424 



JOUKNAL OF HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ Jane 15, 1871. 



fessor A. Gray in the " American Academy of Arts and Sciences " 

 (vol. vi., New Series), may be described as a vigorons-growing, 

 stemless perennial, with oblong-spathulate, rngoae, sharply 

 denticulate leaves, 6 to 8 inches long, and about 3 inches 

 broad. The scape is stout, erect, smooth, 1 to li foot high, 

 bearing four or five distinct whorls of from ten to fourteen 

 flowers, each flower having a subulate bract at the base of its 

 pedicel. The flowers are about an inch in diameter, of a lively 

 magenta colour, and the limb is flat, with obcordate distinct or 

 overlapping segments, the individual flowers being altogether 

 very suggestive of those of a highly- coloured Phlox Drummondii. 

 It may be added that on the occasion of its being exhibited at 

 the meeting of the Eoyal Horticultural Society on May 3rd, its 

 first public appearance in England, it was voted a first-class 

 certificate by acclamation. 



" One great merit of this new Japanese Primrose is that 

 it yields varieties no less beautiful than itself. Already the 

 following distinct forms have been noted ; — 



" P. japonic^ililacina. — This has flowers rather larger than the type ; 

 the eye is sarrounded by a well-defined zone of orange-red, shading 

 outwards to a beautiful rosy lilac, the outer portion of the corolla lobes 

 being white. This veiy chaste-looking variety has been exhibited, and 

 Has received a first-class certificate. 



^^ P. jajjonica alha. — This has white flowers, with a golden-yellow 

 20ne round the eye, and the flowers are rather below the avera.fje size. 



^" P. jaimnica carminata. — This very distinct form has the flowers 

 of a pure carmine red, with a maroon-crimson ring round the eye. 



" P. japonica splemUda. — A variety of dwarfer, denser, and more 

 stocty habit than the type, the flowers above the average size, of a 

 deep bright magenta, the zone of a rich bright crimson, surrounding a 

 "broad and open eye, which shows the yellow interior of the tube ; the 

 segments of the flower are veiy slightly overlapping. This is one of 

 the most brilliant varieties yet obtained. 



"P. jajjonica rosea. — Very distinct, with the flowers of a lilac-rose, 

 and having a crimson ring round the eye. 



" Of the hardiness of the Primula japonica there can be no 

 doubt, since plants which have been standing all the winter 

 folly exposed in the trying atmosphere of London, are perfectly 

 healthy, and came into bloom about the middle of May, some 

 two or three weeks later than the plants which had been potted 

 and flowered under glass." — (Florist and Pomologist, 3s. iv. 121.) 



THE LAWN GRASS AND THE DAISY. 



" I WISH you would go away and grow somewhere else," said 

 ■the Lawn Grass to a little white Daisy that was opening its 

 first flower on the very edge of the grass, just where its green- 

 ness was lost in the rich brown soil. 



" Why should I go away ?" replied the Daisy. " I have 

 everything that I wish, everything that is needful for life, and 

 health, and growth. I have light, and air, and sunshine, and 

 moisture, and sweet rich soil ; I am more than content." 



" But I do not care for you so near me. I do not like your 

 thick strong roots twining in and out among my fine Shry ones. 

 Why cannot you go and live out on the commons, or the road- 

 sides, or in the pasture fields among other Daisies? you would 

 find there all that you need." 



"Why should my presence be so distasteful to you?" said 

 the Daisy with a sigh. " Are you envious lest my little white 

 ilooms should dot all over your dark green turf ? Did not our 

 ancestors dwell together in peace for hundreds and hundreds of 

 years — Grass and Daisy, and Daisy and Grass — clothing the 

 rich pasture fields, and climbing the high hills, and making 

 more and more beautiful the warm sheltered valleys where men 

 build their homes ? Never cattle yet that I heard of turned 

 away from their pasturage because my starry flowers adorned it." 



" You are greatly mistaken, Miss Daisy, if you take me for 

 the common Meadow Grass, that grows so long, and thick, and 

 coarse, and over which the winged seeds play, and settle, and 

 take root just as they will. I assure you you have ventured on 

 forbidden ground ; all this long sweep is sacred to my Lawn 

 Grass ; no weed nor flower is ever permitted here ; I have it all 

 my own way." 



" Ton are at best but stunted grass, miserable growth, good 

 Jor neither man nor beast ; short cousin to noble relatives, who 

 pass you by without recognition. You are so shorn and swept 

 over, and rolled upon, and tamed down, that nothing but colour 

 remains of you. Why, you dare not hang out your little silver 

 seed-bells even for an hour ; you know they would be gone in 

 Bo time — rudely swept away. Do you never tire of wearing the 

 same unchanging green spring and autumn, and summer and 

 winter, nothing to break the monotony of your ever-enduring 

 verdure ?" 



" I change all too rapidly when the summer sun scorches 

 me, and turns my emerald green to dusky brown." 



" Do you never long to grow up and out into what Nature 

 meant you, to bud, and bloom, and win the fruition of all your 

 growth ? Ah ! I do not envy you, your sameness would weary 

 me. I would rather far be the common grass mountain sheep 

 wander over, and wild flowers grow among." 



" Yet I am loved and cared for," replied the Lawn Grass ; 

 "eyes weary of brilliant colours rest tenderly upon me, and 

 labour and cost are not counted to maintain me at my best." 



"I, too, am loved," said the Daisy softly, "though I grow 

 without cost or care. Generation after generation of children 

 have sat on sunny banks and woven their long Daisy chains ; 

 and poets have sung sweet verses of me that can never be 

 forgotten." 



"And yet you are the commonest of all flowers, a wayside 

 weed, trodden upon without comptmction, not cared for when 

 present, not missed when absent." 



" A wayside weed I may be, common too, that does not make 

 me of less value. I am stiU a starry flower with rose-tipped 

 florets, growing almost everywhere ; so enamoured of hfe that 

 with a will and a grace I can adapt myself to every gradation 

 of heat or cold, dryness or moisture. Not cared for, did you 

 say ? Why, bearded manhood passes me by reverently at dewy 

 sunset, and children hush their prattle to catch the notes of 

 my whispered prayer." 



" All weU enough. Miss Daisy," replied the Lawn Grass, " but 

 you are out of place here ; you cannot understand the necessi- 

 ties of my position. Your life would be safer and better out in 

 the summer woods, or on the wild moors. Yotir end will 

 come." 



And it came all too soon for the poor little Daisy ; a gar- 

 dener passing by caught sight of it, and with a — "You are 

 not wanted here," threw it into a rubbish basket, and ended its 

 short hfe.— A. M. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



We have, on more than one occasion, noticed the beautiful 

 stands of cut Eoses which are from time to time exhibited by 

 E. Webb, Esq., of Calcot, near Eeading, and more especially 

 the perfection, both in size and in richness of colour, in which 

 he produces the Tea-scented Marechal Niel, with which variety 

 every spare place on his walls is covered. At the last show at 

 South Kensington, on the 7th inst., he again exhibited examples 

 of this Eose, which were admired by all who saw them, con- 

 stituting, in fact, one of the features of the day, taking for his 

 two stands an extra prize in the miscellaneous class. 



We are very pleased to see that under the title of " My- 



coLOGicAii iLLTjSTEiTioxs," edited by Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, 

 assisted by Mr. A. W. Bennett and Mr. W. G. Smith, all well- 

 known botanists, it is proposed to publish a series of coloured 

 figures of British Hjmenomyoetous Fungi, drawn from fresh and 

 well-developed specimens, with a view of giving faithful repre- 

 sentations of many new and rare species not hitherto figured in 

 any work published in this country ; and also occasionally of 

 refiguring such species as may be thought to require better 

 illustration than has been given them in our standard works 

 on the subject. 



The Toxteth Paee and Aigeiteth Gaedenebs' Mutual 



Improvement Socieit is a success. Though the need of such 

 a means of intercommunication and mutual assistance as this 

 Society affords had long been felt, it did not appear certain 

 what reception such an association would meet with. At the 

 commencement the names of twenty-four members were en- 

 rolled, and during the first half-year, which ended in Septem- 

 ber last, these were increased to forty. In the succeeding half- 

 year fourteen new members were added, and six lost, leaving 

 the present strength at forty-eight. The objects of the Society, 

 as set forth in the rules, have been strictly adhered to ; papers 

 on subjects pertaining to gardening having been read and dis- 

 cussed, and questions of practical interest considered at each 

 meeting. An enumeration of the papers, in order as read, will 

 furnish an idea of their nature and scope :— " The making and 

 keeping of Grass Lawns," by the President, Mr. J. H. Mason ; 

 " The Potato and other members of the Nightshade family," 

 by the Vice-President, Mr. Thomas White; "The Origin and 

 Nature of Soils," Mr. George Thomson ; " What to Plant in 

 Parks and Gardens," Mr. Frederick Brown; "Garden Peas," 

 by the Secretary ; " The Culture of Mushrooms," Mr. W. H. 

 Waddington ; the latter completing the course for the first half- 

 year. The second halt-year was opened by the Vice-President, 



