240 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Decf.jiber 30. 
burn the roots of plants forced on it. Care must be 
taken to blend tbe two materials thoroughly. In 
building tbe ridging-out bed, w'bicli should be live 
feet high at back, and four feet nt front, we never 
' till tbe ’ interior; but merely keep building tbe out¬ 
sides, and wbat is termed tying-in the corners—that is, 
adding extra tliere, in order to bind the whole securely. 
In doing this, a good deal will of necessity fall into tbe 
interior; and by the time the bod is finished, tlie middle 
is sometimes more than half-full. Thus there is plenty 
of room for soil, &c., and it is almost impossible for the 
plants to burn. We liave found it a capital plan, in add¬ 
ing hillocks of soil, thus to proceed:—Place a very large 
fifteen-incli garden pot, or other vessel, on its bottom, 
under tbe centre of each light, the top or rim about 
fifteen inches from the glass; place it firmly, and fill it 
with brickbats, and throw a little straw or moss over 
the surface to keep the drainage secure. On these, and 
around them, the hillocks are placed, and we have 
found it impossible to burn the roots ; good linings 
must, however, be sustained for very early forcing. 
Melons sown about the first week of .January will be 
ripe about the second week in May; and for that purpose 
either the green-fleshed Egyptian, Beachwood, lirom- 
ham Hall, or Snow’s, may be chosen. One of the best 
kinds in the kingdom is a sort grown by our old and 
esteemed friend, Mr, Collinson, gardener to the Marquis 
of Westminster, at Extou Hall; he calls it a green- 
fleshed Egyptian. 
^Ve think, for very early forcing, a compost of equal 
parts turfy loam, leaf soil, and mellow bog soil, excel¬ 
lent ; and if the old leaf soil has some little rotten 
manure in it so much the better, and a little of the 
charred materials of tlie rubbish yard may be added. 
For Melons, it is probable nothing will ever excel a 
sound loam ol a turfy character, and a twelvemonth old 
at least—that is to say, such as has been more than a 
year jhled in the compost yard. Depth is the great 
thing with the ^lelou; the soil should average at least 
afoot to have them fine; indeed, on this, and on per¬ 
sisting in keeping down all insects by timely perse¬ 
verance, and by keeping the vine thin from the very 
first, depends, in the main, successful culture. To say 
that they delight in a generous beat is a mere truism ; 
but it may be observed, that pains must be taken to 
sustain a lively bottom-beat to tlie last, even with 
summer Melons. Eucumbers may be suffered to part 
with most of their artificial bottom-warmth in summer, 
but this scarcely suits the Melon. 
I.et us advise the early forcer to give his frames a 
good stoving with sulphur before use, and on tlie beds 
of that to apjdy a clay paint; 
lime. 
well charged with fresh 
R. Eriungton. 
BULBS. 
{Continued from pac/c 201.) 
ANOM.\THEc.e cRUEXT.v (Blood-coloured).—Of all the 
small bulbs from the Cape of Good Hope this is the 
easiest to manage and to increase, and it holds in bloom 
longer than any other bulb belonging to the Bids with 
which we are acquainted. From November to IMarch 
or A])ril, it may be laid by in a draw'er in a paper bag, 
and if it is then potted in peat, or any light sandy soil, 
it will soon sprout and be ready to turn out into a south 
border, in patches, or as an edging, in May, where it 
will soon be in flower; and if the seed pods are de¬ 
stroyed as fast as they are formed, the roots will keep on 
flowering till the frost puts a stop to them. It seeds as 
freely as oats or barley. February is the best time to 
sow them in peat—you may sow them “ as thick as 
hail,” and in May turn out the ball and divide it into 
four or six pieces, planting each piece separately in the 
open border, and by the end of July they are in bloom. 
1 have seen it come up in the borders,"from self-sown 
seeds, as thick as gi-ass. No frost will hurt the seeds, 
but 1 am not sure how much frost the bulbs will endure. 
If there was a good demand for it, there is no reason 
w'hy it should not be increased so that it could be sold 
as cheaply as snow drops. 
Anojiatheoa jdncf.a (Rush-leaved).—This is not a 
very desirable species; and I question very much 
whether it is an Anomathoca at all. 1 have known so 
many mistakes about bulbs, that I have very little faith 
in the characters on which they establish genera; yet 
I the genus was founded on this very plant, which is 
! cjuite a dwarf, with a rather delicate bulb and small 
' lilac-coloured flowers. It must be grown in a pot and 
in good turfy peat with a sixth part of sand. 
Bomarea. —-Beautiful as most of the Alstrumerias 
certainly are, we know none of them, either in cultiva¬ 
tion, or by dried specimens, that can at all vie in beauty 
and stateliness with some of the Bomareas, of which 
about fifty species, and many wild varieties, have been 
figured and described, although we have hardly half-a- 
dozen of them yet in cultivation, and none of these 
even second-rate, except AcutifoUa, from Mexico. 
About a dozen years back, Mr. Pentland brought 
over three sorts of them from difl'ereut situations near 
Cusco; but that seems to be too I'ar south for much 
beauty in this genus ; the best sorts being in a belt of 
country in Bern, a few degrees on either side of the line. 
1 never heard the history of the large collection which 
Hartweg sent to the Horticultural Society, and which 
were lost at Carthagena; but, from the point where he 
crossed the Andes, and from the higher sources of the 
Magdalena, he must have met witii some of them. 
Mr. Veitch has others gathered by J\Ir. Lobb ; but 
hitherto they have flowered in winter, and not to IMr. 
Veitch’s mind: and no doubt, as bis name is up for the 
best new things, he will not risk the chance of giving 
disappointment, so he )iroves his things before he lets 
them out of his hands. If bis Bomareas are really winter¬ 
flowering plants by nature, they will not do here, as 
they, all of them, ought to flower in the open air, and 
in dry weather, else their delicate tints are gone. After 
describing what few of them we have in cultivation, I 
shall give the names and localities ol some of the best 
and most desirable to procure, in the hope that some 
one will lay a train by which to get tliem down from 
the mountains to some ports in Peru, and thence, home 
by the Panama route. In Chili they call the whole 
tribe, Flos Martini, “ St. Martin’s Flower.” Perhaps 
the same in Peru, and if so, that would be a hint to any 
of the natives for looking after them. 
Bojiaeea acuxifoi.ia.— This is the best of those we 
have in cultivation. In good, rich soil it twines up ten 
to twelve or fifteen feet, and flowers in drooping clusters 
from the ends of the shoots. AYhen the young shoots 
are about six inches long, in the spring, if tbe tops are 
broken olf, they will branch better, rise less bigh, and 
flower more abundantly. The flowers are nearly scarlet. 
It ripens seeds freely when trained against a wall, but 
the ])lants do not always come true from seeds; all the 
variations that I have seen are inferior to the species. 
The sinqdest way to train all of them is to drive a nail 
at the bottom of a wall, and to fasten a string or wire 
to it, fastening it again at the height of eight or ten 
feet, and if it gets but one turn round the bottom of this 
it will train itself for the rest of the journey; and if it 
is a mild season it will keep green to Christmas. It 
will not cross with any Alstrbmeria. 
Bomarea f.du'lis. —The accent is on the u, but half 
the world put the stress on e. This is a West Indian 
stove plant, a native of St. Domingo. In the Bo- ' 
tanical Magazine, and some other works, it is called 
Alsiromeria sahiUa, a very different plant from Chili. 
