240 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
July 16 . 
cumstances it would be both a waste of fruit and an in¬ 
convenient amount of artificial beat if extremes were 
constantly resorted to ; all we can say is, be sure to con¬ 
tinue at all times an ample supply of air moisture from 
one source or other; too much can scarcely be supplied 
to the pine. 
Light is the great ruling agent; the heat apportioned 
to it, and the moisture to the heat. These are the 
fundamental principles of hothouse management, and 
the exceptions are few indeed. 
Let every one avail himself of solar heat if attainable; 
the neglect of this involves bad economy, and forces the 
cultivator to employ a medium by no means so general. 
R. Ebrington. 
HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION, REGENT’S 
PARK.—JUNE 30th. 
This, the third and last exhibition of the season, in 
the garden of the Royal Botanical Society, at the 
Regent’s Park, was quite as full of plants, and as gay in 
flowers as any of this season; the blaze made by the 
Azaleas in May, was sustained to day by Cape Heaths. 
The fancy Geraniums, and the great Pelargoniums, were 
fully as good, if not better, than they were at either of I 
the ocher two previous exhibitions. The large collections 
of stove aud greenhouse plants were very rich in well- 
grown specimens, and Mrs. Lawrence came in only as 
second best in this class. Mr. Cole carried off the 
premier prize of the day triumphantly this time; it 
was not a race of heads or necks, but of full lengths, 
and something more. The worst plant in England to 
grow well, Roella ciliata, was the largest and best grown 
plant of the kind ever exhibited, and the best specimen 
of good gardening at this exhibition; it was in Mr. 
Cole’s large collection. We must not confound this, old 
as it is, with the genus Ruellia, which sounds so much 
like it. Roella is a genus of Bellworts, and Ruellia one 
of the Acanthads. To know or describe a new species 
of Ruellia is one of the most difficult things a botanist 
takes in hand, because the species are so numerous, and 
come so near to each other. But there is no difficulty | 
in the genus for gardeners, as no Ruellia is at all difli- ; 
cult to grow or propagate; while a tyro in botany could j 
make out a Roella almost at first sight. It is questionable ! 
if there are ten gardeners in England who could grow I 
Roella ciliata in the way that Mr. Cole brought out this 
splendid specimen of it, nearly a yard across, and 
trained as they do the great pelargoniums. I recollect, j 
some years ago, the Messrs. Frazer, of Lea Bridge 
Nursery, having exhibited a specimen of it at Chiswick, 
in as good bloom as we had it here, but the specimen 
was not near so large. Schubertia graveolens , a fine 
stove climber, belonging to the Asclepiads, was spelled 
Shubertia. M. Mirbel of Paris called the deciduous 
cypress, Schubertia; it is so called in some English 
books; and Blume called Horsfieldia an umbellifer-Sehu- | 
bertia. All this mixture and bad spelling is apt to lead 
one astray when Schubertia is spoken of. Be it known, 
therefore, that the Asclepiad Schubertia is the true one; 
that it is a most profuse and lasting bloomer, a stove 
climber, and that one might be excused for mistaking it j 
for Stephanotis Jloribunda, looking only at the flowers | 
with a cursory glance. As an instance of sleek pedantry, 
we had here the old Madagascar periwinckle, Vinca 
rosea and alba, two or three times called Gatharanthus — 
what next ? Who is to write “ Cottage Gardeners' Dic¬ 
tionaries” every year, to keep pace with all this routing 
out of synonynies; and why not call the red Vinca, 
Gatharanthus, and the white one, Lochnera, or Pervinca, 
for the one is as lawful as the other, as you may see in 
any good arrangement of genera under Vinca; but I 
saw something much more to the purpose, under one 
Vinca, at this show—it was a compact, and comparatively 
a small plant, with the largest and best coloured flowers 
I ever saw of the sort. The plant must have been 
seven or eight years old, judging from the size of the 
stem and colour; it must have been cut in every year 
as hard as ever a geranium was pruned; at last the 
plant got so old, that it gave up the long growth peculiar 
to young plants of it. The shoots bloomed near homo, 
as we say, or near the main stem, and the great strength 
of the roots was thrown into the bloom, instead of being 
expanded in two-feet shoots, as you often see young 
plants do; here is an excellent hint for young beginners, 
as all we of the old school thought that a three-year-old 
Vinca was at its prime. Pentas carnea is another fine 
plant which requires exactly the same treatment as 
these Vincas, and a much better plant; but no one brings 
it to an exhibition now. I saw a plant of it in Mr. 
Jackson’s nursery, next door to me, which was as good 
as any plant at this exhibition. Perhaps Pentas may 
be more apt to go off in the winter—but Vincas are 
ticklish in a damp house. A tall vinery, where grapes 
are kept till February, is the best place to winter such 
plants, and also the soft Clerodendrons, and, indeed, 
many such ; an intermediate house for orchids, where 
the plants are kept quite dry in winter, is the next best 
place for them, and they should not be pruned until the 
very week you want to begin their growth, and after 
pruning they should not be shook out of the old soil, 
nor get much water until they have made a slight 
growth. Try them on this .plan, and let us see how old 
they must be before they show such marked improve¬ 
ment in the dwarfer growth and larger blossoms, as 
this Vinca has shown us may be the case. Ladies go 
to the shows to see fine flowers, and what-not; but young 
gardeners ought rather to go to learn more about their 
business, and to generalize on, what others might think, 
very simple things. The fancy geraniums, and the 
ladies who admire them so much, had full aud free 
justice done them on this occasion; they were separated 
from the great pelargoniums for the first time in my ex¬ 
perience, and a collection of other and very different 
kinds of plants put between them, and the best of it was, 
that this intermediate collection was of such idauls as 
must attract general attention. So that you went to 
either class of geraniums with that freshness of mind, 
if I may so speak, which never fails to give us the full 
enjoyment of scenes in landscape, as ■well as of the 
different groups of plants at exhibitions. 
These fancy geraniums are always about their prime 
at the last shows here and at Chiswick, and those families 
who leave London before the July shows lose the best 
treat of the season. The bestfaucy here, in the way of 
Anais, is Madame Rosati, or Rosatii: there were three 
splendid specimens of it. Triumphans, as at the other 
shows, is the most scarlet of them ; but one called 
Beauty Supreme is nearly as high in colour, with a much 
better habit and more profusion in bloom, therefore I 
put it first and Triumphans second in the high-coloured 
ones. The nearest approach to white in this class is 
Henderson’s Delicatum. I have a whiter one of my own 
seedlings, called The Countess, but not so good a bloomer. 
I know ladies have a dislike to white flowers unless 
they are pure white. I wanted to call my seedling Lady 
Middleton, as it was the finest I ever had, but her lady¬ 
ship would not accept the compliment; the flower or 
colour was “ too faint,” but until we get a clear white 
flower, let us grow Delicatum extensively, to make a 
variety. The very dark and ugly brown ones are fast 
disappearing, and a new race of fancies is taking their 
places, and the improvement is beyond comparison 
already. I place this race as follows: —1. Hero of 
Surrey; 2, Rolland Cashel; 3, Annie, fine; 4, Cabrera; 
6, Richard Cobden ; 0, Punch ; 7, Pilot; and 8, Flora 
Ale Tver ; and of seedlings, Madame Sontag and Ne plus 
ultra belong to this section. The figures here are not 
I 
