THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] 



JANUARY, 1876. 



[No. 49. 



POINSETTIA PITLCHERRIMA PLENISSIMA. 

 We have recently had an opportunity of seeing and 

 sketching the long-talked-of and long-looked-for double 

 Poinsettia at Messrs. Veitch and Sons' establishment 

 at Chelsea, where it has been bloomed. Dried 

 specimens and drawings have now been known in this 

 country for a couple of years, and the living plant 

 quite bears out all that was expected from the dried 

 plants and sketches. Messrs. Veitch and Sons' plant 

 is infinitely superior to the old " single " forms in one 

 or two striking particulars, one of which is that, instead 

 of the usual single tier of bracts, the axis of the 

 inflorescence is bracted repeatedly, and all flie ramifica- 

 tions bear their quota of coloured bracts, fresh branches 

 proceeding from their axils. This branching goes on 

 till in some cases the heads have been seen to acquire 

 a depth of fifteen inches. We have not at present 

 seen the plant in this state, but the best specimens at 

 Chelsea, which are still a little immature, promise to 

 closely approach these dimensions when the head is 

 well filled up and all the now incipient and small 

 bracts become fully developed, as they doubtlessly soon 

 will. 



COLOGNE EXHIBITION. 

 Tee English exhibitors at the recent Cologne Exhibi- 

 tion have received the awards made to them, some of 

 which, as the services of porcelain awarded to Messrs. 

 Veitch and Mr. B. S. Williams, are of great beauty 

 and large value. Messrs. Carter and Co., of Ilolborn, 

 received a medal and handsome diploma for the Grass 

 seeds supplied by them. 



ZINNIAS. 



Messrs. Haage and Schmidt, of Erfurt, are in 

 possession of plauts of several new types of double 

 Zinnia, named Z. Darwinii, Z. Darwinii major, Z. 

 Darwinii vittata, Z. Darwinii pyramidalis vittata, &c. 

 This last is a hybrid raised between Z. Haageana 

 (mexicanum) and Z. elegans, and is said to be very 

 constant and to grow like an inverted pyramid. It is 

 abundantly distinct in habit from the beautiful double 

 forms of Z. elegans now becoming popular. 



ROSES ON THE BRIER. 



M. Jean Sisley, of Monplaisir, Lyons, sends the 

 following notes on " Roses on the Brier " to the 

 recently issued No. 10-4 of the Gardener's Chronicle : — 

 Rose-growers have long complained of the losses they 

 experience every year of Roses worked on the Brier. 



Some attribute this to Fungus at the root, and are on 

 the look-out for a remedy. On the other hand, it has 

 been said that the invasion of this parasite must be 

 dependent on contact of the roots with dung or other 

 putrefying matter, from heavy rains, from the employ- 

 ment of old stocks, from late or ill-managed planting, 

 the spaces left between the mounds, &c. The causes 

 assigned by the plant-doctors for the evils of which 

 rosomaniacs complain seem to me to be curious, and 

 have brought to my recollection that I had at one time 

 iu my garden a bed of standard Roses ; that one day 

 I took a dislike to them because they were looking 

 wretched. When they flowered they gave mo the 

 impression of bouquets tied to old brooms, and when 

 the flowers were over nothing but the brooms remained. 

 I took them all up, and having cut their heads off, 

 planted the stems in different places among other 

 shrubs, and in one case at the foot of an Ailanthus 

 glandulosa (Tree of Heaven). The following year all 

 grew vigorously. The one planted at the base of the 

 Ailanthus grew superbly ; it is now about fifteen 

 centimetres in circumference, and its branches reach 

 even to the head of the Ailanthus. Every spring its 

 branches, which curve over in a most graceful manner, 

 are covered with flowers. It is the admiration of all 

 my visitors, and in the autumn my glorious Brier is 

 covered with hips which give an aspect as if the 

 branches were laden with wreaths of coral. 



The others, though they have done well and are 

 indifferent to Fungus, are less luxuriant, because the 

 Lilacs, the Elders, the Filberts, and other shrubs 

 contest with them the enjoyment of the light and air. 

 Since their transplantation they have been neither 

 manured, nor watered, nor pruned. What are we to 

 infer from this ? That the scion is injurious to the 

 Brier ? That the Rose budded on the Brier, being less 

 vigorous than the latter, does not obtain for it sufficient 

 atmospheric food ? That the variety which it bears 

 being pruned to an extreme cannot fulfil the functions 

 to which the branches and the leaves are destined ? 

 That if Roses worked on the Brier were less pruned, 

 or not at all, the stock would be better ? That this 

 unhealthy, enfeebled, and unnatural condition renders 

 the plant more liable to the invasion of the Fungus ? I 

 cannot answer these questions, but I am disposed to 

 think that the continual mutilation of plants is 

 injurious to their well-doing. All horticultural 

 writers agree in saying that, in order that a plant may 

 live its allotted span, there should be a proper balance 

 between root and top — which is probable ; and yet they 



