80 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 28, 1892", 
will be long literally and figuratively in our mouths. How interesting 
would it have been to learn exactly how this Cabbage originated. In 
any case, it seems to have been closely allied to that excellent variety 
Little Pixie, and equally has some apparent connection with the famous 
Hardy Green Colewort, so good and precocious is it. We now universally 
advise its culture for all sorts of seasons, not only because it is so pre¬ 
cocious, but also because so good, and it may be grown so close together, 
not robbing the soil in the same way that gross Cabbages do with but 
FIG. 11.— SABEACENIA FLAVA, 
indifferent returns. Then small Cabbages are always less wasteful, 
sweeter, tenderer, and in every respect more satisfactory than are big 
ones. Therefore we retain Mr. Ellam and his Cabbage green in our 
memories.—A. D. 
- Coldee Seasons and Vegetation. —In reference to the 
recent publication in the Journal of some observations by Mons. Flam- 
marian on this subject, Mr. W. Thomson of Clovenfords writes to a 
northern contemporary as follows—“ From whatever cause this general 
depreciation of the climate of Europe arises, it is a circumstance which 
can scarcely be disputed that, for the time being, the climate, for all 
oultural purposes, is not what it was fifty years ago. Then we had 
exceptionally bad seasons, as, for instance, 1836, and others since then 
not quite so bad. The bad were the exception then, the good are the 
exception now, which makes a very material difference. Cold winters 
are very trying, but they do not inflict the injury on the country that 
cold summers do. While I write, on July 12th, the thermometer is 
standing at 52°, and was as low as 47° at six o’clock this morning. Afr 
the same time, vegetation cannot be said to be hopelessly backward, 
thanks to the rain and very warm weeks we had in June. Turnips and 
Potatoes are not making the progress they should do at this season, in 
consequence of the absence of the steady, genial heat that used to be a 
characteristic of July weather. There can be no doubt that the absence 
of summer warmth is lowering the value of land in Britain, and Europe 
generally. I have it on the authority of some of the most able and 
observant farmers I know that, with increased agricultural skill, greatly 
improved implements, and an enormous increase in the application of 
artificial manures, not to speak of foreign feeding stuffs, they cannot on 
the same farm produce anything like the crops they did forty years ago, 
or keep the same stocks of sheep and cattle. If this deterioration of 
the climate is taking place, which seems evide nt, it is specially a serious 
matter for Scotland, where the margin of heat that can be spared is a 
small one.” 
SARRACENIAS. 
(Concluded from page 57.) 
In 1881 Dr. Masters published in the Gardeners' Chronicle an 
excellent monograph of Sarracenias, which included all the kinds 
of garden origin in addition to the species and varieties known at 
that time. Writing of S. flava, he stated that as well as being the 
tallest species in cultivation it is also the most variable, some of the- 
so-called varieties being so widely different from the type that it is 
questionable if they ought not to rank as distinct species. In the 
accompanying figures we have represented the typical S. flava and 
an extreme variety called maxima, which support this view. 
S. flava (fig. 11) has pitchers about 3 feet in length, narrow all 
the way up, with a half-opened lid, and coloured bright green, 
tinged when mature with yellow about the mouth. When weakened 
by improper treatment its pitchers are not developed, but are all 
“ wing,” not unlike the blade of a knife. The plant obtains its- 
name from the colour of its flowers, which are bright yellow. The 
disc-like stigma is 2 inches across. S. flava is not included among 
the best as a Pitcher Plant, but it is well worth a place in any 
greenhouse collection on account of its handsome, freely produced 
flowers. 
The variety maxima (fig. 12) is of garden origin, or at any 
rate it is only known from cultivated specimens. It is almost as 
fine as the variety ornatus, the pitchers being wide-mouthed with a 
large lid and coloured bright green, tinged about the mouth with 
yellow and slightly veined with crimson. The other good varieties 
of S. flava are picta, with very large wide-mouthed pitchers, greenish 
yellow, richly veined with purple ; ornata, whose enormous canary 
yellowflowers are as beautiful asEmperor Daffodils, and of which the 
handsome pitchers are unsurpassed ; erythropus, limbata, crispata, 
and atrosaDguinea. There is a variety, found by the collector 
Drummond in New Orleans, which has long pitchers “ stained with 
purple for nearly their whole length.” I have never seen this 
plant, but from the description it is well worth the attention of 
collectors. 
The allied genus Darlingtonia, a native of California, is similar 
to the Sarracenias in its habit of producing pitcher-like leaves, and 
it requires the same kind of treatment, plus a warmer position in 
the greenhouse, at all times. I am told that the finest examples, 
with pitchers 3 feet high, were grown in a moist shaded warm 
greenhouse. There is only one species — viz., D. californica. 
Several attempts have been made to cross this with the Sarracenias, 
and one, I have recently learnt, has been crowned with success. A 
plant combining the highly remarkable characters of these two 
genera cannot but be of the highest interest to botanists as well as 
horticulturists. Darlingtonia produces seeds freely under culti¬ 
vation, and it is also easily multiplied by means of offsets. Its 
flowers are not ornamental, but the pitchers of well managed 
plants are decidedly so, both in variegation and in form, the latter 
being not unlike the raised head of a cobra about to strike, a 
similarity which has led to its being called the Cobra Plant. 
The only other ally of Sarracenia is Heliamphora nutans, a 
native of the Roraima Mountain in British Guiana, where it was 
first discovered by the late Sir R. Schomburgk, and whence it was 
introduced a few years ago by Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons. Last 
year also some imported plants were sold by Messrs. Protheroe and 
Morris, I believe for Messrs. Charlesworth, Shuttleworth & Co. 
Some of the latter have been established in several London 
nurseries, and we may therefore hope eventually to see the 
