May 5. 
—/- 
79 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
plan when the writers, like him, can write sweet and short. 
All our readers know how he does everything that way, and 
that lessens my work now. Mr. Myatt sent a highly- 
coloured dish of his Victoria Rhubarb, now so well-known 
and appreciated as the name it hears. Miller's Late 11 kite 
Brocoli, and Dickson’s Waterloo, were in the room front 
somewhere; but, with the exception of Mr. Bates’ Brocoli 
(page 40), there was not a head of Brocoli fit to he seen, 
as far as I could see, about London since the end of Fe¬ 
bruary. I have no doubt, in my own mind, that many a 
good gardener, and deserving, faithful servant, will lose his 
place and his character this spring for not being able to 
supply the kitchen as <! we us’d to have it.” But all the 
philosophy, science, and experience under the sun, can no 
more teach a gardener to provide against the laws of nature, 
or the decrees of the God of nature, than my feeble pen can 
persuade the uncharitable, and the god of mammon, to 
relent and be appeased for this once. Before we may expe¬ 
rience such another season, however, let us hope that all of 
us will be better and wiser than we now are, and more able 
to understand all the affairs about the garden and about 
each other. 
Cinerarias. —The names on the lists of this elegant and 
most useful flower are now so outrageously numerous, and 
more than one half of them are such milk-and-water-looking 
clouds, for colours they have none, that no mortal can bear 
the sight of them except he be a florist, so that at last even 
the aristocratic Horticultural Society are obliged to step out 
of their high boots, and show the ladies of the land what 
is really to be met with worth looking at in this flower 
round London, for at their counti’y seats they would not 
tolerate our hest London Cinerarias for two days running. 
So the Society sent half-a dozen of nice dwarf gay-looking 
Cinerarias, and almost every lady in the room took down 
the names. Beauty of St. John's Wood is the best known 
of these; it was also the smallest flower of the lot, a white 
centre, and crimson edged. Prometheus, a deep purple; 
Elegantissima, a fine blue; Charles Dickens, a good purple; 
Rubella, in the way of Beauty of St. John’s Wood, but a 
much larger flower. Also a large Cytisus rhodophena full of 
flower; Rynchospermum jasminoides and Henfreya scandens 
literally covered with bloom; the best kind of Tropceolum 
Lobbianum, called Triomph de Gand, a most useful flower 
all the winter through; Diosma capitata, pretty nigh a yard 
through ; Acacia paradoxa, a half-standard plant, in fine 
yellow bloom; a low, wide-spreading Azalea indica, called 
mutabilis, with Heaths and Epacris, and other things all 
very useful for spring decoration. 
Messrs. Henderson, of Pine-Apple Place, sent two ex- 
quisite specimen plants, one, Eriostemon scabrum, a very 
twiggy, graceful plant, with small shining leaves and white 
flowers,' and Boronia tetrandria, with blush-pink flowers. 
Also examples of Daviesia punyens, a dwarf acacia-looking 
plant, quite covered with small pea-flowers of a colour 
between cream and yellow, with Brachysema acuminata, witlr # 
crimson pea-flowers, and Pimelea gnidia, with heads of white 
flowers, together with a large plant of Telratheca ericifolia, 
with light lilac flowers—all greenhouse plants of the first 
water; and most useful as coming in so early in the 
spring. 
There were a nice lot of seedling Cyclamens from Mr. 
j Mya,tt, differing slightly from each other when looked close 
into, but not worthy of being retained as varieties. There 
was a nice plant of Dielytra speclabilis from the garden ol 
the Society, about which it was stated, that in an open 
! border the late frost had injured some plants of it con- 
| siderably, but the border was too wet for it. My own plant 
] of it was three inches high, and did not suffer in the least, 
though as much exposed as could be ; and there is a Deutzia 
\ gracilis not far from it, which T planted last September only, 
i and is no more than a few inches high, but it stood un- 
1 affected in the least degree; and there was a small plant 
i of it at this meeting, to which the attention of those present 
! was specially directed, as being the prettiest and most 
I useful little shrubs yet found in Japan. Everybody should 
! have it, and those who can ought to have it in flower from 
i January till the middle or end of May ; it is also as much 
! of a wedding flower as any we have, and seems to have been 
made on purpose for hair wreaths, or for sprigs singly to 
use of an evening, in two distinct forms, as imitations ot 
the Lily-of-tlie-Yalley while in bud, and in its own strength 
when it opens. 
After all, perhaps, the best plant in the room was Berberis 
Darwinii, from the collection of the Society. It is difficult 
to conceive a more graceful style of flowering than this 
Berberis presents, or a more easy plant to keep. It seems 
to be the hardiest plant known, growing where the roots 
must have been in stagnant water through the whole of this 
long winter, and yet no plant braved the frost better. I have 
not heard of this plant having yet seeded ill England, and it 
may require some peculiar treatment, or more rest from the 
propagator, and more age to the bargain, to enable it to 
seed. But the climate it comes from is very peculiar: often 
cold and stormy, and the air almost always loaded with 
moisture; that of the island of Chiloe, and on the mainland 
in Western Patagonia, where, as we were told, it grows in bogs 
in some localities, and in dry places also, on to the Straits 
of Magellan. Like the now common Berberis aquifolium, 
we can"never have too much of the Darwin species, and we 
shall never have enough of it until we find out how to seed 
it. It does not seem that our cold dry easterly winds in the 
spring are favourable to the setting ot the. seeds of any of 
the American Berberis from beyond the Equator; perhaps 
a low temperature and extreme moisture in the air at the 
time they are in flower would suit them better, and cause 
them to seed; and if so, we should plant some on purpose 
for seeding by the side of ponds, lakes, or running water; 
also in a cold pit, to be kept very moist indeed all the time 
they are in flower, and perhaps, too, a saucerful of water kept 
under the pots at the time might assist the setting of the 
fruit. At any rate, this Berberis Darwinii would not. take 
much harm that way for a time,seeing that it is a bog-plant, 
although it will grow in any ordinary border. 
The large Staunlonia latifolia, which is fully exposed in 
Mr. Jackson’s nursery here, is now as green as a Portugal 
laurel, and probably is more hardy; and at the last moment 
I have just learned the Libocedrus chilensis is quite hardy— 
but more on this next week. D. Beaton. 
IMPROVING ECONOMICALLY A NEGLECTED 
GREENHOUSE. 
(Continued from page 01.) 
Keeping in view the primary matters referred to last 
week, and that the main stay for future display must rest 
chiefly on a few cheap flower-seeds, I will now proceed, 
shortly to state how this object may be effectually gained, 
if not fully for the present summer, in the winter, spring, 
and summer, that will succeed, and I will glance, first, at 
the treatment necessary for the desired object, to be fol¬ 
lowed with the plants already in possession. 
Cactus. —I presume you have not any of the trnneatus, 
or jointed-stemmed varieties, as these, chiefly bloom in 
winter and spring. In a back volume you will find an 
article on the subject. Most likely the soil about the roots 
is in a sour, sodden state, and each had better be repotted 
in sandy loam, with pieces of broken bricks and lime 
rubbish, freely intermingled. The Cactus tribe, when in 
health, will stand rich manurial applications, but you must 
no more think of such a thing in your case, than you would 
think of giving beef to a sickly infant, whose digestive 
powers were wholly out of order. If you are to be le- 
warded with flowers this season, the buds will now, or 
shortly, be showing themselves ; but whether they do or not, 
your present treatment should be the same. Set the plants 
in the closest and warmest end of the house, give but little 
water at the roots until you see proofs of fresh growth, but 
as we presume the stems are brown and lanky, syringe 
them with tepid water several times in a day, or bathe 
them with a sponge, for in all such cases it is better to 
make the plants absorb by their stems, than to glut the 
roots with water before these roots are freely acting. When 
that is the case, you may mulch the surface of the pot with 
rotten dung, from which all worms, &o., have been ex¬ 
tracted by drying. If, however, the stems are green and 
very succulent, no syringing or bathing will be requisite, 
and just enough of water must be given to keep them from 
flagging, and stopping growth for two months longei; giving 
I 
