250 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ ftp'.ember 18, 1890. 
be grown for cutting ; its colours, producing beautiful shades of 
blue, are very uncommon and greatly needed. The best results are 
obtained from seed sown in the autumn, and being strong freely 
branching plants they should have plenty of room, 3 feet by 2 feet 
not being too much if grown on good soil. They will attain the 
height of 4 feet, and continue flowering all the summer. There 
are other colours of this plant—white, red, rose, purple, and striped. 
There are also double varieties, which we do not consider improve¬ 
ments. 
For dressing small and medium-sized stands many hardy annuals 
are useful, but beyond giving the names of a few we have found 
suitable more need not be said about them, as their culture is easy 
and all much the same. The same preparation and the same soil 
that would grow a good crop of Carrots would grow hardy annuals 
to perfection, always provided they are allowed plenty of room. 
There is no cheaper way of filling flower beds, and if grown as 
recommended no more effective way, than by using hardy annuals. 
The too common practice of assigning them to some out-of-the- 
way corner, or to mixed borders where they are smothered by 
stronger plants, has done much in bringing them into disrepute; 
but give them half the attention that is bestowed upon bedding 
Pelargoniums and the result would be far more satisfactory than 
■much of the ordinary bedding. The following hardy annuals will 
be found useful both for bedding and cutting —Ail the varieties 
-of Eschscholtzias, Godetias, Larkspurs, Sweet Sultans, Calliopsis, 
•Candytuft, and Mignonette.—J. H. W. 
AURICULAS IN SCOTLAND. 
The English and Scottish growers are out of harmony in regard 
do the proper time for repotting Auriculas. As stated by English 
growers in the horticultural journals, repotting should be com¬ 
menced immediately after blooming, and should be finished by the 
■end of June. I have never considered the reasons given for this 
as sound, and have never put the recommendation in practice. On 
the other hand, growers in Scotland think from the middle of July 
to the end of August the best time, and some go into September 
without any doubt of the plants doing well. This year all the 
growers with whom I am in correspondence finished by the end of 
August, and I am informed that now the plants are looking well 
and growing vigorously. All agree that this year the increase from 
the newest varieties has been small, but the older kinds have given 
the average number of offsets. In some collections green fly has 
been troublesome on account of the rains preventing the frames 
being fully open so often as could have been wished. The best 
method of clearing a plant of green fly is by drawing the leaf 
between the finger and thumb, and blowing them out of the centre 
with a smart puff. If the plants are frequently looked over green 
fly is easily kept down. Any plant largely infested should be held 
under a gentle run from a water pipe, and then placed in the open 
air till dry. These plans are better and sweeter than fumigating 
with tobacco. There has been in Scotland little or no autumn 
bloom. In my collection Heroine and the Duchess of Oldenburg 
are the only two showing trusses. The Duchess never fails with 
me to bloom in autumn, and some growers inform me that Heather- 
bell is their most persistent autumn bloomer. Some Scottish 
growers have been parting with many of their older varieties to 
make room, as they say, for newer sorts. This may be so, but it 
may also be that they may grow more of what they consider prize- 
takers at shows. Competitors have their own ways of working, 
but the true lovers of Auriculas for their own sakes will still grow 
the old varieties, around which so many tender memories linger, and 
add to them whatever new ones are worthy of being placed beside 
them. In my own collection there are some of the very oldest 
varieties that I would not part with on any consideration, although 
they have faults. 
I would now r like to make a few observations on increasing 
stock by beheading the plants. This is a process of some n city, 
but with a little experience and the exercise of judgment it can be 
•done successfully. I have often done it in former years, but this 
year I have made experiments on a larger number, and am satisfied 
with the results. In no instance has there been a failure. The 
separation of the stem must always be made below fibres. This I 
bold to be a sine qua non in the operation. I know it is often said 
that the head of a plant may be cut off without fibres, and struck 
at the side of a pot under a handglass. This is a tedious and 
unsafe plan, and it is on this account that I never behead a plant 
■except I can cut below fibres. Dress the wound with powdered 
charcoal, and put a pinch or two on the top of the cone of soil when 
potting and there will be no danger. See that the stump is good at 
the extremity ; it not, cut off any decayed part, and dress top and 
bottom with charcoal. If there are eyes below the cut fill the earth 
up to just below them, leaving the top above the soil ; but this 
year I have found that even without an apparent eye shoots will 
come. I proved this in the case of a plant of Mrs. Dodwell, which 
I had to behead in consequence of a drop in the centre causing the 
whole head to rot. There was not the slightest appearance of 
growth of any kind about the stump, but after some days two 
strong eyes appeared on the quarter of an inch left above the 
surface of the soil, and at present they are over an inch long and 
beautifully green. It is well known to all growers that some 
varieties will not increase except by beheading. A notable instance 
of this I have had in Low’s Mazzini. As all the stock of this 
proceeded from one plant, which I got from a friend of the raiser’s, 
I never could get an offset from it until I beheaded it, and every 
year I have done this, and so have been enabled to give my friends 
plants. This year I have two strong shoots from the stem of it. 
Mazzini is not a very refined flower, but it is desirable in a collec¬ 
tion on account of its dark blue colour. From the stump of John 
Simonite I have five offsets, which will be fine separate plants by 
next spring. From Heroine I have seven offsets, from Eliza three, 
from my own King Lear two, from Duke of Argyle one, from 
Lancashire Hero one, and several from others of which without the 
beheading process I would have had no increase. 
In the Journal of 4th instant I notice that “ D., Deal,” a veteran 
grower, asks, “ Has any grower ever noted how long-lived an in¬ 
dividual plant of any variety is ?” I can give him sure informa¬ 
tion in the case of one of my varieties. I have had a plant of 
Gorton’s Stadtholder twelve years. There cannot be a doubt that 
it is the same plant, because till this year it never made an offset, 
and it has been potted year after year a single plant. As the stem 
of the Auricula enlarges upwards, and new roots are sent out as 
the stem grows, a plant may be, in a sense, considered new every 
year. But an interesting point has been raised, and Auricula 
growers should take note of plants when procured, and obtain 
authentic information as to the age of any single individual plant.— 
John Morris, Mains by Dundee. 
Cattleya Empress Frederick. 
At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on July 8th 
this year, Baron Schroder exhibited an exceedingly fine Cattleya, 
under the name C. Mossite Dowiana var. Empress Frederick, and so 
beautiful was it that a first-class certificate was at once accorded by 
the Orchid Committee. Possibly it is the result of a cross between 
a good variety of C. Mossite and C. Dowiana, but in any case it is 
remarkable for the large size of its bold, distinctly coloured, and 
fragrant flowers. The sepals and petals are pure white, the lip 
very broad, rounded, and of an intensely rich deep crimson or 
magenta, very neatly edged with white, and deep golden yellow in 
the centre. The plant shown was dwarf in habit, and had five 
flowers similar to that despicted in fig. 31. 
C. Dowiana now ranks as a variety of C. Mossias, and Messrs. 
Yeitch thus describe its history :— 
“ Originally discovered by Warscewicz in Costa Rica about the 
year 1850. He sent plants to Messrs. Low & Co., at Clapton, but 
arriving in bad condition they eventually died. The dried speci¬ 
mens that accompanied the living plants were sent by Mr. Low to 
Professor Reichenbach, but the parcel containing them failed to 
reach their destination ; hence it happened that for some years 
afterwards doubts were entertained of the existence of so superb 
a Cattleya as that which the letters of the traveller described, and 
in which he expressed a wish that it should be named in compli¬ 
ment to Mrs. Lawrence, of Ealing, at that time one of the most 
liberal patronesses of Orchid culture and Orchid collectors in this 
country, a request of which Mr. Bateman could not have been 
aware when describing it many years later for the “Botanical 
Magazine,” dedicating it by request of Mr. G. Ure Skinner to Capt. 
Dow, of the American Packet Service. It was re-discovered in 
1865 by Mr. Arce, a native naturalist, while engaged in collecting 
natural history objects in Costa Rica for Mr. G. Ure Skinner. He 
sent plants of C Dowiana to Mr. Skinner in England through 
Captain Dow, which were acquired by us, and one of them flowered 
for the first time in our Chelsea establishment in the autumn of 
1865. The habitat of this Cattleya appears to be restricted to a 
small area on the slopes of the great central mountain range facing 
the Pacific Ocean, and where it is said to exist in very limited 
numbers. The variety aurea was discovered by Gustav Wallis, in 
