338 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 2. 
Herbertii, with a greener leaf, wore never seen more 
perfectly to differ from the ordinary kind. There were 
six kinds of Corrceas — speciosa, Goudii, j'icta, and piota 
superha, curiasa, and something else, all like so many 
Fuchsias in bloom. A fine plant of Acacia linifolia, one 
of the earliest and the best to make a close specimen of 
the whole family, with a brilliant Epacris, called arden- 
tissima; all from the same collection. 
Mr. Jackson, of Kingston, my next door neighbour, 
sent three beautiful Orchids, for which he got a smart 
prize ; the newest of them was a strong plant of Warren 
Lindeniana, a ground Orchid, from somewhere about 
the Spanish Main, on the north-east side of South 
America, where it was discovered by Mr. Linden, a 
foreigner, after whom it is called. It had a flower-spike 
above two feet long, quite upright, and carrying fifteen 
or sixteen flowers, which are all of a creamy colour, 
except the lip, which is of a rich reddish-purple. It 
seems to be as fit for winter work as the old Phaius 
grandijlorus, and requires exactly the same treatment, 
so that it is everybody’s plant who lias heat at com¬ 
mand. The second was a large mass of Barkeria Slciti- 
nerii major, the dark crimson variety; this, and the 
older light crimson Skinnerii, have been in bloom with 
him all this winter, hanging in dozens, from close to the 
roof glass along the whole north side of the Mexican, or 
cool house, where I often go to see them on purpose, 
and am quite sure that all these Barkerias are much 
easier to grow and to keep than fancy Geraniums; and 
that the reason why some gardeners fail with spectabilis, 
is by giving it too much beat; it should never be above 
00° any day in the year, if it could be kept so low; a 
cool greenhouse is much too hot for it in summer. 
When Mr. Skinner first sent it home, he said it ought 
to be out-of-doors all summer, hanging from a tree over 
a brook, or pond; and a pupil of mine, who knew this, is 
the only one who has yet brought it out in full perfec¬ 
tion; I mean Mr. Brewster, gardener to Mrs. Wray, 
at Cheltenham. It seems to me that the very rare 
Barkeria elegans is just like it, and I know that the 
least over-heating will tumble it heels over head. They 
have a large stock of it at Kingston; and one fine plant 
coming into flower, I was very anxious they would get 
ready for this show, but I warned them about the degree 
of heat it could stand. Who would take heed to what an 
old gardener could know about Orchids, however. Not 
they, indeed! So this lovely Orchid was put into the 
Calcutta-house to get it up in time for the meeting. 
Mark the result: every one of the flower-buds dropped 
off the third or fourth day; and, as I told them, it served 
them just right enough ; but as they have plenty of it, 1 
hope we shall see one at the next meeting, or at some 
one of these meetings in the spring. The third was a 
good blush variety of the Lycaste Skinnerii, a. plant that 
runs into a great number of shades and sizes in the 
flower and footstalks. 
Talking of the next meeting reminds me that we were 
promised a sight of the wonder of the age at that meet¬ 
ing—that is, drawings and dried specimens of the largest 
tree on the face of the earth—a bigger tree than the 
Boabab itself, and as tall as four of it, if reports are 
true. This is quite a new thing, and is called after the 
first Unite of Wellington, Wellingtonia gigantea, a kind 
of conifer-, an evergreen, and as hardy as the Scotch Pine. 
Mr. Lobb brought home seeds of it lately to Mr. Veitch 
from far away in the mountains above California; 
seedlings of it are up, and doing as well as can be ex¬ 
pected. I saw two or three of the cones, and I am 
quite satisfied that no other Conifer cones in the same 
way. The nearest that I could iiken it to was a little 
abortive cone, which a friend brought me from the old 
Cedar trees on Lebanon. We had just a glimpse of a 
small drawing of this Wellingtonia at the Meeting, with a 
likeness ol a man under it, to show the relative heights, 
but I should not like to be made a picture of for such a 
purpose when I was full grown, for the huge tree makes 
the man look no bigger than Tom Thumb. 
There was a large assortment of Salad plants, as good 
as any family could wish for, from Celery to French 
Sorrel, from the Society’s garden, but they still keep to 
the French names, and for Lettuce you have a name like 
latitude; and Sorrel is Gazelle, or some such confounded 
name, and so on until you forget the very names of the 
commonest things you ever planted, parted, or sowed 
the seeds of: and all this nonsense for no other earthly 
purpose but to make believe that the things are new to 
all the world, except the world of this Society. 
Pears. —Of these there were abundance of winter des¬ 
sert ones, and not one of them fit for the table, except Ne 
pilus Meuris, just turning colour, a most awkward Pear 
to dish well, and not very tempting to look at, but a 
most delicious Pear when you break into it, if it is in 
the right state; a most easy tree to manage, as it grows 
stubby, and a good, sure bearer. 
Pine Arpr.Es. —Of these we had only one, and that 
from one of the best Pine growers in England, Mr. 
Jones, gardener to Lady Charlotte Guest, Dowlais, 
Glamorganshire. It was a Queen Pine, with a very 
small crown, as Mr. Fleming grows them, who told me, 
last summer, that the only secret in having small crowns 
is to keep air on the pits all night throughout the year. 
This Queen was only 3 lb. 7 oz., but it was grown as an 
experiment, and sent to London to shew the result of 
that experiment. It was as fine of that size as ever 
was seen ; it was grown in a 10-inch pot, to keep the 
plant small, and economise space, and peat was the 
compost. Now, if Mr. Jones can cut a, hundred pounds 
of Queen Pines from a pit that would only produce eighty 
or ninety pounds of seven-pounders, his plan is by far 
the more economical; and a party of eighteen to dinner 
seldom oat a three-pound Queen at one dessert, as these 
Queans are much larger than black Pines of the same 
weight. 
Strawberries. — There was a nice dish of forced 
Black Prince, from Mr. Brown, gardener to J. Darnell, 
Esq., of Waltham Abbey, Essex. I believe this is the 
only Strawberry that could be thus managed, except, 
perhaps, the red Alpine, as they force them in France. 
Grapes. —They, at least some of them, Were splendid 
for this season. There was one dish of the Muscat, of 
Alexandria, from Mr. George Wortley, of Norwood, the 
best 1 have yet seen in January—every berry was as full 
and shining as when it began to change colour last 
September. The usual way is to see them beginning to 
shrivel and turning into raisins at this season. Mr. 
Forbes, at the Duke of Bedford’s, sent six bunches of 
very beautiful Black Hambro's, three of them being the 
crop of 1853 kept back, and three from the first crop of 
1854, that is, the earliest and the latest crop, and were 
it not that green leaves were on the spurs accompanying 
the new Grapes, one could hardly make out which was 
which. The Black St. Peter's were never in better 
bloom, or fuller in the berry, in January, than were 
these Hambro's. Mr. Forbes must certainly have 
some secret method in keeping the Black Hatnbro’ so 
late in such plump condition, and Mr Wortley, gar¬ 
dener to Mrs. Maubert, of Norwood, has hold of this 
secret, else his Muscats could not come in an equally 
good full condition. In the ordinary process, all that 
gardeners can do for the preservation of their late 
Grapes is to stir the borders, and give a good drench- j 
ing to the roots just as the berries begin to turn colour j 
in tho autumn; after that, the house inside, and the ' 
roots inside and outside, are kept as dry as can be. 
There was a Scotch Fir, nine or ten feet high, all the 
way from Edinburgh, to show how well it did after | 
being transplanted by the patent machine invented by 
Mr. MacGlashen, and there were soveral letters from 
