interesting if it become tame. Just a year ago I caught a 

 young one, recently hatched, on Salisbury Plain close to Stone- 

 henge. What a beautiful little ball of down it was ! and though 

 so young the full, large, handsome eye of the plover marked it 

 as no ordinary bird. I petted it, and put it on the ground to 

 the joy of its mother who was almost mobbing my hat, so near 

 did she come from her anxiety for her little one. 



I have mentioned the " full eye " of the peewit. The robin 

 is another of the fine-eyed birds. Bloomfield has noticed this 

 in his " Soldier's Return Home," where he says — 

 " That instant came 

 A robin on the threshold ; though so tame, 

 At first he looted distrustful, almost shy, 

 And cast on me his coal-black steadfast eye." 



That description of the robin's eye is very happy ; but the 

 peewit's eye is fuller and finer, with a softened look, for it 

 seems to swim in liquid light. 



I hope all who place peewits in their gardens will be sure to 

 remember that they cannot exist without food being given to 

 them in very dry as well as in frosty weather. Aye, feed them 

 on the first frosty morning. 'Tis a feeble little life, and must 

 be supported. How should we like to starve even one day ? 

 Shak6peare, who was a country boy, notices the habits of the 

 lapwing thrice, and in his own charming way — thus, " The 

 lapwing runs away with the shell on his head." He says this 

 of a forward fellow, alluding to the bird's precociousness. 

 Then he had seen the peewit's craft in leading the boy plun- 

 derer from its eggs ; hence he says, " Far from her nest the 



