JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
486 
[ June 15, 1882. 
found out its full value as an early sort. Sown on March 18th it has 
produced bulbs larger in size, more handsome in shape, and delicate 
in flavour than several others sown at the same time, including the 
American and Stone varieties, which have generally been considered 
standard early sorts.—J. Muir. 
FERTILISERS. 
As the discussion has become rather “mixed,” and each has 
seemingly said all he has to say, it may be as well to close it now. 
Your readers will have got something on which to reflect, and let 
us hope the younger among them may be led to study the teach¬ 
ings of science, and so lay a solid foundation on which to build 
the superstructure of after experience, as well as serve as a guide 
in practice. In the meantime kindly allow me to put myself 
right with “ Inquirer” and “B.” If the former reads again my 
previous letters he will see that my surprise was not that manu¬ 
facturing analysts should ignore potash, but that he should sup¬ 
pose scientific men should do so ; therefore, although in my last 
communication I say that manufacturing chemists put too little 
value on everything except nitrogen and phosphates, the incon¬ 
sistency is only seeming, for between the searcher after truth and 
the seeker after money there is a great gulf fixed. Our foremost 
scientific men recognise what our manufacturers of manure often 
ignore, but our reliance is in the discoveries and teachings of the 
former. 
The sentence which puzzles your correspondent—namely, “ I 
ventured to doubt that the potash in the kainit had anything to 
do with the manure” should have been “to do with the matter,” 
and I still doubt so ; at the same time this is not saying any¬ 
thing more than that I fail to understand it. I have procured a 
copy of the report, and shall, as soon as I can find time, cull a 
few facts from it for the benefit of your readers, and the most 
noticeable of these is that a combination of kainit and phosphates 
produced extraordinary results. Such a mixture may be com¬ 
pared with “ fimus,” and both may owe their value to the mag¬ 
nesia and phosphates ; but I may add that Dr. Sullivan attributes 
the action of the kainit to the potash, adding that the other in¬ 
gredients in potash exercise little or no disturbing effect, with 
which “ Inquirer ” would not agree. In many of the nice 
points raised 1 am only a learner and a searcher after light. 
Because of this I will not further seek to encroach on your space 
at present—not even to clear myself of the entanglements that 
have crept around the subject, partly because it would cause a 
retreading of the circle, partly because it would take too much 
space. 
To “B.” I have to say, that having found the use of common 
salt and nitrate of soda useful, I felt bound to recommend their 
use to others situated as I am. It by no means follows that I 
have thereby committed myself to the out-of-date idea that soda 
is indispensable after so many have proved that it is not. A 
dozen authorities could be named who have shown that plants 
may be grown without it, and that the older chemists who give 
it such a high place in their analysis have not sufficiently dis¬ 
tinguished between the alkalies found in plants. 
So long as unbroken pieces of stone remain, so long will there 
remain unavailable supplies of plant food ready to be dissolved 
out by acids even on “B.’s” gravel walks.—S ingle-handed. 
GENTIANELLAS—ROCK BEDS. 
Six years ago I had a hundred sturdy plants of Gentianella 
acaulis from Darley Dale, probably from the nursery garden to 
which Mr. Dod refers on page 431, but none of them flowered freely 
till this year. Some were planted along the margin of a border 
for hardy perennials, and others in some rock beds. The plants in 
the perennial border have occasionally had a few flowers, never a 
profusion ; this year they had none, yet those in the rock beds 
were so full of bloom that hardly a leaf could be seen—and such 
blooms ! What flower have we to compare with the glorious deep 
blue of this best of all the Gentians ? An elderly gentleman on 
seeing the rock-bed plants in full beauty declared that never in 
his life had he seen it so full of flowers. It was the loving recol¬ 
lection of a long row of it I once had thoroughly established at the 
foot of a south wall and regularly crowded with flowers every 
spring that induced me to plant it again. 
The plants in the rock beds are all low down near the margins, 
yet in this position they are a little elevated above the level of 
the surrounding ground, and consequently enjoy the benefit of a 
proportionately greater depth of soil and freedom from any 
accumulation of water about the roots. Slowly and surely have 
they spread into large flourishing clumps, and it is hoped that the 
abundant blossom which has so amply rewarded our care and 
patience this year may be taken as affording an indication of 
thorough establishment, and a promise of future displays every 
year. 
Bock beds are so ornamental, so constantly attractive, and 
afford so many nooks and corners for vernal gems, and in fact for 
plants of all seasons, that 1 would fain plead for space for at least 
one in every garden. They may be made of any size or form, and 
may rise to a central height of from 1 to G feet as may be best in 
keeping with surrounding features, the lesser heights being best 
for a flat and formal style, and the greater for a broken undu¬ 
lating surface. The arrangement of the rocks is not difficult to a 
person of cultivated taste, the aim being to have much of the rock 
visible among the plants, so that it may be seen in picturesque 
combination with them, and also to afford sheltering nooks and 
elevated stations to such plants as may require it, all which is 
compatible with harmony of design. Mark the term, for it is 
important that there should be character and unity in the forma¬ 
tion of a single bed or a group of beds. The best results are 
obtained when the rocks are placed very much as they would be 
naturally. In making some beds with pieces of sandstone a 
pleasing effect was imparted to them by putting the bottom of 
each stone into the soil instead of laying them upon it, bringing 
the stones very near together with fissures and pockets of soil ; 
a series of hollows and valleys suitable for a variety of plants, 
the whole presenting the appearance of a submerged rock with 
its rugged top projecting through the soil, no regular height being 
given to the centres of the beds, a rocky peak sometimes project¬ 
ing boldly on one side of a central hollow, the surface rising to 
an elevated plateau upon the other side. 
By careful planting charming little pictures were gradually 
produced, containing in miniature all the elements of a landscape. 
Just before the flowers of the Gentianella began to fade one por¬ 
tion—a mere corner of a bed—was very beautiful. A clump of 
Gentian so full of bloom that some of the flowers bent downwards 
to the turf; a fine specimen of Erica Foxii behind and above it 
between three “rocky peaks;” an Azalea amcena in the back¬ 
ground, with its bright pink flowers just opening into beauty ; on 
the right a cushion of Thymus lanuginosus spreading its soft 
downy growth over the top of a flat rock and up the sides of 
others ; a Kalmia nana, a pretty low pigmy spreading bush 
admirably adapted for such a position ; a Phlox subulata, various 
little Saxifragas clustering around the base of the rocks ; a bold 
handsome plant of Erica carnea crowning an elevated plateau 
upon the right; a spike of Saxifraga pyramidalis springing out 
of a central hollow near the Erica Foxii, with its pretty red buds 
as yet concealing the pure white blossoms that have since then 
been so lovely. These few familiar plants so seen in combination 
with the rocks and the undulating surface of the bed had an 
attraction which drew one to the spot repeatedly to admire and 
enjoy with a zest that is by no means common, simply because it 
is not often felt in the contemplation of an ordinary flower bed. 
Other flowers equally lovely in their way and equally suitable 
for rock beds crowd upon the mind as I write. The creeping 
Forget-me-nct, Omphalodes verna, with its pretty deep blue 
flowers; Harrison’s Musk, that is just now so gay with its dense 
masses of soft yellow flowers, and is so easily established and 
managed among the rocks ; Daphne Cneorum, for which a special 
station of pure peat is prepared, its sweet-scented pink flowers 
being worthy of our best care in their production. The deep 
blue Lithospermnm prostratum, which has been in full bloom for 
some months ; Saponaria ocymoides, so bright now with its pro¬ 
fusion of rosj’ pink flowers ; Linaria Cymbalaria, that spreads its 
slender growth with such surprising rapidity at this season of the 
year, and which, although common enough in some localities in 
its wild state, is worthy of a place among our choicest plants. 
Sunroses, Cyclamens, Hepaticas, hardy Primulas, bulbs of various 
kinds, Statices, dwarf Pentstemons, Oxalis, and annuals, especially 
the brilliant Portulacas, the Saponarias, and Dianthuses. 
No mention has been made of the larger perennials. I am 
fully aware that many of them are often used to good purpose 
among rocks, and I have seen some beds of them that were very 
striking quite recently ; but to use them one must have large 
masses of rock altogether different to the lower beds, of more 
lasting beauty, to which I have endeavoured here to call attention. 
—Edward Luckhurst. 
QUEEN WASPS. 
I cannot but think that your readers interested in wasps 
must be disappointed, as I am, at “Duckwing’S” few lines, 
page 4G6. For myself, I am not only disappointed, but I think 
them hardly fair. At page 260 “ Duckwing ” heads an article 
“ Popular Fallacy about Queen Wasps,” and states “ it has been 
