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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ June 16, 1863. 



quantity of the flowers were not well open. A few of those to 

 ■which prizes were awarded were past their prime, many of the 

 blooms were small, and it was plainly observable that the froBts 

 and cold winds had made sad ravages with the flowers, and many 

 cracked petals were the result. 



The premier rose, Mrs. Lea, a seedling of Mr. W. Lea, is a fine 

 thing, after the style of Lady Crewe, but better, having stouter 

 petals. Another Rose seedling of his, named Industry, is good 

 and does him much credit. A bloom of Slater's Kate Connor, 

 a flamed rose, shown by G. W. Hardy, Esq., was done well. 



The seedlings shown were too much like the flowers from 

 which they were raised, and require no remarks. Upon the 

 whole, considering the season and the locality, the Show was 

 respectable and ought to have been better patronised. 



I mention the locality above, I do not think it possible to 

 grow and blow Tulips so well there as in the south — not but it 

 is possible to blow them clear, but not so fine, strong, and clear 

 as in the south. I will instance one flower, the old Polyphemus, 

 I have never seen it bloom as in the south, it seems another strain 

 here. Some years since a bloom was shown at a Tulip Show 

 in the Botanical Gardens in this town, by Mr. Turner, of Slough, 

 it was all that could be wished for. Mr. Turner told me it was 

 in the stock when he came to the Slough Nursery. 



This brings to my mind many bygone years, when I have 

 gone over the Tulip-beds at that nursery with Mr. Charles Brown, 

 who was a persevering and enthusiastic grower of the Tulip, and 

 from whom I first gained the rudiments of Tulip-growing. Al- 

 though I brought a great many bulbs to this town, so great 

 have been the drawbacks I have experienced, that I have entirely 

 given up growing any but a few early Dutch bulbs in pots for 

 decoration. 



There was one improvement upon former shows that I cannot 

 pasB over, which was the entire exclusion of dirty bottoms, at 

 least I did not see any as in former shows, not but in some cases 

 a stained bottom can, be looked over, when we bear in mind that 

 some of the exhibitors are poor men, moBtly weavers ; but to 

 their credit they can grow a Tulip fit for competition, can make 

 a pleasure of employing their spare time over their Tulip-beds 

 and gardens instead of wasting it at the beer-shops — and can 

 with pleasure join in chorus with the Poet when he sings — 



"Not a tree, 

 A plant, a leaf, a blossom but contains 

 A folio volume. He may read, and read, 

 And read again, and still find something new, 

 Something to please, and something to instruct." 



•— Dahi, Manchester. 



TWENTY SELECT ANNUALS. 



I AM induced by a remark made by a past correspondent in 

 The Journal op Hoeticultttee, to send a list, to use his own 

 phrase, " of the best twenty annualB." His suggestion has pro- 

 duced . a variety of answers, as to what are good and useful in 

 this way, though none have attempted to confine themselves 

 to his direct inquiry, and I make the attempt rather in a 

 spirit of inquiry. 



1. Calendrinia umbellata. 11. Lupinus Cruickshankii. 



2. discolor. 12. Leptosiphon densiflorus. 



3. Rhodanthe Manglesii. 13. Clintonia pulchella. 



4. maculata. 14. Portulaca caryophylloides. 



5. Martynia fragrans formosa. 15. Globe Amaranthus. 



6. Schizanthus retusus. 16. Abronia umbellata. 



7. Neniophila insignis. 17. Datura ceratocaulon. 



8. Helichrysum macranthum. 18. Bartonia aurea. 



9. compositum maximum. 19. DianthuB giganteus Heddewigii. 

 10. Nolana prostrata. 20. Phlox Drummondi. 



— W. Eabiey, Die/swell. 



HARDINESS OF EUEYOPS PUNCTATUS. 



I THANK you for your information about my plant, Euryops 

 punctatus ; but I cannot find out anything about Euryops in 

 any of my books of reference (Miller, Don, Sprengel, Paxton, 

 and Cottage Gardener's Dictionary) ; De Candolle's book I 

 have not. 



You inquire about its proved hardiness. I believe it has only 

 been exposed thiB last winter ; but though on the whole this 

 has been a mild winter, yet we have had Borne trying times 

 during it. In November we bad frosts so hard and continuous, 

 that we had three days' skating ; and I always find that 

 November frosts (coming while the sap iB still up), are most 



destructive. Then we have had Beveral short frosts, and one 

 especially at the end of April ; yet in none of these did the 

 Euryops even droop its shoots, and it is now a good bush, 4 feet 

 high and covered with flowers. At any rate I am sure it does 

 better to keep it out of doors and to take cuttings from it, 

 which strike very readily, and so keep up young plants. 



I live between Bath and Bristol, which would be considered 

 sheltered. No doubt I can grow many things that they could 

 not grow in Yorkshire, yet we 6uffer very much from early 

 frostB, and Btill more from late ones ; for our plants shoot early 

 and are then cut off. — H. N. E. 



[Euryops is allied to Othonna. De Candolle thus describes 

 this species : — Glabrous ; leaves filiform, deeply punctured, often 

 trifid, sometimes sub-pinnate, pedicel three or four times longer 

 than the leaf; involucre scaly ; achsenium downy. Pound near 

 a river in the Carras desert.] 



FIXING ASOIONIA BENEFICIAL. 



In the extracts you make from the Rev. C. Reynold's letter 

 on ammoniacal liquors, published in your Journal of the 26th 

 ult., there is one important point in which I think the writer is 

 in error. I allude to his idea that it is equally beneficial to 

 apply solutions of ammonia in winter, as to fix it according to 

 Liebig, and use it when required. 



It is true that cold water absorbs an enormous quantity of 

 ammonia and gradually parts with it as the temperature is 

 raised, and at about 70° or 80° little would remain ; yet let the 

 temperature be what it may, my conviction is great Iosb must 

 occur by the evaporation with aqueous vapour, &c. I think it, 

 therefore, far preferable to fix it ; or in other words, convert it 

 into a salt that at ordinary temperature is not volatile ; and the 

 Bulphate as suggested by Liebig is the best. 



The addition of gypsum (sulphate of lime) or dilute Bulphurie 

 acid will attain this object. It is necessary to be careful in 

 purchasing gypsum, as I have known persons disappointed in 

 having chalk and rubbish palmed upon them inBtead of the 

 genuine article. 



Chalk may easily be detected by its effervescing with acid ; but 

 the best plan is to purchase only of respectable vendors. — 

 Amateub. 



PERUVIAN BABE TREES.* 

 This is the first practical work upon the cultivation of the 

 Peruvian bark trees which has ever been published ; and although 

 Mr. Mclvor with judicious modesty says that he does " not pre- 

 sume to furnish a perfect guide to their management," yet we 

 can say confidently that any good gardener having this pamphlet 

 in his hand — containing a full record of successful cultivation — 

 need be at no loss as to how he should manage and propagate 

 the species of Cinchona which furnish Peruvian bark. Site; 

 aBpect ; climate; elevation; propagation by seed, layers, cut- 

 tings, and buds ; formation of nurseries ; cultivation ; planting ; 

 species yielding different barks ; and directions for transmission 

 of plants, and their treatment when they are received, are all fully 

 particularised and illustrated by six lithographs of some of the 

 modes of propagation and pruning. 



It is satisfactory to know that although the Neilgherry bark 

 is from trees no more than two years old, yet it yields as much 

 of quinine and cinchonine as do the barks from maturer trees in 

 South America. This has been ascertained by Mr. Howard's 

 analyses. It is also satisfactory to know that attention is roused 

 in India to the culture of these trees as a commercial object, and 

 that about 50,000 plants have been sold or applied for. Mr. 

 Markham may well be gratified by this ripening result of his 

 once-unjustly depreciated efforts. 



The following is a list of the species, with particulars of their 

 qualities, cultivated in the Neilgherry garden : — 



"CINCHONAS YIELDING/ QUININE. 



" Cinchona succirubra, the ' Cascarilla colorada ' or ' Genuine 

 Red Bark ' of commerce. This species grows to a lofty tree, and 

 is the most valuable known, being the richest in alkaloids, which 

 generally amount to as much as 3 to 4 per cent., and thus ' fan- 

 average samples are valued in the market at more than twice the 



* Notes on the Propagation and Cultivation of the Medicinal Cinchonas 

 or Peruvian Bark Trees (printed and published by order of the Government 

 of Madras). By W. G. Mclvor, Superintendent of Government Cinchona 

 Plantations, Neilgherries. 1863, 



