220 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 22. 
l ed the spot or spots so trodden should be immediately 
obliterated by the small three-pronged fork. 
Shelter .—In order to prolong the bloom, as well as to 
prevent its being injured by sun, wind, or heavy rain, 
the bed should be protected by an awning of some kind 
! or other. I consider the best is a frame of hoops and 
i long rods, covered with oiled canvass, so contrived that 
the canvass can be easily thrown off or rolled up in all 
cloudy fine weather. The flowers would then be seen 
to greater advantage. When the bloom is over this 
shelter should be removed, except the frame-work of 
hoops, &c., which might be left on to enable the amateur 
to replace the canvass when the foliage begins to decay. 
The shelter will then be useful to keep off the rains, and 
thus ripen the bulbs more perfectly. 
Talcing up and storing the Bulbs .—As soon as the 
leaves are quite brown then take up the bulbs, but be 
careful not to bruise them, and leave all the roots that 
may not be quite dead to them. Then lay them on a 
walk or boards in a situation not fully exposed to the 
sun for a week or two, till all the leaves and roots are 
shrivelled up and dead. When that is so, then trim 
them off carefully without wounding the bulbs, and 
store them away in clean boxes and drawers in a cool 
room till the planting season comes round again. 
I have written all these minute particulars on the 
culture of these sweet-scented charming flowers, because 
they are worthy of all the trouble an amateur can bestow 
upon them, and because I am not aware that any writer 
lias given, hitherto, full directions on the culture of the 
Narcissus. T. Appleby. 
THE IRIS. 
It has often been a matter of surprise to me, in visit¬ 
ing gardens in various parts of Great Britain, to find 
this beautiful flower so little grown. The large, showy 
flower, the many hues of colours they display, the 
delicious fragrance of several species, and their easy 
culture, are all qualities which recommend them greatly to 
the lovers of flowers. Following on my Essays on Hardy 
Bulb Culture, I shall next devote a paper or two to the 
culture of the Tris, more especially the bulbous species. 
The name Iris (the Rainbow) alludes to the beauty and 
diversity of the colours found in many species. A bed 
j of the English and Spanish Irises is extremely effective 
j when in bloom, showing off well at a distance, and 
j bearing, equally well, close examination. Our neigh- 
j bours, the Dutch, have greatly improved these varieties, 
and increased their number, as their aunual catalogues 
j show. I have about twenty-five varieties myself under 
I cultivation, and when they are iu bloom they are 
much admired. There is no flower that blooms so well, 
with so little care, as these bulbous Irises. And as the 
season for flowering is past the middle of summer, they 
are iu bloom when the London season is over, and the 
families of our senators and gentry have left the dusty 
smoky city for tho clear fine air of their country seats, 
thence the Iris may very properly and usefully be used 
as a bedding-out plant, and as they attain the height of 
about a foot to a foot-and-a-half, they should be planted 
in large masses, that is, they will serve to fill a large bed. 
T. Appleby. 
f To he continued.') 
RHUBARB. 
Although this plant was known and cultivated in 
the gardens of the wealthy during the greater part of 
the last century, it was not until the beginning of the 
present one that its uses were duly appreciated. Even 
then it made way but very tardily, until the late talented 
Mr. Loudon called attention to it, and pointed out its 
merits, some thirty years ago. It was then that our 
great market-gardeners, allured by its productive powers, 
began to cultivate it extensively, aud have since con¬ 
tinued to furnish it in such quantities as to meet the 
wants of the public taste. Now, though it is unneces¬ 
sary here to enter into the history of the many varieties 
which have been, from time to time, presented to us, it 
will be proper to enquire into its origiu, and the country 
from which it originally came; and, although botanists 
may differ as to the name of the parent species to the 
garden variety now in cultivation, it is needless to 
regard that, since the fact seems established that they 
originally existed in the same localities, and a slight 
enquiry where that was will enable us to judge how far 
we can copy the same in England. 
Upon looking at the map of Eastern Europe and the 
adjoining continent, Asia, a large and noble river runs 
for a considerable way parallel with the boundary. 
This large stream, the Volga,” drains a tract of 
country equal to that of many important empires. It 
is on the banks of this river that the parents of our 
garden varieties of Rhubarb were first found, and still 
exist in their primitive vigour, fed, as they are, by the 
waters of an extensive district; for, be it remembered, 
the Rhubarb flourishes on the vallies rather than the 
bills which intersect this central region ; the right 
bank of the Volga, and its tributaries on that side, 
forming au extensive plain, rich in herbage, which the 
deep, moist soil sustains against the scorching effects of 
summer sunshine, more especially such plants as the 
“ Rheum,” which root so deeply as to be able to with¬ 
draw moisture at a depth below that to which ordinary 
droughts penetrate. This moist, deep soil, being the 
native place of the Rhubarb, it is only fair to infer that 
its offspring, in a cultivated state, must have a liking 
for the same abundance of food and drink which its 
ancestors enjoyed-on the confines of the Caspian Sea. 
How many districts at home present features similar to 
those given. True, we have no rivers like the Volga or 
Euxus, but many of our streams pass through vales 
equalling in fertility that which bounds the first 
named river. The tracts of level laud lying con¬ 
tiguous to, and not unfrequently overflowed by, many of 
our rivers, present a comfortable home for this greedy 
consumer of good living. It is, therefore, to such places 
that we may justly look for the best Rhubarb being pro¬ 
duced ; and much that is good is to be found in such 
places. 
In thus pointing out a deep soil on the margins of a 
river which might occasionally be overflowed, I do not 
by any means advocate its being planted where salt 
water has access, because, its origin being inland, and 
at a long distance from the ocean, as well as from its 
influence, it is not likely to benefit by being forced to 
inhabit a position as much at variance with its internal 
wants and requirements as planting it on dry rock-work 
would be. True, a plant so vigorous as it is will grow 
under most circumstances ; but, then, mere growing or 
dragging out an existence is widely different from 
flourishing ; and, as a plant intended to furnish a 
quantity of useful edible matter must necessarily be 
supplied with the means for doing so, it is important 
that the soil on which Rhubarb is planted be deep, 
and, as I have before observed, rather moist than 
dry—not soddened by stagnant water, like wet, un¬ 
drained land, but open and porous, in which water, 
after being once admitted, passes through without diffi¬ 
culty. Such soils exist in our country by the margins 
of many of our rivers, as well as it does by the sides of 
those which run into the Caspian Sea, and other places 
in South-eastern Europe. However, as many gardens 
are at a distance from a running stream of any import¬ 
ance, some imitation of this diluvial soil must be made, 
