July 14. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
27 0 
portant here, as in many thing's liable to be affected 
by droughts, which, in hot weather, not unfrequently 
penetrate some eight or ten inches in depth ; in com¬ 
mon parlance—the supplies are cut off. Of course, 
liquid-manures can be administered, and ought to be 
occasionally; but 1 have, in late years, met with so 
many cases in which such applications, even after a 
thorough recognition of their importance, are either 
forgotten or neglected, that I deem it of much more 
importance to endeavour to lay down self-acting plans, 
than to shew how, with every appliance aud lots of 
labour, things may be carried to a high pitch. 
In preparing holes for tree Roses, I advise an exca¬ 
vation of two feet square by thirty inches in depth. If 
the bottom be dry, no extra precautions will be needed ; 
but if any ways damp, let half-a-scoro brick bats, or 
crocks, be thrown in the bottom ; if wet, draining must 
be bad recourse to. Rut bricks or not, I advise that 
one-third of the depth receive some chopped turf, of the 
same character as before described. 
Turves cut in cubes of about three inches square are 
capital; and they should be moist when filled in. On 
and amongst these a little rotten manure may bestrewn, 
and over this the tree with the compost, leaving the 
surface about four inches below the ground level. 
When this is complete, I advise three inches of half- 
rotten manure, rich in character; and this, if 1 could 
manage it, I would case over with cinder ashes, from 
which the dust had been ejected, or charcoal grit. Thus 
finished, liquid-manures, or, indeed, ordinary water, 
would percolate with the utmost freedem ; no stagnation 
here—no puddling. 
Thus much for my ideas on the constitution of the 
soil as a means to promote the production of Roses most 
of the year. In another paper I must try and advise 
about the management of the wood, both in a growing 
and in a rest condition; for, like the Peach, &c., it is 
not all a matter of winter pruning; finger-and-thumb- 
work is of eminent service with the Rose when in active 
growth. R. EltRINGTON. 
BRAZILIAN PLANTS. 
At page 21!) of the current volume, 1 promised to 
give the names of some of the finest plants in Brazil 
not yet introduced to this country, or, if introduced, that 
are but very little known. The second name of the 
Rliopala at that page, which brought the subject to my 
memory, is not spelled right: Corcovadensis is the right 
way—the name is after the locality where the plant 
grows wild, the Corcovado mountain, a few miles to the 
west of the town of Rio. It is from the Corcovado 
mountain that the town of Rio is supplied with water 
through an aqueduct, and some of the finest plants in 
all the Brazils might be seen in a morning’s walk along 
the sides of this aqueduct, and up the slopes, to the 
summit of Corcovado, which is 2000 feet above the 
level of the sea; and here is the native place of our old 
Cactus (Epiphyllum) truncatus, our old Bignonia argy- 
rostigma, and our newer sanguined, and the now common 
Dipladenia crassinoda ; but the Rliopala Corcovadensis 
grows, probably, at the bottom of the hill, as it is men¬ 
tioned as early almost as the town of Rio was built. 
It is from the Journals of the late Mr. Gardiner, as 
published by the Horticultural Society, that I extract 
the following:— 
1. Sti/lia chrysantha (a name by Mikan, a German 
botanist)—“This is one of the most beautiful shrubs 
indigenous to Brazil. It is not uncommon by the 
aqueduct, about half way up the Corcovado. It is a 
shrub from eight to fourteen feet high, elegant in habit, 
and with dark green leaves, not unlike those of the 
orange. It belongs to the Composite order, aud to the 
Mutisiaceous division of it. The flowers are very large, ■ 
and of a beautiful orange colour, which, when seen 
from a distance, gives the plant all the appearance of 
an orange-tree loaded with fruit. It seems to prefer a 
dry clayey-irony soil.” An active correspondent in Rio 
de Janeiro might easily get seeds or young plants of 
this beauty transmitted to England, and they will now 
come from Rio in about the same length of time as my 
first voyage from London to Edinburgh tool: in one of 
the Leith “ smacks.” 
2. Metternidda Prindpis (Prince Metternich—also 
named by Mikan.) “This is also a shrub, but smaller 
than the preceding, and grows in similar situations. 
It produces an abundance of pure white flowers, about 
two inches long, not unlike those of a Batura.” 1 guess 
this beautiful plant will require the same treatment 
exactly as the Solandras, to which it is more like than 
to Datura. 
3. Simaba glandulifera (the first name by Aublet, 
and the second by Gardiner himself.)—“A shrub, with a 
simple stem (that is, not branched), from six to ten feet 
high, and a cluster of spreading, pinnated leaves from 
two to three feet long at the top, which gives it some¬ 
what the appearance of a palm. Out of the centre of 
these leaves proceeds an immense panicle, sometimes 
three feet long, of yellow, highly odoriferous flowers.” 
You have only to take a long branch of the Koelreuteria 
paniculata, in bloom, to catch the image of this fine 
plant in the mind. Simaba is one of the bitter 
Quassiads. 
4. Ampldrox longifolia (Sprengel).—“ This is one of 
the many Violaceus shrubby plants which exist in 
Brazil. It is rather rare in the woods of the Corcovado, 
grows to the height of eight to twelve feet, and produces 
large panicles of pure white, violet-shaped, sweet- 
smelling flowers.” Talk about our tree-violets after all 
this ! A regular pyramid of pure white violets from the 
end of a shoot, carried in the hand on a fete day, would 
be enough to drive all the batchelors into matrimony, 
or into the very middle of the Thames. 
5. Diclidanthera laurifolia (Martins.) — “A large, 
climbing shrub, which diffuses its branches among 
those of the trees near which it grows. It belongs to 
the Order of Sapotads, produces abundance of small, 
yellowish-coloured flowers, aud a black, eatable fruit, of 
the size of a cherry.” Here, then, is another stove 
climber to be added to the long list of such from Rio. 
G. Myrrhinium atropurpureum (named by Schott).— 
“ A Myrtlebloom shrub, from lour to six feet high, not 
uncommon on the sandy shores of Rio. Its flowers, 
which are of a dark purple colour, are produced from 
the older branches, and are remarkable in the order to 
which they belong for their long excerted and definite 
stamens.” Only think of a dark 'purple Myrtle flower, 
with the stamens of a Oaleandra, alias Inga , of sorts! 
and all these to be had for the mere pleasure of a walk 
on either side, or beyond the town of Rio. Then, 
opposite the town, and on the east side of the bay, there 
are three varieties of the Bouganvillca spectabilis 
scrambling up the trees, and covering them all over, 
aud making them as if on fire with their brilliant 
colours ; one of these is the admiration of every one 
who sees it bloom so well in Paris; but here, in 
England, no one has ever yet won a single bloom from 
it; but let us have the three varieties home from Rio, ! 
and surely one or other of them will flower with us. 
Any one writing out to a correspondent at Rio for \ 
any of these plants might, at the same time, ask for 
another fine plant which we know to be common in 
those parts, a kind of tree Lily, called Vellozia, by Mar- 
tins; “the lovely Vellozia Candida,” as Gardiner calls it. 
This is the only species of the many Vellozias which 
inhabit Brazil that are found down on the coast; “the 
others, for the most part, inhabiting the mountains in 
