HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
427 
gardener who would condescend to so mean a 
trick. In all probability, Shrubs to, answer 
the purpose of the small beds, could be pur- 
chased at a pound per hundred, and that 
money as sure and as safe an investment as it 
would be in the funds ; for such plants would 
last seven years for one place or other, and 
then might be permanently planted in the 
park or premises, or sold again to make way 
for smaller ; or rather, by obtaining a few 
small ones every year, and finally disposing of 
a few larger ones, everything might go on well, 
year alter year, for the appearance of the 
winter garden. 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
Mimulus. — There are great numbers of 
seedlings raised from the different cultivated 
species of Mimulus, and many of them of con- 
siderable beauty. Some years since there was 
a very pretty herbaceous variety in cultiva- 
tion, called Variegatus, white ground colour, 
with fine purple spots : this seems to be nearly 
or quite lost, though it was very distinct and 
pretty. Probably the lilac blue-flowered M. 
alatus, and M. ringens, would produce some- 
thing new in colour. M. Mc Lainii, and M. 
roseus superbus, have been some years in cul- 
tivation, and still rank as very good sorts. 
The fault of the varieties raised from M. 
cardinalis is, the reflexing of the lobes of 
the flower ; but this does not occur so much 
in those bred from M. roseus. — Gard. Journ. 
Seeds. — In the simple operation of seed 
sowing, great economy could at once be brought 
into practice, by making healthy preparations, 
and studying the most advantageous season 
for sowing each variety, according to the vari- 
ation of the season, the soil, and the situation 
of each locality. By sowing each variety thinly, 
much stronger, and more healthy plants will 
be obtained, that will have many advantages 
over thickly sown, drawn up, weakly plants ; 
besides, much labour is required in thinning 
out thickly sown plants, that could be more 
advantageously employed; and there is the 
disadvantage of having weakly plants, that 
are, moreover, liable to get much disturbed 
and unsettled by the process of thinning, which 
greatly retards them in their future progress, 
and subjects them to the attacks of insects. — 
Ibid. 
Colours of Flowers. — To find the colours 
that contrast, the following simple and inge- 
nious method may be resorted to. Take a 
sheet of white paper, upon which place a red 
wafer ; look at it steadily with one eye for half 
a minute or so, without allowing the eyelids 
to close, and then look from the red wafer to 
another part of the white paper; a green 
spectrum will be seen, of the same size as the 
wafer ; and this is the colour which would form 
the true contrast to red : in like manner, an 
orange wafer will produce a blue spectrum ; 
and hence blue is the true contrast to orange; 
yellow to indigo; green to reddish-violet; blue 
to orange red ; indigo to orange yellow ; and 
violet to blueish-green. By a little attentive 
study, it will be seen how easily any gardener 
might make himself acquainted with the prin- 
ciples of the science, sufficiently to avoid gross 
errors in the composition of colour in his 
flower-beds. — Ibid. 
Cotoneaster microphylla. — This shrub 
has been noticed by Mr. Murray, of the Glas- 
gow Botanic Garden, to grow in a direction 
towards the north ; and Mr. Sim, of Footscray, 
confirms this observation. Mr. Murray men- 
tions a plant growing over a south wall, which 
had reached the top, with even the smaller 
as well as larger branches closely adher- 
ing to it, without fastening of any kind ; and 
Mr. Sim instances a bush of the same tree, 
which, while it had not grown to the south- 
ward, would have extended upwards of twenty 
feet in a northerly direction, had not its 
branches been stopped short of that distance 
by the intervention of a walk. These instances 
seem to point to a peculiarity in this plant 
which has not received attention hitherto. — 
Ibid. 
Pinuses. — The Dropmore collections have, 
it appears, suffered but little from the late 
winter. Of the Mexican species, Pinus 
patula has suffered most, and may now be 
regarded as being tender ; P. apulcensis pro- 
mises to be as hardy as a Scotch fir. Of the 
two trees of P. insignis, one has not a leaf 
browned ; the other is a little touched, here 
and there. Deodari and Araucarias are lite- 
rally rushing up to trees ; of the latter, a 
variety, or new species, from Chilian seeds, is 
beginning to show a peculiar habit. P. mon- 
ticola has a good many cones on it ; but the 
glory of the collection, just now, is Abies 
Webbiana, many of whose cones, of the richest 
indigo colour, stud the branches, and having 
been well powdered with pollen, may be ex- 
pected to yield a crop of seed. As to j A. 
Douglasii, and those others that were formerly 
objects of so much interest, it is sufficient to 
say that they have now become as much at 
home in the woods of Dropmore, as if they 
were still inhabiting the mountain side in 
Oregon. We find that the grafted Deodari 
are going off, as we long ago predicted would 
be the case ; and this may serve as a general 
warning to buyers of Coniferas. — Ibid. 
To destroy the Scale. — Mr. Barnes, of 
Bicton, recommends a plan, which he says is 
quite effectual, and costs scarcely anything but 
the labour. He says : — " Take of good wood 
