THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
December 10. 
i^iO-l 
tlie summer, and require to be kept dry from October till 
March. 1 believe the whole stock of them in the country 
were in Dr. Herbert’s collection when it was dispersed, 
and that they arc now very scarce. Naturally they are 
intermediate between Tiijridid and Cijjjella, among the 
Irids. There is another fine Tigridia-looking bulb, 
growing on the top of the mountain San Eelipo, in 
Oaxaca, in Mexico, which is not yet introduced, 1 
Ireliove; but it would repay a diligent search, and the 
range is not far out of the route from Vera Cruz to the 
city of Mexico. 
Besser.v elegans, Jiitulosa, and Jlerbortii. —These 
are also small Mexican bulbs, very pretty, and all but 
hardy. Fintulosuin was figured in the Botanical Ec- j 
gister, some twenty years since, from a plant flowered , 
by Dr. Herbert, who called tlio genus Pharium ; but it 
was pre-occupied by Schultes, and Pharium is now 
cancelled. Ilerbertii is among the newest of our Mexi¬ 
can bulbs. Eleyaus is the best of the tliree; the 
flowers are drooping from the to]) of the stalk, of a 
rich orange-crimson, and red stamens. They re( 2 uiro 
exactly the same treatment as the Beatonias ; but their 
affinity is with the Earnardia mentioned above, being 
Lilyworts, of the Squill section. 
13landfor])IA .—Antheriemns were as gay and varied 
■as Alstrbmerias, Blandfordias, and Bvmareat), they 
would be equally entitled to a place in our series, for, 
properly speaking, none of them are bulbs, or conns 
either; but strangers and all who care little about | 
looking under the surface of things, need not mind the 
roots when the flowers are gay, and look as if they were 1 
produced from real bulbs. Blandfordias, with all the j 
aspect of bulbs, are, in reality, only herbaceous plants; 
their constitution is much stronger and hardier than | 
their outward looks would indicate; indeed, no one who 
can flower a good Hyacinth three seasons running, need 
fear trying any of the Blandfordias without having 
more convenience for pot-bulbs than would serve to 
grow Hyacinths well. Blandfordias are from Australia; 
they belong to the order of Lilies, and to the section of 
Day Lilies in that order; and the nearest plants to 
them in that section are the Trilomas, from the Cajje 
of Good Ho]ie. 
Almost all who like to grow the most showy herba¬ 
ceous ]flauts know Trilonia uvaria and media. A young 
plant of Tritoma media would look much like an old- 
established plant oi Blandfordias. orange, crimson, and 
scarlet, mix in the flowers of both; both are increased 
from side suckers taken off in the spring, and some of 
the Blandfordias seed freely, but Trilomas do not seed. 
1 am not aware of any family of plants that have been 
yet tried by the cross-breeder, from which better plants 
for the mixed choice border could be expected than this 
and Tritoma; and, notwithstanding the difference in 
their flowers, I can see nothing in them to debar tlicir 
union ; get a cross between tlic old Blandfordia nobilis 
and Tritoma uvaria, and if it comes intermediate be¬ 
tween the two parents, raising nobilis higher in the 
world, and reducing uvaria to the dimensions of an or¬ 
dinary border-flower, where, among all the herbaceous 
plants, can such another gem be looked for? There is 
one thing, and one only, which is proved by cross¬ 
breeding, and that is, that if the i)ollen of a hardy 
plant, like Tritoma uvaria, is dusted on a less hardy 
one, as Blandfordia, the offspring would take after the 
hardier parent in constitution, therefore Tritoma should 
he the pollen parent. I shall never believe that these 
may not be crossed together, till all we know of the 
moans of effecting a difficult cross are exhausted. 
Blandfordia nobilis.—li was on this species that the 
genus was founded in IBO.'h A strong plant of it will 
throw up a central flower-scape two feet high, bearing 
a cluster of drooping flowers on the top, the colour 
I being a rich orange-red. It seeds freely, and the seeds 
ought to be sown the same day they arc gathered; but ' 
they will keep for months. Good yellow loam, two- 
parts, and one-part of turfy-peat, with a little leaf mould 
and sand, is the right compost for full-grown plants; i 
for younger stages, reverse the proportions of loam and j 
peat, and leave out the loaf mould. But to see this ■ 
jilant in perfection, it ought to be grown out in tiio ! 
open air, in a deep rich border, three summers running, | 
and to be taken xqi in October, and kept half-dry ! 
through tlie winter, or, what would be far better, to i 
be loft in the border, keeping frost and heavy rains 
from it in winter. All the other species have much of 
the family appearance; and after you know one of them, | 
you would find little ditticulty in j'ceognising any of : 
the genus—orange, crimson, and flame-colour, being the j 
prevailing colours. There is a new and tall species , 
that was little known at the time the genus was printed j 
for The Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary. It was ; 
introduced by Mr. Low, of Clapton, with whom I saw [ 
it last October, and others of the same genus; the name j 
is Flamca, or flame-colour, and they say it grows from i 
thii3e to four feet high, and is easily kept and increased. ' 
1 linger for opportunity to try a crossing in this beau¬ 
tiful genus. D. Be:aton. 
{To he cunlinucd.) 
Ai,LOTMENTS. 
When duly attending to the higlicr matters con¬ 
nected with gardening and rural affairs, the interest of 
the labouring cottager should not be lost sight of 
His condition and prospects have secured no little 
attention from the philanthropist. If scbeines failed, 
the result was not the consequence of a lack of kind 
wishes. To improve any part of the masses of society 
there must be, combined with willingness, a thorough 
acquaintance with the condition, the intelligence, the 
modes of acting and thinking, of the parlies to bo 
benefited ; without this the kindest wishes may not 
unfrequcutly enhance the very ills they are intended 
to lessen. Charity itself may bo, and often has been, so 
administered as to militate against self-respect and in¬ 
dependence of character. Without a trace of presump¬ 
tion, I have often thought that a committee of mode¬ 
rately intelligent gardeners, with their hearts in the 
right place, would be able to point out a better redress 
for many social ills than a more learned conclave of 
parlour-bred philanthropists, and just because most of 
us, though at times we take a j)en between our horny 
lingers, have companioned and roughed it with the 
Iniinblest classes of society in various parts of the 
country. 
With the double flux that is now going on—the fjiflux 
of gold, and the oatflux of emigration—the question of 
allotments is not likely to occujiy the prominent position 
it did several years ago, when, from several causes, there 
was a superabundance of labour. Still, as in rural 
districts good gardens exercise a great influence upon 
social comfort and moral worth, and as in suburban 
districts there will be joined, generally, to these advan¬ 
tages, the pleasures of change of scene and of occu¬ 
pation; while in both cases, as many a happy wife could 
tell, the patch of ground became one of the chief anta¬ 
gonists to the charms of the drink shop—our earnest 
ho]ie is that those allotments may be vastly increased. 
Still, when a thing is so good in itself, wo ought the 
more carefully to prevent its being turned into an evil; 
and having thought and observed much on the working 
of the system, years ago, 1 have taken the liberty of 
alluding to the matter here, to express how tlioroughly 
[ agree in the ideas expressed by Mr. Errington in the 
commencement of his article, page 1-19, and to hope 
that those opulent and benevolent individuals who nobly 
