1S75. ] 
SAXIFRAGA CILIATA.-GARDEN GOSSIP. 
95 
any coddling, for they are as hardy and robust in character as the common Prim- 
rose of the roadside.—R. Dean, Ealing. 
SAXIFRAGA CILIATA. 
HIS is a hardy herbaceous species belonging to the same group as S. corcli- 
folia or S. crassifolia , and is well worth a place in the greenhouse or cold 
frame during the winter and spring months, for the sake of its rosy or 
salmon-tinted flowers, which are freely produced in February and March, 
and come in very handy for cutting. The wax-like bell-sliaped flowers are borne 
on stout erect peduncles, among the roundish heart-shaped ciliated foliage, and are 
so distinct in form and colour, that they are very useful for grouping in button-hole 
and other bouquets, along with Lily of the Valley, Bouvardias, Jasminum grandi- 
florum, and other white flowers. The flowers open in gradual succession on the 
peduncles, and can be cut singly and wired when wanted, and in this way a single 
plant furnishes flowers for several weeks. A great point in its favour is its 
durability when mounted on wires. 
In private gardens where button-hole bouquets have to be supplied daily, it 
is often a matter of some little difficulty to obtain good substantial flowers, of 
distinct forms and effective colours. Just now this plant would prove very 
useful either for the last-mentioned purpose, or it is well worth a place as a pot- 
plant on the greenhouse stage, to say nothing of its usefulness and adaptability 
as a plant for naturalisation on a warm border or on a sunny rockery, where its 
flowers would open later in the season. 
This is only one of the many hardy plants that might be potted in the autumn 
or winter, and placed in a greenhouse or cold frame or pit, -where they not 
only flower early, but their flowers and foliage come larger, brighter, and cleaner, 
than when exposed to splashing rains, and the cold east winds of February and 
March. What can be more beautiful than the rich purple Iris reticulata , Iris nudi- 
caulis , Scilla sibirica , Rhodiola rosea , Narcissus Bulbocodium , Cyclamen A tkinsii, 
Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrop), IleUeborus niger (Christmas Rose), blue and pink- 
flowered Hepaticas , and the different varieties of the common Primrose, when 
grown in pots, in a sunny pit or frame ? Growing hardy plants indoors is no new 
idea, but it is one as yet not half developed; and while we all force such hardy 
plants as Narcissus Tazetta , Narcissus odorus , Dicentra (Dielytra), spectabilis , 
Lily of the Valley, Hyacinths, and Tulips, we seem to forget that nearly all hardy 
bulbs, and at least fifty per cent, of all our hardy herbaceous and border flowers, 
are amenable to the form of culture here indicated.—F. W. Burbidge. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
far, during the present year, the meetings of the Royal Horticultural 
Society , whatever the cause—whether the protracted cold weather or the 
internal dissensions of the Society—have very much fallen off in interest. 
At that which was held on Jan. 20, a fine group of Cycads, containing a 
