316 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 26, 1861. 
oculata nana, if you get it true, is really a fine annual 
and a lasting one—it is only one-half the height of 
oculata, and the same colours, are, or were, in that dull 
season much brighter. CEnothera bistorta Yeitchiana is 
a beautiful rich yellow flower, even in this family; but 
the plant is a dead failure, being a bad grower and liable 
to die or look sickly in such a season. A new ClarTcia 
called joulchella pulclierrima (the oddest name in all 
our books except the Spanish bulb Lapiedra, the English 
of which is Stone-stone bulb). This “ Pretty Prettiest 
Clarkia,” is the best of them all after the white and 
purple old ones. There were some pretty varieties of 
the old Chrysanthemum tricolor. Burridgeanum and 
venustum were the best of them, but they are not yet 
sufficiently fixed in their new markings to be trusted to, 
or else the wet weather caused them to sport back. I 
thought the truest of them might pay to be kept by 
cuttings, as, if one had a row of them true in front of a 
row of Dahlias, at the back of a ribbon-border, it would 
form one of the best lines we have so far from the eye. 
Bedding Geraniums were very numerous, but not in a 
condition to be strictly judged, and, like first attempts, 
there were no means of comparing kinds to arrive at the 
synonymes, or second names—as, for instance, to see 
what the difference, if any, between Lady Middleton and 
Trentham Pose, and so on through all the sections. As 
far, however, as cur means supplied, a very good report 
on them has been made by our Secretary, Mr. Moore, 
who has a famous knack of comparative anatomy in the 
matter of variations in flowers. We had none like him 
in that line since Mr. Sabine died; but he is less 
botanical, and more popular in his descriptions than Mr. 
Sabine was, and without a spark of pedantry. But, as 
in Lobelias, there is nothing new to report in Gera¬ 
niums to the readers of The Cottage Gardener, that 
they have not had over and over again, save a few recent 
seedlings chiefly from abroad, and these are more for pot 
culture than for beds. Tom Thumb is discarded in 
favour of the Crystal Palace Scarlet, which had eight 
claimants, and eight different names to support their 
presumptive evidence that each respectively was the 
lucky raiser of it. The name it is to bear in the books 
of the Society is not yet finally determined upon; but 
being the best of the breed of the Erogmore Scarlet, the 
balance lies in favour of calling it the Improved Frogmore, 
in order to discard all others which appeared under that 
name since 1830—a good idea, but is sure to lead to 
more confusion with that name. Punch is down where 
he always was, Christine the same, Baron Hugel ditto, 
Harkaway the same, and so on with them all, without a 
single change from our own pages, and not nearly so 
many kinds as have been on our lists. But as there is 
now a fail* field open in Chiswick Garden to determine 
the relative merits of new seedlings, I shall not take one 
more into the Experimental Garden from strangers, 
without the old fee of five guineas for proving each 
seedling. At the same time I offer my very best thanks 
to all those who enabled me to keep my head above 
water while the Horticultural Society was going through 
the new hot-air furnace. 
In propagation we are threatened with a second 
edition of Mr. Forsyth’s Hilogie system of bottom heat 
by hot-air chambers. But upon a small scale I know of 
no better contrivance yet than the Waltonian Case. Mr. 
Walton himself has had it at work for the last month, 
and at the bottom of his garden is his stable and coach¬ 
house, and a large smoking heap of dung in the muck- 
pie corner; yet lie and his gardener still hold to the Case 
in preference to a hotbed of dung so early, and which 
they could so easily have with no expense, although he 
has one of the largest, if not really the largest, garden in 
h,i i!f n ’ w ^ ere gardens now count by the hundred. But 
Mr. West, the manufacturer of the Waltonian Case, has 
left us, and is gone down to Winchester, as you see in 
his advertisement. The last time I saw Mr. West lie 
told me he had got a large stock of them ready for im¬ 
mediate delivery, and he had sent some to Hew York 
last summer to my own knowledge. Propagation will be 
more busy this spring than it has been for a long time. 
Buses alone will need double the usual run of spring work, 
owing to so much destruction by the frost. 
I never heard of so much damage done among Boses, 
and yet about here we have scarcely lost one. La 
Marque is safe; Gloire de Dijon is a robust runner on 
the walls, more like a Sempervirens than a Tea. But the 
best garden for Tea Boses near me is scarcely six feet 
above the level of the Thames, the bottom is wet, and no 
fruit tree lives longer in health than its roots reach the 
water below, which cannot be drained for want of a fall; 
the soil is black sand, which the winds blow about in hot 
seasons, and yet Tea and all the more tender Boses on 
their own roots hardly ever lose a shoot, and this winter 
they have no deaths there, but some of the kinds are very 
much hurt. But I recollect Bosa odorata, the very first 
Tea-scented Bose in England, and the day it came out. 
I have seen it propagated in hotbeds in the spring just 
as freely as Bobinson’s Defiance will be struck this spring. 
I made a bed of it myself just two and thirty years since 
come next May ; but it was both a tender grower and of a 
delicate constitution, so that slight frosts used to damage 
it much, and we had to work off so many of it by cuttings 
every spring to keep up appearances. How, if I had so 
much stable dung as I see going smoking to waste with 
Mr. Walton, I would make up a bed of it to-morrow, or 
with it and one-half dried leaves, for forcing Boses to 
make young shoots to strike as freely as Verbenas. I 
would up with some of the dead topped Boses, and try 
what the heat could drive out of their roots for me to 
strike from, and the tops, if I could just get three clear 
joints for a cutting, or two joints if that were long 
enough, could not be too young for the purpose ; but, of 
course, one would need to know what he was at to be 
able to strike such sucklings, and a Waltonian, with the 
air inside it kept half moist and half dry, would effect 
it better than a muck-bed in most hands not used to 
ihe work. Then my next bed would be for striking 
Boses without making cuttings of them as I described 
ast week, and for that a wooden shutter over my cutting- 
box would be quite as good as the best glass. Give me 
the box, the bed, the shutters, and the longest shoots of 
your best Boses, and if I do not root every eye of them 
I could tell the reason “ why for not.” D. Beaton. 
The Oldest Tree, the age of which is historically 
determined, is the sacred Fig tree of Anarajapoura, in Ceylon. It 
was planted by Divinipiatissa, in the year 288 B.C.; and its history 
rom that date is preserved by a mass of docimrentary and tra¬ 
ditional evidence. It has been described by the Chinese timelier, 
Fa Hiam, in the year 414, and by the earliest Europeans who 
visited it. It still flourishes, and is an object of worship to the 
Buddhists. 
SOWIHG TOM THUMB TBOPHIOLUM FOB 
A BIBBON-BOBDEB, 
hattrandya barclayana and lophosperhuh scan dens 
FOR BALLOON TRAINING. 
I intend having a long, narrow border of the new Tom 
Thumb Tropseolum planted ribbon style. Now, whether would 
t be better to sow in the open air on the border where they are 
to flower, or to sow in a frame with heat or without heat ? In 
(ither case, what is the proper time for sowing ? 
Would Maurandya Barclayana and Lophospermum scandens 
answer for covering small balloons about 2 feet high ? or would 
hey grow too strong ?— Paul Ricaut. 
[The end of March is full time to sow Tom Thumb Tropseo- 
um.8 in-doors, and the 10th of April, or the week in which that 
day stands, is the best time to sow Tom Thumb out of doors. 
All kinds of the common Nasturtiums, of which these Toms are 
but one, do, and always did, infinitely better from open air 
owings than by any other means. Even the seeds of 
