May 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
127 
also a leaf and one flower of a cross seedling water-lily 
Nymphaa. It was said to be between Dentata and 
Rosea. The flower was deep rosy, and the leai dark 
brown, with darker blotches on it. 
The most curious plant at the exhibition was called 
Attaccia cristata on the tally, but it should have been 
Ataccia. It was sent by the Messrs. Rollinson, ot 
Tooting, and they bad it, I suppose, from the Hast 
Indies, or some of the eastern islands. A gentleman 
who examined this strange thing with me, declared that 
it could not be a native of this world at all; that it 
must be from the kingdom of the Water lcelpies, wher¬ 
ever that is; but how to describe it I hardly know, as 
we have nothing like it. The leaves look like those ot 
some Cauna or Hedichyum, but quite blunt lound the 
points; tliev are stalked, and tlie stalks rise irom the 
roots at once. From the roots rise also the flower-scape, 
like that of some lilywort, and the flowers are m a 
bunch at the top, but such flowers I never saw before; 
they were quite lelack, and in a cluster like some Hoya. 
At the back of this cluster were large spreading bracts 
like the sepals of some Cypripediums, forming what 
botanists call an involucre, and the way ot the flowers 
they call umbels; then between the umbel and the in¬ 
volucre issued lots of long bodies like air roots, which 
hung down like so many tails, putting one in mind of 
the tails hanging to the flowers of Angracum caudatum, 
and Oypripedium caudatum. Presl, a German botanist, 
was the first who classed such plants, and lie called 
them Taccads, or Taccacear, he also named this genus 
Ataccia, and by others these are arranged between 
bromelworts and blood-roots. The plant seems easy 
enough to grow, and it certainly is a great curiosity, and 
well worth having for its odd looks. 
! Among the plants shewn for their rarity, without 
I beino- in flower, I must mention two of great value and 
extreme rarity. Of one of them we lately gave a figure 
and biography —Fitzroya Patagomca. The other from 
the same regions is called Saxe-Gothea conspicua, after 
one of the titles of His Royal Highness Prince Albert. 
The Messrs. Veitcli’s emporium of great novelties sup¬ 
plied these also. There was another new plant belonging 
to Irids, and called Sibertia, which ‘took my fancy very 
much; it looks like a large Sisynnchium, and perhaps 
is one of them, for it is a very difficult genus to define 
The Orchids were never half so hue. The dark 
weather all through the spring seems to have helped 
them much, as many of the sorts were “ kept back 01 
weeks so as to be in time for this show, and others were, 
no doubt, forced in a hurry, but no one could make out; 
but the whole came out of their own accord, just m time 
to be seen that day. Their tent was oaded with then- 
fragrance; but, like the Heaths, it would lead one into a 
wilderness to attempt to give their names; besides. Mi. 
Appleby described the whole of them m these pa G es 
already The new Ansellia Africana was there, and we 
had it in Regent-street early in March, so that it is a 
lasting bloomer, besides being a good kind. Pliahmopsis 
grandiflora was not a shade better than the Amabile. 
Odontoglossum citrosmum improves every year. Ihe 
Dendrobes, the Aerides, the Saccolabiums, and the Cat¬ 
tle y as the same. O. Skinnerii and Mossuc were never 
seen finer than on this occasion, but they were all 
splendid, and much admired as usual. In stove plants, 
the Ixoras, the Clerodcndrons, Steplianotis, Iranciscea 
macrophylla, Gyrtoceras multijiorum, and Alamanda 
cathartica, with Vriesia speciosa, and Medimlla maynifua 
\ already mentioned, were most conspicuous, but almost all 
' the collections were made up of the best greenhouse 
i plants, among which azaleas and heaths are still ad¬ 
mitted; but it should not be so, seeing that classes and 
I premiums are set apart for them otherwise. The Erioste- 
I mens, Uompholobiums, Epacns, 1 alien seas, bun el , 
i l’olygalas, Chorezemas, Leschenaultias, Aphelexis, 13oio- 
nias, and such like beauties were in abundance, and in 
every large collection, and were never seen to better ad¬ 
vantage. Even the Hovea Celsii is now clothed from top 
to bottom, and full of flowers, although only a few years 
back no one could hardly shew it without bare legs and 
arms. The Wild Gape Geraniums were hardly good 
enough to be seen; indeed, they are not fit lor such 
work ; but if the same pains were taken to cross them 
as is shown in attempts to grow them into specimens, 
the result would be far otherwise. The grand wedding 
at Stafford House made a sad hole in the fruit tent, but 
who would grudge it for such an occasion; and next 
month we shall have Mr. Errington up to say where the 
improvements in this quarter are most conspicuous. 
1 D. Beaton. 
PITS AND HOUSES. 
Those who wish to be gay during the summer will 
feel the want of these conveniences now, by the supply 
they possess in many cases not coming nearly up to the 
wished-for demand. Many inquiries connected with 
the economical and the useful, as respects these struc¬ 
tures, have reached us; and as this is the best ot all 
seasons for setting about their construction, I hope to 
meet a number of cases by a solution of the following 
questions. ^ ^ earth an( j turf pits as useful as 
you have represented them to be? Quite so : aucl this 
is a flue season for making them, as the walls will be 
solid before winter. Turf will enable you to build the 
walls easier, but earth or clay well rammed will be just 
as effectual, only you will not be able to have the walls 
quite so straight without the assistance ot some stion G 
wooden posts, and a few rails in addition would bo an 
improvement. These pits answer best when the walls 
are low, say from 0 to 15 inches high m rout, and horn 
18 inches to 3 feet in height at the back By making 
them now, the walls will become so solid, that you may 
easily render them waterproof before winter by a coating 
of tar, as previously recommended. Ihe trout wal 
should especially be done, to prevent the wet soaking m 
from the drip of sashes, and any other make-shift con¬ 
veniences. If the ground is raised in iront, so as to 
slope from the top of the wall, and the slope is tanred 
over, all danger in this respect may bo guarded against. 
Throw some dry road drift on the tar, and in a few days 
all will be solid; and another advantage will be that 
rats and mice will bo hard 11)1 before they attempt to go 
through, or locate themselves near the walls, lor 
greenhouse plants in summer, and being turned then 
into slight forcing conveniences if so wanted, ioi pie 
serving a good stock of salads, and the tenderer vege¬ 
tables in winter ; for enabling you to take many Bungs 
from your greenhouse in spring, when out ot bloom, 
and as y a repository at that period for those plants you 
wish for baskets or beds, by either pricking them out 
into nice light soil, of which decayed leaves or very 
rotten dung forms a part, or placing the plants in soil, 
after mossing them, as lately advised, these pits aie 
truly valuable ; and for all these purposes, provided the 
expense of a good rail was gone to, at back and fiont 
for the sashes, or different lands ot covering to lest 
upon —the best covering being a waterproofed sub- 
qfnn0P _I should prefer them to brick pits. 
Whilst on the subject, I may mention that when a few 
years have to be reckoned on, the cheapest and neatest pio- 
tecting medium, either with or without glass, are wooden 
shutters, made of half-inch yellow deal ; it to coyer glass, 
the size of the sash, and an edging all round ot an inch 
in depth, so as to enclose a body ot air between the 
Mass \uid the wood covering. This would not be le- 
qHired where wood was the only protecting medium, 
and no glass used. Some years ago, the proprietoi ot a 
