334 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 3. 
not bulbs, however, but that is the easiest term to ex¬ 
press my meaning. 
When roots of the Disa are first received from the 
Cape they often throw up the flowering-stem soon after 
they are potted; that stem was in progress before the 
plant was taken up; then the long time from the first 
appearance of the flower-stem to the last of the flowers 
allowed the roots to throw up a tuft of leaves, hut no 
sooner is the flower-stem withered, whether it has 
flowered or not, they often come without flowering; the 
tuft of leaves withered also, hut that is not the natural 
way of the plant at all; the withering of the flower- 
stem, and of the leaves round the bottom of it, is quite 
natural to it, hut when the root is once established, it is 
what we call stoloniferous; that is, it makes a quantity 
of suckers all round it,-—travelling suckers, as we may 
call them. A long neck comes from the tuber-like root, 
below the surface, and it pushes up a long way from the 
old roots, then forms a tuft of leaves. These suckers 
are more or less in number, according to the strength 
of the old root; they continue their growth and increase 
in numbers from July, the time of flowering, to the 
middle of the May following, when the flower-stems 
begin to move. Now, suppose a dozen of these tra¬ 
velling suckers to be on the way, but not yet up to the 
surface, when the old leaves and flower-stem die down, 
and we have a vigorous Disa in the first stage of its 
natural growth, and a batch of old gardeners, just as 
vigorous in their opposition to nature, withholding 
water altogether, just at the very time it is most wanted 
to assist the old roots in throwing up the said suckers. | 
Each of the twelve suckers will keep green one, two, 
or three years, according to their strength, that is, until ; 
each of them throws up a flower-stem of its own ; as 
soou as that stem begins to move, a fresh lot of suckers 
are preparing to issue from below it, to go right and 
left, and round ways, so as to keep up a full herbage 
when the old has decayed, so that the annual dying of 
flower-stems and their tufts of leaves do not make a 
single gap in a marsh full of Disa, because new 
comers are constantly on the move from one year’s 
end to another. The older and stronger a plant of 
it is in a pot, the stronger and more numerous the 
suckers; there are some suckers now, seven or eight, in 
the lafge pot used by Mr. Leach, which came direct 
from the centre of the pot to the veVy side before they 
appeared above ground. The wonder is, that they did 
not break instead of turning upwards on reaching the 
side. When the flower-stems in this pot, and the leaves 
which accompany them, die down, by the end of August 
there will be four large gaps in the pot for a while, but 
that being the natural time for the plant to begin a 
fresh growth for next year, these gaps will soon fill up 
with fresh suckers, and shortly after they move is found 
to be the proper time for potting the plant, say about 
the middle of September. 
Mr. Loach is the most successful grower of diffi¬ 
cult Cape bulbs that I know of. He has the true 
Amaryllis Manila, and I believe he is the only one 
in Europe who has it; he flowers every one of them, 
year after year, with the greatest ease, he crosses 
them, and seldom loses a seedling ; he grows them in a 
cool greenhouse where the Disa stands. It would not 
be fair or just, therefore, to say that Mr. Leach had hit 
upon the true management of Disa grandijlora by mere 
accident, as many a gardener has done with other 
plants; he must have had the good fortune to have got 
a good, healthy, strong plant introduced, and that plant 
having showed the side suckers before the old leaves 
died down, then, by encouraging these suckers, and by 
studying their requirements with a good practical eye 
and great patience, he lias succeeded in making the 
cultivation of the most difficult plant known to practice, 
as simple and easy as that of the most common plant 
one could mention. Good drainage, larger pots than 
the sizes of imported roots would seem to warrant, very 
good fibry peat, with a little silver sand, as for Heaths, 
potting annually in September, never to let the soil get 
dry, and not to water at one time more than at another, 
just to keep the soil always in a comfortable state, nei¬ 
ther too wot nor too dry, constant air night and day, if 
the frost allows it, and no more fire-heat than will just 
save them from frost, are the chief turning points in his 
management of the Disa grandijlora. Who will venture 
to enter the lists against him ? Not 
D. Beaton. 
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE EXPENSIVE 
NOT IDENTICAL. 
There are ladies, besides our pattern of a Queen, 
with strength of mind enough to wear their bonnets on 
their head; but look round a dense gathering, or glance 
your eye along a crowded thoroughfare in a genteel 
neighbourhood, and how very few of these sensible 
people will break upon vision? It matters not how 
outrageous the new mode may bo, however discordant 
with elegance, refined taste, comfort, or utility;—let it 
once be started as the new fashion, and forthwith our 
wisest and most amiable and most lovely seem to have 
no other resource but to make themselves a figure as 
well as uncomfortable. Were it possible to infuse a 
little of the thinking principle into the specimens of 
savage life at the Crystal Palace, what rare mutterings 
of surprise, and pokings of fun there would be at the 
appearance of multitudes around them! Confess it or 
not, this indefinable genius Fashion—though we may 
hardly sensibly feel its mesmeric influence—is causing 
all of us to hop and jump in its train, however great the 
stereotyped sameness thus produced, however opposed to 
the development of individual character and diversified 
tastes. 
Grateful for every fresh impetus given to ornamental 
gardening, I have a strong opinion, that when Fashion 
effects a change it does not necessarily accomplish an 
improvement; and that, in fact, if we were wise, instead 
of being ruled by fashion, we should make it our servant, 
and take as much, and no more of it, as just suited our 
peculiar circumstances. As few would think of getting 
into plant-houses in such a burning day as this 24th 
of July has been, allow me to “ illustrate” wlmt I mean 
by a reference to ornamental flower-gardening. 
Without absolutely loving everything that is old, 
most of us, as we get older, are less disposed to be enthu¬ 
siasts for change. We revel in the gleam of a sunbeam, 
but we wish something less aerial for our feet to repose 
on. It would require some boldness to burl a lance at 
the whole system of grouping flower beds, as generally 
practised—so many feet of this colour and so many yards 
of that, without a stripe, a stand point, or a starer, to 
give relief to the eye, from the regular quilt-like pattern 
which Punch may one day stoop to banter with his 
ridicule. I should be prepared to contend as lustily as 
any one for the utility of the grouping system—changes 
being made in its modes and arrangements to prevent 
variety merging into monotony—provided due regard is 
had to the circumstances of the case; the wishes of the 
proprietor; the time at which it is desirable to have the 
| garden gay, and means and labour are at command to 
do the whole efficiently; but no love for the system 
can make me blind to the facts, that the mode in which 
it is generally carried out has made next to a wilderness 
of many a garden, until June, if not July, has begun to 
wane; and that many gardens belonging to the middle 
classes have lost their distinctive charm because the 
owners, forsooth, must copy the groat man of the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and dip deepor into their purse than they 
