372 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 26, 1863. 



Its foliage is very handsome, being of an olive-brown hue with 

 faint purple veining, and it is distinguishable at first sight, al- 

 though not in bloom. 



Crocea grandiflora. — A fine orange-scarlet of good substance, 

 with a dasli of white at the base of the sepals and petals. Very 

 showy. 



Delicaia. — Scarlet and white, with fine ornamental foliage, 

 being banded with a broad undefined stripe of white down the 

 centre of each leaf. Much the best of this colour. It iB, how- 

 ever, rather a shy breeder, and is somewhat refractory, if I may 

 so use the expression, in its reproductive tendencies. 



Gigantea. — A very distinct sort of good form, the nearest 

 approach to a scarlet self of any kind known to me. It grows 

 freely with liberal treatment, but is about the easiest to kill of 

 any in cultivation. 



Graveana. — An immense-growing sort, generally producing 

 four flowers of great size and good substance. It is the best 

 fellow for Ackermanni in point of vigour of growth and size of 

 bloom of any in our collection. It is an improvement upon 

 Crocea grandiflora, and I reckon it much the best form and sub- 

 stance of the Solandrceflora section. 



Moljordi. — Scarlet and white well "washed" together, pro- 

 ducing an agreeable whole. Substnnce very good, and form 

 also. This is a tolerably free grower to be so much in-and-in 

 bred, and may be safely added to any collection. 



Intermixta latipetala. — This is a very good crimson-scarlet 

 self of the four-flowered section, rather shy in habit, and possesses 

 no great tendency to multiply itself by offshoots. 



Johnsoni preciev.se, a fine, broad-petalled and sepalled variety 

 of Johnsoni, of rich substance, with a band of white, much more 

 clearly defined than in the old variety, running down the centre 

 of each petal to the extremity. This and another one named 

 vera, are much the best of the Johnsoni strain. 



Marginata conspicua. — This is an exceedingly free-growing 

 and prolific-flowering sort of the most handsome appearance, 

 which everybody who grows bulbs should have. It is a white 

 ground colour feathered with rose and crimson stripes, of ex- 

 cellent substance and good form. It seldom produces from the 

 scape more than four flowers ; but it blooms freely over the season. 



Marginata grandiflora. — This is a long-tubed, very pale va- 

 riety, rather more delicate than the other marginata. but is well 

 deserving of a place. Ground colour white, with faint rose 

 stripes ever all the surface. 



Marginata, venusta. — It is not easy to distinguish this from 

 conspicua, but it is the more rare, and, upon the whole, the better 

 formed of the two. Some attribute their difference to a slight 

 perfume in favour of the one in question, but mj olfactory nerves 

 were never sensible to any such sensation. 



Monsieur Van den Keclce. — A large bi-flowered sort of the 

 grandirlora order. Its form is good, but it is deficient in substance. 



J?siitacina Johnsoni. — A large, free-flowering sort, crimson and 

 white finely blended, of good substance, and excellent form. 

 This variety is probably the most prolific in flowering of the 

 whole race, throwing up as many as three stems from one bulb, 

 generally producing four flowers on each. 



Fsittacina vittata. — This is a lighter variety, partaking of the 

 same character as the above, but more allied to the true vittata than 

 the preceding one. Both, however, are excellent sorts, of fine form. 



T~enosa grandiflora is a very handsome-growing species, pro- 

 ducing numerous offshoots. Fiowers finely veined with crimson; 

 .large and fine. 



Wlieeleri.— This is a very wide-spreading sort, of very rich 

 crimson colour and good substance. It is straggling in petal and 

 sepal, but measures somewhere about 7 inches across, and is, 

 therefore, well adapted for decorative purposes, aithough its 

 merits will not pass muster before the Floral Committee. 



We have recently added Eclipse, Mawkensiana, and Unique, 

 which have passed muster as acquisitions in their way. 



Upon the whole, the field is promising, for judging from the 

 acquisitions that have been made when their cultivation was only 

 limited to a few enthusiasts, we may anticipate great tilings now 

 that ladies and gentlemen see their decorative value, and the 

 ease with which they can be cultivated. — Jas. Anderson, 

 Meadow Bank, Uddingstone. . 



YELLOW BANESIAN EOSE NOT FLOWEEING. 



A iady writing from Bandon, Ireland, complains of a fine 

 plant covering a wall IS feet high not flowering duriDg the last 



two years, and wishes for instructions how to treat it. To this 

 we may say, that if the climate and situation be a moist one it 

 will not flower so freely as when these conditions are reversed. 

 If the plant appears too rampant, cutting-in the roots may do 

 some good, and thoroughly draining any superfluous water away, 

 at the same time supplying the plant with a drier and poorer 

 soil. Generally speaking the Banksian Rose, both white and 

 yellow, does best against a south wall, but we have it against 

 pillars also, but it does not flower so freely. In pruning it is 

 best to cut away all the gross long shoots, and shorten-in the 

 mere spur-looking ones which produce the flower. We usually 

 prune ours twice, once about the middle of June, and again 

 about the end of August, or when the growth of the season, is 

 finished or nearly so. Observe, it is the short-jointed, wiry- 

 looking little shoots that produce the flowers, not the long ten or 

 twelve-feet rods which we have often had, and which are useless 

 excepting to increase the size of the tree when wanted. We do 

 not expect any treatment whatever will have so good an effect in 

 producing flowers as a fine, hot, dry autumn, but helps like the 

 above will conduce to that ; and, rf not successful, we fear the 

 evil lies in something beyond the reach of cultivation or artificial 

 treatment. — J. R. 



FOLIAGE vebstjs FLOWERS. 



" What new thing is coming out this year? " is a question that 

 one flower-gardener puts to another, after the usual greeting and 

 comments on the season and its peculiarities. 



Every year certainly either establishes the reputation of some- 

 thing fresh, or, it may be, revives the character of something that 

 had been lost sight of; and what is 1863 going to do for us ? 

 The advertising columns of gardening periodicals will, no doubt, 

 offer many attractions in the way of new or improved varieties 

 of plants already in cultivation, and possibly some new species 

 as well as something startling may be put forth. The public 

 are, however, somewhat wary of anything having a too-high- 

 sounding character. Brogress now-a-days is often obliged to be 

 content with slow and gentle advances. 



A really new species of plant may be a great acquisition, but 

 an improvement in a Scarlet or variegated Geranium can hardly 

 be expected to be many degrees in advance of kinds that we 

 already possess. Still, as we are perfectly aware, perfection has 

 not yet been arrived at. Then, what new acquisition is 1863 

 to present us with ? 



Last year I gave a favourable opinion of Mr. Veitch's Ama- 

 ranthus" melancholiens ruber, and the way in which the plant 

 turned out at the end of the season confirmed all that I said in 

 its favour. The new Cerastium that was introduced last year 

 was variously received ; but I cannot say I am sufficiently ac- 

 quainted with it to give an opinion of it. At best it does not 

 seem to differ so much from the former one as to be worthy the 

 distinction of a separate specific name. 



Last year, like most others, was favourable to a certain class of 

 plants more so than to the others, and amongst those that did 

 well here were yellow Calceolarias and Lobelia speciosa. The 

 former were especially very rich, and the latter scarcely less so, 

 both being decidedly better than I ever remember them to have 

 been before — that is, they bloomed profusely, and continued 

 for a much longer period than usual. I cannot say the same of 

 Scarlet and other flowering Geraniums. They grew well enough, 

 and at one time were very gay ; but it was late in the season, 

 and the bloom did not last long. Variegated Geraniums did 

 better, I might say particularly well ; but Verbenas fell so far 

 short of their former reputation, that I expect both they and 

 Petunias have lost caste considerably. Gazanias did pretty well, 

 but most of the Tropseolums ran too much to leaf — the early 

 part of the season was too moist for their flowering. The reports 

 of other persons may, perhaps, be different from the above, 

 certain localities being favourable to the well-being of certain 

 plants, to which another place is not ; but the general features 

 of a season tell everywhere. 1860 was wet and unfavourable in 

 all places, while the preceding two seasons were the reverse, and 

 we were induced to try many tropical plauts out of doors that 

 had never been thought of before. Fields of Chinese Sugar 

 Cane waved in the breeze, and plants flowered and ripened fruit 

 outside that rarely did so before ; and flower-gardeners in their 

 anxiety to introduce novelties into their beds tried many stove 

 plants previously regarded as almost too tender to stand in the 

 greenhouse in summer. Some limit will, however, always restrict 

 this. Delicate plants like Begonias, Torenia asiatica, Pentas 



