234 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
amongst the flowers. Tritoma media is in full flower, even after 
14 of frost laid low its spikes only a week or two ago. It is a 
most persistent and floriferous plant in mild localities near the sea. 
IS figured in “ Bot. Mag.,” t. 744, but it is very often misnamed 
1. pumila in gardens. The true T. (Kniphofia) pumila is dis¬ 
tinctly different, and a more beautiful species I have never seen. It 
15 figured in “Bot. Mag.,” t. 7()4, and has more globular blossoms 
or a more vivid orange red colour. Can any wise man tell us 
puniila (true), as illustrated in 
tne Botanical Magazine,” can be obtained V 
Ins stylosa has given us many flowers all through the winter, 
and I counted thirty fully open llowers in the sunshine of the 
other morning. Its soft lavender blooms are fragile and soon spoil in 
the wind and rain, but if you pick the flower buds as soon as they 
show colour, and place them in a glass of fresh water in a -warm 
room, they open perfectly. Arranged with a few of their own 
grassy leaves no Orchid can be finer than the blooms of this gem 
loin Algeria. The Greek form has larger, darker, and more boldly 
marked flowers, but does not seem so floriferous. I'he gem of this 
race IS I. stylosa alba, with white flow-ers, but it is as yet as rare as it 
IS beautiful. The little golden ISlar cissus Cyclamineus is quite 
ardy, and flowers niuch more strongly out of doors than in pots. 
JN. John.stoni, X. bicolor lusitanica, and other of the Portuguese 
spemes and varieties so generously introduced by A. W. Tait, Esq., 
Gporto, are now lovely in a cold sunny frame. N. mos- 
c atus from \al d'Arras is lovely in pots, and the smallest and 
whitest of all the white Daffodils. 
Everywhere there are signs and wonders of the annual resur¬ 
rection m the garden. Swelling buds, upstarting growths, gleam of 
u , and gdance of glossy leafage, the grass attains a more tender 
^een, and the Celandine appears here and there with the awaking 
aisies of the lawn. Thrush and blackbird have begun the flutey 
overture, and aU the feathered throng are getting ready for 
eir great prinia donna, the nightingale, she who loves the stillness 
o tne ^arly summer’s night, and whose limelight is the silver 
moon.— F. W. BL-RisiiKiE, Dublin. 
GROWING MELONS IN FRAMES. 
Ir was my intencion to pen a few notes on the above subject, 
out seeing that so experienced a cultivator as Mr. Ward has given 
us most useful notes on Melons grown on the hotbed and cold- 
rarne system, page 145, I shall confine myself to those grown in 
The frames should first be cleared to the depth of 3 feet 
b inches or 4 feet in front and about 5 feet at the back, and the 
walls well whitewashed with quicklime and a little salt added, 
lake wires along the top of the frame, the same as in an ordinary 
Melon house, eyes being driven into the bearings 1 foot apart, and 
projecting from the wood about G inches ; copper or galvanised 
wire may be used, or even strong string will form a good substitute 
c'* purpose. From four to five wires will be found sufficient, 
Ibe first one being kept near to the front ; this will then give 
getting inside the frame at the back for syringincf 
and other purposes. j a o 
About the end of March or beginning of April the seed should 
e sowm m GO-sized pots, well drained, filling them with a compost 
ot good loamy soil, a little leaf mould and sand added. Press the 
n^ers on the top and fill the hole with sand, then insert two seeds, 
ifiis IS always best, as very often if only one is sown it ends in dis¬ 
appointment The pots should then be placed in the warmest place 
possible, either over hot-water tipes, plunged in leaf mould in 
evaporating pans or boxes, or if this is not convenient they must be 
plunged in a hotbed. As soon as the seeds have germinated place 
e pots on a shelf near to the glass to prevent the young plants 
drawing and becoming weakly, a shelf in a stove or any house 
wif^^ ir obtainable being suitable for this purpose. 
+ -n ir reached the sides of the pots they should be 
still further encouraged by a shift into 5 or G-inch pots, the soil for 
e purpose being made a little richer and heavier by adding a little 
Mushroom bed refuse and native guano, also using more loam. 
f. dow be made in the frame, it being 2 feet wide 
tiom the front wall and 18 inches high, composed of short stable 
manure, such as is used for Mushroom beds, with a few leaves to 
help to retain the heat for a greater length of time. Throw this 
material together in a heap for a day or two, turning it once or 
billow some of the rank steam to escape. The outside 
should then be built up with whole turves and filled in with the fol¬ 
lowing compost :—Half a load of good turfy loam, one half barrow- 
load each of leaf rnould and Mushroom bed refuse, a little lime 
rubble, wood ashes, and charcoal. A sprinkling of soot and Clay’s 
feitiliser, bonemeal, or native guano should also be u.sed in it; the 
latter can be used with safety, and is also very cheap. The soil 
should be made firm, and when the plants are well established after 
the last potting they may be stood on the soil a day or two before 
planting, which should be done with great care, choosing a warm, 
day, and keep the frame close for a few days. It is always safest 
to leave a little mound of soil around the stems, which should be 
kept dry to protect them from canker. They can then be treated 
as recommended on page 4. By these means fruit may be obtained 
of as good flavour as when grown in houses. Great care must be given 
to syringing when grown under these conditions, as except on bright- 
sunny days they will require little more than damping the floors, 
and walls of the pit. An opportunity should be taken on all 
bright days to well syringe the plants in the morning as soon as the- 
temperature rises, as they are very liable to decay in the growtK 
caused by cold and excessive moisture. If this occurs the decayed 
parts must at once be well rubbed with a mixture of quicklime and 
soot until it is dried, or it will rapidly spread and most likely 
destroy the plants.—W. P. D. 
STRELITZIA JUNCEA. 
The flowering of this superb Strelitzia is sufficiently rare in tins- 
country to demand some notice of the one that was recently in 
bloom at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Occupying a prominent, 
position on the front stage of the Palm house it was for a time the 
chief object of admiration in the range, and as there were specimens- 
of S. humilis in flower simultaneously it was the more particularly 
intei'esting. There are eight species catalogued by Loudon, all of 
them natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and the one under notice is. 
figured in vol. vi. of the “ Botanical Register,” p. 51G. The Oxford 
specimen, however, differs considerably with regard to intensity of 
colour with this, and may possibly have originated from seed, but- 
011 this point Mr. Baxter alone can speak with authority, and he 
unfortunately has ceased to be associated with the gaiAen. Intro¬ 
duced by Sir Joseph Banks, when George III. was king, the most 
commonly cultivated species was named in compliment to his 
queen, of the house of IMecklenburg-Strelitz, and plant lovers are 
familiar with its uniquely formed and gorgeously coloured blossoms,. 
S. juncea is still more remarkable and interesting. The foot¬ 
stalks being without leaves the plant at all times presents an 
uncommon appearance, as it gi’ows to a height of about 4 feet, and 
the almost round, smooth, stout stalks are produced in a fan-like 
form. The flower-stalks are a little less in length, and are sur¬ 
mounted by sheaths from which emerge its phenomenal flowers.. 
A.S these expand the bright orange coloured petals acquire a 
richness that the most biilliantly coloured blooms of S. reginte do 
not surpass, and the colouring of the nectary, which is much larger 
than is the case in the other species, is of an intense indigo-shaded 
purple, and displays the most splendid and striking contrast con¬ 
ceivable.—S. P E. S. 
SPRING TREATMENT OF CALADIUMS. 
Ale who have a warm pit or house should grow Caladiums_ 
Their season may be said to extend from April to November. At 
first the foliage is very tender, but so soon as it is well developed the 
plants present a charming appearance and are not surpassed by any 
other fine-foliaged plant. When they die down in autumn the 
tubers are sometimes taken fiom the pots and shaken from the soil 
previous to being stored in sand, but more often they are allowed to 
remain in the pots, which are generally placed on their side under 
some stage or in the potting shed. If kept quite dry and in a tem¬ 
perature of not less than 55° or GO", few tubers will be lost, but. 
should damp reach them or the temperature fall too low some are 
sure to perish. 
In some cases the pots containing the tubers are placed in heat, 
at the time growth is commencing in spring, but I do not approve 
of this plan. The old soil is never favourable for the roots, and. 
they do not make any satisfactoi’y progress. But if the whole of 
the tubers are shaken from the old soil before being started into 
growth weakly and decaying ones can be removed, and only the 
best selected for potting. Caladiums multiply every year. If one- 
large tuber was placed in a pot there might be half a dozen or more^ 
by the autumn, but few would care to continue growing the in¬ 
creased quantity every year. Now is the time to select them, and 
it is better to grow a few of the best than a large number of all 
sizes. If from one to four good tubers are placed into a G-inch or 
7-inch pot, and grown in these until the foliage is upwards of 1 foot- 
in height, they may then be shifted into a larger size, and this- 
potting is the only one they will require all the season. If good 
plants are desired in small pots for vase and other decorations, the 
tubers may be potted in some good soil the first time, and not 
disturbed again. 
Caladiums root very freely ; they delight in good drainage and a. 
