352 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Mr. Forsyth, Royal Gardens at Kensington, the author 
of a work on fruit-trees, and of a celebrated composition 
to cure the wounds of, and renovate, old trees, for which 
a large sum of money was voted to him by Parliament, 
part of which, however, ho only received, hut still 
enough to stamp the low ebb at which vegetable physio¬ 
logy stood in this country even so late as the middle of 
the reign of George III. The plant on which the genus 
was founded by Vahl is F. suspensa, a native of Japan. 
Tliunberg called this plant a Lilac, showing that he 
was on the right scent about its natural affinity; but 
there are sufficient points about it to separate it from 
the Lilac in the eyes both of botanists and gardeners. 
Forsythia viridissima appears to be one of those plants 
which the Chinese Mandarins cultivate with great care in 
their gardens for their ornament or perfumes, according to 
Mr. Fortune, who sent it over to the Horticultural Society. 
“ I first discovered it,” says Mr. Fortune, “ growing in the 
same garden with Weigel a rosea, which belonged to a 
Chinese Mandarin, on the island of Cliusan, and was gene¬ 
rally called the ‘ Grotto Garden ’ by the English. I after¬ 
wards found it wild amongst the mountains of the interior 
in the province of Chekiang, where I thought it even more 
ornamental in its natural state amongst the hedges than 
when cultivated in the fairy gardens of the Mandarins.” 
Mr. Fortune entertained some doubts about its being quite 
hardy for the climate of England; hut it has proved to 
he quite so; and although The Cottage Gardener has 
recommended it ere now, we would still remind amateurs, 
who may not yet x>ossess it, to add it to their shrubbery 
plants. Give it good rich soil, and let it not he too much 
crowded with other plants ; if possible, too, let it he planted 
where its beautiful yellow flowers may he seen from the 
parlour-windows in early spring. Like the Almond and the 
Lilac it will open its flowers before the leaves in January or 
February, if slightly forced. Like the Lilac, it belongs to the 
Natural Order Oliveworts (Oleacece), and most probably it 
could be grafted either as a bush or standard high on the 
common Lilac, or intermixed with the Lilac branches in 
alternate shoots, from buds or grafts. Like the Olive, 
Privet, and Jasmine, the Forsythias belong to the first 
order of the second class in the Linnasan system, Diandria 
Monogynia. 
F. viridissima reaches the height of six feet; branches, 
dark-brown and angled; leaves, sharp-pointed,spear-headed, 
upper part saw-edged, appearing after the flowers ; flowers, 
solitary, or in pairs, on short stalks from sides of branches ; 
calyx, four-lobed; corolla, yellow, wheel-shaped, tube short, 
but limb in four long segments. 
Prickly Hemiandra ( Hemiandra pan gens). — Gar¬ 
dener’s Magazine of Botany, iii. 81 .—This is a genus of 
Lipworts, or Labiates, (Lamiaceas), named by Dr. Brown 
from a peculiarity in the anthers. Hemiandra is a 
compound from head, half, and aner, the anther, or male 
organ; that is,half-anthered, and may thus bo explained : 
The anthers in this order are, generally, two-celled— 
rarely one-eelled—but sometimes they look as if com¬ 
posed of one cell only ; whilst in Hemiandra there are 
two cells in the anther, but one of them is barren, and 
hangs down, so that half-anthercd, or Hemiandra, is a 
descriptive name well suited for the occasion. Hemi¬ 
andra belongs to a section of the Lipworts, w hich is named 
after an old, but gay, greenhouse plant called Prostran- 
thera; and those of our readers who know Prostranthcra 
violacecc will have no difficulty in making out the colour 
of this Hemiandra, which is a pinkisli-lilac, with crimson 
spots in the throat or upper part of tho tube of the 
flower. The plant, if well grown and kept low and 
[September 4. 
bushy, would make a pretty specimen for the green¬ 
house stage. It is of an upright, slender habit; and 
without early attention to keeping the shoots within 
due bounds by stopping, it is very likely to form a loose, 
straggling plant. It is a native of the Swan River 
colony, and about King George’s Sound, whence it 
was introduced to Germany, and was sent to Mr. Hen¬ 
derson, of Wellington Road Nursery, lately, from the 
garden of Baron Hugel, near Vienna, a fertile source 
of rare and new plants, and which is particularly rich 
in Australian plants. These, as soon as they flower, if 
they are of marketable value, are sent to London in 
exchange for other new plants, roots, or seeds, as the 
case may be, on the principle of “ value for value.” 
These Hemiandras, after all, are but a slight remove 
from the genus Prostranthera, and a gardener might well 
be excused even if he confounded the species of both genera 
together. The same kind of treatment suits them; three 
parts turfy peat, with a little vegetable-mould and light 
loam, well sprinkled with white sand, will suit the whole of 
them. The more slender any of the species are, the more 
sand they need in the compost; whereas the more shrubby 
kinds require the bulk of loam to be increased. B. J. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
The Raspberry. —These have, of course, completely 
finished bearing for the season, with the exception of j 
the double-bearing kinds, which form an exception as to 
culture; and the exhausted wood should be immediately 
removed, in order to render the young suckers firm and 
well-ripened. It is not wise to neglect the ripening 
condition even in our hardy fruits, for, if they blos¬ 
som equally well without attention, there can be no 
question that the size and flavour of the fruit are in 
some degree affected in the ensuing year by a little care 
in this respect. Besides, as to whether the old and 
exhausted canes arc a friend or a foe, a little considera 
tion will show that they incline to the latter. That 
they continue to take up the ascending sap, or, in other 
