) 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN S COMPANION, June 16, 1857. 
171 
the hardy variegated plants for edgings, as it is not every 
one who has pits for wintering variegated Geraniums, Ac. 
I have now in full flower a bed edged with the variegated 
variety of the Ajuga reptans, and nothing can exceed the 
beauty of the bright blue against the variegated leaves, and 
its low habit is quite in its favour as an edging. Another 
bed is edged with the golden variegated Daisy. 1 have had it 
for three years, and lind it increases rapidly, and makes a 
beautiful edge, even after, it has done flowering, and con¬ 
trasts well with lilac and blue. 
“ Now is the best time for dividing the Anemone Ajpennina, 
as it has just gone to rest. I do not wonder that the Tulipa 
sylvestris did not flower after being transplanted. Its habit 
is totally different from the garden Tulip. The bulb shoots 
out long threads horizontally; at the end of these the young 
bulbs are formed. They like a shady corner where they are 
not disturbed, and there will increase and flower for years. 
Raines, in his ‘ Flora of Yorkshire,’ speaks of it as ‘ in a field 
between Hentborpe and Sprotborough Broats, on the banks 
of the river Don, covering a considerable space, but flower¬ 
ing only sparingly.’ 
“ I have a blue, or rather, grey Polyanthus that flowers 
early and makes a good bed. It comes in well, after Cro¬ 
cuses and Snowdrops, with the double Polyanthus, or to take 
j the place of Hepaticas. Will you kindly inform me whether 
| it is good to cut .off the leaves of Hepaticas late in autumn, 
so that the old leaves may not interfere with the flowers in 
spring?”—Iv. W. 
chickens to keep them in health and good spirits. We have 
seen the golden variegated Daisy this spring being handed 
to the ladies in their own carriages at the London nurseries 
for eighteen pence per “ root ” in thumb pots. This Daisy 
must have escaped from the garden of Titania, the queen of 
the fairies; it is so like a flower from a fairy’s garden that 
one can never mistake it among mortals, and a new golden 
variegated Oxalis is very much like it. The grey Polyanthus 
is extremely scarce ; we never saw but one plant of it. The 
double dark Polyanthus grows with Mr. Jackson at Kingston 
as freely as a Cowslip. We have a Polyanthus from seeds 
this spring as yellow as a Buttercup. It will make an in¬ 
valuable edging to some of the spring beds.] 
The Pistol Plant.— A hothouse plant, Pilea allitrichoides, 
of tender, brittle, and juicy aspect, looking as if good to eat 
in a cooling salad, is really of so explosive a temperament 
that it might fairly be called the Pistol plant. When near 
flowering, and with its buds ready to open, if the plant is 
either dipped in water or abundantly watered each bud will 
explode successively, keeping up a mimic Sebastopol bom¬ 
bardment, sending forth a puff of smoke, or of dusty pollen, 
as its stamens suddenly start forth to take their place and 
form a cross. It is no novelty; but it is still an amusing 
toy .—(Sydney Morning Herald .) 
[The practice of cutting Hepatica leaves in September 
answers remarkably well with Mr. Low, of Clapton, who 
divides and pots them then to bloom under the stages of his 
| heatheries, and to sell as fast as any plants he grows. We 
saw last February a flower garden of the different kinds thus 
treated, and looking most capitally. 
Our correspondent affords a key to a problem in botany at 
last. The Florentine Tulip, Tulipa Jlore subnutante of the 
very old authors, and the English Tulip, Tulipa sylvestris of 
| modern authors, would thus appear to be as distinct from 
one another as the Tulip is from the Lily. The English 
Tulip makes surculi , or shoot roots, for colonising its progeny 
during its own lifetime. The Florentine and all other Tulips, 
as far as we know, do no such thing, but die and leave their 
offspring to dispute for the family hearth, and with a ball 
the gardener removes the whole family, hearth and all, at 
any period in the season of growth ; or, by placing a mark to 
indicate the hearth during the growing season, he can put 
his hands on it at any time of the rest season. Not so our 
English Tulip, as set forth by “ K. W.” * This fact kills ; 
two birds at one throw. It accounts for the reason why the , 
English Tulip must not be removed in growth, and it deter- j 
mines the specific difference in the nature of our Tulip 
from that of all others. 
Many of our fresh-water botanicals believe they possess j 
Sisyrinchium grandijiorum —a most difficult family of bulb- i 
; like plants to make out the kinds of—in the shape of an 
Ixia-like spring flower, with short scapes of pale blue 
flowers. It is nothing of the sort, however. Our corre¬ 
spondents plant is very different and quite true, a dark j 
purple, and nearly as big as a Snowdrop, a most valuable 
spring flower. The variegated Bugle, Ajuga reptans , we 
never saw, and there is a white and a red-flowering 
kind of it equal strangers to us. Ajuga pyramidalis 
is the greatest weed among luub Grass in the Highlands, j 
but no animal will touch it. Luub is the natural meadoiv ! 
there, and is the same as oasis in the desert. Adonis j 
vemalis makes a pretty patch in or out of flower, no other 
plant being then like it in the leaves. Caltlui paluslris Jlore 
plena would seem to want the same cultivation as Water- 
cresses—yes, sure enough; but Water-cresses are far better, 
and ten times more wholesome, and free from the eggs 
of dragon-flies and water-ants—when grown in a good rich j 
bed in the kitchen garden, far away from water and all 
manner of slops, and so with the double and single Calthas. 
The double Gardamine is one of those lady-like natives which 
all admire, and is the best' food in the world for spring 
* This is not a new discovery. Sir W. Hooker, in his Flora Londi- 
nensis, states, on the authority of the late Mr. Ker, that the bulbs of 
Tulipa sylvestris send out lateral shoots of a considerable length, forming 
new bulbs at their extremity. Sir J. E. Smith also records the fact, and j 
observes, “ Nothing can be more distinct as a species.”— Ed. C. G. 
A NOTICE OF SOME SPECIES OF RHODO¬ 
DENDRON INHABITING BORNEO. 
When Mr. Hugh Low returned from his visit to Borneo 
he was so obliging as to place in my hands some drawings 
and dried specimens of certain species of Rhododendron 
which occur in that island growing upon trees . They are 
found to be very distinct from all previously known, and in 
many respects so deserving of notice that it has been thought 
advisable to prepare the following short memorandum con- | 
cerning them. 
In Mr. Low’s account of Sarawak + they are spoken of 
thus:— 
“ Perhaps the most gorgeous of the native plants are the 
various species of the genus Rhododendron, which here 
assume a peculiar form, being found epiphytal upon the 
trunks of trees, as in the genera of the tribe Orchidacere. 
This habit, induced probably by the excessive moisture ot \ 
the climate, is not, however, confined to the Erieaceous ; 
plants, but also prevails with the genera Fagraea, Oom- 
bretum, and many others, usually terrestrial. The roots of j 
the Rhododendrons, instead of being, as with the species, 
inhabitants of cold climates, small and fibrous, become 
large and fleshy, winding round the trunks of the forest 
trees. The most beautiful one is that which I have named 
in compliment to Mr. Brooke. Its large heads of flowers are 
produced in the greatest abundance throughout the year. 
They must exceed in size that of any known species, fre¬ 
quently being formed of eighteen flowers, which are ot all 
shades, from pale and rich yellow to a rich reddish salmon 
colour. In the sun the flowers sparkle with a brilliancy 
resembling that of gold dust. 
“ Four other species which I discovered are very gorgeous, 
but of different colours, one being crimson and the other i 
red, and the third a rich tint between these two. Of the 
fourth I have not yet seen the flowers. Besides the curious 
nature of the root above noticed, botanists may learn that 
these species differ from others of the genus in having very 
small, almost imperceptible calyces, and caudal appendages 
to the seeds, these last greatly facilitating the attainment of 
a situation favourable for their growth.”—p. 6)5. 
The peculiar habit ascribed to these plants of forming j 
large fleshy stocks, instead of the fine fibrous roots proper j 
to the Azaieas and Rhododendrons at present in cultivation, 
is also met with in the kindred Cranberries ( Vacciniacae) 
of South America, among which several Thibaudias may be 
named. The epiphytal character has, indeed, been observed 
•(• Sarawak; its Inhabitants and Productions , &c. By Hugh Low, 
Colonial Secretary at Labuh-an. 
