THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 25, 1857. 325 | 
cuttings like Dahlias, they do better for private use 
than by any other method. 
Mr. Donald gives me tlie following estimate of Ver¬ 
benas as the result of a trial of sixty-four kinds this 
season in Hampton Court gardens:— 
“ Mrs. Holford. —White. This is perhaps the best of 
its class both for growth and flower. 
Mrs. Hosier Williams. —Another good white. This 
has not done so well with us as the above. 
White Perfection. —Old, but still may be considered a 
good bedder. 
Conqueror of Europe. —Lilac. Individually this is 
not much, but in a mass we have few or none of that 
colour to equal it. 
Purple King. — A very great improvement on Emma, 
being much more compact, and forming a better bed. 
Andre. —Blue, growing very strongly, and therefore 
well adapted to poor soil. Trusses very large. 
Lord Raglan.— Crimson ; the best of its class in every 
respect. 
Blue Bonnet. —Light blue; very good. This is apt to 
become yellow in the leaves in dry weather. Purple 
King is sometimes to be found under this name. 
Eliza Cook. —Bright rose. This is very old, but I 
know of no Verbena that will stand the sun like this. 
Where Wonderful, Annie Laurie, Nosegay, Florence 
Nightingale, Beaute de la Francais, and a host of others 
which might be enumerated would be burnt up, Eliza 
Cook will be in perfection. 
Qeant des Batailles. —Rich dark scarlet. This is very 
good, and may form a bed in the flower garden for some 
years. 
Mederic. —I think this will prove to be an improve¬ 
ment on King of Scarlets, being a better grower. 
Standard Bearer. —Comparatively new. My plants 
are not in a very good state to judge by; still I am 
inclined to think this will prove to be a good variety, 
especially if it stands the sun, which, being blue with 
a large white eye, is rather doubtful in one sense. 
Jean.- —Almost white, with a pink eye; flowers rather 
small, but in great profusion, which renders it a very 
cheerful bed. 
Defiance. —This is very old. Mrs. W'oodroffe is no 
improvement on it, nor do I think we have one in that 
class equal to it; yet it may be compared to Tom 
Thumb Geranium. It grows well on any soil, and 
everybody knows it. 
Commander in Chief. —This is a very great improve¬ 
ment on Beauty Supreme in every respect. 
Matchless. —Self blue. This with me will take the 
place of Ariosto next year.” D. Beaton. 
SHORT CULTURAL NOTES FOR WINDOW 
GARDENERS. 
(Continued from page 294.) , 
Genista Canaeiensis. —Treat, as respects soil, Ac., as 
Coronilla or Cytisus. 
Gesneea zebeina. —This beautiful plant does well in a 
window from September to the end of October, protected 
from the sun’s rays by a muslin curtain, and with but little 
air given ; but it requires a close, warm, moist place to 
bring the plants on after the tubers have started, until they 
approach the flowering period. 'Without a frame or pit of 
some sort it would be vain trying to grow it, though it would 
bloom well in a window, and the roots may be kept securely 
in a kitchen cupboard. Seeing it often in windows induces 
me to notice it. 
Gladiolus. —Many of these make fine window ornaments 
if kept cool and dry when in a state of rest, supplied 
with fibry loam and heath soil, and a sufficiency of water and 
air when they begin to grow, and brought to the window as 
they show signs of flowering. 
i_ _ . , . - _ 
Goeteeia (Gazania) eigens. —A small evergreen herba¬ 
ceous plant, with orange flowers, having a beautiful dark 
purple centre. When the sun shines in summer few things 
are more beautiful. Keep the plant from frost and rather 
dry in winter, and increase the water as it grows in spring. 
It should be well drained, and then fibry loam will grow 
it well. 
Hawoethia. —Small succulents, to be treated as Cactus, 
Mesembryanthemum, Ac. 
IIibbeetia geossulaelefolia. — One of the prettiest 
hangers for a window we have. Fibry sandy loam and a 
little leaf mould or heath soil grow it well. It looks best 
when the pot and its saucer are encased in a little basket 
stuffed round with moss. It requires a pretty strong frost 
to injure it if kept rather dry in winter. 
Hyacinth. —(See Bulbs foe Wintee and Seeing Bloom¬ 
ing.) Pot one bulb in a four-inch pot as soon as you receive 
it, using light rich soil. Cover the pots several inches with 
ashes out of doors, or set them in a cool dark place, and do 
not bring them to the light until the pots are full of roots 
and the flower-stems showing. Shade a little at first, and 
water as necessary, a little manure water being advantageous 
after the flower-stem begins to grow freely. Keep watering, 
and give the plant all the light you can while the leaves are 
green. When they get withered refrain from watering, and 
keep the bulbs dry, either in the pot or out of it, until start¬ 
ing again the following season. Even with this care they 
will seldom do so well a second year as imported bulbs. 
For glasses act in a similar manner, only change the water 
often, and put some pieces of charcoal in the water. See 
previous notes. 
Hydeangea hoetensis. —Plants raised from nice shrubby 
cuttings are best for windows. Here is a plant with a 
single stout stem that has borne a fine head of bloom. 
When done flowering prune it away, with some inches of 
the top of the stem, and if the buds at the axils of the 
leaves left are very thick, thin them out a little so as to leave 
from four to six Avell-placed ones for producing shoots next 
year. Water as long as the leaves are green. Curtail water 
as they get yellowish, and when fallen give no more than 
will just keep the buds plump. Give all the sunlight 
possible either indoors or out. Protect from frost and wet 
in winter. In spring, as the buds push, shift the plant into 
rich loamy soil; place in the sun, and give abundance of 
water as the plant grows and shows bloom freely. When 
done flowering repeat the pruning and ripening process ; 
but the second year is generally old enough for window 
plants. To get blue flowers use filings of iron or a weak 
solution of alum in the soil; but even then you will not be 
so sure of the object as if you had such soil as naturally 
produces that colour in this plant, such as that from 
Wimbledon and some bogs near Edinburgh. 
Ikia, Spaeaxis, Teitonia, and Babiana require similar 
treatment, and all are pretty little bulbous plants that would 
flourish well in an airy window in the spring of the year. 
When done flowering water as long as the leaves are green. 
When they begin to show signs of fading curtail watering, 
and refrain altogether when they die down. Place the pots 
in a sunny, slieltered-from-rain spot. Towards the end of 
autumn they will show signs of pushing, when they should 
be watered and top dressed, or repotted in sandy peat, with 
a very little sandy loam. From that time they must have 
abundance of air, be kept near the glass of a window, 
pit, or frame, just be protected from frost, and have water 
according to their growth and the weather. They will 
generally want most at flowering time, about April. 
Jasminum geacile and nudifloeum. —The first will not 
stand much, if any frost. The flowers, though dirty white 
and small, are very fragrant, and are produced plentifully 
during the summer on plants not more than a foot or 
eighteen inches high. It thrives in peat and loam, should 
be kept dryish in winter, have a fair amount of water when 
growing and flowering in spring and summer, and when 
done flowering should have a sunny spot out of doors to 
ripen its buds, the young shoots from which bloom the 
following year. Nudiflorum is evergreen and hardy, and 
produces an abundance of yellow flowers in winter on shoots 
grown and ripened the previous summer and autumn. It 
adds to the brightness of a window, and, except when in 
bloom, may be kept with its roots protected out of doors. 
