500 
THE COTTAGE GARDENEK. 
March 31. 
Hambrough breed; and that 1 can attest myself, from 
growing a collection of them against each other, on the 
open wall, for ten years in succession. I once grew a 
German Grape very much like this Barharossa, it was 
called ScJiivarsel Haamjlin. In the last week in Sep¬ 
tember, 1830, it was ripe on the open wall, and I showed 
it to Mr. Thompson, the great authority for fruits at the 
Horticultural Society. There have been some enquiries 
about the new Barharossa, but as the price is high, and 
the kind was not yet proved to our satisfaction, we 
rather put a damper on it; but now there is no question 
about it, and we say, at once, that it requires the same 
kind of treatment as the Black Hambrough, and that it 
is the best keeping grape in cultivation ; and were it 
only to see this one question proved, no Eellow of the 
Society ought to grudge a journey to Regent Street. 
Of the Orchid family, the best in the room was, a large, 
fine specimen plant of Dendrohimn nohile Blandianum, 
a variety as superior to the old nohile as nohile itself is 
to a Cuckoo flower. This was from the stoves of the 
society, where I saw it, for the first time, the day they 
were lifting the lai-ge tree; and I saw another Den- 
drohium [speciosum], that day, for the first time in flower, 
one of the most profusely flowering Orchids I ever set 
my eye ujron; and one, which I have since learned, that 
several people flowered this winter, without knowing 
what it really was, and had to send spikes of it to 
London to learn the name. This, one of the oldest of 
Orchids, is one of the easiest to keep, but the worst to 
flower, without a particular treatment, such as, I believe, 
Mr. Appleby recommended. I also saw a lovely new 
Orchid, in the same house, which opened its beautiful 
flowers this month, for the first time in England. It is 
a Gattleya, called, or to be called, jjallida. it belongs to 
tlie same section as Mossiie, and had two flowers on each 
shoot; the coloui', all over, is a mixture of snow-white, 
soft cream, and light violet, just such a flower as one 
might wish for a wedding nosegay, and, like many of 
them, they long continue in their prime. 
One cannot write a word about new Orchids without 
the wish recurring that we could cross them, so as to 
render them more hardy, if not varied in colours and less 
difficult to manage for amateurs; but, in truth, we can 
cross them easily enough, and get the seeds to ripen, too, 
and the seed is as small as the dust in the sun-beam—the 
difficulty is to get them to sprout, or vegetate, and that 
difficulty has often been overcome. I, for one, had some 
hundreds of them in life ; but the greatest difficulty of 
all is to rear them the first season, and no one has 
yet got over that. But a friend of mine, who is most 
successful with the more rare and curious things we 
handle, has just consented to give these Orchid seeds 
another trial this season, under quite a new and ori¬ 
ginal system, of which both of us entertain great hopes, 
and I promised to ask for seeds, from all piarts, through 
The Cottage Gardener; and I do, hereby, most 
earnestly appeal to each and every grower of Orchids 
who reads this page, to look out among his plants and 
see if he can ])ick up a pod, empty it in a packet, and 
inclose it for me. It is of little consequence what the 
kind of Orchid may be—any one will do to test the 
experiment; but I should like to receive as many kinds 
as possible, and whatever the issue may be we shall 2 )ut 
it on record for the use of others. 
But to return to the meeting in Regent-street. The 
garden of the Society furnished the best of the green¬ 
house spring flowers without forcing. 
Trymalium odoratissimum, trained as an upright bush, 
was feathered all round, and from the edge of the j^ot, 
with creamy-white flowers, on slender spikes and spike- 
lets, after the fashion of Ceanothus azureits. This is 
certainly a very desirable jdant to grow for early flower¬ 
ing, and it is as easy to grow and flower as a I’uchsia ; 
and when cuttings of it are taken from a flowering 
jilant they begin to flower as soon as they form roots. 
I have seen lots of it so lately in Mr. Jackson’s show 
house, but the flowers are individually so small, that 
without it is a large specimen plant it makes little show. 
Acacia celastrifuUa, a veiy dwarf species, was in full ' 
bloom, the branches drooping down over the pot. Years 
ago, when one mentioned the name of Acacia, it gave 
the rest the horrors, because no one could build houses 
then half large enough for them; but now, since we 
have got the race of low bushy ones, they are among 
the most fashionable plants we have, and deservedly so, 
seeing how easy they are to grow, to keep, and to bloom, 
at a time when flowers are most wanting; for, with a 
good sujjply of water at the roots, they -can easily bo - 
forced to bloom vei’y early in the spring; or, if they arc , 
kept in close cold pits, after flowering, till the middle or I 
end of June, they will flower very early without any ' 
more forcing. I have seen some in bloom in November. 
Polygala Dahnaitiana, a good variety in the way of 
grandijiora, seems to be a most useful spring plant, as 
of late years it figured away in the jjrize collections at 
the May shows, and now seeing it in fine bloom two 
months earlier is as much as to say you can do anything 
with it. Spring Heaths, Epacrises, and Cytisus ramosus, 
alias rodophne, and Ceanothus rigidus, make up the bulk 
of the rest of this class of flowers, and almost every¬ 
body knows all about them. 
Besides all these, the special things for which prizes 
wei’e offered were Salad pla7Us, forced Strau'berries in 
puts, and Hijbrid Ehododendrons. Old gardeners know 
very well how difficult it is to shoiv a fine lot of Straw¬ 
berries in pots, such as Mr. McEwen, gardener to the 
Duke of Norfolk, sent up last spring; and young gar¬ 
deners in the country think they would be only laughed 
at if they were to send up such things in competition 
against Govent Garden market, where all the best things 
in the world are sent to. Therefore, “between two 
stools,” the prizes that have been offered for winter salad 
plants, and forced vegetables and fruit, have not been 
hard fought for yet, except the “brush” between ilr. 
Fleming and Mr. Burns, gardener to Lord Stanhope, 
and the full collections from the grounds of the Society’s 
own gardens, which were very good each time. But 
the best result of the Society’s offerings is, that several 
varieties of the same kind of thing are shown side by 
side, so that one can see with one eye, at one glance, 
and in a warm, comfortable room in the heart of IjOiuIoii, 
what has taken months and months to arrive at, out in' 
the open country, and under all weathers. Next year we 
are promised to have, not a skirmish, or an off-hand 
battle, but a regular war to the very roots. Many of 
the country party have pledged their forces; the right | 
kinds of seeds are to be ordered now; and country 
gardeners are to invade I.ondon next winter, determiued 
to take it by force, if not by their forcing products. 
Mr. Burns’ collection of Salad plants at this Meeting 
were, blanched entire-leaved Chicory; curled and Bata¬ 
vian Endive; Bath-Cos, and hardy-green Lettuce: 
American, Normandy, Curled, Golden, and Water 
Cresses; Italian Corn Salad —the best of all Corn- 
Salads; White Mustard; common Garden Sort'el; 
Burnet; Red Beet; Chervil; Cole’s Dwarf red Celery; 
Tarragon; early frame Radishes; Chives; and Tripoli 
Onions. D. Beaton. 
GARDENING S’TRUCTURES. 
The modes of treating gardening structures will now 
be occupying much attention, as not only will many bo 
thinking of building for another season, but here, with 
the weather of Christmas in a Good Friday week, many 
will have to make sundry make-shifts with their present 
conveniences. The rearing of a structure for jdauts, 
either for ornament or utility, is a good beginning; but 
