oi‘i 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
i'jTBRUAnY ;i. 
each of them would make a flowering plant hy the fol- 
' lowing autumn. 1 think it is better, with all this family, 
j to get all the liowering shoots direct from the bottom, 
if possible, than to stop any of them to get the plant 
bushy; and when it is absolutely necessary to have 
recourse to stopping, it ought to be done very early, 
when the young shoots are about four inches long. 
The next best, if not the very best in the room, was a 
Rrazilian bulb, IJijypcastrnm aidicum; the variety of it, 
with the wavy petals and sepals, called platypetalum. 
There are three distinct forms of this beautiful bulb 
AuUcum, with thick broad petals, as flat and regular on 
the edges as the petal of a tulip:— jdatypeUdum, our 
present subject, the petals and sepals wider apart and a 
little wavy, with the crimson colour not so rich as in the 
first; and Oryanense, intermediate between the two, and 
a much hardier bulb, which the late iMr. Gardener found 
high up on the Organ ^Mountains, in Brazil. Tlic three 
never produce more than two flowers on a scape, and 
the large green eye is very conspicuous on all of them. 
The best kind to cross with them is certainly reyium 
(reginae), the best scarlet in the family. The next best 
is equestre, a bright orange flower, as regular in the 
outline as the flower of Valotta. The bulb exhibited 
was in a large No. 10 pot, and it had three large offset 
bulbs still growing on the old bulb; the old and young 
were all in bloom like a Pine-apple, having three suckers 
in front, as well as the old plant. The old bulb in the 
middle had two flower scapes, higher than the side ones; 
there were six scapes in all, but one of them was over 
by this time. It is the only Hqrpeuster that was exhi¬ 
bited like a “ specimen” for the last twenty years, and 
the first of the Aidicum breed tliat J have seen with 
twelve blooms on at the same time. This is always the 
best way to grow H. vittatmn, as it is rather shy to 
establish after dividing; and I was going to recommend 
it to bo grown this way on that account, and as some¬ 
thing novel; but now 1 am glad to own that a first-rate 
grower of them, and a perfect stranger, has forestalled 
me, and only wish we had many more such growei's of 
these very handsome bulbs ; indeed, of bulbs in general, 
i hope the Council of the Society will offer a handsome 
prize some day or other for the best-named collection of 
well-grown bulbs, and make me one of the judges in 
that class. There is some danger attending tbe growth 
of stove bulbs in general, after this method; tlie old ' 
bulb is always ripe long before the side ones; but 1 shall 
explain when I come to that part of our bulb list. 
CocHLE.vm.v ACAULis. —This is the very little annual j 
which will keep in flower all the year round, and flower 
on tire mantle-})iece all the winter in anything from a 
shell to a finger-glass. If every one of our readers 
would threaten to take their custom from seedsmen 
who could not supjily a sixpenny packet of the seeds of 
this pretty little thing, we should soon have it as 
the Society wish. We had lots of it to-day, in wide 
shallow pans, the plants standing as thick as grass, and 
in full flower, and hardly two inches high. They send 
it every winter, from October till April. Echeveria I 
(sounds E-g-v-r-i-a), is another plant of which they ‘ 
have three or four kinds in the garden for showing ' 
at these meetings, all of which, we were told in the j 
lecture, might be grown in every window in London. ! 
Gesnera zebrina, and G. Ilerhertii, both fine specimens, 
were also from our own garden, as also, and as is usual 
every winter, a line example of Silago distans, which 
blooms all the winter through, if done as Mr. Pish says. 
Muraltia lleisteria, the best plant of it I ever saw, was 
from the same garden. When 1 was a boy, this was 
the only greenhouse plant to bo seen in flower all 
through the winter. It was then called Polygalu. It 
has very bright red, little, pea-flowers, crowded together 
along the. shoots, and is one of the best of all the old- 
fashioned plants for this season. CeiUradenia Jlori- 
hitnda, only known to stove-plant growers, was there also. 
There is not much difference between it and C. rosea. 
To name all the cut-flowers at this meeting is more 
than 1 can find room for. Will it not, however, stand 
as a garden mark in history, that beautiful, hii'ge, 
healthy flowers of the red or scarlet Datura, were 
gathered from the open air in Dorsetshire, and were ex¬ 
hibited in I.ondon on the IHth January, 185:5! Mr. 
Strangways sent them, and a large flat basketful of 
other nice things, in the same style, including the 
Mexican Fuchsia cordata, looking as rich in the flower, 
and as flowery as any Euchsia ever did. Now ibis 
very pretty Euchsia was cast out of cultivation without 
a hearing; but depend upon it the fault was ours, we 
did not find out the right method to bring it in as a 
w'iuter-flowering jdant, like F. serratifolia. We ought 
to retrace our steps, and get tlie two crossed lor a 
regulai' new breed of Euchsias that will flower naturally 
all the winter. There is not the slightest doubt about 
the possibility of the thing. 
There were plenty cut-flow'ers of Camellias, Cinerarias, 
Epacris, of the two CMmonanths, fragrans, and grandi- 
flonts; their sweet flowers were a great treat for the 
ladies; Jjonicera fragrantissima, an evergreen hardy 
bush, very sweet-scented white flowers, and many more 
besides. 
A fine Enville Pine-apqde, and lots of Grapes and 
dessert Apiples. The Black Barbarossa, from Mr. 
Eleming, was the best, and now may be relied on as 
an excellent keeper. He also sent Muscats of Alexandria 
and Tokays; and although it was not named, it seemed 
to say as mucli as that the Tokay keeps better than the 
Muscat. i\Ir. Eorbes, gardener to the Duke of Bedford, 
sent the best bloomed Black Hamburghs I ever saw, 
and also a bunch of them which ripened this year, with 
large, green, fleshy leaves, but unfortunately they were 
received too late in the day to come in for competition, 
no doubt through delays by the railroad people. Twenty 
kinds of beautihd dessert Apqdcs, and all true to name ; 
a great treat now-a-days; and some first-rate collections 
of Salad herbs, complete the lists of things displayed. 
The Salad herbs deserve to be enumerated. Mr. 
Burns, gardener to Earl Stanhope, was most successful. 
He had Beet, Celery, Radishes, Corn-salad, Endive 
(Curled and Batavian), Cress, Mustard, American Cress, 
Chicory (blanched). Water-cresses, Tarragon, young 
Onions, Chervil, and Burnet. Mr. Eleming, gardener 
to the Duke of Sutherland, had nearly the same. 
Erom our garden was a collection of similar herbs, 
comprising two varieties of Chicory ; Italian Corn-salad 
(Mache d’ltalie), the best of the varieties of this jdant; 
two Ercnch varieties of Celery, three indiflereut speci¬ 
mens of Beet; throe Sorrels, of which the best was a 
Ercnch kind called Belleville Sorrel (Oscille de Belle¬ 
ville), Chervil, Onions, and one or two other trivial 
things. D. Be.aton. 
THE AURICULA. 
{Gontiniicd from page 324.) 
rROl'EKTIES OE A GOOD AURICULA. 
1. The stem should bo from five to eight inches high, 
and should be strong enough to bear the truss upright 
without any artificial support. 
2. The footstalks of each flower should be so long as 
to allow room for each flower to expand individually, so 
as not to cover any other flower in the truss. 
3. There should be a guard-leaf under the entire truss, 
to set off, by its green colour, the colour of the flowers 
(this is not indispensable). 
-i. 'The flower, or jiij), shoidd be round, large, with 
each jictal of equal size, smooth at tbe edge, stout, and 
perfectly even or Hat. 
