JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. { December 22 , mi 
eive them more than 45° [at this Hibernius shook his head]. Why, 
there is our old friend Cultrarius had three hundred blooming 
plants last season, and he forced them so that he could only find 
thirty fit for showing, all the rest were sacrificed to this; in 
fact. I have written to say that it-is very improbable that I shall 
exhibit in London again unless the date is altered, for we can 
hardly ever have our Auriculas in time for their show unless we 
force them, and that I do not intend to do again. 
TDb. am delighted to hear that some of these new ideas 
about forcing, and pits, See., are condemned on such high authority. 
I have always looked on Manchester as the capital of florists’ 
flowers, and its dicta are always to be regarded with respect. I 
stand in very much doubt as to influence of London on the true 
taste for florists flowers. When one sees size and number of pips 
looked upon with favour, and refinement a secondary matter, I 
cannot but fear ; for an Auricula without refinement is like a fair 
w °man without modesty. You see I am a bachelor, and am 
therefore allowed to express myself thus. But what says my 
friend of the rueful countenance—my poor woolly-aphis-consumed 
hero ? 
Cant.- Aha ! rueful countenance by no means. I need to be 
especially jolly when I hear these sages of the Auricula world thus 
expressing themselves. What amount of scorn have I not been 
subjected to because I have advocated these very things ; because 
I have said that to force Auriculas was a heresy that no real lover 
of the flower would for long tolerate ; that it was impossible to 
fix a date for a show that would combine north and south ; that 
the southern taste was not a good one ; that it went in for 
“wallops” and “chaneys” rather than for purity and refine¬ 
ment; that it gave a first-class certificate to that jaunty impostor 
Col. Champneys, who has not one good quality of an Auricula 
about him ; and now to have all this confirmed by such high 
authority may well shake off all my ruefulness. I have heard 
nothing said about my own particular lete (not near, but) Mane, 
woolly aphis, nor has anything been advanced as to the value of 
varieties. 
Ebor.—A s to woolly aphis, I don’t mind it a bit; we all have 
it. There’s old Cultrarius’s plants are white with it. Eh ! old 
friend, is it not so ? [Yes.] And I fancy when Cantius thought 
his plants were killed by it that there must have been something 
else the matter. As to varieties, well, I am now raising such seed¬ 
lings as I think will make me independent of named sorts, spe¬ 
cially amongst green edges. 
Hib.—I think ] may say I have not got woolly aphis ; but I 
hardly think a beast like that can be anything but injurious. It 
must live upon something, and if it extract the juices from the 
roots they must suffer. I am glad to hear about Ebor’s seedlings. 
We do want some good green edges, as we have not one first-rate 
one. Col. Taylor is angular, Prince of Greens has a watery eye, 
Imperator is loDg in the legs and rarely first-rate, and so we might 
go on. If we could only get a George Lightbody green instead of 
grey ! That would be something. 
Cdlt.—W ell, Ebor and I have had many a talk together about 
our seedlings. We talk and talk, we examine carefully, and I do 
think that between us we shall have something good to show by- 
and-by. I hear a friend who is raising seedlings has lost some 
very promising green edges. 
Cast. —I don’t pity him. If a man grows Auriculas in glazed 
pots he deserves it. 
Cant.— Come, friend, that won’t do. I have seen that collec¬ 
tion, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is impossible to 
see a finer, more healthy one, than it is ; and, to speak truth, 
these seedlings were not in pots, so that could not be the case. 
This conversation has been a very pleasant one, and before I go I 
should like to lift up my hands against the system that prevails 
in the south of putting stakes to the blooms. It is like using 
bearing reins. If a horse pokes his head people use them ; but 
when they take it off down goes his head again. Now these poor 
things have been so forced and coddled that they can’t do without 
them ; take them away and the bloom falls down on the pot. So 
I say, Away with them. Let us have the rule of the older and 
better florists, that the stem should be stout and well able to sup¬ 
port the trusses. “ Hurrah 1” “Yes!” “Certainly !” from all, 
in the midst of which the party broke up and the colloquy came 
to an end.—D., Deal, 
Leeks. —At page 533 the following occurs —“ To prepare a large 
number of plants in order to secure extra fine crops, we advise those 
who are anxious to excel to make a mild hotbed and cover it with a 
glazed frame about the middle of April.” April should have been 
February, as no doubt attentive readers would understand; but 
others might make a mistake, being misled, and we therefore hasten 
to make this correction.—A. H. H. 
TROPiEOLUM speciosum. 
I OBSERVE much writing in connection with this plant, so very 
common in some parts of my country, and, although I make no 
pretensions to a knowledge of horticulture, I beg to offer you 
some of my observations regarding it. Some twenty years ago I 
first saw this plant (not in flower), in a small pot in the hands of 
a gardener, who explained its beauty and rarity, and, of course, 
price ; but not for five years after—some fifteen years ago—I saw 
it in all its beauty and luxuriance. At that time I took a four- 
days trip north, by Loch Tay and Loch Earn. Having arrived 
at Aberfeldy by rail I spent a morning among the grand and 
lovely “Bilks o'Aberfeldy,” then getting the forenoon coach 
started for Killin. This coach runs through Kenmore, a small 
village in which the principal entrance to Taymouth Castle is 
situated. It is an old-fashioned village, very small, and can be 
seen at one view. One side is crescent-shaped and the other 
angular, the houses all one storey high except the little inn. As 
we neared the village (the coach road runs through it), the place 
looked cn fete. All the windows and doors were festooned with 
bright scarlet ribbons as we thought, the rustic doorway of the 
inn was in a blaze of scarlet colour. Still all was quiet, almost 
no one going about. What could all this be ? No sooner did we 
draw up to the inn door for a change of horses than I jumped 
down and examined what I then saw to be a very beautiful 
creeper twined round every support it could get hold of. Neither 
landlord, waiter, nor anyone about could tell me the name of it, 
nor was there time to beg or steal a root. Well, steal 1 it was 
growing wild. As we drove off and looked back we concluded 
that no art however high could have decorated that or any other 
place as that simple plant had done. 
Driving along the margin of Loch Tay we at length reached 
Killin, one of the loveliest spots on earth. This small village 
consists of an hotel and about half a dozen thatched cottages as 
well as three or four new villas. On nearing it the first thing 
that caught my eye was the north end of the hotel ablaze with 
the same plant. Some trouble had been taken here. A large 
number of strings had been fastened to the eave of the house, two 
storeys high, and then pinned in regular order to the ground, and 
around each string twined a plant about 10 feet high at that 
time. The flowers of course all turned to the light, looking north¬ 
ward (the strings being 6 or 8 inches from the wall), and in such 
profusion that the leaves could hardly be seen. I did not attempt 
to get a root here. Next morning in walking round I saw the 
same j lant twined round some long rods in front of one of the 
new villas, and, observing a gentleman working in his garden, 
went in and asked him the name of plant, when he told me it 
was Tropmolum speciosum, quite common, he said, in this part 
of the country. 
That forenoon I was taken to an old garden about a mile off, 
on the banks of Loch Tay, which had belonged to the late chief 
of the McNabs, and for many years was the property of that 
family. There I saw a Vine in one great house—such a Vine as I 
had never seen. An English gentleman who was with me said it 
surpassed in size the celebrated Vine at Hampton Court. Another 
thing I saw in this old garden which may interest your readers was 
a Gooseberry plant, a single stalk trained up the corner of an 
outhouse and running along under the eaves of several houses 
(used for potting, &c.) for at least 18 or 20 yards, and at each 
joint hung a large berry, putting me in mind of some of those 
Dutch fringes I have seen on bed curtains. I had never seen 
anything like it, and could not believe it was one pdant till I had 
traced it from root to point of branch. On going round this 
garden we came upon a man toiling wfith fork and spade at the 
side of a wall digging out the T. speciosum. He said it was a 
“ wretched weed,” and he could not get rest for it. It had gone 
under the wall and had come up on the other side as well. He 
had half a wheelbarrow load of its roots on the gravel walk ready 
to be thrown out. Thus is this beautiful plant prized at Killin. 
The same afternoon we drove down Wild Glen Ogle and arrived 
at the hotel at the head of Loch Earn. There 1 found the same 
plant growing in great profusion in the garden of the hotel and 
also trained up the sides of the house. The landlord kindly 
gave me a handful of roots. Leaving this comfortable house we 
reached St. Fillan’s Hotel at the foot of Loch Earn, another of 
the lovely and grand spots on earth unfortunately little known to 
tourists, being off the beaten track of railways. There I found 
this beautiful plant growing close to some small thatched cottages, 
and just under the eaves of the houses ; those plants were not only 
in full flower but also abundantly loaded with purple berries 
