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March is, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 215 
yards per acre, well dug in about December or Januarv, and a little 
wood ashes sprinkled in the rows when planting.—W. SaiNGLER, 
Melton Constable. 
Nottinghamshire.— 1 . March. Rivers’ Royal Ashleaf, *Beauty 
of Hebron, *Early American Rose, and Early Racehorse. Soil.— 
Light, black. 2. April. Covent Garden Perfection, ^International, 
*Late Rose, and Porter’s Excelsior. Soil.—Medium. 8. April. 
*Magnum Bonum, Schoolmaster, Suttons’ Reading Hero, and *Red- 
skinned Flourball. Manures and Application.—Last year I used soot 
as a fertiliser. This was applied by hand between the rows just 
before earthing up. The quantity so applied was a moderate sprink¬ 
ling, and as a result we had an exceedingly fine crop of sound tubers. 
This year I am using lime. I applied this in January, and I may 
add I have no doubt the results will be equally satisfactory. General 
Culture.—The preparation of the secs is a very important matter, for 
upon, this depends in a great measure success or failure. It is my 
practice to pick out what sets I think will be required as early as 
convenient after the tubers are lifted. The set thus secured is placed 
in . single layers in a dry room where frost can be excluded, the 
object being to secure strong sprouts by planting time. I never 
sprout seed Potatoes. Indeed, with such treatment it is not neces¬ 
sary. The next most important matter is the time most suitable for 
planting. Providing the seed is, as it ought to be, in good condition, 
nothing is gained by planting too early. Again, the soil here is so 
various, as it undoubtedly is in most gardens, that to attempt to grow 
Potatoes in some of it would be folly. In planting my mode of 
procedure is as follows :—To begin with the early ones. These are 
planted in lines, the lines being and the sets 18 inches apart. We 
make a trench with the spade and place the sets carefully into it, 
covering the same about 2 inches in depth with the soil out of the 
next trench. The later sorts are treated in the same manner, with 
this, exception—the lines and the sets are placed further apart. This 
varies of course with the sorts of Potatoes grown and the kind of 
soil they are to be grown in. Magnum Bonum, for instance, requires 
with me 2 feet G inches between the lines, and 2 feet between the 
sets. Champion and other large haulm-producing sorts require even 
still more room. The after-treatment consists in keeping them free 
from weeds, and earthing up when sufficiently advanced in growth.— 
Joseph Richardson, The Gardens , Calverton Hall. 
A NOTE ON HOLLYHOCKS. 
It is not yet too late to propagate these, the best way by far 
being to graft the young growths on to pieces of roots. Cuttings 
will strike, but at this season the process is a very slow one and 
failures are common. A point of importance is to keep the 
young plants from becoming root-bound in small pots. When 
healthy, Hollyhocks are vigorous root-producers and will require, 
if strong, to be transferred into 7-inch pots before they are 
planted out. The compost should be of strong loam enriched 
with a third part of cow manure and a sprinkling of half-inch 
bones. The compost can hardly be rendered too firm. A cold 
frame is the best place to keep the plants, giving them protection 
in cold weather, and in warm weather allow them plenty of air. 
From the middle to the end of April is a good time to plant them 
out, protecting them on cold nights by placing a large flower pot 
over each. 
The disease (Puccinia malvacearum) was very destructive dur¬ 
ing the past year, though in the previous season we had the plants 
clean. Dry hot weather is apparently a suitable atmospheric 
condition for the propagation and extension of this destructive 
fungus. I know of no cure or means of lessening its effects on 
the plants. 
For those who wish to grow a collection of named varieties a 
short list is appended of the best :—Alba superba, Cygnet, Flora 
Macdonald, Hercules, In Memoriam, J. M. Lindsay, Mrs. Downio, 
Meranon Improved, Octoroon, Perfection, Purple Prince, Queen of 
Buffs, Queen of Whites, Queen of Yellows, Stanstead Rival, 
Tecoma, William Thomson.—R. P. B. 
CHOICE HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER. 
Scilla bifolia and Varieties .—This is an extremely pretty species, 
coming in a little before S. sibirica outside, and is perfectly hardy, 
while the simple means by which it may be well grown are points 
in its favour. It has one-sided spikes of bright blue flowers, not 
so large as those of S. sibirica, and more open. Some distinct 
forms I have now in flower are particularly showy and worthy of 
mention. Alba is similar to the type, but the flowers are quite 
white, as its name implies ; this is very desirable. Atro-easrulea 
produces numerously flowered spikes of a deep cserulean blue 
colour, and is very striking ; rosea has rose-pink flowers, and re¬ 
sembles the type in disposition ; grandiflora resembles the normal 
form in the floral arrangement, but the individual flowers are very 
much larger and brighter in colour; and finally, corymbosa pro¬ 
duces copiously flower corymbs of deep blue flowers, and is very 
handsome, as, indeed, all of them are, and outside, even in the 
untoward climate of Cheshire, they are thriving remarkably. As 
I intimated above, they are most easily grown, requiring only to 
be planted in moderately light and rich soil. In clumps they look 
extremely pretty, but I have some of them planted in crannies and 
nooks of the rockery, and they materially assist to enliven it during 
the month of February. 
SisyrincMvm grandiflorum .—A very charming little plant, ap¬ 
parently as hardy as any of our indigenous species, as I have 
known it stand in most exposed situations even through severe 
wdnters. Of course the beauty of the plant is retained for a much 
longer period if a sheltered position is found it, free from driving 
winds and heavy rains. It has Grass or Rush-like foliage about 
!) inches high, and the flower stem is usually rather taller, one or 
two-flowered. The flowers when expanded are about H inch across, 
with six equal divisions of a clear purple colour, more or less ob¬ 
long, and shortly aouminate at the apex. The divisions of the 
white-flowered variety (alba.) are lanceolate without the distinctly 
formed apices of the typical form, in all other respects it is similar. 
They are both beautifully in flower now, although rather early for 
this part of the country. Their precocity has undoubtedly been 
accelerated by the exceptionally mild winter we have experienced 
and the spring-like weather of the last two or three weeks. There 
is no difficulty attending their cultivation, as they thrive with the 
same treatment afforded Scilla bifolia. Planted in masses they 
look very pretty. To produce the most charming effect they 
should be planted together, so that the distinctly coloured flowers 
intermingle. 
Mascari JETeldreichi .—The first Grape Hyacinth to bloom with 
us here, and a very pretty one it is. The flower spikes are about 
1 to 2 inches long, thickly set with small pitcher-shaped flowers ; 
the dilated portion of a bright sky-blue, while the slightly spread¬ 
ing limb is pure white, the contrast being striking and pleasing. 
The Grape Hyacinths are favourites of mine, and as they expand 
I shall make a few remarks upon them for the Journal. M. Szo- 
vitzianum will be the next in bloom, and it is also pretty. 
Cliionodoxa Lucilice .—A most beautiful bulbous plant and 
deservedly popular. I enjoyed a rich feast at the end of February 
of seeing some thousands in flower at Messrs. James Dickson and 
Son’s nursery at Chester, and understood there was no difficulty 
attending its cultivation. In my experience the bulbsi m n-ove 
greatly after being planted a year or two. I have some bulbs 
which were imported in 1881, and have been in the ground ever 
since, have now eight, nine, and one with ten flowers on single 
spikes ; while those bulbs imported in the autumn of 1882 pro¬ 
duce but one or two, rarely three, flowers : and the individual 
flowers of the former are very much larger and of a better colour 
than the latter, so we may hope it will be a bulb which will im¬ 
prove with us. It is most easily raised from seed, which should 
be sown so soon as it is ripe, and it may germinate the same year; 
but the following spring the plants will come up thickly, so do 
not introduce your seed pans to the rubbish heap if your patience 
is worn out, as a crop is certain. Some pans of seed sown last 
June are now filled with young plants as thickly as they can 
exist without inconvenience. It enjoys a light rich soil with a 
sunny aspect, when it will produce a very charming effect yearly. 
Galanthus Elrcesii .—I have had a large number of this elegant 
Snowdrop in flower this season, and to my mind it is the best of 
them all. Of one thing I am certain—it is the most variable, for 
there have been some most remarkable forms among an importa¬ 
tion of last year, as well as among some bulbs obtained from Asia 
in 1881—flowers with very narrow petals ; in fact, I have seen 
every intermediate form of perianth division, from the spherical 
characteristic type of the species to one not more than an eighth of 
an inch in diameter, and one bulb produced flowers with the three 
outer divisions sharply reflexed like those of Narcissus triandrus. 
This I hope to watch another season, and if the same peculiarity 
is revealed it will indeed be a most desirable deviation. However 
much the form of the flower varies, there is always the distinct 
band of green at the base of the inner divisions of the perianth, 
intercepted by a white band from the blotches of green near the 
notches at the top of the divisions. Out of several hundred bulbs 
I have only one bulb which has produced what I regard as the 
typical flower of G. Elwesii, and by which Mr. Baker characterised 
the species, and this came to me by accident among Chionodoxas. 
In outline the flowers are almost globular, while the outer divisions 
are nearly round, contracted sharply at the base. In this form it 
is most distinct. 
G. llcdontci, or what is really latifolius, has large deep green 
leaves, with small nivalis-like flowers of a very thin texture. 
G.plicatvs, the Crimean Snowdrop, has nivalis-like flowers in 
form, but larger, and the green of the inner perianth divisions 
