COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
335 
February 5. 
I TI. ruRPURAscExs,—Flowers purple, resembling Ohjm- 
piciis, but (piite distinct, lleforo opening, the ilower-buds 
seem to be covei'cd with a peculiar bloom of deep plum 
' colour. 
Tlie remaining species are //. dmnclorum, fwlidnx, odonis, 
tiijhliiix ('syn. arf/nlijolhis), and viiidh; these, having bright 
, green flowers, cannot be recommended for the select col- 
I lection, but, on account of their line evergreen foliage, are 
admirably adapted for planting in the front of shrubberies, 
I or by the sides of walks, particularly in romantic and sub- 
; alpine situations.— James Rae, JEdiiibur<jh. 
I 
I -- 
ROOTING CUTTINGS OF REDDING CALCEO¬ 
LARIAS, AND WINTERING THEM. 
i Taking Mr. Beaton’s hint, I gladly contribute my expe¬ 
rience towards making Floriculture an easier, a more certain, 
and, consequently, a moi’e delightful recreation and study. 
Four years comprise the extent of ray gardening operations, 
so you must not expect much; but in my situation 1 am 
obliged to look sharp after my stock of bedding-plants, to j 
winter them in the least possible spaces, and without much I 
fire-heat. Such jilants as Yerbenas, Salvias, Ageratums, ^ 
Lobelias, Calceolarias (the better sorts), I have carried ! 
through this last winter, so far, in two-light boxes, or frames, ; 
and have lost very few. ' I 
I find Yellow Calceolarias winter best under hand-glasses, I 
close under some slieltered wall, where the sun never 
reaches in winter, but which is safe from winds and not 
bleak. About the first week in October prepare your border, 
by making it light and sandy, scattering a little river-sand 
over the surface; then, with your hand glasses, mark their 
I size upon the sand; take the cuttings from plants in ex- 
; posed situations, as being better able to withstand the 
I winter than vigorous and larger cuttings; dibble tliem in as 
j thick as you please within the mark made by the glass, giv- 
I ing them a good soaking of water. Wlien diy, cover them 
close with the hand-glasses, and they will need little else, 
except that in very damp w'eather, if they become loaded 
I heavily with dew, it ivould be advisable to give them air, but 
! not till then. 
j I have been very successful this way for three years, 
i scarcely' losing a cutting, while those I planted in the full 
sun, under hand glasses, have all perished, and while those 
i in pots, in the frame, have sufiered severely through the damp. 
' IMy hand-glass plants have remained uninjured, though 
frozen as hard as stones for a week togetlier (as they must 
have been this winter and the last). I have had iilenty of 
plants for myself and some for my neighbours through this 
method; and any cottager may have an abundance of liellow' 
Calceolarias, who owns a hand-glass and a foot of ground 
lia\ ing a north-eastern or south-western aspect. Tliey do 
equally' well in pans, or boxes, if kept moist till they are 
rooted, and this adds a facility for protection in severe 
weather ; but I believe hand-glasses far preferable to either 
. greenhouse or frame, to say nothing of trouble, damps, 
watering, A'c. 
To winter Calceolarias in a greenhouse is to doubly earn 
them, when you can have them by thousands for so very 
little trouble. Mine are now as green as a leek, and have 
not had a drop of water since the beginning of November. 
T shall pot them into thumb jiots about the middle of 
February, and put them into a frame, watering them well 
and taking advantage of sunlight, and closing it tiglit early j 
in the afternoon. 'The pots wall soon be filled with roots, j 
j Then I place about four inches of soil on the bottom of a j 
frame, turning the plants out into this soil, six inches apart, 
stopping them in to make them bushy, and then I shall 
lilant them when I want them, cutting them out in squares 
w'ith the roots entire, or nearly so. 
I find this the best method when fine plants are wanted. 
' In fact, you may grow them twice the size turned out in a 
frame as you can by leaving them in pots. Instead of in a 
Irame, they may be planted on some sheltered border, about 
the beginning of March, six or eight inches apart in the 
open ground,- using such protection as may lie at hainl.— 
IVm. Meliott, Gardener to 11. Thorncville, Exq., The Abbnj, 
Burton on Trent. 
FANCY RABBITS. 
I DO not pretend to be much of a Rabbit Fancier, but as j 
many of the suliscribers to The Cottage Gabdexer pro- ' 
bably keep Rabbits, and, as I have not seen much about 
them in its pages, I beg to otfer a few remarks on the j 
properties of the fancy sorts; though I am aware they ivill , 
be deficient in many respects, they may, possibly, lay the 
foundation for others more experienced than myself to write 
more fully on the subject, by which means these beautiful 
and very useful animals may become more generally kept, 
and bred to a higher standard than at present. Such are 
my wishes in penning these remarks. 
Naturalists are rather divided in their opinion as to 
whether the fancy Rabbit is the direct domestic descendant 
of our common wild sort, which owe their origin, I believe, 
to tlie north of Africa, though now naturalised nearly all 
over the world ; or if our fancy kinds owe their peculiarities 
to crossing with other original wild kinds from other , 
countries; but, without further troubling my readers with ! 
the theories of naturalists, I shall at once proceed to give j 
as precise a description of the points of a fancy Rabbit as I 
am able. 
The various Rabbit clubs differ somewhat in their rules 
and points, but, I believe, that all agree in the main, that is, 
that the ears constitute the first and chief properly. 'The 
properties of the ears are, I believe, four in number, viz., 
length, breadth, direction or fall, and the fineness of their 
texture. The longer the ears the better. No Rabbit is 
thought worthy the title of a fancy Rabbit if its ears do not 
measure fourteen inches measured across the head from lip i 
to tip. Twenty-two inches is the greatest length I have , 
heard of. In breadth, I believe, six inches have been attained. 
The direction, or fall, is called the lop. The ears should fall 
down evenly on each side of the head, just passing the 
hinder corner of the eye, with the inside or concave part | 
turned inwards and obscured from view. These properties ; 
are often bred to great perfection, and some think them ; 
sufficient, but the true go-a-head fancier will not rest 
satisfied here. The next point is carriage, or shape ; thus ! 
the head should be carried low, fiat on the top, and the eye I 
must be full, large, and prominent; the withers, or shoulders, 
low, and the back rise in a higli arch; under the chin the 
skin must be extented in the form of a cushion, which is 
called the dewlap, and is, when large, considered a great 
beauty; the front legs, too, must be straight and not bent, 
as is too often the case in fancy Rabbits. 
The third point is colour, or marking. This point is very 
various, and depends much on the taste of the breeder. 
Some are satisfied with a plain or whole coloured Rabbit; 
that which nearest resembles the common grey, being least 
esteemed and the more rare and most diilicult to be pro¬ 
cured is, consequently, the most valued. The whole colours 
may be placed as follows ;—The common Grey, next Sooty- 
fawn, the White, Sandy, Black, and Blue the most admired. I 
Others require their Rabbits to be pied, or white, spotted 
with any of the foregoing coloiu'S, always iirovided that the 
sjiots on each side are exactly similar; while the true | 
aristocratic marking is what is termed the Butterlly-srnut. 
This must, on a white ground, bear the following marks:— 
(a smut signifies a dark spot on the nose, and may be either 
double or single.) The Butterfly is formed by two dark 
patches of circular form, one on each side of the nose, 
which have some resemblance to the wings of that insect, 
while a dark streak down the nose forms the body. In 
addition to the Butterfly, the ears must be dark. A large, 
even patch of the same colour on the high-arched back is 
called the saddle, and a dotted line of small spots pas.sing 
over the neck and joining the saddle on each side is called 
the chain. The upper side of the tail, or scut, must also be 
coloured to complete its marking. The white ground must , 
be as clear and free from spots as possible. 
Size, or weight, and early maturity are also points with 
Rabbit fanciers, consequently, of two otherwise equally good 
Rabbits, the largest claims pre-eminence. This xiropeity is 
but little regarded, and only used as a casting vote. From 
ten to fifteen pounds is a good weight for a full grown fancy 
Rabbit.— B. 1'. Brent. 
Vaiheties oe Rabbits. —The common wild Rabbit is too 
familiar to eveiy one in this country to need a description 
