February 9. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Acanthus-leaved Berbery (. Berberis Lechenaultii, 
alias acanthifolia, both names by Dr. Wallich).—This 
is a more noble plant than the last, the loaves being 
eighteen inches long, with eleven or twelve pairs of leaf 
lets. It is from the Nielgherries in the south of India, 
“ found in almost every clump of jungle about Ootaca- 
tnund.” So that any ono having friends at Madras, or 
in that presidency, might get any quantity of it. And 
I the way to know it from the Nepaul plant is by its 
! round borry, or fruit; the Nepaul one has oval berries. 
It is in England, but is very scarce. 
Fortune’s Chinese Berbery ( Berberis Forluni ).— 
Now a well-known species, with upright growth, four or 
live feet high, and too naked of leaves to make a very 
haudsome plant; it is called the “ Bamboo Berbory ’’ by 
the Chinese. 
Mr. Beale’s Berbery ( Berberis Bealii). —This is a 
splendid plant from the north of China, by Mr. Fortune, 
| to the Messrs. Standish and Noble, of Bagshot. From 
dried specimens sent homo by Fortune, Sir W. Hooker 
and Dr. Liudloy mistook it for the Ilex japonica, of 
Thunberg; and Bealii is given as a second name to 
Berberis japonica in the “Journal of the Horticultural 
Society” for 1850, page 20. But Fortune stuck to his 
text, and maintained that his plant was very different 
from the Ilex japonica, and he was right; when his 
seedling plants appeared the proof was obvious. This 
and the next I saw at the Chiswick Show in June, 1852. 
Three-tined Berbery ( Berberis trifurca). —A very 
strong leathery-leaved one from China, by Mr. Fortune, 
as above, the leaf ending in threo strong spiry lobes, 
like the tines of a fork. It is mentioned in my account 
of the June Show at Chiswick, in 1852. It is largely 
cultivated in the province of Che Kiang for the dyers. 
It grows two degrees farther south than Bealii, and may 
be less hardy, but that we shall soon hear from Bagshot. 
Berberis consanouinea. —This may be called the 
“ Intermediate Berbery,” that is, intermediate between 
Bealii and trifurca. It was found in the Green Tea 
district of Hwuychow, where Bealii was also found, and 
both must, therefore, be quite hardy here. 
With the exception of Fortune’s Berbery, all these from 
India, China, and Japan, seem to belong to one type, the 
Ilex, or Japan Holly, of Thumberg, who mistook an ever¬ 
green Berbery for a Holly. Those from Mexico and 
the north-west of America follow another typo; those to 
the southward, to low swamps of Terra del Fuego, may 
he referable to a third type. If my eyes were bandaged, 
I could tell the China from the Indian ones by the feel 
of the leaf,—I mean the Napaul and Acanthus-leaved 
Berberis,—the northern ones being so much more lea¬ 
thery and stouter. The Funebral Cypress of China 
is but a northern form of Cupressus iorulosa from India, 
and the Deodar of India but another form of the Cedar 
of Lebanon, and yet the wholo are so distinct, that a 
common labourer in the garden could tell the one from 
the other. 
Now, this is a sample of the way 1 mean to give lists 
of all the trees and shrubs, old and young, that are, or 
can be, expected to bear our climate, if I live long 
enough. This is the most complete list of evergreen 
Berberis auywhere, and many of the eastern ones must 
be high-priced till they seed, when they will bo as 
common as any of them. They all grow from cuttings, 
and, I believe, by grafting also; many of them make 
underground runners and suckers, by which they are 
readily multiplied; but seedlings alono can make them 
numerous and cheap. IIow would it do to graft the 
large-leaved kinds on tall stems of Asiatica ? We have 
all kinds of standards, and why not standard evergreen 
Berberis ? The seeds of all ought to bo sown as soon 
as ripe; but they will not come up till the following 
spring. There is hardly a plant worth growing among 
the deciduous Berberies which may not be referred to 
359 
the original type, the common one of which there are 
more than twenty kinds, differing in some slight respects. 
Another subject has just been handed over to my 
office—the Alphabet of Gardening—on which I shall 
enter next week. This is odd enough, for I began life 
as a Domiuio. D. Beaton. 
SOWING PELARGONIUM SEED. 
“ When should Pelargonium seed be sown, and in 
what soil and circumstances; whether in a cool frame 
or a bed; I only possess a frame and southern win¬ 
dow?" The above is merely one of several enquiries. 
The very best mode of action is one thing; the most 
proper, under the circumstances, is quite another affair. 
Professed florists hardly ever sow a Geranium seed at a 
venture. Evon they, at times, raise seedlings far infe¬ 
rior to the plants from which they came; but by careful 
hybridizing, and anxious management, they work for 
improvements in habit and form. Many realize a 
peculiar pleasure in raising plants from seed, and 
attending to the little protegees in their infantile state, 
having a strong love for plants and flowers of all de¬ 
scriptions, and yet but little of the more refined taste 
and enthusiasm of the professed florist. And these are 
just the people to say—“ Why should not our wishes be 
consulted ? Florists know all about it already. It is not 
what suits the few, but what suits the million that is of 
any advantage to us. If wo have a pleasure in raising 
a Geranium from seed, such as the mere tradesman 
never experiences, why should we not know how to do 
it in the simplest, as well as the best, way, and without 
being told to go back to this page in that far back 
volume?” I fully sympathise with feelings such as these. 
The first cuttings I struck were Scarlet Geraniums. 
The first seeds I sowed in a pot were a mixture of Pe¬ 
largoniums. I had much less success with them in my 
first trials than with the cuttings, and yet, at last, in 
rather unfavourable circumstances, I succeeded pretty 
favourably. To meet the circumstances of various 
classes, I will give various modes of treatment. 
I. When a hotbed can be commanded in autumn, 
and a greenhouse in winter, whore a warm end can be 
appropriated, with an average temperature ranging from 
45° to 50° during the cold, dark months, with a rise 
from sunshine. This may bo considered the most fa¬ 
vourable means for raising these plants and getting 
them early into bloom. In such a case, our experience 
would lead us to sow the seeds as soon as they were 
gathered and had lain a few days—say in the beginning 
of August. The seed-pans should have been previously 
prepared, draining them well, and filling them with a 
compost of equal parts of loam, heath-mould, and leaf- 
mould, with just sufficient silver sand to make it light 
and porous. Pots, six inches across, or wider, would 
answer just as well, if not better; but in their case, the 
drainage should occupy fully one-half, and the com¬ 
post should consist of various degrees of fineness, the 
roughest over the drainage, and the finest on the sur¬ 
face. I mention the above compost as being good; but 
let no one fret himself because he cannot get it, for, as 
previously mentioned, the road-drift soil obtained from 
the side of the highway, well aired, and lightened, if 
necessary, with sand, and with, if obtainable, a little 
charcoal-dust, will be amply sufficient. 
One great error among amateurs and young gardeners 
is using soil for sowing seeds and for potting in a dry, 
dusty state. Just fill a pot or a pan with such dry soil, 
with or without a plant, and see how many times you 
must use a water-pot before you can moisten it, and you 
will obtain a clue to the reason why many seeds never 
vegetate; and why, often, in the case of small seeds, the 
seedsman is blamed because no plants come in the pot, 
