190 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Marci 6, 1891. 
Where no propagating house exists other practices must be resorted to, 
such as placing handlights over hot-water pipes, or on stages in various 
structures where the advantage of bottom heat may be obtained. The 
time-honoured manure bed when covered with a frame is also of 
immense service for propagating plants from warm structures. If a 
bed is made up at the present time of manure and leaves well mixed, 
to prevent a too violent heat, the surface being covered with 3 or 4 
inches of cocoa-nut fibre or sawdust to plunge the pots in, but little 
difficulty will be experienced in rooting many plants which under 
other conditions would fail. This we find one of the best methods of 
propagating Verbenas, Ageratums, Deutzias, and Lobelias, the cuttings 
being dibbled into boxes which are stood upon the surface ; but in any 
instances where pots are used they are plunged to within 1 inch of the 
rim. Carnations strike wonderfully well in such positions, and the 
short sturdy side growths, which can be pulled from the plants with a 
little hard woody substance at the base, make much the best plants. 
Heliotropes and Iresines strike much the best when they are placed in 
a close propagating house or dung bed, where there is a fair amount of 
bottom heat; but they succeed fairly well when placed over the hot- 
water pipes in vineries or in Cucumber houses without any other glass 
covering. Alternantheras, when inserted in shallow boxes, succeed 
admiraWy under similar conditions, and as the varieties of these 
beautiful plants are in many places in great demand it is fortunate 
they are so easily propagated. Mesembryanthemum cordifolium 
variegatum roots with certainty when exposed on shelves to full 
sunshine ; when shaded in the way that is beneficial to the majority of 
cuttings these succulent plants damp badly. 
Leucophyton Browni is sometimes spoken of as a difficult plant to 
propagate. It should always be kept in a cold pit. Cuttings dibbled 
closely into boxes in September or October will by the spring time be 
well rooted. Where large numbers of Fuchsias are required they can 
readily be propagated without the aid of handlights, if placed in vineries 
before the shade from the Vines is dense, or in close pits. Sometimes 
it is necessary to strike cuttings of Tuberous Begonias. These can be 
placed under handlights, bellglasses, or in a dung frame. Coleuses will 
root with certainty if placed in either pots or boxes, and stood on the 
hot-water pipes in Cucumber or Melon houses. They flag a little at 
first, but in a few days recover, and root without the loss of a leaf. 
Many gardeners are careful to place these cuttings under handlights, 
and it may be of advantage to many to know they may be rooted easily 
without such aids. Of bedding Pelargoniums it generally happens that 
numbers of spring-struck plants are required, especially of such varieties 
as Mrs. Pollock, and, indeed, this kind can be rooted with greater cer¬ 
tainty in the spring months than from cuttings taken from flower beds 
in summertime, provided the plants are in a structure where there is a 
fair amount of artificial heat. In many instances during February and 
March the plants are in vineries that have already been started, and the 
moderate amount of fire heat given from the time the Vin^s have broken 
till they come into flower is just enough to bring the young shoots into 
proper condition for striking freely when inserted in shallow boxes in 
sandy soil. These we place in any suitable portion of the house, so 
long as there is but little foliage on the Vines ; but when the foliage is 
fully developed the boxes are placed near the front of the house or on 
shelves, otherwise the cuttings become drawn before they are thoroughly 
rooted. When well rooted they may be placed in 3-inch pots, the 
point of the shoot being removed a week later, and the plants allowed 
to remain in heat till the young shoots are growing freely, when they 
may be transferred to cold pits to harden. Treated in this way spring 
struck plants may be grown, which at bedding out time are but little 
inferior to those rooted in the ordinary way during the previous August 
and September. 
Gardenia tops, taken at the present time and inserted in soil con- 
siiting of loam and peat in equal parts, with the usual addition of sand, 
if kept close in strong heat, will strike as easily as Pelargoniums or 
Fuchsias, and grow into good-sized plants for flowering next season. 
Suckers of Pandanus Veitchi, inserted in thumb pots, and placed on the 
hot-water pipes in Cucumber houses or Pine stoves, quickly become 
well rooted, and when well established they grow into useful sized 
plants rapidly if kept in such positions, a comparatively dry heat being 
just what they require to bring out their colour. Many other kinds of 
stove plants will now require to be propagated ; but I will not touch 
upon the various methods of doing so, as they have been so well de¬ 
scribed in recent articles in the Journal. But before concluding I will 
point out the importance of preparing plants for propagation by placing 
them for ten days or a fortnight before the cuttings are wanted into a 
structure where they receive a temperature similar to that it is intended 
to root them in, as a large number of failures may be traced to the 
erroneous practice of taking cuttings from a cool structure and trying 
to propagate them in one where the temperature ranges from 10° to 20° 
higher.—H. Dunkin. 
NOTES ON SOME NEW OR RARE HERBACEOUS AND 
ALPINE PLANTS. 
As my garden is a small one and my taste in matters horticultural 
somewhat omnivorous I am compelled to conflne myself in most things 
that I grow to selections rather than grow collections. So while a 
Daffodilian will have his grand collection of some 200 kinds, I am 
content with my fifty or less, and while an “Alpine man ” will plant 
his twenty roots of Gentiana verna I am obliged to be content with two 
or three. This has some advantages. I am obliged to be particular as 
to what I do grow, and must endeavour to select the best of each class. 
It is easy, for example, to fill a rockery with a few very common things, 
to do the same with your herbaceous borders ; but many of them, though 
fadly called the “ dear old garden flowers,” are not worth their salt, 
and are even so rampant in growth that they choke out other things. 
A thing is not necessarily good because it is old fashioned, nor a plant 
to be despised because it is a novelty ; for while the revived taste for 
hardy plants has no doubt brought back into notice many an old 
garden favourite which had been undeservedly cast aside, it has also 
brought back some which might very well have been left to the obscurity 
into which they had fallen. The plants named in the following notes 
are some which I think are not as well known as they ought to be, and 
are deserving, I believe, of a place in my garden. 
Aubrietia grceca Ingrami. —A plant of this was given me some 
years ago by that most excellent gardener, Mr. Ingram of Belvoir 
Castle, whose spring gardening has given such a charm to the grounds 
of that fine residence. It is somewhat in the way of A. g. superb^a, with 
large, light purplish flowers. It grows very freely, and in spring is one 
sheet of the most brilliant light purplish blooms. No weather seems to 
affect it, and although the clump has to be cut back every year it still 
spreads. 
Aubrietia LeiclitUni. — A remarkable plant obtained by Mr. Max 
Leichtlin. It is a very decided rose coloured flower, having a tinge of 
carmine in it, and it may be possible that this very decided break from 
the colour of the older varieties may possibly lead to deeper colours- 
still ; it is quite as vigorous as the older kinds, and forms a pleasing 
addition to the early spring flowers we already possess. 
Arnebia echioides. —This is a very curious flower, sometimes called 
the -Prophet’s Flower, from the legend that Mohamed placed his fingers 
on it and made the spots on the petals, which are visible when the 
flower opens, but fade away in a day or two. It is a robust growing 
plant ; the colour is a soft primrose yellow, and it does not seem in the- 
least to care about either soil or situation, growing almost anywhere. 
When a good group can be made of it, it is very effective and showy. 
Cistus algarvensis. —A very beautiful Kock Rose, bat I am not quite 
sure of its hardiness. I had a good plant of it, but it has perished. 
Perhaps it may have been from bad management; but I have heard 
from others that some of these Cistuses are not quite hardy. It has 
very soft delicate yellow flowers, abundantly produced, with small black 
spots, and with soft pretty foliage. 
Clematis coccinea. —It is rather a stretch of imagination to call this 
coccinea. The flowers are no doubt red, but not such a red as is indicated 
by coccinea. The growth is not like that of its congeners, and it may be 
best described as a hardy herbaceous climber. From what I hear I 
fancy there are varieties of it some brighter than others. 
Coreopsis grandiflora. —There seems to be some confusion about this 
herbaceous species of a family mainly known by its beautiful annual 
varieties. The more ordinary name by which it is designated in the 
catalogues is lanceolata, and I am assured that the variety so designated 
in some catalogues is really grandiflora. In the “ Dictionary of Garden¬ 
ing ” both are given, but I do not find that both are given in many 
catalogues. It is a very showy perennial, blooming all through the 
summer and autumn, and giving a large quantity of flowers very 
suitable for cutting. 
Cgpripedium spectabile. —A very beautiful, perfectly hardy, and free 
growing terrestrial Orchid from the swampy regions of North America 
and while it is a fact that it is very difficult, nay, almost impossible, to 
get some of our British Orchids to succeed under cultivation—that is, in 
the open ground, this very beautiful species succeeds with very little 
trouble. It rejoices in the swamps of the North American Continent,, 
and must therefore be planted in a cool and moist situation, but not 
shaded, as in its native habitat it is exposed to the full glare of the sun. 
It is difficult in my garden to find such a place, but I have one small 
pot; and though a clump of it has flourished for some years, throwing 
up ten or a dozen flowering shoots, and sometimes with two blossoms on 
a stem. I found, however, that the hot dry summer of 1888 tried it very 
much, impairing, I imagine, the vigour of the bulbs, and it is now only 
recovering from the drought of that year. 
Eremurus robustus. — This belongs to a somewhat limited genus, 
which has only been introduced into cultivation within the last ten or 
fifteen years. They are mostly natives of Turkestan, and seem to be 
perfectly hardy. Being plants of exceeding great beauty and stately 
in growth there is little doubt that they will be readily welcomed when 
they become plentiful; they are, however, of slow growth, and do not 
flower until the plants are four or five years old. This variety growa 
to a height of 7 or 8 feet. The soil best suited for them seems to be a 
friable sandy loam with some mixture of decayed cow manure. My 
friend Mr. Grant grew them well at Hope End near Ledbury, and has 
described his treatment of them in a contemporary, where he states 
that they flourished admirably with him, and were in the finest possible 
condition when he was obliged to give up his garden. E, robustus is 
the most vigorous, and probably the easiest to cultivate of the whole 
group. The roots are fleshy and spread out widely, and in planting care 
should be taken that they are not injured. The colour of the flowers is 
a beautiful peach shaded with lilac, and the form of the spike reminds 
one of a giant Asphodel. 
Eremurns Olgce is one of the dwarfest of the genus, but one of the 
most beautiful. It forms a dense spike of pinkish lilac flowers closely 
set together, and as large as a five-shilling piece. It is somewhat late 
in flowering, and a spike of it exhibited a couple of years ago by Mr. 
Ware at one of the Aquarium Shows in September was greatly admired. 
