THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
tkil-pieces to a long story, so I shall begin them afresh 
next week or the next to that, and for the present I 
continue the visits to some of the London Nurseries. 
I never yet reported that I have grown in “ the Ex¬ 
perimental” the New Holland Pitcher Plant by the side 
of the Lady Plymouth Geranium since last February, 
and that it is now as fine a plant as any of the kind in 
the Clapton Nursery; but the difference made by the two 
modes of culture is very singular. Messrs. Low’s plants, 
under bell glasses in a warm house, produce more pitchers 
than leaves ; my plant, all but with open air cultivation, 
has made only one small pitcher, but twice as many 
leaves, and much better looking leaves than those made 
in confinement. 
Our Irish friend, “Italicus,” will be glad to learn that 
here, at Clapton, they grow the Meyenia erecta by the 
thousands, and sell it by the dozen for “ planting out ” 
in the south of Ireland, first for its bloom, and next 
for its young shoots for making baskets with. There is 
no end to the numbers they have of it for English and 
Scottish greenhouses, and warm conservatory and mixed 
borders during the summer; but for stove cultivation 
they say it is not at all suited. 
Thyrsacanthus rutilans, the finest winter-flowering 
stove-plant we have, is here treated just like a half-hardy 
plant, and like Meyenia erecta; but in Ghent and 
Brussels they get it from cuttings early in the spring, 
and turn it out of doors all the summer. In the autumn 
it makes a kind of Love-lies-bleeding fringe round the 
Orange-tubs, the little pots standing in a circle inside the 
tub, and the drooping, crimson fringe hanging all round. 
The Clerodendron Bungii, or fcetidum, is all but hardy 
on the Continent, and ought to be more so in England. 
It dies down like a Fuchsia for the winter, and blooms 
freely on the young summer growth, just like the Brug- 
mansias, where they are taken good heed to. 
The lovely Sonerila margaritacea, a dwarf, spotted¬ 
leaved Melastomad, comes from cuttings in nine days, 
and in sixteen more days is fit for the market, and worth 
from thirty to forty penny-pieces. The dearest is the 
cheapest in the long run. 
They have a large stock of a new hardy Oak with fern¬ 
like leaves, got over from Mackay of Liege, who seems 
to graft them as easily as Apples and Pears. Twenty years 
ago these would cost £5 a-piece, owing to the difficulty 
of increasing them. Now they “ come out” cheap as 
bedding Variegated Geraniums. 
After seeing the grafted standard Geraniums at the 
Crystal Palace Show, I want to see that plan followed 
out everywhere, and I have just got a “ sampler” plant 
here to learn from how to graft Geraniums to a nicety. 
It is the old classic favourite with us all, the Catalonian 
Jasmine (J. g rand iflor uni), grafted from a foot to 
twenty inches high, and from a foot to eighteen inches 
diameter of the head. All grafted only last March by some 
one on the Continent, from whom Mr. Low’s traveller 
bought the whole of this season’s stock (400), all but 
fifty plants, which wont to M. Miellez, of Lisle. Every 
one of the 350 little standards was in bloom out in the 
open air; and any one of them would show how to graft 
Geraniums, by splitting the stock, better than all the 
reading in the world. The Italians still persist in graft¬ 
ing it on the common Jasmine, on which it does not 
live long, owing to the fight with suckers; but the 
French have now the monopoly; for they use the Jasminum 
ochroleucum for a stock, on which the Catalonian lasts 
and improves for over so long. It would not be a bad 
speculation for some “ doctor’s boy ” or another to get a 
few strong plants of Jasminum ochroleucum —-the original 
plant from Buenos Ayres, by Mr. Tweedie, in 183C, is 
still at Clapton—make cuttings of it, and graft the 
Catalonian on it for the London trade. They were in 
demand when I was a boy, and will never go out of 
fashion, as they flower the whole winter. 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 7,185C. 5 
Berber is Nepalensis, which is as scarce in some places 
as any of them, is here actually used as a stock to graft 
on such kinds as Trifurca , Bealii, and other rare Chinese 
kinds. The Nepalensis comes from cuttings of a leaf 
and one eye, like the Geraniums; hence the quantities 
j for stocks. 
The Bhootan Rhododendrons, which I mentioned last 
February as being quite new, and different from previous 
importations, are made into collections of nine or ten 
kinds, which have been purchased already by the lead¬ 
ing firms here and on the Continent, and more than 
100,000 of the seedling Araucarias went the same way— 
also the Lapagerias ; and now it turns out that I was a 
right prophet. I said they ought to be “ proved ” first, 
as probably many kinds would appear among them. Since 
then, Mr. Bridges, who sent home the seeds, was in 
London, and he declared they were all daft for selling 
one of them for Rosea. The seeds ho gathered 150 
miles from where he had ever seen Rosea , and some few 
remaining flowers he had seen on the plants were of a 
deep crimson hue; but Mr. Low says it pays him best 
to give so many good chances to other men in the trade, 
for they buy up any new thing he imports. Mr. Bridges 
went off to Guatemala, and thence to California, to collect 
on his own account as Mr. Skinner does, and we shall 
probably, ere loug, have Mr. Stevens hammering down 
in his rostum the Wellingtonias as if they were Scotch 
or Silver Firs. 
The great seed-bed of Lilium giganteum has thrown 
up the first year’s supply as if in the open air. Three 
little scales form the one season’s seedlings. The bed is 
still literally crammed with seeds, which are as sound 
as nuts. 
I saw a large importation of Orchids from Java the 
week before, in which were several kinds which we 
could not make out, and lots of Phalaeuopsis, Vandas, 
and Baccolabiums. I never saw the Orchids look better 
here or so numerous, but they do not grow specimens of 
them. All the kinds they receive are cut up into good 
sizable trade plants, for which there is still a constant 
demand. 
In the hardy department I counted 932 feet of cold 
pits for young Heaths. The pits are six feet wide inside, 
and take sixteen pots of large sixties or twenty-one small 
sixties in one row across the pit. A new pit of that 
size, six feet wide and 233 feet long, with nine-inch 
brickwork back and ends, two feet six inches high at 
back and one foot high in front, in four and a half inch 
brickwork; the glass sixteen ounces to the foot; the 
woodwork of the usual sizes and best description; the 
whole “ finished complete,” with three coats of paint, 
for ,£93 ! I counted twenty-two lights of the same size 
filled with stove Heaths, four tiny things in a sixty-pot; 
altogether, at a rough calculation, 22,000 ; and I was 
challenged to find one single dead tinywort in all the 
lot. These will be wintered on shelves in-doors; but 
all above that age and size will be wintered, as such 
were for the last few winters, in these long cold pits, 
without any means of heating them. Tricolors, Mas- 
sonii, and all the most difficult Heaths to winter, do 
better in such pits than anywhere in doors. One mat is 
put over the glass—the rest is stubble, fern, or straw, 
whichever can be got cheapest; just the way I used to 
winter 5000 young Punch Geraniums; but now Mr. 
Foggo has a span-roofed house for them, and a span- 
roofed house for every tribe of plants, as I shall describe J 
shortly. Verily, gardening is an easy pastime now- 
■ a-days. 
Of the old Leschenaultia formosa and its other kinds j 
they grow 2000 here annually, and that is not more than 
is called for. Three kinds of Cytisus are equally in 
demand— Racemosafragrans, which is, perhaps, the best; 
i Ilybrida, freer in growth and bloom, but not so strong l 
i or so bushy as Racemosa; and Attleana, which is very i 
