THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
363 
ON HELICHRYSUM RETORTUM. 
BY MR. JAMES BACKHOUSE, YORK. 
Helichrgsum retortum was gathered at Camp’s Bay, near Cape Town ; 
where, at the back of Lion’s Hill and Table Mountain, it grows, prostrate 
in the sand, behind some large rocks of granite that receive the shock of 
the sea ; and where, among the adjacent sand-hills, Ferr aria undidata, 
Chironia fruticosa , and several other interesting plants are met with. In 
some of the specimens of H. retortum the external colour of the flower is 
brown, instead of the purplish tinge which is most common. This plant 
is said by Aiton, in the Hortus Kewensis , to have been cultivated in 
1732 by James Sherard, M.D.; but it seems long since to have disappeared 
from our gardens. 
York, 
September 29/A, 1841. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE CAMELLIA IN THE PARLOUR OR 
DRAWING-ROOM. 
BY DR. J. S. GUNNELL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
(From the American Gardeners' Magazine.) 
I have had about ten years’ experience in raising camellias in a common 
sitting-room or parlour, during which time I have tried various plans of 
cultivation, some to the advantage of the plants, and others to their 
injury; but the plan which has succeeded best with me is the following : 
—I had three benches or tables , made about five feet long , and three feet 
three inches wide , with strips around the edges, so as to be about a third 
of an inch above the edges of the benches all round, and then common 
(sawed) laths cut into short pieces, and placed about two inches apart on 
the top surface of the benches or tables, so that the water which ran 
from the flower-pots could pass from one part of the benches to another, 
crossways or lengthways, and pass out at a notch in the edging around 
the benches spoken of above; by which means the pots would not stand 
in the water that runs from the pots to the benches. 
Those benches I placed far enough from the windows and walls, or 
partitions, to allow a grown person to pass all round between the windows, 
and wall, and benches, and to water and syringe the plants, which made 
a space of about one and a half or two feet in front and at the ends. 
The benches should be of a height in proportion to the windows, so as 
to let the sun shine on the edge of the top of the benches nearest to the 
