162 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
With the Calceolarias are grouped some Petunias, both double and single. 
Of the former Elize Matthieu, mauve and crimson, spotted with white ; 
Inimitable, crimson purple, margined with white ; Leviathan, purplish crimson : 
Magna Alba, pure white ; and Magnificens, large rosy lilac. Of single flowers, 
the old Countess of Ellesmere, deep rose, with white throat; Crimson Gem, 
velvety crimson, with dark throat; Heine Hortense, white, striped with purple ; 
and Jean Hans, light rose. These all are very pretty, free-flowering, and showy 
kinds. The plants were grown strongly until they became pot-bound, and now 
they bloom profusely. I water them very freely, and though the foliage 
betrays evidence that they are bound at the roots, yet they have copious heads 
of flower, which, in some of the dwarfer plants, entirely screens the rusty foliage 
from sight. I am of opinion that Petunias are somewhat impatient of imperfect 
drainage : for instance, I have seen sickly plants standing in windows, in 
saucers filled with water, the foliage being very small and pale in colour, and 
the flowers ill-developed. I give my plants plenty of water when they are 
dry, as it can freely drain away, and the result is highly satisfactory. 
Japan Lilies are as yet only in bud, but fast going on towards blooming. 
The pots are now filled up with a layer of rotten manure, about 4 inches in 
thickness, and the strong rootlets that issue from the flower-stalk are piercing 
it, and discovering its rich veins of vegetative wealth. I do not know whether 
my experience has been general or not, but certainly my Lilies have not done 
well. I have lost by rot (a kind of semi-dry rot), all my continental bulbs, and 
among them were two bulbs of Lilium lancifolium punctatum, which I had 
expressly obtained from the continent for trial. The only plants I have left— 
two of L. lancifolium roseum and two of album—are small English-grown 
bulbs. I cannot understand why the great bulbs of continental origin should 
decay as they do; for it has happened to others as well as to myself; but I 
think it possible they are allowed to get too dry by our seedsmen. They keep 
them in some substance, such as moss or silver sand, and they are apt to become 
shrivelled, and this rot ensues at the base of the bulbs. I have known them 
perish in this manner soon after they reached England. Should I try con¬ 
tinental bulbs again, I shall keep them in moistened cocoa -nut fibre, and I shall 
not attempt to pot them until they begin to start into growth. I have known 
growers of L. lancifolium keep their bulbs in the blooming-pots of the previous 
year, until the time for gathering had arrived, and they would be in the 
finest condition possible. 
But then some disappointment or failure will inevitably come. Were it 
always a series of successes I think that a true florist’s enthusiasm would some¬ 
times decay. It is indispensable there should be some difficulties to conquer, 
or to submit to, in order to give a zest to his keen appetite. Men often make 
most important discoveries when they are manfully working to turn into 
successes baffled endeavours. I remember the old war song of bygone political 
achievements— 
“-Freedom’s battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won ; 
and so it is with the florist. Dismayed and discouraged often, yet these very 
reverses are like stepping-stones across the stream of his adversity; they, in 
their aggregate influence, are the Greatlieart that leads him along his pil¬ 
grimage, and beyond he sees, where he least expected it, the signs of his 
coming conquest; and in his own little sphere fidelity and devotion go as far to 
make up the sum of his successes, as it does in any great God-given work that 
the world of His creation, and the creatures of His handiwork, have been 
commissioned by Him to accomplish. . Quo. 
