364 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 19, 1861. 
We represent so many varieties of tastes, that anything 
we recommend must be of the character of “ what every - 
body says,” and “what everybody says must be true.” 
Well, I allude to a very bright variegated plant from a 
very old bedder, the Blue African Daisy, alias Cineraria 
amelloides, but the lawful name is Agathea or Agathaa 
ccelestis, and the name cf the new variegated edging is 
Agathcea ccelesiis foliis variegatis; but, of course, Mr. 
Bull would sell it by the more common name—Variegated 
Cineraria amelloides, and no doubt it will soon be in the 
hands of every nurseryman in the three kingdoms who 
deals in bedding plants, and in assortments lor ribbons 
and shaded-wool-fancy plant-borders. 
For those who may not know the Blue African Daisy 
itself, it may be right to say, that it is a low spreading 
plant, more easy to strike than a Verbena, and just as 
good to keep over the winter as any one of the Fuchsias. 
It was shown last season at the Regent’s Park in full 
bloom, and will, probably, bloom as freely as the parent 
plant—that is, from May to October. But it is from the 
habit and from the whiteness of the variegation that it 
will become everybody’s plant, and it was from these 
characters that we were unanimous in our verdict in its 
favour. 
Arabis variegata. —I have traced this plant to its 
origin at last. I had conversations with two thoroughly 
good British botanists respecting it. One of them has 
specimens of all the family from all the places where the 
plants have been found growing wild. Both assured me 
there is no natural difference between Arabis alpina 
prtecox, and alba; but that a larger-flowering variety of 
it was on sale about London twenty years back called 
Arabis grandiflora ; and both say prgecox ought certainly 
to be the best name to retain as being the truest—that is 
to say, the earliest Arabis to bloom in the spring, that 
most of the genus are alpine plants, and that to call one 
alpina in preference to another is like the old name 
fragrans given to, perhaps, the least fragrant plant of 
a family. Then as to alba, which is a published specific 
name for a particular form or plant of alpina, it is more 
untenable than alpina, as all those alpine plants have 
white flowers. It seems to me, therefore, in a popular 
and very practical work like The Cottage Gardener, 
that we should not puzzle our brains with all this hair¬ 
splitting of botanists, but go at it like sober men of 
business, and in this instance to hold to the variegated 
Arabis as we do to the variegated Alyssum and variegated 
Mint—without the specific name at all. The variegated 
amelloides would be the best practical name for Mr. 
Bull’s new treasure. When a young gardener has to 
come out with three or four Latin names before a lady for 
a common-looking plant, he is set down for a coxcomb 
without a prize or a prince’s feather for his bonnet, as, 
perhaps, he had expected for his learning. The tom¬ 
fooleries of changing so many names, and of multiplying 
crackjawed jargon for no earthly end than sheer pedantry, 
has done a world of harm to gardening and gardeners 
among the ladies. Another thing which does almost as 
much harm the other way is the excess of names in all 
garden catalogues, which puzzle ten times more than 
they teach. 
Another subject which attracted the liveliest interest 
in our Committee was a collection of twenty varieties of 
Yeio, contributed by Mr. William Paul, of the Cheshunt 
[Nurseries, and a paper which he read to us on the ways 
they might best be planted for effect. He divided them 
into four groups—the spreading Yews, as the common 
Yew; the upright ones, as the Irish Yew ; the weeping 
ones, as the half spreading, half weeping Dovastoni; 
and the variegated Yews, as foliis aureis and elegantis- 
simus. The most beautiful of these for terrace gardens 
is an upright kind called Cheskuntensis, and is as different 
from the Irish and other Yews as an Epacris is from a 
Heath—a free grower, and as upright as strictaor erecta, 
or any of that class as Mr. Crowder, of Horncastle’s, 
new Yew, but different from it and a seedling from the 
Irish Yew. 
When The Cottage Gardener is enlarged, I hope 
the Editors will find room to give extracts from the 
reports of such interesting subjects from the “ Proceed¬ 
ings ” of both the Fruit and Floral Committees; for 
they are of great practical value, and it would only be 
helping the endeavours of the Society to give such reports 
the advantage of our circulation, just as the nurserymen 
are now doing who send collections of gay flowers merely 
to be looked at by visitors, and so help on the good work 
in which we are all engaged. The more these things are 
done before the great patrons of gardening, the more 
enjoyment, the more trade, and the more work for 
gardeners. 
The Society’s garden and the Wellington Hoad Nur¬ 
sery, with some more minor contributions, made up the 
bulk of this gathering at the Floral Committee ; and 
when the whole were arranged from both Committees, 
fruits and flowers, the sight was well worth seeing. 
The Cyclamens from the Wellington Nursery were 
very gay : the little Iris reticulata in the same collection 
was very sweet and coming so early, and before the 
dwarf Crimean sorts very desirable. In the same col¬ 
lection were three fine plants of Imatophyllum miniatum 
in full bloom, one of them having seventeen flowers in 
one truss; also the lively Rhododendron jasminiflorum ; 
also Musenda frondosa, Clerodendron viscosum—a white 
fragrant flower, with Cosmelia rubra and others of less 
note. ^ 
Mr. Davis, from near Bristol, sent a beautiful cross 
Rhododendron between the Sikkim fimbriata and the 
old sempervirens—the earliest of the race, both hardy 
parents ; the offspring a light rosy or lilacy flower of the 
same shape as that of ciliatum, but reduced in size by 
the pollen parent. This Rhododendron can be had for 
the conservatory without forcing in February, and, being 
everybody’s plant, is far more valuable to the community 
than the later kinds that induced us to give it a hand¬ 
some lift with a prize. 
There are three kinds of flowers on which we bestow 
our favours ungrudgingly on three different grounds. 
Any flower, no matter how common it looks, if it is 
likely to be of universal use—as this Rhododendron, that 
variegated amelloides, and the old forgotten Saxifraga 
oppositifolia. The next is anything really good out of 
the common run, and which country cousins would call 
an extraordinary cross or new comer from abroad; and 
the third any good improvement on a real florist’s fancy. 
This is the first time and opportunity in the history of 
the Horticultural Society for having the assistance of 
real practical florists, and we mean to profit by it in 
earnest. Botany, and bands, and Rose-edgings, with the 
profundity of the rotundity in form and shape, could 
never hitherto have amalgamated their “ orders ” and 
“points;” nor could they now were it not for this new 
terrace garden, which is to revive the best feelings of 
both parties on the same level by the rule and compasses. 
We hope to prove thus that town gardens, and gardens 
of limited extent, are not only much more attractive 
when made on the terrace model, but also more likely to 
bring the crooked heads and wavy notions, the cross- 
grained logs, the round stumps of ancient trees and green 
saplings, out of the category of ruins and clashing con¬ 
trast, and unite them all in one whole, even as the sward, 
and varied as its surface and its inclinations. 
D. Beaton. 
FRAGRANCE OF CAMELLIA TRICOLOR. 
A snOET time ago I was standing in company with Camellias 
imbricata alba, Lady Hume’s Blush, and the Countess of Elles¬ 
mere. We were all in bloom, when one morning the servant 
that waits upon us made a sudden pause and addressed us thus :— 
“ You are beautiful, and if you possessed fragrance also, I should 
