I March 20.] THE COTTAGE 
the chair, there were a goodly number of members pre¬ 
sent. The chief subjects of discussion were the threatened 
infliction of two more dealers’ societies for giving cha¬ 
racters to new flowers, by which the amateur purchaser 
of novelties has been already so severely taken in, and 
a series of articles which are going through one of the 
periodicals, and which are considered grossly deceptive, j 
The list purports to be a statement of what flowers may 
be purchased, and what should be avoided. In Pinks it 
displays the greatest ignorance and injustice, and it was | 
unanimously denounced as a gross attack on trade. It 
was properly remarked, that there could be no objection 
to any man, however ignorant he may be of the subject) 
giving his opinion, and recommending good ones, or 
such as he considers good; but for any man to condemn 
a long list of flowers that on his dictum we are to avoid, 
is perfectly unjustifiable, and more especially as there 
are among them many better than those, he says, are 
good. It was observed, truly, that the dogmatical tone 
assumed by the writer would come ill enough from any 
one of experience; but from one who necessarily acts 
from hearsay, and is made the catspaw of a few favourite 
dealers, it could not be too much reprobated. 
Mr. Bucknell explained a method of -producing bottom heal 
for growing Pines, which he had successfully adopted. It 
consisted of an iron hot-water pipe, and return in the pit 
which was then two-thirds filled with very large stones as big 
as four-pound loaves; then a layer or two of smaller ones ; 
and within a foot of the top a layer of peat turfs, top down¬ 
wards, and on these the proper thickness of soil in which to 
plant the Pines. These stones once heated retain heat a 
long time, even if the fire were let out. The heat thus 
attained can he kept at 100° with ease. Means were also 
pointed out to supply moisture and steam ; it saved the entire 
expense and trouble of tan. Mr. Lockhart called attention 
to the numerous varieties of carlg Tulips which were now 
rapidly advancing towards flower in the open air, and to the 
j great diversity of colour which they comprised, having, as lie 
observed, far greater extent of colours than the late choice 
kinds, and blooming before many of the other early bulbs. 
It was announced that the Kingsland Branch of the Society 
would meet to elect three judges on the 18tli instant, to 
complete the board of twelve ; and that the meetings for the 
show of seedlings would take place the first Tuesdays at 
their rooms Salisbury Square, and the third Tuesdays at 
Kingsland, through the season. 
At the last meeting of the South London Floricultural 
I Society the report was more favourable as regarded the 
j funds; and above twenty pounds were ordered for dis¬ 
tribution in prizes for their April show. 
The Royal Botanical Society having found the advan¬ 
tage of the extensive show of American plants, are this 
I ® 
year experimentalizing on Roses. 
Messrs. Paul, Rivers, and Lane, have each made a planta¬ 
tion bed. We doubt exceedingly whether they will succeed 
in producing flowers half so fine as they anticipate ; and if 
they fall short much, it will have a bad effect on buyers. 
I Our opinion is that they will not bloom in perfection in that 
locality. American plants are very different. In the olden 
I time, when the present site of the gardens was a nursery, 
I they could always grow Americans well, and could not grow 
| Roses at all. Whether it is better drained now, or a soil 
better adapted may assist them a little, remains to be seen. 
They are to be shaded, to prolong the bloom, if there should 
: be any. 
Some of the rose dealers complain of the papers that have 
appeared in a contemporary, recommending those Roses ODly 
which continue in flower all the summer and autumn, and 
say that it has greatly damaged the sale of those which only 
GARDENER. 379 
bloom a month. But exhibitors must not forget that it is 
on those very rejected Roses they must depend for the grand 
specimens which are exhibited in June and early in July. 
We cannot show twenty-four sorts at these exhibitions with¬ 
out summer Roses. Continuous bloomers are excellent for 
the garden, but not for single blooms. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Rogier’s Barbacenia (Barhacenut Roc/ierii). — Gar¬ 
dener’s Magazine of Botany, ii. 209.—This genus was 
named by a Portuguese botanist, Vandelli, in a work on 
Brazilian plants, in compliment to Don Barbaceua, 
then Governor of Minas Geraes; and the specific name 
was lately given in Belgium, in compliment to M. Rogier, 
one of the cabinet ministers of King Leopold, to whose 
memory a genus of Cinclionads lias also lately been 
instituted by Dr. Blanchon, called Rogiera, with ter¬ 
minal heads of fine red rosy flowers, after the manner of 
the old Ixora coccinea, but, apparently, a plant much 
less difficult of management. 
The Barbacenias belong to a small natural order of plants, 
proposed by Dr. Brown about forty years since, called Blood 
Roots (HmmodoracesE), a term suggested by a genus named 
by Sir J. E. Smith, Hasmodorum, from haima, or airnn, blood, 
and doron, a gift; in allusion to the roots or bulb-like conns, 
which are used as food by the natives of the Swan River 
settlement. When roasted, they are said, to be wholesome 
and nutritious, though harsh and acrid in the raw state. 
Blood Roots become thus a natural gift to the poor benighted 
heathens in Australia. They occupy a midstation between 
Irids on the one hand, and Lily-worts and Amaryllids on the 
other. Those of them which more immediately come nearest 
to Irids, in being triandrous, or possessed of three stamens 
only, have the opening of the pollen anthers facing the 
style; while iu the true Irids the anthers are always faced 
away from the style. But such as are liexandrous, or have 
six stamens, like the Lily and Amaryllis, do not show the 
usunl distinction between the sepals and petals, and yet have 
their leaves always equitant, or edge to edge, as in Irids. 
Besides, in most instances, the flowers are covered with a 
woolly down, as in Anigozanthus. Here it may be useful to 
I remark, that Blood Roots are divided into tlnee natural sec- 
