July 28. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
315 
propagate, like Vine eyes, to an infinite extent, and so 
will Dendrobiums, and, no doubt, all the Orchids with 
stem-growth, when the stems are jointed; hut this new 
way of propagating Orchids must be after the plants 
have had a long, dry rest. Here we see that Orchids, 
like Geraniums, have invisible buds at every joint, from 
which they will increase just as well as if the buds were 
as prominent as those of the Vine or Rose. 
There was a singularly curious Swan-neck Orchid 
(Cycnoches ), with two long spikes of greenish flowers, 
after the manner of Gongora, but it was of no beauty 
as a'garden plant. Another very curious Orchid, but 
more handsome, is Dendrobium filiforme, the flowers 
of which are not much bigger than a gnat’s head, being 
set in two rows along thread-like spikes of ten to twelve 
inches, and hanging down gracefully on all sides, while 
Bolbophyllum Henshalli has cream-coloured flowers, 
produced singly and quite at home. 
Roses. —There were no pot Roses this time, but im¬ 
mense quantities of cut flowers, and they had a new 
way of showing-off some of the best, as Geant des Ba- 
tailles, Paul Ricaut, a fine dark Rose, Chenedole, La 
Reine, and Coup d' Hebe. Of these, there was a 
box devoted to one kind of Rose only, and the effect 
was really very good; the plan is well worth encou¬ 
raging. There was a lovely Rose, new to me, called 
Auguste Mie, a new hybrid perpetual, of a blush-rosy 
hue, and very large. It is certainly very distinct, and 
well worth having. Pio Nono, again, is an excellent 
newish Rose, and I can vouch for its being most con¬ 
stant. There are some excellent Rose-gardens within 
my reach, perhaps the finest in England; at any rate, 
I shall give an account of one of them next week, 
which I am quite sure will surprise some of us. A 
Gallic, or summer Rose, called Old, is another splendid 
dark Rose, finer, if any thing, than Boide de Nauteuil. 
This, and the very curious Compte de Montalivet, per¬ 
petual Rose, I never saw exhibited before. A Bourbon 
Rose, called Cezarine Souchet, is very much out of the 
common: a kind of pale Rose, but, like Auguste Mie, 
it must be seen to know the real tint. And, last of all, 
there was a Moss Rose, called Princess Alice, a tightish 
thing, but I did not think much of it. 
I have a word or two to say about the new perpetual 
Rose Victoria, of which I spoke so highly from the 
June show; it is not at all such a good white as I took 
it to be, and if the pot culture does not alter it alto¬ 
gether, I am not a gardener. Out-of-doors it is as 
red as La Reine, in the bud, and as rosy as the old 
Cabbage Rose when it first opens; and it is only when 
it is far gone that it turns white. I have watched this 
Rose in two first-rate collections, and seen it in Mr. 
| Jackson’s nursery, and that is my second thoughts 
j about it. Surely, they did not cook it for the exhi- 
| bitions ? 
Pelargoniums. — Dobsonii was the newest to me, and 
the most marked kind among all the dark ones. It is 
splendid, and beats Optimum. The front petals are of 
a dark purple-crimson, a small, shaded, light eye, and 
the back petals black, with a fiery ring along the outer 
edges. Alibi, by Mr. Turner, is also a splendid orange- 
scarlet ; after them I noted the following:— Magnet, 
Prince Arthur, Salamander, fine scarlet; Alonzo, dark 
purple; Constance, very showy; Mont Blanc, Star, 
Magnificent, Virgin Queen, Eliza, Annie Laurie, rose 
front, white eye, and dark back; Celia, orange-scarlet; 
Exactum, half white ; Esther, half white also, but very 
different from the preceding ; Plantaganet, dark purple; 
and Optimum, the next to Dobsonii. Add to these, 
Jupiter, Ambassador , and Ganymede, and you have the 
cream of the non-florists’ flowers of all that were ex¬ 
hibited that day. I failed to spy out Zaria, which I 
regret; and I missed Basilisk, and one or two more, all 
the season. 
Among Fancies, I marked none this time except one 
or two seedlings ; and to let you see how diamond cuts 
diamond, the Cloth of Silver is called in my notes “ a 
lovely queen fainting away in a ball room : ” then, if a 
queen is not better than another mortal in a fainting 
fit, this new queen will not stand three years’ hard 
rubbing in this wicked world (see page 283). Constance 
is pretty fair, after the fashion of the Hero of Surrey 
group, but not nearly so good as some others in that 
section; and one called Panorama, from the sweet¬ 
leaved breed, is not to be compared to seedlings of the 
very same breed common enough in 1825! 
Bedding Geraniums. —There were some beautiful 
new varieties of these. Eliza Field is a real beauty—a 
liorse-shoe leaf, and a little more pinky than Boule de 
Niege, and yet not a real French-white. Princess, the 
same breed, with the shade next to salmon-colour; and 
Kingsbury Pet, the third shade, something like orange- 
salmon, if there is such a tint; and one called Slceltonii 
is the same as Boule de Niege. All these, with a seedling 
of mine called Shrubland Cream, which is in the garden 
of the Society, are all exceeding good pot plants, and 
they will force in the spring for the conservatory. They 
are, also, most useful in October and November for 
in-door plants; and, to my own knowledge, nine ladies 
out of ten admire them. I took Mr. Fleming to the 
front of the stage, and, besides backing all that I have 
just said, he is sure that he, also, must get in all these 
pretty flowers this very season, also Henderson’s (Wel¬ 
lington Road) Glaucum grandiflorum, and Jackson’s 
Oleander Geranium, Alba pleno. I think Eliza Field, 
Princess, the Kingsbury Pet, and Skeltonii, were shown 
by Mr. Henderson, of Pine-apple Place, but of that I 
am not quite sure. I think I saw a small plant of Eliza 
Field there last season, but any London nurseryman 
can find them out for country buyers. 
Mrs. Conway sent a collection of Scarlet Geraniums, 
and a variegated Geranium of the Golden Chain breed, 
with a truss as good as Tom Thumb, which will beat 
the Flower of the Day and the Mountain of Light, 
if I am not very much mistaken. She, had, also a fine 
Purple Petunia, blotched with deeper colour, a good pot 
jflant; and there was a collection of seedling Petunias, 
of which Cameleon and Prometheus were the two gayest. 
There was also a collection of the dwarf Lobelias, of 
which Ramosoides, a deep blue, was the best; and in a 
collection of Crassulas (Kalosanthes) a seedling called t 
Beauty of Charonne, is really a good dark crimson 
variety; and Coccinea superba a good improvement on 
miniata, or the sort with the white eye. 
In a collection of seedling Gladioli, Rex Ruborum, a j 
dark crimson flower; Insignis, a fine orange-scarlet, as 
if a cross by a Watsonia ; and Sahnonius, a fine orange- 1 
scarlet, with three beautiful marks in the front petals, i 
were the best; these were from the Messrs. Bass and 1 
Brown, of Sudbury, in Suffolk, and the three are well 
worth adding to any selection of this tribe. 
Relhamia squarrosa, an old-fashioned looking compo- I 
site-flowering little shrub, in Mrs. Lawrence’s collection, 
is well worth growing for a change. Her Roellia ciliata, i 
in a very good condition, is the most difficult plant to 
grow well of all that were shown this season. 
Aciiimenes. — These were select sorts, very well grown. 
One box of Picta was a yard through, with shoots and 
flowers ranging down over the sides of the box, and the 
rest a mass of flowers. Coccinea grandiflora is the best 
of the breed, except, perhaps, Esclieri, which has the j 
flowers more in the way of Venusta. Patens major, fine, 
as was Longiflora major ; Longiflora alba very good, 
but Margareta the best white. I objected to that name 
last year, as it comes too near to the French for China 
Asters; the name is after one of Mr. Skinner’s daughter's, 
and anything from that quarter demands our respect. 
The best grown specimen was called Hfloumanii hirsuta. 
