282 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 28, 1893. 
cumbsrers of the ground and robbers of the soil into valuable and 
fruitful occupants of the garden. F. 
There is a fruit arch at Buchan Hill about which a few words 
ought to be said. It is 17 feet high, 15 feet wide, and upwards of 
300 feet long. The well known arch at the Lowfield nursery is a 
babe beside this giant. It is planted with cordons on both sides, and 
\*nust present a magnificent sight when the trees are in full blossom. 
It is not less remarkable now, for many of the trees have met in the 
•centre of the arch overhead, and are a rope—I had almost said a 
•rainbow—of fruit. The trees on one side were lifted last year, and 
next season probably the other side will be similarly treated. 
Amongst the Pears Nouveau Poiteau, Marie Louise, Duchesse 
d’Angouleme, Pitmaston Duchess, Brockworth Park, Doyenne 
Boussocb, Beurre Diel, Beurre Hardy, Souvenir du Congres, and 
Louise Bonne of Jersey are doing well ; amongst the Plums Green 
Gage, Magnum Bonum, Peach, Jefferson, Diamond, and Victoria ; 
^amongst the Apples Alexander, Blenheim Orange, Lady Henniker, 
Cellini, Lord Suffidd, King of the Pippins, Cox’s Orange Pippin, 
Worcester Pearmain, Peasgood’s Nonesuch, Loddington, and Lord 
Derby. 
This wonderful arch has been established ten years, and it is a 
revelation to see what magnificent results are yielded by the cordon 
system when the trees have scope for free main extension, are well 
fed, and have their roots kept in good order. Every fruit grower in 
'the kingdom would delight in seeing it, and indeed the whole 
•garden. The kitchen garden is full of splendid pyramids, and the 
walls are packed on both sides with fruitful trees. All over the 
iplace, amongst the vegetable quarters, the fruit trees, and in the 
.plant houses, the rule is heavy cropping and perfect cleanliness, 
'llie soil is systematically stored with nutriment, weeds are kept down 
and insects prevented, and the result is such full crops of splendid 
produce as are rarely seen. I am told that Mr. Martin is a 
tremendous worker, in the garden early and late. My own eyes 
‘have told me that he is a fine cultivator. This young practitioner is a 
credit to his craft, and one whom time will distinguish, unless I 
am much mistaken, as one of the leading gardeners of his 
time. His future, at all events, lies in his own hands. His work 
is a worthy tribute from one of the younger generation to the sound 
teaching of the old, and a proof that some at least of the rising 
-school are prompted by high principles and energetic perseverance. 
—W. P. W. 
HARDY FLOWER NOTES. 
Though days grow short and cool, and falling leaves from 
drees and hedgerows bespeak the coming of the wintry days, when 
the wind shall whistle eerily through the leafless boughs, and the 
flowers which bedeck the garden be few and far between, as yet 
there is no want of brightness. The Sunflowers still glow ; the 
stately Gladiolus still uprears its beautiful spike among the border 
flowers ; the Pyrethrum has endeavoured, though faintly, to 
assume the beauty its flowers display in June; the Michaelmas 
Daisies have been most beautiful, with that soft beauty which 
renders these flowers so much in harmony with the sadder skies of 
•these autumn days ; some of the Campanulas still display on border 
or in the rock garden their spikes or sheets of cup or bell-like 
form; the autumn - flowedng Chrysanthemums, which here are 
treated practically as hardy herbaceous plants, adorn the borders 
with their brilliant blooms of various sizes ; late-flowering Poppies, 
such as the charming scarlet and black Papaver umbrosum, are 
bright and attractive still, and many others lend gaiety to the 
garden. 
The Meadow Saffrons have well nigh passed away, leaving 
joyful memories of the cups of the single or the ribbon-like petals 
of the double forms. No prettier flower of its kind exists than 
the double white variety of C. autumnale. Scarce it still is, but is 
worthy of a place in the garden of the choicest of hardy flowers. 
Their rivals, too, in the affection of the lover of bulbous plants— 
the Crocuses—have come or are coming rapidly into flower. They 
are doubly welcome prophet?, so to speak, as they are of the spring 
when the Crocus is fully aglow with beauty, and in themselves 
choice as little gems which sparkle in the fainter sunlight of 
cloudier autumn. No one can see a clump of C. speciosus ex¬ 
panded in the sun with its blue-purple flowers so deeply feathered 
without feeling delighted at the sight. Very fine, too, has been a 
clump of C. pulchellus which has come to me from the Bithynian 
Olympus. When they bloomed before it was on Asiatic soil, and 
now in this mild corner of Scotland they are blooming again, and 
one would hope may do so many years. Variable are these collected 
bulbs, some flowers being darker in colour inside, some with sharper 
petals, and others with deeper coloured feathering ; but all are 
beautiful with their exquisite tint of blue, and when open showing 
the white anthers, which are a distinct feature of this Crocus, so 
worthy of the specific term “pulchellus”—beautiful. A charm¬ 
ing companion to this native of the neighbourhood of the Bos¬ 
phorus and the adjoining countries is the white C. hadriaticus, in 
flower here at the same time. This beautiful little Crocus from 
the Ionian Islands and Albania is quite hardy here, and its little 
white flowers are most delightful either when open, displaying its 
lemon-coloured anthers and scarlet stigmas, or when closed in in 
cone-like form. Other Crocuses are also in flower, but must be 
referred to again. 
Very attractive for a long period, either on the rockeries or 
forming part of rockwork edgings to other borders, has been 
Linaria anticaria, a little alpine Toadflax which I have had in my 
garden for a number of years. Unfortunately, like many other 
Linarias, it cannot be said to be perfectly hardy, although for some 
years, when I first grew it, it survived our winters. Further ex¬ 
perience leads me to the conclusion that it is not to be depended 
upon ; but it seeds so freely here, and sows itself so readily, that 
my first sowing years ago has given me a constant stock of plants. 
One of the charms of this little Toadflax is its variable character 
from seed. We do not admire inconstancy in people, but what is 
a failing in them becomes with some flowers an additional attrac¬ 
tion, and this Linaria, like the allied Snapdragon, varies much in 
colour. The plant forms a neat tuft of grey foliage, with little 
spikes of flowers well raised above the plant. These are very 
beautiful, varying much in colour and in shade, some having a 
white ground with a yellow lip, and spurs faintly lined with grey, 
and others of various shades of cream and of purple. L. anticaria 
is more easily retained in my garden than L. alpina, which I have 
had much greater difficulty in establishing. 
One of the prettiest in its way of the dwarf Campanulas still 
in flower has been C. soldanellseflora fl.-pl., an attractive little 
flower, now I understand ranked among the forms of C. rotundi- 
folia. The flowers are blue and semi-double, the latter feature not 
being apparent unless on rockwork above the level of the eye or until 
the pendant flower is lifted to examine the interior of the bell. 
This pretty Bellflower should grow to about 1 foot in height; but 
as I prefer to keep it dwarf it is grown in a sunny position in very 
dry soil, where it does not grow more than 9 inches in height. 
Seed of C. soldanellseflora may be obtained, but only a proportion 
can be depended upon to come true, some seedlings showing 
flowers almost identical with those of C. rotundifolia, and others 
having a number of narrow petals loose to the base. 
A valuable plant all through the summer has been Polygonum 
sphgercstachyum, the Round-spiked Knotweed, which has been 
much admired by all visitors to my garden who can appreciate 
hardy flowers (alas ! that such a saving clause is necessary), with 
its spikes of blood-red flowers on stems growing here to about 
18 inches in height. The spikes are about inch in length, and 
the brilliance of the flowers renders this perhaps the most attractive 
of the dwarf Knotweeds. It is growing in my garden in a low 
spot at the ba^e of a rockery in free peaty soil, and having, what is 
necessary for this plant, a copious supply of water. Without this 
it suffers much ; its allied species P. affine or brunonis being less 
particular in this respect, although the best plants I have ever seen 
had a plentiful supply. P. sphmrostacbyum is a native of the 
Himalayas, and although I have previously called attention to it 
this further note is hardly uncalled for, as so pleasing a plant 
cannot fail to give satisfaction to the grower. It is quite hardy in 
this neighbourhood. 
Although I have not flowered it, nor have I even a plant at 
present, I may be pardoned for speaking briefly of a flower which 
on its introduction we heard a great deal of, but regarding which 
there is now an almost ominous silence in horticultural literature. 
This is Ostrowskia magnifica, introduced from Central Asia in 1887, 
and named in honour of Ostrowski, the Russian botanist. Those 
who have not seen an engraving of this plant will find one in the 
Journal of Horticulture, \o\. xvii., 1888, p 53. There were great 
expectations regarding this Bellwort, but very few have been 
successful in its cultivation, and it is as much in the hope of 
receiving as of giving information that this note is penned. I have 
made several inquiries of hardy plant growers who have had this 
plant, and nearly all have, like the writer, lost their plants through 
causes variously reported as “severe winters,” “slugs,” or more 
frequently what may be called “sheer inanition,” or “ a premature 
and unwelcome death.” A valuable horticultural work gives 
