466 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 12, 1S72. 



niunis, have been destroyed by the smoke, while the smooth- 

 leaved Camellias, Azaleas, &c, have escaped, except where 

 scorched by the actual flames. Amongst the latter was a fine 

 plant of Solanum, whose berries were cruelly roasted, and 

 " alas ! master, it was borrowed." 



The accident took place too far from the furnace for any 

 actual fire to have been communicated, even if the pipes had 

 not been perfectly tight; and it shows how a low heat, cer- 

 tainly never approaching that of boiling water, is able to get 

 accumulated in woody fibre, and to cause it to enter into what 

 can only have been a state of spontaneous combustion. 



I may add that I do not intend to give up the idea of such a 

 permanent hotbed, but shall, of course, cover the pipes with 

 sand or earth, on which the surface material, whether saw- 

 dust, tan, or cocoa-nut fibre mav, perhaos, be safely placed. 

 — T. S. C, Bristol. 



IONOPSIDIUM" ACATJLE. 



How dull and cheerless just now is the aspect of garden and 

 flower ground ! Outside stove or conservatory the eye wanders 

 in vain for any object of floral interest, unless, perchance, it 

 may rest upon some pale solitary Rose or other unseasonable 

 straggler, which only serves to make the floral solitude more 

 lonely, and the decay and sleep of nature felt more sensibly. 

 Amid this desolation and quiescence of plant life, it is, to any- 

 one who can feel and appreciate it, an agreeable surprise and 

 a joy to come upon a hardj- little plant-beauty which, at this 

 inclement season, all healthy, verdant, and vigorous, puts forth 

 its modest chamis in the shape of flowerets innumerable, and 

 continues to do so far into dreary winter. Such a hardy little 

 gem is to be found in the lowly cushion-like violet Cress of the 

 south of Europe— Ionopsidiuni acaule. From its neat low-grow- 

 ng habit it is also sometimes called the Carpet Plant, and in suit- 

 able situations it, no doubt, is well calculated, with such things 

 as Arenaria balearic-a and the Sedums, to play a part on that 

 recent and somewhat fashionable phase of modern flower, gar- 

 dening yclept " carpet bedding." Individually a plant of this 

 pretty little Crucifer (flowers, leaves, and all) may be covered 

 by a florin, and yet in that small compass are leaves innumer- 

 able and flowers in profusion. The leaves are deep green, 

 roundish or somewhat reniform, and compactly arranged. 

 The flowers, which are produced in great abundance and con- 

 tinuous succession, are of a delicate pale violet or lilac tint. 

 Collectively the plants assume the appearance of a dense green 

 cushion, with its surface thickly powdered over with delicate, 

 pale, tiny lilac flowerets. 



A small bed of this plant is at this season a very pretty and 

 telling object, and as it also does very well grown in pots, any- 

 one who goes-in for or is fond of window gardening could not 

 take under his care a more interesting or pretty subject. Its 

 place in the garden is a bed or border with a north aspect, or it 

 will be quite at home on the shaded side of rockwork. The soil 

 most suitable is that of a peaty character. It is an annual, 

 and flowers in a very few weeks after the seed is sown. Once 

 established it seeds abundantly, sows itself, and comes up freely, 

 so that it assumes a pere nni al character. In the American gar- 

 den at this season our plant might be made very effective use 

 of by stringing the beds with small bosses of it at short intervals. 

 If, however, we can but induce our practical friends to make 

 the acquaintance of this charming little hardy winter-flowering 

 plant, it is enough for us ; its whereabouts and combinations 

 may be safely left to their good taste. Our object simply is to 

 draw attention to it, and ask for it the place which it appeal's 

 to us to deserve among the materials available for the floral 

 decoration either of the winter and spring garden, or the dwell- 

 ing-house window. Seed of it may be sown either in autumn 

 or spring. When sown in the latter season it soon flowers and 

 ripens its seeds, which, shedding quickly, germinate and pro- 

 duce a crop of plants which flower in autumn and continue to 

 do so through a great part of the winter. In this way it is 

 almost perennial in habit and perpetual in flowering. Though 

 far from being a new plant, it is neither so familiarly known 

 nor extensively grown as it certainly deserves to be. — (Irish 

 Farmers' Gazette.) 



Ice-Plant Seedlings. — In reply to " A. R., Bromley,'' I am 

 in the habit of sowing Ice Plant on the outside of Cucumber 

 and Melon frames, where it flourishes well, and has more 

 than once flowered abundantly. In the warm summer of 1S6S 

 it must have ripened seeds in open flower beds, for the follow- 

 ing year numerous seedlings sprung up, I having planted-out 



a few of the spare plants from the outside of the frames in 

 those flower beds, where they became fine plants, and must, 

 of course, have flowered, although I did not notice the fact. 

 The blossom being so insignificant, this is not surprising. I 

 may add that this situation is 450 feet above the sea, and near 

 the mountains of North Wales. The sea ah so tempers the 

 climate that we have very little frost or snow. — C. R. 



COLOUR CLASSIFICATION OF ROSES. 



Mr. Radclyffe's attempt to classify Roses by their colours 

 only shows how utterly useless it is to attempt it, and that 

 " Senateur Vaisse's" plan as an emendation to Mr. Hinton's 

 was no emendation at all. Mr. Eadclyffe classes Roses in 

 twenty-seven colours. What his object is in recommending 

 such Roses as ffiillet Parfait, Tricolor de Flandre, Madeline, La 

 Volupte, Madame Jacquier, Gloire de Ducher, Empereur de 

 Maroc, Schismaker, and a few others, I hardly know, unless 

 it was for the sake of dividing-out colours and having a 

 motley group of all shades. How, again, could Madame Boll, 

 Felix Genero, John Hopper, Madame Clemence Joigneaux, and 

 Duchesse de Moray be all classed under the same head as rose 

 colour, under which head, by the way, he has fifteen names 

 (it having been suggested by " Sexateuk Vaisse" to name 

 three) ? How, again, can Duke of Edinburgh and Fisher 

 Holmes be classed together as scarlet ? If Fisher Holmes is 

 to be associated with any other Rose in point of colour, it 

 must be with Charles Lefebvre, not with Kean or the Duie of 

 Edinburgh. However, it is unnecessary to criticise further, 

 as all good judges of Roses, and amateurs who have studied 

 the question of the colours of Roses, will see how very far 

 short of any accurate classification Mr. Radclyffe's list is. 

 Besides, to go no further, in naming about seventy-five Roses 

 he has omitted such Roses as Marie Baumann, La France, 

 Ernilie Hausburg, Madame Noman, Louis Van Houtte, 

 Countess of Oxford, Horace Vernet, Berthe Baron, Abel 

 Grand, Mdlle. Eugenie Terdier, Duke of Wellington, Dupuy- 

 Jamain, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Victor Verdier, Madame 

 Caillat, Mrs. C. Wood, Madame Therese Levet, and many 

 others I could name, while putting in, besides those I have 

 picked out before, such Roses as Sceur des Anges, Lion des 

 Combats, Baronne Pelletan de Einkelin, Baron Chaurand, 

 Souvenir de W. Wood, and many others not worth nearly so 

 much as those he has omitted. 



I should not have made these adverse criticisms, but such 

 a list as Mr. Radclyffe's, coming from a reputed judge, is apt 

 to mislead the gardening world, and I must make a protest 

 against it. Mr. Hinton's list, which I hope shortly to see 

 published, will, I think, verify what I say in regard to those 

 which have been omitted from Mr. Radclyffe's list and those 

 which have been inserted. — C. P. Peach. 



TEACH CHILDREN TO KNOW PLANTS. 

 Children' of two families met in a Hampshire lane, and one 

 of the children was gathering from the hedge some berries and 

 giving them to her sister, observing — " They must be good, 

 they look so nice." " No ! no ! " exclaimed a daughter of the 

 other family, " they are poison. They're called Deadly Night- 

 shade. Papa told us so when illustrating a proverb — all is not 

 gold that glitters." 



" I hope mamma will not die," said a seven-year-old maiden ; 

 " but if she does die, I hope she will die like a flower, and 

 come again in the spring." 



Now, those utterances — sentences truly uttered, and now 

 truly told — were teachings from Nature, were lessons learned 

 from Nature, and her lessons are among the most useful and 

 last to be forgotten. 



One of the first instincts of childhood — a love of the beauti- 

 ful—should be cherished, for it is the first step towards good- 

 ness, and there is no beauty on earth so pure as that of plants. 

 " Beautiful things ye are, where'er ye grow ! 



The wild red Rose, the Speedwell's peeping eyes, 

 Our own Bluebell, the Daisy that doth rise 

 "Wherever sunbeams fall or winds do blow ; 

 And thousands more, of blessed forms and dyes — ■ 



I love ye all ! " 



Take a child along a country lane, and gather sprays of any 

 or all the plants as you walk, and you may teach that child 

 lessons in brief sentences that will never be forgotten. The 

 Crab, parent of every Apple ; the Briar, nurse of better Roses ; 

 Ivy that adorns and shelters its supporter; Coltsfoot, Ground 

 Ivy, and many more — the poor man's medicines ; Grass, the 



