THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
314 
July 27 
and a certain and continuous warmth in the mass of 
some 05°, is necessary ; let us see whether a cottager, or 
allotment holder, possessing half-a-dozen poles of land, 
has it in his power to grow them ; has he any standing 
crop in June that will secure these conditions, for at 
that period no .artificial warmth will be required; the 
soil itself will, whatever the character of the season, 
range from near 00° to about 75°, until the middle of 
October, or nearly so. 
Now it so happens, that there are some crops about 
the stems of which the soil is always either dry or in a 
mellow state; as such may be named Brussels Sprouts, 
Peas, the Broad Bean, &c.; these are crops which are 
generally soiled up in the stem, and here will be found 
an eligible situation for Mushroom-culture. Eor instance, 
we have a row of late Peas, which have just been staked, 
the British Queen ; my practice is, after staking, to add 
a little soil to their sides. I intend then, to-morrow, to 
draw a drill by hoe, about three inches from their stems 
on each side, and to introduce as much of these prepared 
droppings as will form a ridge on each side of the Pea- 
stems of some four or five inches in height above the 
ground level. This dung will be trod firm, eased with 
soil from the sides, and beat, with the spade. I will then 
dibble in bits of good spawn at a foot apart. It will be 
seen that by this practice there will bo a ridge on each 
side the Peas, with a small cavity in tho centre, to let 
the rain trickle down the Pea-stems. 
Such, then, is the nature of the plaus I shall practice, 
and I hope the day will come when Mushroom culture 
will be so simplified and so certain as that every cottager 
can have Mushrooms at his back-door from July to 
November. We know that a successful season in the 
fields would supersede, in some degree, such needs, but, 
unfortunately, such only occurs once in three or four 
years. R. Errington. 
RARE PLANTS AT THE JULY EXHIBITIONS. 
The tables at Chiswick were so overloaded with novel¬ 
ties, in honour of the Queen’s visit, that it gave me the 
cramp in the fingers to note them down ; and if I were 
to run out a fair report of them all from my short-hand 
notes, they would occupy three full impressions of The 
Cottage Gardener. But as the like opportunity might 
never occur again in my time, I did the best I could 
with them for my own garden gossip, and for filling up 
descriptions which I might not otherwise be able to do 
on future occasions. 
The following is an example of how old gardeners 
look at such things, and how old stories about plants 
come back into one’s bead on seeing the living plants 
before one’s eyes. 1 begin with the only collection of 
'novelties at the Regent’s Park Show, from the Messrs. 
Standish and Noble, of Bagshot, which were also exhi¬ 
bited at Chiswick. I think the best of them were two 
species of Embothrium—femiginium and laneeolatum. 
This is a genus of very handsome plants inhabiting the 
extreme south limits of South America; I have heard 
of seven or eight species of it, of which laneeolatum was 
the best, as far back as the passing of the Catholic 
Emancipation Bill, in 1829, but Embothrium has not 
got into garden gossip till within the last half-dozen 
years, when Mr. Yeitch introduced some of them from 
his collector, Mr. Lobb. Mr. Anderson, a friend of 
mine, who was attached to the surveying expedition 
under Capt. King, sent home seeds of eight kinds of 
Embothrium , not one of which vegetated. He also 
sent Fuchsia discolor , the Port Famine Fuchsia. Ander¬ 
son spoke of these Embothriums as among the finest of 
the South American Flora; he could see their scarlet 
and crimson blossoms miles off, and he likened them to 
the Waratali of Australia (Telopea speciosmima) , to 
which they are relatives in the order of Proteads. The 
next time I heard about them was in ] 849 or 1850, when 
Embothrium coccinea appeared, from seeds by Mr. Lobb, 
in Mr. Veitch’s collection; but 1 had heard that Mr. 
Bridges had seen them, and that he, even, went farther ' 
than Anderson in their praise; and his own friends in 
Suffolk, who thought that he was in a kingdom beyond 
the moon loug since, will be glad to hear that he is now 
the greatest plantsman and dealer in plants in the far 
west beyond the line. Embothrium ferruyinium is a 
hardy, or all but hardy, strong-growing, evergreen shrub, 
with leaves like, or not uniike, a common Fern called 
Adiantum nigrum, but much stronger, and of that 
brownish hue peculiar to some New Zealand Conifers. 
Embothrium laneeolatum, said to be “ most splendid,” is ! 
of quite a different aspect; a pale green upright shrub, | 
with lanceolate Willow-like leaves, from six to eight | 
inches long. Mr. Bridges calls it “the most brilliant 
scarlet flower belonging to this vast continent;” add to 
these Mr. Veitch’s Embothrium cocciueum, and we are 
certain of three good species. 
PodocarpusNubigensis and Chilina w T ere in this collec¬ 
tion ; these come very near to the aspect of Yews. The 
former has the very leaf of the Irish Yew, but a different 
growth, and Chilina has broader leaves. These are two 
hardy evergreen trees; or, at any rate Nubigensis is,from 
the snow line in Patagonia, must be as hardy as our 
own Yew, and Chilina stood out last winter with no 
protection. 
Three new species or kinds of Myrtle, different from 
ours, and from another new one, called Ugni , and pro¬ 
bably all as hardy as the common Myrtle. A new 
Patagonian species of Weinmannia, with exquisitely cut 
and formed leaves—I never saw such leaves—the com¬ 
mon Tansey gives the nearest idea of them. The flowers 
will probably be as pretty, in white or pink, as the leaves 
are beautiful; such colours are commom in the genus. 
The bark of a kind of Weinmannia is used to adulterate 
the Peruvian bark, and also for tanning leather, there¬ 
fore boots and shoes, good astringents, and Tansey tea, 
will keep us in mind of this evergreen till we can buy it. 
The next is of the Nutmeg family, aud the leaves are 
aromatic ; it is from Patagonia, and probably hardy. It 
was named by Brown Cryptocarya, and by Nees von 
Essenbeck, Peumus. The two names put together is 
the adopted name, Cryptocarya peumus. It looks like 
some Laurel. Another species of it produces the Bra¬ 
zilian Nutmegs, Quadria heterophylla (Quadria is now 
obsolete). It is another handsome tree from Patagonia 
and Chili, with large leathery leaves, something in the 
way of Berberis aquifolium, and one of the endless forms 
of Proteads. It was named by Ruiz and Pavon, and j 
other travellers affirm the fruit to be eatable, like Wal- I 
nuts, but with the flavour of Cocoa-nuts. All this is i 
garden gossip, however; this is the tree which bears the | 
nuts which are sold in the market of Chili under the 1 
name of Arellano. I have heard it said, the half-Spanish 
damsels, at pic-nic parties there, use these nuts, their 
own large darkeyes, and their raven locks, as irresislibles, 
for good or for evil, against half-pay officers from our 
side the line ; and the true name of the Avellano-nut- 
tree is Guevina heterophylla, which, if not a hardy here, 
will do in one of Mr. Rivers’s orchard-houses. 
Another handsome evergreen from Chili, a half-hardy, 
at least, Laurelia aromatica, the leaves being fragrant, 
and the fruit partaking much of the Nutmeg character. 
The English name of the order is Plum-Nutmegs. The 
plant in its present young state looks like the Japan 
Spindle tree ( Euonymus japonicus). Myrica esculenta, 
ft Nepaul Candleberry Myrtle, looks very much like a 
young Spanish Chesnut in the leaf It is in the lists of 
old introductions, but I never saw it before, so it must 
be scarce. Cephalotaxus pendulus is the first variation 
we know of from the normal species. It is an accidental 
