MAY. 
153 
The colour is of equal delicacy and beauty; the outer narrow 
petals are of a light transparent green, the broad inner ones are pure 
white; the stamens, which are exquisitely arranged, are of a rich deep 
yellow; the pistil, which is remarkable in its characters, is of a 
delicate light yellow: this pistil is, in fact, a large open tube, three- 
eighths of an inch in diameter, with its tube hollow, the whole way 
down, full one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The scent is delicate. 
The flower begins to bloom about 7 PM., is not fully expanded before 
11 P.M., and begins to close not later than 4 A.M., next morning. 
The plant itself is further remarkable for the long and thick aerial 
roots which grow from its whole length ; its main nourishment seems 
derived, through these, from the atmosphere. 
s. 
WHAT IS LOAM? 
The diversity of soil and the peculiarities of climate existing in 
England, although noticed generally, have not yet been locally or accu¬ 
rately described with reference to the advantages, or otherwise, they offer 
in a horticultural point of view. In some counties in England, the fall 
of rain trebles that of others ; in some localities are vast unbroken tracts 
of tenacious clay, making for the locality a clay climate, a thing yet 
undescribed ; in other places are ranges of dry hills and plains of sand 
and gravel, and few writers on horticulture vary their recommendations 
sufficiently to suit the different circumstances presented by the face of 
the country thus broadly indicated ;—hence, amateur gardeners, who 
aspire to vineries and orchard houses, on consulting their treatises, find, 
that for the formation of a Vine border or for potting fruit trees, a good 
sound loam is recommended, and they soon feel that a difficulty has 
presented itself at the outset of their horticultural career, for nothing 
in their neighbourhood answers to their ideas of a good sound loam. 
The case of a neighbour who is ambitious of sitting “in the shadow of 
his Vine and Fig tree,” will illustrate my remarks. In describing his 
neighbourhood, and directing him in his search for the soil he requires, 
I shall, perhaps, be able to convey some information to those who, like 
him, want “ a good sound loam.” My friend’s garden is situated in a 
north midland county, and he happens to be located on the lias clay 
formation, where that particular form of clay is very blue, and very 
deep, and very retentive. The old pastures in his neighbourhood afford 
a few inches of modified clay, dark and rich, and slightly friable, but 
without stones or grit to keep it open ; heaped together it reverts almost 
to its normal state. This is not loam, and certainly not Vine-growing 
soil. A few miles distant from this clay district are swelling undulations, 
approaching, perhaps, to the dignity of hills, and these hills are partly 
composed of a reddish stone, called marl stone, on their flat summits ; 
the stone, by the action of the weather, and the actively decomposing 
power of vegetation, has been converted into soil to the depth of a foot 
or so. The colour of the stone denotes the existence of iron, in fact it 
is ferrugineous ; a freshly-turned sod exhibits to the eye the charac- 
