November 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
85 
shaded situation; it has been in full bloom hero 
since the end of May. 
Of calceolarias there are five kinds of yellow ones 
in good bloom yet, and two reddish brown ones, one 
of them being the Kentish Hero. Viscosissima 
will do no good on our soil, and is the only calceo¬ 
laria that does not. Where it answers there is none 
better for a large bed; what I use instead of it—that 
is, in largo beds—is one called corymbosa , and I 
believe a wild species, or at all events the first or 
second cross from a wild shrubby one. Those who 
attended the July exhibitions of the London Horti¬ 
cultural Society would have seen splendid masses of 
this calceolaria at the Duke of Devonshire’s gardens 
at Chiswick. The next best yellow one to this is the 
camparatively new one called amplexicaulis. Most 
of the ladies call this the best bedding calceolaria we 
have. It is, indeed, a most beautiful thing for a bed, 
and the most sulphur-coloured in the whole family. 
The secret of its being so much admired, however, is 
the softness of its foliage, and the close habit of its 
growth. It is also the poor man’s bedding calceo¬ 
laria, as, if he keeps but one plant of it over the 
winter, it will furnish him with stock enough to plant 
a good sized bed in a few weeks in the spring by 
cuttings, which root as fast as those of the verbenas. 
There is another one called hay'd, a dwarf sort, with 
orange yellow blossoms, a fine thing for a pot and 
bed. This and corymbosa, with the Kentish Hero, 
are excellent plants to remove from the flower-beds 
into pots in October for flowering in the greenhouse 
or in cool rooms, but heat at this season is very dis¬ 
agreeable to them. Although viscosissima refuses to 
grow with me here, it is also a good one to pot for 
the same purpose. 
Petunias. — Our stock of these has just done 
blooming, except three sorts: Devoniensis, the best 
purple one for a large bed, with the eye filled up by 
the transformation of a couple of the stamens into 
small petals ; Shrubland rose, the best of that colour, 
and with a white eye; and Latter’s large white, also 
a very good one for a large bed; but a dwarf white 
petunia for small beds is still a desideratum. We 
have given up bedding any petunias but those of 
very distinct colours; but some of the mottled ones 
make pretty masses, only they arc out of fashion in 
flower-gardens. 
Scarlet Geraniums. —Many of these were just in 
their prime at the end of the month, but they are so 
numerous that I cannot notice one half of those we 
cultivate for various purposes ; besides, it is really of 
very little use to give a selected list of them at any 
time, because they are much influenced by soil and 
locality. Those that look splendid in one place may 
only be third-rate in another situation. There is a 
dwarf one, called Tom Thumb, which is one of the 
very best in the vicinity of London and other places, 
but here it is only third-rate. The old Frogmore 
scarlet has had more extended cultivation than any 
other variety, a proof that it is not so capricious 
about soil as many of them. It would only look 
respectable here with one-half the bed of rotten 
manure, and so with many others; hence the reason 
why so many gardeners took to raising seedlings of 
this class; and it has been known to us for years 
that out of a number of seedlings raised at one 
place, some of them would do better in that soil than 
anywhere else. The strong one called Shrubland 
scarlet does better in beds here than I ever saw it 
elsewhere ; but at Sion House, and one or two other 
places near London, they grow it larger in pots than 
I have been able to do. Mr. Smith, of Dalston, who 
rents his nursery-ground of Sir W. Middleton, sent 
tins plant first into the trade by the name of Smith’s 
Emperor, or Superb, I forget which. One peculiarity 
of it is, that it will reproduce itself invariably from 
seeds, except in the texture of the leaf, and that 
sports into three forms, one of them being a slightly 
marked horse-shoe. On this slight foundation three 
other names have lately been reared, so that the old 
“ Shrubland Scarlet ” may now bo had under five 
distinct names. I have a great-grandson from it, 
called Punch, and in our soil is the finest of all the 
thousands that we have tried; and, what is singular 
enough, it also comes true from seeds; but it is one 
of the capricious ones, for in many situations it is 
only third-rate. I once counted 173 flowers in one 
truss of Punch ; and 120 is the common run with us 
Our stock of this one variety is about five thousand 
plants, and yet it will not answer to be grown on 
Harry Moor’s plan. For this mode of treatment we 
use Tom Thumb and Judi; the latter is a mere trifle 
as to the size of its truss of flowers, but the trusses 
are so thickly produced as to hide all the leaves; be¬ 
sides, it is a great favourite with the ladies, owing to 
its peculiar shade of colour, being what they term 
“a true geranium colour;” that is, a shade between 
a scarlet and rose. By this time “Punch and Judi” 
must be in every county in the three kingdoms, for 
almost all the visitors to these gardens for the last 
five years took away cuttings of them. But of all the 
varieties of geraniums, scarlet or otherwise, the old 
Golden Chain is the most fickle; I can trace it back 
full sixty years, and although every one who has seen 
it in a flourishing state would wish to possess it, one 
can hardly meet with it anywhere. 1 knew it do re¬ 
markably well in one place in the north of Scotland, 
five and twenty years since. I tried it in vain in the 
west of England and other places, but here it “grows 
like a weed.” In the London nurseries and gardens 
it will hardly hold a leaf. I sent it to the Horticul¬ 
tural Society, and to several of the nurserymen long 
since, to Mr. Appleby’s employers among the rest, 
and I doubt if a score of them could yet be bought 
in that quarter. It has created more interest here 
amongst visitors than all the other plants we grow 
put together, and after all it only produces nine or 
ten little trumpery scarlet blossoms on a truss. The 
beauty of the golden variegated leaves is what is so 
much admired. After the scarlet geraniums, the next 
best of the tribe for large beds is a light pink one 
called The Salmon. This might be called the poor 
man’s bedder, as it is the easiest of the race to pre¬ 
serve through the winter, will grow well in any soil 
or situation, and is the easiest of them to manage 
through the summer. Another recommendation of 
it is, that it does not seed if left to itself. I have 
been obliged to discard some good seedlings owing 
to their bad habit of constantly producing seeds, and 
that feature is the greatest fault with many of the 
best sorts in cultivation. I have a fine cross seed¬ 
ling from this Salmon, called Cherry-cheek, a great 
favourite with ladies, but unfortunately it is a shy 
bloomer, and I can only recommend it for a breeder. 
The truss is good, the form of the flower is also 
good, and the colour is novel, and is very much 
admired. It will come in as the fourth shade in 
a bed planted on the principle of shading, or say 
the White Horse-shoe first, Lucia rosea second, Lilac 
nosegay third, and Cherry-cheek fourth. ’The next 
shade is that of Judi, but unfortunately our Judi is a 
dumpy, and would be overtopped by either the lilac 
nosegay or cherry-cheek, and Compaction is far too 
red for this row, although it would come in very 
