December 22, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 565 
quite ripe, a lot of which I secured as well as more roots. The 
seed of the berries though quite ripe did not grow with me, and, 
having no botanical box, the roots were all shrivelled when I 
reached Glasgow ; still, one or two of them grew the following 
spring, but did not—could not—flower in such a sulphurous atmo¬ 
sphere. How some of our gardeners would rejoice to see those 
plants, as I have seen them, in all their luxuriance—not a tender 
thing in a pot or greenhouse, but by the roadside, where, if crushed 
by the foot or nearly dug up, will spring again with renewed 
vigour. 
Now the sequel of my observations is : You need not care a fig 
what sort offsoil the plant is put in, and it seems to me to grow 
like the common wild Convolvulus once rooted and established ; 
but I noticed that in all places it was most luxuriant close to a 
wall. At Kenmore by the rustic porch of the inn it was growing 
up through the hard beaten ground. At Killin it was growing 
through the gravel spread round the hotel, many times relaid, no 
doubt, and beaten down ; and at St. Fillan’s, in the little plots 
before the cottages, where it was covered with berries, plots which 
I daresay never had a spade put into the ground. The roots are not 
unlike those of the wild Convolvulus and will grow when allowed, 
inserting themselves between the stones of the wall. If it does 
not grow in England, where almost everything else grows better 
than in Scotland, it must be the temperature, not the soil. I 
never found the roots at any great depth, and they must be frozen 
hard in winter, yet they spring again each year with renewed 
strength. I have seen it growing equally well with any aspect, 
but I should prefer to give it a southern one, as the plants I 
saw bearing fruit were exposed to the south. I trust this paper 
though prosy may be interesting to the readers of the Journal.— 
James Huie. 
Mild Weather and the Larva: of Insects. —It will be in¬ 
teresting to note the results of the past unusually mild November 
upon the subterranean-feeding larvae. Probably the growth of some 
or most of these will be accelerated, to the injury of the roots, &c., 
they attack, but they may not be more likely to survive the winter 
should frosts set in hereafter.—J. R. S. C. 
BEGONIA KNOWSLEYANA. 
This is not a new plant, but till within the last few weeks I 
have never had a name for it, and as not many people care to 
grow a plant without a name it has not come into cultivation so 
much as it deserves. 
I first became acquainted with this Begonia at Knowsley, the 
Fig. 89—Begonia knowsleteana. 
