AUGUST. 
161 
SKI M MI A OBLATA. 
i 
WITH AN ILLUSTBATION. 
Imagine the bright-coloured berries of the Holly set amongst the glossy 
lively green leaves of the Laurel, and something like a picture of this new 
Skimmia will be brought before the mind’s eye. Fortunately, however, we 
are able to annex a more tangible portrait from the pencil of Mr. Fitch ; and 
one which will, we imagine, set all who see it in quest of this beautiful coral- 
berried hardy evergreen. 
In September, 1864, Mr. Standish exhibited before the Floral Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society a specimen, in fruit, of this new hardy 
evergreen shrub, when it received, as it deserved, a first-class certificate. It was 
published immediately afterwards by Mr. Moore in the “ Gardeners’ Chronicle,” 
under the name we here adopt. As a decorative shrub it is immeasurably 
superior to the ordinary Skimmia japonica, as it is called, beautiful and in¬ 
teresting as that may be, in certain situations; for it produces berries of the 
brightest vermilion red, in contrast with rich green foliage, while that has both 
foliage and fruit dull-coloured. The plant, which was one of Mr. Fortune’s 
discoveries, must become a valuable acquisition for our gardens and shrubberies. 
On examination it has proved to be obviously distinct from all Skimmias 
yet known, in the remarkably oblate figure of its bright red berries, so very 
different from the oblong fruits of the Skimmias we have heretofore possessed. . 
It is also remarkably distinct in the form and texture of its foliage, as well as 
in habit. It is a free-growing plant, with dense clear green leaves, and erect- 
terminal panicles of white flowers, succeeded by bright-coloured berries nestling, 
amongst the foliage. We are assured by Mr. Standish that, unlike the other, 
species we cultivate, this bears exposure to the sun without injury. 
M_ 
CHRONICLES OF A TOWN GARDEN—No. XIX. 
Pelargoniums are over, and they are now reposing in the shade, ripening 
their w T ood preparatory to being cut down for cuttings. I omitted to mention, 
in my last paper that I also had Rose Celestial, Symmetry, small, but very 
bright; Fairest of the Fair, white, with pink blotch, a very free-flowering- 
variety ; and Mrs. Turner, a fancy variety, carmine rose, with white throat and. 
edges. 
Some plants of herbaceous Calceolarias occupy their places on the stage,, 
“over-canopied” with masses of vari-coloured flowers. I give them copious 
root-waterings about twice a-day, when the sun is shining brilliantly; the 
second libation—an evening one—is occasionally some weak liquid manure 
water. The foliage is strong, stout, and of a dark green colour—not “ sicklied 
o’er with the pale cast” of that yellowish green hue that betokens poverty at 
the roots, and too little moisture, manifested also in their flower-stalks and 
half-developed flow r ers. My plants are of the dw'arf spotted kinds, as they are 
generally denominated, after the style of those Mr. James, of Islew r orth, exhi¬ 
bits so successfully at the metropolitan exhibitions. My plants produce 
mainly light-coloured flowers—(I do not mean to imply that there is always a 
preponderance of light flowers in this strain; it may be merely an accident in 
my own case)—yet the flowers vary considerably in the marking, while they 
are always large, well-formed, and very showy. Calceolaria Sultan still con¬ 
tinues to yield me some dark crimson flowers, as a contrast to the lighter-* 
coloured ones of the dwarf spotted kinds. 
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