February 10, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



109 



upon ; and I am quite certain myself each one of the three ib at 

 least a* good as the heat variety of Bpeciosa ; but, what is more 

 fortunate, neither of the three will be a rival to Bpeciosn. You 

 might make a bed of any of the three, and put epeciosa round it 

 for a contrast, jusc as one could make a bed of one of the 

 Cerastiums, and put the other round it as an edging — which 

 plan, I believe, will be adopted next summer at Hampton 

 Court. 



We may as well keep to the edging plants and finish them 

 first. The grand accident new edging plant of laBt summer will 

 most assuredly be a great favourite in a short time, I mean 

 Arctotis reptans. This I have proved myself, and I sent it to 

 some of the dons on my way to one of the exhibitions. I took 

 up a full yard of edging of it on my shoulder, to try and win a 

 prize with it ; but instead of that, 1 got well nigh the end of my 

 journey before I waa half way up the colonnades at South Ken- 

 sington. Talk about garotting and night work, 1 had to share 

 my prize edging plant amongst so many smart men, that I had 

 no more left than what I had intended for Mr. Eyles. I also 

 sent it to the Botanic Garden, Regent's Park, to the Crystal 

 Palace, and they have it at Kew, so it will be out about London 

 in abundance ; and all I need now Bay about it is, that seedling 

 plants of it do not do well the first year, but the bulk of the 

 people must have it from seeds, if it is in the market, in order to 

 obtain a stock of it. Of all my store plants, in the cold pit, 

 this is now the most promising to keep that way from autumn 

 suckers, or rooted shoots, for every inch of it roots as freely as 

 Strawberry runners in the edging. I have only one store-pot 

 of it, and if it bloom witli me that way, I Bhall take the pot 

 to the Floral Committee, to let them see what a nice flower it i?, 

 besides being the poor man's best pot edging plant, one of the 

 easiest to manage, and good enough for a prince. 



The next lot with which I mean to be smart this summer 

 is a lot of the best Fancy Pansies, beginning with the Duke of 

 Cambridge's fancy flower, the new belted Pansy called Aurea 

 marginata, for which the Floral Committee had given a prize to 

 the MessrB. Downie, Laird, & Laing, and which is a novelty 

 even amongst the novelties of the Fancy race — a race which is 

 much hardier and more easy to manage than the florists' Pansies, 

 although I missed the right way of growing a collection of them 

 two years back, and blamed the cocoa-nut refuse for it. 



Mr. Dean, of the Bradford Nursery, the great authority for 

 this class of plants, has told me the right way to grow them, 

 and I saw in a moment where my way was wrong altogether. 

 I thought of staking them because they grew away so last in 

 this stuff; but no, he told me the right way is to train them 

 down, and to put a little fresh compost from the potting- 

 bench refuse, twice during the summer, among the shoots into 

 which they would root, and continue on blooming to the end 

 of the season. That is just how I shall do them this season, for 

 I mean to go into them in earnest now that I have so many 

 of the best new ones — such as Harlequin, Imperatrice Euge'nie, 

 Princess Louise, Mulatto, Leotard, Pacha, Prince Napoleon, 

 Adelina Patti, and such good sorts ; and as soon as the double 

 " Good-Gracious " comes out, I must have it of course. Then 

 with my stock of the Magpie Pansy, my Yellow Perpetual, 

 which I had from Mr. Sims, Foot's Cray, Kent, nine years back, 

 and which never yet failed from April to October, and the blue 

 Trentham-bedder Pansy, one of the best and most sure of them 

 all, I ought to be pretty well off in this class ; and of course, 

 also, I shall push hard to find out rivals, and never cease until 

 there be a bed or two of the race in every flower garden where 

 there is room for another bed. 



Then, I have just received by the last mail from New York a 

 splendid new strain of striped and fancy-marked Petunias, 

 which will Merrimac Mrs. Ferguson, and all Mr. "Williams' and 

 Mr. Holland's new strains, if the seeds come true to the plate 

 of figures of them which has been sent me with the seeds by 

 Mr. Buchanan, who had the celebrated sale of Cacti at the 

 Baker Street Bazaar in 1840, and whose acquaintance I then 

 made as a bird of a feather. He reads this Journal regularly in 

 New York, and likes it more than any of our London Pride for tales 

 about " breeding-in-and-in and crosswise with long stamens and 

 with short, to say nothing of our backgrounds, middle masses, or 

 front rows in the ribbon system," and ail the rest of it. The 

 Petunia seed was accompanied with the request that " if there is 

 anything there I should like to have I had only to mention and 1 

 should have it." Very good, and I take Mr. Buchanan at his word. 

 Send over by the next steamer the two Presidents to me, and if 

 I can get them to shake hands and give up the darkies, I Bhall 



go over and settle about the stars and stripes on the ribbon 

 system of harmonising for effect, and thank him for the chance 

 aB much as for sending me this new Btrain of striped Petunias. 



D. Beaton. 



SUCCESSION OP PEAS-SMALL GEEENHOUSE 

 —HYACINTHS. 



I have to thank many kind correspondents for their informa- 

 tion on the above subjects, and hope they will take this as a 

 reply to the notes they have been good enough to write. With 

 regard to Peas, I rejoice to find that I am not singular in my 

 diBlike to the large sweet Marrows, which, by-the-by, I think 

 are quite as good raw as boiled, and are fit food for such strong 

 stomachs as can digest them. Various suggestions have been 

 made as to keeping- up a succession, but the one which commends 

 itselt most to my notions is to make Sangster's No. 1, alias Daniel 

 O'Rourke, alias, &e. (for it ha9 many names), the first crop ; to 

 sow for the second Bishop's Dwarf Longpod, and, at the same 

 time, the old Blue Scimitar, and that then the Blue Peas will 

 come in about a fortnight after the Bishop's ; and then to sow, 

 for a succession during the summer, the Blue Pea. My object 

 was not to know when to sow Victorias, Ne Plus Ultras, &c, 

 but to get rid of them altogether, and to substitute some Peas 

 which, neither bo large nor so sugary, might be gathered 

 throughout the season. I do not think that I should care to 

 have Sangster's No. 1 all through the season. It will do very 

 well at the beginning, and also for a late sowing to come in at 

 the very last ; while my recollections of the Blue Peas induce 

 me to think that I should not require anything higher-flavoured 

 than they are. High cultivation, oftentimes for the sake of size, 

 symmetry, or some fancied quality, destroys flavour. I would 

 infinitely prefer a leg of Cheviot mutton to one off the finest 

 and most symmetrical Leicester that ever received a first 

 prize. So would I select a sirloin from a grass-fed ox, to one 

 off the fattest and ripest (what a term !) that Baker Street ever 

 saw ; and so I am Goth enough to prefer the small, delicate- 

 flavoured Peas to the large and rich ones. It may be most 

 desperately bad taBte — might put me into the " Index Expurga- 

 torius" of the "Almanac des Gourmands ;" but it is my mis- 

 fortune if it be so, and I can only rejoice that some others think 

 with me. 



As regards the greenhouse and its ventilation, I should 

 have, perhapB, said that as my little garden is merely a piece 

 taken off a field, without any ornamentation, shrubs, trees, or 

 anything of the kind, my object is to have the very plainest 

 and cheapest one possible ; anything else would be completely 

 thrown away. This must be my answer to Mr. Cranston, who 

 very kindly sent me both a sketch and estimate of one. Nothing 

 can be more beautiful than his designs, giving, as they do, an 

 ornamental appearance to what iB generally speaking a very un- 

 ornamental object, and, so far as my limited knowledge of such 

 subjects goes, the ventilation seems excellently managed ; but 

 then, on the score of expense and unBuitability to my location, 

 I must, however reluctantly, abandon all hope of erecting such 

 a house. 



To a brother clergyman in Dorsetshire, I am indebted for a 

 communication which is more in my way. He, too, like myself 

 is exposed to the rude assaults of blustering Boreas ; and has, 

 therefore, been led to contrive something which Bhall give him 

 an opportunity of ventilating without being blown away. His 

 roof is, I take it, although he doeB not mention it, a fixture, 

 such as I intend mine to be — that is, made Bimply of bars with- 

 out sashes, and glazed with large panes. This will prevent 

 much drip ; for it iB the force of the S.W. wind, driving the 

 rain literally into the house, that I have to avoid. Last night 

 it rained a downpour, but then the wind was from the N.W., 

 and my house hardly leaked at all ; while, with half the quan- 

 tity of rain from the S.W., it would be dripping all over. His 

 ventilation is managed at one end and the front, although 

 " Dorsetshire " prefers it at both ends when it can be had. 

 His front Bashes at the opposite end to the door open like a 

 door on hinges — in fact, like a cottage window, and are kept 

 open at any angle by ordinary screw cottage fastenings. The 

 ventilation at the end is managed by having a Bash or sashes to- 

 open by means of a simple contrivance with two pulleya, and' 

 this can be done by any one standing on the floor of the 

 house. It is, I think, clear that his house is larger than what 

 I intend to put up, but this does not alter the principle ; and it 

 seems to me to combine simplicity and economy. As regards 



