THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 28, 185G. 
55 
or wrong, there is no mistake about Mr. Kinghorn 
having the best kind, the real true Punch from Shrub- 
land Park. I have said how different seedlings of it got 
about. He has been raising lots of seedlings of the 
Shrubland Scarlet, and proved what I have been saying 
about them for years—that the seedlings take only three 
forms, and that one of them is hardly worth growing. 
This, therefore, would make a lawful species for those 
who believe a natural difference to be between a species 
and a variety, a point which I believe of very little or 
no practical use whatever. 
Next to the Geraniums we looked over his Fuchsias, 
as I was desirous of doing with a good practical 
gardener like him. The first thing I learned among 
them is well worthy of being remembered, namely, 
that Story’s Queen Victoria, which has a light corolla, 
is the best of them for being seen by candle¬ 
light, and that no Fuchsia is more striking on the 
drawing-room table at night. Autocrat, in the way 
of Bank's Qlory, but not so good for a florist, is an 
excellent pot-plant. Venus de Medici, in better style 
than the one I noticed at the Crystal Palace Show. 
This is tho half-way from the Reds to the light ones. 
A good plant of this makes a fine show in a greenhouse. 
Omar Pacha, Bank's Favourite, Bank's Glory, Prince 
Albert, Duchess of Lancaster, and Hendersonii, a double 
dark kind, were all very showy, and among the best out 
of ever so many kinds. Fuchsia Domminiana was just 
coming into bloom by the end of September, and would 
go on flowering till next March. A fine lot of the new- 
fruited plant, Eugenia ugni ; a ditto of the Catalonian 
Jasmine standards; a great number of popular show- 
house plants; and one specimen of an oldish Nosegay, 
which is new about London, the Red Nosegay. It 
was raised long since by Mr. Patrick, late gardener at 
Stoke Pogis, Bucks, and is little known except in that 
neighbourhood; but, now that a rage is running after 
Nosegays, every one of them must be registered. Thero 
is a Variegated Nosegay at Clapton Nursery called 
Sarah, and a far better Variegated Nosegay, a real fine 
thing, at the Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston. Three of 
them in one day is better than none at all for the three 
pounds which Sir Joseph Paxton offered for them. The 
Red Nosegay will now be sought after for a breeder, as 
Baron Hugel was three or four years ago ; but, to pre¬ 
vent repeated disappointment, I may just say that both 
are now exhausted with crossing all kinds with them. 
Great improvements on both are in existence, and with 
the Baron a fresh set of cross-breeders have begun this 
last summer for the first time. One man told me he 
had crossed every Geranium in the country with Baron 
Hugel, and “ every one of them took,” meaning, that 
no pollen comes amiss to the Baron, which is true 
enough. Another man told me that he had thrown the 
old Red Nosegay away after getting “much out of it; ” 
but for mere amusement there are not two better breeders 
to be had. Anything from them will be welcome in 
many parts of the country. 
When Mr. Kinghorn removes all his seedlings from 
St. Margaret’s to this nursery we may look for Nosegay 
Geraniums among them to suit all tastes in the seedling 
exhibition way. 
Along both sides of a main central walk, which passes 
down through the centre of the grounds, I noticed many 
good things, beginning with Scotch seedlings of Abies 
Douglasii, very good seedling Pentstemons, one of which, 
a dwarf, bushy kind, is called after Mr. McEwen; strong, 
large patches of the real Linum grandiflorum, which, 
after ripening some good seeds, Mr. Kinghorn intended 
to lift and put into pots, to be kept like Verbenas through 
j the winter, and next spring to get thousands of cuttings 
I from for the London trade and all his customers. He 
says they will come from cuttings in tho spring just 
as freely as Vorbenas. He also told me, what I was 
aware of, that there are two or three very indifferent kinds 
of it about the country. A person sent me a handful of 
seedlings of it from a midland county in the midst of the 
hot weather. They did very well, however; but two out of 
three of them had pale, dirty, violet flowers. As soon as I 
got home I took a leaf out of Mr. Kinghorn’s book, took up 
my plants of Linum grandiflorum, and, although they were 
and are still in seed, I think they will keep over the 
winter easy enough, and produce cuttings after his 
fashion, which will begin to bloom as soon as they are 
turned into the borders in May, and continue to the end 
of October. With a little management my specimen 
plant, which was put by and kept from blooming, is now 
allowed to bloom, which it does most willingly, on the 
window-sill, where it stood all the summer. If one of 
the great exhibitors got hold of this plant last August 
he would turn it out next June two feet in diameter, 
eighteen inches high, and with from two to five hundred 
flowers wide open on a show-day. It is not too late yet 
to pot it from the open borders, and I am almost certain 
that it does not produce seeds enough to hinder it from 
keeping over the first winter; and after that it may be 
had from cuttings, like other bedding-plants. If I had 
not been so lucky as to have made acquaintance with 
Mr. Kinghorn we should have lost all these chances for 
this season at least, and he would have the whole run of 
the trade next season with such plants of it as he could 
warrant to be true to kind. He says, however, that 
there will be such a demand for it next spring as will 
keep the whole trade on a trot. 
His seedling Hollyhocks are first-rate for the borders 
of the pleasure-grounds; but he has the advantage over 
the florists, from his being a first-rate flower-gardener 
himself. He knows what kinds and colours come in 
best; and he only grows flower-garden Dahlias, such as 
will stand “ wind and weather” without “ cooking.” tie 
has a good dwarf Zelinda of his own raising, about tho 
size and habit of the Purple Zelinda; but the flower is a 
Lateritia colour, and it must not be planted along with 
Purples of the same strain. 
A gay, tall, shrubbery-plant, Pyrethrum uliginosum, 
made the borders look blooming at that late season. 
Among the best suit of Marigolds I have seen there was 
a new shade of colour in one of his African Marigolds, 
which, if it will come true from seed, will be in constant 
demand for the flower-gardens. But the greatest hint I 
received this year was from some experiments which he 
took in hand this season with basket-plants or trailers. 
He made quite a “ discovery,” which he then had on “ ex¬ 
hibition” in front of his house—a flower-box to fill the 
sill of a window, which window is about three feet from 
the ground; the space between the edge of the box to 
near the ground was one whole mass of bright, white 
flowers, not large, but so close together as to make one 
uniform face: the sun thus bleached the flowers ol 
Nierernbergia filicaulis. D. Beaton. 
DAHLIAS FOR FLOWER-BORDERS AND 
FLOWER-BEDS. 
I write this for the sake of endeavouring to meet a 
great number of inquiries, merely premising that what 
I shall say has reference solely to the obtaining of dense 
masses of bloom, and not at all applicable to the culture 
of the Dahlia as a florist’s flower. Specific directions 
have been given for this latter purpose, and these must 
be adhered to to secure fine specimens of individual 
blooms; but such attention is not only unnecessary for, 
but many points of the management would neutralise, 
the obtaining of great quantities of flowers. I choose 
the present time, because, first, many of the ideas may 
vet be tested by obse; vation; and, secondly, to afford 
