April 
2fi THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
the diseased plant as cuttings, first cutting away all 
the sickly part of the stems. Place the cuttings in a 
sandy soil, under a hand-glass, in a shady part of the 
garden: they will make fine plants, and will flower 
in the autumn. 
Auricula a^d Polyanthus. —Such as are in flower 
should be removed to a cool shady situation, but still 
to be protected from wet: this will prolong the flow¬ 
ering season considerably. Amateurs desirous of 
purchasing mil do well to visit the gardens of the 
dealers, and choose such kinds, whilst they are in 
flower, as may suit them. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Heaths. —It is an old and trite adage that some 
have achieved greatness, and others have greatness 
thrust upon them. This letter is a practical illustra¬ 
tion of the latter part of this proverb, for when I 
engaged to write these popular essays on window 
and greenhouse plants for The Cottage Gardener, 
I had no more idea that I should be called on to fur¬ 
nish one on the cultivation of heaths, than I have at 
this moment of running off to California in search of 
gold. But so it is, and thus “ greatness is thrust 
upon me,” as, without any doubt, to grow heaths 
well is the very highest branch of practical garden¬ 
ing in our day. Yes, to grow such specimens of 
heaths as are now entered for competition round 
London, is the highest ambition of our best garden¬ 
ers, who have long studied the nature of plants, and 
the power of cultivation over their wild natures. 
Therefore, unless the eye and the hands have had a 
certain amount of previous training in the art and 
mysteries of cultivation, it is as certain as a mathe¬ 
matical axiom, that the tyro in heath cultivation 
will fail in his first few attempts. Hence my resolve 
not to broach the subject till after I had traced the 
whole circle of the catalogue, supposing that that 
could be done in the compass of a single lifetime. 
Consequently, should any of our land readers be 
tempted to begin heath growing from any thing that 
I may say, recommend, or suggest, ancl afterwards 
burns his fingers in the process, I hold myself ex¬ 
empt from all blame on that score. 
From incidents of early childhood, I know that 
heaths and superstition grow very well together, and 
would lead one, if credulous and believing in second- 
sight, to prognosticate that many unlucky readers 
will fail in their first attempts to cultivate these 
plants; and the omen is this:—the week before last, 
I wrote a long letter on heaths, which was lost by 
some misconduct of the post-office; and that is a 
certain sign of bad luck to begin with among the 
heather, for that is our Scotch name for the heath. 
If I had my way, I would punish the whole race 
about the post-office, by compelling them to change 
their names, and assume that of McDonald, and 
then wear the badge of that loyal clan, which is a 
bunch of heather: 
Now, having so easily got rid of all reponsibility 
respecting these heaths, let me give you a quotation, 
which goes a long way to shew you what kind of 
plants they are, for it tickled my fancy very much 
the first time I read it. “Erica (or heath) is one of 
the most extensive and beautiful genera known in the 
vegetable kingdom * * * exhibiting a surprising 
diversity in their flowers, in which their great beauty 
resides. The richness of colour, the elegance and 
variety of form, the delicacy of texture, or the minute 
microscopic perfection of their corolla (flower), are 
such as no words can describe. Lovely as even our 
wild moorland heaths are, they rank among the 
lowest in point of beauty in this extraordinary 
genus, in which all the hues of red, pink, and purple 
vie with each other in the most brilliant manner, 
assuming every tint but blue, and fading into the 
purest and most transparent white. Some of the 
species have the corolla as much as two inches long, 
in some it is not bigger than a peppercorn ; in 
some it is long and slender, in others inflated like a 
flask, or dilated like a vase of the purest form, or as 
round as an air bubble; and there are many in 
which it is split almost to its base, and immersed in 
a calyx (cup encircling the flower), of which the tex¬ 
ture and colour are even more brilliant than its own. 
Here, we have a species the surface of whose corolla 
rivals in evenness and polish the finest porcelain ; 
there, another appears covered all over with hairs, 
exuding a glutinous secretion, which glitters upon its 
sides like solid crystals ; and some, again, have their 
colours so dimmed by a loose shaggy coat, that their 
real tint can hardly be ascertained. There are even 
some in which the corolla assumes the very colour of 
the leaves, only clearer, brighter, and richer.” This 
beautiful and highly-wrought description, although 
the best ever written on the subject, falls short of 
the reality. It is from the pen of Dr. Lindley, under 
the head of “ Erica,” in the Penny Cyclopaedia— 
erica being the scientific name for the heath genus, 
and is a transformation of the Greek word ereiho, to 
break, as the heath is as brittle as glass. Many 
country gardeners make a sad mess of this name, by 
accenting the e instead of the i. 
Hear also what the late Mr. Loudon said on the 
beauty and elegance of the heath. “ Of what other 
genus can it be said that every species, without excep¬ 
tion, is beautiful throughout the year, and at every 
period of its growth ? in flower, or out of flower, and of 
every size and age ? Suppose an individual had the 
penance imposed upon him of being forbidden to cul¬ 
tivate more than one genus of ornamental plants, is 
there a genus that he could make choice of at all to 
be compared to erica? Perpetually green, perpetually 
in flower, of all colours, of all sizes, and of many 
shapes.” May The Cottage Gardener, therefore, 
without at first intending it, be the means of ex¬ 
tending the cultivation of this, one of the most 
elegant families of plants. 
Notwithstanding all • this diversity of form and 
colour in their flowers, and although there are 
between three and four hundred kinds of heaths in 
Eugland, they have all such a close family resem¬ 
blance, that if you know but one or two sorts, you 
may readily recognise all the rest at first sight. 
Greenhouse heaths are natives of the Cape of Good 
Hope; and although you may have heard from some 
pedantic traveller, that “ if you wish to see heaths in 
perfection, you must go (like him) to the Cape,” they 
are of all plants the most miserable and lialf-starved- 
looking in their own country, when compared with 
those under English cultivation. Nevertheless, it 
is hardly fifteen years since the best specimens of 
them, brought for competition to London, were not 
much better looking than those in the wilds of our 
Cape Colony. Scotland took the lead in growing 
heaths, and kept it for a quarter of a century. Mr. 
M‘Nab, the late lamented curator of the Edinburgh 
Botanic Garden, was the father of heath-growing in 
this kingdom ; for I lived next door to him when he 
stood alone in that department, and I have seen every 
heath that was exhibited for competition in London 
for the last fifteen years. Mr. M‘Nab wrote a pam- 
