1370. J 
DESERT PEA.—GARDEN GOSSIP. 
283 . 
tint when the flowers got older. Some of the pods of seeds sown were crossed 
with L. sjoeciosum, but none of the seedlings showed the reflexed shape of 
speciosum, only a darker spotting, and the red band in several which have been 
marked and crossed again this year with a very dark crimson seedling off' 
speciosum. 
When the L. auratum seed was sown in 1867, there were sown at the same¬ 
time three pans of seeds saved from L. speciosum crossed with L. auratum^ but 
only a few plants have flowered this year, and they have not shown any decided 
effects of the cross in the shape of the flowers or foliage. Some have come 
white, others of a pale rose-colour, and others of a deep crimson, with dark 
spots. I have crossed some of these seedlings with L. tigrinum and other 
species of hardy Lilium^ which were in flower in the borders at the time, and 
expect to get some fine new varieties from them.— William Tillery, WelhecJc. 
HAEDINESS OF THE DESERT PEA. 
T may interest some of your readers to know that the Clianthus Dampieriy 
so delicate and fastidious when young, succeeds perfectly out-of-doors in 
summer and autumn months, and is admirably suited for a mixed sub- 
^ tropical bed, or a herbaceous flower-border. Plants raised here from 
seed sown early in March last, were nursed in heat until the beginning of June, 
and then partially hardened by a fortnight’s exposure in a cold frame, preparatory 
to turning them out into the open air about the middle of the month. To guard 
against failure, they were protected for at least a fortnight or three weeks after¬ 
wards by placing over them an inverted flower-pot during cold nights and bright 
sunshine. The plants treated in the way here described far surpassed in beauty 
those cultivated in pots and kept under glass. As an illustration of their hardi¬ 
ness, I may mention that we have some plants still in fine flower (November 10)r 
having withstood unscathed the 3° of frost which we had on the 11th ult., 
while Dahlias and many of the old sorts of annuals usually cultivated in our 
gardens were completely destroyed. Some flowers [very well-developed onesj 
are enclosed as evidence.—J. Webster, Gordon Castle. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
N the flower garden of Lord Bridport, at Cricket St. Thomas, Scarlet 
Pelargoniums are made a very effective feature in the form of dense round 
bushes, like specimen Ixoras, placed at intervals by the side of a long 
straight walk. The plants are 4 ft. high, and as much through, and form 
large neatly-trained bushes, covered with grand trusses of flowers. The plants used are about 
four years old, and all that is done to them is simply to take them up in the autumn, cut them 
well back, and plant them as thickly as possible in square boxes, after which they are placed 
in a cold vinery until spring, when they are taken up, fresh potted, and pushed along gently 
until bedding-out time. When planted out, they require to be regularly pinched and tied out, a 
work well and quickly done by a practised hand ; and of course they require to bo well watcrod 
in dry seasons. 
