THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 15, 1861. 
occupied during the summer, I wintered them in cold pits with 
shrubby Calceolarias and similar plants, but the present winter 
I have all the large plants out, and have no doubt but they will 
prove perfectly hardy. 
To such of the readers of The Cottage Gardener as may 
not be acquainted with it, I may say that it is merely a variegated 
form of one of the oldest alpine or perennial plants we have. I 
am not certain of its specific name, but assuredly “lucida” is 
improper. I see it advertised as Arabis caucasica variegata, a 
name expressive enough, though some botanical catalogues do 
not mention the species “ caucasica,” although several are from 
that elevated region. In common phrase it used to be Arabis 
alpinus, or A. albida, or sometimes A. prsecox. One of the 
earliest flowering herbaceous plants we have, with a loose umbel 
or spike of white flowers a foot high rising out of a spreading 
but compact-growing plant, with leaves inversely wedge- 
shaped, and their edges bluntly serrated. The foliage being a 
pale green, or, as botanists say, glaucous, gave the plant a pale 
appearance at all times, and the variegated form it has taken 
having, in a measure, dwarfed its growth, and made it still more 
compact, it now forms as close and dense a tuft of agreeably- 
shaped stems and foliage as does the garden Pink itself. The 
edging or marking of the leaf being of a pale yellow of about the 
same tint as that which gives colouring to the Flower of the Day 
Geranium, or, perhaps, a little more yellow; but it is for its 
compact growth that it is most to be recommended. 
An unbroken band of about three or four inches high may 
easily be had to surround any kind of bedding plants. I had 
several rows of it the past season, which have been amongst the 
most useful things in the garden. Two rows which formed the 
front edging of two ribbon-borders facing each other I have left 
in the ground, and they look remarkably well. Other plants I 
have taken up from their summer quarters and planted in beds 
in conspicuous places, where I have been accustomed to plant 
bulbs, Alyssum saxatile, Cheiranthus Marsh alii, Iberis gibraltica, 
&c., and as the plants lift as well as Calceolarias, or a patch of 
turf, I have no doubt but they will look well all the season. At 
present, the middle of December, they certainly look well, and 
they have been planted about six weeks. I fully expect it to be 
perfectly hardy. Some plants standing out with us the last two 
winters were not in the least hurt, but they were in a sheltered 
position, where Yerbenas, Calceolarias, &c., also live through the 
season. 
Not the least recommendation of this useful plant is the easy 
way in which it is propagated : side shoots or slips taken off 
in October, and put into a cold frame in the usual sandy soil 
that cuttings are struck in. Some hundreds that were so put in 
here have almost every one struck root, and have never had a 
covering of any kind yet, but in a general way I have treated 
them as 1 do Calceolaria cuttings, putting them in at the same 
time into a cold pit, over which some wooden shutters or old 
spare lights are placed in severe weather, and in early spring the 
Arabis flowers there; and I generally allow the flowering shoots 
to be fully developed and most of the florets fairly out before I 
cut them off, for to cut them earlier only induces the plant to 
send up more shoots, and consequently exhaust itself; whereas, 
by allowing them to attain a certain stage of growth, they may 
then be removed, and no more flowers are seen all the summer, 
and the plants grow into compact tufts from five to eight inches 
in f diameter, and in autumn may be taken up to ornament 
the beds now denuded of their summer flowering plants, at the 
same time affording a good supply of cuttings for another season ; 
or plants may be grown in some spare place for winter work, as I 
do in great numbers in the kitchen garden, and none promise to 
be more useful than this Arabis albida variegata, or whatever 
name it be decided to give it. The only English name to the 
original that I am acquainted with was, perhaps, a local, but 
certainly not a vulgar one, “ Marry me Quick,” and of its 
appropriateness to such a title, I leave younger people than 
myself to determine.—J. Robson. 
EXCLUDING COLD-SOWING CLIANTHUS 
DAMPIERI. 
I have just read Mr. Fish’s battle with the frost with interest, 
as I had just such an affair on a small scale in the October frost 
of 1859, and by covering a small greenhouse with mats and old 
carpet saved even Tropseolum elegans. A week after that gas 
made all safe. Having now moved to a district where the night 
supply is very weak, I have now got a hot-water apparatus 
(saddle boiler), which, as I go to bed at half-past ten o’clock, 
requires my attention to stir the fire about five, and sometimes 
to relight it. I should not mind this, but I am afraid my wife 
will soon lose her love for gardening if it entails striking a lucifer 
at such an hour. I make up my fire at night, according to Mr. 
Fish’s instructions in your last volume. When I make it with 
cinders it is slowly burning at eight o’clock next morning; but 
there is not heat enough in the pipes for the late weather; 
indeed, the thermometer registered 32* on Christmas morning. I 
have tried both coal and coke—the two mixed do best. As my 
carpet and such like coverings are not supposed to be picturesque, 
I have adopted thin tiffany lights, tacked inside each side light, 
and I fancy the enclosed air must keep back much cold, and 
appearances are not much disarranged. I have also tacked 
tiffany two feet down the ridge over one light, so that when the 
sun shines suddenly we can give air through it without much 
chill. I wish some plan could be devised to let me sleep till 
eight. Would placing loose bricks round the pipes under the 
stages store much heat ? I never kept my plants well till I read 
Mr. Fish’s article on “ Atmospheric Moisture.” I have damped 
the shelves nearly every day since fires became necessary, and in 
spite of the fall in temperature, have the Crystal Palace Scarlet 
Geranium blooming in sixties, Genista canariensis, Mignonette, 
Pompones, and a beautiful Cyclamen coum. Is it not early for 
the latter ? It was not housed till the frost arrived. 
I have just received seeds from abroad of Clianthus Dampieri. 
Is it worth growing ? When my thermometer showed 32“ 
Tropseolum elegans died close to the glass. Tropseolum Triomphe 
de Gand, up an arch, six feet only away, did not show the least 
distress ; indeed, it looks luxuriant, but has not opened a bloom 
this last month. 
I wonder, among furnishing shrubs for cold places, the Ivy 
called Algeriensis is not more grown. If neatly kept a better 
looking pot shrub cannot be.—H. B. 
[We should certainly scatter ideas of picturesqueness to the 
winds when the safety of our plants was concerned. We do 
not quite apprehend your mode of using the tiffany inside. 
Does it not shade too much in winter? It will have less effect 
in keeping out cold than if it were placed outside of the glass 
just as when placed inside in summer, it wortld keep out the 
light so far, but would not cool the house so well as when 
placed outside. We highly approve of your mode of giving air, 
after being sifted through the tiffany. It will act just as bene¬ 
ficially as placing a thin woollen cravat over your mouth when 
you go to the fire for your heating apparatus in these cold nights. 
We are also glad you have so much in bloom in this dreary 
weather, and on the whole everything going on so satisfactorily. 
We can assure you that such statements as yours make duties 
and efforts very light and pleasant. 
Your Tropseolum Triomphe de Gand will bloom when the 
sun gets stronger. The Clianthus Dampieri is a perfect gem. 
Steep the seeds in warm water for twenty-four hours—that is to 
say, get the water from 100° to 120°, and keep them at the fire¬ 
side in that heat, and then sow in a hotbed. If no hotbed, delay 
until April. 
Now for the chief affair. We do not know what to say, as we 
neither know the size of the house, the size of the boiler, nor the 
feet of pipe ; but we should like to be able to do something to pre¬ 
vent the result of Mrs. B. losing her love of gardening from your 
j umping out and into bed at all hours in a morning. It is not likely 
we shall have many nights like that of Christmas-eve,and now and 
then we are sure Mrs. B. would not mind, or you would not write 
in such good spirits—in fact, we have a strong suspicion that, like 
the first man, you are trying to throw the blame on Eve, and shift¬ 
ing your own dislike of getting out of a warm bed on a cold morn¬ 
ing upon the shoulders of your partner, who is thinking of nothing 
blit your comfort. We have not any great faith in placing bricks 
round the pipes, though they would do something. But as the 
furnace, when well banked up, was nicely alight at eight in the 
morning, we can only advise one of two things—either increase the 
pipes in the house, or in severe weather, by firing briskly in the 
afternoon and evening, have the pipes hotter by bedtime, and, of 
course, the house hotter by a few degrees than would be otherwise 
necessary, and then by banking up the fire, and regulating the 
damper and draught so as to secure slow combustion, there 
would be no danger of the house being too low in the morning. 
We have been rather surprised how little five heat has kept out 
frost. In all suspected cases of extra cold nights it is wise and 
good policy to have the houses comfortable before bedtime, For 
