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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 30,1894, 
- A Double Ceanothus. — A double-flowered variety of 
Ceanothus americanus, which was received from Mr. Lemoine under the 
name of C. hybridus flore-pleno, a transatlantic contemporary says, was 
recently blooming in the Arnold Arboretum. It seems to be perfectly 
hardy, and has the good foliage of the single type, and will probably 
endure drought as well. But in addition to this it is much more 
floriferous and bears larger heads of flowers, which are slightly tinged 
with pink, and altogether seems to be an interesting addition to the low 
shrubs which bloom during the summer, 
- Cactus Dahlias.—O ne of the great objections to these, all 
the same beautiful Dahlias, is their tendency to grow so tall. I saw Mr. 
Cannell’s breadth of them the other day—and he has a wonderful 
collection—and was struck with the comparative dwarfness of most, 
showing that we are gradually obtaining these nearer to that low 
stature which now marks the Show sorts. That is great gain. That, 
too, be it remembered, in a wet, dull season. There is a large collection 
of the single Cactus forms there also. These are, to my mind, poor 
flowers, but they please some people. For them the new beautiful 
Cactus doubles have corrupted my taste.—D. 
- Californian Fruit. —The American liner “ Paris,” which 
arrived at Southampton on Wednesday night in last week, brought 
G71G packages of excellent Californian fruit, consisting of 5518 boxes of 
Williams’ Bon Chr&tien Pears, 508 boxes of Plums, G88 boxes of 
Peaches, and two crates of Grapes, the last mentioned being sent only 
for experimental purposes. This is the largest consignment of 
Californian fiuit ever entrusted to one ship, and is the first received at 
Southampton. Carried from California in a special train of refrigerator 
cars, which left Sacramento on the 8th inst., the fruit reached New 
York in time for shipment in the “ Paris” on the 15th. On board the 
steamer it was placed in the cold chambers which were specially 
constructed for carrying meat, and being despatched from Southampton 
at three o’clock the following morning, the whole of the fruit—which w’as 
in one lot, weighing about 110 tons, consigned to Messrs. W. N. White 
and Co., Limited—had by eight o’clock been delivered in Covent Garden 
Market, where it was found to be in admirable condition. 
- Old West-Country Gardens.—A Plymouth correspondent 
writing to a western contemporary says “ Mr. Gladstone has just 
re-designated Devon ‘ The Garden of England,’ and the love of flowers 
in west countrymen is shown to be a very old love by the fact that the 
Devon and Exeter Horticultural Society is holding to-day (August 17th) 
its 179th exhibition. It is pleasant to know that there are still some 
ancient gardens in Devon and Cornwall, which are preserved in much 
the same form as they were fashioned two or three centuries ago. At 
Penheale, near Launceston, there is an Elizabethan garden, the original 
design of which—in keeping with the fine Tudor mansion—has never 
been much disturbed ; and at Whitleigh, near Plymouth, there is a 
charming old garden of the time of William and Mary. Whitleigh 
Hall was, for the most part, built in the reign of their Majesties, on the 
site of an earlier house, and has some of the finest ceilings in South 
Devon. The garden referred to is called ‘ The Garden of the Two 
Crowns,’ from two large beds which it contains in the form of crowns, 
and is believed to have undergone little change since its beds were first 
filled with Dutch Tulips two centuries ago.” 
- Fruit about Swanley. —The other day Mr. Cannell kindly, 
at his offer, drove me round a large district that seems to be almost 
exclusively given over to market gardening and chiefly to fruit culture. 
One of the wonders of the district just now is the crop of Farleigh 
Prolific Damsons. Surely hardly any other locality can show some 
three miles of rural lanes bordered on each side in the hedgerows of 
trees of this Damson, heavily laden with fruit, The lines of trees 
seemed to be endless. They border the Plum orchards also to a 
wonderful extent, and what with Damsons and Victoria Plums, the 
trees of the latter tremendously laden with fruit, it would seem as if 
they must collapse ; there should be enough of these fruits here to satisfy 
all requirements. Yet is it but a drop in the ocean. What a district it 
is for fruit culture ! It is a locality to open one’s eyes as to what 
England can do in that way. All the same I saw comparatively few of 
Apples or Pears, as stone fruits seemed to be most favoured. There one 
sees enormous areas from 20 to 40 acres of Strawberries constantly 
cropping up, great breadths of Easpberries, then of Gooseberries, Eed 
and Black Currants, and interspersed with Potatoes, Cauliflowers, and 
other vegetables. Some old orchards would be best grubbed and burned, 
but there are thousands of trees planted from year to year. Clearly the 
faith of the Swanley growers in hardy fruit culture is great.—A. D. 
- Pink Mrs. Lakin. —I entirely agree with “ W. D.” (page 173} 
that Mrs. Lakin is the best white Pink. I saw the collection of Pinks 
grown at Chiswick, and I could then but believe that Mrs. Lakin was the 
purest, smoothest edged and most acceptable sized flower of the entire 
batch of whites. As to freeness the variety produced literally a mass 
of flowers, and none others produced more. Both Her Majesty and 
Mrs. Sinkins are coarse, rough flowers relatively, and such great pod 
bursters that often half the petals are falling out of the calyx. 
I hope the day is not far distant when the Pink Society, if it 
wishes to make its mark on Pink production, will ruthlessly boycott 
every Pink that has these burst flowers. Tastes may differ as to smooth 
or rough edges, though smooth edges are best to my mind ; but there 
should be none as to character of the blooms.—A. 
- Vellozia eleuans. —Mr. W. E. Endicott, writing in the 
“ Garden and Forest” recently, says, “Vellozia elegans was introduced 
in 1865, having been raised from seeds received from Madagascar or 
from South Africa. Its native country is not known, therefore, with 
certainty, as it has never, I think, been collected since its discovery. 
The plant having been sent to Kew was named Xerophyta elegans, as it 
seemed to belong to Commerson’s genus of that name, which is now 
reduced to Vellozia. As V. elegans the species is figured in the 
‘ Botanieal Magazine,’ t. 5803. It is a distinct plant, whose chief fault, 
horticulturally speaking, is the persistency of its flowers, which turn 
green, and remain a very long time after their beauty has gone. At 
their first appearance they are very pure white stars, an inch or more 
across, borne singly on long slender stalks produced from the axils of 
the leaves. The foliage is abundant, consisting of long Sedge-like 
leaves closely set along the bristly stalks. No plant that I know, out¬ 
side of the succulent kinds, can suffer so severe a drying as this and 
recover. Pleasing as it is, I cannot help longing for the introduction 
of some of the Brazilian species, among which there are plants with 
flowers of purple, violet, and yellow, some of them 4 inches in diameter.” 
- Hzemanthus candidus.—T his handsome new species is 
likely to become a favourite greenhouse plant, as it grows as freely as 
H. coccineus and has flowers quite as large and of the purest white. 
According to an English writer in the American “ Garden and Forest,” 
it differs from H. albiflos in having larger leaves, clothed with hairs on 
the under side and on the margin ; the rachis also is distinctly hairy and 
the bracts are small. The head is fully 4 inches across, and is composed 
of a dense cluster of white flowers with linear segments and erect 
golden-tipped stamens. It is a native of the Transvaal, whence it was 
sent to Kew a few years ago, where it recently flowered in a 
cool greenhouse. Mr. Bull also includes it in his catalogue of new 
plants for 1894. Along with it in the same house at Kew are several 
fine examples of the brig’nt crimson flowered H. magnificus. There are 
about half a dozen species of Haemanthus which are well worth the 
attention of bulb growers in the Southern States; they are the three 
already named, H. Katherinm, H. carneus, and H. cinnabarinus. 
These are all capable of outdoor cultivation wherever the scarlet 
Pelargonium is hardy, and they grow and flower as freely as the best 
natured of bulbous plants. 
- Cotton in Corea .—Ainoiios of the note which appeared on 
page 176 of the Journal, the following extract from the paper on the 
cultivation of Cotton in Corea, published in “ Journal of the Society 
of Arts,” may be interesting :—“ The Corean fibre is reported to be 
superior to that produced in Japan. The method of cultivation is as 
follows :—The ground is usually ploughed up during the early winter, 
and allowed to remain in this condition until the frost is welt out of it, 
when it is broken up with a hoe, and manure, mixed with wood ashes, 
spread over it. The fields are now ready for the reception of the seed, 
which is generally sown about April to May. The seed, of which there 
is but one kind, is not placed in drills, as is done in Japan, but is sown 
broadcast, and then trodden in and covered up with the feet, sesamum 
seed being very often sown in the same field with it. The young shoot 
shows above ground about the tenth day, and at maturity attains a 
height of from 2 feet to 2^- feet. The plant blossoms in August, and 
on an average bears forty pods, each containing four cells, as a rule 
within a double capsule. The gathering of the crop, which begins about 
October, continues until frost sets in, some time in November. No 
actention is paid or skill displayed in the cultivation once the seed is in 
the ground ; everything is then left to Nature. No further manure is 
added, nor are they ever thinned out or given water in times of drought. 
The crops are principally gathered by women, who also are largely 
employed afterwards in separating the seed.” 
