THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 20. 
290 
leaves. Philodendronpetusum, and many others of that 
stamp, with collections of Heaths, Orchids, variegated 
plants, and of stove and greenhouse plants also, enough 
to satisfy the largest growers in the world. Then we 
have similar collections from the Wellington Nursery, 
St. John’s Wood,beginning with Rhopala corcovadensis, 
and several other species of it. Cassinia borboniea, with 
Peach-tree shaped leaves in three pairs (pinnate), and 
an odd one, with golden foot-stalks and veins remarkably 
pretty. Pavetta borhonica, with gold and silver veins 
in its handsome, large leaves. Draceena maculata, in 
bloom and blotch ; the two Zebra Aphelandras, 71/ illcea- 
Jilifolia. A fine Jacaranda-like plant, Lnmatiq feruginea, 
with Fern-like leaves. Jatropka multifida, with deeply- 
palmate leaves on long foot-stalks, and twenty-four 
Rhododendrons, of the Sikkim and Bhootan breeds, 
together with other collections of more every-day plants. 
The Messrs. Fraser, of Lea Bridge, competed in col¬ 
lections of Stove and Greenhouse plants, in Heaths, and 
in Crassulas or Kalozanthes, as at Regent’s Park. 
Orchids.— The Messrs. Rollinson competed with Mr. 
Veitch in collections of fifteen, and Mr. Williams and 
Mr. Woolly stood as formerly, with collections of twenty, 
and the following are the additions from each, which I 
have not mentioned already. From Tooting, we had 
Oattleya crispa, and Stanhopea aurea, two which are 
seldom seen irorn home. Grammatophyllum multijlorum, 
with three strong spikes, carrying from thirty to forty 
brown flowers each. A very large Miltonia spectabilis, 
in better health than is usual in the leaves. Hendro- 
bium Gibsoni, a fringed, yellow flower, with two black 
eyes, not acquired in scuffle, but natural to it; and the 
Europedium Lindeni, again, and others. 
Mr. Veitch had Epidendrum vitellinum; a fine Dendro- 
bium formosum, large white flowers, with a yellow blotch 
on the lip; Gypripedium lactatum with thirty blooms on it; 
1 anda Batemanii, with fifteen blooms open and many 
more coming; a large Oncidiurn ampliatum and more 
besides, with a beautiful new Oncidiurn or Odontoglossum, 
brown and yellow, with small flat bulbs and one leaf to 
each, the flower stem upright, and ten or twelve inches 
high ; a very nice thing. Mr Williams had the lovely 
Epidendrum verrucosum, which puts one in mind of 
Barkerias so much, Galanthe J\Iasuca, Aerules, Saccola- 
biums, Cattleyas, Vandas, Dendrobiums, Oncids, and Indian 
moths ( Phaleenopsis ) of course; and Mr. Wooly had 
much the same, with Dendrobium transparens —of growth 
and size as in Nobile, but more slender, and the flowers 
nearly white with a deep stain of purple on the lip. 
Odontoglossum Laurencianum in the way of Grande, but not 
so good; and Oncidiurn lurulum, very fine. Among smaller 
collections from different gardens, I noted Dendrobium 
\ aduncum from Mr. Carson, a slender-stemmed kind, 
trained and covered with multitudes of rosy lilacy 
: flowers, and a beautiful Cattleya superba. Mr. Gedney, 
I gardener to Mrs. Ellis, of Hoddestone, had a fine 
| Angrcecum caudatum, Oncidiurn Lanceanum, Delia anceps, 
rarely seen at a show. Her Majesty sent, “ all new and 
rare,” a large light blue Thunberyia trained; two pretty 
annuals from Texas, with the growth of a strong 
Anagallis, and the flowers of a large Ghironia, rosy with 
a yellow eye. The genus is called Sabbatia, by Adanson, 
a French botanist. These seem delicate for out-of-doors, 
but they will make good pot plants to stand near the 
ventilators of the greenhouse in summer, and they look 
as it they would keep a long time in bloom ; also two 
beautiful kinds of cross seedlings of Begonias, for which 
her Majesty’s garden at Windsor has been long cele¬ 
brated ; the Queen being very fond of, and very successful 
in, cross-bred seedlings. One of these Begonias is called 
suaveolens rosea, and a very rosy sweet thing it is, with 
immense heads of drooping clusters, and a tall plant; 
the second is merely called hybrida; it is a high crimson, 
with paler shades, and the seed-pod in the midst is light, 
or as if transparent; altogether, these may be classed 
with the very first crosses in the family. But I must 
drop the tale for a day or two.—D. Beaton. 
FERN LEAVES FROM WILDERNESS PARK. 
Last week, with my mind filled with dreamy antici¬ 
pations ot the grandeur of the Palace at Sydenham, j 
some ot which partook too much of the aerial and i 
fairy-land to stand the test of real, material splendour; 
the gorgeousness of metropolitan floral and horti¬ 
cultural shows; and, though the less dazzling, yet, 
in many respects, the not less interesting, associations 
connected with a provincial exhibition at which I 
had engaged to be present, with but limited time at 
my disposal; but, as an exemplification of the old 
axiom, that “ where there is a will there is a way,” I 
found myself, on Monday afternoon, comfortably seated 
on the top of a “ bus” that plies between Charing Cross 
and Sevenoaks, in Kent. About two miles from that 
town is pleasantly situated Wilderness Park, the seat of 
the Marquis of Camden. “ Troth, and you may call 
it a wilderness, for there are no neighbours at all, unless 
you make them out of the trees and bushes and ferns,” 
replied a worthy dame, on whom I had begun to exercise 
the inquisitive bump; while a.sister matron hummed 
something about passing through the lodge gates, cast¬ 
ing a look askance over my outward man, as if she was 
perfectly conversant with a great practical fact, that a 
good coat will be an open sesame to many a place to 
which a coat out-at-elbows, or with all the marks of the 
shabby genteel, would be as impassable a barrier as the 
torts of Silistria proved to the besieging Russians. 
As I do not mind letting readers into all my secrets, , 
except the few reserved for “ bosom cronies," and the ! 
fewer still which Burns says we “should hardly tell to ! 
ony ,” I may as well state, that this hurried pilgrimage 
was undertaken for two especial purposes—first, to re¬ 
new old intimacies and friendships; and secondly, as 
many good hints, directly, or indirectly, for The Cottage | 
Gardener, had come from this place, I felt convinced, ' 
that in addition to the easy inode of managing Calceo¬ 
larias, &c., for which many were obliged, I might, from 
observation, and comparing notes with Mr. Fraser, ' 
obtain some ideas that might be generally useful, and 
^specially to that numerous class with but limited space ] 
and means, and a great amount of ambition to make 
the most of them; and I think that those who will 
have the patience to read all through my gossiping re¬ 
collections will agree that there was no disappointment. 
I entered the demesne at a neat little lodge, not far 
from the village of Seal. From this there is a beautiful 
avenue of double rows of young trees, extending, for a 
considerable distance, towards the mansion. If the 
half or the quarter of these trees had been planted, 
there would not have been such a fine appearance in a 
similar time as now; but a great present difficulty 1 
would have been avoided, such as breaking in upon the 
uniformity of the line by a wholesale thinning; and if 
that is not commenced and gradually accomplished, the 
appearance of the avenue must suffer in after-years. I 
remember but little of the Lodge, being so much more 
taken up with the obliging courtesy of the woman who 
kept it, and the beautiful beds of flowers, and plants in 
pots, that were plentifully studded in groups around it. ! 
On admiring them, it came out, that the goodman, her 
husband, had a great love for flowers, and “ he was not I 
a gardener, either,” but worked upon the farm. Thero j 
was a nice bed of the Kentish Hero Calceolaria in a 
corner, and, as my own stock of that splendid variety j 
has never yet been satisfactorily established since they I 
were attacked with the black leprosy—visions of a 
bundle of healthy cuttings began to* flit before my j 
