450 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 13, 
as sure as my name is Donald, although it is yet too i 
precious for that purpose; it will feed as well as a Brocoli, 
and pay for it too ; but stop experiments till we have it 
in every garden in the three kingdoms. 
Mr. Todman, gardener to Mrs. Bfacktnaster, of Clap- 
j ham, tho Mrs. Lawrence who is to he, if 1 mistake not, 
sent the only collection of Chinese Azaleas; but they 
were well worth a first prize. He had, also, a line, large 
spocimen-plant Eriostemon myoporoides ; a collection of 
well-grown Cinerarias, of which one, called John Bull, 
was the lest blue; Crimson King, the lest purplish- 
crimson ; and another, named The Queen, was a very 
pretty light one; and a collection of bulbs, such as 
Lachenalia tricolor, a good old thing; four pots of the 
Turnsole Tulip, a large, yellowish, early sort, well suited 
for early forcing; four pots of the scented Jonquils; two 
of white Hyacinths, and one pinky Hyacinth, all of 
excellent growth and management, and from new hands 
i to this “profession.” 
HYACINTHS. 
There were two regular full collections of forced 
Hyacinths in very the best style; a fourteen plant lot from 
t Mr. Davies, gardener to E. Rosher, Esq., St. John’s 
Wood ; and a twelve plant collection from Mr. Cutbush, 
nurseryman, Highgate. Here was Baron Rothschild 
again, a new, large, scarlet Hyacinth, and another new 
dark blue, called William the First. They were both 
new to me, and the best of their respective colours I 
| have seen. 
CYCLAMENS. 
There were three or four collections of the pretty 
Cyclamens, the richest in new kinds being that from 
the Messrs. Henderson and Son, of the Wellington Road 
Nursery, and of them the best, to my fancy, was Per- 
sicum carneum; P. rub-rum next best; hut when “well 
done,” they are all good, gay, and very handy for rooms, 
mantlepieces, and work-tables, where ladies work the 
; fashions of the day, or show them off. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
The same firm sent, but not for competition, a little 
plant, or branch, of Genesthylis fuchsioides, which I 
mentioned as a rare plant from the February meeting. 
This had three flowers on. A new Camellia, called 
Giardine Franchette, a fine, mottled, soft, rosy flower, 
with lighter edgings, a very distinct Camellia in a new 
strain; and Jenny Lind, a white cupped flower, not 
large, but of “great substance,” as a.florist would say; 
together with four or five large specimen plants, and the 
new Olivia miniata, alias Imatophyllum. 
ACACIAS. 
There was a collection of Acacias from Messrs. Arthur 
Henderson and Co., of the Pine-Apple Place Nursery. 
These were not large, nor in the usual Hendersonian 
style of growth. There were two varieties of Acacia 
Drummondii, ono of which, the true one, is of the finest; 
the other is not worth pot room : diffusa, a dwarf, bushy 
plant; argentea, with soft silvery leaves, liko those of the 
Cape Silver-tree itself; and longi/olia, with long, narrow 
sickle leaves. 
THE SOCIETY’S PLANTS. 
From the garden of the Society we had lots of plants, 
the rarest of which was a very distinct evergreen 
Berberis, called Erhrenbergii, with plumes of nodding, 
pale sulphur flowers; four or five of these plumes rise 
on long footstalks, at the top of each shoot, then bend 
over, and branch into separate flowers; a very distinct 
kind, with smallish, hard leaves, in the pinnate form. 
The plant of Thyrsacanthus rutilans aforesaid, and 
Epacris Kinghornii, a blush kind, and three well-bloomed 
Camellia Donclelaari; the Society are famed for the 
proper spelling of names; you never see Mr. Doneklaar’s 
name rightly spelt except here. He sometimes signed 
Donckliir iu letters which I have seen, the dot over the 
it boing equivalent to two, as on the continent. Also a 
collection of Chinese Primroses, a fine Begonia manioata, 
and Sciadocalyx Warscewinzi, four feet high, and most 
profusely in bloom, in the way of Gesnera mollis, but a 
far better style of flowering ; I am not quite sure this was 
from the collection of the Society. There was a treat 
from Lord Dillon for the ladies, a nice basket of cut 
flowers of the Neapolitan Violet, just such as one would 
expect from a nobleman, and such an one as Sir William 
Middleton would give me a Sunday coat for some years 
ago. 
There was also a couple of dishes full of the Chimo- 
nanthus fragrans and grandijlora from the Society, aud 
these were handed round for the ladies to mix in their 
pot pound at home. We were told that these blooms 
had only the protection of a mat from the late frost in 
the Society’s garden; and also that the Chinese Primroses 
within the glass walls stood all the frost unharmed, 
although the thermometer fell to zero with them. 
There was a beautiful new seedling Azalea from 
Mr. Fleming, a large white, with carnation stripes and 
blotches. 
CHINESE PRIMROSES. 
The best six Chinese Primroses were from Mr. Smith, 
gardener to Mr. Wray, Little Blake Hall, Hampstead; 
they were in large twenty-four pots. The second best 
were from Mr. Cbilman, gardener to Mrs. Smith, 
Aslitead House, Epsom. The next prize was either to Mr. 
Green, gnvdener to Sir E. Antrobus, or Mr. Henderson, 
of the Wellington Road Nursery: but the Messrs. 
Henderson had by far the best kind, which is called 
Magnum Bonum, a rich, velvety crimson, and a large 
fringed bloom; another one, called The Bride, a pale 
French-white, or lavender, a strain which seems to be 
scarce round London, but with which we were surfeited 
about Ipswich long ago. By far the best kind about 
London is this Magnum Bonum, and the plants ought 
to be placed immediately on a top shelf, close to where 
they give the “top-air” to the house, that being 
the best position for gettiug the plants to seed thus 
early If they are put into a cold pit, as they do in 
some nurseries, I would not give much for their 
chance of good seed. There is hardly a plant we 
know which is more difficult to get seeds from than 
a first-rate Chinese Primrose ; and yet those who know 
the exact process never fail in getting plenty of seed. 
After the middle of April the pots should be put into 
larger ones to screen the roots more effectiually from the 
sun, and all the watering ought to be from below, by 
having a saucer under the pot. Instead of pulling off 
decayed flowers as soon as they droop, split each one 
into two halves before you remove it, otherwise, in 
pulling up the tube of the flowers, you will probably 
destroy the “ pin-head ” of the pistil, and if you do, you 
will have no seed from that flower. It is a good plan to 
dust the “ pin-head ” with the pollen before and after 
the flower is removed, as that part, in the Primrose, 
remains fresh long after the flower is gone. 
I am again encroaching on space, so that I cannot 
proceed with fruits, vegetables, and the odds and ends; 
but I must tell of a new French invention for preserving 
vegetables, which was explained to us, and which is one 
of the greatest wonders of the age. 
PRESERVED VEGETABLES. 
There was a square cake of compressed vegetables 
exhibited ; it might be fifteen or eighteen inches on the 
i side, and not more than two inches thick, aud as smooth 
I as a piece of board; it weighed six pounds, aud the price 
