I02 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 262. 



and then, via Staines and Sunninghill, to see the celebrated 

 nurseries of Knap Hill and Woking. He met there Mr. 

 Low and IMr. Waterer and walked back in the night some 

 twenty miles to be at his desk at the usual time in the 

 morning. In 1837 a nursery was established at Reading. 

 The nursery business was ultimately abandoned, and plants 

 are now grown solely for seed. 



Probably the first impulse to the cultivation of field as 

 well as garden seeds was made on the occasion of the 

 great Irish famine, when immense quantities of seed were 

 required by the Government and large orders were exe- 

 cuted. The warehouses and offices of the firm are unusu- 

 ally fine and the buildings represent, inclusive of the land 

 upon which they are erected, an outlay of p/"ioo,ooo. The 

 imposing front of this establishment is one of the con- 

 spicuous features in the town. The arrangements for the 

 quick delivery of orders and replies to the daily corre- 

 spondence are perfect, while the welfare of the employes is 

 carefully considered. On the King's Road in a large block 

 of buildings are a restaurant, lecture hall, with a sitting ac- 

 commodation for one thousand persons, and reading-rooms. 

 A cafe, designed especially for the workmen of the firm, is 

 opposite to the Abbey Square, and contains bedrooms, din- 

 ing and club rooms. In the seed or trial grounds there are 

 broad acresof vegetables, annuals and other flowers for trial. 



Several houses are given over to the Chinese Primula and 

 Persian Cyclamen. This firm has done much to improve 

 the Chinese Primula, of which they have the latest and 

 choicest varieties. These flowers can now be had for 

 about six months in the year by successive sowings, and 

 they furnish an abundance of bloom at a dull period of the 

 year. It is interesting to compare the varieties of the 

 present day with the first Primulas ever raised and with 

 the typical plant sent over from central China to England 

 in the year 182 1, and reintroduced recently. I saw plants 

 of this wilding in bloom here, differing greatly from the 

 superb flowers with which these houses are filled. The 

 type has lilac flowers ; the leaves are small, but vary con- 

 siderably in size and also in the color of the stems, some 

 being red and others white. The blue Primula is the result 

 of selection and recrossing, during many years, of flowers 

 showing shades of lilac. The latest successes with this 

 variety are seen in the plant-houses at Reading. While the 

 blue Primula of the present cannot be described as an 

 ideal blue, the color is improving each year, the magenta 

 tone being less evident. Reading Blue is a superb flower, 

 broad, large and of intense color, with a compact truss car- 

 ried well above the base of sturdy leafage. There is a 

 double counterpart to this fine form raised from a single 

 variety. The flower is quite double, but less so than the 

 Marchioness of Exeter, and approaches more in character 

 the old Double White Primula, as it was called in Eng- 

 land. In spite of the many splendid recent acquisitions, 

 the old Double White Primula is still more largely grown 

 for the English markets than almost any other greenhouse 

 plant. It blooms freely, the flowers are of the purest white 

 and the plant is easy to grow. One market-grower in the 

 vicinity of London has several houses filled with this 

 variety. The double Primula is just becoming a favorite 

 in England and its popularity is likely to increase. At 

 Reading this section is well represented. A double blue is 

 one of the most pleasing varieties, and there are, besides, 

 double carmine, double white, fern-leaved, double rose, a 

 very pleasing shade of color, and double scarlet, a brilliant 

 scarlet and exceptionally free in blooming. 



Additions to the prevailing list of colors are continually 

 being made, and in time these may be surpassed by even 

 such fine single varieties as Giant White, Pearl, Giant 

 Crimson, Purity, Reading Scarlet, Ruby King and Reading 

 Pink. The change in habit has been almost as great as 

 that in the flower. Years ago the Chinese Primula, like 

 the Persian Cyclamen, was scraggy and leggy, the leaf 

 long and lacking in robustness. This is all changed now. 

 The leaves of the Primula of to-day are vigorous and make 

 a splendid base from which, on a sturdy stem, the head of 



flowers rises, borne in a compact shapely truss. A mass 

 of the Giant White presents an even surface, each flower 

 standing out boldly. A section likely to become popular 

 is the moss curl-leaved, the foliage of which is very pretty 

 and curled up like moss. I also noticed a variety named 

 Terra Cotta, which is quite distinct. The flowers are single, 

 finely shaped, terra cotta in color, shaded with salmon. 



The Persian Cyclamens figure largely at Reading, and 

 this fine winter flower was at its best at the time of my 

 visit. A great advance has been made in the improvement 

 of these plants in the matter of sturdy habit and decided 

 color of flowers. There are no dingy magenta shades in 

 the strain at Reading, a color that spoils utterly many 

 otherwise fine varieties. Sutton's White Butterfly is a su- 

 perb kind ; the flowers are very large and of the purest 

 white. This is a useful variety for cutting. The same 

 high standard is reached in Giant Crimson, White, Rose and 

 Vulcan, the latter of a rich crimson tone. Splendid plants, 

 a mass of leafage, are the results of one year's cultivation, 

 the seed being sown early in the year and the plants flow- 

 ering the following winter. 



What has been written respecting the cultivation and 

 improvement of these two great classes of indoor plants is 

 true also of Gloxinias, Tuberous Begonias and many 

 other florists' plants grown by this firm. In the summer 

 months the extensive trials of annual flowers are interesting 

 and important features of the work of the firm. Last year 

 broad beds were filled with the new annual introduced by 

 them, named Nemesia strumosa Suttoni. This is likely to 

 prove a great favorite. The seed grows readily, and a bed 

 of plants produces flowers in great variety of color, 

 the shades of orange from sulphur to deep crimson making 

 a rich effect. It belongs to the Scrophulariacese and was 

 introduced about 1887 from central Atrica. The plants are 

 very free-blooming, each of the flower spikes, which rise 

 nearly a foot in height, bearing many flowers, which meas- 

 ure about an inch across individually. The same cultivation 

 that applies to half-hardy annuals is suitable for Nemesia. 



An important department of the firm's work is that of 

 growing vegetables for trial. All visitors to English horti- 

 cultural shows are acquainted with the splendid produce 

 exhibited by Messrs. Sutton & Sons. The firm makes a 

 specialty of Potatoes, and in all their trials have carefully 

 kept in view the importance of securing kinds that resist 

 disease. The well-known Magnum Bonum variety was 

 sent out by them. The firm has seed farms in many 

 counties of England and also in Scotland, and they are 

 thus able to furnish tubers from different conditions of cli- 

 mate and from various soils. They also give this same 

 special attention to the cultivation of Peas, and no less 

 than four hundred trials of the leading kinds in cultivation 

 are made each year. Ringleader was distributed by this 

 firm, and many other excellent varieties. They have now 

 a large list of unnamed seedlings on trial, and these will 

 undergo the selecting process until they are ready for dis- 

 tribution. Cabbage, Turnips, Mangel Wurzel and other 

 farm crops are grown largely and subject to the same 

 painstaking care as in the case of the Potato and Pea. 



Reading is about thirty miles from London, and express 

 trains run at frequent intervals to this busy country town, 

 which has much of interest to antiquarians. A pleasant 

 and profitable day's oufing is offered in a walk through the 

 quaint streets of the town and through the spacious 

 grounds and houses of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, especially in 

 the summer season, when the various trials of flowers and 

 vegetables are seen to the best advantage. 



England. V. C. 



Cultural Department. 



Orchids for Window Plants. 



THERE is no doubt that even a larger list of Orchids than 

 that given by Mr. Manda in a recent number of Garden 

 AND Forest can be cultivated and flowered successfully in 

 window-sfardens. Those able cultivators, the women who 



