400 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
tliis race, in pots, require full one-third white sand added j 
to the best peat, and a thorough drainage. There are a 
dozen more species of them from the Cape; but, like the 
wild Gladioli from the same quarter, the new European 
seedlings have rendered them ot no use as garden 
plants. 
BABIANA. 
This is another section of Ixias which seem to be \ 
extremely abundant at the Cape, as one sees whole i 
handfuls of the small bulbs of the different species come 
home in the usual collections. The Capo is infested 
with rogues, like all other foreign stations, who will sell 
you any plant you name; but there are people there, 
also, who can furnish plants and names as true a3 any 
London nurseryman. 
In the list which is mentioned above, there are ninety- 
five species of Cape bulbs and tubers, most of which I 
have llowered, and found as true as it the plants came 
from the best nursery in London. In that list, Mr. i 
Pince’s new Hcemanthiis is called corgmbosa —a Cape 
manufacture, certainly; and there are a tew others 
i equally absurd. There is, also, a major and minor 
Babiana purpurea, which we do not recognise here ; but 
they are so in reality at the Cape, and very distinct too. 
Babiana rubra, and a rubra variety of this list, is our 
Babiana Tlumbergii ; and that is all the difference 
between the English and this Cape list out of all the 
plants named above. 
Babiana Tiiunbergii. —A bright purplish-red flower, 
and 
Babiana iiubro-cyanea, with dull red, and pale blue 
ilowers, arc the two best, and most distinct of them. 
Then 
Babiana purpurea, a purple; ringens, purple also, 
and vir.LOSA, another shade of purple, are the next best; 
and 
Babiana disticiia, a bad blue, the last that is fit for a 
selection of them. 
When we know the vast improvement made in gla¬ 
diolus, and tho endless variation in the Iris, we need 
not doubt but all these little Capo bulbs may be im¬ 
proved by similar means, but never having operated on 
I rids, except in Gladioli, i feel no confidence to re¬ 
commend what kinds ought to be brought together; aud 
to go by hearsay, or by what 1 or anybody else may . 
think, is no better than the blind leading the blind ; so 
the whole Ixia family may be said to be still an open 
field for crossing, except what has been done in 8pa- 
raxis, about which I am not aware of any authentic 
report being on record, or anything at all to guide the 
young beginner in this race. D. Beaton. 
COMPARING NOTES—TINGIRTII GARDENS. 
There are few of us blue-aproners who are not 
; humbled and bettered by having a peep, at least, of 
oue great flower and gardening show in London during 
the season. Next to that, is the opportunity, now and 
j then, of seeing some of the prettiest and best kept 
: gardens in the country. 
Though at no inaccessible distance, it is more than a 
dozen of years since I saw the above beautiful little 
! place, which then, as well as now, I visited in con¬ 
junction with Woburn Abbey. Anything like a descrip¬ 
tion of the latter place would, as in the case of a 
Trentham, or a Chatsworth, demand more time than I 
could spare, and more space than the Editor might 
! wish ; and yet a few salient points, which struck my 
j own mind in visiting Tingirth, might not be without 
; interest to many of our readers, and especially those 
| who may have enthusiasm enough to rival any mode- 
| rate-sized place, and yet might shrink from competing 
| in anything with a princely establishment. 
When I last saw Tingirth, the gardens were presided 
over by Mr. Phillips, a man of strong, herculean build, | 
but who, notwithstanding, has long since paid the debt | 
of nature. Visions of him and the place have often 
risen before me since. It was, decidedly, the best kept 
garden I had then ever witnessed, and I have never 
forgotten Mr. Phillips offering me lialf-a-crown for every 
weed, an inch in height, I could find upon the premises, 
and then gracefully adding—“It was no honour to him, j 
as his kind employers, the Misses Trevors, stinted him 
in nothing.” Since Mr. Phillips’ death, after some 
changes, Mr. Manning, the house-steward, who had 
long been a fellow-servant, and carried out Mr. Phillips 
desires during a long and painful illness, was desired to 
take the management of both departments; and though, 
in these days of the division of labour, such an arrange¬ 
ment might not be often desirable, there are few who 
could find any fault with it on the present occasion. 
Cottages. —By going a different road, and getting 
some half-mile or so out of my way, a good opportunity 
w r as given for seeing bow much the village was im¬ 
proved, by the addition of clean, commodious cottages, 
in almost every case accompanied with gardens, well 
stocked with vegetables and flowers. It came out, acci¬ 
dentally, that in this department Miss Trevor was her 
' own architect. It was evident that mere ornament 
never stood in the w r ay of solid utility. I also^ saw 
, some beautiful blocks of cottages belonging to his Grace 
J the Duke of Bedford. Many of our landed proprietors 
have been the first to act out the principle, that 
“ property has its duties as well as its rights, not so 
much by giving charitable donations to the labouring 
classes around them, as by suitable dwellings and good- 
sized gardens, thus inspiring them with the desire and 
attempt to secure for themselves, by their own efforts, 
comparative independence of character aud feeling. 
Lodge. —The one at which we entered was alike pic¬ 
turesque and simple. Imagine a common, parallelo¬ 
gram, square-walled cottage, with the gable ends some 
two or three feet higher than usual; at the end, next 
the road, a rustic bay window below and one also 
above, the latter with a hood of thatch, so neatly done:— 
the roof projects over the end, and is nicely thatched, 
but, instead of stopping at the side-walls, it descends in 
the same slope four or five feet beyond them, being 
supported there by rustic wood columns, and thus fur¬ 
nishing a dry veranda round the house. 
Stable-yard. —Here was rather an uncommon fea¬ 
ture. 11 is surrounded by a. bank of Laurels, partly to 
conceal it from tho house, to which it was contiguous, 
In some places these Laurels approached the gravel; 1 
but, in others, there were spaces of several yards in 
width, and these spaces were all filled with beautiful 
Ilowers—many of them our best bedding plants. | 
All these plants are chiefly managed by the groom in j 
his spare time. On expressing to him our warm ap¬ 
proval, he replied, “That they certainly looked better 
than the nettles and thistles that would grow,” aud 
which are too often found nestling in such situa¬ 
tions. An attempt at the artistic had even been made, 
by cooking-up some broken and discarded crockery ware 
into shells and vases, and filling them with flowers. A 
few hollow pollards, and rough roots, would come in 
well in such circumstances. If we do not mistake, the 
chief and only entrance to the servants’ offices is 
through this yard, and thus our fellow-labourer, the 
groom, will daily not only increase in himself, but 
j diffuse around him, a taste and love for the beautiful. 
I Last season, at several places, I noticed the windows ot 
living and sleeping-rooms, in several noblemen’s stable- 
j yards, well supplied with flourishing plants in pots. 
I This is a step in the right direction. Who will under- 
i take to say that the most attentive gardener would here 
| prove the less faithful and attentive to his peculiar duties? 
