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HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
see it. We wish, indeed, that head-gardeners 
were more encouraged than they are in the 
culture of the liner productions, instead of 
being cramped lor the means of doing justice 
even to common ones. 
Belgian Petunias. — In the nursery of 
Messrs. Low, of Clapton, I lately saw a set of 
twenty-four varieties of Petunia, which had 
been sent over from some nursery in Belgium, 
as specimens of the varieties in cultivation 
there. It is only justice, in reference to these, 
to say, that they were infinitely inferior 
to the best of the varieties raised and culti- 
vated in England. The following are the 
names of the varieties ; perhaps the enumera- 
tion of them may be of use : — Beaute deGand, 
pale pinkish Rose ; Charles Lemaire, not in 
bloom ; Comte de Paris, pale lilac ; Dauberton, 
rose purple ; Decora, pale lilac, with dark 
veined eye ; Duke of Devonshire, rosy lilac ; 
Dr. Lindley, not in bloom ; Duchess of Orleans, 
large loose purple ; General Tom Pouce, pale 
lilac, diminutive ; John Tweedie, large re- 
flexed rosy lilac; Lord Byron, pale rosy lilac; 
Marie de Bourgogne, lilac, with bluish eye ; 
Prince Ferdinand, lilac, with dark veined eye; 
Philip Miller, veined lilac; Princess Alice, not 
in bloom; Reine Louisa, rosy lilac; Rosea 
delicata, rose ; Sierra Leone, lilac, bluish eye; 
Souvenir de Senegal, not in bloom ; Volney, 
veined lilac. The blooms were chiefly small 
in size, pointed in the outline, and very flimsy 
in substance. Beaute de Gand is, perhaps, 
the greatest novelty as regards colour. — M. 
Erythrlna Crista-galli.— In the gardens 
of the Hon. J. B. Simpson, at Babworth, in a 
sheltered situation, and on a sandy soil, there 
has this season been a specimen of this beauti- 
ful plant, growing in the open border, with 
forty-five flowering stems, from four and a 
half to five feet high. In situations at all 
favourable for this class of plants, there is 
scarcely anything calculated to make a more 
beautiful object than the Erythrina. On situ- 
ations and soils which are tolerably drained, 
this plant will stand out during the winter, 
without any other protection than a covering 
of soil, or sawdust, over the crown. — B. 
The Pansy and its Properties. — It 
has been contended by some florists, or pre- 
tended florists, that the two side petals of this 
beautiful flower ought to meet at the bottom, 
to constitute a first-rate form; and yet it is 
one of the most unmeaning and useless points 
that could be thought of; because the bottom 
petal has actually to be lifted up before it can 
be discovered whether the side petals join or 
not. We observe, in the original " Properties 
of Flowers," that they are as little shackled 
with details as possible. The Pansy is to be 
round in the outline, and smooth on the edge. 
Now, if this be secured, it matters not how. 
Some of the best formed flowers have the side 
petals far from meeting underneath, and all use- 
less points are carefully left out in the original 
work on this subject, because, so that the es- 
sential properties were produced, it mattered 
not, in the opinion of the author, how; 
and, of all the pretended additions or explana- 
tions upon the subject of properties, none have 
been xnore absurd. 
Seedling Epacrises. — In the early part 
of 1842, I bloomed between two hundred and 
three hundred seedlings, the produce of gran- 
diflora on impressa, and vice versa ; the whole, 
with very few exceptions, were long flowers, 
much resembling each other in colour and 
form, with a habit more like grandiflora 
than impressa. They were rather too dull in 
colour. Not despairing, however, of obtain- 
ing something good in another generation, I 
crossed these upon grandiflora, and vice versa, 
and my expectations in this instance were 
fully realized, for many beautiful and distinct 
varieties have been the result ; this cross pro- 
duced flowers, brilliant in colour, and various 
in character ; grandifloras with beautiful white 
and well reflexed lips ; impressas as long as 
grandiflora, with trumpet-shaped tubes ; while 
others, again, showed an evident disposition 
to be striped ; and one plant has nearly a 
white tube, with a pale rosy lip. Such is the 
character of the grandchildren of grandiflora 
and impressa ; and, from their tendency, I 
have no hesitation in predicting that another 
cross, aided by miniata, would open such a field 
for the hybridist as will bring this somewhat 
neglected, but beautiful, tribe of flowers into 
general cultivation and public favour. These 
are the opinions of Mr. Story, a very successful 
amateur cultivator, hybridizer, and exhibitor, 
both of Heaths and Epacrises. — M. 
Garden Labels. — A very elegant and du- 
rable label is made by Mr. Bourne, of the 
Derby Potteries, near Derby, and which are 
now coming into use. Some which have been 
used as samples in the gardens of the Royal 
Botanic Society, in the Regent's Park, are 
found to answer very well, being unaffected 
by frost, and very neat and durable. They 
consist of brown vitrified stone ware, on the 
face of which is a white tablet, at an angle 
sufficient to meet the eye readily when they 
are thrust in the ground. On this white 
tablet, the black letters are formed, and they 
are covered with glaze, and the whole " burnt 
in." This admits of great nicety and elegance 
in the lettering. They are made either with 
earthenware stems to thrust in the ground ; 
or, with a socket to fit on to a wooden stem ; 
or simply in the form of a tablet, to suspend 
from the branches of a tree, or any other con- 
venient situation. They are used extensively 
in the Arboretum at Derby. 
