February 24. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
401 
Cyclobothra purpurea. —A very old-described bulb, 
aad one of the best of them, and also one of the tallest; 
about tbe same size as harhata. It is a native of Mexico, 
and not quite so hardy as the more northern ones. 
Sarhata, pulchella, and jmrptirea, are the three best, but 
they are all well worth growing, as their mode of 
growth, and of showing off their drooping flowers, 
would make a pleasing variety on a rich border of mis¬ 
cellaneous bulbs. 
Cypeli.a.— With very much of the aspect of Tigrulia, 
and with smaller flowers and longer scapes, in some 
instances {plumbea, for instance). The Cypellas have 
the flowers still more fugacious than Tigridia. The 
same treatment in every respect will suit the two 
families; and also the Rigidellas, Beatonias, and Hydro- 
tcenias. It is as likely as not that some of these will, one 
day or other, be found to be nothing more than sections 
ot the Tigridias after all; greater marks of difference 
may be discovered any day between sections of other 
' families that interbreed very freely. Without some such 
; mixture of blood the Cypellas are not worth much, but 
the vermilion hues of C. Herhertii are very rich, while 
I that of C. Pltunbea is very curious. Herbertii is the 
I best of the three, Drmnmondii the next, and plumbea 
the third. 
: Cyrtanthus obi.iquus and carneus. —The first is 
I very well figured in the Botanical Magazine, 1183 ; and 
! earneus equally so in the Botanical Register, 14(12. 
They are all of this genus that I shall speak of to-day. 
They are both evergreen, and the only evergreens known 
: to us in the genus. Their leaves are much alike: thick, 
firm, and very blunt at the ends: the bulbs are con¬ 
siderably larger than those of the Belladona, and they are 
j very difficult to grow, and to increase, without the exact 
1 kind of loam they like. The yellow loam from Wansted 
I Common, near London, suits them remarkably well, 
with only a very little sand added to it. Mr. Wheeler, 
of Warminster, used to grow them very healthy many 
years ago, but Dr. Herbert could never succeed with 
these two. 1 have been more successful with them 
than any one here, or in Australia, w'here they are quite 
at home. Once in seven or eight years will do to repot 
them, and they must have as small pots as they can 
be got into. They delight to be in a strong draught all 
the year round, where the air is admitted in the front of 
a greenhouse from May to October ; and in the front of 
a late vinery, whore the air is ke})t quite dry all the 
winter, and at a temperature from 45° to 5t)°, or even 
00°. A resting house for Mexican orchids would also 
suit them in winter, if they were kept near where the 
air is admitted; but they will not keep healthy for many 
years if they are wintered either in a good greenhouse, 
or the cool end of a stove. In July, 1849, I flowered 
C. obliquus very fine; the flower-scape was thirty-five 
inches long, and stout enough at the bottom to make a 
walking-stick. I got it to cross, and to bear seeds by 
the pollen of Vadotta qmrpiirea ; the seedlings are old 
enough now to show the cross to be beyond a doubt, 
and yet there are not two other bulbs in the world 
whose flowers are so much unlike each other. 1 have 
also obtained a true cross from one of the great Can¬ 
delabra plants of the Cape (Brunsvigia grandiflora), by 
the pollen of Valotta, and others have done the like 
between Brunsvigias and Belladonas ; so that all these 
should now be placed, in a consecutive arrangement, 
immediately after Amaryllis. In Australia they can 
seed the Gyrtanths freely enough, but they cannot get 
the seeds to vegetate, and I promised to tell why under 
Brunsvigia, for I learned the why by sad experience. 
The seed-pod never changes colour, nor will it open 
until long after all the seeds are ripe, and as soon as 
they are ripe they will sprout immediately in the centre 
of the pod, and all that do so can never be got to con¬ 
tinue their growth after being exposed to the air. I 
was so fearful of some unlucky accident with my seeds, ' 
and 1 was sure that no one would believe mo, that I 
effected such a cross at all, if I lost my seedlings, and 
being also aware of the seeds ripening hefore the pod ' 
gives any signs of it, I gathered the last pod in the 
right state, and sent it to Dr. Lindley, with an earnest 
request that the seedlings should be reared in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society. In a few days - 
after this I was very much amused indeed at finding 
that the officers of the Society thought I was quite daft. I 
They sent me a polite letter, thanking me for a green I 
pod not half ripe enough ; but they qualified this in 
the Journal (1850, page 18(3), and said they had a dozen | 
of seedlings, ripe or not ripe. D. Beaton. I 
COVERING COI.D PITS. 
Frost and snow have come at length, in unison with 
the prophetic warnings of the meteorologists; and, as 
if to rebuke the grumbling unbelievers who already 
began to dream about a scorching summer, without a 
bit of ice to cool either eatables or drinkables. It is no 
small pleasure to ourselves, scant as we are just now in 
time and covering material, to find that such a severe frost 
has not come until a mantle of snow was spread over 
the tender vegetation ; and has snugly wrapped up our 
cold pits in the very best and cheapest protection we 
could give them. Only a short time ago, on the principle 
of fore-warning, 1 gave, as I conceived, as many of the 
minutia3 of management in such unheated structures 
as I could cram into the allotted space; and yet I find 
that friends, in the same vicinity, will read these state¬ 
ments so diti’erently, as to have an argument which of 
their respective systems is the very best; Mr. Economy 
allowing his pits and frames, in such cold weather, to 
remain without light and air for the best part of a week ; 
while Mr. Thrifty-spare-no-labour has everything un¬ 
covered for several hours to admit all the light possible. 
Both have plants in cold pits ; both have a few plants 
standing in a pit, on dry ashes, with enough of hot 
sweet dung underneath to stimulate them into growth ; 
both have a few cuttings in a slight hotbed, and both 
have the prized luxury of a radish-bed coming on; 
and if I will not minutely discriminate which, in the 
main is correct, it is hoped that I will state what would 
be my own practice under such circumstances; and this 
I will shortly do, hoping it may meet such “difficult” 
cases. Then 
1st. All such half-hardy plants as are generally kept 
in cold pits may safely be covered up in sev.ere, dull, 
stormy weather, for a week or two, or longer, provided 
the plants have been kept stubby by plenty of light and 
air in open weather; that the soil and pit are dryish 
rather than otherwise; and though last, not least impor¬ 
tant, the inside temperature is so low, from 34° to 40°, 
that growth will not take place. I have just now had 
such a pit covered for a week; 1 have frequently had 
them covered, in such circumstances, for three weeks 
and a mouth, and the plants suffered nothing. The green¬ 
ness of a pasture, when it has been for weeks covered 
with snow, when the frost and snow have gradually 
gone, would give a hint of the same fact. In thus acting, 
I am not at all insensible to the beneficial influence of 
light; but often the frost at night is attended with snow, 
sleet, or even dull black frost during tbe day; and in 
such cases all the light obtainable would not be worth 
the labour and the additional risk, and therefore I would 
not uncover. Again, this very day the sun has been 
shining beautifully after a keen frost last night; but I 
have not touched the covering: not merely because I 
was busy at the icehouse, but because I knew the plants 
were all right within—because there was every appear¬ 
ance of a night of frost still more severe than the last. 
