186 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ August 26, 1886, 
Carduus tuberosus is a very pretty perennial which requires a moist 
position to grow io, and will well repay for a little care in cultivation. 
Geranium pratense is sometimes found under cultivation. It is 
very striking when seen in a mass from a distance, and likes a moist 
position. 
Malva moschata is sometimes offered for sale, and is worthy of a place 
in any herbaceous border. 
Epilobium angustifolium is occasionally found in gardens, and requires 
a position where it will not be disturbed and not overrun other plants. 
A good mass of it with a background of shrubs is very effective. There 
is also a white variety. It is perennial, and easily increased by 
division. 
Jasione montana, a plant averaging about 9 inches high. Its flowers 
are in small heads of a lavender colour, and are distinct and pretty. It 
is in most instances a biennial. 
Lythrum Salicaria is one of the prettiest flowers that are natives of 
this oountry—a perennial, and naturally found growing near water. It is 
well worthy of a little extra care to get it in perfection ; its long spikes 
of deep rose- coloured flowers are very effective. 
Verbascum Blattaria is sometimes found under cultivation, and is 
worthy of a place in every collection of herbaceous plants, however select 
it may be. Whether it is an indigenous plant is disputed. I have found it 
in a position which is much in favour of that opinion. It should be 
raised from seed. 
Vicia Cracca, a climbing plant about 2 feet to 4 feet high. It has very 
pretty flowers of a telling shade of purple, and produces them very 
freely. 
Menyanthes trifoliata.—A bog plant, exceedingly delicate when in 
flower, and well worth cultivating where a suitable place can be found. 
It seeds very freely, but I have not succeeded in germinating the seed, 
although its natural habitat was imitated. Doubtless roots would soon 
establish themBelves. 
Valeriana officinalis.—This is occasionally found in gardens. It 
naturally grows in moist positions, but does not appear to be impartial to 
dry places. It grows about 3 feet high, and has very sweet-scented 
white flowers. 
Anagallis tenella (the Bog Pimpernel).—Very small, but very dis¬ 
tinct and pretty. Requires a moist situation. 
Eriopborum polystachyum.—Very abundant in some parts of the 
kingdom, but quite unknown in most places. It is useful for mixing with 
dry flowers, its silky tasselled seeds giving it the name of Cotton Sedge. 
It is doubtful if this would thrive Unless in a bog either natural or 
artificial. 
Most of the rarer kinds of native Orchids are worthy of careful culti¬ 
vation. O. conopsea is the sweetest scented British plant I am acquainted 
with, and is not excelled by many of the cultivated hardy plants. It 
grows wild in a moist situation. A considerable number of this class, and 
possibly all except the parasitic ones, may be successfully removed when 
in flower. This is a great advantage, as they are comparatively insig¬ 
nificant at other times. We have growing here a specimen of the Bee 
Orchis (Ophrys apifera), which was dug up in flower in Germany, and 
brought home several years since.—W. H. Diveks, Ketton Hall. 
A correspondent informs us that the Duke of Buccleuch 
Grapes at Drumlanrig are finer than ever this year, or were a short 
time ago, for we learn the finest were sent to Holyrood for the Queen, and 
Her Majesty was astonished by their size and beauty. Perhaps Mr. David 
Thomson will wonder how this information has reached us ; we think, 
however, it is accurate, and we congratulate him on h'S continued 
success. 
- We owe an apology to the Rev. J. A. Williams of Alderminster 
for not more promptly acknowledging the receipt of the finest truss of 
Perle DES Jardins Rose that has ever brightened our sanctum. Mr. 
Williams, who had taken two good blooms from the truss, observes, “ This 
Rose too often opens in a confused state, but I think you will say that not 
one of the five more or less expanded blooms is ‘ confused.’ ” We say 
that every bloom was smooth, solid, and symmetrical. Mr. Williams 
describes this Rose as “an exceedingly healthy and vigorous grower, and 
as a garden Tea Rose hardly to be surpassed.” Each flower was borne on 
a peduncle so stout that the blooms were as upright as if wired or arranged 
in a first-prize stand at a show. 
- Mr. Cuthbert Johnson sends us from Daventry an abnormal 
Potato Plant with the crop growing on the stems, the tubers, which 
are of medium size, proceeding from the axils of the leaves. This 
curious method of growth is occasionally seen, but is by no means 
common. 
- The third Exhibition of the Huddersfield Chrysanthemum 
Society will be held on November 12th and 13 th. It is satisfactory to 
observe from the report that the Society is in a sound financial condition 
and is supported by a large number of subscribers. Very good prizes are 
offered in the schedule, the chief of these being £10, £7, and £4 respec¬ 
tively in the open class for forty-eight blooms in not less than thirty-six 
varieties, and £5, £3, and £2 for twenty-four varieties. A timepiece, 
value £5, is offered for a group of plants in the local class, and £5, £3, 
and £2 for twenty-four blooms in not less than eighteen varieties. Prizes 
are offered for other autumn decorative plants besides Chrysanthemums, 
also for fruit. Mr. John Bell, Luck Lane, Marsh, Huddersfield is the 
Hon. Secretary. 
- Potatoes in Ireland. —Mr. J. H. Tuke has published his 
report of the distribution in Achill and the West of Ireland of the Seed 
Potato Fund during the spring of the present year, which amounted to 
£5205. The total number of families supplied with seed exceeded 6000, 
representing a population of 30,000 or 40,000 persons, and the most 
gratifying accounts have been received of the successful growth and 
prospects of the crops for the various parishes assisted. In this portion 
of Ireland, says Mr. Tuke, the evils which affect the people can alone be 
removed, if at all, by economic measures, and not by political changes, 
however wide their scope. 
- The collection of Hollyhocks at Forest Hill, for which 
Messrs. J. Laing & Co. have long been noted, comprises some excellent 
named varieties, chiefly seedlings, showy in habit, with large well formed 
flowers of clear and bright colours. Some of the best of these are the 
following, which are selected from a hundred or more : —Alexander Kerr, 
white shaded rose ; Alba superba, pure white; J. M. Lindsay, cherry red ; 
Lord Jerviswood, white, suffused with rose ; Lord Middleton, rosy peach ; 
Hon. B. Hamilton, pale blush ; John Bell, deep rose; Mrs. Laing, rosy 
lilac; Mrs. Boston, rosy peach ; Memnon Improved, light red ; Miss 
Dawson, pink ; Nellie Grieve, purple ; Purple Prince, dark purple ; Rev. 
D. Paul, yellow, dark base; Rev. Jjis. Robinson, pale orange; Tecoma, 
satiny rose ; Primrose Model, primrose ; Invincible, rosy salmon. 
-The Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union Fungus Foray will take 
place on Thursday, September 30th. On the following day there will be 
an exhibition of the specimens in the Leeds Museum, kindly lent for the 
purpose ; and in the evening the usual dinner. Several distinguished 
mycologists have promised to be present, and no effort is being spared on 
the part of the officials to make it a success. 
- The Guildford Chrysanthemum Society will hold their 
annual exhibition in the Large Hall, Guildford, on Wednesday and 
Thursday, November 10th and 11th, this year. Prizes, chiefly of moderate 
amount, are offered in twenty-nine classes for Chrysanthemum plants and 
blooms, fruit and vegetables. The Secretary is Mr. A. Walker, The 
Beeches, Guildford. 
- W. R. Raillem sends the following note on Rose Her 
Majesty :—“ There has been a good deal of mystery about this Rose ever 
since it first gained the gold medal at Kensington, but we have certainly 
been given to understand that it is H.P., or at least H.T. I think it was 
advertised as H P. May I ask those who have purchased plants of it 
last spring whether they do not rather think it to be H.C. P It is 
rumoured so to be, and it certainly looks uncommonly like it. My plant 
grew quite 4 feet high, with stems as thick as my finger, and thorns of 
extraordinary stoutness, but showed no sign or promise of bloom. I have 
headed it back in order to breed from it, but if it be H.C. only I fear 
that we shall get no blooms from yearling plants. P.S.—If I had known 
that ‘Horace Vernet’ himself was going to write on the subject of 
‘ Small Rose Growers,’ I would have held my tongue. If I am not mis¬ 
taken, his modesty (he is catalogued, I think, as a ‘ shy ’ bloomer) alone 
orevented him from making his letter, good as it is, absolutely decisiv 
on the point in question.” 
- Mr. W. Eastwood, Muncaster Hall, Ramford, St. He’ens 
writes :—“ The Variegated Trop^iolum at Aberaman Park that 
Mr. Smith referred to in the Journal of Horticulture, August 12tb, 1886, 
was a sport cut from the green variety grown up the rafters in the green¬ 
house at Moorfield House, Withington, near Manchester, in 1872. Some 
half-dozen plants were propagated and grown in 6-inch pots, kept colour 
in foliase and flower as Mr. Smith states. In 1875 I went as foreman in 
