JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
513 
Jane 23, 1*8;. ] 
be easily raised from seed sown in a mild bottom beat in the spring. 
The soil best suited is composed of good fibry loam, peat, and leaf soil, 
with a dash of ground bones. Water freely at the roots during the 
summer months, when growth is active, as dryness at the roots encou¬ 
rages the spread of red spider. The foliage, too, must be vigorously 
syringed every day during the spring and summer, to ward off the 
attacks of this plant's most inveterate enemy—red spider—otherwise 
the growth will be poor, and consequently few flowers, these being 
borne on the current year’s growth, renders a free growth necessary 
to secure a good harvest of blossoms.” 
- Garden Phloxes. — Mr, W. A. Manda of the Cambridge 
Botanic Garden (U.S.A.) said at a recent meeting of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society that of the hardy herbaceous and perennial 
plants the Phlox is one of the best, the different species of this showy 
genus affording flowers at all seasons. Phlox subulata forms a dense 
mass of rose-coloured flowers, with pink eyes, in the earliest spring- 
Many garden varieties have been produced from this species, such as 
Nelsoni, atropurpurea, nivalis, The Bride, and others from the darkest 
purple to snow-white. P. amoena is another vernal bloomer ; it grows 
about 8 inches high and produces in May a profusion of purple flowers. 
b>ot less valuable is P. ovata, w r hich sends up large heads of beautiful 
flowers on stems from 1 to 2 feet high in June. P. divaricata has pretty 
bluish or lilac flowers on stems a foot high and blooms in May. 
1. glaberrima is a very neat and compact-growing species, a foot high, 
with long shiny foliage and dense heads of pinkish flowers in June and 
July. p. reptans is a dwarf and neat species, never growing over 
b inches high, and bears large flowers in May. But P. paniculata is best 
irnown and most cultivated ; it grows from 2 to 6 feet high. The type 
usually has purple—seldom white—flowers in large and dense pyramidal 
spikes. Innumerable garden varieties have been produced from this 
species, of all colours from red to white. They flower from July to 
October. 
' Gardening Appointment. —We are glad to learn that Mr. 
C. Herrin, who was for 3ome years gardener at Gerrard’s Cross, has been 
appointed gardener to the Hon. G. M. Fortescue, Dropmore, Maidenhead, 
succeeding the late Mr. Frost, Mr. Herrin is well known as a careful 
and intelligent gardener, and has been very successful as a grower and 
exhibitor of Chrysanthemums. Mr. Jacques, recently gardener at 
Davenham Bank, Malvern, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Bradshaw 
as gardener to Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, Waddesdon Manor, Ayles¬ 
bury. 
- Blue Flowers.—I t is often remarked with regret that we 
have too few blue-flowered plants available for culture in houses, and 
yet it seems that those which are procurable are disregarded. What 
could be more brilliant than the Leschenaultia biloba major, of which 
such well-grown plants have been shown in London during the past 
week or two 1 The plant, with ordinary care, is easily grown, and 
flowers most profusely, while the shade of blue is at once rich and 
■distinct. 
- “H. H. M." writes—“Very charming now are the Iceland 
Or Arctic Poppies, as the varieties of Papaver nudicaule are popularly 
termed. Their flowers possess a peculiar grace, and the colours are so 
pure, that it is not surprising they have steadily advanced in popular 
favour. Pure white, clear yellow, and rich orange, are the shades re¬ 
presented, and the flowers possess more substance of petal than our 
native scarlet Papaver Rhoeas, which may be regarded as its near 
■relative, botanically. The flowers are beautifully cupped, slightly 
nodding on the slender stalk, and very freely produced. The plant 
succeeds in any cool, not too dry, position, but is best raised from seed 
annually.” 
- The Times of June 18th reports the evidence of Mr. Martin J 
Sutton, the managing partner of the firm of Sutton & Sons, Reading ) 
ljefore the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Sunday 
Postal Labour. He stated that for four months of the year they 
received from 1200 to 1.100, and despatched about 2000 letters a day, 
and during the rest of the year from 500 to 800 a day. They sent out 
1.10,000 catalogues every year, and often as many as 200,000 circulars 
'besides, and their arrangements were made for the despatch of a ton 
weight of parcels by Parcels Post every day. Their expenditure during 
the last six months in stamps was £3411, and during the-samc time they 
Rad used and posted in letters as remittances £1948 worth of small 
postal orders and £.120 worth of stamps without a single order or stamp 
having been lost in the post. They had never received or despatched 
letters on Sundays. His firm had posted as little as possible on 
Saturdays, with the object of avoiding labour in the Post Office on 
Sundays. That was a serious inconvenience to them in this respect 
—that it restricted them to about four days a week for posting their 
catalogues, because the Post Office required notice, for as they were 
posted in batches of 20 tons to 30 tons at a time, they could not be 
accepted by the Post Office without previous arrangement. If there 
were not a Sunday delivery they could post on Friday and Saturday, 
as on other days, without fear of throwing additional Sunday work on 
country postmen. But the varying values of seed often made the 
premature posting of catalogues a great inconvenience, and sometimes 
a serious loss. Notwithstanding such disadvantages, however, he was 
glad to have the opportunity of giving evidence to prove that the 
Sunday delivery of letters was quite unnecessary for the management 
of a large business. 
- The Winchester Horticultural Society is now affiliated 
with the National Rose Society, and will .offer £105 in prizes at the 
show to be held in Winchester, Thursday, July 7th, this year. 
-We learn with regret that Mr. Francis R. Kinghorn, The 
Sheen Nurseries, Richmond, Surrey, died on June 11th, in his seventy- 
fifth year. Mr. Kinghorn had long been a well known horticulturist, and 
for a considerable time was member of the Floral Committee of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, frequently also officiating as Judge at 
metropolitan and provincial shows. He was born on February 13th, 
1813, at Lennox Love, Haddington, N.B., and after service in several 
establishments in the north was appointed, at the age of twenty-four, 
gardener to Alexander .Murray, Esq., Orleans House, Twickenhami 
where he subsequently also served the Earl of Kilmorey. He raised 
several good Indian Azaleas, but his chief fame was made by Flower of 
Spring Pelargonium, which was sent out by Messrs. Henderson, and 
became a great favourite for bedding. Since 1855 he has been in busi¬ 
ness at the Sheen Nurseries, that will now be carried on by his son. 
- Ceylon Agri-Horticultural Exhibition.—M essrs. James 
Carter & Co., 237 and 238, High Holborn, write—“ By advices just 
received from Ceylon we learn that at the great Agri-Horticultural 
Exhibition held in the City of Kandy during May last, three of our 
ustomers were awarded the following extraordinary array of medals for 
plants, &c., grown from our seed. The gold medal—For the best collec¬ 
tions of plants and flowers, all grown from Carter’s seeds, &c. Silver 
medals—For Carter’s Victoria Prize Calceolaria, Holborn Prize Primula, 
Crown Jewels Begonia, Marble Prize Gloxinia, Fuchsias, Geraniums, and 
Mont Blanc Cauliflower. Bronze medals—For First Prize Cyclamen 
and Prize Achimenes.” 
- Gladiolus Col villi.—“ A Cultivator” remarks that G. Col- 
villi alba and The Bride are excellent when grown in pots and flowered 
during the end of May or early in June for house decoration or for 
grouping in the greenhouse with a base of Maidenhair Fern. They are 
alike useful for cutting; the snowy whiteness of their flowers harmo¬ 
nises well with others in bouqets. To have them in flower at the times 
named, procure the corms in October, placing five or six in a 48-sized 
pot in a fairly rich soil, to which has been added plenty of decayed 
leaves. Cover the bulbs an inch deep with the soil, plunging the pots 
then in cocoa fibre refuse, ashes, or sawdust, giving if possible the pro¬ 
tection of a cold frame. When roots are freely made, and the growths 
are starting, remove the plants to an ordinary greenhouse from which 
frost is simply excluded, when they can remain until they bloom, or if 
required earlier in batches, place some in a gentle heat when growth i 9 
fairly on the way. Stimulate the plants with liquid manure occasionally 
when in active growth.” 
_ We learn from a local paper that at the Sale of Plants at 
Fxir Lawn, Lytham (exclusive of the Orchids) the specimens realised 
very low prices. Excepting a few Pelargoniums, small Ferns, &c., the 
only plant that brought anything like its value was a fine Lapageria 
alba bought by Dr. Slater for 7J guineas. The magnificent greenhouse 
Rhododendrons, a class of plants the late Mr. Fildes was particularly 
fond of, and of which he had a fine collection, fetched scarcely a quarter 
of their value. One magnificent specimen Countess of Sefton was 
knocked down to the Rev. Canon Tayloi for the mere nominal sum of 
2 guineas. A fine Rhododendron Veitchianum went to the Rev. Canon 
