10 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 3. 
LASTRJEA SPINULOSUM (Crested Prickly;. 
A common, British species, ornamenting many a 
woodland lane with its yellow-green fronds, growing in 
favourable situations three feet high. Fronds bipinnate, 
narrow, lance-shaped, growing erect; leaves oblong, 
deeply cut, and spiny. Seed-vessels mediate, with entire 
covers; stems covered with light-coloured broad scales 
Root-stock tufted, slow to increase; but that is of little 
consequence, for it is plentiful enough in almost every 
part of Britain. 
LAST.R/EA THALYPTERIS (Lady Fern). 
Another Fern common in Britain, and in the four 
quarters of the world. The only Fern in this genus 
that has barren and fertile fronds. Fertile fronds erect, 
contracted, growing a foot or more high, pinnate. 
Barren fronds pinnate, shorter than the other; seed- 
vessels mediate. Root-stock creeping; hence, the species 
is easily increased by division. 
LASTILEA ULIGINOSUM (Moor Fern). 
A strong-growing Fern, native of Britain, said to be 
only a variety of L. cristata. Mr. Newman, howevei, 
thinks it quite distinct. Fronds two feet high, bipinnate 
at the base, pinnate on the upper part; pinna? triangular, 
deeply cut; stems scaly. Root-stock creeping. Increased 
by division. T. Appleby. 
(_To be continued.) 
LUCULIA GRATISSIMA. 
(The Most Welcome Luculia.) 
This fine plant is not half so well known, nor a tenth 
part so much grown, as it deserves. Its merits are so 
great, its flowers so beautiful, and its leaves so line, that 
I am tempted to devote a paper to its culture, and 
thereby to recommend it to a more general distribution 
amongst the lovers of fine-flowering, sweet-scented 
plants. In the autumn, I saw a line specimen growing 
in the garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick; 
and only last week I witnessed another equally fine 
plant in the gardens belonging to the Earl of Derby, at 
Kuowesly Park, near Liverpool. Both these plants are 
plauted out in the border of the conservatory at each 
place, and both, no doubt, have been seen and admired, 
when in bloom, by many visitors. No doubt there are 
in many other places good specimens of this charming 
plant; but if there are, I have never noticed nor seen 
them. 
The plant may be described as a woody shrub, with 
large, handsome, laurel-like leaves, but not so stout, and 
when in health of a most pleasing bright green. The 
flowers are produced at the ends of the shoots most 
profusely in cymes, much in the same manner as the 
single Hydrangea Japonica, or a Laurustinus immensely 
magnified. Each flower is larger than a sixpence,— 
of a delicate blush suffused with pink, and has a most 
agreeable perfume. The blooms last about a month or 
six weeks, — the first bloom appears about September, 
and others continue opening till near Christmas. This 
description, which is, I believe, truly correct, proves my 
first assertion, that it is a most worthy plant. Un¬ 
fortunately, it it not so easy to grow as a Myrtle under 
ordinary treatment, but requires a peculiar one, which, 
if rightly understood and practised, will be successful, 
ibis peculiar treatment! will endeavour to describe. 
Culture.— The first difficulty is to obtain the right 
soit of plant to begin with. A small, young, soft- 
wooded plant is almost sure to perish, because it has 
been grown in close, moist heat; and the moment it is 
taken out of its warm, moist quarters in the nursery, 
the evaporation of juices in the air during its transit 
injures it so much that it hardly ever recovers it; 
therefore, whoever orders a plant should give particular 
directions that its stem, at least, should be well hardened 
and woody, and the plant before it is packed off should 
be placed in a cool, dry stove, for at least a month 
before it leaves the nursery, and the time to send it 
should be during the warm weather of the latter end of 
June. These instructions having been complied with, 
and the plant well packed with a double case of brown 
paper over and around it, the plant will travel safely by 
railway for hundreds of miles. When it arrives at its 
journey’s end, and is carefully unpacked, place it in a 
warm stove for a fortnight or three weeks, and give it 
daily a dewing of tepid water, with proper supplies at 
the root. It will then have recovered the effects of the 
journey, and may at once be repotted. The proper com¬ 
post for it is fibrous peat and loam in equal p>arts, with a 
liberal addition of rough silver sand, and small pieces 
of charcoal, distributed throughout the whole to keep it 
open. Choose a clean pot, three sizes larger than the 
one it is in, and drain it well, for it is very impatient of 
stagnant water or sodden earth ; place a few pieces of 
charcoal upon the drainage, and then proceed to repot 
the plant. Turn it carefully out of the pot, and pick 
out the old drainage from amongst the roots, and keep 
a sharp look out for any worms there may be amongst 
the soil; remove, also, all loose, old soil, but be very 
careful not to break or injure any of the roots; put as 
much fresh soil on the drainage as will raise the ball 
nearly level with the rim, and then place the ball upon 
it, and gently work in the fresh compost around it till 
the pot is quite full, give the pot a smart stroke or two 
on the bench, and press the soil firmly down in the pot— 
the operation is then complete. Then give a good 
watering, and replace the plant in the stove. 
Some authors direct this plant to be treated as a green¬ 
house plant. This is decidedly wrong, in my opinion. It 
is true, it will live in a greenhouse in summer, but the 
cold of that position in winter will injure it so much 
that it will hardly ever recover it if kept in a pot. I 
have had a good, strong, woody bush in a pot three feet 
high, and as much through. It was kept in the coolest 
part of the stove through the winter, and flowered very 
fairly in the spring; it was then placed in a warm 
greenhouse till July, and was then set out-of doors for 
six weeks to harden the wood, and then replaced in the 
stove. This management answered in a middling 
degree, but nothing nearly so well as those above 
alluded to. 
To return to our plant. As soon as it has made its 
spring growth in the stove, then prepare a place for it 
in the conservatory border. Take out the old soil two 
feet square and a foot deep, and fill the place with the 
compost described above, and turn the plant out of the 
pot, keeping the ball entire, plant it in the centre of the 
fresh soil, and give a good watering. The only care 
then necessary during the summer is to keep it 
frequently syringed and watered whenever the soil 
becomes dry. The tops of the branches should be cut 
off to make the plant bushy; but this should not be 
repeated later than July, or no flowers will be produced 
that year. The grand point to aim at is to obtain good 
stout branches in good time to get the wood well 
rqiened, blooms will then be sure to follow. Evory 
succeeding year the same process should be followed in 
stopping the branches and ripening the wood. The 
tree, for it will attain to that character, will grow and 
flower well for many years. I believe the one at 
Chiswick is ten years old. The temperature it will 
thrive in when planted out is 55° in winter, and 65° in 
summer. 
Propagation. —Cuttings taken off about June, a little 
