JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c December ai, usa. 
sturdy, compact-floweriDg, and the flowers smaller, of a still lighter 
shade. They are grown in a light compost, consisting principally 
of sphagnum, rough peat, and charcoal, and were not dried off 
nor transferred to a lower temperature when the foliage was com¬ 
mencing to change colour. Even those who affect to despise 
Orchids generally must admit that Calanthes for decorative 
purposes have no equal during the dull winter months.” 
The “ Garden Oracle ” for 1883 is now issued, and the 
fact that this is the twenty-fifth year of publication is in itself 
sufficient testimony of its value. In addition to usual calendarial 
matter and miscellaneous useful tables lists of the new plants and 
flowers of 1882 are given, together with selections for general cul¬ 
tivation. New and select fruits and vegetables receive similar 
attention, one of the most important features of this issue being a 
synoptical catalogue of garden Peas. Illustrations of new garden 
appliances are also given, completing a compendium of seasonable 
information. 
LINUM TRIGYNUM. 
This old inhabitant of our plant houses is not half so generally 
grown as it deserves to be for decorative purposes at this season 
of the year. When well grown no plant arrests the attention of 
visitors sooner than this. If I had the room to spare for a time 
at this season of the year I should have sufficient plants to en¬ 
tirely fill a house, or one side of it, and intermix with it plants of 
Plumbago rosea in 5 and 6-inch pots. The feathery sprays of the 
latter would rise well above the groundwork of yellow produced 
by the more bushy habit of the Linum. 
Linum trigynum is generally placed in catalogues as a green¬ 
house plant, but when subjected to cold treatment its growth is 
remarkably slow, and few flowers are produced in winter. During 
summer it will thrive well under cool treatment, and I daresay in 
the more southern parts of the country would do outside for a 
few of the warmest months in a sheltered position. This, how¬ 
ever, 1 cannot recommend, for I have never tried it, but know 
outside treatment will not do in wet, cold, northern localities. It 
is only during the hottest months of the year that I place our 
plants in cold frames. 
Propagation is effected by cuttings of the young shoots, which 
are produced freely after the plants have flowered and been par¬ 
tially cut back. The most vigorous growths should be selected 
for the cuttings, being taken when about 2 inches in length, and 
inserted in sandy soil either singly or in a 5-inch pot, and placed 
in a vinery or any warm position under a bellglass. The cuttings 
will root freely and quickly in any warm close house with or with¬ 
out bottom heat ; in fact, if the old plants are kept in a very warm 
moist atmosphere they will quickly throw out numbers of roots 
from the stems. This plant is rather strong-rooting, and must be 
potted singly as scon as the cuttings are struck, and grown in an 
intermediate house until they are ready for larger pots. When 
the young plants have commenced rooting in their first pots the 
points of the shoots must be pinched out in order to compel them 
to break back. Stopping the shoots must not be neglected when 
required in the early stages of growth. If the cuttiDgs are rooted 
early in the month of April they will be ready for 5 or C-inch pots 
in June, which are large enough for bushy decorative plants. 
Cool-frame treatment may be afforded during the two following 
months, or until the middle of September ; after that date they 
must have a position where the night temperature will not fail 
below 50°. The shoots should be stopped about a fortnight before 
placing the plants in their flowering pots, and the plants rooting 
freely into the new soil before they are placed into cold frames. 
Care must be taken in preparing the plants for this shift, or they 
are sure to be checked for a long time in consequence. 
Particular attention to watering and syringing is of the greatest 
importance in the cultivation of this plant. If once allowed to 
suffer by insufficient supplies they are sure to become infested 
at once with red spider. They can be kept clear of this pest if 
properly watered and syringed heavily twice daily. If this be 
done every morning and again early in the afternoon, and the 
frame closed while the sun is on it, with abundance of moisture, 
there need be but little fear of red spider troubling the plants. 
During their season of growth they should stand upon some 
moisture-holding material: nothing is better for this purpose in 
frames than coal ashes. Although abundance of water is required 
care must be taken for some time after they are first potted. 
Plants not infrequently are watered too freely when in this stage 
and the soil in consequence soured. When the pots are fairly 
well filled with roots stimulants may be given freely every timr> 
watering is necessary. Once or twice weekly applications of 
clear soot water will be found very beneficial in imparting to the 
foliage a dark green hue. 
Air must be freely admitted during the summer on all favour¬ 
able occasions in order to ripen the growth as it is made, as upon 
this depends very much whether the plants flower profusely or 
not during winter. It is wise, however, to ventilate freely early 
in the season while the young plants are growing rapidly. They 
will stand without any apparent injury a close warm atmosphere 
during autumn and winter, but the flowers are over quicker, and 
do not possess that substance and brilliancy as they do when 
brought into flower in the temperature of an intermediate house. 
A little shading is necessary during the summer, at the same 
time every ray of light possible should be admitted to them. 
The soil I have found most suitable is good fibry loam with 
one-seventh of manure, or a 6-inch potful of bone meal and the 
same quantity of soot to each barrowful of soil, with sufficient 
coarse sand to render the whole porous.—W. Bardney. 
PLANTING ROSES—SPRING v. AUTUMN. 
This question has now been so thoroughly well discussed that 
further remarks are hardly necessary, more especially as this 
season it has practically settled itself, for after having had an un¬ 
usual amount of rain in October, November, and the early days of 
December, we are now having snow and sharp frost (10° at 4 feet 
from the ground), and planting is simply impossible ; but I may 
be permitted, as the originator of the question, the privilege of a 
reply. I cannot but feel grateful for your many kind correspon¬ 
dents, most of them known to me, who have given us their opinions, 
and for the courteous manner (so becoming in the Journal of 
Horticulture ) with which it has been treated. I am bound to say 
that the preponderance of opinion is against me, but whether facts 
are equally adverse is another matter. This can only be proved 
by further experiments, as sufficient evidence in favour of both 
systems has been recorded in the Journal. 
It must be borne in mind that I did not write about what one 
might do with the transplanting or removing of plants which were 
already in the garden, where they would have no time to remain 
out of the ground, and where they could be moved at any time 
during October so as to make fresh roots before the winter set in, 
but to those which had come from a distance, which are never 
received from the nurserymen until November, and sometimes in 
December ; and in my opinion it was, as I said, better to get 
these in the autumn (by no means to delay the order till the spring) 
and then lay them in, covering the roots with stable litter and then 
leaving them. Now in the opinions which have been given adverse 
to this plan it has been in many instances conceded that it was 
good for Teas, and indeed this is the advice which is given in some 
catalogues as to the winter treatment of this class. But I would 
desire to ask, Which is to be protected—the top or the roots ? If 
the roots, which I hardly imagine to be the case, what difference 
can there be ? They are budded on the same stock, and it is that 
and the junction which have to be protected, in fact, as I have 
more than once insisted, I do not believe that this difference in 
treatment in Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals is at all necessary in the 
northern parts of England or in the south of Scotland and Ireland 
generally. In the Midlands, where frost is so much more felt, or 
in the northern parts of the kingdom, the case is perhaps different. 
The newer varieties of Teas are so much hardier than many of the 
older ones, and some of the newer Hybrid Perpetuals have so much 
Tea blood in them, that they approach more nearly to one another 
than they used to do, and their treatment, therefore, becomes more 
assimilated. 
As I look at my Roses heeled in and covered with stable litter 
I must confess to being more easy in my mind about them than 
those that are planted out, although the latter are protected about 
the roots with longish litter from the pigstye, for I believe that, 
well-decayed stable manure is but a poor protector from frost; it 
is so sodden that I think it must hold much wet, and amongst other 
things that next season will, I hope, bring to us will be further 
experience on the system I have thus indicated.—D., Deal. 
ASTROCARYUMS. 
The Astrocaryums are a genus of pinnate-leaved Palms, chiefly 
found in South America and inhabiting the regions on the upper 
Amazon, and frequenting the marshy districts in the neighbourhood 
of that and other rivers. Like the Martinezias, they are distin¬ 
guished by an abundance of formidable spines, which thickly clothe 
the stem and leafstalks ; but notwithstanding this character the 
species are mostly rather handsome when they reach a good size. 
