160 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 11. 
land Florist, very well conducted by Air. Wood, florist, 
of Nottingham ; we are now to have a Southern Florist, 
edited by Air. Knight, florist, of Battle, in Sussex, some 
of whose papers have appeared in our columns; and we 
are also to have a Northern Florist, presided over by 
Air. Slater, florist, of Alanchester. Scotland is to have 
another, and why should Ireland and Wales be without 
theirs? Some of these and other changes are thus 
noticed by a correspondent:— 
“ Since I wrote about changes, Mr. Slater’s two-penny 
monthly magazine for Alanchester, and a northern rival in 
Scotland, at the same price, by the able compilers of the 
“ Scottish Agricultural and Horticultural Journal,” have 
been regularly announced. The former is one of those un- 
mistakeable writers who call men and things by their right 
names. The Scottish Journal is good in some respects, 
because it borrows from others ; how far the magazine is to 
live on such means is at present doubtful. Mr. Turner, 
florist, of Slough, is installed as owner of “ The Florist,” and 
as it would be difficult to make any change for the worse, we 
look for improvement. “ The Companion to the Flower- 
Garden ” is to be edited by Air. Aloore, who is not only a 
practical gardener, but a good botanist, and some first- 
rate contributors are engaged; but it is not, like the Gar¬ 
deners' Magazine of Botany from which it has arisen, to be 
essentially scientific, but will be a practical guide and com¬ 
panion for the cultivator. From what I hear, I conclude it 
will be more in the style of the old “Horticultural Journal,” 
but with two coloured plates and wood engravings.” 
A clergyman, from the neighbourhood of Cloyne, in 
the south of Ireland, has obligingly communicated the 
following particulars, which will make some of our 
floral friends linger, for the climate that is so near to 
them, yet so different from that in which they are 
shivering:— 
“ The Belladonnas did not seed this year, though they 
bloomed beautifully. Of half-hardy things, the Sollya 
heterophylla, and Salvia splendens, are still in bloom, having 
been so for many months. The Sollya is increasing 
■wonderfully, getting into a large shrub. The Escallonia 
is also yet flourishing in blossom, and going to seed. 
The Verbena (Lemon-scented. Aloysia) are quite large 
trees in this neighbourhood, in the old gardens,* as also 
the Myrtles. The Lily of the Nile, or at least what is 
called by that name, is always left out in the borders; it 
blossomed splendidly this year, and bore a quantity of seed. 
(The Calla, or rather Richardia JEthiopica is so called.— 
Ed. C. G.) A lady in this neighbourhood preserved all her 
Verbenas last winter, by covering the entire bed with 
earth, they shot up in the spring, and were this summer 
healthy, strong plants; they were principally the scarlet. I 
am trying the same plan this winter with a mixed bed of 
several kinds ; also, I am leaving out Cupheas, Heliotropes, 
&c., merely covering them at night. Are the Scarlet Lobelias 
considered delicate ? as here they are not thought so, and 
would soon overrun a garden, if left to themselves, they 
seem to increase so rapidly. The Eccremocarpus, and 
Lophospermum, are left out unprotected about here, and 
commence blossoming in April. What Air. Beaton has re¬ 
marked, relative to Scarlet Geraniums, I have proved to be 
quite correct, as those I had not room to bring in, are in 
high health, and I shall let them take their chance out for 
the winter. (November 28th.) Last night there was a severe 
frost, the ground quite hard, but it has injured nothing in 
the garden. The Fuchsia Gordifolia appears exceedingly 
hardy, as although all the others have dropped their leaves, 
■ it still remains in full leaf and flower, and is therefore 
I useful as a shrub." 
Alessrs. Weeks of Chelsea, say:— 
“ M e have this day (Nov. 22), a beautiful flower on the 
Victoria Regia, and there is another bud which is on the 
* There ia such a tree even so midland as Tylehurst, near Reading, in 
an open cottage garden.—[E d. C. G.j 
point of expanding, in our open-heated pond. This is most 
remarkable at the present late period of the season, and 
causes great surprise and admiration in the gardening 
world.” 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS, BIOGRAPHIES, AND CULTURE. 
Great-flowered Henbane ( Hyoscyamus , alias Phy- 
soclaina grandiflora).~—Botanical Magazine, t. 4600.— 
Some years ago the late Air. Don proposed to change 
the name of a pretty Siberian Henbane called physa- 
hides, to that of Physoclaina physaloides, two words 
signifying the same thing—an enlarged calyx; from 
physa, a bladder, and chlaina, a cloak, or outward 
covering, on the one hand; and physaloides, bladder-like, 
on the other. To this he proposed to add Hyoscyamus 
orientalis, because its flower envelope, the calyx, is 
more inflated than is generally the case with the other 
species then described. These two species of Henbane 
were figured in the Botanical Magazine long before this 
alteration was thought of, and the grounds for it appear¬ 
ing to subsequent systematists to be but of slight value, 
they did not adopt it, and we had imagined that we 
heard the last of Physoclaina, except as an alias or 
synonyme to Hyoscyamus. On taking up the September 
number of the Botanical Alagazine, however, we found 
Physoclaina still holding the position of an acknowledged 
or legitimate genus, and a beautiful species, the subject 
of our present portrait and biography, referred to it. It 
therefore remains for us but to record what is known of 
Physoclaina grandijlora. 
It is a hardy herbaceous plant, with yellowish-green 
flowers, marked with thin purple veins. The stem is about 
two feet high, cylindrical, much branched, and, like the 
foliage, covered with down; leaves, alternate, pointed egg- 
shaped ; flowers, in scattered bunches at the end of the 
branches; calyx, bell-shaped, five-toothed, but much en¬ 
larged and lengthened when fruiting; corolla, curved down¬ 
wards, somewhat funnel-shaped; stamens, as long as corolla, 
