Anpnst 10, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
117 
hitherto the best early Nectarine, and till Early Kivers can be had 
in quantity should be planted the most freely. I have never 
obtained more than 9s. per dozen for Lord Napier, the prices 
gradually coming down 4s. per dozen for fairly good samples. I 
do not advise market growers to plant the richly flavoured Pine¬ 
apple and Pitmaston Orange, but they may grow Stanwick Elruge 
to succeed Lord Napier, this being an easily grown, heavy-crop¬ 
ping, highly coloured variety. Hardwicke is also large and free- 
bearing and colours well, being better for market purposes than 
the much better known Elruge from which it was raised. If a late 
variety is desired plant Victoria. The variety is a great cropper, 
rendering free thinning necessary, and the fruits must be well 
exposed to increase their size and develop the best colour.— 
Market Grower. 
(To be continued.) 
HARDY FLOWER NOTES. 
In a season such as this has been, we feel inclined to withdraw 
the unkindly expressions which, openly and mentally, we have 
applied to our British climate. The brief period of drought we 
have had here (near Dumfries), and which has left its mark in 
slight degree, has been broken, and welcome rain bas given 
refreshment to gardens and gardeners alike. As we wander into 
the garden to work among its inmates or to study afresh the 
beauty of their forms and hues, they seem to stand “ smiling by ” 
with a blithe welcome for their admiring owner, who has in these 
bright blooms a reward for much forethought and care. The 
matchless Rose, the wax-like Lily (which will perhaps forgive the 
comparison of the texture of its petals to the work of the bee) ; 
and many others, stately and lowly, join in this welcome, and 
he is indeed callous whose heart does not respond with joy to their 
greeting. 
These flowers of summer are so numerous and so beautiful that 
selection is always invidious and generally unsatisfactory; but 
the many Meadow Sweets or Spirasas, some past and some at the 
time of writing still in flower, by their feathery beauty have 
pressing claims for notice, as they rise above other border plants, 
or form neat tufts covered with their graceful flowers. Among 
these Meadow Sweets or Dropworts there is none more graceful 
that the noble Spir^a Aruncus, the Goat’s Beard, with its fine 
panicle of plume-like flowers. Even more graceful, and in some 
positions more desirable on account of its dwarfer habit, is 
S. astilboides, the Astilbe-like Meadow Sweet, a native of Japan, 
which is rapidly becoming popular both for border and forcing 
purposes. A newer variety, known as S. astilboides floribunda, I 
have not met with, but if superior to the type it will certainly be 
an invaluable plant. I have at present in the room in which I 
write a plant of the typical species in full flower which was lifted 
and potted, not being forced in any way. The only fault it possesses 
for the house is that its fragrance is towards evening rather over¬ 
powering. There is a great wealth of material among the Meadow 
Sweets, and they are worthy of more extended cultivation in their 
various forms, herbaceous and shrubby, and in their various 
colours ; although, personally, I prefer the white and creamy shades 
to the pink or red colours of some. 
The various Thistle-like plants of our gardens are always 
appreciated by all who see them. The Eryngiums, with their 
steel-blue or ivory heads and stems, are justly becoming increasingly 
popular, and this favour is also being extended to the various 
Echinops or Globe Thistles. A fine plant of E. commutatus, 
the Changeable Globe Thistle, has attracted much attention here. 
Tusser tell us that— 
“ If Thistles so growing prove lusty and long, 
It signifieth land to be hearty and strong.” 
If we are to take that old writer to be an infallible authority 
my garden must be of soil “ hearty and strong.” The contrary is, 
however, the case, and I have little doubt that the height of 7 feet 
which E. commutatus has attained here is due to the plant being 
a seedling and thus full of vigour. The Changeable Globe Thistle 
is a native of Austria and other parts of Europe, and was introduced 
in 1817. It is classed as a perennial, but many of the Echinops in 
our gardens are either not true perennials or are short-lived, and it 
is well to have a young plant in store to replace a lost one. Very 
stately is, as may be supposed, this fine plant, with its spiny 
pinnatifid leaves, rough above and downy beneath, and its round, 
whitish balls of flower. 
In sharp contrast to the stateliness and rugged beauty of the 
Echinops is the grace and elegance of the Feather Grass (Stipa 
pennata), which has for a time been in full beauty. Here is no 
glittering beauty, no Paeony-like bloom of striking colour, no 
massive grandeur, but instead a plant of tenderest grace. Little 
wonder was it that in olden times, as Gerard tells us, ladies wore 
the plumes of this Grass as feathers, and, if we no longer see it 
thus in use, its elegance commends it as a garden plant. Even 
before it flowers the tussock of arching grass is very beautiful, and 
when the blooms appear, and while they last, they are full of 
attraction, moving as they do with the lightest breath of air. When 
winds are fierce they toss and pirouette, when softer gales are 
blowing they float lightly to and fro, and when hardly a breath is 
to be felt they move gently with the slightest current, tbeir 
gossamer-like lightness making them the sport of the lightest 
breathings. We want graceful as well as showy plants in our 
gardens, and these hardy Grasses are not nearly enough grown. 
Not the least pleasant time in the garden is the evening, when 
some flowers seem to shine with a softer and gentler beauty. It 
is true that some have closed their petals, desiring not the cool 
dew, or seeking to screen themselves from the flying moths in 
search of food. It is also true that then the sun no longer shines 
through the petals of the Poppy, giving it the appearance of some 
piece of stained glass taken from some cathedral where the glass 
Stainer’s art is shown in perfection ; but, on the other hand, some 
flowers, such as the Evening Primroses, which look dowdy in the 
sunlight, come into beauty as the shades of evening creep along. 
Then it is that the white or golden cups of the Glnotheras seem 
beautiful. As Bernard Barton says— 
“ I love at such an hour to mark 
Tbeir beauty greet the night breeze chill.” 
And such flowers as these may give much delight to those whom 
business calls from home by day, and whose evenings in the garden 
might be made more enjoyable by the beauty of the delightful 
Oil. marginata, with its white cups ; of the pretty (E. taraxacifolia, 
with its Dandelion-like leaves and white flowers changing to 
crimson ; or even by the more common QE. biennis, no mean plant, 
with stately habit and soft golden flowers. Those, too, who can 
enjoy their gardens by day need not confine themselves to the 
night-blooming species, but will find in Oil. Youngi and QE. Fraseri 
two plants which will give much pleasure. 
One of the charms of the garden of hardy flowers is its cosmo¬ 
politan character. Here some native plant grows side by side with 
one from the steppes of Siberia ; there a Greek Crocus reposes 
under a carpet of Spanish Stonecrop ; here, again, a plant from 
the Himalayas is cheek by jowl with one from the South American 
Andes. We read much of triple alliances, but the garden would 
almost exhaust the vocabulary to describe the characters and 
multiplicity of its friendly leagues. I fancy, however, that most 
of us must confess that we may have some “ respect of persons ”— 
or plants—in our likings, and that we may have a preference for 
flowers from some particular portion of this globe of ours. I, for 
one, must confess to a desire to possess more of the flowers which, 
in the newer Britain of the Antipodes, for long displayed to the 
Maori the charms of Nature, and now give the colonist some 
compensation for those he left behind. Thus it is that the New 
Zealand Veronicas are specially attractive to me, and glad am I 
that their real beauty only enhances their attractions. Several of 
them are quite hardy on rockwork here, and, although well known, 
yet worthy of repeated notice is Y. Traversi, which in good soil will 
form great bushes of evergreen glossy foliage, clothed in summer 
with countless spikes of pretty white flowers with purple anthers. 
Beautiful as it is thus, the prettiest plant I have ever seen is one 
on the top of a dryish rockery here, where it is somewhat stunted 
in growth, with the effect of increasing the quantity of flowers and 
its neatness of habit. It has been very beautiful, forming a bush 
only 18 inches in height and 2^ feet across, and coming into flower 
before an “ Alpine Rose ” (Rhododendron ferrugineum), which is 
close to it, had passed out of flower. The two formed a pleasing 
picture. Very fine, too, has been V. speciosa, with its beautiful 
glossy leaves and its spikes of purple blue. This is on the top of 
a rockery, but protected by a wall from the north wind—a needful 
precaution for this species, which is not nearly so hardy as 
Travers’s Veronica. Others, such as the curious V. salicornioides, 
V. Colensoi glauca, or V. Lyalli, are grown here, and I hope gradu¬ 
ally to add to my collection of hardy sorts. 'Thus on border or 
rockery does summer yield her floral charms—rich in beauty, 
grandeur, grace, or in tenderest associations, and all things that 
endear them to our hearts.—S. Arnott. 
SCARLET RUNNER BEANS NOT SETTING. 
The failure of Scarlet Runners to produce pods has been 
attracting my notice for some time, and I hove read^ all that your 
correspondents have written on page 106, about which I offer the 
following criticisms. There does not appear to be anything 
abnormal about the form of the flower this year. The double 
coil at the point of the keel is quite usual, so is the sheath, within 
