August 11,1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
127 
A. Napellus .—The roots of this plant have in several instances 
been mistaken for Horseradish, the result of which has been too 
frequently fatal. This, however, should not banish the plant 
from the flower border, where it is highly ornamental, but all parts 
divided from the clump should be destroyed by fire to prevent 
the possibility of any mistakes. It usually reaches a height of 
about 3 feet. Leaves palmate, much and deeply divided, seg¬ 
ments deep shining green ; flowers large and numerous, produced 
in branching clusters, intense deep blue. It is the common 
Monkshood, so named from the shape of its large upper sepal. 
May, June, and July. Europe, Siberia. 
A. Napellus bicolor .—A form of the preceding with parti¬ 
coloured flowers, blue and white. It is a somewhat more robust- 
growing plant than the normal type. There is also a pure white 
form of the species, A. Napellus albus. 
A. pyrcnaicum .—This is a little-known species, and still some¬ 
what rare in gardens. It is a stately-growiDg plant, attaining a 
height of about 4 feet, and forms a beautiful object in the mixed 
border. The leaves are large, palmately divided, and pubescent; 
flowers large, with conical hood, yellow. June and July. 
Pyrenees. 
A. sinense. — Found in many gardens under the name of 
chinense. It is a dwarf plant, seldom exceeding 2 feet in height, 
although the growth is very robust. Lower leaves stalked, upper 
ones sessile ; all deeply tripartite, and deep green in colour. 
Flowers very large, dark violet. September. China. 
A. variegatum is a handsome kind, growing some 4 to 5 feet 
high. Leaves large, with rhomboid segments, and producing 
panicles of flowers variegated with blue and white. July and 
August. South of Europe. 
A. versicolor .—This species, although last, is by no means the 
least desirable of those here enumerated ; indeed, where only one 
kind can be grown we should feel inclined to select the present. 
It is a bold-growing plant, usually about 3 feet high, with dense 
clusters of very large white flowers, which are broadly margined 
with blue. August and September. Siberia.—W. H. 
GOOD CABBAGE LETTUCES. 
As I have repeatedly observed, I am not a great admirer of 
Cabbage Lettuces, and always give the preference to the Cos 
varieties, so also do my employers, and for this reason I never 
attempt to grow the former, only for such times as it is impossible 
to have the Cos varieties in good condition. I have, however, for 
some time grown, and strongly recommended others to grow, the 
Early Paris Market Cabbage Lettuce for the earliest spring crops 
in frames and near walls, as from February-sown seed plants can 
be had which heart quicker than any other variety that may 
have been wintered in frames or in the open. Not only does this 
variety heart quickly, but the plants are extremely close in growth, 
excellent in quality, and are much appreciated at the table ac¬ 
cordingly. 
The one other variety which I can most strongly recommend 
was grown by me for the first time this season, and is called 
Suttons’ Le Beuf. Sown on a warm border with the Early Paris 
Market and some good Cos varieties, it formed a good succession 
to the former, being earlier than the latter. It produces but few 
outer leaves and the heart is conical-shaped, giving the appear¬ 
ance of being a hybrid between the two kinds. With regard to 
the quality, I can truthfully assert it to be superior to any Cos 
variety grown here, being really the most crisp and succulent 
Lettuce I have yet tasted. I have given some of it to several 
connoisseurs, and all are of the same opinion as myself with regard 
to its superior merits. 
“ A Grower of Salads ” asks why I omitted Tom Thumb in my 
selection (page 74) of Cabbage Lettuces suitable for autumn 
sowing. As he suggests, I certainly do prefer Suttons’ Commo¬ 
dore Nutt to Tom Thumb ; as, good as the latter undoubtedly is, 
it is inferior in point of quality to the Commodore. The latter is 
very hardy, is deeper green in colour, close-growing, the heart 
being remarkably solid and crisp. Messrs. Suttons in their cata¬ 
logue mention that the Commodore Nutt does not so readily run 
to seed as Tom Thumb, and my experience quite agrees with 
theirs. “ A Grower of Salads,” if he gives the Commodore a 
trial, will not regret having done so.—W. Iggulden. 
Indigo, its Culture and Preparation.— Indigo, as is well 
known, is a colouring matter which has attracted attention from 
very early times. Cloth dyed with indigo has been found in the 
old Egyptian tombs. The method of preparing and using this 
colour is accurately described by both Pliny and Dioscorides, and 
the early inhabitants of these islands were well acquainted with 
indigo, which they obtained from the European Indigo plant, 
Isatis tinctoria, the Woad plant or Pastel. With this they dyed 
their garments and painted their skins. After the discovery of 
the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope the eastern 
indigo, derived from various species of Indigofera, gradually 
displaced Woad as containing more of the colouring matter. 
But this was not accomplished without great opposition from 
the European growers of Woad ; and severe enactments were 
promulgated against the introduction cf the foreign colouring 
matter, an edict condemning to death persons “who used that 
pernicious drug called devil’s food,” being issued by Henry IV. 
of France. The chief source of Indian indigo is the Indigofera 
tinctoria, an herbaceous plant raised from seed which is sown in 
either spring or autumn. The plant grows with a single stalk to 
a height of about 3 feet 6 inches, and about the thickness of a 
finger. It is usually cut for the first time in June or July, and 
a second or even a third cutting obtained later in the year. The 
value of a crop depends on the number of leaves which the plant 
puts forth, as it is in the leaves that the colouring principle is 
chiefly contained. Both the preparation of the colouring matter 
from the plant, and its employment as a dyeing agent, are carried 
on at the present day exactly as they have been for ages past. The 
description of the processes given by Dioscorides and Pliny tally 
exactly with the crude mode of manufacture carried on in Bengal 
at the present day. Dioscorides sa}'s—“ Indigo used in dyeing is 
a purple-coloured froth formed at the top at the boiler ; this is 
collected and dried by the manufacturer ; that possessing a blue 
tint and being brittle is esteemed the most.”— (Nature.) 
SECOND-CLASS FLOWERS. 
First-class flowers are costly, and far too often more than 
ordinarily difficult to cultivate. The finest Scotch Pansies succumb 
before the burning sun, and such a July as has been experienced 
in the southern counties ; and even in cool, moist, northern dis¬ 
tricts they require much skill to grow them to anything near per¬ 
fection. The finest Auriculas, except in favoured localities, 
require glass coverings, and pots, and daily attention, in order 
that superior flowers may be produced. Carnations and Picotees, 
and even Pinks, need layering and nursing, and special soils and 
manures, in order to prevent those who grow them disgracing 
themselves by failing. We need not multiply instances, the facts 
are not denied. Then leaving out the question of skill and 
appliances necessary to produce first-class flowers (so-called) there 
is the, to many, serious matter of first cost: 65., 12.?., or 18s. per 
dozen for Pansies or Picotees or Roses may be only a trifle to 
hundreds—the more the better—who delight in their flowers, but 
to the greater number, who cultivate flowers for the love of them, 
these same shillings stand in the way of the millions growing 
first-class flowers. It is not everyone who can afford to buy a 
collection of Dahlias and find that the expenditure must be in¬ 
curred annually if the stock is to be kept up. It is too often a 
felt loss to buy a couple of dozen Hollyhocks and find in a short 
time that the disease has claimed them, and so on. 
We hope our remark will not be misconstrued. We say nothing 
against those who have skill and money enough to enable them to 
grow the very choicest gems, and we would feel very sorry were 
our remarks to lead to their abandonment by a single grower. 
And we do not expect they will. The florist proper has a way of 
his own, and is not easily moved by “ uneducated ” dabblers out¬ 
side the circle. We wish to comfort those whose skill is small 
and pujse short. It is a great mistake to suppose that flowers to 
be beautiful must be dear, tender, and ill to grow. The reverse is 
the fact. No bed of florists’ Pansies ever produced such a quantity 
of beautiful blooms as that one in the artisan’s little garden over 
the wall there, and we doubt if ever florist enjoyed his production 
more. To be sure he know r s nothing of “ Glenny’s properties,” 
and it is well, for if he did I fear he might enjoy his flowers less. 
Such is the perversity of human nature. Possibly he might “ go 
in” for florists’ varieties—and w r hat then? Probably not more, 
and perhaps less, satisfaction. Now his wife and bairns can treat 
their friends to handfuls, and we all know how blessed it is to 
give. 
I wish those who repine because they cannot afford to spend 
much money on “first-class” flowers could see our doctor’s (not 
the Journal’s Doctor) garden in springtime. All along the sides 
of the walks are hundreds of seedling Polyanthuses and Auriculas 
growing with a vigour that florists’ varieties never knew, and 
producing flowers in prodigal profusion of as fine colours as the 
named sorts. The doctor is immensely fond of his flowers and 
proud as well, and many a friendly dispute he used to have with 
Sandy Macfarlane, a village florist, now, alas ! gone into the 
“silent land.” Unless flowers of “florists’” kinds were up to 
the mark there was no pleasing good, honest, laughing-faced 
