JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 2, 1883. 
in every collection. C. Drurumondii and C. tinctoria are 
annuals, but from their free and continuous flowering should 
also find a place where cut flowers are wanted. 
Linum flavum, L. perenne, L. perenne album, L. grandiflorum 
rubrum .—The last named is annual, but one of the very best. 
Its rich red colour, and produced in such quantity, makes it 
very showy. Plants should be raised from seed in April and 
well thinned out. L. perenne, blue, and L. perenne album, 
white, are also very graceful and showy. L. flavum has yellow 
flowers, and, like the preceding kinds, produce them in great 
abundance. In the four named Linums we have four distinct 
colours—yellow, white, red, and blue, a circumstance not met 
with in every genus of plants. I have them all four in bloom 
at the present time in clumps on a rockery, and their well- 
formed flowers, though s : ngle, are objects of attraction and 
admiration. A soil of a lightish tendency suits Linums best. 
Cmtranthus ruber.—- This plant should find a place in every 
border where herbaceous plants are grown. Its red flowers, 
lasting as they do for several weeks, make it very desirable 
to cut from. It grows from 1 to 2 feet in height, is readily 
increased by cuttings or seeds, and will grow well on rockeries 
or old ruins, I have lately seen a quantity of it a foot m 
height growing on the top and out of the sides cf an old 
wall. A British plant. 
Delphinium formosum. —One of the grandest of plants for the 
border. It will produce flowers for three months in the year— 
July, August, and September. For the latter date young 
seedling plants should be used; or another way I have had 
them is to cut down an old plant in May when the young 
stalks are about a foot in height; the following shoots will 
produce late flowers. It will grow 5 and 6 feet in height if 
the soil is deep and rich, and as a border plant with blue 
flowers it has few equals. There are numerous varieties of 
Delphiniums with different shades of blue flowers. One of the 
best is D. Hendersonii, with large flowers of a pale Cambridge 
blue colour. 
Lychnis chalcedonica, L. Flos-Jovis, L. dioica rubra plena .— 
These three are easily cultivated. The first-named is a very 
old occupant of gardens, and was introduced from Japan in 
the sixteenth century. It likes a rich soil, and the plants come 
much finer if the stools are divided every third year. It is 
very hardy, and its bright scarlet flowers are very attractive 
in July. L. Flos-Jovis is a little more tender. The hard winter 
of 1880 damaged my stock of it very much, but as it seeds freely 
it is a good plan to save a little every year in case the plants 
get killed. The stems and foliage have a downy or silvery 
appearance, and when in bloom, with its pink flowers about 
a foot in height, it is one of the most attractive plants that 
can be seen. A native of Italy. L. dioica rubra plena is the 
double form of our British species, and well worth a place in 
gardens. 
Papaver cambricum (syn. Meconopsis cambrica ). — This is the 
Welsh Poppy, and its bright canary-yellow flowers, produced 
in such profusion, about 9 inches in height, render it one of 
the best of border plants. It is easily increased by seeds or 
division. 
Polemonium cceruleum. —A British plant which is not grown so 
much as it deserves to be. The foliage and flowers are neat, the 
stalks rise well above the foliage to about 18 inches high, and its 
blue flowers are produced in profusion. There is a variegated 
form of this plant, very pretty for employing with carpet-bedding 
plants. A few years ago 1 remember seeing it used in one of the 
London parks, and with very good effect. A rather dry and well- 
drained situation is best for it.—A. Harding. 
CELERY AND ITS CULTURE. 
There is, perhaps, no vegetable to which a larger breadth of 
ground is devoted than Celery. A good crop of Potatoes may 
be more profitable to the poor man, and during the summer 
months Peas occupy more space in the gardens of the opulent; 
but as the autumn advances Celery begins to show itself, and 
we are all alike friendly to its successful cultivation ; and as the 
time has now arrived when it ought to planted in good quantity 
for winter use, a few general remarks on that subject may not 
be out of place, especially as the late dry weather renders it 
necessary for all who suffer from the want of moisture to take 
due care and be prepared to plant out their crops when rain 
does set in ; and Celery especially likes the ground prepared for 
it some time before planting. 
I may here observe that the old-fashioned mode of planting 
or growing Celery, by digging a deep trench and adding raw 
dung, to be dug up with the subsoil to be planted upon imme¬ 
diately, was certainly bad in principle as well as in practice, 
more especially in such soils as had not previously been trenched 
pretty deep, and that recently; for it must be borne in mind 
that all soils require a certain amount of exposure to the open 
air before they are in a condition fit to receive the various crops 
they are to be sown or planted with, otherwise for a time the 
progress they make in growth is very slow. Hence the im¬ 
propriety of planting Celery in a medium so much at variance 
with its well-being. In fact, the digging of deep trenches for 
Celery ought to be abandoned in all cases where there is not a 
deep and good soil to work upon; neither ought manure in a raw 
state to be used for this crop, for its action is expected to be 
immediate; consequently the mixture in which its roots are to 
ramify ought to be at once good and suitable for them; and 
where necessity or the taste of the cultivator insists on Celery 
being planted at the bottom of a deep ditch, let that ditch be 
made at least 10 inches or a foot deeper than is wanted, and 
that spiace filled up with the good surface soil mixed with fine 
well-decomposed dung, and on this plant your Celery in single 
rows about 8 inches apart, or still wider if very large heads are 
wanted; but if moderate-sized heads will do, and a greater 
number be requisite, then plant a little closer. The result will 
be in most cases more satisfactory; for although very large 
Celery is certainly noble-looking, there is a rule in many private 
families of reducing it to a certain size, by which means very 
large Celery is no better than medium-sized. 
The time of planting Celery varies much with the latitude of 
the place, local advantages or disadvantages, as well as the sea¬ 
son, more especially that part of it in pirospect, of which we have 
but little foreknowledge. However, generally, July may be set 
down as a good month for planting the main crop), and the earlier 
the better for late places, and vice versa; only as some favoured 
situations have the disadvantage of suffering from drought in 
September, and consequently a cessation of growth takes place, 
there is, perhaps, as much certainty in obtaining good Celery in 
a cold and late situation as in a dry and early one, as it is a 
known fact that Lancashire and other moist counties produce 
the best Celery, not even excepting the vale of the Thames, both 
above and below London, where very excellent Celery is certainly 
obtained; but it is as much the result of the liberal use of 
manure as anything inherent in the soil or situation. One 
thing is certain—that the mode of managing it about London 
cannot well be improved upon; and as the natural habitat of 
the plant is in wet ditches and similar marshy places, it follows 
that the plant cannot well be expected to thrive and do well in a 
dry medium; therefore, where circumstances render it necessary 
to plant it in such places, let it be liberally watered at the fitting 
time, and this watering must be repeated at all times when 
wanted ; not regular daily dribbling, but a sound good watering 
once or twice a week, and the hardened surface of the soil dis¬ 
turbed next day, if it had not previously been covered over with 
short dung or other substance that would not cake and harden 
at top; and as we often have very dry weather in August and 
September, it would be better at the setting-in of such dry 
periods to cover the ground by the side of each plant over with 
leaf mould, short dung, or a something that will allow the water 
to pass freely through, and at the same time arresting its 
evaporation, or the hardening of the ground underneath. Liquid 
manure may be occasionally given. 
Amongst the many names we have there are, in reality, 
very few distinct varieties of Celery, good solid Red and White 
being perhaps the best and most suitable name that can be 
given; but there is certainly a little distinctive variety in the 
kinds originating in the old White Silver Celery, with its broad 
leaves and stalks, remarkable for their solidity, but short, and 
not many of them ; but other kinds have their merits as well, 
and the amateur had better not depend on one kind alone, unless 
it be piroved to be a good one. This, however, has been adverted 
to before; and it is only necessary here to say, that in planting 
out Celery for good, it is prudent to have all the plants in one 
row as nearly alike in size, &c., as possible, as there is a danger 
of choking up) a small one where large ones have to be earthed 
up at each side of it. Another plantation may be made of 
smaller pflants. 
Where the ground consists of a very shallow soil, and a large 
quantity of Celery is wanted, and size not a particular object, it 
might be prudent to plant one or more broad beds, say 6 feet 
wide, and as long as desirable. In this the plants are to be 
placed in rows across, each plant occupying about a foot square, 
which might be done by allowing about 10 inches between the 
rows and 9 inches from plant to plant. This description of 
plantation might be on the ground surface, and earth or other 
material might be brought to blanch them, if sufficient cannot 
be had around them. The advantage of this plan is, that a 
