384 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 15. 
It is the perverseness of the human heart that causes it so 
to be; but it is the tender mercy of a loving Father that 
gives us a cross to carry, and opens our eyes at last to see 
the reasons why. Let no believer murmur at any hindrances 
from without; they will spur him on, and keep him awake, 
and at his post. It is better to grow in the storm, than 
wither in the sun ; and I can tell those who have not yet 
found it out for themselves, that even the renewed heart is 
a subtle traitor, needing close imprisonment, rough hand¬ 
ling, and continual stripes. Churches flourish best in per¬ 
secuting times, and Christians are most lively when their 
outward circumstances are the most trying. John Henry 
was a striking proof of this fact, and Mr. Johnston adds— 
“ The more ot hindrances there were in his way, the more 
closely he seemed to cleave to Christ, and the higher he 
arose above the deadening atmosphere in which he lived.” 
Let us remember our Saviour’s own warning parable. It 
is when we have no root in ourselves that “ tribulation or 
persecution because of the word” gives us offence, and 
causes the seed sown in our hearts to wither and die. 
(To lie continued.) 
OXAL1S BOWIEI AND ITS COMPEERS. 
This pretty plant is a great favourite with me, and if it 
were possible for a sympathy of feeling to exist betwixt 
animal and vegetable, I would say that the feeling was 
reciprocal, inasmuch as it grows luxuriantly in the grounds 
which I superintend, and every where else that I have 
planted it. 
Some years since, before the coat supplanted the round 
jacket as a portion of my gear, I was much delighted at 
seeing a very pretty, shining, rose-coloured flower, growing 
on a very dwarf trifoliate plant, in a greenhouse I was 
passing through. The flower was rather larger than a six¬ 
pence, and glistened brilliantly in the sun. I thought it 
very beautiful, and determined to know something more 
about it. I afterwards learned its name was Oxalis rosacea, 
that it was a bulbous-rooted plant, and not well adapted to 
grow in pots, as it had a much greater disposition to increase 
the number of its roots than it had to bloom abundantly. 
This I afterwards found to be correct, and now think it belter 
adopted for a dwarf bordering than for any other purpose. It 
does not seem to be injured by cold, beyond having its 
leaves cut down by the frost. Its foliage grows close to 
the ground, is very close and compact as long as the spring 
lasts, and until the roots ripen; is trifoliate, and of a 
beautiful, glaucous, green colour, and is very pretty, although 
it is not one-half so well deserving of general cultivation as 
Oxalis Bowiei, 01 ' Bowieaiw, which is a most beautiful plant, 
worthy of the attention of all amateurs and florists, whom 
I would recommend to get it arid grow it. Most of the 
seed-shops throughout the kingdom are, or ought to be, 
supplied with it. The London seedsmen will supply it, if 
any person should fail in being able to get it in their own 
immediate neighbourhood. 
Those persons who have not grown it before will do well— 
after carrying out Mrs. Glasse’s first precept for cooking a 
hare, of first getting it—to plant the roots either in a dry, 
warm, sunny situation, in light sandy soil, from three to 
four inches deep, or to pot them, three in a 48-size 
pot, in the same description of soil, and keep them in the 
greenhouse, or cold frame, during the winter months; 
watering very sparingly, and not alarming themselves if the 
root does not begin to grow as soon as they think they ought 
to. The roots sometimes lie dormant for months together; 
but the less time they are kept out of ground the better. I 
have had them growing for some years in the same piece of 
ground, and never think of removing them until I or some 
of my friends want them. 
The roots being potted, and kept dry during winter, 
watering but once a fortnight or so, they will, in early spring, 
begin to grow, when they wjjl require to be watered more 
frequently, and should be stood in a cold frame, with the 
pot plunged in ashes, or planted out in a sheltered situation, 
if there is no danger of a severe frost. By adopting this 
plan you will get them to bloom earlier than if they were 
planted opt in the autumn. The plants will then unfold 
their beautiful, green, lanate, trifoliate foliage, pale in 
colour, and pretty enough of themselves to be worth 
growing the plant for; then, about May, their flower-spikes 
will come up, lrom seven to ten inches high, producing a J 
truss, trom seven to fifteen inches high, of beautiful, large, j 
single, rose-coloured flowers, each as large as lialf-a-crown, 1 
and beautifully lustrous in the sun. So much so, indeed, that 
you would be inclined to go and fetch your flower-loving 
iriends to come and see it, if they had not seen it before : 
and I can fancy your adding a little to the description I 
have given of it in the way of exclamation, allowing every 
person, of course, to give expression to their sense of 
delight in their own way. 
1 do not know whether.the readers of The Cottage 
Gardener will be interested with any further particulars 
respecting this pretty flower. Some will, no doubt; and this 
is a sufficient reason for me to go on. I have it growing in 
abed thirty feet long, and three-feet-and-a half wide, running 
from east to west, and getting greater part of the day’s sun. It 
grows luxuriantly and flowers abundantly. I have sometimes 
had occasion to dig up some of them in the summer when they 
had done flowering, and previous to their having finished 
their seasons growth, and have found thongs attaching the 
roots together, which seemed to have taken a downward 
growth, eighteen to twenty-four inches long, and as thick as 
a carriage-whip thong. What has tended to confirm my 
opinion as to these thongs taking a downward growth, is the 
lact, that having found it necessary to remove a part of the 
bed this summer, I requested tire person whom I had 
desired to do so to dig down as deep as he could find 
roots; but finding he was opening a very deep trench (two- 
and-a-half feet deep) I enquired the reason for his so doing, 
when he gave me the best of all evidence, i.c., ocular proof that 
the finest of the roots wore down there. “ Well! ” I said, 
“ they must have gone down there, for we never planted them 
above four or five inches deep." “ I don’t know,” lie said, 
“ but there they are; ” and there they were sure enough— 
roots one-and-a-half to two inches long, and some of them 
as thick as your finger. These thongs must, then, in sub¬ 
stantiation of Ibis statement, taking a downward growth, 
form roots at the extreme end (which they dol, and then, 
having performed the same functions as leaves do to those 
that are near the surface, wither away, leaving the roots 
perfected at the bottom. The reverse theory of roots 
planted or buried accidentally one-and-a-half to two feet 
deep, coming up in search of light, is of every day experience 
among bulb-growers ; but the produce in point of numbers 
is always small. Oxalis Bowiei seems to have a plan of its 
own, and it is a very productive one. 
But there are other varieties of Oxalis besides these, which 
are very pretty. One of the prettiest little bulbs for pot- 
culture is Oxulis versicolor, and one which attracts as much 
attention, and calls forth as much admiration, as most plants 
of such small growth. The only regret that can be ex¬ 
pressed is, that it is not larger. It is certainly prettier than 
anything else so small. It may be grown in the following 
easy manner:— 
Take seven or eight roots and plant them in a 48 
size pot in a light soil, composed of half peat, half well 
decomposed leaf-mould, and a little sand; planting the root 
three-quarters-of-an-incli under the surface, and keeping 
them in a dry frame or greenhouse, and watering sparingly 
until they begin to grow; when, late in March or early in ' 
April, they will throw up thin, beautifully-whorled florets, as ! 
regularly striped red-carmiue and white, as if they had been j 
painted before and when unexpanded, and of a beautiful I 
silvery white when expanded in the sun. All the varieties j 
of Oxalis I am acquainted with expand their flowers to the i 
rising, and close them with the setting sun, displaying their ; 
graces only when they can best be seen, and storing their ' 
beauties to bask in the sunnshine. 
Oxalis tetraphyila is a very pretty four-leafleted variety, 
producing lilac flowers ; worth a place in a border, but not 
worth crying about if you lost it. 
0. esculenta. —A very, fine clear golden-yellow variety, 
producing five to ten florets in a truss; is scarcely hardy 
enough to grow out-of-doors, but is very beautiful if a 
number of roots are planted in a large pot, and placed in an 
airy part of the greenhouse ; they are green all through the 
winter, and flower early in the spring. • 
