THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 28, 1850. 
51 
Fern. It produces its fertile fronds, which are the 
linest, in much greater abundance where it has full 
scope for its roots, delighting as it does in being per¬ 
mitted to creep about where it chooses. It may, however, 
be treated very successfully under pot-culture ; but, 
as it will be seen, from its creeping nature, a pan will 
be far better to grow it in than any other vessel, as it 
does not require depth, so much as surface-room. The 
drainage in the pan must be formed by a layer of crocks 
at the bottom, then a layer of coarse, fibry peat, filling 
half the depth of the pan, and the remainder with a 
compost of two-thirds turfy peat, and one-third of leaf- 
mould, with a free admixture of silver sand, and a few 
pieces of crock broken very small. In this compost, 
with a free supply of water, the plant will ilourish as if 
at home. The same compost will suit it for planting 
out. It may be propagated easily by division, and may 
be grown also under glass. The plants in pots or pans 
will require a slight protection through the winter. 
RICHMOND NURSERY. 
Mr. Harris gave up his nursery at Richmond, and 
Mr. Kinghorn, from St. Margaret’s, Isleworth, has opened 
a new nursery this season, a little out of Richmond, on 
the Sheen Road. It consists of five acres of rich old 
market-garden ground, formerly for many years in the 
possession of the late Mr. Adams. 
He put up a fine span-roofed show-house, with the end 
facing the road, a large seed-shop at the end of his house, 
both facing the road, and several additions behind. He 
also made a most convenient arrangement for carriage 
customers—a half-moon-sweep drive, with a gate at each 
end, by which a carriage may get up to his front door, 
to the shop, or to the show-house. The body of the half¬ 
moon, between his fronts and the main road, is planted, 
first with specimens of rare Conifers and other fashion¬ 
able plants; then, between them, a large collection of 
Scarlet Geraniums in tall, bushy specimens—the first 
thing of the kind I have seen in front of a nursery. As 
this goes to the very root of a subject which I have been 
fanning for years, and knowing that the more the fire is 
stirred the brighter it will burn, I resolved on calling 
here the first time I saw those large Geraniums from the 
top of an omnibus on my way to London. The straight 
side of the half-moon is next to the public road, and 
here a broad band of Mignonette invites the visitor to 
smell farther on—a good idea. Behind the Mignonette 
is a thick, low, bushy row of the old Purple Zelincla 
Dahlia, as much as to say that the master knows the 
style of ribbon-planting, like the rest of us. 
We owe some of our very best bedding Geraniums to 
Mr. Ivinghorn— Flower of the Day, Commander-in-Chief, 
Cerise Unique, and others that way ; and this season we 
had his General Pelissier, a great improvement on Com- 
mander-in-Cldef ; his Countess of Warwick, another rise 
on the Attractions ; and Anne, named after one of his 
daughters, will beat out Flower of the Day. The leaf 
and habit are the same in both; but Anne has a fine 
scarlet truss. 
Here, however, I have a word to put in from the 
“ Chronicles of the Experimental.” No one should rely 
on such novelties as these the first season. You may be 
sure that, for the last twelve or eighteen months, the old 
plant or plants have been stimulated to the very last 
pulse to get cuttings from; that as soon as each cutting 
had a root the top was cut off for another start, and so 
on, start and cut, cut and start again, as long as there is 
a drop of blood remaining. But, hard as that must-be, 
it is only the first of a scries of hard treatment. The 
London trade jump at all good trade-plants like these. 
They order them in by the dozen, or by the score, or by 
the hundred, according to the extent of their orders or 
country customers ; and no sooner does a “ coming-out ” 
plant come up to Loudon than they have a “ pull ” at it 
there, and so they ought—they pay liberal prices. After 
the second strain on the already exhausted constitution 
of a seedling, away they go all over the provinces to 
amateurs and country nurserymen, and each must have 
his “pull” before “ proof.” By this time there is little 
energy left for proof. The little plants ought rather to 
be nursed like half-drowned people till they get round 
again. That is just the very thing that we were doing 
at the Experimental with one-third of the contributions, 
from bad packing and the proverbial delays of railroads, 
till the harvest was nearly over about London. What 
proofs, therefore, we were able to guess at may have to 
be revised another year, and, from the great demand for 
the new seedlings from this nursery, very few would be 
able this season to decide one way or another; but I 
could see and judge from plants which were reserved 
to make a show at home. 
The best thing one can say of a new Geranium 
near London is, that it will soon find its way to Covent 
Garden. Pelissier will be one of that number. Countess 
of Warwick is destined for large pot-specimens, and no 
one would plant Flower of the Day who had as many 
plants of Anne. It has that peculiar soft-like look by 
which the Flower of the Day forced itself into general 
notice. Many of the variegated kinds are brighter and 
have better flowers than the Flower of the Day, without 
being able to make their way half so much into good 
society. 
This was my first interview with Mr. Kinghorn; but 
I have wanted a leaf out of his books for ever so long. He 
told me that the Flower of the Day was variegated from 
the seed-leaf, not a variegated sport, as I always thought 
it must have been, from its disposition for making plain 
or green shoots, like older kinds which came from sports. 
His new seedling Geranium, called Prim, is not to come 
out next spring. I think he told me so; but his seed¬ 
lings are kept over at St. Margaret’s till he is sure of 
them. He had two kinds then in flower,—the best of 
their stamps yet seen. One, a large white one, with a 
blush tinge, is an improvement of Triomptlie de Mont 
Rouge. The florists will be proud of it, as it comes up 
to their points, or most of them, and it is the largest 
individual flower I have seen of that class,—nearly an 
inch and a half across the circle. Surprise has the 
largest flower if measured from ear to ear; but then it 
is a gaping flower, and another turn of the cross would 
have made a poor Nosegay of it. I mean poor in 
respect to the crowding of flowers in a truss. The other 
is the best of the Lucia rosea breed, but not exactly 
that very breed. It belongs to a Unique which was 
swallowed up in the rage for Lucia on its first appearance. 
The Colchester and Ipswich florists know the kind I 
mean better than the Londoners. They had it as Mrs. 
Botham’s Pet just as Lucia rosea came out, and the 
latter drowned the Pet; but here Mr. Kinghorn has an 
improvement on it, which will make a most lovely 
drawing-room plant, and seems too good to venture in a 
bed out of doors for fear of the sun. 
Among the specimens of Scarlet Geraniums out in 
the borders (and there were scores of them), Punch was 
the very best in habit, in profusion of bloom, and it was 
as high as most of them, say about four feet, and four 
feet across the bottom; but he had it under the name 
of Collins' Superb. I had Collins' Superb from the very 
best gardener in England in a contribution, and it 
would make an edging to a bed of young Tom Thumbs. 
Where is Mr. Collins ? He could put us right; but, right 
