THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 9 , 1857 
155 
The second fact was the finding in a country nursery 
so great a number of fine-grown specimens of various 
sizes of all the more valuable hard-wooded plants, as 
Azaleas, Ericas, Boronias, Aphelexes, Pimeleas, Erio- 
stemons, Polygalas, &c., and also many of the most prized 
variegated and line-leaved plants. Beautiful small spe¬ 
cimens of Heaths, &c., were just being potted, and the 
whole stock, from the largest specimens to tiny things 
in thumb and 60-sized pots, were in healthy luxuriance. 
There were comparatively few bedding plants, which 
many country nurserymen find so remunerative, on the 
principle of quick returns and small profits, though beds 
of the principal bedding plants were to be seen. The 
chief space under glass, however, is given to plants of a 
more permanent character, and Mr. Cutbush seems 
satisfied with the path he has chalked out for himself; 
and there can be no doubt that, if it be sufficiently re¬ 
munerative, there is a great amount of pleasure in looking 
day after day on the opening beauties of such fine 
specimens. 
As merely a few examples of these I may mention a 
neat little plant of the Genetyllis Hoolieriana, with its 
reddish, claret-like flowers hanging at the points of.the 
shoots ; fine plants of various Pimeleas, including spec- 
tabilis and spectabilis rosea; a fine plant of Rhynco- 
spermum jasminoides just coming into bloom ; many fine 
Azaleas; a Statice Holdfordii about four feet across, and 
having about thirty trusses of its pretty blue flowers ; 
many fine symmetrical Polygalas of different varieties 
in bloom, and coming on; beautiful pyramidal plants 
of the various Eriostemons, including a dense, broad, 
pyramidal bush of Eriostemon buxifolium, some four 
feet in height and four feet in diameter; a Boronia 
tetrandra, loaded with well-coloured flowers, and fully 
four feet in height and four feet in diameter, and several 
beautiful Aphelexes, well bloomed, and averaging three 
feet and a half in height by three feet and a half in 
diameter. Among smaller well-grown plants I noticed 
the Oxylobium Osbornii, well worth growing, and a 
Pleroma eleyans just swelling its flower-buds. Mr. Cut- 
bush said the best way to manage this rather fickle 
plant was to grow it pretty freely in summer when 
finished flowering, harden the wood well in autumn, 
starve it considerably by a low temperature and compa¬ 
rative dryness in winter, and when starting it in spring 
give it a fillip with increased temperature and moisture 
at the roots and in the atmosphere, and almost every 
side-shoot then made would come with its flower-buds 
near the point. 
Among Ericas I noticed a large plant of fastiyiata 
lutescens; the almost continuous bloomer, mutabilis; the 
sweet-scented suaveolens, pallida , and odorata; Beau- 
montia; a beautiful plant of MacNabiana; and a gem 
of Hartnelli , some three feet and a half in height and 
three feet and a half in diameter, the blooms well 
coloured, and the branches and blooms just thick enough 
to permit light to play a little between them, so as to 
secure more elegance and health combined than if they 
had been more thickly studded. 
Among variegated plants were good specimens of 
Galadium bicolor splendens, rubicaule , the rar e picturatum, 
and the large, white, blotched-leaved pictum; also the 
large, very singular-leaved Beyonias, Thwaitesii, Reichen- 
heimi, and marmorata; a large bush of the purple- 
shaded Maranta zebrina, which requires shade to bring 
out its beauties; a sweet plant of Maranta reyalis; 
Dracana terminalis and ferrea; Ananassasativa,varieyata, 
and Penanyensis; and Aspidistra lurida. I do not recol¬ 
lect seeing any Crotons , but there was a charming bush 
of the variegated Hydrangea, and almost demonstrating 
the fact that though it will grow well enough in a green¬ 
house, yet to have it in fine order, with the leaves nearly 
of a shining white, it does not dislike the closer atmo¬ 
sphere of a plant stove. In the end of one of these 
stove houses was a small wooden box covered with a 
sash, and in that box were growing most of the beautiful 
Ancectochilus, and the almost as beautiful and rather 
more hardy Physurus, all showing by their healthy 
appearance that they relished the treatment they were 
receiving. Mr. Beaton lately presented us with some 
valuable memoranda as to the propagation and treatment 
of these wonderful-leaved plants. Had I the chance of 
trying, I should be tempted to use a glass case like Mr. 
Cutbush, instead of covering each plant with a largo 
bellglass. One of the most striking green-foliaged plants 
was a Philodendron , I forget its specific name, but some* 
what resembling an Arum or a gigantic Caladium, the 
young leaves of which when unfolding are not only most 
interesting, but the large, full-sized leaves are equally so, 
from having a great many perfect oval holes or openings 
of various sizes, furnishing no bad idea for a flower 
garden of ovals. 
Though neatness and convenience have been closely 
studied, yet economy in the construction of the houses, &c., 
is also everywhere apparent. Let us look, for instance, 
at the largest house, where most of the finest specimens 
are now placed. This house is span-roofed, forty feet 
long, twenty-three feet wide, fifteen feet in height from 
the floor to the ridge board; side walls four feet 
in height; ends above that height, all glass; a three- 
feet-wide shelf nearly all round the house, but no stage 
in the centre, as this was not deemed necessary, and all 
suitably heated with hot-water pipes. And what do our 
readers imagine this huge barn of a house cost ? Just 
fifty pounds. To be sure there is no great elegance of 
workmanship displayed, but then all seems durable, 
clean, neat, and fit and suitable for the purposes con¬ 
templated. The whole woodwork is larch, with the 
exception of four oak posts at the corners. Larch posts 
support the wall-plates. Sawn larch boards form the 
sides of the houso. Fifteen-inch boards from the wall- 
plate downwards are fixed on hinges as ventilators. 
Below them to the ground the boards are covered with 
asphalt felt to keep them dry and the house warm. A 
ventilator fifteen inches in width goes along one side of 
the ridge board, opened and shut by a rod and windlass. 
A thin board forms the ridge board. Against that, and 
opposite each other, the sash-bar rafters are fixed at the 
apex, and of course the other end is .fixed to the wall- 
plate. These sash-bar rafters are placed so as to receive 
glass fourteen inches wide; each rafter is four inches 
deep and an inch and a half wide. The whole of the 
woodwork was merely sawn, not planed, and when well 
dried and seasoned was painted with stone coloured, anti¬ 
corrosive paint. Three larch poles in the centre gave a 
stay to the roof. A small saddle-backed boiler and a 
sufficiency of piping, as well as the slate shelves, were 
all included in the i£50. 
I will mention another very useful little house, as, 
under various modifications as to size, &c., it would be 
very useful to many of our amateur friends. This house 
is more finished in the usual way, the rafter sash-bars- 
being much smaller, planed, and painted. The house is 
span-roofed, forty-seven feet long, twelve feet wide, height 
to ridge about seven feet, height of brick side walls five 
feet, ventilators in the side walls, and glass ventilators 
at the ridge, the rest of the roof fixed, doorway in the 
centre of one end, walk down the middle, sparred 
wooden platform on each side, a few iron rods on side of 
pathway to support the roof. The whole cost, including 
heating by hot water, T60. In the main outlines-this 
house somewhat resembles a house at Hitchin Gasworks 
Nursery, only the latter is heated by a flue in the centre, 
and has earth platforms at the sides for the plants. The 
present house would cost more; but then, for an amateur, 
the space on each side of the pathway beneath the plat¬ 
form would be exceedingly useful for storing away the 
hardier bedding plants and many other things in winter. 
