THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SEEIES.] OCTOBER, 1875. [No. 46. 



EXHIBITIONS. 



At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 held on Sept. 1st last, first-class certificates were 

 awarded to Mr. J. Croucher, gardener to J. T. 

 Peacock, Esq., Sudbury House, Hammersmith, for 

 Fourcroya variegata, banded with gold up the margin 

 of the leaves — a very distinct plant ; and for Begonia 

 metallica, with greenish-bronzy, shining hairy leaves 

 and rosy pink flowers — also a very distinct plant, but 

 whether it is a species or hybrid it is difficult to say ; 

 anyway, says the Gardeners' Chronicle, it will turn out 

 a charming acquisition. To Mr. Eckford, gardener to 

 Lord Radnor, Coleshill, for Verbena, Lady Anne 

 Spiers, a fine large flesh, with a faint purplish ring 

 round the eye. To Mr. Keynes, Salisbury, for 

 Dahlias ; John Downie, very dark crimson, almost 

 black, a full, well-built flower ; Maggie Fairbairn, 

 rosy pink; Charles Leicester, dark blood -red ; and 

 Lord of the Isles, canary-yellow ; all very good. To 

 Mr. Turner, Slough, for Rose— the Red J. B. M. 

 Camm — a seedling of his own, a full and well-built 

 flower, with the strong and delicious perfume of the 

 old Cabbage Rose ; also for Bouquet Dahlia, Triumph, 

 dark reddish crimson and of excellent form. To Mr. 

 G. Rawlings, Romford, for Dahlia, John Bennett, of 

 a lemon ground-colour, with the petals edged with 

 cinnamon-red, and a full level centre ; and J. C. 

 Quennell, primrose yellow. The new Dahlias do not 

 exhibit any marked advance upon existing kinds ; 

 their improvement seems to have come to a stand- 

 still, and flowers are staged as new which are not 

 one whit better than popular sorts" of years ago. 

 As to the Gladioli, Mr. Berkeley remarked that he 

 did not consider them so good as last year; but the 

 Dahlias, he thought, would be better later in the 

 season. 



THE WATER GARDEN. 

 If there is one branch of gardening more neglected 

 than another, says F. W. B. in the Gardener, it would 

 seem to be that which relates to the culture of aquatic 

 plants, both hardy and tender. It is not possible, or 

 even desirable, to grow the Victoria Lily in every 

 garden ; but there are smaller and scarcely less beau- 

 tiful water-lilies, which only require a tank a few feet 

 square in which to cultivate them very successfully ; 

 and in the majority of cases the extra expense of a 



shallow slate tank is amply compensated by the 

 minimum amount of attention which the smaller 

 aquatic • plants require when once planted, compared 

 with ordinary decorative plants in pots. Many of the 

 most beautiful and interesting of all exotic water- 

 vegetation may be grown in an ordinary plant stove 

 during the summer months, and their introduction 

 would do much to break that everlasting monotony 

 and sameness of material one generally finds in such 

 structures. A slate tank, about four feet square and 

 one foot or fourteen inches deep, is amply sufficient for 

 one of the smaller Nymphteas ; and a few smaller 

 plants, as Pistia stratiotes or Limnocharis Humboldtii, 

 only require an inch or two of space round the sides. 

 A series of these shallow tanks might occupy one side 

 of a plant stove during the spring and summer 

 months, and thus, at a slight expense, afford the 

 means of growing a very interesting collection of 

 aquatic plants. These tanks are of a very portable 

 size, and are readily emptied and removed in the 

 autumn, when the plants have died down or are at 

 rest, in which condition one tank is often sufficient to 

 keep the tubers of such plants as Nymphseas, which 

 should never be dried off. 



Most aquatics grow well in a compost of fibrous 

 loam and manure, and they may either be planted in 

 pots or shallow wicker baskets (which for the larger 

 kinds are better) plunged beneath the surface. 



Aquatics are now kept in stock by most of the 

 principal nurserymen, so that they are readily obtain- 

 able. Now that it is the fashion to plant out our con- 

 servatories on the natural style, it is advisable to make 

 provision for aquatic or sub-aquatic vegetation. Even 

 if it is a cool or unheated structure, our common 

 white Water Lily and the American Nyniphcea 

 odorata, together with the fragrant and perfectly 

 hardy Aponogeton distachyon, may be introduced with 

 success ; but if the water is heated by a circular coil 

 of piping the selection of plants may be increased by 

 planting the lovely and free-flowering blue and rosy 

 Nyniphea Papyrus, and the beautiful umbrella- 

 leaved Nelumbium or Sacred Bean should always 

 find a place. Even where no regular aquatic 

 pond or tank is provided by the architect in 

 heated conservatories or plant-houses, the Nelumbium 

 Papyrus and other distinct and effective sub-aquatics 

 may be grown with every success by plunging tubs 

 or barrels down through the middle in the beds or 



