117 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. May 31, 1859. 
luxury iu rags ancl sackcloth. Let us have the full and 
luxuriant spring of the Spergula pilifera, and we shall do 
the rest at our ease. But, above all, let us see that we 
are not put oil with another Spergula—I mean Spergula 
saginoides —which is no good. That is the plant which I 
and most British gardeners have called Sagina pro- 
cumbens; and in so saying we were all wrong. I traced 
them all on purpose; and I am obliged to a botanical 
lriend for the following memorandum, which sets all 
speculations about the “ new Grass ” at rest; it is taken 
from De Candolle’s “ Prodromus — 
“ Spekgula pilifeea ( JD . C ., FI . Fr . 4, N . 4391).— 
Leaves opposite, linear, awned, rather stiff, glabrous, in 
bundles; stems creeping, branched, tufted; peduncles 
very long ; petals twice as large as the calyx ; seeds egg- 
shaped ; hardy perennial; native of Corsica, on the highest 
niountains ; Rowers white; July and August; plant three 
inches high.” 
Awned Spurry, or, literally. Awn-bearing Spurry, is 
the proper English name of the “ new Grass.” Some 
people put the stress, or accent, on the u, which is wrong, 
the accent is on the e— Spergula. September and October 
are, perhaps, the best months to plant a lawn with good 
strong plants of this Spergula, and “ cut according to your 
cloth ” must be the rule. Four inches apart every way 
will be the best distance; but some will plant much 
farther apart, and plant again between ; but, as in other 
things, the more haste the less speed. The grand secret 
is, to have an immense stock of plants before you begin 
to “plant out;” but out with them in the open air as 
fast as they are hardened off, if you have them from 
cuttings, or as soon as they are fit to handle, if they are 
seedlings in seed-pans. There are so. many square feet 
in an acre, and so many square inches in a foot; and if 
you mean to plant at four inches every way apart, you 
can soon cast up how many plants would plant an acre. 
From a good stock to begin with, a boy, or a girl, or her 
mother, and one of the improved Waltonian Cases, with¬ 
out candle or lamp, coukl propagate in June, July, and 
August, a sufficient number of plants in one month to 
plant an Irish acre of ground. That is some data to go 
upon. Some would do less, and some three times as much; 
aud some will not try, or believe. Whoever saw an 
edging of Camomile laid down in the spring will know 
how to dispose of the new plants as fast as they are 
propagated- Every alley in the garden will be planted 
with it, on the colouring plan of six or eight plants iu a 
little tuft, and one tuft one inch from the other, till every 
spare inch in the kitchen garden is full of it. 
D. Beaton. 
LOOKING ABOUND US. 
GESNEEA ZEBEINA. 
Teeat as directed last week for Achimenes ; and it will 
bloom in autumn and winter in a house averaging 50° at 
night. The only thing is, that, grown wherever it may be, 
the leaves should not be touched with the sun when they 
are moist; and therefore care should be taken to give air 
early. The sun’s rays will also be too powerful for the 
fine colours of the foliage until towards the end of 
October : a little shade to blunt their fierceness will there¬ 
fore be advisable in the summer months. Fibry loam, 
and a little peat, leaf mould sweet and decomposed, and 
silver sand, grow these plants well. They have no ob¬ 
jection to a thin surfacing of rich compost once or twice 
during the season. 
BALSAMS. 
There have been several inquiries respecting these. 
To have them in June and July in fine order, the seeds 
should be sown in February and March ; and the plants 
supplied with heat, moisture, and abundance of air ; and 
be shifted, as fast as they require it, into their fruiting- 
pots of eight or twelve inches. To have fine plants in 
pots in autumn, it will be time enough to sow in May id 
a very gentle heat, and to grow the plants at first in a 
cold pit or frame, kept rather close at first, and with more 
air afterwards. For this purpose nothing is better than a 
moveable garden-frame, which, after the middle of June, 
can have its four corners raised on pots or bricks; so 
that air can circulate all round and through the plants 
from the bottom, as well as tilting the sashes back and 
front. Such plants arc generally more branching and 
robust than those grown in lean-to greenhouses. Thu 
best plan, however, to have gorgeous Balsams in autumn, 
and with but little trouble, will be to sow the seeds in a 
slight hotbed or in a pot by the chimney corner, and to 
be set in the parlour window when the seedlings are up ; 
and when pretty well hardened, prick the plants off into 
a bed of rich light soil, consisting of fresh loam, leaf 
mould, and sand, just as you would do young Celery. 
Protect them at first from bright sunshine and told 
nights w ith a mat thrown over a hoop, or with a piece 
of glazed calico, which would be better, as it would 
permit the light to pass in a bright day. As soon as the 
plants are as strong as Celery plants are when generally 
planted out in ridges, the Balsams may also be transferred 
into rich, well-dunged soil, where they are intended to 
bloom—say at least two feet, or two feet and a half apart; 
and if well-watered when they need it, and protected 
from excessive high winds, I have great fears that the 
owners of such plants will pass with something like dis¬ 
dain the banks of Balsams in pots at our autumn exhi¬ 
bitions, such as the Crystal Palace in the middle of 
September. On some occasions we have noticed that by 
far the best plants staged on such occasions showed 
symptoms that it was only very lately they had been 
honoured with pots. For such a Show it was indispensable 
the plants should be shown in pots ; but I was not aware 
that there is any decided rule that the plants should 
always have been grown in pots. 
To make sure of growing the best double Balsams in 
pots, it is also a good plan to keep them in three or four- 
inch pots until they open their first bloom, and from them 
you can judge of their quality. Then select only the 
plants with the best, or such as please you ; pinch every 
flower-bud off; repot and encourage to grow; and, after 
the roots are filling the last shift, then allow all the 
flower-buds, that have room, to open, and the plant will 
be covered all over with fine flowers. Your chief care 
would thus be spent upon plants that would please you 
by their fine flowers. It is gratifying to find that these 
fine old things are getting to be grown plentifully again 
in our large gardens. 
COCKSCOMBS. 
These require similar treatment, only they like more 
moist heat in their early stages. One correspondent 
complains that out of thirty large plants he has not above 
two combs that are well shaped ; and that, as he wanted 
six good ones, he is sorry that he threw away more than 
a hundred seedlings. There are several modes of grow¬ 
ing Cockscombs, each successful when rightly carried 
out. I will mention one that I used to find simple and 
easy when I set store by these beauties. As soon as the 
seedlings were half an inch high they were pricked ofl 
into pans and boxes, about an inch and a half apart, or 
oftener one inch, to save room. Here they were encou¬ 
raged to grow fast at first, and, as they became thickish, 
they did not get so much water. This caused the little 
things to start their combs ; for, as soon as a plant can¬ 
not extend itself by buds and foliage, in self-defence it 
tries to reproduce itself by seeds, and the comb is just 
the general receptacle for the true flowers and seeds. 
In a few days the form of the combs will show them¬ 
selves ; the branchy-pointed ones are passed over, and 
the nice-shaped ones are lifted out with little balls, after 
being well watered half a day previously, and are trans¬ 
ferred to light, rich soil, in three or four-inch pots, and 
