Noveimber 4. 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 
83 
plant. The flowei’s arc small, white, but very numer¬ 
ously produced along the side spikes of a large loose 
panicle, coming out at the end of the branches, exactly 
as they do in Kmlreuteria paniculata, another beautifid 
hardy tree that is not planted half so much as it deserves 
to be. As Mr. Fish lives not far from IMr. Snow, per¬ 
haps he could fish out how this beautiful Aralia was 
treated to get it out so fine; and, indeed, any of our cor¬ 
respondents who may happen to have old established 
plants of it, would confer a benefit by a sketch of the 
proper culture. A little Begonia-looking plant, with 
racemes of small, bright lilac flowers, called Puya zela- 
nica, was curious and well worth growing in a small 
collection of stove plants, as it requires but very little 
room. Giizmannia tricolor, an old member of the 
Bromeliads, looking like a stunted pine-apple plant, had 
a spike of bloom up from the centre, just in the shape of 
a pine-apple when it first shows. I never saw this 
plant in flower before, and it is certainly very pretty and 
very curious, after this fashion—on the top, where the 
crown of the pine-a.pple shows, there is a close bunch 
of leafy bracts, in crimson-scarlet; below that, and where 
the pips of a pine-apple would stand, the buds of the 
flowers were peeping out from between the bracts, just 
like the tops of so many white crocuses in bud, and the 
colour of the bracts round their white buds, so to speak, 
was green, or brown, or streaked, altogether forming the 
tricolor to perfection. None of these Bromeliads are 
difficult to grow, and they come from suckers as freely 
as the pine-apple, and they often seed. I am (piite sure 
that most of the store ones would grow and flower beau¬ 
tifully without a particle of soil, like air jjlauts, only 
having their scanty roots placed in balls of moss, and 
wound round with small copper wire; then to hang 
them up against walls, posts, or pillars, and to keep the 
hollow of the loaves always quite brim full of water, and 
also to dip the mossy balls continually in water, as ilr. 
Jackson, of Kingston, does with the lovely Vriesia stpe- 
ciosa, alias Tilandsia splendcns, of which I saw a large 
stock of seedlings with Mr. Low, at Clapton, the prettiest 
little things you ever saw, except a drove of speckled 
fawns or kids. There were two more plants of this 
order in the way of Pitenirnea, one of them very hand¬ 
some, and the other no-mattor-what. The right one put 
up a flower-stem from the middle, in the usual way, and 
on the top was a fine crimson head of flowers ; the 
second ])lant grew in the same way, but the flower-head 
was a greenish-white. Take a crimson Lovedies-bloediny 
or Goxcomh in one hand, and their white varieties in 
the other, and you have the contrast of these Pitcairns, 
or whatever they may be, to the very letter. An African 
traveller showed mo a little yellow Lachenalia, at one of 
the Eegent Park Exhibitions this last summer, and a 
dried specimen of a Yellow Geranium one day at Chis¬ 
wick. [ thought the man was daft for his pains. I 
think otherwise now, after seeing this very pretty species 
of Lachenalia at this meeting. 1 think it was from the 
garden of the Hocicty; at any rate, it was capitally grown, 
and when the bulbs are stronger this will become as a 
general favourite as Lnclienaliii tricolor, and is well 
worth having. With the exception of these two species, all 
the Lachenalias, and some of them are very pretty, ought 
to be set in pure silver-sand, and put in very shallow in 
the pot, with about half-an-inch of sandy peat on the 
toj), and rough turfy ])eat, with good drainage, below, and 
no water ever allowed to get in between the leaves, these 
hulbs being so touchy that the slightest mishap will rot 
them. There was a largo specimen ol' Plumbayo Lnr- 
pentm, which was in fine bloom when I was at Chiswick 
in fSeptember, but now was too late for it. Also a lino 
plant of Sedtiin Sicboldii, a plant that is admirably 
suited for a small neutral bed in an architectural or 
terrace garden, the effect being more from the sea-green of 
theleaves, than from thepruqilc blossoms in the autumn. ' 
There was a little plant of Campanula Vidallii, which did 
not show the full character of the species. I heard it run 
down in one or two places in Oxfordshire because it 
would not stand the rain ; but I have not seen it any¬ 
where so that I could pass a decided opinion of it as a 
bedding-plant, for which it was first given out. 
There was a very ]n'etty, imre white, new, Tricliopld- 
Hum from Mr. Bellenden Kerr; also a botanical Dendro- 
bium from some one; another botanical, or, rather, a 
Manchester plant in fruit, “ The Sea Island Cotton 
Plant;” with Abelia rupestris, and twenty-seven kinds 
of annuals, altogether making a good (Ictobcr meeting 
without yet coming to the sjmcials, of which these 
annuals are a part. Cosmos bipinnata and Coreopsis 
filifolia are the only two out of the lot that are less 
known to the readers of this work. The Cosmos is an 
excellent wilderness plant, looking as if flowers of the 
Beauty of Thetford Dahlia—the best of all the single 
ones—were placed on some loose-growing, fennel-like 
plant, rising from three to four feet. The fdifolia 
Coreopsis is so much like the Drumnumdi in flower, that 
it is not worth a place for its thready leaves. Liqnnus 
rivularis is also not so much known as it ought. It is 
a much deeper blue than Hartvegii, and it is less dense 
in the growth and leaves; but in every other respect, as 
to height, time of flowering, and treatment, it is the 
same as Hartwegii. 
A large bed of the best annual Lupins ought to stand 
thus— Mutabilis, four feet high, in the centre of the 
bed; a row of Lupinus Hartwegii, as being the 2 iext in 
light blue shade ; the third row to be of rivularis, a darker 
blue; the fourth, also a row of rivularis, to bo cut into 
eighteen inches high, and not to allow it to rise higher 
all the season; and the outside row to bo of Lupinus 
nanus. Then there would bo a regular face of leaves 
from the ground level, and the best shading that can be 
made out of Lupinus. The whole would keep in flower 
till October; and the reason why I mention it, is to 
show that without the second row of rivularis, and that 
kept to a certain height, to suit the rows on each side of 
it, the arrangement would be a failure, because there 
would be too great a step between the flowers of nanus 
on the outside, and those of rivularis. This grant 
blemish is often coming in now in plans of flower- 
gardens, and notliiug looks worse. 
There was a largo pan of the gem of carpet plants; 
also an annual, Coclilearia acaulis, only two inches high, 
and all flower, and so easy to grow, that it only requires 
once to get a footing to keep itself from year to year, 
especially in a peat bed. The lecturer was very earnest 
in })ressing and explaining all this, and ho gave a new 
turn to tho subject this time, which set my teeth on 
edge. This Cochlearia, with its jjretty white and blue 
flowers, may bo had on the mantel-piece, or anywhere 
else in a room, everyday in the year; and not only that, 
but it will do as well in tho saucer of a tea-cup as in 
the best pot. The way to do it is this—to keep sowing 
it at different times, and to let it sow itself, so as to 
have some always in tho borders. Then to take your 
saucer, or little vase, to the border, fill it nearly with 
soil, and take up jmtehes of this plant in bloom, press 
them on the top of tho mould in your vessel, and next 
day they are in full bloom. They will last three weeks; 
then fill again, and so the whole season. If they got 
behind in flowering out-of-doors, take them up all tlie 
same, and the heat of a room will soon cause them to 
flower. All this was now to mo; and I shall never 
take tho sjioon out of another man’s mouth if I can 
help it. 
Oreen Peas in pod, and table Pears, with Crapes 
and Pine apples, wore in abundance, and some were 
remarkably good.-i^ There was one bunch of a black 
* The Veafi to Mliich were awarded the prize, were KnighVa Blarroivs^ 
young and excellent, from 3Ir. Burns, of Clicvening. Others, as the , 
