July 27, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



73 



Three years after the original find, Dr. Moore was again 

 botanising in the same district, and visiting the same meadow 

 again came upon it. In all his explorations, there or else- 

 where, he never met with it outside that particular spot. 

 From all this it will be seen that, besides being prized for its 

 beauty, this form possesses considerable botanical interest. 



We turn, however, from it for the present to notice another 

 quite novel and very remarkable form of the species, recently 

 discovered by the Hon. Mrs. Barton, Straffan House, Co. 

 Kildare, in a meadow near Glenade, Co. Leitrim, at the base 

 of the Benbullen range of mountains. The fortunate finder 

 forwarded to Dr. Moore the only speoimen removed, and he 

 regards it as being the most beautiful of all our Irish Orchids. 

 The plant was fully 14 inches high, and had a close raceme of 

 flowers covering the rachis for fully 5 inches or more of its 

 length. It bore, as Dr. Moore remarks, more resemblance to 

 the raceme of some of the Indian Orchids, such as Sacco- 

 labium Blumei, than it does to our ordinary forms. The 

 leaves are short and stout, fully 3 inches wide, and beautifully 

 spotted with purple. Only two plants of this splendid variety 

 were met with by the finder when botanising in that rich 

 district. One of these she removed ; the other, with the in- 

 stinct of the true botanist, she let remain. We Bincerely con- 

 gratulate the Hon. Mrs. Barton on this fortunate find, and 

 quite agree with Dr. Moore's suggestion that in future it be 

 known to botanists as Orchis latifolia var. Bartonas. This 

 fine variety would appear to be, as is unquestionably the pre- 

 cocious county Dublin variety, quite worthy of the care and 

 skill of the horticulturist, should it ever become common 

 enough to get into his hands. 



Few are aware of what many of our native Orchids are 

 capable of under cultivation, and none of them we apprehend 

 would be more calculated to make a pleasing return for the 

 care and skill bestowed than these beautiful forms of 0. lati- 

 folia. — (Irish Farmers' Gazette.) 



PLANTS FOR KOCKEET. 



Oue climate is very cold and rainy, our situation high and 

 exposed, and ,the winds draw round and between the house 

 and church with such violence as to cut most plants to pieces. 

 I have a rockery close to the house, and the winds, cold, and 

 perhaps soil have made great havoc with many plants. Among 

 those of which every plant has died during the last two winters 

 are Lithospermum, several kinds of Sedum, Helianthemum, 

 all variegated Arabises and AlySBums, Hepaticas, and Genti- 

 anas (excepting two or three), Gnaphalium luteum, Linum 

 flavum, Euonymus variegata, Achillea tomentosa, Myosotis 

 dissitiflora, Aubrietias of all kinds, and Helianthomums. The 

 Helleborus nigsr lives in peat at the top of the rockery, but 

 never flowers ; the Rock Cistus barely lives. Some of the 

 Phlox reptans and Nelsoni and Ericas have lived and some 

 died. The Statice coccinea has in most cases lived, also Sem- 

 psrvivum globiferum and flagelliforme,but other Sempervivums 

 have died. 



The following seem to thrive pretty well : Iberis sempervirens 

 and corriffifolia, Alchemilla alpina, Primula farinosa, Auriculas, 

 Campanula rostrum and pumila, Saponaria ocymoides, Adonis 

 vernalis, Aster alpina, common Stoneerop, iEnothera, Geranium 

 Wallichianum, and Achillea millefolia, the two last on the north 

 side in heavier moister soil. Being afraid of the rainy climate 

 I perhaps made the top foot of soil too poor and dry with sand 

 in nearly equal proportions to garden soil ; but there is a foot 

 or two, and in the upper part 2 or 3 feet, of good soil below 

 this. Perhaps also the rockery is too well drained, being built 

 on a stony mound as the base. Will you advise me whether 

 to enrich the surface with a little more good garden soil and 

 manure during the winter ready for replanting in spring ; and 

 also oblige me with a list of twelve to fifteen of the very best 

 and most effective rock plants suitable, which will do well 

 without fail, and make good big clumps in a moderate time ? 

 I wish to go in for a few that will be sure to do well under the 

 above circumstances, and cover the rockery with broad sheets 

 of colour during the spring months ; also please to mark those 

 which will do best on some steep ledges where the soil is 

 shallow and liable to become very dry. Among those I should 

 like to have, if you think they would do when soil is enriched, 

 are the following: Woodruff (Asperula odorata), Musk, Au- 

 brietia, Gentiana acaulis, Cerastium, CEuothera macrocarpa, 

 and some kinds of Myosotis. For the sake of time and expense 

 I should prefer those which are quickly iucre&3ed, or can be 

 easily grown from seed this summer. I have two cold frames, 



would you therefore advise me for safety to keep all seedlings 

 in them during winter, so as to have the whole stock ready to 

 plant out in spring ? I fear if planted in autumn they might 

 be lost during winter from not being well established. I have 

 already sown Iberis sempervirens, Alyssum saxatile, (Enothera 

 maorocarpa, Gentiana acaulis, Auriculas, Myosotis palustris, 

 and Aubrietia purpurea. Can you tell me why Lithospermum 

 and Aubrietia purpurea have failed utterly? I thought they 

 were perfectly hardy. — Nemo. 



[We think we can be of little service to you, as yours appears 

 a very peculiar case. We should certainly take note of what 

 fails, and avoid them in future, planting such as do best in 

 quantity. The Helleborus niger would do better at the base 

 of the rockwork, where it will have greater depth of soil and 

 more moisture, and the same remark applies to Hepaticas — 

 they have been dried up. Most of the other plants are too 

 tender for any but sheltered rockwork — warm aspeots or sunny 

 exposures. Of those you have sown Myosotis palustris requires 

 moisture, and will not succeed, neither will Woodruff (Asperula 

 odorata), which requires moisture and shade. Myosotis syl- 

 vatica would be better than M. palustris, and M. dissitiflora 

 ought to succeed if it can have sufficient moisture. Litho- 

 spermum requires a warm exposure ; and as Aubrietia grandi- 

 flora has failed, why not try A. deltoidea ? We Bhould not 

 deepen the soil, but add to it some well-reduced leaf soil. The 

 following, which you may raise from seed, would probably 

 succeed : Antennaria dioica minor, Aquilegias would succeed 

 at the base, Arabis alpina, Aubrietia grfeca, Dianthus neglectus, 

 Erinus alpinus in full sun. Gentiana verna you have ; it re- 

 quires deep moist soil, but well drained. Linaria alpina, 

 Papaver nudicaule, Saxifraga aizoon minor, S. cymbalaria, and 

 dwarf Wallflowers. Most Saxifragas, Sedums, and Semper- 

 vivums would succeed, also Erica carnea, Achillea asgyptica, 

 A. umbellata, Campanula garganica, Draba aizoides, Iberis 

 gibraltarica vera, and Viola cucullata. The seedlings would 

 be the better wintered in frames with plenty of air in all mild 

 weather. We advise you to first make trial, and plant ex- 

 tensively such as succeed. — Eds.] 



NEW BOOK. 



Haiti and Rivers. By Colonel George Geeenwood, pp. 247, 

 8to, Third Edition, 1876. Longman & Co. 



A work that has attained to a third edition needs little 

 evidence that it is of considerable interest to the cultivator of 

 the soil and the geologist. It is indeed full of the results of 

 the valuable observations of the author, written in a very 

 healthy joyous spirit; and if the reader does not concur in all 

 the conclusions to which he arrives, he will yet travel with him 

 very pleasantly in his excursions in search of evidence to sup- 

 port his theory of the very extensive action of water upon the 

 surface of our earth. 



In describing the origin of our soils, he tells us that " soil is 

 simply rotten subsoil, mixed with vegetable remains ; but there 

 are particular spaces so steep (precipices) that even gravity or 

 wind, independent of the wash of rain, would never suffer a 

 grain of soil to remain on them for an instant. Soil is not the 

 less in perpetual formation on these places. The faces of 

 precipices and bare rocks rot, and thus soil is in perpetual for- 

 mation over the whole surface of the earth ; and from the 

 whole surface of the earth it is in perpetual movement by the 

 wash of rain to the bottom of the sea. This travelling rotten 

 part of the earth is the only part which supports vegetable 

 existence, and consequently animal existence." 



The Colonel had evidently considered that when God created 

 the earth He made its surface either uneven or level. If it was 

 level, then there could not be any drainage from it. Its soil 

 would be a swamp, tenanted by only a valueless class of plants. 

 There could not be either streamlets or rivers, and had not the 

 Almighty ordained that "the dry land should appear," there 

 would not have been any sea at a lower level of the earth for 

 the rain water which fell upon it to drain into. It was, there- 

 fore, when treating of the all-powerful action of rain water in 

 washing away the surface of the earth to form channels for 

 streams, and thus to deposit the mechanically suspended 

 matters, so as to form soils at the bottom of valleys and deltas 

 at the mouth of streams, that the author of this valuable work 

 remarks that " most people are doggedly possessed with the 

 idea that water will not flow on land which has no slope. But 

 as rain falls from high heaven, its only relief from rising on 

 itself is to flow. Empty a decanter of water on the middle of 



