COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
August 21. 
itself to me from a plan I once adopted with Peas in a very 
wet garden—an account of which I will send you.—T hos. 
Cartwright. 
MILLA BIFLORA; OR, THE TWO-FLOWERED 
MILLA. 
This beautiful, hardy, bulbous-rooted plant is seldom seen 
in our gardens, although it is very easy of cultivation. It 
was introduced into the Royal Gardens, at Madrid, in 1820 ; 
but when it was first flowered in England is not exactly 
known. It was first exhibited at the summer, fete in the 
Horticultural Society’s Gardens, at Chiswick, in 1811, and 
very few visitors passed it without enquiring what the name 
of that beautiful flower was. 
The genus to which it belongs was named after Julien 
Milla, head-gardener to the King of Spain, and I may 
remark that a very pretty compliment was paid him in 
doing so. 
Its style of growth is elegant, producing semi-cylindrical, 
grass-like leaves, from fifteen to twenty inches long, with 
erect flower-stems of the same length ; and although named 
biflora, from its natural style of blooming, often produces, 
under cultivation, three and four flowers in an umbel, as is 
evidenced by the specimen now before me. The flowers 
are five-petalled, and star-shaped, two inches in diameter, 
and of the most pearly whiteness. Wanted in any ordinary 
garden soil, or fresh loam in February, or the commence¬ 
ment of March, the bulbs grow freely, producing a com¬ 
paratively small number of leaves. Strong roots will pro¬ 
duce as many as four or five flower-spikes in July and 
August. 
It is a desirable plant, and well worthy of cultivation, both 
for its pretty, chaste, and classical appearance, and from its 
adaptation to the most humble conveniences as to culti¬ 
vation. 
It is noted in Loudon’s “ Hortus Brittanicus,” as being a 
bulbous-rooted stove perennial; but this is only one of the 
numerous mistakes which have, and will be, as a matter of 
course, made respecting many newly-introduced plants, 
until we become better acquainted with them. The novelty 
of a plant often induces us to bestow an immensity of un¬ 
necessary care upon it, and to draw incorrect conclusions 
respecting it, which experience ultimately proves to have 
been waste of time and trouble. I have had this plant to 
withstand the cold of two or three winters without being 
injured in the least, but it is not at all necessary to expose 
it, inasmuch as its season of rest is during our winter 
months. I have ventured to designate it a hardy bulb, as it 
is in that class I cultivate it. 
There is a doubt existing as to whether there are any 
other species or varieties of this genus. The plant known 
under the name of Triteleia uniflora, is supposed, properly 
speaking, to be Milla uniflora, but biflora is sweet-scented, 
and uniflora is offensive smelling.—C. B. S., Jersey , 
FUCHSIAS AS HANGING PLANTS. 
G. C. Schwabe, Esq., of Liverpool, whose most beautiful 
conservatory we hope to depict very shortly, writes as 
follows 
“ The best hanging plants I have found out yet are 
Fuchsias of every kind. They are easily trained, and make 
a handsome show. The flowers appear to be made to look 
up to. 
“I have the Fuehsias with the white corolla; they must 
be vastly improved upon before they are worth much. 
“ We bloom Pleroma elegans without the slightest diffi¬ 
culty, year after year, treating it exactly like the Epacris." 
POTATO DISEASE. 
We are sorry to announce, that since Friday, the 10th 
inst., the rotate blight has re-appeared, and attacked the 
leaves and stalks wdth a malignancy almost indescribable in 
every garden and field hereabouts, and the usual stench 
377 
emitting from them is now everywhere unmistakable, and 
none have escaped but the very early kinds. This day it is 
spreading like wildfire, and no doubt that ere this communi¬ 
cation appeal’s in type it will have progressed considerably 
and universally. How far it may prove fatal to the tuber 
remains yet to be known; but judging from experience in 
past years, their luxuriance in foliage renders them more sus¬ 
ceptible to decay. The only alternative we know of is, that 
of cutting off their tops and leaving them to chance, thus 
bleeding them, as it were, to death by degrees, and causing 
those that are yet uninfected to be more dry, and mealy, 
and in better keeping condition than they would otherwise 
be. Pulling the stalks up is not so well, as it destroys their 
vitals instantaneously, thus shutting in disease, or setting 
the so-called blood or sap, and subjecting them to further 
decay. It is also objectionable, as no index is thus left 
where the roots are, and when taking them up they are 
subject to be pierced by the fork, &c. Be this as it may, 
all should be done before the tubers become too far con¬ 
taminated. It will be no more use to amputate, or pull 
them thin, than it would be to cut off a man’s arms or legs 
infected with disease, to prevent putrefaction from such 
infusion which had been allowed to taint his whole body. 
As another illustration of our meaning:—If sudden disease 
attacks a pig, and it is knocked on the head, and thus killed 
instantaneously, it soon becomes putrid and unfit for human 
food ; not so if phlebotomy is resorted to at its first appear¬ 
ance, it then renders it marketable. Just so with the ill- 
fated Potato. Dry, sunny weather may, as it were, starve 
the fungus as it comes on the leaves, and save the tubers; 
and it is more encouraging to know that it is spreading on 
the leaves so rapidly, than it would be to see them linger 
for a lengthened time. — Hardy and Son, Seed Growers, 
Maldon, Essex. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
STRAWBERRIES NOT PRODUCING A 
SUCCESSION. 
“ In the spring of 1853, a piece of ground, which up to 
that time had been pasture, I planted with Strawberries. 
The soil is good, though rather light, and about sixteen 
inches in depth. I had it trenched two spades deep, and 
where the rows were to be planted the soil was taken out 
to the depth of a spade, and a good foundation of cow 
manure put in. The rows were planted two feet apart, and 
the plants fifteen inches distant in the rows. The runners 
have been regularly cut off, the beds kept clean (but not 
dug), and a top-dressing of manure applied in spring. 
“ Last year the beds produced only a thin crop, though the 
fruit was very fine. This season the beds were completely 
covered with bloom, and the berries appeared to set satis¬ 
factorily. The Black Prince commenced ripening at the 
end of June, Keens' Seedling the first week in July, and the 
other sorts a few days later. All the sorts gave promise 
of an abundant crop, and afforded good gatherings for 
about a week from the time of ripening, after which they 
fell off all at once, and produced only poor, little, deformed 
berries, almost destitute of flavour. 
“I grow several of the most esteemed sorts, and I should 
say that Keens' Seedling was the first to fail, and that 
Kitley’s Goliah, British Queen, and Nicholson's Ruby have 
produced the longest succession of good fruit. 
“ Does the fault lay with particular sorts of Strawberries, 
or is there something wrong with the soil, or in my mode of 
treatment ? 
“ I have read several excellent articles on Strawberry 
culture in The Cottage Gardener, but do not remember any 
remarks on this particular point. As I am about to plant 
some new beds, your opinion and advice on this point will 
be highly valued by me, and will, I have no doubt, be of 
great sendee to many of your readers as well as—R. N., 
Lancaster." 
[There seems nothing sufficiently wrong in your Straw¬ 
berry culture to be a cause of the fruit’s failure. Indeed, 
the present is remarkable as being a deficient Strawberry 
