96 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 7. 
about an inch, or a little more. Then the graft is cut 
to suit, or, with a down-cut, and the cut of the same 
length as that of the stock. There is no side cut, as in 
splice-grafting,—only the two pieces put together, and 
then tied, clayed, and mossed, in the usual way; and 
they seldom fail. Last spring was the worst time they 
recollect for such work ; yet they did not seem to me to 
suffer much from it in the grafting way. 
I here saw, and for the first time, a newish Larch, 
from the north of India, Larix Oriffithii. It seems 
stronger than the European Larch, and to hold the 
loaves green longer; but that might be from the season, 
and from being grafted on strong stocks. Now, what 
can bo more interesting to amateurs than to be able to 
graft trees and plants, of all sorts and sizes, themselves? 
and here are two fine chances where people say the 
thing is difficult to do ; but the more difficult the better 
the sport, if you can hit the mark. Buy these two 
Larches, and let us hear how you succeed in grafting 
them on the old Larch. This is the first time that the 
best way of grafting the Larch has been popularly ex¬ 
plained in print; but now I should not be surprised to 
hear that all the Fir tribes would graft that way, and 
also many evergreens. If so, there never was an easier 
way of grafting, or more tempting for an experiment. 
The Weeping Holly is not quite so much so as the 
Larch; still it makes a fine lawn-plant, when rightly 
managed, with long, drooping boughs, loaded with ber¬ 
ries. The way I should treat a Weeping Holly for the 
first half dozen years would be, to disbud the upper or 
upside Inals on all the main branches near the stem or 
grafted parts, as I can see a tendency to the normal 
form evinced by such trees or branches as are very 
robust and healthy, and that tendency ought to be 
watched and curbed while the treo is young. After 
that the boughs will reach down and sweep the ground, 
and carpet it in time, if it were so trained. What could 
be more beautiful than a Weeping Holly trained into 
the shape of an arbour, with a garden-seat inside—the 
boughs clustered with fruit all round and right down to 
the ground? Then, to train out the points to two feet 
or a yard from the bottom of the arbour—after that to 
graft every one of them with the best yellow and best 
silvery variegated Hollies, and let these rise eighteen ox- 
twenty inches, then clip them into a hedge form, and 
allow them to increase in width as much as they would, 
but not higher, for fear of diminishing the apparent 
size of tho whole arbour. Who is to be ahead of the 
Crystal Palace witli this style of arbour? We are cer 
tainly on the eve of great things all over Europe, and 
especially so in England, aud we must not be much 
longer held in restraint by apron-strings and loose 
talking, or more loose writing either: I am too old my¬ 
self to go to the war, but I cannot bear being behind 
tho rest of you; so to keep up my head on the sur¬ 
face, I have determined to see all London, and as far 
into the provinces as it is safe to travel so as to get 
back to my own bed at night; and as I never make a 
secret of any thing, you shall hear of the lions of the 
age right earnestly; but I did not think of this when I 
called at Mr. Jackson’s, else I would have looked over 
his whole nursery, Orchids and all. 
By-the-by, he has a second pile of Barhcria spectahilis, 
100 or 150 plants, all new, from the Mexican grower, 
and if there are really any better looking plants of them 
in England, I shall find them out and tell all about 
them. I saw fine large plants of a new scarlet variety 
of Cattleya superha among recent introductions; the 
strongest Calanthe vestita, and the best eyed one I ever 
saw, is now in bloom there. A tiny Orchid, from 
Laguaria, on the Spanish main, the first of the kind 
ever seen there by the collectors, and, probably, the first 
of it now in Europe, is just pushing in a glass-case along 
with large quantities of the gold and silver pencilled¬ 
leaved Ancectochili and Pliysuri, to which this new im¬ 
portation is said to be a valuable addition, and a fit 
associate; having, when they come, soft, deep green 
leaves, tho midrib of each silvery white, and another 
silver strip or vein running all round the leaf inside the 
mai-gin. I could just see this plant moving into fresh 
growth, and that was all. I will look after this new 
plant as if it were my own. They wei-e moving the 
Cattleyas and all the hardier Orchids to a cooler house 
for the winter, last week; and I must go again before I 
can well report on the growth of this season, and on 
the new additions that have been made to the collec¬ 
tions, so that my nursery reports may not appear to be 
partial. 
They told mo, what I never heard or heed, that the 
Belladonna Lily may be potted from the borders when 
the first flower opens on the truss, so to write, without 
any hurt to the flowei-s or bulbs. That all will go on 
in doors as if no disturbance took place; but if the 
bulbs are potted any time during the rise of the fiowei - - 
stalk, that all the parts will remain in the same state of 
progress for the rest of the time the plant is in bloom. 
This is real good news at last; for who among us has 
ixot often wished a large-mass of these beauties in the 
drawing-room, instead of out, under all weathers, in tho 
open air, and that too at a time when real good flowers 
ai-e getting scarce ? 
They have a most elegant-looking, gx-ass-like plant, 
which hangs down all round the pot, and far below it, 
when the pot is suspended, which anybody can grow, 
as it is nearly hardy; any kind of soil will do for it; 
but I think if it had one-half soft boggy peat, and the 
other half of common garden soil, it would like it better 
than anything; however, the secret is to keep a saucer 
full of water constantly under the pot, and to keep the 
pot and saucer hung up close to the doors or ventilators. 
I know it inci-eases fast, and one plant will soon make 
half-a-dozen. It is not exactly a grass, botanically, but 
a sedge, and the Naiad's Hair Grass, would be a good 
English name ; the book name is Isolepis complanata; 
but recollect the accent is on the o in the first name, not 
on the e, as country people pronounce it. I forgot, last 
year, to say this elegant thing was much prized at 
Shrubland Park, where I saw it for the first time, and 
now, seeing that they countenance hanging baskets at 
the Cyrstal Palace, every one will be anxious to keep 
so far in the fashion as to have some hanging plants or 
another; perhaps, they will soon give prizes to this style 
at the Shows. At all events, I shall hunt them out, and 
dish them Cottage Gardener fashion. D. Beaton. 
FAILURES IN BLOOMING PLANTS. 
A medical gentleman, who has built for himself a 
small Greenhouse-Vinery, aud a pit heated by liot-water 
—on the lid of tho tank of which he hopes to get some 
bottom-heat—sends us the following particulars:— 
1. “ I have a large plant of the Begonia cinnaharina, 
which has never bloomed with me. ’ I have grown it 
now two years ; it has four stems in good health.” The 
quantity of stems, and tho high health, seem to say 
there has been nothing wrong in the growing. As the 
plant blooms rather freely in a young state, we are 
rather doubtful as to the reasons why it has not 
bloomed; but are led to expect that it had been kept 
growing too late, and in too shady a place the previous 
autumn; and that the juices of the plant were, there¬ 
fore, not sufficiently organised to produce blooming 
shoots. Before Prestoniensis and other orange-scarlets 
had appeared on the scene, I looked on Cinnaharina as 
a gem of the first water, and was rather successful in 
getting it to produce flowers freely. The key-note to its 
culture is obtained from the fact, that it has a fleshy 
