THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 17, 18(10, 
237 
diversity of colour and the contrasts of clear scarlet with 
■white ar-e more conspicuous in the older seedlings, or 
those of ten year’s standing and under. But as there 
are many good ones among these which I have neither 
grown nor seen much of, I do not like to pass them in a 
selection, or give a second list of superior kinds of older 
birth without them. Therefore I shall put them off till 
next season, when I expect to get up my acquaintance 
with them to the top of their peerage ; and after that I 
mean to register their births and deaths, or the ups and 
downs of the various and versatile shades and stripes on 
their banners, after the manner of “ Hardwicke’s Shilling 
Peerage;” and shall only mention a few more to-day 
which are well known to most growers and very desirable 
for new beginners. 
Magnifieus , or magnificent, would make a splendid 
crimson bed of itself—a tall, strong, handsome grower; or 
Vesta, the tallest white I know, in the centre of a bed of 
Magnifieus would make a telling contrast. Formosissimus, 
Insignis, and Imperialis, are three shades of scarlet and 
crimson which would match well together. Count de 
Morney, again, among the newest ones, makes a splendid 
mass of itself, a cerise or cherry colour shaded with violet 
and a white throat, than which nothing is more gay or rich 
in a mass. For a light mass or bed, one that is neither 
new nor very old, and called Danae, is among the showiest. 
It is a larger flower, and has a longer flower-spike than any 
of the breed of blandus; and there is a fine drawing of it 
in the “Illustrated Bouquet,” to show the superior style 
of whites from oppositiflorus blended with the lighter 
seedlings of, or-from Natalensis, without a particle of the 
orange which Natalensis has brought into the family. 
It is the blending of this orange in Natalensis with the 
salmon, red, crimson, or scarlet in the older kinds, that 
has made the new seedlings of Suchet so rich and valuable 
in collections; and we shall never be able to beat him with 
English seedlings. We may get as good kinds in his circle 
as are yet in being, and, perhaps, some improved tints; but 
we have lost our name in that branch as surely as we have 
in Roses, and these foreigners will keep us at long-range 
distance to the end of the chapter. The only thing we can 
guard against, and the very thing that I wish to press for¬ 
ward is this—we can keep out of the foreign market if we 
choose to go the right way to work, except for the very best 
of their new seedlings, just as we manage with Roses. All 
the kinds from cardinalis come into bloom wi'li the sum¬ 
mer Roses, if we plant them at the proper time—not. later 
than October. And all the breeds from Natalensis will be 
our Hybrid Pfu-petuals to bloom from June to October, if 
we mind to plant them from early in February to the middle 
of May. 
Then, the question is, Why should we plant them at all, 
or rather plant them but once in a lifetime? If we plant 
them six inches deep, they will prove as hardy as the 
European kinds; and we know very well that if we move 
them and part them every year, nine people out of ten will 
never do much good with that way, except in pots, while on 
the Continent they ripen so much more that they can 
take them up and divide them every year, as they do 
Hyacinths and'fillips. The breed from cardinalis, blandus, 
and other old African kinds, was certainly more tender than 
the present run in the market, yet they lived out of doors, 
in the north of Scotland, for years and years—the older they 
were the better they would bloom. I had them myself as , 
free and as numerous as Crocuses, in all kinds of soil, in 
shrubberies, and in American beds, where they did equally 1 
well; but in peat they increased the faster. When a 
border was trenched, or the masses were otherwise dis¬ 
turbed, the plants did not bloom nearly so strong the next 
year, and many of the kinds did not come up to their full 
vigour and stature till the third season after transplanting. 
I have not had such intimate acquaintance with the new 
races; but if they will improve with age, without distur¬ 
bance—and I can see no reason why they should not— 
they must be grand indeed. However, I would advise that 
you make sure of the game first, by getting the soundest 
bulbs in the market as early in the spring as possible, and 
pot them all before February is out. Treat them the first 
year in large pots exactly like the Japan Lilies, to the end. 
of the season. Keep them in the same balls the whole of 
next winter, and go over them the following February, 
breaking off the ball carefully from the top till you are level 
with the bulbs; then extract a couple of the largest bulbs, 
to be put singly into fresh soil and new pots. Keep the 
| rest and the bottom of the ball undisturbed, and plant the 
whole lump together in your best American bed, and so as 
to have six inches deep over the crown of the roots; and in 
two or three years, it strikes me, they will be the talk of 
that part of the country, for very few have yet seen Gladioli 
in one-third perfection. Before they are thus planted out, 
the grand secret is not to have them one day out of the soil 
longer than it is natural for them to begin to root. 
D. Be'atok. 
VEGETABLE PROTECTION. 
What a strange difference exists in seasons ! In some 
winters we have no frosts until January; in others we have no 
frosts at all worthy of notice; and in others beginning with all the 
aspects of December even in October. The latter is the case with 
the present season ; for we had a frost of singular intensity for the 
period here (Oulton) for two or three days—the lowest reading 
of the thermometer being 14°. This was even in the third week. 
Previous to that I had a vegetable garden the highest in good 
produce that I have known here—everything was in such high 
vigour; but such a slaughter at that period I have never known. 
The fact is, that the higher the culture the more they suffer. 
About a week after its cessation the vegetables in general pre¬ 
sented a January appearance; and it was scarcely possible for 
the oldest practical man to fancy the period not far from the 
middle of October. 
If I could have known I should have covered up the ordinary 
vegetables—such as Broccoli, Celery, and the like; but had any 
one done so by anticipation, his friends would have taken the 
sanity of his mind into consideration. Even beds of autumn- 
sown Cabbages were totally killed, and Lettuces in seed-beds. 
As to the latter frost, with which every gardener and amateur 
is but too familiar, it ha9 been extraordinary. I find by my 
record, that, taking one week and making averages, it runs 20° of 
frost—albeit, the lowest was 28°. We have two thermometers 
outside, one against the other (and they were both the prize 
thermometers of the first Crystal Palace Exhibition) ; they gene- 
rally agree in two different situations. But it still continues 
(December 20th), and there is little prospect of any change. 
The consequences will be very considei’able, and I do not expect 
to find a really sound vegetable in the spring. 
We may hero remark on the entire absence of snow; for we 
have had none here. This it is which is so serious to vegetables ; 
for if we could command snow at will it would be well in the 
advance of a severe frost to see the vegetables covered with a thick 
layer of it. This is so far a protector as that it prevents the 
access of extreme depressions of temperature, and also shelters 
their heads from cutting winds. 
And what can we do in these extreme cases ? We cannot 
undo what is done; but as to the future ? Nothing but use 
litter at once; so that, if one of those intermissions of thaw and 
sunshine occur, they may not be made worse still by the rapid 
transition. Our cooks meet us at the same point here by thaw¬ 
ing their frozen vegetables in the coldest water; in fact, slow 
thawing. But with growing vegetables it may be much slower 
still. 
The principles of protection deserve a full consideration by 
amateurs and young beginners. I have had Cauliflowers under 
glasses covered up for nearly a month at a time, and suffered not; 
but they were frozen before covering (for this is the secret), and 
then covered thickly with litter. I believe that we are none of 
us aware of the great length of time plants will bear this practice; 
I think it not improbable for a month, provided the essential 
conditions are sustained. Therefore, my advice is, suffer the 
early frosts to freeze your soil at least an inch in depth, and then 
apply a thin protection at first. This will much screen them ; 
but if the frost increases much in severity, apply additional cover¬ 
ing in a liberal way. By this time the ground is probably frozen 
gradually to the depth of nearly three inches, and so much the 
