120 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 17. 
I forget. Oesnera Herbertii, a variety of Zebrina, with 
greener leaves, and comes a month earlier into flower in 
the country ; but they said it is not different from the 
ordinary Zebrina; this beautiful plant, however, is never 
seen worth seeing about London. A plant of it, three feet 
high, with eleven spikes of flowers open, the leaves hang¬ 
ing over the pot, and shining like the skin of a well-fed 
Zebra, in their way, is a rare sight hereabouts. A bush 
of Cuphea strigilosa, a yard through, and four feet high, 
was much better than most country gardeners could 
produce at this season, and a Strelitzia regime, whose 
flower was likened to a fanciful bird, having a sky-blue 
beak and head, out of orange-yellow wings—a true 
picture, which would go farther with the crowd than the 
most elaborate scientific definition. Lastly, from the 
same garden, was a striking plant of the Pompone chry¬ 
santhemum, with purple flowers, but the habit is so 
short and stiff as to be reckoned unique; it is only 
under a number,—No. (30, Van Houte. There was a 
full selection of Pompones, from Mr. Chandler, of Ymix- 
hall, who is as celebrated for this as he is for fine 
Camellias. Some of them had their French names, 
and here are the colours of the whole— Surprise, light 
pink and French-white; Model, white; Solfaterre, 
yellow, as good as that in Hendersonii; Le Plain Ilebe, 
a very pretty little blush flower; Pequillo, ditto, more 
of a rose; Atala, rose colour; Sacramento, not quite a 
clear yellow; Argentine, the best white,—this is the sort 
for hair wreaths and wedding nosegays, with Gardenias, 
Orange Flowers, and the white fimbriated Camellia; 
Ranunculus, shaded purple; and Hendersonii, the best 
yellow. 
The next meeting of this Society was announced for 
the Cth December, so we shall miss the old Chrysanthe¬ 
mums again, that being a fortnight or three weeks too 
late for them ; and this flower can neither be forced or 
kept back to do much good at an Exhibition ; but, after 
all, this Society has done quite enough for the Chry¬ 
santhemums, and they might as well open shop for 
prizes to Tulips and Verbenas as give prizes to Chry¬ 
santhemums at the present day. 
Last of all, we had two long stalks of the elegant 
Pampas Grass ( Gynerium Argenteum) from one of the 
Vice-Secretaries, Robert Hutton, Esq., of Putney Park; 
and, after all that I said about this Kind of Grass last 
year, I here found, from Mr. Hutton’s account of it, and 
from the lecture, that much more might be said about it. 
“ Queen Mab ” complained to me, last summer, that her 
guinea plant of it was under a fairy spell—probably 
“ the evil eye”—and that it would not grow at all; and, 
we were told to say that that was the general result from 
divisions of it by suckers. Mr. Hutton very kindly 
offered to show his beautiful plant of it to any of the 
members who might choose to go and see it, and the 
experience of it in the garden of that gentleman proves 
it to be the hardiest of plants; it was under water—I 
mean the roots—all last winter, without any harm what¬ 
ever. In the pampas, or prairies, or deserts, or wilder¬ 
ness, where it grows, and covers miles and miles of fine 
open country in Buenos Ayres, it is worse for travellers 
to pass through than the tangled forests of India, as 
every blade is as sharp as a two-edged sword. We are 
told, that any one who had connections with Buenos 
Ayres might procure whole sacks full of the seeds of it 
for a mere trifle, and that the Horticultural Society had 
sent for, or were about to receive, ever-so-much of it; so 
that we shall soon have it all over the country, and thus 
a rare good opportunity will be given to the artificial 
flower makers for making imitations of it, in various 
colours, for ladies bonnets. Many of the country 
gardeners pronounce Gynerium wrong; they sound the 
g as in general, generation, &c., but that is not the way; 
the g sounds hard, as in guest, Guy Mannering, or guinea 
pig, and the y like to e, thus, Geenerium. D. Beaton. 
OLD PLANTS THAT WILL BLOOM IN WINTER 
IN A GREENHOUSE. 
OESTRUM AURANTIACUM. 
This plant may he considered as a kind of cosmo¬ 
polite. We have had it bloom freely in stoves, conser¬ 
vatories, greenhouses, and in the open air. Wherever 
glass is used for covering a conservative-wall, with or 
without heating, this plant should he tried. It is a 
native of Guatemala, and has generally been treated as 
a stove plant. Here, though a large plant may bloom 
continuously, the heat is apt to make it get naked of 
foliage, and to have but short panicles of bloom. Planted 
out in a warm conservatory, witli a winter temperature 
at night, ranging from 45° to 50°, it will flower either 
continuously, or several times during the season, accord¬ 
ingly as it is managed in pruning-out fading flower- 
shoots, and encouraging young ones ; every well-grown 
shoot exposed to sun and air, in such circumstances, 
producing its elegant panicle, or panicle-like head of 
bloom. 
This flower is pretty rather than beautiful, consisting 
of dullish orange tubes, more like the blossom ot a | 
Habrothamnus, than any of the allied genera of Night¬ 
shades, and yet a. neat plant of it is always interesting. 
For pot culture, it would not be advisable to keep a 
plant above two years old. As a whole, young plants 
bloom and look best. I have now some small plants in 
a greenhouse, with five or six shoots each, about two 
feet in height, and the shoots for fully half of this 
height being surmounted with their panicles of bloom. 
These are something like the third or fourth succession 
during the season, for, unlike a large plant turned out 
in a conservatory, it is preferable, when the plant is 
grown in pots, that each shoot should produce its bloom 
at the same time, so that when done the plant may be 
set aside. These small plants, above referred to, had 
been cuttings in the end of May. A previous lot had 
been struck in March, and plants that bloomed in June 
were plants that had been kept in a deciduous state in 
winter, beneath the stage of a vinery; excited with more 
heat in the end of February; pruned back, shifted, and 
kept in a temperature higher than a greenhouse until 
the middle of May. 
To have young plants in bloom from December to 
March would require a cool stove. From the middle 
of May to the month of December the plant will 
thrive in a greenhouse, and plants bloomed in summer, 
and set afterwards in a sunny place, out-of-doors, to 
harden their wood, will be safely kept beneath the stage 
of a common greenhouse, in a dryish state, almost as 
easily as a Fuchsia. In fact, the person who, from 
stored past Fuchsias, can have fine plants in May, June, 
or July, and nice plants afterwards, from autumn and 
spring cuttings, will have no difficulty with the Oestrum. 
The culture and propagation is, therefore, easy and 
simple when the means are at command. Used for the 
greenhouse, it is deciduous for part of the winter. 
These, pruned back in spring, and supplied with an 
average temperature of 00°, will soon break, when most 
of the old soil should be shaken away, and fresh given 
in the proportion of three-parts loam to one of peat. 
If shifted again, the loam should still more prepon¬ 
derate. If now supplied with a little bottom-heat, 
growth will proceed rapidly. When the shoots are one 
foot in length more air should be given, and full 
exposure to sunlight, unless in very bright days. After 
the end of May, a cold pit, kept rather close at first, and 
more open afterwards, is the appropriate position. 
Cuttings, either of the last season’s deciduous shoots, 
or the young shoots that break from them, when about 
three inches long, strike very freely in sandy soil, in a 
slight hotbed. The latter class will require a bell- 
glass over them until they begin to root. When potted, 
