68 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ March, 
- tlie Wellington Eoad Nursery, Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son cul¬ 
tivate a very fine collection of Double Chinese Primroses^ as well as others. There 
may be seen the oldest types of doubles in Alba plena and Rubra plena, which are 
so fai’ useful that they show at a glance the vast strides that have been made during the past 
few years in the production of fine double forms. .d-Zia a presents a marked 
advance on the old variety, but the best is Candidissima, a very fine fringed double flower, 
pure white in coloui', and a very free bloomer. Rubra grandijiora is a fine double form, 
much superior to the old red. King o f Purples, a very full double flower, rich in colour and 
a prodigious grower, is a still greater advance. Magenta plena, Magenta Queen, Glen Eyre 
Gem, and Magnifica, all of which have good quality and substance in their flowers, furnish 
various shades of carmine-red and magenta-rose. Blushing Beauty and Exquisite have the 
white ground charmingly tinted with rose, and are both very beautiful; so also is Peach 
Blossom and Lilac Queen, the colours of which are indicated by their designations. Mrs. 
Eyre Crahhe has the perfectly double white flowers, very prettily flaked and spotted with 
rosy-cai-niine, and is altogether a superb variety. Emperor has remarkably fine flowers of a 
rich purplish-rose, like King of Purples; and Empress is a very fine double white, both 
these latter belonging to the fern-leaved group, in which good double-flowered varieties are 
as yet scarce. These varieties ai'e highly meritorious, and comprise all the hues of colour and 
markings yet found in double Primulas. 
- ^0 long as plants continue to have Insect Enemies., so long must tbe cul¬ 
tivators seek for means to destroy them. The chief remedies resorted to are 
fumigation, and careful washing, the latter being effected either with water or 
some medicated liquid. Sometimes 
these insect-destroying washes are 
distributed over the infested plants by 
means of spray-producing contrivances, 
most of which involve continuous 
blowing from the mouth. In Messrs. 
Bourne and Taylor's Improved Spray- 
producer, we have a real improvement, 
since all the fatigue of continuous 
blowing is dispensed with, and the 
necessary force for the distribution of 
the liquid is obtained by pressure -of 
the thumb on an india-rubber pouch, 
connected with the glass containing the 
liquid. The accompanying illustration 
will be understood at once. This contrivance was primarily introduced for use in the sick¬ 
room, as a distributor of perfume or disinfectants, but the greater ease of using it will 
especially recommend it to amateurs for garden use, in those cases where a liquid insecticide 
has to be distributed over infested plants. These little instruments are to bo obtained of 
the makers, Castle Street, Holborn, London. 
- substituting willow for thorn, Hedges can be made profitable; they 
are, it is said, more effective as a shelter, quite as strong, reared in a much shorter 
time, and at less than half the cost. The Willow has been recommended for hedges 
by Linnaeus, Loudon, Miller, and other writers of note; and the only way in which the neglect 
of such advice can be accounted for is simply that the matter has never been sufficiently 
brought under notice. A willow hedge, 200 yards long, planted in ground well dug over, 
cleaned, and manured—planted with cuttings 12 in. long and 6 in. apart, requiring 1,200 
cuttings, value about 253.—became in two years a good strong hedge, capable of resisting any 
pressure an ordinary hedge would be subject to. The willows being crossed diagonally, rendered 
it almost impossible for anything to break through. The dressings or spray of the first two 
years were coarse and worthless, but in the [throe succeeding years the dressing has sold to 
basket-makers for 20s. each year, which has paid the entire cost of planting, labour, and rent of 
land which the hedge occupies. Another hedge planted upon the same principle has, at the 
second year’s dressing, paid the cost of the plants. The above hedges were planted with the 
Bitter Willow, which neither cattle, game, nor vermin will often materially injure. 
- Egyptian Yarrow, Achillea cegyptiaca., is quite equal to any related 
Improved Spray-producer. 
