April 9, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
291 
by the great size of the flowers and their bright shades of orange scarlet. 
Over 100 scapes are developing, and when it is remembered that some of 
these have twenty flowers in a head an idea may be formed respecting 
the effect they produce. One of the finest is General Gordon, which is 
of extremely vigorous habit with large beautifully formed flowers, the 
petals broad, round, and rich orange scarlet in colour. Ambroise Verschaf- 
felt is similarly handsome in size and form, differing slightly in colour, as 
also do several other named varieties, such as robustum, Lindeni, miniatum 
splendens, Martha Reimers, and others. A hybrid between the last named 
and intermedium is noteworthy for its rich scarlet colour, the flowers 
though small being excellently formed, and it will probably produce a 
distinct race of Imantophyllums of great use in gardens. It is strange 
that these plants have not in England yet obtained the attention they 
deserve, for besides being easily grown their flowers are extremely showy 
and last for a great length of time. On the Continent they are, however, 
duly appreciated, and they are now steadily gaining admirers here. 
The Amaryllis house is filled with plants, the majority of which have 
reached the flowering stage, and in the centre bed some hundreds of 
capes are bearing expanded flowers, while others are rapidly advancing 
the miscellaneous stock of greenhouse and stove plants also occupy much 
space. All are equally healthy, proving by their clean and satisfactory 
condition the carefulness of the treatment they receive. In the large 
conservatory the Hyacinth, Tulips, and Narcissuses, which delighted the 
visitors to the Kensington and Regent’s Park Shows recently, have during 
the past week been attracting numerous admirers to the nursery, and the 
general opinion amongst those who have been familiar with the spring 
shows for some times past is that finer collections of bulbs have never been 
seen at Upper Holloway. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1884.—No. 2. 
GREENHOUSE. 
And so your correspondent “ Thinker ” thinks I must be a melancholy 
man. I imagine those of your readers who know me must rather smile 
when they think of what he has evolved out of his inner conscious 
concerning me. He grounds his opinion, however, on a fact which g.ves 
some colour, he imagines, to his conclusions—that I do not hesitate to 
Fig. 53.—Mu. P. S. Williams’ Amaetllis House. 
and will prolong the display for some weeks. During a long experience 
with Amaryllises Mr. Williams has perseveringly worked to improve the 
colours of them, and an extremely useful strain has been secured. The 
type of this is the variety Dr. Masters, which was certificated several 
years ago, and has since then become a great favourite in many gardens. 
The flowers are of medium size but very neat in form, of a bright yet rich 
scarlet colour, which is uniform and unbroken to the centre. This is a 
distinctive character, and when to it is added that the plants are of 
moderate height and very floriferous it will be understood that they 
possess some most important qualities as garden plants. All the other 
principal types are represented, including the Leopoldi forms, the rose and 
white-flowered varieties, and those with netted flowers, some hundreds of 
unnamed seedlings of considerable beauty being noteworthy amongst the 
older varieties. A sketch of this house, as seen from one end and looking 
towards the Imantophyllum house, is given in fig. 53, andconveys a good 
idea of its appearance. 
Nearly every house contains a speciality or is devoted to a class of 
plants ; for instance, hybrid Rhododendrons of the greenhouse type have 
a large house appropriated to them. Hardwooded plants and Heaths are 
equally well provided for ; Camellias, Palms, Dipladenias, Ixoras, Ferns, 
and Pitcher Plants fill numerous houses, several of considerable size, and 
record my failures. I never can see the good of representing everything 
as couleur de rose when there are some damaging facts to be recorded. 
There is a story of Beau Brummel when he had introduced those starched 
or lined cravat3 which made him the envy of all swells, that a friend called 
on him one day when he was making his toilet, and was lost in admiration 
at the successful tie of one he had on. Turning to a corner of the room he 
saw a whole heap of crumpled cravats. “ What are those ?” was the question 
at once asked. “ Oh ! these are my failures and I doubt not the 
enamoured imitator of the Beau thought twice before he ventured reck¬ 
lessly on a fashion which involved so much expenditure. No w in the same 
way I think it is far preferable to tell what difficulties one has met with 
than to let people imagine that they can get on without any trouble or loss. 
Take for example that about which I wrote recently, the Gladiolus. I 
have been roundly rated by some because I maintained that they were 
subject to a disease which often destroyed our fairest hopes, and that they 
were about the most disappointing flowers that one could grow. I was 
told that I did not know how to grow them ; that the disease was a fancy 
of my own, though one of our oldest botanical physiologists had described 
it ; that it was simply degeneration of the bulb, of exhaustion. Well, what 
is the fact now ? I have known most, if not all, of the amateur growers of 
the Gladiolus during the last twenty years, and one and all, with the ex- 
