THE GENUS BURTON [A. 
knowledge, or fancied knowledge, we know 
from actual experience that they are wrong 
and we are right. But one of these gentle- 
men, who knows so much, and is fond of even 
writing the quantity he does know, assures us, 
on actual experience, that he has followed our 
directions, well drained his bed, used the best 
loam from rotted turves, and done every thing 
we have at various times said should be done, 
and yet he failed as much as he did in other 
parts of his garden. It is worth noticing 
how easily a man may deceive himself. We 
examined his bed ; we found a foot-and-a-half 
of excellent loam, and at the bottom of this a 
foot of brick rubbish, the natural soil being 
a stiff loam very retentive and as close as 
clay ; and he maintained that there could not 
be a better drainage^ because the excess of 
water would run down into the brick rubbish. 
The only mistake he made was, that when it 
had run there it stopped there. He had for- 
gotten a very essential point, and we said so. 
He defied us to suggest better drainage ; it 
was as good and on the same principle as the 
drainage of a flower pot ; but our worthy friend 
forgot the hole in the bottom. Pie had sides 
and bottom that could hold water like a leaden 
cistern, but there was no outlet; so that there 
jvas, for the whole season, the accumulation of 
his watering as well as of the rains ; and his 
well drained bed, as he called it, was always 
full of stagnant water. Here was, and here is, 
the grand secret: drainage is getting rid of the 
water ; all pretences that fail of this are use- 
less. Had this gentleman made a drain from 
• the bottom of his bed to run the water off, he 
had been right enough ; but brick rubbish is 
no better than any other rubbish if the water 
is to lay in it. We attribute the failure of 
many things in many gardens to the stagnant 
water in the soil, and all make-shifts, all par- 
tial draining is not so effective as draining 
the whole garden. If a man grows florist 
flowers — there are pounds' worth of plants go 
into a small compass — his crops, as it were, are 
beyond price. He is unable to estimate the 
cost of his stock, because the plants have 
been bought at so many different periods. 
Pansies have been tried and failed, pinks have 
been tried apd failed ; twenty other kinds of 
flowers have been tried, but by degrees have 
got worse and worse. It has all been attri- 
buted to the air and situation, when it should 
have been laid to the want of proper drainage. 
But it may be said, "Mr. This grows them 
without draining his garden, and Mr. That 
has never drained his ; it cannot be that. " We 
say it can be, and is that. , Mr. This and Mr. 
That possess only two out of the hundreds of 
gardens in which they have been grown ; and 
they occupy gardens which have good na- 
tural drainage, and that alone accounts for 
their growing successfully flowers which other 
people cannot grow. The ranunculus must 
be left alone unless the ground is effectually 
drained ; the soil should be clear loam with 
vegetable mould ; and when dung is used it 
must be clean cow-dung, rotted into mould; 
new cow-dung, though strongly recommended 
by one grower, who has made however but a 
poor job of it, brings the fly and the maggot. 
Let our friends around London, as well as 
elsewhere, grow them again with fair means, 
and this most beautiful flower will once more 
progress. Lightbody, of Falkirk, and Reid, 
of Dunfermline, have always been successful; 
they have superb varieties which nobody 
has equalled, and a lesson out of their book 
will do great service. 
THE GENUS BURTONIA. 
A LARGE proportion of the finer hard- 
wooded greenhouse plants belong to the 
group of Papilionaceous plants ; that is to say, 
those which have butterfly-shaped flowers, 
similar in structure to those of the pea, the 
bean, the lupine, and many other familiar 
flowers and plants. This race of plants is 
invaluable to the cultivator, the great ma- 
jority of the plants being objects of the great- 
est beauty under a proper course of culture. 
The greatest objection that arises is, that the 
colour prevailing among them is yellow — a 
common colour — varied indeed through many 
shades, but still having the xanthic tinge con- 
spicuous. To this general rule, the genus 
Burtonia presents some exceptions, the flow- 
ers of several of its species being of a purple 
colour, and moreover very handsome. Hence, 
they are most desirable plants in a collection, 
however limited its extent may be. 
Till recently, but one purple-flowered spe- 
cies of Burtonia existed in our gardens ; two 
others have however been recently added. 
They are all plants of high merit, and though 
perhaps too similar in general appearance to 
be all admitted to a very limited collection, 
yet in none should one or other of them be 
omitted ; and where there is space for them, 
w^e should recommend them all to be obtained. 
The yellow-flowered species of Burtonia 
introduced to this country in a living state 
are the following : — 
Burtonia scahra, Brown. — This has pube- 
scent branches, scabrous leaves, formed of 
three linear-subulate leaflets, and yellow flow- 
ers. It is a shrub growing to a foot-and-a- 
half high. Introduced in 1803. 
Burtonia sessilifolia, De Candolle. — This 
has hairy branches, smooth leaves of three 
linear- subulate sessile leaflets, and yellow 
flowers. A shrub growing about the same 
size as the last. Introduced in 1824. 
Burtonia minor, De Candolle. — This has 
