I 3G8 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. March 11. 
and the garden of the society ; but the best plant in the 
room, and the best in England, while it lasts, was the 
Amherstia nobilis, in the shape of a bunch of cut- 
flowers. I thought once I should never forgive Mrs. 
Lawrence for this very plant. Lord Hardinge sent it 
and three or four more from India; one was for Her 
Majesty, one for Mrs. Lawrence, one for somebody else, 
and one for Shrub! and Park. The case happened to be 
landed “just when there was nobody in London,” and 
seeing the town was out, and knowing tbe value of the 
things, and that Mrs. Lawrence was the best gardener 
in England, they sent tbe whole lot down to Ealing 
Park, and, as luck would have it, Mrs. Lawrence’s own 
plant was the best of the lot, at least they say so. Her 
Majesty’s plant was alive, and the rest happened to be 
as dead as a hammer. But now I am quite satisfied, 
■ and all this happened for the best; none of us could 
manage this charming plant half so well. I went to 
Ealing Park on purpose to see it. I saw it fifteen years 
before in Dr. Wallich’s large work on the rare plants of 
India, and last summer I saw it in the Crystal Palace 
j done in wax, but I never saw the living gems till that 
meeting-day. 
As a curious coincidence, there was another beautiful 
plant in tbe same collection, about which I was once 
j hoodwinked. It was a fine strong plant of Ansellia 
; Africana, an orchid from Eernando Po, which was 
brought home by Mr. Ansell, the young naturalist, who 
accompanied the ill-fated Niger expedition. I think it 
was only a dry specimen or a drawing. However there 
was some account of it given in the Botanical Register, 
and Clarence Cove given as the spot where it was seen. 
The moment I read this I wrote to a Naval officer com¬ 
manding a vessel (the Thunderbolt) cruising in those 
latitudes against the slave traffic, and of course I thought 
I should be among the first to possess Ansellia, but no, 
the Thunderbolt was far off’ round the Cape in the 
Mozambique Channel, and she never saw Fernando Po 
from that day to this, nor I the Ansellia till I saw it in 
company with the Amlierstia. 
On my way home, I poked my nose over the fence of 
every cottage garden 1 saw, but did not see anything 
very remarkable except one very old plant—an excellent 
spring bedder, that I have not seen for years, but which 
everybody ought to have; it is what they call in the 
nurseries Arahis granclijlora, but the book name for it is 
albida or caucasica, being a native of the Caucasus. In 
one garden, I saw five large patches of it, at least four 
feet in diameter each, and as full of bright white flowers 
. as you could stick pins in a pincushion. Every patch 
would make a nice little bed, and it keeps in flower at 
least five weeks, and is not more than two or three 
inches high. It delights in very light sandy soil, and 
would make an excellent rock plant. Also, if it were 
taken up in September, well divided, and planted thick 
in any out-of-the-way place till the bedding plants were 
housed, or frosted, and the beds put into trim for the 
winter, then removed to the flower-garden, and planted 
quite thick, I have no doubt it would continue in bloom 
till it was time to plant out the verbenas, when it might 
be removed out of the way again, to be nursed and cared 
for another year. I would also have large patches of it, 
without disturbing, where it could be seen from the 
windows, for coming earlier into bloom. Mr. Jackson, 
junr., who was at the rooms in Regent-street the same 
day, told me he had lots of it on sale at Kingston, Sur¬ 
rey, and that it was very generally cultivated thereabouts. 
Every gardener with whom 1 get into conversation, 
tells me that bedding out plants never kept better than 
they have this mild winter, and they agree with me, that 
all those geraniums which go too much into leaf, or are 
shy to bloom, are much better the older they arc, that is 
within reasonable bounds. Your five or six years old 
plants give up their luxurious habits and bloom as freely 
as Tom Thumb. Among the first on this list is tbe 
beautiful Unique. It is seldom up to the mark until it is 
three years old, and old plants of it should be very close 
pruned about this time, and cuttings made of all the 
young tops. Those who keep old geraniums of any kind 
over the winter, with a view of making cuttings from the 
early growth, ought to preserve the old plants also, as if 
they are not all wanted to fill the centres of tbe beds, they 
make the best furnishing for vases, baskets, or for plant¬ 
ing singly on the grass. 
All Fuchsias for beds flower better, and look more 
healthy, if they are now or very soon cut down close to 
tire ground, whether in pots or the borders. By tbe bye, I 
an excellent practical gardener who takes most of the 
fuchsia prizes at Norwich, told me last autumn that the 
only secret of his success is that he grows his plants dif¬ 
ferent from everybody else. He prefers from three to 
five years old plants, and about the middle of March he 
prunes away every vestige of the last year’s growth ; so 
that tbe old stems look as bare as a walking-stick ; he 
then allows them to break afresh without any forcing, 
thins the young shoots, and forces gently, or keeps 
them back, according to the time he wants them to be in 
their prime for the different shows. I have done the 
same thing with Riccartonii on the walls, to keep them 
from encroaching too much on their neighbours, and I 
never saw a finer bloom. The grajm vine bears the 
same kind of pruning on some soils, but is fatal to it on 
most soils; but all Fuchsias, Clematis, Passion flower, 
Cobcea, Fccremocarpus, Maurandya, Lophospermum, 
Solatium, and indeed all those climbers which flower on 
the current season’s growth do better if they are closely 
pruned in March. Seeds of these, and of the Canary 
plants, and all the mixtures of the Convolvulus Major 
tribe, with a small sample of all the half-hardy annuals, 
should be sown immediately. The beginning of April 
will be time for tbe great bulk of bedding seeds. 
D. Beaton. 
OLD FUCHSIAS. 
“ These forced too much under the dark stage of a 
greenhouse, have put out unripe shoots from two to six 
inches in length—will they ripen, or should tbe shoots 
be removed, &c. ?•” A short time ago there were a few 
notes on Fuchsias, and such as were deemed suitable for 
such a case as the present. It seems, however, they did 
not exactly meet it. I give the state of these old Fuch¬ 
sias thus prominently here, because such a mode of 
treatment, with the exception of allowing them to push 
in the dark to any extent, is the very best for securing 
dense masses of early bloom from*all the small-leaved 
varieties, that have more of tbe blood of the old Globosa 
in their foliage, than that of the large-leaved Fulgens. 
At one time 1 used to pay Fuchsias very marked atten¬ 
tion, and with this large group I never satisfied myself 
so well by any other mode. The plants stood in any 
out-of-the-way place in winter, until they broke from 
half-an-inclr to two inches—had then the points of the 
old shoots, and any dead parts, nipped off—a part of 
the old soil removed, the remaining ball dipped in a 
pail of water at 80°, allowed to drain, and then potted 
in rich open loam, kept in the shade for a few days, and 
then placed in light in the conservatory. The young 
shoots were thus very numerous, rather stubby in their 
growth, and smothered with bloom. If the shoots have, 
therefore, come thick enough, all our correspondent has 
to do, is either to top-dress or shift his plants, and expose , 
them to light, but gradually at first. Shoots even six 
inches in length will soon become consolidated enough, 
if they have got any substance at all; if very thin and 
wiry, and plenty more breaking, they had better bo 
removed, as then the shoots will be more equal. This 
group of Fuchsias is the best for all purposes, and espe- 
