512 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 28,1894. 
speak briefly of an allied species from Central Asia, but which is 
worthless or nearly so from a gardening point of view. This is 
Primula grandis, and why this specific name was given one can 
hardly imagine, unless it may have been so called on account of its 
stature. Last year I received it from a friend with the observation 
that it was not a showy plant. The leaves are large, and the flowers, 
which are in an umbel, are suspended from long pedicels. The 
flowers are exceedingly small and of no effect, the dull yellow 
petals not opening to any extent, but remaining in a semi-tubular 
form. They are extremely inconspicuous. An authority gives the 
height as 9 inches, but this is clearly a mistake. In my garden in 
a dry position it attains a height of 2^ feet, but in that of my 
esteemed correspondent it grows no less than 3 feet high. P. grandis 
was introduced from Central Asia in 1878. 
I cannot close these notes without referring to a plant of 
great beauty which, in view of the increased attention likely to be 
given to hardy flowering shrubs this year, may not inappropriately 
be mentioned here. This is Olearia Gunniana, known also as 
Eurybia Gunniana, a Tasmanian shrub which is admirably adapted 
for the rockery or some select and sheltered situation. The popular 
name of “Gunn’s Daisy Bush ” is much more applicable than many 
such names, as it resembles nothing so much as a small bush 
smothered with little white Daisies hardly three-quarters of an 
inch in diameter. The toothed and rather lanceolate leaves and 
the branches are greyish in appearance, and even when out of 
flower the “Daisy Bush” is very attractive. It is said to grow 
from 3 to 5 feet in height, but even small plants will flower freely, 
and it can be kept dwarfer by being clipped or pruned. It is 
generally considered to require some protection in winter, but here 
on rockeries with both south and east exposures, but partly 
sheltered from cold winds, this Olearia has proved quite hardy. 
It is easily propagated by means of cuttings. One can only hope 
that the increased rapidity of communication with the Antipodes 
will lead to the introduction of many such charming plants, which 
please us by their beauty, and link us with our kindred beyond the 
seas.—S. Arnott, Dumfries. 
THE NUTBITION OF ROOTS. 
“Naillem” (page 489) may call himself anything he likes, and 
lam sure I shall not mind ; but I do wish that he and Mr. Gilmour, 
in commenting on a letter or series of letters, would see what those 
letters contain and what they do not. The whole gist of my 
communication is misunderstood by “Naillem.” Nay, he knows 
more about what I meant than I do, for he says “ the real question 
is ” something different. All I wanted to know was whether it is 
doubted by a majority of practical and scientific men that the 
rising moisture does bring up plant food. That it is doubted by 
some I know. I did not wish to institute any comparison of value 
between deeply buried and surface manuring, but merely to obtain 
some authority for the fact that buried manure, not penetrated by 
roots, yet feeds those roots by the rising moisture. It is a point 
on which there may be some difference of opinion, and I wished to 
bring it out. May I say now that the well known authority 
“ Naillem ” is in favour of the statement, and sets his valuable seal 
upon it ? 
I do not wonder that he is “ inclined to doubt ” that manure 
is buried 4 feet deep under Dutch bulbs in Holland, and if he will 
look again he will see that I never ventured to suggest it was. 
It seems to me that the value of rising moisture to plant life 
should be evident to every cultivator of the soil during the late 
weather. We have had occasional promises of a sunny day, and on 
each of them have thought “ now is the time to hoe that piece of 
ground where the weeds are beginning to grow so fast.” We have 
done it, and have been pleased at the end of the day ; but have 
felt next morning when we woke to pouring rain that our labour 
and time have been almost thrown away. The surface-rooting 
weeds have not died, and will soon he strong again. 
Nevertheless, “ Naillem ” and “ Raillem,” and all other gardeners 
like the good fellows that we are, have gone to work again with 
the next gleam of sunshine and dry air, and without a grumble 
have done the job all over again. By simply passing the hoe under 
the previously hoed weeds, and severing no freshly formed roots, 
we cause them to perish under the influence of the sun. They die 
of drought, whereas had the hoe not gone under them, below such 
roots as were left and between them and the lower soil, they would 
have retained life and recovered. What is the reason of this ? 
Because, I take it, the rain falling on the newly hoed weeds not 
only refreshed them as it fell but also re-established their com¬ 
munication with the rising moisture, which the second passing of 
the hoe underneath them once more cut off. Is not this so ?— 
W. R. Raillem. 
FLOWERS IN COVENT GARDEN. 
When asked to read a paper on market flowers, I felt that it was a 
subject so likely to interest the members of our Horticultural Club, that 
it was impossible for me to decline to accede to the request. The after- 
dinner discussion and friendly chat on such an occasion is a connecting 
link between the horticultural scientist of learned leisure and his more 
mercantile brothers of large nursery and seed trade and the wholesale 
market trade. For after all, what are the advantages of botanical 
scientific pursuits, the improvement of fruits and flowers, and the 
introduction of new varieties, if such advantages are confined to 
the few, and not appreciated and shared by the many ? It is only 
through such a channel as a public market offers that the genuine 
stamp of popular approval can be obtained, and the business and 
commercial value of any fresh articles introduced for public supply can 
be truly tested. One thing is certain, and that is that there is no 
advertisement in the world so powerful for a really good article as its 
exhibition on a grower’s stand side by side with its rivals. 
In adding my mite to the discussions of the Club, ic will be a novelty 
for you to have a paper on flowers from one who does not possess 1 inch 
of ground on which to grow them, and even if he had, they could hardly 
be expected to succeed where nothing but hardy Palms or Aspidistra 
long survive. My misfortune in this respect has not diminished my old 
love for them, but, on the contrary, perhaps made me more keenly 
observant as to how we poor non-growing public are supplied. 
In the first place, I would observe that there will be nothing new in 
my remarks—nothing but what each and every member can easily see 
and learn for himself ; hardly anything but what has appeared from 
time to time in the gardening and other public press. 
I have been often interviewed by public writers for information 
respecting market matters, and I have not only given them every 
information correctly myself, but have referred them to growers and 
others who could, and probably would, furnish them with particulars 
and details beyond my own knowledge and observation. Such articles 
upon market flowers as those of Mr. Gordon, which have recently 
appeared in the “Leisure Hour,” are the outcome of such inquiries, 
supplemented by visits to the market during business hours, and to 
the establishments of our leading producers. Perhaps I may be pardoned 
if I turn back and give a brief review of the history and growth of the 
market before speaking of its present flower supply. 
It may be interesting to know that in 1828, when the present regu- 
lating Act of Parliament under which the market is managed was 
passed, the area of the chartered market was divided into eight different 
sections for various purposes. These were named after the first eight 
letters of the alphabet, and varied much in size. Section H, the smallest 
and last, was the portion assigned for flowers; it contained twelve small 
stands, about equal to one-hundredth of the market area, and had no 
provision for shelves or other method of exhibiting the goods except the 
floor space, which was uncovered. Such was considered sufiicient 
provision for the wants of that time, and continued fo for many years. 
The growth of the public taste for flowers is a most marked illustra¬ 
tion of the advance of the age in which we live. Doubtless many 
causes have worked together contributing towards it, such as— 
1. The increase in the wealth of the manufacturing and trading 
classes, enabling them to acquire and indulge in more refined taste. 
2. The increase of London, by the retirement of its more prosperous 
citizens into suburban residences, with gardens and conservatories 
attached. 
3. The public Exhibitions and the Shows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society doubtless stimulated and directed public taste. 
4. The spread of education amongst the w'orking classes had a 
decided tendency to create amongst them a taste for the beautiful. 
5. The migration into London of country folk, who regarded a 
window plant as a connecting link between the new life in town and 
the green fields of happy memory left behind. 
6. And lastly, the fashion of the times, which led people to beautify 
and adorn their tables and rooms with floral decorations ; and also to 
express affection and regard for the living, and esteem and respect for 
the dead by floral offerings. Even the revival of ritualistic ceremony in 
