THE COTTAGE GARDEN Ell AND COUNTHY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August .% 1850. 
332 
may be accomplished, but it involves the need for a system 
of heating. 
Mr. Rivers says:—“ I have confined myself to the 
enumeration and description of only a few tropical fruits; 
when their culture in tropical Orchard-houses is understood 
the list may be extended ; for in all tropical climates there 
are numerous fruit-bearing trees and bushes utterly un¬ 
known to English gardens. It may, perhaps, be said that 
some of the kinds of fruit I have recommended will form 
trees too large for a house of the dimensions given : this 
ought not to influence the cultivator; for, as is well known, 
the Fig grows into a very large tree when the soil and 
climate are favourable, and yet bears well in a pot of 
moderate size. Collectors have for many years past paid 
much more attention to Orchids and Pines than to tropical 
fruits, only because their culture has not been carried on in 
England with spirit. Let us hope that a new era is opening, 
and that, owing to the introduction of hot water as a means 
of heating, the low price of glass and bricks, and I trust 
the forthcoming low price of timber, owing to peace, we 
shall see tropical Orchard-houses rising up and rivalling the 
now numerous Orchard-houses in their agreeable results.” 
I before they were hatched ”—my crimson should turn out 
blue. However, the bloom is open, and is positively true— 
a rich rosy-crimson with a pencilled eye, and a line of deeper 
colour round the edge of each petal. Whether it will seed 
in England or not I cannot tell. I have given away two 
plants out of the live, and requested my friends to try and 
seed them. Judging from my own experience, 1 should 
say, buy your seeds in Paris. 
I do not know that my communication is of sufficient 
consequence to deserve any notice in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener ; I only mention my success as an encouragement to 
others to persevere. The flower is handsome enough to 
repay the trouble of raising it.—J. Bramhaj.l, St. John's 
Vicarage , near Lynn. 
L1NUM GRANDIELORUM. 
I have been very much amused at the general outcry 
against the “ rogues ” who have supplied dead seeds of the 
so-called Linum grandijlorum rnbnim; at least, such seeds 
are supposed to be dead, inasmuch as no one seems to have 
been so fortunate as to raise one. I, too, have been a 
sufferer for the last three years, year by year purchasing 
my packet of seed from first-rate London seedsmen ; with 
me not one seed so purchased has yet made its appearance 
above ground. Last autumn, however, a friend gave me 
either five or six seeds from a packet he had just brought 
from Paris. These I sowed in a pot, which I placed in my 
Cucumber-bed with the feeling that it was only labour lost. 
To my astonishment/ice plants made their appearance, and 
are now nice, healthy plants, showing plenty of blooming 
buds. I have cautiously waited the opening of these buds, 
fearing lest—like the gentleman who “counted his chicks 
Gunno (Tons) ., 
Potatoes (Cwts.) 
1832. 
88,082.. 
180,410.. 
1853. 
50,779.. 
713,941.. 
Eggs (in number) 
ABRONIA UMBELLATA. 
ESTABLISHING A ROOKERY. 
I see no answer in your paper of July 15th to “ P. l’.’s” 
inquiry respecting young rooks; I therefore write to say, 
that if I cannot tell how to keep the young, 1 may suggest 
how to entice the old ones; that is, in the autumn tie up in 
the trees in which he wishes the rooks to establish them¬ 
selves a number of old birch brooms, and I will venture to 
promise that rooks, young or old, will build thereon, fancy¬ 
ing them forsaken nests; and that “ P. P.” may eat rook- 
pie to his heart’s content. With this inducement to re¬ 
main, and with an affection for the spot, I do not see why 
“ r. P.’s ” pets should not fall into the same mistake ns the 
old birds.—A One-yeae Subscriber. 
Importations in the Six Months ending Jury 5 :— 
1854. 
08,952 
74,950 
X7,484.. XT4,292 
04,418,591. .G7,031,380.. 72,209,005 
[Abronia unibcllata.] 
Raised from seeds, received from Mr. 
Hartweg in January, 1848, and said to 
have been collected on the sands near 
the sea-shore, Monterey, California. 
This plant, like the rest of the genus, 
grows naturally in loose sand, the particles 
of which adhere to its glutinous sur¬ 
face. In such places it creeps along the 
ground, producing long rooting stems, 
and ovate obtuse succulent leaves, fringed 
with soft hairs, which almost disappear 
in dried specimens. The flowers are 
formed in close umbels, and consist of a 
long violet tube, with a five-cleft flat 
limb, the lobes of which are regularly 
two-parted. It has much the habit of a 
Verbena, but the flowers are agreeably 
sweet-scented. 
It is probably not quite hardy, but it 
succeeds well under the same treatment 
as that -given to the different kinds of 
Verbena. It is easily increased tether by 
seeds or cuttings, and is very suitable 
for placing in the open border, treated 
as an annual. It requires a light, rich 
soil to grow in, and flowers from June to 
October. 
It must be regarded as a very de¬ 
sirable plant for growing in pots and 
beds. The flowers are exceedingly fra¬ 
grant, especially in the evenings.—( Hurt. 
Soc. Journal.) 
