250 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ March si, issi. 
out of flower, but near the summit of the mountain a great mass 
of it was met with in full splendour, forming one of the most 
sumptuous displays of floral beauty I ever beheld ; a mass of 
blue and white resembling Nemophila insignis in colour, but 
more intense and brilliant. Close at hand were Tulips of several 
species, yellow Fritillarias, Galanthus Elwesii, yellow Gageas of 
several species, Croci, Colchicum bulbocodioides, Scillas, &c.—a 
perfect paradise for the bulb-collector and the botanist.” 
Since then the plant has been several times exhibited at the 
meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society by the introducer 
and others, and is now becoming well known, but is rather scarce 
at present.—L. C. 
MORE ABOUT FOOD AND VEGETABLES. 
Popular prejudice is^at present almost an insuperable barrier 
to progress in practical acquaintance with the properties of food 
and the mode of preparing it for use. Whether or not in ten 
years’ time the children now under instruction in Board and 
Government schools will be sent out wiser and better economists 
than their parents remains to be proved. I have doubts. Things 
are too easily found. All the materials for the system of education 
must be supplied. Little account is taken of waste or carelessness. 
It might astonish many a poor student of former days who, by 
much self-denial and long waiting, came by the coveted books 
that brought him knowledge and led him perhaps afterwards to 
fame, could he see the recklessness with which books are treated 
now, and the little care that is taken to make children responsible 
for the care of materials they handle. 
Hitherto the parents of boys and girls entering their first service 
almost invariably impress upon their children advice they are 
sure implicitly to follow—viz., to eat as much animal food as they 
can. Soups and vegetables are often rejected in favour of a more 
ample supply of meat—meat, we may observe, more gross and 
indigestible in proportion as artificial feeding has been resorted to 
to bring the animal to an earlier maturity and a marketable value. 
Cheap sugar may be a boon ; but here again prejudice fails to 
understand that adults often vitiate the value of the nourishment 
of a whole meal by an undue use of sugar, which in excess creates 
fermentation, does not agree with many persons, and often aggra¬ 
vates rheumatism and other kindred affections of the blood. 
Bread is frequently indiscreetly given ; sweet and delicious crusts 
thrown aside the sooner to reach the crumb; mastication is too 
much dispensed with ; and the new and soft pulp, too easily 
bolted, opens up the avenues to indigestion, languor, and other 
ailments. 
Lectures on cookery appear as yet to have made little perceptible 
impression, not to say alteration, in our national habits. Cabbages 
are still boiled with the bacon, parting with all their saline pro¬ 
perties in as little water as possible ; Potatoes generally getting 
too much, though steaming is becoming more usual than it was. 
A lady friend of mine, asked what she thought could be done to 
improve the condition of girls and instruct them better, replied 
that she thought we were as far from success as ever, instancing 
the case of an intelligent girl who had been seven years in her 
service preferring to cook mutton chops by putting them on a 
cold dripping tin in the oven to doing them as she had been taught 
to do. Another lady mentioned that in her household she found 
increasing difficulty in persuading girls to enter the kitchen as 
scullery or kitchen maids, where, though generally the hours of 
labour are shorter and the pay greater than in other departments 
of domestic service, more care and more patience are necessary to 
satisfactory results. 
But these remarks are already too loDg and much remains to be 
said. Let me conclude, in compliance with a suggestion from 
“Wiltshire Rector,” by a receipt for a simple pudding where 
there has been a full meal of meat and when vegetables are 
scarce.—A. M. B. 
Lemon Water Sago Pudding .—pint of cold water, the very 
thin rind of half a large Lemon or one small one, the juice of one 
large Lemon or two small ones, 2 ozs. loaf sugar, one small teacup¬ 
ful of pearl sago. Bake very gently in a slow oven for two hours. 
Cold in summer it forms a refreshing jelly, and can be turned out 
like a mould.—A. M. B. 
Extensive Cucumber Planting. — Many of your readers 
here were much interested in the account of Mr. James Whittaker’s 
new Cucumber house (page 178). But why does Mr. Whittaker 
prefer it in one length to several shorter and more easily managed 
houses ? and is it a span or lean-to ? We have several Cucumber 
houses around here, but notably those of Mr. Wm. Thomas, who 
has six bouses, each being 100 feet long, and all in a square block 
as it were ; this I should imagine is a much better plan. Perhaps 
Mr. Whittaker has reasons for building the bouse in one length, 
if so possibly he will inform us what the advantage is.— 
W. Roberts. 
BOSES IN POTS AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 
Amongst the many objects of interest at the Exhibition held 
in the conservatory on the 22nd inst. there were few that attracted 
more attention than the charming group of Roses in pots exhibited 
by Messrs. Paul & Son of Cheshunt. The plants in themselves 
were perfect, of the size that most amateurs can appreciate, and 
certainly exceeded in beauty those huge giants which the same 
firm is in the habit of exhibiting later on ; while the opportunity 
that it gave of seeing some of the newer varieties, and seeing what 
their merits are in pots, confirmed in most respects the judgment 
already formed of them. Duke of Teck has established itself, not 
only as being one of the best exhibition scarlet-coloured Roses 
that we have, but also the very best of that colour for pot culti¬ 
vation. Another seedling from Cheshunt was also exhibited, 
which, if it stand the test, is to bear the name of one of our most 
successful rosarians. It is a Duchesse de Caylus style of flower, 
but with the vigour of constitution and habit which that very 
beautiful variety lacks, and on account of which it is so seldom 
found on the exhibition table ; should it not belie its promise it 
will be a valuable flower. Madame Alphonse Lavallde is a very 
beautiful Rose, and when I say it bears a very suspicious likeness 
to Marie Baumann that point will be readily conceded, but I fear 
it is too much like it to be considered distinct. It has the same 
weak footstalk and the same foliage ; in fact it seemed as like 
Marie Baumann as Marguerite Brassac is to Charles Lefebvre. 
William Warden, a sport from Madame Clemence Joigneaux, 
originated by Messrs. Mitchell & Son of Piltdown, and which I 
have more than once noticed in the Journal, was charming in the 
freshness of its pink flowers ; and if it retain its character, which 
most of the sports of Madame C. Joigneaux do not, it will be a 
Rose much looked after. Another fine Rose was Egeria, raised 
by Mons. George Schwartz, but sent out by Mr. Henry Bennett. 
It is an improved Princess Mary of Cambridge, and is beauti¬ 
ful both in colour and form. Near it was a plant with only 
one bloom on it of my old friend Margottin’s Gloire de Bourg la 
Reine, a brilliant scarlet flower with most intense deep centre, 
giving it a most attractive appearance. It was not very full as 
shown, but it is sure to meet with favour for the brilliancy of its 
colour. These were the most noticeable of the new flowers ;'and 
amongst the older varieties were, as has been already noticed, 
some beautifully flowered and well-grown plants. Altogether the 
exhibit was a cheering one—a herald, too, of good things to come. 
—D., Deal. 
P.S.—I would take this opportunity of thanking several kind 
correspondents, some known and others unknown, for expressions 
of sympathy and offers of help in the present condition of my 
once flourishing collection of Auriculas. I must, however, as I 
have said, wait patiently and see before I venture any further 
whether the experiment I am about to try will be successful. 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 
Happy is the cottager who was able to dig or trench his garden 
as soon as the crops were cleared from it in autumn, for now he 
has the soil sweetened and softened by the severe frosts of the 
past winter ready to his hand for cropping, and he is able to take 
advantage of the first fine weather of spring to plant his early 
Peas, Beans, and Potatoes. William Russell, to whom I let a 
cottage with a sadly neglected garden last autumn, is evidently 
aware of this, for he has contrived to trench quite half of it 
during winter, and when I went past the other day cropping had 
been commenced, and the trenched soil was evidently quite ready 
for it. 
Potatoes are the most important vegetable in a cottage garden, 
and the best varieties are Myatt’s Ashleaf, Early Rose, and 
Magnum Bonum—all sure and abundant croppers. As the early 
Potatoes are taken up fork up the soil lightly, and sow Early 
Snowball Turnip row by row at once without waiting till all the 
Potatoes are lifted, and thus secure a useful second crop. Of 
Peas the first should be Ringleader, and the later sowings G. F. 
Wilson or Champion of England. Do not sow two rows of Peas 
side by side, but have them 12 or 20 feet apart, with lower- 
growing vegetables between. Try also to have Scarlet Runner 
Beans in single rows, as by so doing tne crop is much heavier 
than if one row is crowded by another. Grow Student Parsnip, 
James’s Intermediate Carrot, White Spanish Onion, Cole’s White 
or Red Celery, Wheeler’s Imperial Cabbage ; and for winter 
Drumhead Savoy and Cottagers’ Kale, Leamington Broccoli, and 
Yeitch’s Autumn Giant Cauliflower, Giant White Cos and All- 
