108 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 12. 
; as a half-crown piece; white, creamy-white, and tinged 
with a black. Nelly is, indeed, a fine kind, and Migno- 
! nettc one of the dwarfest, the stiff'est, and most profuse 
bloomers; the blooms small, and of the same colour 
as the anthers of the Mignonette; hence the name. 
All these averaged twenty inches in height above the 
pot, and about the same across the flowering parts; 
but there was more than one plant in a pot. 
There was a collection of six or eight from the Garden 
of the Society, as good as could be grown anywhere. The 
kinds were A minis, a deep rose with a lilac-coloured eye, 
one of the best; Daphne same as above; Criterion, a 
clear yellow; Graziella, a fine, large, light flower, with 
a tinge of pudibundus, or bashfulness, all over it; and 
Madame Lemichez, the nearest to peach-blossom of all I 
have seen—a most showy kind as a Daisy. Among the 
large kinds in this lot were Madame Camerson, a 
reddish, or foxy-brown; Sanguineum, a large, flat, rose 
flower, with a bulls-eye, but very showy ; and Wheeler’s 
Incurved Pink, a large, deep, pinky, flat flower, and also 
j with the bulls-eye Daisy-look in the centre. 
A Begonia incarnata, from the Garden of the Society, 
was four feet high, and wide in proportion, blooming over 
the edge of the pot; yet many gardeners call this a 
I “ lanky” kind. I never saw it so well grown before; but 
this Society “do” the Begonias better than most 
I folks. They turn them out-of-doors in the height of 
summer, and let them get as dry as bricks; one would 
think, to see them, the plants wonld never come round 
again; hut they do come about, and pay well for the 
change and rest. 
The old Linum tigrinmi was also there, from the 
Garden of the Society, and covered with large yellow 
flowers. This, and the Black-eyed Susan plants ( Thun- 
bergias), arc the most curious I know, with respect to 
the suitable climate. This one before ns will be kept in 
the stove till next April, then to he cut in as close as 
ever a Geranium was, and after starting, will be shaken 
out and repotted, and, by tbe end of May, I know not 
how the Society do, but 1 used to plant it out-of-doors, 
in soil and site fit for Cucumbers, and leave it there till 
September. If the roots were good, and of tbe proper 
age, the shoots would cover from thirty inches to three 
feet and upwards, in one summer; and after taking up 
and being potted, the stove is the best place to force all the 
bloom out of all this succulency; but I had it on a 
conservatory-wall for years, where the sun could not 
touch it after breakfast, where it bloomed but moderately. 
It will not stand a south wall, for red spider. 
A fine specimen of the Artillery plant was here again, 
Pilea muscosa ; and a fine-bloomed specimen of the new 
species of Calceolaria ericifolia. This is a good winter¬ 
flowering Calceolaria, with sulphur-yellow flowers, not 
unlike the old bicolor; the stems get woody and bush¬ 
like, and the leaves are small, aud not unlike those of 
Alona ccelestis. 
Also, a Goldfassia isophylla, covered with light lilac 
flowers. This is one of the best plants in the catalogue 
j to make a specimen, if it is let alone. 
Mr, Fleming sent a Dragon-plant, Dracama termi- 
nalis, eighteen inches high, and full of leaves, in a 
No. 32-glass pot, with a good rim to it, aud a hole at 
the bottom, in the usual way. There never was a Dra¬ 
gon-plant more at home, or more fitted for a warm 
corner in the drawing-room, till the ladies get tired of 
seeing it. 
Mr. Forsyth was the first who proved hardware to be 
] as good for plants as tbe softest pots; then Mr. Beck 
j brought out slate pots and tubs; after that, I introduced 
j zinc linings into soft vases for plants, to save the vases ; 
and now Mr. Fleming crowns the roost, as clear as 
I crystal. 
The master-plant of tbe day was a specimen, in a 
' sea-green Cliiua pot, from Mr. Fleming, with a 
monstrous long name, and a dangerous name to pro¬ 
nounce, Sericograpliis GheisbreglUiana ; here were twenty- 
eight or thirty flowering-spikes on this plant, and each of 
them with several racemes of very crimson, Justicia-like 
flowers; a most noble plant, made out of a rather lanky 
customer, by putting so many plants in the new China 
pot. 
A good specimen was shown of Gesnera zebrina, or, 
rather, the plain green variety of it, called Herbertii, 
from the Society’s collection. 
There was a large specimen plant, of a new kind to 
the shows, but not quite new to gardeners, from the Pine- 
Apple-Place Nursery, and called Hebecliniim auran- 
tiacum. This is a soft-wooded Composite, of straggling 
aud rampant growth; but if managed as this was, by 
training tho long shoots round and round, and over 
each other, and back again and again, then round again, 
and up and down, and crossways, until the thing is 
tired out, it will produce flowers all over the mass, and 
bloom in winter for two months or more, just like a 
small Orange Zinnia. It is believed to be a Mexican 
plant, of the easiest culture, and when it is proved to 
be such a long bloomer in winter, some one will find out 
a way of managing it with less trouble, less growth, and 
less room ; then, it will be a good addition to a scarce 
class of plants. 
I have not pomological patience enough to go through 
all the fruit, or any part of it. I spent an hour in 
Covent Garden, and I looked in to see aud hear the 
fowls at Mr. Stevens’s rooms. I saw him in the 
market, had a chat about fowls, but I could not stop to 
see the prices, as I am now more pressed for time in 
Regent-street, owing to the new Pomological Society, 
and for fear they should get ahead of me and my notes. 
D. Beaton. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS NOT FLOWERING, AND 
THEIR CULTURE. 
“ I endeavoured to follow out the instructions, so 
copiously given, as to the management of these great 
favourites, at this season of the year; aud by proper 
stopping, &c., I have got beautiful compact bushes, but 
very few flowers. What is the reason ?' I struck cuttings 
of the Pomponcs in April, potted off, and then put them 
in other pots; but the flowers are not so fine as I wish, 
and the plants, though every care lias been taken of 
them, are perfect Lilliputs in size compared to those we 
read about as exhibited at the various Societies. Cannot 
you give us a wrinkle? ” 
“ The Chrysanthemum is a thorough cottage flower. 
In most parts of England, many kinds are never more 
at home than adorning the walls of a cottage, with the 
roof, thatch, or otherwise, projecting far enough to throw 
the heavy rains past them. Inside windows it is equally 
at home, and, I believe, would be more prevalent there, 
were it not that you great gardeners, in all your notices 
aud treatises, treat first of the propagation, and that 
is always done in a gentle hotbed, or under a hand-glass 
in the open air, while myriads who love this flower, 
and would be proud to grow it, have nothing of such 
conveniences; and for them you should mention the 
most homely aud easy modes of treatment.” 
These are a sample of the inquiries and the complaints 
that reach me ; and I will do my best to meet them in a 
few words. If our friends would look over the “ indices ” 
of previous volumes, they would find that considerable i 
space has been devoted to the lovers of flowers, who 
have little of a garden besides the walls of their 
domicile, and the windows and balconies it may con¬ 
tain ; though, in their case, the advantage of some 
receptacle, however rough, for protecting, advancing, 
