March 13.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
365 
fancying that the size of a plant or flower exhibits any proof 
of skill, while, unless accompanied by symmetry, compact¬ 
ness, uniformity, and complete health, it only shows the 
coarse notions of the exhibitor." 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
Some people are sadly offended at the diagrams of 
perfect Carnations and Picotces; but a writer in a 
country work misunderstands the question altogether. 
He discovers, in the Gardener's Magazine of Botany, a 
diagram of a flower that nature never can produce, and 
takes some pains to ridicule it on that account. It is 
very well understood by many first-rate florists, that the 
entire merit of “ the properties of flowers,” so called, is, 
that they set the florist to work in a right way. We are 
quite certain that the model laid down will not easily be 
equalled; but there can be no mistake in two facts, 
first, that if they were, it would be impossible to excel 
them ; and, secondly, that those which came nearest in 
qualities would be the best. It is merely labour in vain 
to tell us the thing is inqpossible, because the properties 
were laid down purposely as a standard which could not 
be reached ; but nobody can deny that those which come 
nearest the model are superior. Old florists, who pre¬ 
tended to give the criterion of a good flower, founded 
the excellence on some flower then considered the best; 
but what was the effect? There was no idea entertained 
of beating the best, because nobody knew what would 
make them better. Many of those, however, then con¬ 
sidered fine, have been thrown out of cultivation by 
some which excel them in all the properties. Some 
florists would limit the number of petals,—a convenient 
mode of keeping, or trying to keep, some double varieties 
in cultivation. 
The Society for the Promotion of Floriculture held 
their Kingsland Meeting on Tuesday, the 18th ult.; but 
the business was merely routine—electing judges and 
other officers, for which there was a strong competition ; 
j many eminently qualified having been proposed, though 
only six were elected. The severity of the judgment on 
new flowers in this Society has rendered it anything but 
popular among those who generally contrive to send out 
five times too many new things. 
What is the meaning of hardy ? is a question often 
asked, and for good reasons. Some answer, “ A plant 
that will live through our winters.” But there are many 
subjects which do not absolutely die, but all their 
spring growth is cut back, their bloom destroyed, and 
the plant so damaged as to want all the summer to re- 
J eruit their health. Deutzia scabra has for three springs 
I been cut back, the effect of which was to destroy the 
bloom. Some of Waterer’s Rhododendrons, in the open 
air, flower so early as always to fall a sacrifice. We 
rather lean to the opinion, that those plants which 
stand our winter and spring frosts, without losing their 
beauty, are alone entitled to the term hardy. 
A Rose Girdle was exhibited at the Horticultural 
Society’s Rooms, at a recent meeting; and it is just 
possible it may be a favourite. It is a zinc band, which 
goes round the rose and the stake; and at the ends 
where they meet, a nut and screw holds them fast. The 
band is used for a label. It is only necessary to rub on 
a coating of white paint, as we do on wood, and write 
the name with a pencil. A small plant label for pots, 
which is formed a little like a fiddle-head teaspoon 
handle, was also worth remarking, from its cheapness; 
they are retailed at two shillings per hundred. We have 
seen painted zinc, on which the paint and the name were 
as plain as when it was written, and it had been in use 
six years. It is far better to use paint and a pencil, than 
indelible ink, for it is not half the trouble; in fact, it is 
no more trouble than writing on wood, and it would last 
twenty years. E. Y. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Globe-headed Primrose (Primula capitatd). — Bota¬ 
nical Magazine, t. 4550.—Our favourite Primeworts were 
named as a genus by Linnaeus, from the diminutive of 
primus, the first or earliest; and a more expressive title 
is seldom to be met with than Primula, which, in its 
lowest and humblest forms, usher in and welcome the 
early spring in the northern and colder parts of the 
globe. At times, flowering from beneath a canopy of 
snow, as Douglassia on the Rocky Mountains, and thence 
down to the marshes and water-brooks in the centre of 
the vallies, and to the level of the ocean, in hedges or in 
groves, on the sunny side of the Alpine hill, ridge, and 
bank, and at other times on the bleak side of the barren 
heath. But the poetry of their existence must rather be 
gathered from the child of nature in the infant schools— 
The lisping babe coming in with a tiny handful of early 
Primeworts, collected by its own industry and prompted 
to the pleasant task by the pure voice of nature within 
him—is more of a true lover of nature than either bard, 
or minstrel, or botanist. As objects for the care of the 
cultivator, Primeworts rank high among those that are 
most highly prized by the florist, both on account of 
