242 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t September 9, iwo. 
or mycelium, like Mushroom spawn when running, and a fresh 
crop results.] 
ESCALLONIA MONTEVIDIENSIS. 
This is one of the most beautiful white-flowering shrubs that I 
have seen for some time. I recently saw a specimen in the 
gardens of Mr. J. G. Mitchinson, at Park Clies, Galval, where it is 
trained quite 10 feet high against the front of his house, and is 
just commencing to flower, and cannot fail when more extensively 
grown to become a great favourite. It is growing in common 
garden soil covered with about 2 inches of gravel. It has little or 
no water, and it appears to flourish luxuriantly, and has been for 
four or five years quite exposed. This is very remarkable, for in 
a garden adjoining that of Mr. Mitchinson, and belonging to T. It. 
Bolitho, Esq., the gardener (Mr. Every) cannot induce it to flower. 
Speaking of Escallonia I may also add a few remarks on E. 
macrantha. As a plant for making hedges this is unsurpassed ; 
it will bear clipping almost to the main stalk, and the hedge at the 
thickest part need not be more than 12 inches through. Here, as 
well as at Scilly, it is used very largely for this purpose, and the 
fields where Potatoes are grown are usually divided into one- 
eighth and quarter-acre squares with it, thus protecting the 
Potatoes from the wind and taking up scarcely any room. E. 
Ingrami is a very fine species, but is not so accommodating as 
E. macrantha.—W. Roberts, Penzance. 
VEGETABLES IN AUSTRALIA. 
These have been scarce enough sometimes there, though not 
because they could not be produced. The first comers were glad 
enough to qualify their salt junk, salt pork, and ship biscuits, the 
only procurable food in the settlement. With no vegetables they 
seized upon the top shoot of a native tree, which ever afterwards 
was known as Cabbage Palm. As the Tea-tree Scrub gave them 
a bitter substitute for Bohea, so did other native plants render 
service for those sighing after vegetarian fare. Bushmen usually 
despised the pot, unless it were the pannican for their tea, and 
contented themselves with damper bread and meat for every meal. 
Thanks to the health-giving breath of Australia this fare did 
them no great mischief. There are many thousands of persons 
in Australia who are months at a time without vegetables. As 
shepherds or solitary miners they might easily grow them if they 
took the trouble. In American wastes men have the everlasting 
salt pork and Beans, but in Australia flour and fresh meat form 
the staple diet. 
An impression once existed that Potatoes would not thrive in 
so hot a region as Australia. Finer than those raised in southern 
Victoria or the Darling Downs of Queensland cannot be found ; 
and they are as cheap as they are good—far better and cheaper 
than in England. As to the Cabbage family, nowhere can such 
be surpassed. For Cauliflowers it is truly a native clime. The 
markets display magnificent specimens, and at a price to excite 
the envy of Britishers. The Chinese, to whom Australian gar¬ 
deners are much indebted for improved culture, have introduced 
a Chinese Cabbage, which is much relished by miners everywhere. 
However outlandish a place be, occupied by Queensland diggers, 
a Chinese Cabbage vendor will find it out. Give the Yellowface 
the means of irrigation, and the most barren-looking bit of bush 
land becomes a garden of vegetables under his hand. The health 
of country residents has been decidedly improved by the advent 
of Chinamen with the variety and goodness of the vegetables they 
raise. 
In Queensland climate and soil are suitable fcr the production 
of an extensive assortment for the table. Whatever can be grown 
in any part of the world has a chance there. The plateaus of the 
southern districts bring forth plentiful supplies of English Pota¬ 
toes, Cabbages, Lettuces, Parsnips, Carrots, Turnips, Beet, Celery, 
Endive, Seakale, Rhubarb, Spinach, Onions, Leeks, Cauliflowers, 
Parsley, Asparagus, Peas, and Beans. These, too, obtain a flavour 
only to be realised in a sunny land. Their richness and ripeness 
put them out of comparison with the watery varieties found in 
Britain. Then, again, upon the rather lower lands, even in the 
more settled fields around Brisbane, Ipswich, and Maryborough, 
almost the whole of the English vegetables do equally well, with 
the addition of those not to be grown in the British Isles. Further 
north, toward the seacoast or beside the inland streams, genuine 
tropical vegetables may be procured. Thus it is that the colony 
contains the entire range of them. 
Yams and Sweet Potatoes have been introduced with the Taro 
from the South Sea Isles and are getting popular. The tuber of 
the West Indian Yam will often run down a yard in Queensland. 
There are also the Chinese and South Sea sorts of Yam. Roots of 
30 lbs. weight give abundance of nutritive food, very acceptable 
in hot countries. The pods of the Okra are good in soups. Maize 
is there, as in America, used as a vegetable when in a growing 
state. Melons, Marrows, Pumpkins, Squashes, Cucumbers, Toma¬ 
toes, and many other varieties are successfully cultivated. Cassava, 
Tapioca, and Arrowroot, growing there in such luxuriance, come 
hardly under the denomination of vegetables, though so agreeably 
diversifying the table of Queenslanders. But the Sweet Potato, 
so mealy and rich, is pre-eminently the root-crop of semi-tropical 
farmers, and is as valuable for human food as for all kinds of 
stock. Not only may as much as twenty tons of roots be taken 
per acre, but about that quantity of capital green food. The very 
heat, of which some immigrants complain, helps to make Queens¬ 
land one of the most favoured lands for vegetables.—J. B. 
ANNUALS FOR SPRING. 
Annuals for spring must be sown in autumn, and annuals for 
summer must he sown in spring. Where an ounce of seed of 
any of the popular forms of these pretty flowers is sown in the 
autumn a pound is sown in the spring. This would imply that if 
sown in spring the display produced is generally the most satisfac¬ 
tory, and that resulting from sowing in the autumn correspondingly 
disappointing. Yet annuals well selected, sown at the right time 
in the autumn, and properly managed, are in every respect far 
superior to those sown in spring—superior in vigour of plants, size 
of flowers, and continuity of beauty. Why, then, has not the plan 
of sowing them in autumn become more popular? That is a very 
natural question not easy to answer. Possibly there are some 
people who do not desire to have their flowers early, but prefer to 
devote the whole of their resources to producing a grand display in 
summer. This fashion, however, is generally dying out, and there 
is a disposition now to have gardens like the fields, woods, and way- 
sides—cheerful as early in the year as possible. There are also a 
certain number who have tried the plan, perhaps once, of sowing 
annuals in the autumn, and did not succeed as they expected, there¬ 
fore abandoned the practice and did not “ try again.” This is not 
the way to succeed. Seasons vary, and all alike are not favourable 
to these flowers when sown in autumn any more than they are for 
Wheat, fruit, Potatoes, or any other crops. 
A quarter of a century’s experience in growing annuals enables 
me to say positively that those sown in autumn and rightly managed 
are as certain to succeed, and more likely to give satisfaction, than 
the same varieties sown in spring. True, they are not alike good 
every year, but they are invariably good enough to be greatly 
admired, and I sow the seed annually with at least as much confi¬ 
dence of securing a satisfactory return as I do of securing a crop of 
Cabbages from seed sown a month previously. 
The present is precisely the time for sowing seed of some of the 
most useful hardy annuals ; and if immediately these notes appear 
-—there must not be a day’s delay—those who intend sowing order the 
seed promptly, and sow it the same day it arrives from the seedsman, 
they may hope to succeed in their object. Many people include 
Forget-me-nots in this category, because they are raised from seed 
and flower with the annuals in early spring. They are charming 
flowers, but it is no use ordering seed of any of them and sowing it 
at the present time. June, as has been mentioned in the Journal, is 
the time for sowing Forget-me-nots, then strong plants are provided 
before the winter. Such plants are fine in spring, but plants from 
seed sown in the autumn are weedy and very disappointing ; there¬ 
fore do not waste money on Forget-me-not seed now. 
Among the most reliable of annuals for spring decoration are 
Silene pendula and its variety compacta, the latter being charming 
for pots. August is the best time for sowing, but they succeed fairly 
well sown now, and maybe included in the seed order. For a glow¬ 
ing mass of pink in May, June, and early July nothing can surpass 
and few plants equal Saponaria calabrica. This is preferably sown 
towards the end of August, hut succeeds well sown now. The 
white vatiety makes a pretty edging, but is not so robust and hardy 
as the pink. Nemophilas cannot be sown at a better time than 
immediately these notes appear. Those who have not seen a bed or 
mass of the blue and white varieties of N. insignis in mixture in 
May have a treat in store. N. maculata is pretty, but scarcely 
equals those named, and all of them are extremely attractive in pots 
in the conservatory in April, Venus’s Looking-glass sown now will 
produce rich masses next May that cannot be equalled by any other 
plant of its colour, and the flowering sprays are most beautiful when 
cut and associated with other flowers in vases. The winter seldom 
injures this plant, and the slugs have to be hungry before they 
eat it. Clarkia pulchella in the red, white, and parti-coloured 
varieties are amongst the most effective of plants for large beds 
and mixed borders in May and June, and the present is the exact 
time for sowing. The Tom Thumb forms are the most effective, 
especially those with broad petals and semi-double flowers. For 
