170 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Junk 17 . 
sufficient to cover ten times the extent of ground occu¬ 
pied by them in the manner here spoken of. 
Whenever this style of gardening, or any modification 
of it shall come to be fashionable, it will be found that 
the practical details are already ripe in the minds of gar¬ 
deners. As the great experiment, however, is to be first 
tried with the Crystal Palace, people will rest on their 
oars for a while to see how that turns out, before much 
is done beyond Mr. Rivers’s orchard-house scheme, and 
that for roses by the Horticultural Society. Meantime, 
it would be well if gardeners, who have not yet thought 
much about this plan, would turn their attention to the 
subject, and so prepare their minds for what is certainly 
coming. 
I do not hear of anything very new, or particularly 
good for bodding-out about London. The two Oenothe¬ 
ras, speciosa, and cccspitosa, particularly the first, have 
now got vent once more, and parties will be more care¬ 
ful of it for the future. There was a very nice new, or 
“ herbaceous plant,” called Trollius chinensis, exhibited 
at the May exhibition of the Botanic Society, a native of 
China, and next thing to a ranunculus. It is a half¬ 
double flower, with bright yellow blossoms as large as 
those of the European trollius, and if it is a cultivated 
plant in China, take my word for it, that a good florist 
might easily turn it to some good purpose. The double¬ 
ness appeared to me to he got by cultivation, and why 
should we not have double trolliuses, as well as double 
ranunculuses, for the difference between the two is not 
so much as that between a red herring and a Yarmouth 
bloater. Mr. Standish, of Bagshot, was the exhibitor, 
and it is with him that all the recent novelties from 
China must be looked for. A new race, or a new plant 
that would yield to the requirements of a good florist, as 
Trollius would be sure to do, would be a good windfall 
to them, as most of the new things they have been 
claiming for years past do not add much to their laurels. 
They made a mess of the calceolarias; spoiled the 
fuchsias; the cinerarias are going back as fast as ever 
they advanced; mimuluses and snapdragons they have 
been breeding in real earnest, and got nothing better 
than a turn of the lip; while the aquilegias, which 
sport as freely as the dahlia, without help or encourage¬ 
ment, have been left entirely to one individual, Mr. 
Grigor, a nurseryman near Forres, beyond the Gram¬ 
pians, and be only retails the sort that was considered 
old at Brodie when I lived at Altyre, five or six and j 
twenty years ago, just when Mr. Grigor first “broke ] 
ground” for his nursery; but aquilegias are capable of | 
better things, nevertheless; and we ought to have whole 
collections of them offered for sale every season or two, j 
so as to keep in pace with the Larkspurs, and others of J 
the good old-fashioned plants. 
By the way, I have to return thanks publicly to a lady I 
near Guildford for another supply of the true old blue I 
branching Larkspur, and which 1 am assured is just the 
very thing I wanted. The seedlings are up, and wo 
shall soon be put out of all doubts about them. 
Having now got home to my own garden, I must say | 
how I have secured lots of nice varieties, which I owe 
to the kindness of strangers and friends. I had more 
plants sent to me about the end of April than I had 
spare ground to do justice to, and I thought on my Suf¬ 
folk friend’s plan of saving geraniums through the 
winter, and that founded on it for sending out plants to 
Australia. It will be recollected that I suggested experi¬ 
ments to be tried on this system through the summer, to 
see how far it was applicable for home use, little dream¬ 
ing at the time that I could have any materials for the 
experiment myself; but so it is, and just now I have 
the nicest lot anybody could wish for, going on to my 
satisfaction, all packed in damp moss balls, and I can 
move them about as I choose, as if they were in pots, 
and I have no trouble with them. One friend sent me 
a nice collection of dwarf hardy bulbs, chiefly spring 
flowers; many were in flower when unpacked, others 
have flowered since, and all of them are seeding with 
mo in the moss hall. Among them is an European Cy¬ 
clamen, marked “ twenty years old ” on the tally. There 
were three seed-pods forming on this bulb, if I may so 
call it; when it came, the leaves were just over, and if I 
had never heard of bow to manage cyclamens beforo, 
this root would have taught me. Certainly these cycla¬ 
mens should never be dried; mine was packed in the 
wet moss, and the moss has been quite wet to this day, 
and I examined the root this morning, and found the 
seed-pods full-grown, and as fresh as the pods of green- 
peas ; and what is more curious, they were turning 
colour, indicating the time of ripeness, although placed 
in perfect darkness in the middle of a hall of moss, and 
the whole root and rootlets were as plump and fresh as 
if the plant was in full leaf. Now, I am almost sure that 
whole collections of Ixias, Oxalises, and all other green¬ 
house and frame bulbs could be grown in little balls of 
fresh moss kept moderately damp, without any pots at 
all, and that with one-half the trouble and care they 
require in pots and peat earth. You could place, or 
rather pack the halls on a shelf, as close together as pos¬ 
sible, the moment they were potted in October, and 
after giving them one good watering, if they were safe 
from frost, you might go to Italy for the winter, and he 
quite at ease 'about your bulbs till next March. On 
your return, if the tops were interfering with each other, 
you would undo the packing, and distribute your bulbs 
according to your room or fancy, and if you did but 
water the moss once a week or so, the whole would 
bloom, ripen, and seed as well as if you had been tied 
down to their individual culture since last October. 
But my experiment is not carried out to tho point I sug¬ 
gested, and I must repeat it, and I should he very glad in¬ 
deed to hear how it turns out. Take any of your over¬ 
stock plants, shake the soil from the roots, pack them (the j 
roots) in a ball of moss, then plunge the hall in water, j 
let it drain a little, and put it in a bladder or some water- ; 
proof covering, and see how long it will do without more ! 
water. D. Beaton. 
A FEW HARD-WOODED PLANTS. 
I have introduced these here, to meet the case of en¬ 
quiries lately made, and also because little attention 
has hitherto been given to them. 
Boronia sebrdlata. —This species, as well as all its 
brother species and varieties, so far as we are aware, are 
natives of the vast continental island of New Holland, i 
Tho Flora, and the climate of this vast region, are 
becoming every day better known. Thanks to the gold- j 
diggings, and the fertility of the soil, the differences that 
obtain in the different colonies will soon be as well - 
known as the distinguishing features of our own 
counties. As yet, we have not obtained that information, 
and what has been communicated, is too generally in¬ 
cluded in volumes beyond our reach. All accounts 
ugree, that there is a considerable difference in climate 
between New South Wales, Australia, and such settle¬ 
ments as.that along the Swan River. The climate and 
the fertility, even of each colony, are greatly influenced 
by locality— whether as being placed near the coast, on 
tho rising grounds, or the almost boundless plains of 
tho interior. This we are apt to forget, when we grow 
a collection of New Holland plants, and what is worse, 
when we want auy definite information, such as might 
he obtained from tho works of Messrs. Lahillardiere and 
Brown, unfortunately we cannot have them at our elbows. 
The very low temperature which plants endure in that 
region, at times, for which wo have well-vouched 
evidence, instead of being a safe guido for us to rest 
upon, has often proved a regular will-with-the-wisp to 
