31 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 16, 1860. 
"been the work of tlie seedmongers, perhaps of cross¬ 
breeders ; but who could tell the thing would not and 
could not be made to bloom anyhow P That plant is 
Tacsonia ignea of nursery catalogues. It has flowered at 
last this summer, in the large house, the winter garden, 
of the Messrs. Rollisson, at Tooting, where it continued 
in bloom for two months, and from which I heard of it 
only by chance. A good practical gardener who had seen 
it, however, told me it was a capital plant, and belongs to 
the second section of Tacsonias—that without a tube to 
the flower, like manicata. That was all I could learn of 
it. My informant had never seen manicata in bloom, 
and very few gardeners have yet seen it in that condition, 
strange as it may sound : thei’efore, he could not compare 
it with it's like to me, or say which of the two was the 
best, or whether they are both best, but from his de¬ 
scription I can infer it to be a seedling from manicata. 
Ten years since, my successor at Shrubland Park had 
the three Tacsonias in bloom out on a conservatory- 
wall about the end of this month, all inarched on Tac¬ 
sonia mollissima; and anywhere the three would bloom 
just as freely as the common blue Passion-Flower if they 
were done the right way. Their nature is quite different 
from the Passion-Flowers in common use, but there are 
three sections of the family of Passionworts besides 
Tacsonias, which have the very nature of Tacsonias, and 
all these will never bloom, with the exception of Tacsonia 
mollissima, if the place is three degrees warmer than their 
nature requires. They are so excitable as to run to 
wilding growth at the least extra to their own free 
upland climate in the next zone above the region of the 
Passion-Flowers proper. Mollissima will bloom freely 
in-doors or out of doors in a temperature ranging from 
| 40° to 60°. Pinnatistipula will not bear with impunity 
a degree above 48° or 50° in-doors. The red spider can 
hardly be kept from it in a light, airy house, and none of 
them are fit subjects for pot culture, so as to be able to 
move them from house to house, or from under glass to 
open wall. Manicata is as free from insects, under all 
conditions, as mollissima; but, like pinnatistipula, the least 
extra heat sets it off a-growing any month in the year, 
and it never blooms but in a low temperature, under 50 Q 
in a clear house ; but out in the open air it blooms just as 
freely as pinnatistipula, and both bloom quite as freely 
there as mollissima does in-doors. What they all want, 
after out-of-door growth, and while making their summer 
growth, is exemption from all kinds and modes of pruning 
or stopping. The stopping of a small side-shoot of 
manicata in July, or if one gets broken by poking its 
point between the trellis and the wall, the plant will not 
bloom that season, or not till very late in the autumn. 
Pomologists believe that there is a point at which the 
breast-wood shoots of luxuriant Pear trees trained would 
“ break their heart,” or their pride, or their overplus of 
strength, and become fruitful, provided always there was 
a headway found for their spread; but no such idea has 
ever run in a practical head which understood Tacsonias 
in reference to them. You might run them round the 
Crystal Palace four times, and yet be as far from their 
limit as the poles are asunder, if the heat is a few degrees 
above 50°; and yet in the open air 90° of day heat, and 
if from 60° to 70° at night, are not one degree too many for 
them. They are neither to be subdued, like most plants, 
by a stint of water at the roots, during the height of their 
growth—that will only make them an easier prey for the 
spider. 
Bearing these simple facts in mind, I wish I could excite 
some of our younger spirits to the successful blooming of 
these most beautiful climbers. Manicata and ignea being 
the best or richest in bloom, mollissima the best stock to 
graft or inarch them upon. Worked plants of them bloom 
more easily than on their own roots, and pinnatistipula is 
the most liable to the spider. There is no way so good 
for them as the old plan of planting next the ends or 
front of a house, to be wintered in the lowest temperature 
for Heaths, and to be taken outside in May for training 
and blooming in the open air till Christmas, if we had no 
more than 5° of frost, which never hurt them if they are 
in that position. 
Some years since I offered a donkey for a cross of 
Unique Geranium of a particular stamp. Mr. Judd, of 
Althorp Park Gardens, fairly won the beast; but he 
refused to take it. I suppose he thought it too slow for 
the times. Well, Tacsonias are too fast; and the first 
who will show me in bloom manicata and this ignea, 
which bloomed at Tooting last June, shall have the 
donkey, and a ride to the pinnacle of fame too on my 
winged Pegasus. D. Beaton. 
CYPRIPEDIUMS. 
Mr. Appleby would oblige if, in addition to his valuable 
papers on “ Hardy Orchideous Plants,” he would state where they 
can be procured. I want the following Cypripediums and cannot 
get them anywhere :—Cypripedium candidum, C. guttatum, 
C. purpuratum, C. ventricosum. I have also on my list, but 
not named by Mr. Appleby, C. album (perhaps candidum), 
C. Atsmori, C. humile (perhaps acaule). I had, this last summer, 
C. epectabile, with seven blooming stems and two flowers on 
each of four of the stems. Would that be thought a good plant ? 
—A. R. 
[I fear our correspondent will not be able to procure any 
of the above Cypripediums in this country. Cypripedium Atsmori 
and C. guttatum seven years ago were cultivated in the Belgian 
gardens, and in Van Houtte’s nursery at Ghent. Probably they 
are there yet, and if so, might be easily got from thence. At the 
same time the others might be inquired for. C. Atsmori is a 
native of Japan, and was introduced by Dr. Yan Siebold in 1830, 
to Belgium. The C. guttatum is a native of Siberia and North 
America. 
The plant of Cypripedium spectabile that our correspondent 
flowered last summer with seven flower-stems, four of which had 
two flowers on each of them, he may consider as a good specimen, 
though I have seen a plant with upwards of a dozen flower- 
stems, bearing in the aggregate more than twenty blooms. 
C. album is a variety of C. spectabile, and C. humile is C. acaule, 
and not a distinct species. 
As hardy Orchids may, probably, be now in demaud, any of 
our nurserymen that possess plants of them, should both advertise 
them and put them in their catalogues.—T. Appleby.] 
BROMBOROUGH POOL WORKS’ 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
This is a Society, now in its sixth year, established for the 
purpose of encouraging a love of gardening, and, as a conse¬ 
quence, a love of home and a good supply of wholesome vegetables, 
among the workmen of a private company. That company is 
known as “ Price’s Candle Manufactory,” and the Bromborough 
Pool Works have been established near Birkenhead for the pre¬ 
paration of some part of their candle-making materials. Some 
years since we had to eulogise the efforts made by Mr. Wilson, 
the Company’s indefatigable and right-minded, and right-hearted 
manager, to foster a love of gardening, cricket, and other bene¬ 
ficial employments of their leisure, among the boys and men at 
the Lambeth manufactory ; and ter the same mind and heart the 
Bromborough Pool Horticultural Society owes its birth. 
We enter fully into details concerning it because we believe 
that many masters of manufactories, and many incumbents of 
country parishes, will gladly make an effort in the same direction 
when they see the beneficial results and the steps to be taken for 
attaining them. 
The Society is managed by a Committee of nine of the work¬ 
men. They have two shows annually; one in June and one in 
August. 
“The subscription is 2s. per annum, or 6d. quarterly, for men 
employed in the factory; and Is. per annum for boys. These 
subscriptions must be paid for the whole year. They will admit 
to competition in all the classes, and will entitle the subscriber 
and two friends to free admission at each show. 
“The articles for exhibition must be sent to the show-room 
in the boxes and baskets provided by the Committee, and not 
