I’EBRfJARY 12. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION 
357 
The following gentlemen were elected members ;— 
IM. Beiiren.s, of Lilbeck. 
J. Stovold, Esq., Hedham Hall, IMidhurst. 
E. A. Brandt, Esq., Sulhiiinpstead House, Tnrnham 
Orecn. 
Mr. jMcLauchlan, Ord Gardens, Lettcrkenny, Ireland. 
Mr. Ja:mi:s Cutbush, Nurseryinan, Highgate. 
l\lr. Martin Hope Sutton, Seedsman, Reading. 
GREENHOUSE CULTURE Ob I’RANCISCEA 
HOPEANA. 
Perhaps some of the renders of The Cottage Gardener 
may think, because Fruiiciscea Hopeana belongs to the class 
of stove plants, it requires a stove for its culture; but I have 
dowered it well without a stove. 
The w'ay that I treat my plants is tins:—I Iceep them in [ 
tlie warme.st end of the greenliouse all the summer, giving 
them water, when wanted, until October, and from that time, 
1 treat them nearly as I do a Cactus, giving them scarcely 
any water at all until March. I then look them over, to see 
if the knife is wanted. Sometimes tliey will throw up a 
strong shoot or tw'o from the bottom, which 1 shorten back 
a little, and pick otf every leaf. 1 then surface-dress them 
with a mi.vture of loam and a little leaf-mould. 
I have a plant, now lifteen inches high and nearly two 
feet through, in a nine inch pot, and it has not been potted 
these four years, and has had nothing more than surface¬ 
dressing once a year. After picking off the leaves, I put 
them into a forcing pit, heated with stable-dung; give them 
plenty of water when they need it, and a slight syringing in 
the afternoon of a sunny dajN 
In about six weeks they are in one mass of bloom, from 
the surface of the soil to the. top, and then I remove them 
to the greenhouse again. They will keep in bloom a long 
time, because there is a succession of flowors to open every 
morning. But they do not colour quite so brightly in a 
greenhouse as they do in a little heat. 
Whoever has a greenhouse and a pit may manage to 
flower the Franciscca Hopeana as freely as those who liave 
it in a stove. If you put your head into the pit or green 
house, of a morning, where this plant is in bloom, you find 
the whole air is scented by its purple and lilac dowers. Sly 
plants do not get more than six w'ceks arlidcial heat through¬ 
out the year.—F. S., Willn, 
A BEAUTIFUL FLOWEtl-BED. 
Tai.king about liower-ljeds, 1 must tell you of one I 
dropped upon this last season, and my word, hut it was worth 
calling a. llower-bed, too. I have seen a .jolly round number, 
in one place and the other—the Crystal I’alace, Kew, ami 
Hampton Court, too; hut I must say, this I am about 
to describe was tbe most striking and effective of any I had 
hitherto seen. 
Partly business and partly pleasure called me into York- | 
shire, and the name of llihston being so familiar, I made it i 
my' business to go a few' miles out of my route on purpose j 
to visit this place—which, by the kind permission of the ' 
proprietor, Jos. Dent, Ksq., is throwTi open to the public 
every Tuesday—and well was I repaid, too; for a more 
superior display of fruits (Pines especially), and grounds in 
higher order, it seldom has fallen to my lot to wdiness. j 
But this flow'er-bed, you will say. Oh, yes ; I am coming | 
to that, so will begin at the beginning. A quanfily of larcli | 
stakes, three feet long and tw'o-inches-and-a-half diameter, | 
W'ere driven, side by side, eighteen inches into the ground, i 
leaving one-foot and-a-half outside in an oval shape, eighteen | 
feet long, eleven feet wide over the centre. 'The interior i 
was fille(l up rather above the level with the soil. Around 
the stakes, outside, was planted, pretty thick, common Ivyq { 
which, when I saw it in September last, formed a complete I 
mass all round the bed, and kept the decaying stakes in 
position. 
Now for the planting and arrangement of this raised bed, j 
which you must understand was designed as a break to a : 
heavy j)art of the ground, and as Mr. Abbott, the gardener, ' 
hero remarked, “Avith telling effect.” 
Immediately down the centre W'ere si.x plants of scarlet 
Salviiis; at each end of those was a plant of the variegateil 
variety of 8n/ria fiil(/ens; encircling those was the blue 
Jijerdtinn; again, around those the Fropmnrc 8(:inlet Gera- 
iiiiim ; then a circle of yellow Siilhiii. Cakeohtrid, wdiich 
brought it to the edge, around which was planted the white 
Ivy-Jcuvfd Gcrunhnn. This was allowed to hang over quite 
down to the turf; and being full of white flowers, they beau¬ 
tifully blended with the dark green of the common ivy and j 
' yellow Calceolaria above; then again with their immediate I 
neighbours, and so on to the top of the Salvias, forming as j 
rich and gorgeous a hank as I am sure none of your readers 
Avould ever regret imitating. 
I have, also, several other valuable notes of the sayings 
and doings of this place, which 1 may at some future day 
trouble you with if you think them worthy a place in your 
instructive journal, [it will he no trouble.—E d. C. G.] 
—A.—M. li. 
HOT-WATER CIRCULATION.—WILD 
CINERARIA MARITTMA. 
A correspondent, “ Pi. 11.,” lately inquired AA'hether he 
could obtain a boiler and furnace altogether; and another 
correspondent, “ W. H. Warner,” in No. 381, replies, “ No ; 
not at present.” Let me, however, say that 1 have had such 
an one for toi years past, and that it answers admirably, 
requires no brick setting, and has never yet Avanted any 
repair. It is called the “ Conical Copper Boiler.” I pur¬ 
chased it at Stephenson and Co.’s, til, Gracechurch Street, 
costing about X't). It is idaccd so as to heat a hall and 
three living rooms in the day-time, and (by turning a stop¬ 
cock) a double greenhouse (Avhen required) by night. 
On the 15th ult., at 7 a.m., Avlien the external thermometer 
Avas at 2o°, the temperature of the three rooms Avere re¬ 
spectively-t(i°, 47°, 5.5° ; hall, 45°; greenhouses, 43° ; and a 
small inside forcing-frame Avith tank, 02°, all healed hy this 
one boiler. It is economical as to fuel; and 1 have adjusted 
one of Huxley’s double-tube quicksilver regulators to a 
valve in the smoke-pipe, making the fire to regulate itself, 
and so that the heat may be increased or diminished at 
pleasure, it keeping constantly alight. 
In reference to Cineraria marilima, alluded to in your 
number for January 22, page 2!)!), I may remark, that last 
spring I saAV it growing abundantly on the hanks and shores 
of the Sardinian (Mediterranean) coast, Avhere its peculiar 
mealy leaves presented a hcautiful appearance, contrasted 
Avith the briglit green and yelloAV of the Euphorbias and 
Wall-floAvers. 
I may also mention, that I am arranging and classifying 
a considerable collection of dried specimens of floAvers and 
plants, collected during my residence abroad, and from 
Brazil, and can testify that I find your Collaye Gardeners’ 
Dietionary of the greatest assistance. I have felt pleasure 
in recommending it to others.—E. Con, and, Bellejield, 
Chelmsford. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
CARDENIMC. 
I’LANTS FOR CLOTHING A WEST WALL. j 
“ I should be much obliged hy your mentioning the | 
name and description of some quick groAving and tioAvering ^ 
climbers to cover the side of a house Avith a Avestern aspect; j 
also, at Avhat time they should be planted. i 
“ Many of your subscrihers might he ghxAl of such 
information for the improvement of blank Avails.— An ' 
Amateur.” | 
[Fyracantha. and Pyrus japonica are the best sloAV-groAving ? 
Avail plants. The Glycine or Wistaria sinensis is the strongest j 
and best, and grows fast AvJien once it is established. The 
Cotoneaster microphylla is the neatest covou' for a Avail, and is , 
as brilliant as the Pyracantha Avhen in berry. Get some one j 
