THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 20, 1860, 
.383 
Sabbatia cami’ESTBIS (Field Sabbatia).—Another beautiful 
hardy perennial from Texas, producing its pretty rose and yellow 
flowers on a stem six inches high, in August and September. No 
doubt this will prove an acquisition to the flower garden as a 
bedding plant. Propagated by seeds sown in a gentle heat in 
April. 
Statice aemeeia riNiFOiiA (Pine-leaved Thrift). 
S. aemeeia minuta (Smallest Thrift). 
The first has pale blue flowers and grows six inches high. 
The latter has red flowers, and is a tiny plant only three inches 
high. Both thrive best in sandy soil, and are easily propagated 
by division of the plant in April. Though not new, they are 
rare, and worthy of more extended culture. 
Teitoma tjvaeia glaucescens (Rather glaucous Tritoma). 
T. TJVAEIA GEANDIEEOEA (Large-flowered Tritoma). 
T. uvaeia seeotina (Late-flowering Tritoma). 
Three new varieties of a fine old perennial, flowering in August 
and September. Though hardy they are better for the protection 
of a cold pit through winter. Mr. Beaton has made them 
familiar to our readers, and has treated on their culture to some 
extent. 
The first has smooth-edged leaves of a glaucous green, and 
long spikes of orange scarlet blossoms, and is the first to flower. 
The second, grandiflora , has broad leaves, rigid in growth, and 
arching in habit. It is later in blooming than any other variety, 
grows taller, and has spikes of flowers a foot long, and of a rich 
orange-scarlet colour. 
The third, serotina , has the edges of the leaves rougher than 
the others, and of a dull, deep green. It comes into flower be¬ 
tween the other two, and when fully expanded the blossoms are 
of a very rich colour. 
For autumnal flowers we have nothing so handsome in the 
perennial way as the varieties of this species. 
Thalicteum anemonoides elobe-pleno (The double-flowered 
Anemone-like Meadow Rue). 
This is a most beautiful hardy herbaceous plant, easily grown 
in sandy loam and leaf mould, yet so scarce that I can only find 
it in Messrs. Low’s catalogue. It is a dwarf plant six inches 
high, producing its Anemone-like double-white blossoms in the 
early month of April. 
I might have much extended this list of rare and new herba¬ 
ceous plants. —T. Appleby. 
HEATING THE WALTONIAN CASE. 
I see by The Cottage Gaf.deneb that the present opinion 
is, that the Sherwoods give only half the necessary flame. 
I write this, therefore, to explain that a larger wick will not 
answer in a mortar, as the increased heat would melt the 
wax by which the wick is kept upright. So that if mortars be 
used the heat must be obtained by the use of two.— Geobge 
Wilson, Price's Patent Candle Company {Limited), Belmont, 
Vauxhall, London. 
[This settles the question about night lights. The strongest 
of them will not keep a Waltonian going, night and day, during 
February and March, or during the night in very cold April 
weather; but two of them used at once would keep the Case up 
to the mark without a doubt, and one light would be sufficient 
in fine, clear, sunny days to keep up the day heat from first to 
last. That is the verdict of those who have tried the experiment, 
and who have the best practical knowledge on the working of 
the Case. They also say that “ you gentlemen writers,” from 
Mr. Hibberd onwards, put the stress of the heat 10° too high ; 
that 70° are quite enough in the hardest weather ; and that there 
is a great objection to a night power over that degree, as what¬ 
ever the strength, it must work to its full power when people are 
gone to bed. As the Cases are now made to suit lamps, or 
lights, or a jet of gas, any one can choose which to use. I highly 
approve of these new Sherwoods, but they are dearer than the 
lamps.—D. Beaton.] 
WHAT CAN BE DONE BY A GARDENER? 
As referee in gardening matters, I should feel greatly obliged 
by an answer to the following : How many men would be suffi¬ 
cient to work the following houses ? 1st, Double house, 44 ft. by 
18 ft., hothouse and conservatory adjoining. 2nd, A small pro- 
pagating-house, 9 ft. by 20, heated by the same boiler as No. 1. 
3rd, A Geranium span-roofed house, 12 ft. by 28. 4th, Large 
span-roofed house with Vines now full of Azaleas, some 4 to 5 ft. 5 
in summer with Fuchsias, 20 ft. by 32. 5th, A small lean-to 
9 ft. by 24, divided—one part Ferns and the other Orchids. 
6th, Wooden house, where I grow my Camellias in summer, and 
filled now with Roses and anything else, 16 ft. by 11. 7th, A 
glass roof raised over potting-shed to protect and grow Grapes, 
now full of Vine-wood, 16 by 12. 8th, A house or pit, divided, 
two fires, 35 ft. by 9, full of bedding stuff and unsightly plants, 
useful rubbish, &c. 9th, A ten-light brick pit, and six two-light 
boxes. 
And now I have got so far I may as well tell you my reason 
for asking, which I have been intending for a long time. Besides 
the above, I have an orchard garden of rather more than two 
acres, all under spade, and I have one man besides myself—a 
good farmer’s man, but no man for a garden; handy enough, 
but a good deal too slow for a garden. The grass and walks I 
havo not much to do with, as the grass is mown by machine, and 
two men come for the purpose. Now my employer is, I believe, 
the best master in the world ; but he is now talking about show¬ 
ing, and I do not believe that, under existing circumstances, I 
can do it. If I could exhibit quality and quantity, attended to by 
one pair of hands, I am open to all England ; but I do not think 
that I ought to be expected to grow specimens of hothouse. 
Orchid, and other plants for exhibition against others so much 
better situated. I attend my fires, and do all myself, winter and 
summer.—W. 
[In our younger days we have several times had a bit of banter 
with the great Mr. Loudon on his recommending gardeners to 
wear gloves, at least when performing all their rougher operations. 
When rattling through a score of stoke-holds at a time, or when 
engaged in dissecting a rough Rose or Thorn bush, a strong pair 
of gloves is very desirable; but for the generality of work, even 
though the work be a little rough, so much depends on the 
dexterity of the fingers, that wrapping them in gloves is some¬ 
thing similar to putting stockings upon a cat and yet expecting her 
to be a good mouser. We fancy in our mind’s eye what sort of 
a figure our correspondent “ W.” would make decked out with 
gloves—cutting alternately from his orchard-ground to his sash¬ 
lines, thence to his stoke-holes, then to his water-can, and anon to 
his hotbeds in frames. We know already that his fingers, like 
somebody else’s, are none of the straightest; and that those who 
grasp in honest friendship his somewhat horny fist, are not likely 
to be thence driven into reveries about the softness, and smooth¬ 
ness, and elegance of kid. The great author to whom we have 
referred, and who has had no successor as yet in the earnest, 
practical, kind sympathy he manifested and the good advice he 
gave to gardeners, used, as a sort of test of labour, to say that 
every acre in a garden should have its man. Of course this was 
merely an approach to what was actually wanted ; as there might 
be cases where a man might manage several acres, and others 
where several, nay, a number of men, would be wanted for the 
acre. We could fancy the amazement at first of the good old 
worthy when informed that a gardener and a labourer could 
manage each his acre, and a little village of plant and hothouses, 
with more than a score of pit and box-lights into the bargain. 
We can only come to the conclusion that in the present case the 
orchard garden is little more than dug—that is, has little rotation 
of cropping in the year, so that the work can be done chiefly in 
winter, when there is less to do in the houses; and that in these 
houses, with the exception of the hothouse and Orchid-house, 
there is little demanding attention in winter and early spring 
except the necessary routine of air-giving, watering, &c.; that 
labour, even of every-day attention, will be very considerable if 
the hothouse, conservatory, Geranium-house, Camellia-house, 
Orchid-house are well filled, and anything like succession of bloom 
and succession of crops were attempted. In such a case we feel 
assured that it would require, not only to be a very early riser, 
but to turn his potting-shed into a work-room in the long winter 
and early spring months ; or, like a worthy friend of ours, wear 
out his strength prematurely by turning his parlour-table into a 
training and tying-bench, and in the long evenings arranging and 
forming into shape his favourite plants: his good, patient wife, 
after remonstrating without avail as to the injury he was doing 
himself, quietly putting up with the litter of mat-ties and whit¬ 
tling. These are times when a man who would rise must not 
shirk labour. A period is fast approaching, if not already here, 
when hard working combined with intelligence will even be better 
paid than great intelligence where the labour will chiefly be the 
working with the head. Our young gardeners, who from want 
of system would think themselves hardly used if they attended to 
