THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— July 15, 185C. 
they are intended for exhibition, it is waste of time to have 
them in pots before the flower-buds are seen. Now is a 
very good time to stop the larger plants of them for the last 
time, and to put in cuttings for making small plants, such 
cuttings to be planted out also as soon as they are rooted, 
and then to be stopped.] 
ESCALLONIA MACRANTHA OUT OF DOORS.— 
CLIMBERS FOR WALLS IN DORSET. 
“I observe your recommendation of- Escallonia ma- 
: crantha as an out-door climber. I have a very healthy 
j plant of the kind, which I have cherished in-doors, under 
| the idea that it was not hardy enough to brave day and 
night exposure in the open air. I shall feel much obliged 
if you will inform me how I am to proceed with my plant, 
j so as to turn it to the account you recommend. I do not 
S know how it is propagated, or the right season or soil for 
j so doing. 
“ Also, as I have many bare walls that cry out for the 
graceful drapery of climbers, will you bo good enough to 
i recommend one or two hardy and swift growing sorts, men- 
1 tioning time and mode of planting or sowing ? 
“ There is a very beautiful climber of the Laburnum 
habit, which bears a flue, drooping, lilac blossom, something 
like a Sweet Pea, the name of, and treatment for, which I 
should be very glad to know.—M. A. N.” 
[The Escallonia macrantha should have some covering 
i in hard frost for the first few years north of London. In 
\ Dorset and Devonshire it should be as hardy as a Peach— 
at least, after awhile. It is not a climber, but is to be 
trained like a Peach-tree. Plant it out now, and put in 
cuttings of the half-ripe wood under a hand-glass, just as 
you would pipings of a Carnation, and in October take up 
your rooted cuttings, and keep them in a cool frame all the 
winter; plant them out next May, and they will make a 
better show than the old plant you have been pampering 
all this time. 
The noble climber you speak of is called Wistaria Sinensis, 
and sometimes Glycine Sinensis, Get one or two of it by 
all means ; also, Clematis montana, to make white wreaths in 
May; the common Blue Passion-Flower aud Clematis 
Sieholdii, to be planted together, and to be cut down to near 
the ground the first three years, about the end of April; and 
half the people in the country will take the Sieboldii to 
be a new Passion-Flower. Plant two'or three Cobasas every 
L1NUM GRANDIFLORUM RUBRUM. 
I said that I did not believe one word of the story about 
a packet of seeds of Linum grandiflorum rubrum, which one 
of our correspondents said he had from Mr. ltendle, and 
every seed of which came up. I was so satisfied that such 
a thing was an utter impossibility, that I overlooked the 
fact that the writer had sent his card with that communica¬ 
tion, and so I expressed myself too bluntly; but he has 
taken it in good part, notwithstanding the great provocation 
I had unwittingly given him, as is shown by this letter :— 
“ I take in The Cottage Gardener monthly, and so 
have only just seen your article in the number for June 17th. 
In that article you make some very strong remarks on a 
correspondent (‘ H. M. E.’ in the number for May 27th), who 
asserted that he had no difficulty in raising Linum grandi- 
Jlorum, and wrote anonymously. I wrote that note, and now 
i complain of your unfairness, as though I did not sign my 
name. I did inclose my card and address ; and this either 
yourself or the Editor should have known before you wrote 
of me in the offensive manner you thought fit; and, perhaps, 
| rightly so, if you did not know the circumstances. But, with 
j any one else, I should have been very angry; but I give you 
I full credit for speaking only as you thought it your duty to 
j speak, and I have learnt too much from you to keep angry 
with you long. 
“ Now for the Linum. I had it, with other seeds, from 
Rendle, ‘Linum grandiflorum rubrum,' Sets. The seed¬ 
lings came up abundantly, as I said ; but when I wrote, it 
had not flowered. Now it lias ; and, alas ! that I should have 
281 
to say so, it is the common Blue Flax ! So my boasting is 
in vain. I never before was disappointed in seed from 
Messrs. Rendle, or I should have waited till it had flowered 
before I wrote; but I wrote in full confidence that these 
packets were truly named, and I have received from them a 
very full and handsome apology; so that if you think fit to 
take notice of this communication—which you are perfectly 
welcome to do—I hope you will do it in such a way as not to 
throw unnecessary blame on Messrs. Rendle, and, at the 
same time, to free me from the charge of deliberate false¬ 
hood you have brought against me. I prefer writing to you 
personally, as it seemed a private matter between you and 
me. I wish l could send you something for your experi¬ 
mental garden, to which I wish all success. Have you the 
old-fashioned Peppermint Geranium ? Its velvety leaves are 
pretty, and it covers a large space, but its flowers are nothing. 
It would be worth while to try and cross it, so as to retain 
the foliage and get a belter flower. I can send you any 
amount of cuttings of it.—H. M.E." 
[Now, after making suitable apology for this very awkward 
blunder, it seems to me that it was overruled for good that 
I should forget all about the “card and address,” on purpose 
that the world should be made a little wiser if not the better 
for it. Mr. Rendle could no more help the mistake about 
the seeds than I could. The packets, as I said before, were 
made up on the Continent, and some one forgot to put the 
doctored seeds in that packet. The world need not now be 
told that a thousand tons of doctored seeds are used every 
year to mix with genuine seeds, so as to make the bulk for 
the penny. No one in these days would think of giving 
one shilling for two or three small seeds ; but when a new 
plant is in great demand, like this Linum, there are not 
even three seeds of it for every one who wants to buy it; 
therefore, as no one will buy three seeds, or would grumble 
at being duped, it was to stop this grumbling that they 
thought on the expedient of making large packets of seeds 
and “little in them;” and it soon turned out that a man 
went home in a good humour with a large packet of twenty 
doctored see'ds aud three genuine seeds in it, who would 
have grumbled all the way if he had given the same money 
for the real seeds only. Mr. Walton brought down a 
packet of Linum grandiflorum to me from the London house, 
the very first house in the trade, and not knowing any one 
of the firm, I understood the thing in the light of a challenge. 
They were quite sure I could get up the seeds, and that 
would bo a black ball to throw at all the grumblers, and I 
knew that they must have sent one of the best packets to 
me, to make the hit more sure. I took an old way of my 
own to make sure which seeds were good and which were 
no good, and I found that twelve per cent, was the return 
the Frenchman allowed us on this seed, a good percentage 
too, considering all things. Knowing, therefore, that the best 
packets of twenty-five seeds would only produce three plants 
of Linum grandiflorum in 1850, I could not believe any one 
who stated that in a packet front Mr. Rendle every seed 
vegetated. If such a statement had been published without 
a dissenting observation, the consequence would be just as 
I said before—the world would say that Mr. Rendle employed 
a puffer for his Linum seed in The Cottage Gardener. 
Every one who was not equally successful would complain 
of his seedsman; and, worst of all. some second-class gar¬ 
deners would lose their situations, because they were not as 
successful as the person who got every seed in the packet to 
grow. All round the circle we have a lesson in this way of 
pushing matters. I blundered about the card aud address ; 
the Frenchman did the same, in putting live flax seeds into 
the packet; and our Reverend correspondent cried “ chick" 
before the eggs were hatched.— D. Beaton.] 
GROWING BIIALiENOrSIS GRANDIFLORA. 
“ I now want to ask you which is the best way of grow¬ 
ing Phalatnopsis grandiflora so as to make a fine plant; 
some recommend a pot, and others baskets.— Nepenthes." 
[Plialwnopsis grandiflora thrives best on a log of cork 
placed among moss in a basket, and just kept moist con¬ 
tinually; the log should stand just above the moss.] 
