33G 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
gathered the seeds, and brought them to 
England. It may be increased from cuttings, 
and reared from seeds ; but singular as the 
plant is, but few cultivate it. The seeds 
should be imported in the fruit, sown in pots, 
and plunged in bottom heat ; as they advance 
in size, they may be picked out, and finally 
potted, one plant in a pot, when they must 
have ordinary stove treatment. The flowers 
are neither green nor white, but a little of 
each. It flowers rather scantily four or five 
months of the summer. — O. 
Quassia amara (Bitter Quassia). — 
This is a very beautiful stove evergreen 
shrub, with racemes of bright scarlet flowers, 
red stem, and veins of the leaves the same 
colour, while the other portions are bright 
green. The flowers are singularly formed, the 
sepals twisting round, and never completely 
opening. It flowers the greater part of the 
summer. It only requires the common stove 
treatment. The plant is a native of Surinam. 
The mode of propagation is by cuttings under 
a bell-glass, with bottom heat ; and as soon as 
they are struck, pot them into large sixties, in 
which they may be continued until the roots 
touch the sides of the pot, which will be the 
guide for shifting. The soil best adapted for 
the plant is loam, dung, and peat earth, equal 
parts, and see to a good drainage. — O. 
Ferrabia undulata (Curled Ferraria). — 
This is one of the most beautiful objects, andwe 
may almost say the most ephemeral, the bloom 
only lasting a few hours in perfection, though 
a succession of flowers keeps up the interest 
from day to day, during the brief period of its 
blooming. It is said to be a native of the 
Cape, and to require similar treatment to that 
given to all Cape bulbs. It seems to have 
puzzled the botanists as to what genus they 
should refer it to ; and, accordingly, we have 
it under the various appellations of Flos indi- 
cus, Gladiolus indicus, Narcissus indicus, and 
Iris stellata. The name of Ferraria was given 
by Burman, in compliment to Joh. Baptiste 
Ferraria, by whom it was described and figured 
in his Flora seu de Florum cultura. It was 
figured also in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 
and has been one of the neglected plants only, 
so far as we can judge, from the ephemeral 
nature of the bloom. It flowers in the spring, 
throwing out an annual bloom from February 
till May, and deserves a place in every col- 
lection of plants, and especially where other 
Cape bulbs are cultivated: nor does it say 
much for the taste of many, who hold first-rate 
establishments, that this class of plants is so 
much neglected. It would be well if some of 
the societies would draw attention to the cul- 
tivation of Cape bulbs : they are beautiful 
subjects, and should not be neglected — G. 
, The Potato (Solanum tuberosum) has 
been found in a wild state at Valparaiso, about 
Lima, and near Bogota, and is, no doubt, very 
generally distributed along nearly the whole 
range of the Andes, and perhaps of some 
other parts of South America, although it does 
not appear to have been met with on or near 
the eastern coast of that vast continent. In a 
wild state the tubers are very small, and have 
an unpleasant bitter flavour. It appears to 
have been cultivated by the Indians from time 
immemorial, and to have been rapidly dis- 
seminated by the Spaniards, and other 
European visitors, to the new world. At 
least, this seems the only way to explain its 
being introduced from Virginia by Sir Walter 
Raleigh and his unsuccessful colonists, about 
1586, as the potato has never been found in 
a wild state in North America. It appears 
to have reached other parts of Europe at an 
earlier period, through a different channel ; 
but many years elapsed ere it was cultivated 
to any extent. It also appears to have been 
grown in large quantities in Ireland, for a 
considerable period before it became at all 
general either in Scotland or England. In 
Scotland it was first cultivated to any extent 
about 1728 ; but in England, with the ex- 
ception of Lancashire, it made little progress, 
as Miller in his dictionary (edition of 1771) 
names only two varieties, until, in 1796, at 
least seventeen hundred acres were planted 
with this root in the county of Essex. 
The wild potato differs very little in ex- 
ternal appearance from the cultivated varieties, 
except in invariably having white flowers, as 
far as they have been observed. The tubers 
are small, and vary with red and yellowish 
skins ; and, as mentioned before, are reported 
to be bitter in flavour ; but from wild tubers 
grown in this country, the produce was found, 
when cooked, to possess the ordinary flavour 
of young potatoes. It would thus seem that 
very little cultivation was necessary to fit 
them for food. 
Watering Mushroom Beds. — Although 
it is necessary to water Mushroom beds some- 
times, it is looked upon as a precarious opera- 
tion, and is often followed by the destruction 
of what spawn may remain in the bed. Water 
of a temperature of 80 or 90 degrees is gene- 
rally used. Mr. Smith, of Streatham, says, 
" To a bed of sixteen feet by six, I have used 
forty gallons of water, the temperature being 
164 degrees. The result of this experiment 
was truly astonishing, for in ten days the bed 
was again covered. I commenced gather- 
ing from the bed in December, and watered 
it in March, and have at the present time 
(middle of May) plenty of Mushrooms." To 
realize this success the bed should be well 
made, and not over moist at the time of the 
application. 
