THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
363 
EKimCAiiY 10. 
seedlings among the gardeners, who ought, before this 
time, to have worked tliem for themselves. 
Grinum amabile is quite barren; it never furnishes 
pollen, neither will it seed ; and there have been many 
j such instances in the genus—seedlings coming to a dead 
] lock at the lirst cross. There are three or four kinds of 
I white-howered Criuums from Australia, which cross 
1 freely, and produce fertile offspring, but as they are 
I very little known I shall pass them, and mention only 
! the three or four kinds from the Cape, which are well- 
known to bear seedlings from any of the Indian Crinums 
as hardy as themselves with the first cross. The best 
of the tiiree is a dark purple variety of Grinum capense, 
named liiparium in Bot. Mag., 2088. The next best 
is the white variety of tlie same, which they grow in 
Holland, and wliich they sell by the name of Amaryllis 
Africana, canduhi, and so forth. The third best is a 
comparatively small bulb, with a long neck; it comes 
in every one of those boxes of bulbs which our friends 
purchase for us from the Cape dealers; the name is 
invariably called Amaryllis lonyifolia, or capense: this 
has a dull white llower, and milky-green leaves. There 
is a hardier kind even than this, with the leaves perfectly 
green, and the flowers die of a bright pink colour. It 
' is difiicult, however, to get it through the bulb dealers. 
I Grinum capense, or Amaryllis lonyi/olia, is a very 
common plant in England, where it is quite hardy, and 
flowers from the end of May to October, and ripens seeds 
! by the bushel, if it is planted in strong soil by the edge 
of ponds or lakes. It is a regular swamp plaTit, and 
rests all the winter out-of-doors; but in a pot in the 
greenhouse it is evergreen, and I have known it to 
flower in February. It will cross with almost all known 
Crinums ; seedlings of itself, without being crossed, will 
flower the fourth season, and some the third year; when 
crossed, some of the seedlings take longer time to flower. 
Grinum Goveni figured in the third volume of the Hort. 
Soc. Trans., and named after R. Gowen, Esq., present 
Treasurer to the Society, is a cross from G. capense by 
the pollen of G. zelanicum, yet it is perfectly hardy, and 
very handsome and fertile. Grinum Herhertii, named 
by Sweet, is a plant of great beauty, bearing ten or 
eleven flowers on a scape three feet high, and quite 
hardy in front of a greenhouse, although a cross by the 
pollen of G. scahrum (Bot. Mag., 2180), a bulb from Rio 
Jnuiero, and the hardy capense. The Grinums called 
Lindleyana, purplish on the outside of the flower; Lod- 
diyesianum, from Mexico, with a large portion of purple 
in the flower; scahrum, striped with red, very beautiful; 
selanicum, deep purple; sjieciosum, white, striped with 
pink; and revolutum [Amaryllis revoluta of the Cape), 
striped much like sjmciosum, are those that I would 
i recommend for crossing with capense for beautiful, 
I lianly, border plants. It is true that such crosses have 
been already obtained; but then they are in private 
hands, and by an illiberal and jealous system, they are 
likely to remain so until we raise them afresh, and get 
some to surpass them from the breed of Forhesianum. 
\ I once had half-a-peck of the seeds from, or, rather, said 
to be from, the best collection of them in existence, 
through the influence of an officer high in the Councils 
’ of the Horticultural Society; but after all my trouble 
I in nursing five hundred bulbs for four years, the whole 
I turned out to be nothing but tlie common Grinum ca¬ 
pense. The seeds of this species are as large as horse- 
beans, but some species have them much larger, 
D, Beaton. 
i COMBINING A GREENHOUSE AND VINERY. 
I “Will the ordinary sort of greenhouse plants sufi'er 
I from having a vine trained above them; there will be 
i no heating, except in frosty weather, as the grapes 
would not require to be forced ?” The above is one of a 
series of similar applications from subscribers I would 
ever be anxious to serve. The matter has already 
received a fair amount of attention, but yet scarcely so 
mucli as its importance demands. The cheapness of 
glass has given both power and ease to the gardeners in 
some large establishments, inasmuch as they are thus 
enabled to devote a structure to one definite purpose. 
Success in such circumstances is not only more certain, 
it ought to be of a higher grade. Taken in the mass, 
gardeners have not been ju'ovided with houses at all in 
proportion to the greatly increased demand and supply 
required from them. At a vast increase of labour, 
therefore, which keeps us ever on the move—preventing 
us, at least, from getting ricketty or gouty by inaction— 
most of us are forced to turn our houses to many pur¬ 
poses, though a main feature be preserved in each. 
1 cannot say that ever I have been so fortunate as to 
have the superintendence of a vinery that was not, 
during part of the season, made to do the duty of a 
greenhouse. I recollect a great nurseryman ominously 
shaking his head at me, many years ago, and muttering 
something about “ madness;” and no wonder, perhaps, 
for there, in a small house, in a forenoon in spring, 
were grapes and peaches set, a guava and figs swelling, 
French beans and strawberries fit to gather, melons like 
pigeons' eggs, and cucumbers hanging like short gun- 
barrels, plenty of chicory and rhubarb in a corner, 
while, in addition to other plants, flowers of Passion¬ 
flowers and Franciscea scented the atmosphere. Now, 
I would by no means recommend our inexperienced 
friends to attempt such a variety of things in one house, 
each requiring different treatment; but, as the cheap¬ 
ness of gla.ss has led many to build a house, I have 
alluded to the circumstance here, to show they need be 
under no alarm in attem))ting to combine the useful 
with the beautiful, by getting grapes to eat, as well as 
flowers to admire. 
The successful results obtained often under such 
circumstances leave no doubt of this. Some of the 
finest grapes I ever saw were shown in September ; and 
I knew well, from the same single houses, their respective 
owners exhibited good specimens of Calceolarias, Cine¬ 
rarias, and Geraniums, at previous exhibitions, and also , 
splendid Fuchsias. Of course the shows were made no 
secondary matter. Wherever there is a thorough deter¬ 
mination to accomplish an object, difficulties only whet 
the invention, and increase the diligence. It has just 
started into my mind what Mr. Appleby said so favour¬ 
ably in the autumn respecting the Northampton show. 
I can fully confirm his statements—nay, more, I would 
say, that he by no means saw the best that the gardeners 
there could do ; for, not to speak of other things, I have 
seen Cinerarias and Achimeues there such as I have 
never seen exhibited on Imndon tables; but what struck 
me most of all was, in visiting some of the places, such 
as Courteen Hall, to find such small apparent means 
and conveniences to produce the seen results. A wag 
once solved my difficulty in respect to the above place 
by stating that, whatever the glass conveniences, it was 
no doubt doubly gardenered ; but, however evident that 
Mr. Gardener had got a share of the professional mantle, 
it was also conspicuous that it was no stranger to the 
shoulders of his neighbours. Indeed, had that gentle¬ 
man the gwiver, he could not have had the willingness 
to keep it to himself. Paradoxical though it may seem, 
it is no less true, that young beginners, who wish to 
make the most of their conveniences, will often gain 
more suitable information in visiting small and mode¬ 
rate-sized places, than in pilgrimating to large and more 
celebrated establishments. 
From these remarks, it will he seen that it is perfectly 
practicable to combine greenhouse plants and Vines in 
one structure. It will be necessary, however, for the 
