JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r - 
June ]4, 1883. ] 
491 
strength the plants have gained enables them to mature plump 
substantial seed, which is the best calculated to perpetuate a 
really good strain of any kind of flower. 
- Continuing his notes from last week our correspondent 
says :—“ At Oxenford Tomatoes are grown very much as Vines 
are, only the plants are restricted to single rods. In this way the 
plants rival the Vines in bulk, and huge clusters of very fine 
fruit are produced.” 
- Strawberries in pots are well grown at the above 
place. The favourite is the old Keens’ Seedling, and those 
ripening in May were certainly very fine, indeed all round the 
district Keens’ Seedling is a favourite, and justly so, for it grows 
well and fruits heavily. At Ormiston the rows of Keens’ 
Seedling were a sight to behold when in bloom. Doubtless the 
fine quality of the soil in East Lothian has something to do with 
it, for in some places it is a comparative failure. 
- A comparatively rare Orchid is Dendrobium draconis 
(eburneum) which is now flowering in a score collections. It is 
one of the nigro-hursute section, and related to D. Jamesianum, 
though quite distinct from that species. The sepals and petals 
are thick, of a shining ivory-like whiteness, the lip being bright 
orange red in the throat. It is very pretty, the flowers being 
borne several together upon the growths. 
- The handsome Cattleya Morganize has been flowering 
very freely in Mr. B. S. Williams’ Nursery at Upper Holloway 
lately, and is undoubtedly one of the finest forms of the 
C. Mendeli type. ' The sepals and petals are broad, white or 
faintly blush tinted ; the lip being large, beautifully fringed at 
the tip, white, with a gold throat, and a well-defined blotch of 
rich crimson in the centre. This first flowered with Mr. B. S. 
Williams, and was named in honour of Mrs. Morgan of New 
York. An excellent figure is given in the “ Orchid Album.” 
- In the gardens at Busby Down, Tooting Common, the 
residence of J. Connell, Esq., Mr. Todman, whose fame as a 
bybridiser and raiser of improved varieties of popular plants i3 
far from being merely local, has a number of beautiful seedling 
Pelargoniums of the decorative type, several of which are im¬ 
portant additions to that group. Very notable is one that Mr. 
Todman states is a cross between a Show and a Fancy variety, 
and the characters of which appear to bear out the correctness 
of the statement, for both in foliage, habit, and flowers there is 
quite an intermediate character, while it shares the good qualities 
of both. The flowers are neat, in dense trusses, and of a bright 
scarlet colour, most effective either on the plant or for cutting. 
Others of the larger-flowered type are distinguished by the rich¬ 
ness of their scarlet or crimson shades and by their extreme flori- 
ferousness. The conservatory is almost filled with attractive 
seedling Fuchsias and Pelargoniums which have been raised at 
various times by Mr. Todman, while the hybrid Azaleas that have 
in recent years been sent out from Bushy Down are recruiting 
their energies for another season by making vigorous growth. In 
another house are several dozen extremely handsome Gloxinias, 
the large leaves quite concealing the pots, and bearing flowers by 
scores. 
- In the stove at the same establishment a rather rare 
Orchid is flowering—namely, Cyrtochilum stellatum, which 
is found very useful for cutting, the flowers being arranged singly 
for buttonholes, or wired and used for bouquets. The sepals and 
petals are narrow, yellowish or straw-coloured, the lip being 
white tinged with purple. 
- Though of very moderate size this may be termed a 
MODEL garden, its general condition under glass and outside 
being most satisfactory, and it is only by the careful utilisation of 
the space at command and close intercropping that a sufficient 
supply can be raised to meet comparatively large demands. A 
number of pyramid Apple and Pear trees were planted a year or 
two since round the kitchen-garden quarters, and are now pro¬ 
gressing very satisfactorily, and in an ornamental point of view 
they are very pleasing, while their crops, which are yearly in¬ 
creasing, are greatly valued. 
- “Mushroom Culture for Amateurs” (170, Strand) 
is the title of a small work of forty-seven pages by Mr. W. J. May, 
and contains instructions respecting the production of this much¬ 
valued vegetable. Those cultivators, however, who grow the best 
crops and the finest Mushrooms do not sift the manure for the 
beds now-a-days. 
- At the back of the old Lily house at Kew is a large bed 
of an extraordinary Aroid, Amorphophallus campanulatus, 
which is now producing fifteen strangely formed and exceedingly 
foetid flowers. The leaves are similar to those of the better known 
A. Rivieri, having a much-divided green expanded portion at the 
apex of the stout blotched and spotted petioles. The spadix, 
which is of a dull red colour, is surrounded by a green corolla-like 
spathe, bell-shaped in form, as the specific name implies. The 
odour is indescribably the most disagreeable and powerful of any 
similar p’ants. 
- The tank of the same house now contains a fine collection 
of Water Lilies, amongst which the Nymphjea stellata var. 
Zanzibarensis is particularly striking, owing to the remarkably 
rich purple colour of the flowers, quite distinct from all others of 
the genus. The general condition of the Nymphaeas is very 
satisfactory, and the circular tank in which they are grown shows 
them to the best advantage, and the Royal Victoria itself when 
grown there could always be seen much better than its present 
oblong tank. All these charming plants are worthy of more 
attention than they usually receive in private gardens. 
- Mr. Bardney writes:—“ The following Irises are worth 
growing in any garden—I. florentina, white; I. celeste, lavender 
blue; Bridesmaid, white suffused lavender; Hericart de Thury, 
yellow, brownish crimson; Hortense, yellow; Rowlandiana, blue, 
the falls being reddish purple ; Magpie, a good lavender; and 
William III., a good purple. These plants are most conspicuous 
when in full flower in mixed borders of herbaceous plants, but are 
more at home amongst dwarf evergreen shrubs. A large bed in 
some suitable place in the pleasure grounds would at this season 
of the year be charming.” 
- “ Scientia” says Hawthorns are flowering in the neigh- 
bom-hood of Liverpool more profusely this season than they have for 
many years. Large bushes of the double white, pink, and bright 
crimson when densely laden with flowers are amongst the most 
striking and beautiful of flowering trees for pleasure grounds and 
parks. They are amongst the most useful trees that can be planted 
in the suburbs of our large towns. They grow in almost any soil, 
and much more profusely than the majority of trees where smoke 
abounds, and the double forms scarcely ever fail to flower. Around 
London these trees are greatly appreciated; they are now, how¬ 
ever quite past their best, the dry -weather we have experienced 
having shortened their duration considerably this season. 
- “Rhododendrons,” a northern correspondent states, “are 
not displaying half their usual beauty this season. They are gene¬ 
rally flowering profusely, but the flowers are small and more or 
less deformed, owing undoubtedly to the east winds experienced 
when the buds were developing. This combined with the dry 
weather has been very much against them. The flowers are of 
very short duration, and are almost past before they are fully 
expanded, as they have been flagging seriously for the want of 
rain.” 
- Mr. H. Haskins of Bournemouth has sent us a spray of 
