226 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 11, 1890 
this year, and we understand he leaves next month under medical advice 
for the milder climate of South Hants, where he has taken a house, and 
where, we trust, he may be spared for some years to come.” 
- Allotments and Small Holdings. —The return of allot¬ 
ments and small holdings in Great Britain, obtained from the Board of 
Agriculture by the Inland Revenue Department, has just been issued as 
a Parliamentary paper. It appears that there are 455,005 separate 
detached allotments now existing, and 409,422 small holdings other 
than allotments. These figures show a very large increase in the 
number of recorded allotments, and an increase also, although less 
.remarkable in extent, in the number of small holdings. The growth of 
allotments may be estimated by the following figures referring to the 
three periods named :—1873, 246,398 ; 1886, 357.795 ; 1890, 455,005. 
It will be observed that the rate of annual increase in the last four 
years has been apparently three times as rapid as between 1873 and 
1886. In the report which precedes the return Mr. P. G. Craigie, 
Director of the Statistical, Intelligence, and Educational Department, 
points out that considerable local variations occur in the proportions of 
allotments of a quarter of an acre or less and allotments between that 
size and 1 acre. On the whole the smaller class outnumber the larger 
by much more than two to one ; but in particular counties the propor¬ 
tions are reversed, while in England as a whole there are 310,698 
allotments under a quarter of an acre, and only 130,326 above that 
limit in Bedfordshire, Huntingdon, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester the 
larger type of allotments prevails, and in the East Riding of York, 
.Lincolnshire, and Cambridge the allotments exceeding a quarter of an 
acre are nearly twice as numerous as those below that area. The 
aounties showing the largest number of allotments are Northampton 
with 26,229, Wiltshire with 23,723, Leicestershire with 23,396, and 
Nottingham with 21,253. An examination of the details now supplied 
indicates that many allotments are in urban parishes, and presumably 
occupied by artisans. The mining counties of Durham and Glamorgan 
show a remarkable increase since 1886, their allotments appearing to 
have been been more than doubled in the last four years. Large 
increases also appear in Kent and Stafford. In Devon, Essex, and 
Warwick comparatively little change is reported. In only four English 
counties is any decline apparent. In Cornwall the collectors ascribe 
the diminution as partly due to the removal of country labourers to 
more remunerative railway work. In Hereford, Northumberland, and 
the East Riding of Yorkshire there appear to be also fewer allotments, 
some of those returned in 1886 having been improperly included under 
that title, while in other instances plots then occupied as allotments 
have been required for building and other purposes. Adding to the 
409,000 small holdings and 455,000 separate allotments, the special 
allotments granted by railway companies, so-called garden allot¬ 
ments attached to cottages and other cases, it is estimated that in one 
form or another petite culture is in existence in Great Britain in at 
least 1,300,000 separate instances. 
MONTBRETIAS. 
M. CROG'osm.eflora is a well known plant of great value for 
outting at this season. M. Pottsi I have cultivated for years, but 
it never yet flowered ; nor do I think that this experience is 
singular, as others who have tried it have had the same unpardon¬ 
able offence to complain of. 
I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a group 
of varieties raised by the indefatigable hybridist of Nancy, M. 
Lemoine, which supplies us with a new and what will be an 
indispensable class of flowers for summer and autumn decoration. 
They are quite hardy, very floriferous, and the flowers of the most 
beautiful shades ; in fact, in the yellows especially I know no 
ilower of exactly the same tones as are to be found in these. Like 
Gladiolus, the flowers continue opening after being cut until the 
last is reached. They have the advantage of the Gladiolus, how- 
■ever, in the rapidity with which they can be increased. Some of 
the sorts are still rather expensive, but none of them extravagantly 
so. The following are sorts of yellow shades, and must be seen to 
be appreciated :-Elegans, very pretty; Gerbe d’Or, a very 
beautiful plant, extra free ; Drap d’Or, very fine clear yellow 
with large flowers ; Rayon d’Or, most beautiful with a brown ring 
near base of petals ; Solfaterre, very fine clear yellow. These 
which follow are of different shades:—Etoile de Feu, light 
vermilion, very pretty ; Pottsi grandiflora, red and yellow ; 
Incendie, red, with clear yellow centre, very fine ; Transcendant, 
fine clear vermilion shade, throat yellow, very fine. The new sorts 
«of the present year I have not had an opportunity of seeing, but 
judging by the advance made in previous years they may safely be 
added to any collections which may be in course of formation.—B. 
DALECHAMPIA ROEZLIANA ROSEA. 
This may not inaptly be termed a perpetual flowerer, for it 
produces its flowers nearly throughout the year, and that on plants 
only a few inches high. The leaves are long, Oak-like, deep green 
when full-sized, but pale rose-coloured in a young state, very 
durable, and so abundant as to completely cover the stem. Above 
this mass of deep green foliage are produced the flowers, which 
owe their beauty to the large rosy-pink bracts, which are very 
persistent, continuing several days in beauty. Its flowers are sweet- 
scented, but its chief attractions are its dwarf leafy habit, free- 
flowering character, and continuous flowering. It springs up freely 
from seed ; indeed is such a weed with me in the stove that I have 
not had to resort to any other mode of propagation, and owing to 
its continuous blooming the seedlings are plentiful at most times of 
the year. I usually take up the plants in spring when they have 
two or three leaves besides the seed leaves, place them singly in 
3 inch pots, using a compost of equal parts turfy loam, sandy peat, 
and leaf soil, with a free admixture of silver sand, and place them 
on shelves in the stove. I sprinkle the foliage twice daily, and 
shade from bright sun for a few days if the sun is powerful. 
In these pots the plants remain until the end of July, when they 
are shifted into 4|-inch pots, and encouraged with heat and an 
abundance of moisture. Syringing twice a day may be practised 
up to October, when they should be kept rather dry—not so 
much so as to affect the foliage, though the plant will endure 
the extremes of dryness and wet, heat and cold, better than any 
other I know. By keeping the plants moderately dry we cause 
however, a cessation of growth, and they will flower as soon as 
the days have turned, and continue doing so from January to 
May. 
If we wish the plants to flower in less than 4i-inch pots we 
have only to turn them out of the 3-inch pots, remove all the soil 
we can, and place them again in the same size of pot. They will 
flower well in this size of pot, and whether we pot them or not they 
invariably flower when 3 to 4 inches high. In fact I have some 
plants now in 3-inch pots that have not been without their 
bracts for months, and are not likely to be, as they still throw out 
more. 
It is well to know, that though this plant is almost a continuous 
flowerer, there are times when the flowers are produced more 
abundantly than at others. These periods are with me early in 
spring and late in summer — February, March, and April ; and 
September, October, November, and December. Whenever it 
begins to grow it begins to bloom, for the flowers are produced 
from the axils of the leaves, and by remembering this we can have 
the plants in flower at any time required. We have only to keep 
the plants rather dry and cool for, say, two or three months, and 
then introduce them into a house with a temperature of from 70° to 
75°, fresh pot, encourage with free watering and atmospheric 
moisture, and it begins to grow and flower. Half its beauty con¬ 
sists in the manner in which it clothes the stem with its per¬ 
sistent long leaves, which hide that completely, and hang down over 
the pot. 
As a plant for table it is unique, and very handsome specimens 
may be formed. The way to do this is to stop a seedling plant 
when 3 inches inch, which will cause it to break and produce two 
or three shoots. These should be stopped again at the third leaf, 
and repeated until we have half to a dozen shoots, no flowers being 
permitted to more than show until we secure the number of shoots 
required ; then it is well to keep the plant rather dry and cool for 
a few weeks, and introduce it into heat and moisture when we want 
it to bloom, a month or six weeks being required. The plants need 
not be potted oftener than twice a year, and I consider March and 
July the best months. The compost for both old and young plants 
may be the same. It seems to delight in vegetable soil, and the 
bracts are improved in size by the addition to the compost of one- 
fourth of old cowdung or well-decayed manure. 
A 6-inch pot is large enough for a plant with half a dozen 
shoots, whilst an 8 or 9-inch pot will well grow one with a dozen. 
The plants for decorative purposes are best in small pots ; in their 
case, instead of shifting into a larger one, at potting, reduce the 
ball and return it to the same sized pot. The fresh soil seems to 
do wonders—plants do not grow any better because we leave the 
old soil, but seem to benefit only by the fresh. A plant in a 6-inch 
pot with half a dozen shoots, each carrying as many flowers, or 
twice the number of bracts (they just appearing so high above the 
foliage as to show to good advantage) not more than 9 inches to a 
foot high, and with foliage drooping over and partly hiding the pot, 
is a subject well worth our attention, and a plant twice the size is 
