186 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 18, 1888. 
three or four varieties can be obtained now. I should like to seethe 
number reduced to about a dozen, four of each, Scarlet, White, and Green- 
fleshed. I grow four varieties, and find these sufficient. Hero of Lock- 
inge is not a favourite with me ; it has a very thick skin, and consequently 
more waste, which is not the case with some other varieties equally as 
good.—F airplay. 
BELVEDERE HOUSE, WIMBLEDON. 
To Surrey Chrysanthemum growers the residence of A. Schlusser, 
Esq., is well known, as the beautiful specimen Pompons annually pro¬ 
duced by Mr. Lynes have gained considerable fame in the district. The 
garden is also noteworthy in another and more important respect— 
namely, that though Wimbledon abounds in well kept establishments this 
one merits a place amongst the best for all-round neatness and good 
practical work. It is unpretentious, but those who appreciate good 
gardening can see much to please them in tho manner email details are 
executed. 
The glass houses are not very numerous, but their occupants all show 
that they receive careful attention. One feature is the Roses in pots, of 
which a good number is grown, and they are now under cover in pre¬ 
paration for their early flowering, The plants are healthy and are break¬ 
ing regularly, the buds looking strong and very promising. The plants 
are repotted every year into good loam, they are allowed plenty of root 
space, and are supplied as occasion demands with liquid manure. A good 
collection of varieties, both Teas and Noisettes, is grown, and a valuable 
supply of buds and blooms they yield for a considerable time. In a house 
where there are two old Fig trees the utility of Roses for flower-yielding 
is, however, especially well illustrated. The Fig trees, both Brown 
Turkey, are planted out in a border in the centre of the house, and at the 
ends are planted Marechal Niel and Reine Marie Henriette, the RedGloire 
de Dijon. These extend to the centre of the house, covering the lower part of 
the roof, and afford blooms by hundreds through the early summer. The effect 
is also pleasing, the fine clear yellow of the Marfichal Niel contrasting with 
the red or pinkish Reine Marie Henriette, and for all kinds of floral 
decorations they are highly esteemed. Everyone knows the value of Mare¬ 
chal Niel, but its companion is not so frequently grown in houses. Mr. 
Lynes, however, speaks very highly of its qualities, and recommends it 
strongly for the purpose to which he applies it. This house, though of 
moderate size and slightly heated, is an extremely useful one, as the Figs 
yield enormous supplies of fine fruit that ripen well. 
A handsome span-roofed house in two divisions, erected a year or so 
since, is now chiefly occupied with Orchids in one division and with Ferns, 
Crotons, and other stove plants in the other. The house is spacious, lofty, 
and light, well adapted for the culture of plants, as can be seen from 
the way these thrive. The Orchids especially are very healthy, and small 
plants obtained eighteen months or two years ago have made wonderful 
progress. An example of Dendrobium Ainsworthii, a particularly fine 
variety, had when received only three Jsmall pseudo-bulbs, and now has 
eighteen, the majority strong and bearing abundance of flower buds. 
D. crassinode has three stout pseudo-bulbs in a 6-inch basket, and bears a 
total of forty-four flowers large and richly coloured. Lselia purpurata is 
represented by some strong specimens and good varieties. Several good 
Cattleyas and other Orchids are also grown in this house, the white and 
orange-coloured Dendrobium infundibulum flowering well. In another 
house is suspended a specimen of D. Wardianum, with growths over 
4 feet long, and which has borne flowers 6 inches in diameter. A small 
cool house is devoted to Odontoglossums, all of which look well, but the 
pretty 0. Sanderianum is the only one in flower now, though 0. Rossi 
majus and several others are fast advancing. 
In other houses are plentiful stores of useful plants for table decoration 
and similar purposes, Dracaenas, Crotons, Aralias, Palms, &c., of moderate 
size being chiefly employed in this way. Pelargoniums are numerous, 
many of the best varieties being included ; Azaleas have a good space 
devoted to them. Eucharises and Amaryllises form other attractions, 
though, unfortunately, Mr. Lynes has had to contend with a troublesome 
pest, the so-called Eucharis mite. Soaking the bulbs in a strong solution 
of Fir tree oil or the Gishurst compound for twenty-four hours has been 
found to be an effectual remedy, for bulbs so treated are recovering their 
usual health and making strong growth. The Peaches and Nectarines are 
opening their flower buds well in the early house, but the weather has 
been very unfavourable to them.—V. 
SOME SINGLE ROSES AS DECORATIVE PLANTS. 
[An article by Mr. T. W. Girdlestone in the “ Rosarian'e Year Book.”] 
• ® IN< V' E Dahlias 1 Single Chrysanthemums ! And now (oh, ye florists) 
single Roses ! Well, why not? Nothing is perfect in this world, and we 
must have regard to a general law of compensation in the selection of the 
meritorious. Single Roses are so fleeting ?—true, the individual flowers 
are ; but look how each shattered blossom is replaced by a score of others, 
until profusion stands declared to compensate the want of endurance. 
These singles are no good for cut flowers or exhibition?—so much the 
better for the garden, which will thus be all the more attractive to get and 
keep people out of the house, while the making of a permanent garden at 
all times attractive is of far more importance than the decoration of any 
Tr D ii of i? 1 ^ ew h° urs » and at the same time it must be remembered that 
Hybnd Perpetuals only last a day during July. And then, single Roses do 
not flower in the autumn ?—apart from the fact that this is not in all cases 
true, no more do about half the so-called “Perpetuals,” over which the 
singles have this advantage, that they are as gay in the autumn with heps 
as they were in the summer with flowers ; some bearing fruits large and 
deep-coloured, some smaU and brilliant, some in bunches as big as rowans. 
And then, again, how good-natured they are, making themselves at home 
in soils and situations and with a small amount of attention, that many 
double Roses would die rather than put up with, and at the same time 
scorning the notion of mildew and green fly and such-like fashionable com¬ 
plaints. But argument is always useless ; for those who only grow what 
is in vogue, or whose horticultural love is circumscribed and centred in 
that showy Miss First Prize, will not grow anything that is not. prescribed 
by their leaders of fashion, nor conducive to the winning of their mistress ; 
while those whose large hearts (and gardens, since it must be admitted 
that for very small gardens the most vigorous of the single Roses are not 
well adapted) have room for all that is beautiful will need no persuasion. 
It only remains, therefore, to enumerate the (most beautiful and best 
adapted for general cultivation of those single Roses which I have grown 
in case others may possibly not have come across some of them, and to 
give the mockers something definite to mock at; since general mockery is 
too easy to be entertaining, and we are told that as much entertainment as 
possible ought to be obtained from every “ single thing.” 
Of all the plants in the garden this year I think that which was indi¬ 
vidually the object of tbe greatest admiration for the longest time was a 
Rose, whose single flower is no larger than one’s thumb-nail, namely 
Rosa polyantha (=Lucise), one of the Multiflora (II.). (The Roman 
numerals refer to the groups as arranged in Mr. Baker’s Synopsis of Roses, 
recently published in the horticultural periodicals). This plant covers a 
split-larch fence 12 feet high and 18 feet wide, and would readily have 
covered twice that area, as it grows with great vigour ; in fact, rather than 
waste time over any one-sided arrangement it has penetrated interstices of 
the saplings, and already clothes the fence on both sides. Although the 
individual flowers are so small their petals are of the purest white, set ofi 
by the close bright yellow stamens, and they are delightfully fragrant; 
whilst they are produced in such immense clusters as to make the tree 
appear literally snow-wreathed. Gratitude, if that be really the concise 
term for a keen sense of favours to come, ought to be an additional induce¬ 
ment to the cultivation of this charming plant, since from accidental crosses 
through the bees’ agency of this Rose and various Tea-scented sorts in the 
Lyons Rose gardens, have sprung those pretty and truly ever-flowering 
miniature Roses, the Polyanthas of catalogues, such as Mignonette, Ma 
Paquerette, Perle d’Or, &c. 
R. Brunonii (II.) is another very pretty Rose growing with great vigour 
and making a good climber, producing bunches of white flowers somewhat 
similar to R. Moschata, the single Musk Rose, but more ornamental. 
R. setigera (II.) (= rubifolia—a name which Mr. Baker does well to 
discard, as it gets much confused with rubrifolia, a very different Rose) is 
the Prairie Rose of North America and the parent of the “ Gem,” “ Queen,” 
“Beauty,” and several other apocryphal things “of the Prairie,” and is 
worth growing if only for the beautiful autumn colouring of its foliage. 
For its leaves are like those of the Bramble, not only in appearance, but 
also in the varied tints they assume towards the end of the year. The 
British representative of this group (II.) R. Repens (= arvensis), is the 
most beautiful of all our native Roses, and, if it only came from Peru or 
Siberia instead of neighbouring commons and hedgerows, it would probably 
be grown and admired as it deserves to be. But in spite of its being “ only 
a wild flower,” it should be remembered that it probably helped to originate 
the Ayrshires, and a place should be found for it in the wild garden, where 
it can grow as it likes; not trained up anything, for it is one of the few 
creeping as opposed to climbing Roses, but left entirely alone, when it will 
soon make a great mound of graceful slender growths to be hidden in June 
under a canopy of pure white flowers. 
(To be continued.) 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
February 9th. 
Scientific Committee. —Dr. M. T. Masters in the chair. 
Geoglossum (?).—Prof. Boulger exhibited a specimen for determination 
of the name. 
Camellias and the Frost. —The Hon. and Rev. Boscawen exhibited sprays 
of plants grown in the open, and which had been subjected to 10° or more 
of frost, in which the second and third year’s leaves were browned, but last 
year’s were perfectly green and untouched. The same fact had been often 
before noticed at Lamorran, and at Pentilly—a much milder locality than 
the former. The cause was presumed to be the relatively lessened vitality 
of the older leaves, though normally they remain on from three to four 
years. Dr. Lowe alluded to an instance of a plant (a single-flowered kind) 
which had been much injured in transit, and was planted early in the 
summer. It threw out foliage which has stood all the frost of the present 
winter. Dr. Masters alluded to the fact that some young Lime trees trans¬ 
planted last autumn, and which had shed their leaves, threw out fresh ones, 
which likewise had withstood the frost. Both these facts, therefore, would 
seem to corroborate the view that the vitality of the young foliage was so 
Btrong as to resist the effects of the late frost, to which the older leaves of 
two years had succumbed. 
Peach Wood Injured. —Mr. Wilson exhibited a specimen of wood in which 
the dissolution had occurred between certain years’ growths, similar to the 
so-called “ shaky timber.” 
Catasetum tabulare. —Mr. O’Brien exhibited a blossom of this flower, 
remarkable for its resemblance to the opened mouth of a snake, the two 
“antennae” resembling the fangs, while a thick tongue-like elevation 
occurred down the middle of the labellum. 
Phalcenopsis Stuartiana. —He exhibited a spray of this variety raised by 
Major Lendy, to show the permanency of the peculiarity of the petals, 
commencing to assume the characters of the labellum in bearing a similar, 
though much reduced process on the centre, and by being more or less 
spotted instead of pure white, as in the original form. 
Aspidium falcatum. —He showed fronds of this species, raised from spores 
of a sport, with a yellowish-green tint, and which had preserved this pecu¬ 
liarity. It was raised by Mr. Naylor of Roxeth. 
Euonymns japonicus with Cocci. — Mr. Maclachlan exhibited leaves 
attacked bj' and covered with minute white cases of Chionaspis Euonymi. 
