May 19. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
ua 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
W 
D 
MAY 19—25, 1853, 
Weather near London in 1852. 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Mooti 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
1 
Day o‘ i 
Year. 
19 
Tii 
Silver Cloud ; shad, paling. 
29.937 — 29-785 72—43 
S.E. 
4 a. 4 
48 a. 7 
2 50 
11 
3 48 
139 
20 F 
Grey Birch ; birch trees. 
Sun’s declination, 20° 14' N. 
29 935 — 29 971 6/—48 
N.E. 
10 
3 
50 
3 9 
12 
3 45 
140 
21 S 
29.992 —29.972 61—46 
N. 
— 
2 
51 
3 28 
13 
3 42 
141 
22 Sun 
Trinity Sunday. 
30.039 — 29-995 61—47 
N.E. 
— 
1 
52 
rises. 
© 
3 38 
142 
23 M 
Green Hair-streak; hedges. 
30.062 —30.027 57—45 
E. 
— 
III 
54 
9 a 0 
15 
3 33 
143 
24 Tu 
Queen Victoria b. 1819. 
30.036 — 29.970 66—49 
N.E. 
— 
58 
55 
10 20 
16 
3 28 
144 
25 W 
Princess Helena born 1846. 
29.955 — 29.876 61—49 
N.E. 
11 
57 
56 
11 25 
17 
3 23 
145 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty 
-six years, the average highest and lowest tempera- 
tures of these days are 66.4° and 45.2° respectively. The greatest heat, 88°, occurred on the 20th in 1833 ; and the lowest cold, 
in 1839. During the period 110 days were fine, and on 72 rain fell. 
29°, on the 25 th 
RUSTY GAULTHERIA. 
( Gaultheria fcruginea.) 
This new plant has been variously called Andromeda 
liirsuta, and Gaultheria tomentosa, and those two specific 
names, or rather synonyms, together with that which is to 
he legitimately retained, give a true description of the 
outward appearance of the plant. It is a Gaultheria, with 
hairy or tomentose leaves, and young wood with a rusty 
appearance. 
It is a very handsome plant while in flower; the woodcut 
shows the manner in which the flowers are produced, and 
their colour is a bright pink. The plant is a native of the 
Organ Mountains, in Brazil, where it was often met with by 
the late Mr. Gardener, whose Narrative of his five years 
travels in the Brazils, in search of new plants, is one of the 
most useful and entertaining works on this branch of 
Natural History that was ever published. The seeds of this 
Gaultheria were gathered by Mr. Gardener, and sent by 
him to the Comely Bank Nurseries, Edinburgh, where the 
plant flowered last summer for the first time. It is figured 
and described in the Botanical Magazine for last February, 
t. 4097. It belongs to the order of Heathworls, and to the 
same section as the Andromedas, and to Decandria Mono- 
gynia in the system of Linnaeus. There is some reason for 
thinking it is identical with Gaultheria bracteala. 
It is a small branching shrub, the younger branches, and 
even the young leaves, and stalks of the flower-clusters, are 
clothed thickly with rusty-coloured hairs, mixed with others 
that are glanclulous. Leaves almost stalkless, pointed egg- 
shaped, saw-toothed, tipped with a hard point, old leaves 
smooth, younger ones hairy; clusters of flowers at the end 
of the branches ; the stalks of each flower bending to one 
side only, and pointing downwards, the young ones covered 
with red over-lapping bractes. Calyx large, cut into five 
hairy lobes. Corolla pitcher-shaped, and large for the size 
of the plant, mouth five-toothed. Stamens ten; filaments 
awl-shaped, hairy; anthers opening at the top by pores, 
each cell bearing two erect awns. Ovary flattened globe, 
five-lobed. 
Culture. —This rare plant has had the good fortune of 
being first nursed at Comely Bank, where many of the 
most difficult plants in the world to increase and cultivate 
were first broke in, and brought under subjection to the art 
and calling of the gardener. I knew every inch, and pot, 
and pane of glass in this Nursery, when it was at its height 
in the wonder and admiration of all who knew or heard 
about it; when, as was the notion at the time, a difficult 
plant was not considered as being introduced into Scotland, 
if it was only in this Nursery, although it might be there by 
the dozen, because they could grow any plant there that 
could not be grown elsewhere. Now, when we recollect the 
fate of some most beautiful and interesting plants which 
Mr. Gardener found in company with this Gaultheria, on 
tire summits of the Organ Mountains, Prepusa connata and 
Hookeriana, for instances, I cannot promise that this new 
Gaultheria will be easy to manage; and it can hardly be ex¬ 
pected to be quite hardy, although it grows at an elevation 
of full G,000 feet above the level of the charming bay of 
Rio, where the heat is not at all so oppressive as we had it 
here at the beginning of last July, and where smart frosts 
are not uncommon, though nothing like our English frosts. 
At all events, it is the safest plan to keep this plant for the 
first few years in a cold pit, in winter, but out in the full sun 
during the summer, and in the greenhouse only when it is 
in flower, and to give it good peat earth, and not to let it get 
very dry at the roots. Gardener found it “ on an open 
rocky place ” not far from the highest summit of the range, 
therefore, a shady place, such as would suit Gaultheria pro- 
cumbens, will not be the right place for this species, but 
right full in the sun at all times, and all high Alpine plants 
like this require a constant free ventilation. 
It is perfectly astonishing, that after so many eminent tra¬ 
vellers have been on the Organ Mountain, and to the north 
and south countries bordering on Rio de Janeiro, and the 
facilities of running home things from the port of Rio, there 
is not another district on the face of the globe in which 
more kinds of beautiful plants are still wasting their beauty 
and perfumes in the virgin forests and hill sides. There is 
a climate of perpetual spring, judging from its position, 
bordering on the edges of the southern tropic; the short 
distance between the head of the bay, and the ascent to the 
mountains, which rise to a height of 7,000 feet, and the 
broken nature of the range into hill and dale, dry, exposed 
braes, and deep shaded glens. One of the Hippeasters , 
which I shall describe shortly, grows on the very top of this 
high range, and, therefore, must be about the same hardi¬ 
ness as Gladiolus psittacinus; many more of them grow 
lower down, in a greenhouse temperature, on the same hills. 
D. Beaton. 
No. CCXLII., Vol. X. 
