November 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
87 
better than place themselves in the hands of one of 
the respectable nurserymen who grow them largely. 
If convenient, you would enjoy a treat by choosing 
yourself when the plants are fully in bloom. As a 
guide, fix chiefly on those whose outline is circular; 
petals broad, even, well rounded at the points ; centre 
well elevated, well filled with petals, without show¬ 
ing confusion; disk or centre completely covered, not 
exposed as in semi-double flowers ; but many of the 
quilled and reflexed varieties, though not agreeing 
with this description, arc extremely beautiful and 
desirable. For those who cannot choose for them¬ 
selves, the following list, we think, would meet their 
approbation : — Adventure, bright yellow; Annie 
Salter, paler yellow; Argo, yellow; Bride, blush, 
large; Brunette, bronze; Bijou, white tipped, small 
but pretty; Campestroni, line purple; Celestial, 
blush; Chancellor, shaded white, quilled; David, 
yellow; Demosthenes, bronze and buff'; Defiance, 
white ; Due de Conigliano, pinkish brown; Elvira, 
yellowish pink; General Morceaux, dark buff; Gou- 
vain St. Cyr, buff orange; General Laborde, lilac; 
Harrison’s Queen Victoria, pink; Incomparable, 
buff; Insignis, lilac; Julius Csesar, dull red ; Louis 
Philippe, pink ; Madame Saltier, rosy red ; Minerva, 
quilled, buff, large, and fine; Madame Pompadour, 
light lilac; Marie Antoinette, salmon and fawn; 
Orion, creamy white ; Perfection, lilac ; Phidias, rosy 
red; Princess Marie, rose, splendid; Queen, earlier 
than the last, not so good, but fine; Queen of Yel¬ 
lows, fine; Queen of Giqtsies, dark copper; Rigol- 
lette, salmon buff; Reine des Bacchanals, red and 
orauge ; Sappho, red buff; Sultana, dark rose; Sal¬ 
ter’s Queen Victoria, lilac and white; Temple of 
Solomon, yellow; Vulcan, dull crimson; Victory, 
whitish. 
Most of the above will also answer admirably 
for training against palings, and the walls, or win¬ 
dow-sides of a cottage; only at this season the flow¬ 
ers should he protected from wet and frost, and in 
large towns from smoke. We have never seen these 
flowers to better advantage than in London and its 
vicinity, as they seem to be careless of the smoky 
nuisance; but in a foggy day the flowers will be all 
tinged with soot unless protected. To secure fine 
specimens against walls, the suckers from the old 
stools should be well thinned out, the shoots neatly 
trained, and the roots well supplied with rotten ma¬ 
nure and water. If the object is to obtain splendid 
clusters of llowers at the ends' of the shoots, all the 
side shoots should be nipped out from the axils of 
the leaves, until within a foot of the top or point. 
When a mass of flower, rather than fine individual 
blossoms, was the object, we have stopped the shoots 
by nipping out the points in the beginning of June, 
and the second formed leader again in July, by which 
means the side shoots were encouraged to bloom 
nearly over the plant, but of course the flowers were 
much smaller than when produced at the points only. 
For herbaceous beds and shrubberies the flowers 
must only be encouraged at the points of the shoots; 
the more rotten manure the plants receive, and the 
better the shoots are trained, the better will they bear 
flowers : unless in warm places the hardier varieties 
only answer best for this purpose. For grouping in 
flower-beds, to be planted after the summer flowers 
have gone, the plants should be propagated in April, 
and transferred to prepared beds in the reserve gar¬ 
den, there to grow until wanted, from whence they may 
be removed, with good balls, in a dwarf state. For 
this purpose, as well as for the open ground generally, 
the following will answer well, even in rather cold, ex¬ 
posed siuations :—Lucidum, white ; Surprise, white ; 
Princess Marie, rosy; Queen, rose: Paper White, 
Tasselled Yellow, Golden Yellow, Golden I.otus, Su¬ 
perb Clustered Yellow, Park’s Small Yellow, Tasselled 
White, Early Crimson, Splendid Light Purple, Starry 
Purple, Curled Lilac, &c. Unless, however, in old 
fashioned gardens, or where the grouping of chrysan¬ 
themums is practised, you will find some difficulty in 
obtaining many of the latter, as they are all consi¬ 
dered out of date, though very beautiful. Thinking 
of again grouping the hardier kinds out of doors, I 
found it would bo very difficult to get them, and, for 
the present, gave it up. R. Fisn. 
HOTHOUSE DEPARTMENT. 
EXOTIC ORCHIDACEzE. 
There are, as we observed last week, two or three 
other necessary things to complete the furniture of 
the orchid house. We shall describe them as we 
promised this week, and then the tyro will be ready 
for our second head, viz., the various ways of culti¬ 
vating the orchids. 
Pots. —Various are the shapes and sizes of pots 
used for orchids. Some are nearly cylindrical, with 
holes not only at the bottom, but also all round the 
sides; others have long slits up the sides. Some 
we have seen, for hanging up with Stanhopeas, or 
Acrides, made half globular, and pierced with holes, 
to allow the flower stems of Stanhopeas, and the 
roots of the others, to penetrate through. All these 
forms will answer pretty well where there are no 
cockroaches or woodlice to creep in at the holes, and 
secrete themselves during the day; but, on that 
account, we strongly object to all such fantastical 
pots. The kind we use and prefer may be described 
as a shallow, wide pot, the proportions of which are 
as two, three, and five: that is, two inches wide at 
the bottom, three inches deep, and five inches wide 
at the top, all inside measure. Larger pots to be in 
the same proportions. Small ones need only have 
one hole at the bottom, but it should be larger than 
those generally made. For the two-inch-wide pots 
at the bottom, the hole ought to be three-quarters of 
an inch in diameter, the great object being to allow 
the escape of water quickly. Larger pots must have 
three holes, each of the same diameter. Hard-burnt 
ones must be avoided for these plants, as well as for 
any other. The reason why we prefer these wide, 
shallow pots is, that the roots of orchids are, gene¬ 
rally speaking, either on the surface or very near it; 
besides, a larger proportionate surface is exposed to 
the benefit of air and moisture, both of which are 
beneficial to the roots of an epiphyte. Terrestrial 
orchids, whose roots descend deeper, will be better 
in the ordinary-shaped pot. We hope shortly to 
give a list of these two classes separately, so that our 
readers may know how to distinguish them, the cul¬ 
ture of each class being very different. 
Baskets. —Various materials and forms have been 
used in this necessary article. The first probably 
was made of common iron wire, painted green, and 
the form round, deep, and with a flat bottom. This 
material is almost entirely disused, for, although the 
paint for a time prevented them from rusting, the 
| great moisture and heat soon decomposed the paint, 
j and then the wire became oxydized or rusty, and is 
then very injurious to the roots, as well us being 
i unsightly. Those made with copper wire are much 
