August 30, 1883 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
179 
2 inches long. Colour pure white, with a green midrib half an inch or more 
across. Sereno Watson describes forms with sparsely flowered umbels 
with flowers of a pale purple colour, but such I have never seen. This 
plant has evidently been a bone of contention among our scientists, for it 
is burdened with many synonymes, among which are the following— 
Hesperoscordum lacteum and hyacinthinum, Lindl. JBot. Reg., t. 1639 ; 
Allium lacteum, Benth.; Milla hyacinthina, Balter , See. It is a very 
pretty species, the umbels lasting a long time in beauty, flowering in 
June and July. Native of the coast regions from Monterey to British 
Columbia. 
B. multiflora, Benth. (Fig. 32). A handsome species, with long narrow 
leaves. Scape from 1 to 2£ feet high, terete, roughish, umbellate. 
Flowers crowded, about three-quarters of an inch across, the obtuse 
segments longer than the tube, of a blue-purple colour. This is closely 
related to B. congesta, but from which it is easily distinguished if 
specimens are examined carefully. It is synonymous with B. parviflora, 
Torr § Gray, and a good figure of it is given in Bot. Mag., t. 58, 89. 
Found in the regions from the Sacramento Yalley to Oregon, also 
plentiful in many portions of the Sierra Nevada. Flowering with us 
during June and July. Free-growing, and quite hardy. 
B. terrestris, Kellogg.—Leaves nearly terete, narrow, longer than the 
scape ; the latter is from 4 to 8 inches high, slender, terete, pedicellate 
at the top. Flowers three-quarters to 1 inch long, broadly funnel-shaped, 
of a bluish purple colour, with yellow staminodia ; pedicels from 3 to 
4 inches long, very slender. This very pretty species is synonymous with 
B. Torreyi, Wood, also with B. grandiflora var. macropoda, Torr ; and 
although it is very scarce under cultivation, it is not by any means 
difficult to grow, flourishing where the rest thrive. Native of the regions 
from Monterey to Mendocino County.—J. T. B. 
JUDGING COTTAGE GARDENS AND THEIR 
PRODUCE. 
I am very glad indeed to see this subject brought out so promi¬ 
nently in your pages, and I trust the result may be a multiplication 
of cottage garden societies conducted under the best possible rules 
and regulations. As yet societies of the kind are far too few, and if 
all your readers who are capable of starting and conducting them 
would only consider the good they are capable of doing I feel 
sure we should soon hear of a beginning being made in all parts 
of the country. As it is they are creeping into existence, and it only 
requires help, such as you can give, to sow them broadcast. 
I never had anything to do with such a cottage society as that 
mentioned by Mr. Iggulden (page 135), w 7 hich embraced fourteen 
parishes, but I fancy the limits of these must have been more circum¬ 
scribed than those in Wales, as a judge could not go through more 
than one parish here in a day, and he would require a fortnight’s 
holiday to go over fourteen. One, or two parishes at most, would, I 
am inclined to think, be enough to be worked and properly managed 
by any small society such as 1 am most in favour of. 
When the first show of the Cottage Garden Society was begun 
here six or seven years since we coidd have taken the exhibits from a 
number of other parishes into our 300-feet-long orangery, but now 
the produce from the parish of Margam alone crowds the building, 
a.id that a society answers and pays when confined to one parish there 
need be no doubt. As for instance, the first year we only gave £13 
in prize money, but at our late sixth Show we gave ever £40 besides 
some valuable specials. Again, on our first show day the receipts at 
the door were only £9, while on the last they were £2G, and through¬ 
out we have been able to prepare for a rainy day, as our reserve fund 
in the bank is something over £50. This has, of course, nothing to 
do with judging produce, but it may enable some to judge of how a 
society may be worked up by degrees with advantage to all parties. 
In coming to “ Reader’s ” questions on judging, we would always 
have a rule in the prize list that those gardens containing the best 
crops suitable for a cottager would be preferred by the Judges. First- 
in importance we would take Potatoes, then white Cabbage, Onions, 
Turnips, Carrots, Leeks, Beans, Peas, Cauliflower, Celery, Parsnips, 
Vegetable Marrow’; and winter greens would receive more marks and 
stand higher in our estimation, either as seen growing in a garden or 
shown in a collection, than such crops as Asparagus, Globe Artichokes, 
Beet, Endive, Salsafy, Seakale, or Spinach. Those “ fancy ” articles 
are properly grown in a gentleman’s garden, and as such count at 
exhibitions ; but they cannot be cultivated or cooked with profit by an 
ordinary cottager, and I hold that societies should otfer prizes for 
nothing but that which can be produced v 7 ith the greatest profit to 
the cultivator. In our prize list, a copy of which I beg to enclose, 
the highest prizes are offered for crops most suitable for a cottager, 
and this is what I would always advocate. Flowers are undoubtedly 
very attractive, and the cultivation of them is always a good sign ; 
but I think it would be a great mistake to place them before vegetables 
in a cottager’s garden. In the first pflace, their extensive culture 
would be sure to interfere w T ith the supply of vegetables for use, 
and in the winter time, w 7 hen these are often expensive to buy, the 
summer-flower-growing cottager would sadly miss his Onions, Parsnips, 
Carrots, Potatoes, and other crops. A well-filled old-fashioned flower 
bed or a beautiful lot of window plants should have a strong mark of 
encouragement, but a superabundance of flowers should be checked, 
and the exuberant taste and energy shown here should be partially 
diverted to other productions. The great aim of cottage garden 
societies is to encourage high cultivation, profitable cropping, and 
home comforts generally, and with those objects in view all prize 
lists should be so framed as to develope these qualities.—J. Mum, 
Margam Parle, South Wales. 
[Assuming that the relative merits of vegetables for cottagers are 
indicated by the value of the prizes, they stand as follows according 
to the Margam schedule :—Potatoes head' the list with four classes, 
red and white rounds and red and white kidneys of equal value. 
Fig. 82.—Brodnea multiflora. 
Next follow sqjring-sown Onions, Peas, and Parsnips (equal) ; then a 
step lower are Cabbages, Carrots, Leeks, and Broad Beans (equal) ; 
then in the third rank are Kidney Beans, autumn-sown Onions, Red 
Cabbages, Turnips, Vegetable Marrows, Rhubarb, and Cucumbers 
(equal) ; and last, as adjudged of least importance, Lettuce and 
Parsley. Cauliflowers are not included in the cottagers’ classes, nor 
are the “ fancy ” vegetables enumerated by our correspondent. 
Cauliflowers rank as of fourth-rate importance in the amateurs’ 
classes ; and one of the rules particularly states, “ The Committee 
shall decide who are cottagers and who are amateurs ; ” and another 
rule provides that “ Cottagers may compete in the amateurs’ classes 
by paying 2 s.Gd.] but no’amateur can compete in the cottagers’ 
classes.] 
A GRAPE WITHIN A GRAPE. 
This morning (August 23rd) I cut a berry from a Black Hamburgh 
bunch to ascertain if they were quite ripe or not. When I bit the berry 
I discovered another berry inside it. It partook of the shape of a Grape 
