May 11, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



335 



there is not that extensive aiea of grass land -which is to be 

 seen Burrouniling many mansions, there is sufficient in the 

 principal direction to carry the eye on to other interesting ob- 

 jects, and privacy is as much secured as in the most rural dis- 

 trict. The whole estate, or rather the home farm, including 

 the pleasure ground, &a., may be all classed as dressed ground, 

 a considerable extent being in Hops and a large area in orchard, 

 and this within an easy walk of the principal residence. The 

 soil has the reputation of producing some of the best Hops in 

 the kingdom. The rather crooked ungainly poles of the district 

 were being replaced by fine straight ones from Norway, which 

 also had their lower ends charged with creosote in the manner 

 lately described in the papers upon Hop cultivation ; and other 

 things were being done, showing that Mr. Wigan was entering 

 enthusiastically into farming and gardening affairs, and he 

 Eeemed to be well seconded by his gardener, Mr. Piggott, who 

 Jiad the superintendence of the whole. — J. Eobson. 



VIOLA LUTEA GRANDIFLORA AND VIOLA 

 COENUTA PERFECTION AS BEDDERS. 



I WISH to call the attention of those interested in bedding 

 plants to the merits of this Viola, which I believe will super- 

 sede the Calceolaria as a yellow bedder. I briefly noticed the 

 plant at page 200, vol. xix., but I find I did not do justice to 

 it then. 



The treatment is very simple. In November I put in as 

 many cuttings as I could obtain in a cold frame, with the Cal- 

 ceolarias inserted in October, and not one of the Viola failed, 

 T7hilst out of nine hundred Calceolaria cuttings I only saved 

 thirty. This is the first time I ever failed with Calceolarias, 

 and I cannot account for the loss, as the treatment was pre- 

 cisely the same as usual. 1 now intend discarding the Calceo- 

 laria as a bedder, for, let the plants be attended to as you will, 

 ihere is always a blank in the blooming, besides the vexation of 

 their going oif in the midst of the season, and a heavy shower 

 of rain takes the polish oft Calceolarias almost sooner than 

 anything I can call to mind. Upon Vijla lutea grandiflora, on 

 ihe contrary, the rain has no effect. 



I potted the old plants of Viola in November, placing them 

 in a cold frame, and not one died, the protection being a single 

 mat thrown over the frame. Of course the pots during the 

 severe frost were one mass of ice, 1 therefore believe that if 

 i had had the courage to have left a plant out in the open air 

 it would have lived, as I think frost has more effect on a plant 

 in a pot than on one planted in the ground. With me it has 

 been in flower six weeks — for the last three weeks without pro- 

 tection — and it is a perfect blaze of bloom, and will remain so 

 till November is far advanced. Last year, up to the end of 

 November, frost did not injure the flowers in the least, and 

 when I lifted the old plants they were showing well for bloom. 



It is almost impossible to take ofi cuttings without flowers 

 or flower buds. I believe it will be best propagated in the 

 autumn, as I have struck a quantity of cuttings this spring, 

 and though they are now in flower they are but small, but in 

 all probability they will improve. The flower is of a very 

 ■atriking yellow ; the plant of a good habit, easily propagated, 

 and, planted 9 inches apart in the flower garden, it will soon 

 fill up As I before said, the rain damages this Viola the least 

 -of anything, the flowers not holding the water. I go over the 

 plants and pick the old flowers out twice a-week ; doing so 

 Iseeps the plants from wasting their strength in perfecting the 

 •seed, and sets off the flowers to the best advantage. 



As soon as the cuttings are struck I plant them out in a cold 

 ■Irame, gradually hardening them ofl. I should add that I find 

 autumn-struck cuttings flower earlier than old plants, owing, 

 ■no doubt, to the shoots employed for cuttings being prepared 

 to bloom. The soil which I employ is a mixture of equal parts 

 of loam and leaf mould, with a little sand. The plant may 

 also be propagated by dividing the roots. When potting the 

 old plants in November I divide them. I was anxious to secure 

 a stock, otherwise I should have left plants out of doors to test 

 their hardiness. The flowers will be found very useful for 

 cutting, for they rise from 3 to 6 inches on the stem, last long, 

 and when mixed with other cut flowers are very effective. I 

 shall be glad to know how this plant has done with others. I 

 'Slave recommended it to all who I know take an interest in 

 hardy bedding plants, and all who saw it at once resolved to 

 grow it. 



Vioiii COENUTA. Pekfection. — This was very good with me 

 fiast season, but is not so readily propagated as the foregoing ; 



when I say not so readily I mean the same number of cuttings 

 cannot be obtained from it. I wintered a few along with the 

 Calceolarias, but being afraid I kept the stock in pans, just pro- 

 tecting them from frost. This is not an early bloomer, but 

 when it begins to flower it continues, and the colour is rich. I 

 have great hopes of this. LabeUa speciosa is not to be thrown 

 away, but, when everything is said in its favour, towards the 

 end of the season it is blank. Viola oornuta Perfection was 

 good when I took it up at the end of October.— S. Castle, 

 Gardener to J. A. Bannerman, Esq., Prestxoich. 



NEW GRAPES. 



I HAVE just (May 1st) been through the admirably-managed 

 kitchen garden of Sherborne Castle, and had the opportunity 

 of ascertaining the merits of two of the new Grapes, about 

 which there have been conflicting opinions. One house was 

 filled with Mrs. Pince, and Mr. Pragnell, the gardener, was loud 

 in its praises as a late-keeping, well-flavoured variety. He 

 stated that he had had it in use until within a fortnight ago. 

 The Vines were breaking strongly, and showing evidence of 

 abundance of fruit. The foliage is certainly very peculiar, not 

 so handsome as that of the Hamburgh and other well-known 

 varieties. Golden Champion he was also loudly in favour of, 

 and, as I saw it, it promised well, but he says it must be 

 grafted on the Black Hamburgh ; on its own roots he does not 

 think so much of it, but thus grafted he esteems it as a most 

 valuable Grape. — D., Deal. 



FORM AND COLOUR.— No. 2. 



FoEM in plants of more lowly growth assumes a subtle and 

 more intricate character, equally powerful, and from its greater 

 variety more generally admired. But here, as in every other 

 instance, form does not stand alone ; colour, from which it is 

 always inseparable in plant life, assumes an importance only 

 second to that of form itself. Take, for example, a Fern frond, in 

 the structure of which the greatest intricacy and most exquisite 

 grace are developed ; deprive it of its colour, and it becomes of 

 comparative insignificance, because the two things are so en- 

 tirely inseparable. Orchids, flne-foliaged plants, or any choice 

 stove or greenhouse plants, are jnst so many examples of the 

 power of form and colour combined, and it is to those species 

 and their varieties in which these are best united to such other 

 excellencies as a robust, free, habit of growth ; earliness, lateness, 

 or continuity of flowering, that preference is justly given. 



In picking out a collection of plants care should be taken to 

 choose kinds which, as in a Gloxinia, best combine elegance in 

 the form and disposal of the foliage and beauty of the flowers, 

 or which, as among Fuchsias, may by high culture and skilful 

 training be made to assume most symmetrical proportions, 

 imparting an air of perfect grace to the plants, and displaying 

 the flowers to the best advantage. 



Even in training a plant, a keen appreciation of the power of 

 form is highly important. A well-grown, well-trained Fuchsia 

 is greatly superior to one of a similar kind which has been 

 allowed to follow its natural bent, and has so become a mere 

 squat bush. The study of form, as naturally developed in the 

 growth of plants, is very useful when rightly followed. To be 

 successful, some tax must be made upon one's judgment in 

 order rightly to read the page of Nature's book opened wide 

 before us. To illustrate this I cannot do better than again 

 revert to the Fuchsia, taken for an example because it is so well 

 known, and its culture so generally understood. To look at a 

 plant of it growing freely, but left untrained, we see little else 

 than a dwarf spreading bush with pendant flowers, anything 

 but suggestive of the appearance of a well-grown plant. Nature 

 in this instance offers to us a plant yielding a profusion of 

 pretty pendant flowers, borne on long flexible shoots, freely 

 produced from the parent stool, yet conveying but a faint im- 

 pression of the exquisite symmetry to which it may be brought 

 by high culture and skilful training. Whoever first thought of 

 training this plant to the form of a cone, certainly read Nature's 

 lesson aright ; but this is not always the case. Take, for ex- 

 ample, the Rose. To see its wild luxuriant growth one would 

 hardly suppose it to be possible such a plant should ever be 

 introduced into gardens in the form of a stiff, unsightly 

 standard ; but what is more surprising is that this ugly 

 model should be almost universally copied, so that hardly a 

 garden is to be seen without some of these monstrosities. Why 

 this is BO I can hardly understand ; it certainly points to a 



