MARCH. 



25 



NEW VERBENAS. 



WITH AA T ILLUSTRATION. 



The two Verbenas we now figure are the finest which appeared during the 

 last year ; and though their colours seem to have defied our artist in his efforts 

 to represent their brilliancy, enough has been done to show that they are 

 varieties of the first class, and that they are at the same time very handsome 

 and attractive flowers. 



That which is represented at fig. 1 is called Lord Leigh. It was raised 

 by Messrs. S. Perkins & Sons, of Park Nursery, Coventry, and was, as we learn, 

 a seedling that came up in the open ground late in the season of 1861. Being 

 late it did not bloom, but cuttings which were taken from it flowered early last 

 year, and these produced the trusses which were shown at Kensington in June 

 last, and which won for it a first-class certificate from the Floral Committee. 

 It was justly regarded as a very fine and handsome variety, remarkable for the 

 large size of its flowers, which were of excellent form, and of a crimson -scarlet 

 colour, brightened by a clear yellow eye. The trusses exhibited were large and 

 well filled. As shown during the season, in company with Foxhunter, it was, 

 in our opinion, decidedly the better of the two. 



The other_ variety, fig. 2, is named Lord Craven. It was produced by 

 Messrs. Downie, Laird, & Laing, of Sydenham and Edinburgh ; and as well as 

 the former received a first-class certificate from the Floral Committee. It is 

 decidedly the finest of the purples which has yet been obtained, corresponding 

 in its large size and bold character with its companion, Lord Leigh. It was 

 correctly described in the report of the Eoyal Horticultural Society's August 

 Show as " a remarkably fine variety, producing bold well-filled trusses of lar«-e, 

 flat, well-formed flowers an inch in diameter, and of a rich velvetv pucv-uurnle 

 self colour." Ji 9 m/ 



CONCERNING THE GLADIOLUS. 

 This flower is steadily, but surety, becoming a popular favourite. Not 

 that our leading exhibitions have borne much testimony to this effect; but 

 those in the trade who have ample means of noting the advance the flower is 

 making, by measuring the demand created for it, assert that the sale has 

 increased threefold during the winter. Some of the leading houses have sold 

 out of the varieties most in request. This may be due, in part to the failure 

 that last summer thinned the ranks of many growers. A rot that appeared 

 with amazing suddenness pervaded many a group ; and, in cases where a large 

 and healthy-looking spike had well nigh developed itself, and the colour of the 

 flowers was already appearing through the transparent green veil that sur- 

 rounded the buds, on a sudden this was stricken worthless by some baleful but 

 unseen and unknown agency. I saw large beds of Gladiolus devastated like 

 that seen when the potato-rot attacks a breadth of this esculent; and, when 

 what of the Gladiolus that appeared to be healthy bulbs had been staged for 

 future planting, the rot would again appear and well nigh complete the Avork 

 of entire extermination. I fancy that the wet and inclement spring told 

 heavily on the bulbs of those who planted on stiff soils and ill-drained 

 grounds, especially as early planting seems to be generally adopted. Notwith- 

 standing this, there has also been a marked widening of the area of the culti- 

 vation of the Gladiolus. Growers are extending their collections, and new 

 cultivators are bending their energies to the task of rearing— in fact, many of 

 the continental houses have long since been completely drained of leading 

 Yol. n. -n 



