874 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Hay P, 1890. 
Be this so or not, it is very certain house-grown Peaches and Nec¬ 
tarines ought to have plenty of light and air, as well as heat and 
moisture, each and every condition being about equally essential to 
success.— W. Iggulden. 
HARDY FLOWER NOTES FROM SCOTLAND. 
The garden is at present brilliant with spring flowers, and 
the difficulty of selecting for notice becomes greater day by day, 
but a few notes and reflections may be seasonable and of interest to 
some. 
The Aubrietias are very fine this season, and form splendid 
mounds of brilliant yet chaste colouring. Conspicuous among them 
is A. Leichtlini, which well deserves the encomiums it has received. 
The habit may not be quite so compact as that of A. rosea, but the 
colour is certainly better, and the two are welcome “ breaks” from the 
other varieties. Could we only have a better white Aubrietia than 
A. Antilibani, which is too dingy, we would have a charm added to 
the spring garden which we would gladly take advantage of. The 
common Arabis albida is as yet the best white flower to associate 
with the Aubrietias for early bloom. Add to this Saxifraga Wal- 
lacei or Camposi for succession, and but little is required. The 
Arabis is more fleeting, and is now getting past its best, while the 
Saxifrage is giving us only a foretaste of the beauty it will exhibit 
in another week. Many other Mossy Saxifrages are now in flower 
or rapidly coming forward. That little gem S. muscoides atropur- 
purea is now very fine, and what was to me a new species named 
S. globosa was just coming into flower in a garden I saw a few 
days ago. The half opened flower of S. globosa would lead one to 
expect a large form of muscoides atropurpurea, but the flowers 
when open are a beautiful blush. Possibly they may pass off white, 
but I have not seen the plant at this stage. We may be losing 
something in our rage for “new things.” The little S. hypnoides 
covering some stones, and hanging down to and encroaching on a 
gravel walk, was a picture of beauty a week or two ago with its 
beautiful dark green velvet-like mound of foliage, and now it is 
rapidly covering itself with its little flowers, which are far from 
being so pure as some, but are yec beautiful. The whole genus is 
an especial favourite of mine, but one fault in the pursuit of know¬ 
ledge regarding these beautiful plants is the difficulty encountered 
in identifying species received without names. 
Several Pritillarias are now in flower, and it is unfortunate that 
the most effective position for the display of their nodding flowers 
is so often denied them. They are seen at their best on rockwork 
at or near the level of the eye, but are too frequently planted in 
the ordinary border, where the want of brilliancy of colour, which 
characterises so many of the species, causes them to remain almost 
unnoticed, so nearly does this approach to the colour of the bare 
earth. Although not recommending or considering the advantage 
of growing them on rockwork. Justice, who published the second 
edition of his “ Scots Gardiner’s Director ” in 1759, and who seems 
to have been an enthusiastic cultivator of Pritillarias, might teach 
some of us in the nineteenth century a lesson in garden effects. 
He recommends planting Dog’s-Tooth Violets as a groundwork, 
with Pritillarias in rows between the Erythroniums, “ for,” as he 
says, “ the Pritillaries flowering much about the same season with 
the Dens canis, the former is naked in its stalk, and carries no 
Leaves near the Ground, whilst the low Leaves of the Dens canis 
adorn and embellish the Surface of the Beds, and the flowers of 
the Variety of Pritillaries seem to proceed from the beautiful 
variegated Leaves of the Dens canis.” Justice gives a long list of 
Pritillarias, all of which he says are Dutch seedlings ; but some 
appear to be the same as some given by Philip Miller as species. 
The subject is a tempting one, the genus being very interesting, 
although it is not everyone who can appreciate the beauty of the 
flowers. Por instance, P. pyrenaica is externally sombre and rather 
unattractive, but turn up the bell-shaped flower and it is impossible 
to withhold an expression of admiration at the colour and markings 
of the interior ; and P. meleagris alba is one of the daintiest of our 
spring flowers, and a fine clump of this exquisite variety which I 
saw the other day would evoke admiration from many who care 
little for such types of flowers. 
Numbers of the Narcissi are now in flower, but the recent 
report of the Daffodil Conference renders comment almost 
superfluous. I was much disappointed in a hurried visit to the 
Edinburgh Botanic Garden on April 18th to see so few of the 
Daffodils ; indeed, comparatively few hardy plants were in flower, 
and one was struck with the lateness of the season in Edinburgh 
compared to what it is with us on the Solway. A few species of 
Muscaris were in bloom, and M. armeniacum, M. atlanticum, and 
M. Szovitzianum were among the best, the last apparently superior 
to the others. A very dark-coloured flower was named Botryanthus 
atlanticus. This bears a considerable resemblance to Muscari 
racemosus, but is larger, and has more of a purple tinge on the 
flowers. In the same gardens Anemone pulsatilla showed how 
well this fine native species is adapted for the rock garden. 
One of the neatest of the Iberises, I. petrsea, was coming into- 
flower. A few days later I had the pleasure of examining one ofi 
the best collections of alpines in the south of Scotland, and one 
of the finest plants in flower was a Thlaspi, T. alpestre. It 
appears to be by far the finest of the genus, and is of close 
dwarf habit with flowers of a pure white. It is, I believe, a scarce 
plant, and I am of opinion that it is not at present in commerce.. 
The little Erysimum pulchellum is doing well this season, and its 
clear yellow blooms have shorter stems than usual, which is at 
decided advantage, as some seasons the stalks are too long for the 
size of the flowers. This Erysimum does best with me planted on 
a ledge of rockwork, and allowed to hang over. In winter, if in 
an exposed situation, it seems to suffer much from the bitter 
north winds. We have had an early season all along, and although, 
the cold east winds have checked things, no great harm has been 
done. To-night (April 29 th) a gentle rain is falling, which will 
revive plants beginning to suffer, so that we may expect in a day or 
two to have additional charms added to the display of the season,, 
which has been the most favourable for our light soil that we have 
experienced for some years.—S. Arnott. 
THE CULTURE OF LETTUCES. 
Although the Lettuce is by no means a difficult plant to grow,, 
the production of large solid heads of crisp leaves is not so general 
in gardens as it should be. This is to be accounted for in many 
ways, the main cause being sowing the seeds too thickly and the 
consequent crowding of the planes before they are pricked out in 
nursery beds, and finally transplanted in the positions in which 
they are to develop. "This error is too common, not only in 
raising Lettuce plants, but also Cabbages, Cauliflowers, and all 
plants of the Brassica family, and I may add plants of every 
description indoors as well as out. It is an evil that no judicious 
after treatment will altogether remove, though good culture will do 
much towards securing fairly satisfactory results from plants so 
neglected. 
Lettuces—other points being properly attended to—will succeed 
in any fairly good soil. Early and late planting should be made in 
a warm and somewhat dry situation, this being preferable to a cool 
moist one. But these conditions are highly favourable to the 
production of Lettuces of the best quality during the summer and 
early autumn months. Liberal dressings of well decayed manure 
should be dug into the ground a good spit deep some time before 
setting the plants in it, although very satisfactory crops are 
yearly obtained by planting the ground the same day it is dug. 
However, should the manure dug into the ground be of a rank 
description, it is certainly prudent to defer planting for a few 
days until the rankness has escaped. Plants raised in auturnn, 
wintered in cool pits and warm dry borders, and planted out with 
good roots in February and March in warm situations in rows 1 foot 
asunder and the same distance between the plants in the rows, will 
soon be fit to cut, and in many places will supplement the supplies 
of salading hitherto obtained from plants growing under glass. 
Lettuces raised in heat in January and afterwards gradually 
hardened before being pricked ofE in warm corners out of doors' 
will succeed the autumn-raised plants transplanted in February and 
March, the supply being continued by plantings made from seed 
sown at the foot of a south wall or fence towards the end of 
February or early in March, and again at the end of the latter 
month, the middle of April, and at intervals of three weeks up to- 
the middle or end of August. 
Many excellent varieties of Lettuces have been introduced into 
commerce in recent years ; so many, indeed, as to perplex not a 
few gardeners and amateurs making out seed orders. However, 
the following may be mentioned as being among the best to grow— 
viz., Sutton’s Mammoth White (Cos), Paris Green (Cos), Carter’s- 
Longstander (Cabbage), Sutton’s Favourite (Cabbage), and Grand 
Admiral (Cabbage) are everything that could be desired for summer 
and early autumn use. Sowings of Carter’s Giant Bath (Cos), 
Kingsholm (Cos), and Sutton’s Marvel should be made about the 
end of the first or second week in June, and again a month later. 
Plants from these sowings will be ready for use in September, 
October, November, and December. The last sowing to raise 
plants for use in heated and cool pits during the months of 
January, February, and March, and in sheltered sunny situations 
out of doors in April, May, and the early part of June, should, as 
already stated, be made from the middle to the 25th of August, 
according as the locality is late or early. This sowing should 
consist of such well-tested varieties as Improved Black-seeded 
