January 20, 1833.] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



43 



Day Day 



of of 



M'nth Week. 



20 

 21 

 22 

 23 



24 

 25 



Tn 

 W 

 Th 

 F 

 S 

 Sen 

 M 



JANUARY 20-26,1863. 



R. Sweet d. 1835. G. 

 Sun's deciin. 15° 57' k. 

 Lord Bacon b. 156'. 

 Agardh b. 1785. B. 

 Boccone b. 1633. B. 



3 SCN. AFTER EPIP.. CoN. S. P. 



Dandelion flowers. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Weather near London in 1S62. 



Barometer. 



20.001—29 532 

 20.483—20.432 

 20.511—20.370 

 20.629—29.337 

 20.4S6-29.41l 

 29.985—20.504 

 30.102-30.173 



Tbermom. 



degrees. 

 32—27 

 40-20 

 53—28 

 50—38 

 66—40 

 48—19 

 53—36 



Wind. 



S.E. 



E. 

 S.W. 



S. 

 S.W. 

 S.W. 

 N.W. 



Rain in 

 Inches. 



■06 

 ■05 

 •09 

 ■03 



•22 



Sun 

 Rises. 



m. h. 

 57af7 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 



Rises 



and Sets 



m. li. 



25af4 



m. h. 

 2 a 6 



27 7 



46 8 

 4 10 

 8 11 



morn. 



29 



Clock 



Moon's before 



Age. I Sun. 



Day of 

 Year. 



m. s. 



11 16 



11 33 



11 50 



12 6 

 12 21 

 12 35 

 12 48 



20 

 21 

 22 

 23 

 24 

 25 

 26 



Meteorology op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-six years, the average highest and lowen 

 temperatures of these days am 43 9' and 32,3° respectively. The greatest heat, 58°, occurred on the 23rd, la 1S34 ; and the lowest cold, 7° 

 on the 20th, in 1838. Dining the period 141 days were fine, and on 111 rain fell. 



HINTS FOE. RAISING A HAEDY EACE OF 

 CBOSS-BEED HEATHS. 



OST surprising is it in 

 this np'o of botanical 

 enterprise, with, the 

 high estimation in 

 which gardeners hold 

 Cape Heaths for de- 

 corating the conser- 

 vatory and greenhouse 

 all the year round, to 

 find that no attempt 

 has hitherto been 

 made to cross them 

 and their numerous 

 garden varieties with 

 the hardy European 

 kinds, so as to produce a perfectly hardy race suited 

 to the open border. If the art were difficult, and the 

 chances hopelessly rare, this might readily be accounted 

 for ; but as there are ample materials, and great facility, 

 no fear need be entertained that a person with moderate 

 skill, ordinary perseverance, and a slight botanical ac- 

 quaintance with plants would fail. Individuals who follow 

 such pursuits generally obtain more or less reward for 

 their trouble, and abundance of that blessing to mankind, 

 " the pleasures of hope," besides, the great gratification 

 arising out of the unexpected accession of new and beau- 

 tiful objects, the pleasures from which occur almost 

 daily. When the prospects of obtaining such objects 

 fail to be realised, anticipation yields the same balm to 

 the mind, and thus, whilst it stimulates the operator to 

 fresh action, also invigorates the animal powers, and in- 

 creases the capabilities of enjoyment, for each succeeding 

 set of seedlings always brings some interesting novelty 

 which has been little expected. Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, 

 sings, " What lovely prospects wait each waking hour, 

 when each new day some novelty displays ;" and as such 

 novelties are almost sure to be realised by hybridisation, 

 if patiently and attentively carried out, and as no one 

 can be an enthusiastic cultivator of flowers without feel- 

 ing desirous of seeing improvements effected, how better 

 can such a desire be gratified, than by raising seedling 

 varieties? Nothing can give greater pleasure to the 

 lover of his garden than watching, through the various 

 stages of their growth, his productions until they arrive 

 at maturity, and burst forth to gratify the eye with their 

 hitherto-hidden beauties. 



It will, however, only be after a course of years, 

 coupled with much care and perseverance, that the gar- 

 dener will be able to bend the stubborn wild beauty to 

 his will, and that the cross-bred plants will arrive at a 

 state of perfection which never could have been anti- 

 cipated when first the attempt was made to improve 

 them, even by the most judicious use of the materials at 

 No. 95.— Vol. IV., New Seeees. 



the hybridiser's command. And who can tell after all 

 but that such efforts only help to do that which Nature 

 herself has done oftentimes before without the aid of 

 man ? Still, care and cultivation uniformly develope cer- 

 tain qualities differing in each variety, which are only 

 dimly perceived, or, perhaps, not at all seen in the wild 

 or natural state, or only in such species as are capable 

 of great diversity in their varieties. In Nature there 

 are a system of development and a definite point of per- 

 fection, the approach to which constitutes improvement 

 in each variety ; and this is effected by crossing those 

 varieties that have shown respectively the greatest 

 advance in the direction desired, for the whole system 

 abounds in varieties whose offspring is mongrel in race, 

 uncertain in progeny, and variable in aspect, and from 

 which circumstances alone fresh varieties are constantly 

 produced, more and more developing qualities in some 

 direction, and pointing to a standard which when reached 

 would be perfection in that particular variety. Not- 

 withstanding that less is due to chance than skill and 

 judgment in the first instance, still the work of the 

 hybridiser is simply to follow whither Nature leads 

 him, selecting always that track in which there is the 

 greatest promise of his securing the accomplishment of 

 his desires. 



The botanist considers hybridising plants as a sort of 

 presumption to mend Nature, for he loves her for herself. 

 A rustic beauty to him is " loveliest when least adorned," 

 while the gardener loves Nature too, but not in her 

 deshahille — for him she must be " clad in all her charms." 

 The scientific man also considers hybrids as departures 

 from Nature and interferences with the habits of plants, 

 and calls them " Nature's bastards." Still " Nature is 

 made better by Art, for that which adds to Nature is an 

 art that Nature makes;" and the study of Nature does 

 not lead to irreconcilable differences, but unity of pur- 

 pose, for there is no difficulty in following the successive 

 advances, or in discovering that there is no capriciousness 

 in flowers, because those advances lead to correct results, 

 and have real natural connections. 



It, therefore, only requires skill and a moderate amount 

 of perseverance to succeed in giving the hardiness of the 

 European Heath to the more tender ones from the Cape, 

 and so produce an assortment of shrubs of great beauty 

 for ornamenting the open border at all seasons of the 

 year, similar to those which now decorate the greenhouse 

 and conservatory. And there is no reason to suppose, 

 from what has already been done with hardy Ehododen- 

 drous, but that success would crown the endeavours of 

 all those who tried their skill in raising cross-bred Heaths, 

 which would flourish in the open border, and withstand 

 the rigours of our severest winters, like the beautiful 

 little hardy moor Heath, Erica carnea. 



The first and most essential point, therefore, to be 

 attended to, in raising a race of cross-bred, hardy Heaths 

 suited to the open border, will be to give a hardy con- 

 stitution to the plants, by blending the hardiness of the 

 little moor Heath with some of the spring-flowering 

 Cape kinds, and those hardy species, such »s E. tetralix 

 No. 747.— Vol. XXIX. Old Sebies. 



