Aprtl C. 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 
up to the chin without any breast at all. From a discus¬ 
sion on the points of this noble bird, I learned, from an 
amateur, that it was bred by Mr. Fletcher; that he was 
bred from some Pasha, whose name I forget; that he 
was once sold for six guineas; that some one thought 
there was something the matter with him, and sold him 
again for four guineas; but I could not stop to see what 
lie fetched to-day. If I were looking out for a bird to 
improve bone and feather, I would not grudge fifteen 
guineas for him. 
Of all our game birds, for shooting, I place the 
Ptarmigan at the top of the list, as being the highest 
minded bird in this kingdom; and seeing that some 
Ptarmigan poultry were advertised for this day’s sale, 
I wanted particularly to see them. Mr. Stevens 
told me the numbers of their lots, but I could 
neither find out the lots, nor a single bird in the whole 
room which had the slightest resemblance to a real live 
Ptarmigan, which is just now beginning to change colour. 
In winter, the Ptarmigan is as white as the driven snow; 
you could not see a covey of them fifty yards a-head of 
you squatting on their native carpet, this carpet of 
snow is now wearing into large holes and patches by 
the heat of the sun, and the covering of the birds 
changes also into dark blue patches to deceive the sports¬ 
man, and by the end of May, their breeding season, 
the feathers are all of that dark bluish-grey peculiar to 
the Guinea fowl, the legs and underside of the wings 
being the only parts which do not change colour; 
towards the winter the Ptarmigan gets speckled, and so 
on to the pure white again. 
From the top of Ben Nevis let me fly over to l’enzauce, 
to say that thirty tons of splendid Brocoli arrived from 
thence, that morning, at Covent Gardeu, and that every 
one of them were sold in less than the dinner hour, to 
be sold and resold, no doubt, all over this huge city; 
from 4d. to lid., was the price of the best of them in the 
stalls at midday. 
Out-flowers must be getting more and more fashion¬ 
able every year in London. Who can tell how many 
thousands of Camellia flowers are used up in ] .ondon 
every day in the week, at this season ? A good nosegay, 
with six or seven Camellia flowers in it, and Geraniums, 
Pinks, Picotees, Violets, and Azaleas, with Mignonette, 
and sweet-scented leaves, all made up in circles, and 
wrapped in paper, the size not less than ten inches in 
diameter, and all for one shilling that very day ! Gaunt¬ 
lets , and a few Alba multifloras, were the chief Geranium 
flowers, except the Tom Thumb, and other scarlets. 
Dielytra spectabilis, Euphorbia jacquiniflora, and Den- 
drobium nobile, are the next best market cut-flowers at 
this season ; then Azaleas, Cinerarias, fairy Roses, Anne 
Bolyn Pinks; and third or fourth best, and the most 
abundant, are common Daffodils, Primroses, Cowslips, 
and Wallflowers. I saw one nosegay quite new in 
design, and a most beautiful and telling combination, 
which one might imitate in a circular bed of four or five 
feet in diameter. First, get nine white Camellias, one is 
in the centre of a circle, then two on the right, and two 
on the left of the centre, in a liue, or five flowers across 
the diameter, then two in front, and two at the back, 
make a cross diameter, the centre flowers counts in both 
rows; but if you want to learn how to make one, or to 
plant a bed after it, take a pencil and a piece of paper, 
make a circle of any size with the pencil, and draw a 
line across it, then draw another line across the first 
line, in the centre of the cross make an 0, for the first 
Camellia, and make two more 0’s on each liue, then you 
have the nine places for the pure white Camellias. 
Now get four azure-blue flowers, or four little bunches 
of the same blue, in Cinerarias, and place them up 
against the four angles formed by the white Camellias. 
The way to get the mathematical proportion of the 
blue is to draw a circle on the plan, which will just 
include each of the Camellias next the centre one; the 
four spaces inside this circle, and between the white | 
flowers, are filled up with the blue, then the open space j 
in front of the blues, to the edge of the nosegay, is 
filled up with the best Scarlet Geranium, and the thing 
is done, or you may fringe it with Mignonette. I do 
not know any blue flower, except those of the China j 
Larkspur (Delphinium sinense), and some blue Cinerarias, 
that would answer for such a combination. The blue 
tint must be nearly that in Salvia patens, so that blue 
Violets are too dark for it, and the Neapolitan Violet is 
too light. The whole beauty is lost if the real tint of 
blue is not hit upon. In a circular-bed, two bands of 
the white Candytuft formed into a cross, and the bands 
to be not less than ten inches wide, would do for the 
white, the China Larkspur in the angles, and young 
pdants of Tom Thumb, with a ring of Mignonette all 
round the bed, would give this nosegay-bed, as long 
as the Candytuft lasted. I mention it as being of the 
same height, and style of growth and flowering as the 
Larkspur and Tom Thumb ought to be of a size to suit. 
Now, although I have seen as many experiments in 
filling fancy beds as any man living, I shall not vouch 
for it that this one of my own choosing would be quite 
perfect till I saw it, as I caunot realize in my mind’s 
eye the effect of the three shades of green in the leaves 
of the plants, in conjunction with the tints of the 
flowers; and that is the rock upon which the best painter 
that ever lived is just as likely to wreck reputation as 
the man who goes about looking after flowers and 
poultry. 
It is now 3 o’clock, p.m., the chair is taken, and the 
meeting of the Horticultural is all eyes and ears, but 
not all seated. The Duchess of Edinburgh takes her 
chance of a seat with Madame Laffay or Mrs. Elliott, 
according to their times of entering the room respec¬ 
tively; or if the Lord of the Isles offers to give up his 
seat for her grace, how are they to get her over so many 
heads and shoulders? The fact is, the thing must 
be roughed-out on an occasion like this, when so many 
people come to see the flowers; certainly the room is 
not quite so large as the hall in Darnaway Castle, near 
Inverness, where a thousand men could stand under 
arms; still, Lord Eaglan could manoeuvre some hundreds 
in it. The large plank of Deodar, from India, comes 
in very useful for the heavy pots and tubs with spe¬ 
cimen plants, and it was full from end to eud. Then, 
at the end of this great plank stood a splendid tree 
Rhododendron, ten feet high, in beautiful leaf, and 
carrying twenty-eight largo trusses of flowers, and 
twelve to fifteen flowers in each truss; the flowers are 
a delicate French-white when they first open, and pass 
into pure white after awhile; the bottom or throat of 
the flower is minutely spotted with black or brown dots, 
and the name is Princess Alice, a very fit name for 
such a fine plant, which was much admired. It was 
sent by Mr. Gaines, the great Florist at Battersea, and 
he also sent a fine new seedling of Rhododendron java- 
nicum, with a larger flower and higher colour than the 
species ; this was highly praised. With these he sent a 
large bush of white-flowering Azalea, of the China 
breed, and called Mont Blanc. 
Mr. Henderson, of Pine-Apple Place, sent a fiat 
basket containing fifteen plants in flower of the little 
Sikkim Rhododendron ciliatum, which we were told has 
proved quite hardy this winter in the Society s Garden. 
This is a charming little plant, with large blush flowers. 
I saw abundance of it coming into flower with Mr. 
Jackson, here, in cold pits ; and a gardener, who sat next 
to me, said he had crosses from it at home which looked 
bushy and very promising. 1 have not the slightest 
doubt but it will also cross with the China. Azaleas, and 
give us a new breed of early flowers. Wo were told 
that another line species, of Illiododeudron, called Edge- 
