98 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 22 . 
gal, who is Unique’s only sister, by confounding the 
two together. If they were twins, however, they could 
not be more alike, hut the Queen of Portugal is of a 
stronger constitution, and would cover a space in 
three years which Unique would hardly cover in six, 
as I have long since proved on the conservatory wall 
here ; hut as Unique flowers down to Christmas, and 
the Queen of Portugal is generally over by the end of 
October, we prefer Unique for the wall; hut in seven 
years it has not attained the height of five feet. The 
principal bed in the centre of a fancy parterre garden 
here is planted with Unique, and edged by a band of 
the Golden Chain dwarf geranium, about ten inches 
wide; and were it not for fear of being thought that 
I used too much freedom, I could give a fine history j 
of how the ladies expressed their admiration of this j 
arrangement. I am less scrupulous, however, about J 
telling what gentlemen said of it, and I heard one 
of the best English amateur planters say that “ the 
effect was inimitable.” Lady Mary Fox has not 
been long used for beds, but some prefer it to Unique. 
It is an orange scarlet, with dark marks in the upper 
petals, flowering most freely from May to Christmas; 
and at Madeira I have no doubt this, and half a 
dozen others in this section, would flower all the year 
round. Those who are old enough to recollect a 
geranium called Ignesccns major, some twenty years 
back, will have no difficulty to understand what a 
brilliant one Lady Mary Fox is, when I say that it 
is twice the size of the Ignescens, with the same 
colours; but to show how little encouragement is 
given to originate such beautiful things for our 
flower beds, Mr. Dennis, of the King’s Road, Chelsea, 
advertised this plant for the first time, only two years 
since, at six shillings the dozeu, while trumpery 
pelargoniums, that you can hardly get to bloom well 
for three weeks in a whole season, were selling at two 
guineas a-piece. Now, the reason of all this must be, 
that the florists keep their fine things constantly 
before the public by their books and advertisements, 
so that they are thoroughly known; while flower¬ 
gardening, as an art, has never yet been taken up by 
any one. Formerly, the flower-garden was left for 
the foregeound pictures of landscape gardeners, 
where docks, rushes, and gilliflowers, might mingle 
together; hence flower-gardening is considered to 
come within the province of the landscape painter. 
But flower-gardening, as practised in the present day, 
is a total mystery to the mere landscape painter; and 
no wonder, seeing that it has no more relation to 
landscape gardening than poetry has to prose ; and 
both are distinct from the profession, which only 
aims at teaching the uninitiated how to cull the best 
flowers, and sow the gayest annuals for the domestic 
flower-beds. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Cineraria. —This genus belongs to the natural 
order of compositae, or starworts, and to the 19th 
Linnean class. It, therefore, bears some resemblance 
to the common and the ox-eyed daisy, the groundsel 
and the ragwort; though, unlike them, we have as 
yet failed in raising double cinerarias. The family 
name is derived from cineres, ashes, in allusion to 
the soft whitish matter that covers the surfaces of the 
leaves in many of the varieties. The greenhouse 
species were partly introduced from the Cape of Good 
llope, but chiefly from the table-lands of Mexico. 
Though thus placed within the tropics, the cineraria 
in its native wilds would he exposed to a temperate 
and somewhat changeable climate, owing to the 
highly elevated plains, and the still loftier mountains, 
of its native countries; but from the impatience of 
frost which it manifests, it is not likely it ever knew 
anything of the icy king until it became a denizen of 
this changeable climate of ours. As with us the whole 
family grows the most luxuriantly in autumn and 
spring, we should he inclined to believe that it flou¬ 
rished most at home in places not fully exposed to 
the mid-day vertical sun. 
It is only within these few years that the cineraria 
has come under the improving auspices of the scien¬ 
tific florist. Perfection, as yet, is far from being 
gained, but many thousands are raised from seed 
every year, far superior to the narrow-pointed-petalled, 
starry-looking things of our younger days. When 
King made its appearance about a dozen years ago, 
it was looked upon as a world’s wonder. Now, such 
a beauty would be considered by the regular growers 
as no beauty at all. Times change, and men and 
measures, manners and ideas, change with them. 
All the better, if change is identified with good—is 
symbolical of progression, and not of retrogression. 
We believe that in everything improvement has been, 
and is being, made. Every appearance to the con¬ 
trary, over which the morbid ponder, is just the re¬ 
ceding ripple of the wave of the onward flowing tide. 
With the taste for a higher form of beauty in the 
flower, came also improved systems of cultivation 
and management, and not before they were needed. 
We can recollect when once or twice a year the poor 
cinerarias were taken to the potting bench, whirled 
out of their pots, their matted roots sliced off with a 
sharp knife, with much apparent consequence and 
gusto ; and then when, after potting again, a strag¬ 
gling mass of foliage densely covered the pot, and a 
few thin flower-stems, decked here and there with a 
starry stray blossom, met the eye, the operator 
thought himself amply repaid for his cleverness. 
Considering what we have done—what wonderful 
people the next generation will be ! Great men we 
are vain enough to think ourselves at times—they 
will be Goliaths upon giants’ shoulders ! 
Those who intend forming a collection cannot do 
better than state their wants, and the money they 
wish to spend, to any one of the nurserymen who 
grow them largely. This plan will always suit sellers 
and purchasers best, where no particular variety is 
required. From a sixpenny packet of seed you may 
raise many beautiful things, but then it would be of 
little use sowing it until nearly midsummer—next 
season—and thus a season would he lost. As a guide 
in selecting, or in retaining what you have raised, 
we may mention that the flowers, whether large or 
small, should be compact and circular, the disk or 
centre small, the petals of good substance, well 
rounded at the points, expanded horizontally; if 
curved at all, bending inwards, or indexed—instead 
of reflexed or deflexed—that is, bending back; so 
that the blossom, if not flat, may have slightly the 
appearance of a cup. Colours, if more than one, 
clear and definite, though many shaded ones are very 
beautiful; flower-stem stiff and strong, supporting a 
large flattishliead or corymb of blooms ; leaves small 
and middle sized, instead of large. As to the habit 
of the plants, a few tall, more medium size, and most 
of all dwarf. The following approach such charac¬ 
teristics, and though not new nor expensive, are still 
very pretty:—Alboni, white and pink; Beauty of 
Newington, white and tipped with crimson; Beauty 
