May 4, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
73 
crimson tube, with a mouth as white as snow. Pultenaa 
biloba, a fine specimen plant. Two plants of Epacris 
Kinghornii, a blush - pink flower, the first 1 have seen 
of this sort; and Azalea vittata, from China, which is 
very like a common cross which comes from variegata, 
with any of the white kinds. I have seen scores of 
such vittatas from crosses. Azalea amcena was also in 
this collection. This is a spring-flowering, or ought to 
he made to flower always in the spring, and under glass, 
to see its real beauty ; by-and-hy it will hardly be worth 
looking at in the competition collections. 
Mr. Jackson, of Kingston, had a prize for some nice 
plants of Vriesia speciosa, of which be is certainly the 
best grower in England, and his secret is only to keep 
the hollow of the leaves full of water, from the end of 
March to the end of September, with small pots in pro- j 
portion to the plants. Gardeners should recollect, that 
the v is mute in Vriesia , and that the hollow at the i 
bottom of the leaves ought always to be full of water 
all the summer, as the plant is one of the handsomest 
stovo plants in the country, when done as it is always j 
done here in Kingston. The rest in this collection were 
chiefly Orchids, and one of them, from Brazil, is very 
scarce. 
Leptotes serrulaia, a dwarf plant, with about a score 
of curious white flowers, the sepals or back parts curved 
forward, and meeting in front like the claws of a hawk 
flying off with a Cochin chick ; Clnjsis bractescens, with 
waxy white flowers; Barlteria elegans, again; six 
different varieties of Lijcaste Skinneri, some of which 
no Orchid grower should be without, being one of the 1 
most useful of the order, aud pretty nigh as cheap as a 
new Fuchsia ; aud Dendrobium pulchellitm, a perfect 
cushion of fringed, light lilac flowers, having each a soft 
yellow eye in the centre. 
There was a fine specimen of Phrynium sanguineum 
from Pine Apple Place, under the name of Moravia; 
and if any one wishes to see the shades of shot-silk in 
the leaf of a plant, here it is in perfection. The leaf is 
like some Ganna leaf, a foot long, and four or five inches 
broad ; the upper side is a darkish green, veined with 
purple, aud the underside is purple all over; but if you 
move it about in the sun you have green and purple 
in waving shades as true as in a silk dress. The (lowers 
are on long, upright scapes, aud the scarlet bracts are 
the real beauties. Mr. Gaines sent Rhododendron 
delecta, a blush from the breed of ponticum, and Azalea \ 
Hold/ordiensis, of the China breed, which may be said 
to be among the very best coloured crosses, besides a 
freak of doubleness, ouo or two of the stamens having 
run into petals, colour between light crimson and rose. 
Mr. Pince, of Exeter, sent his seedling Calceolaria 
Ajax; and although I never make any pretences about 
a knowledge of florists’ flowers, any gardener in the 
country may take my word for it that this is the best 
bedding Calceolaria of all the crosses. The truss is 
very large, the individual flower is also very large, 
the whole front of the pouch is one purple blotch—not 
very dark ; the top and the sides being a good yellow. 
In my day, I had twenty thousand seedlings of this very 
stamp, and one, called Youngii, was the original, just > 
two-and-twenty years this summer, from which I com¬ 
menced. Now, of all the cross Calceolarias of mixed 
colours which I have seen, I would first choose Ajax for 
a bed, the leaves are large, soft, and look exactly like 
those of a good herbaceous Calceolaria; but the stems 
are quite woody, and it is a shrubby sort, with the habit 
of an herbaceous kind. Of course, I cannot say if it 
will continue in bloom all the season, and of course, 
also, I know nothing of it beyond what was on that 
table before us. Next to it was a great novelty, a new 
strain in Rhododendron, a continental cross, sent by 
Messrs Standish aud Noble, it is named Alstrumerioules , 
—the flowers are not very large, nor do they open wide, 
about the size of some older Ponticums ; colour, dull 
rose all over, and the inside is barred and marked 
with brown just like some Alstrdmeria. The Lecturer 
suggested that it might bo a cross from Ferugineum, 
and I thought him both right aud ingenious to the 
bargain in his surmise, the more readily, as I was 
somewhat puzzled to account for the parentage my¬ 
self. 
There were six little plants in bloom, in No. GO 
pots, of the new white China Azalea, called Nar- 
cissijlora, also from Messrs. Standish and Noble; 
this is a clear white, with the centre turned half 
double, and there can lie no question about its being 
a cross effected in China, like Calycina and some others. 
Lest any one should misconstrue my meaning in 
telling that this or that plant was shown in a sixty- 
pot, 1 must say, once for all, that every Rhododendron 
and Azalea in existence, whether they be hardy or not 
hardy, might be had in full bloom in a sixty-sized pot; 
it is only a question of gardening, not of kinds. A 
propagator \\ho could not graft a full flower-bud with a 
joint or two of wood to it of the large Indian tree 
Rhododendrons, on a small Pontic Rhododendron in a 
sixty pot would not be worth salt to bis porridge. 
There was a pretty little hardy Indigofera, from Mr. 
Standish, which he had from China. All these, and the 
first, stood bel'oie the Chairman. Mr. Lane, the great 
Rose-grower, sent three large specimen bush plants of 
rare kinds of Rhododendrons, and they seemed to be 
growing in nothing else but yellow loam ; the best of tlie 
three is called General Napier, a blush or French-white; 
the other, Striatum, a whiteisli also; and Campanula turn, 
all but white. There was a plant like Gesnera mollis, 
but differing from it in throwing out long stalks, on the 
top of which clustered a lot of flowers, all growing from 
a flat disk, and from this the plant is made a new genus 
of called Sciadocalyx; Gesnera mollis, variety pedttn- 
culata, would have been as good a name; it is botanically 
interesting. 
There were Pansies, and a double new Primrose, 
brown and yellow, aud very distinct, from Mr. Dobson, 
of lslcworth; aud he sent eight plants of the best 
grown Cinerarias you ever saw; aud really, when 
one sees them so early in the season, and so well 
done, it is impossible not to admire them ; some of the 
faint light ones will not be worth sixpence next June, 
but now they are different, and Ladg Hume Campbell, 
a white centro, and a light blue edge, is the very best of 
th at cl ass. A grafted plant of Rhododendron Edgworthii, 
which was forced, did not answer that way scarcely so 
well as when it flowered last year naturally, and was 
shown at one of the exhibitions at the Garden of the 
Society. I saw lots of the tree Rhododendron glaucum, 
from Sikkim, in flower, with Mr. Jackson ; they have 
rose-coloured flowers, and are very different from Rhodo- 
denron theajlorum. There was a plant of Tropieolum 
tricolorum on a target-like trellis, wide enough for a 
regiment of militia to shoot at, from a Mr. Keeble. A 
large bush of Rhododendron aureum, aud a nice pink one 
called dileetd, were sent by Mr. Gaines. 
From the Garden of the Society were cut flowers of the 
white Wistaria sinense, alias white Glycine; fruit of the 
Japan Citron (Citrus japonicus), this is not the Mandarine 
Orange, or the Otaheite Orange, of which they make such 
pretty little standards, but the fr uit is as small as that of any 
in the tribe, and of the shape of a small Ash-leaf Kidney 
Potato; the rind is most fragrant, and the whole fruit 
is highly prized by the Chinese; when preserved in 
sugar they call it the Cum Quat; Indigofera decora, a 
a splendid specimen; Chorizema Laurenciana fine; 
Daviesia latifolia, with numerous clusters of yellow 
flowers; Bossiaa Hendersonii, very small in the leaf, 
and profusely covered with yellow pea-flowers. Acacia 
grandis, in a sixteen-pot; the first two feet of it from the 
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