THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE AND COUNTEY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— August 5, 1856. 
name of the Night-smelling Stock is sometimes Cheirauthus 
tristis, and at other times Muthiola Iristis; some making 
it a Wallflower, and others making it a Stock. It is a true 
Night-smelling plant, being a dull, livid thing during the 
day, with nothing at all to attract attention; but at night 
a single bloom is delicious, filling a whole room with its 
odour. We have seen a puzzle with it in a small greenhouse, 
or in a room, at night; the young folks puzzling themselves 
long to find out the plant from which the perfume came. 
It is a native of the South of Europe. AVhen done flow¬ 
ering, the flower-stalks should be cut away, and the plant 
shifted when it is growing. It likes sandy loam best. In 
winter, any place where there is a free circulation of air, and 
a temperature from 35° to 45°, will suit it. We may revert 
to the subject.] 
PIIAL/ENOPSIS GIUNDIFLOEA CULTUEE. 
“.4. C. lias two plants of Phalcenopsis grandiflora; the one 
a large, the other a small plant; both have made fine roots, 
and the larger has flowered splendidly this season. The 
leaves of both, however, look yellow and flaccid. What can 
be the cause ? They are grown in an Orchid-house, glazed 
with Hartley’s Patent Glass, and shaded from the midday 
sun with canvass.” 
[The Phalienopsis grandiflora requires a close, damp at¬ 
mosphere, and abundance of water sprinkled over the roots, 
but not any over the leaves, excepting in the evenings of the 
longest and hottest days of summer. You do not say how 
your plants are grown, whether in pots or on blocks, or both 
combined. If in pots in earthy peat only, it is, probably, 
part of the roots are decayed. If in pots in moss, they have 
been kept too moist in dark weather; and if on blocks, 
probably they have been kept too dry in hot weather. We 
may not have hit upon the right cause ; but whether we 
| have or not, we would advise a change of culture to that 
j hitherto followed, in order to recover the colour and sub- 
; stance cf the leaves. Procure some bog moss—it is white, 
i and found in wet swamps,—dry it, and place the living roots 
of your Phalcenopsis on blocks; plunge the blocks in the 
moss in pots, allowing the plants to stand well up in the 
centre of the pots, packing the moss pretty close to the 
neck of each plant; then give a gentle watering with tepid 
, soft water, and place the plants in the warmest place of 
your Orchid-house. With great care they will soon recover 
their verdure.] 
BOULE DE NEIGE GEEANIUM.—PEIMULA 
SINENSIS SEED. 
“ Will you kindly say if the White Horse-shoe Geranium, 
Boide de Neige, is the best one for bedding? and is not the 
i best time to strike the cuttings of it in the autumn ? Is it 
too late to sow the Primula Sinensis, to flower next spring 
and beginning of summer ?— Only a Young Beginner." 
[Houle de Neige is no bedder at all. It does not flower 
freely enough even for a mixed border; but it is the second 
best white for a pot in-doors, and an old plant of it answers 
well that way. For the next ten days is the best time to 
strike cuttings of this and most others of the kind. The 
Blushing Bride, we believe, is the only white scarlet Gera¬ 
nium that will do for a bed; but we trust to hear a full ac¬ 
count of it from Mr. Beaton's Experimental Garden, as it is 
yet too dear to bed for one's own use. Lose no time in sow¬ 
ing your Primula Sinensis seed; our seedlings are up, but 
LAPAGEEIA EOSEA CULTUEE. 
“ From Mr. Beaton's account of Lapageria rosea, I pur¬ 
pose having one in the autumn, and wish to treat it properly. 
I shall be obliged by information as to the proper soil and 
situation (whether shaded by shrubs or trees, or exposed) ; 
also, what Height it attains, and what is most proper in shape 
and material for it to grow up.—J. G.” 
[The most conclusive evidence we have about the proper 
way of managing Lapageria rosea is from the Kew Gardens. 
You may recollect that Mr. Beaton reported last autumn, 
331 
that at Kew they keep their large-floweriDg plant of Lapa¬ 
geria in a hardy Fern-house with a north-east aspect, that 
it was planted in an earthenware pan about twenty inches or 
two feet in diameter, and not more than three or four inches 
deep; the compost was turfy loam, a little peat aud leaf- 
mould, with as much white sand as made a light rich com¬ 
post. The quantity of sand can never be safely stated, as it 
depends on the texture of the loam and peat. Some loam 
requires three times as much sand as others; the eye and 
the hand are the true guides. The Fern-house is just kept 
from frost, and no more. A cold pit would do for a young 
Lapageria as well as a Fern-house, and unless one could 
get a large mass of old imported roots, such as a strong 
Asparagus plant fit for forcing, we would not advise it to be 
planted out in the open air; but as soon as the seedlings 
get to that strength, we would prefer them in the open air, 
and to be treated like Bomaria acutifolia, that is, a deep 
light border, a rod or wire to twine on, and a heap of ashes 
over the roots in winter.] 
STKIKING GEEANIUM CUTTINGS. 
“ Will you please to inform me which is the best mode 
for striking house Geraniums—in a cold frame, or behind a 
north wall ? Last autumn I was very unsuccessful in 
striking with a hotbed, especially Verbenas, although they 
were commenced in good time.— An Amateur.” 
[The best mode to strike house Geraniums, before the 
middle of August, is the “ old way,’’ which is by making 
cuttings from three to four inches long, and planting them 
out on a piece of newly-dug ground, “ right in the sun and 
open air,” in rows one foot apart, and four inches one 
cutting from another. We shall go on with them in “ the 
old way" till the last day in August. We shall be putting 
in cuttings of them till the end of September ; but all that 
month we shall put them in pots, and the pots in a cold 
frame ; but we never shade for Geranium cuttings, except 
in March, April, and May. It is madness to make hotbeds 
for cuttings in the autumn, unless one is a practised gar¬ 
dener. We have only to begin early, and the sun is hot 
enough.] 
NEW BOOKS. 
The Orchard-house.* —For the fourth time, the new 
edition of this shilling pamphlet calls upon us lor a notice, 
and we will begin by observing, that those who condemn or 
disparage the Orchard-house usually do so because they 
confound “ its being, end, and aim ” with that of the green¬ 
house and forcing-house. Now, it intends to interfere with 
neither of those structures, but merely to be a superior 
protection to fruit-trees usually grown against open walls, or 
in the open borders; such protection insuring the setting 
of the fruit in spring, and the thorough ripening of the 
wood in autumn. The great difficulty is to keep the house 
cool enough in summer; and the introduction of artificial 
heat, in any form, we consider, at once transforms it to a 
structure of another character. 
Mr. Eivers chiefly devotes it to the culture of fruit-trees 
in pots, but we know of one that has Peach, Nectarine, and 
Apricot-trees trained against its east side, and Vines up its 
west side, at wide intervals, which grows Strawberries, eai'ly 
l’eas, &c., in its borders, and is, altogether, the most useful 
house we ever knew. We shall give fuller details of its 
results in a future number. 
There are many new additions to this edition of Mr. 
Eivers’s useful little work, but the most striking are those 
in which he proposes to construct “ The Tropical Orchard- 
house,’’ for the purpose of cultivating in pots the Man- 
gosteen, Cliirimoyn, Pomegranate, Lee Ghee, Loquat, Guava, 
Granadilla, Mango, Dwarf Plantain, Kose Apple, Sweet Lime, 
Sapodilla, Fig, and Orange. We have no doubt that this 
* The Orchard House; or, The Cultivation of Fruit-trees in Pots under 
Glass. By T. ltivers, of the Nurseries, Sawbridgeworth. Fourth 
Edition. Longman & Co., 1856. 
