190 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



A suitable soil is a matter of great importance. 

 Tlie best is a light compost made up of soft fibrous 

 loam, •with a little peat and silver sand added. It 

 will be observed that we do not recommend the 

 addition of manure ; it is best to water with some 

 weak manure- water, twice a week, at the flowering 

 season. This adds to the size and intensifies the 

 colours of the flowers. And let it not be forgotten 

 that the plants love shade. Many plants axe spoiled 

 I)y permitting the sun to shine upon them; they 

 must have a moist atmosphere if they are to be 

 healthy and flower well. We have seen not a few 

 plants destroyed by keeping them in too dry an at- 

 mosphere ; they soon become covered with red spider, 

 and the leaves turn yellow. A moist atmosphere, 

 with a temperature of about 60° to 65", suits the 

 plants, but on no account must they be allowed to 

 suffer for want of water. We not long since saw in 

 Messrs. Sutton and Sons' nursery, at Reading, many 

 hundreds of plants, in small forty-eight-sized pots, 

 about five or six months from seed, and carrying 

 from six to fifteen beautiful flowers, some of them of 

 enormous size, and finely proportioned. 



The Gloxinia being a stove perennial, the leaves 

 die away at the end of the summer, the roots resting 

 during autumn and winter. How they can best be 

 preserved during the dead season of the year, is a 

 desirable inquiry. It must be carefully done, as 

 losses frequently occur during the winter. It is im- 

 portant that the plants should not be " dried off " too 

 quickly ; they should be placed in a light airy posi- 

 tion, and then, by a gradual reduction of moisture, 

 the leaves will faU ofE naturally. When the leaves 

 have withered, and the soil become pretty dry, the 

 roots should be turned out of the pots, and placed in 

 boxes or large flower-pots, in a mixture of cocoa- 

 nut fibre and peat in equal parts, keeping them on 

 a shelf in a dry shed, in an even temperature of 

 about 50°. Excessive dryness must be guarded 

 against, while too much damp is equally objection- 

 able. It win be necessary to pot these in early 

 spring. The bulbs should be taken out of the 

 boxes, and placed on a cocoa-fibre bed, in a brisk 

 moist heat ; those that are the quickest in showing 

 signs of growth should be potted first into small 

 pots, treated much as one would seedlings, be care- 

 fully shifted into other pots, and be kept near the 

 glass, as, with warmth and moisture, light is essen- 

 tial to a rapid and luxuriant growth. 



A neighbour of ours makes a rare display every 

 summer by planting out a bed of Gloxinias in a 

 stove-house. He states that the plants grow so 

 much more luxuriantly, and flower so much more 

 freely, than they do in pots, lasting also much 

 longer in flower. This is a very happy idea. One 

 result is, he is able to cut a large number of flowers 



for decorative purposes within-doors ; and, to adopt 

 his own phrase, he " can cut and come again." 



The following and other choice varieties, though 

 everywhere known in gardens as Gloxinias, are 

 strictly all forms of Sinningia speeiosa : — 



Erect-plowebing Varieties. 



Avalanche. 



Boule de Feu. 



Brunette. 



Crassifolia alba. 



Comet. 



Diadem. 



Duchess of Connauglit. 



Fabiola. 



Flambeau. 



Lady Musgrave. 

 Lord Derby. 

 Louis van Houtte. 

 Mr. Gladstone. 

 Mrs. Bause. 

 Ne Plus Ultra. 

 Purity. 

 Vesta. 

 "William Goldriug. 



Erect Varieties, with Spotted Flowebs 

 (a very beautiful section). 



Argus. 



Ariadne. 



Clytis. 



Cordelia. 



Coronet. 



Jubilee. 



Lady Marriott. 

 Madame Hugo. 

 Marian. 

 Mrs. Atkinson. 

 Mrs. Peploe. 

 Rob Eoy. 



Varieties with Drooping Flowers. 



Ducbess of Teck. 

 Gramos. 

 Insulaire. 

 James Barber. 



Marquis of Lome. 

 Miss H. de Botbschild. 

 Prince Leopold. 

 Sir John Lubbock. 



The Hollyhock. — The botanical name of this 

 noble plant is Alt/tea rosea, and it belongs to the 

 natural order Malvacete. In the botanical catalogues 

 it is described as a hardy biennial with red flowers, 

 blooming in August, indigenous to China, first 

 known in Englaijd in 1573. But how did it come 

 to acquire the common name of Hollyhock ? The old 

 English writers spelt the word HoUihocke, Holyoak, 

 and Holyock, whence it is siipposed to have been 

 derived from the Saxon Solihoc. The word seems 

 somewhat difiScult to explain. The originally intro- 

 duced Hollyhock was, no doubt, a single form ; but 

 it was soon taken in hand and cultivated. Gerarde 

 states that at the end of the sixteenth century it 

 was sown in gardens almost everywhere. About 

 1724 it is described in Miller's " Gardener's Dic- 

 tionary " as a plant of considerable variety, bearing 

 red, white, purple, black, and other coloured flowers ; 

 and there were double varieties in those days. One 

 of the first of English florists to take in hand and 

 improve the HoUyhook was Charles Baron of SafEron 

 Walden, a shoemaker by trade, unversed in garden 

 literature, but with a great liking for the flower. 

 By concentrating his attention on this plant alone, 

 he soon distanced all competitors, and originated 

 flowers of more perfect form, greater substance, 

 closer arrangement of petals, and greater proximity 

 of flowers on the spike. Later on, the Pauls of 

 Cheshunt, Chater of SafEron Walden, and others, 

 took up the work of improvement, and were so 



