256 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, January 13, 1857. 
With regard to the Fluke Kidney and Imperial Blue I may 
mention that they succeed very well in a garden about three 
miles from here, where the soil is more loamy, and has not 
been so long under spade cultivation, and there the Lap- 
stone has been discarded as worthless ! 
I mentioned the identity of the Lapstone Kidney and 
Haigh's Seedling. In Rendle’s Price Current the Lapstone 
and Haigh’s New Seedling are mentioned, and these may be 
distinct; but I believe that the Lapstone was raised by a 
shoemaker in Yorkshire named Haigh, who conferred the 
name of Lapstone on his seedling, while others distinguished 
it by his own. 
I should think that if some of your readers would report 
their experience with regard to the varieties of this indis¬ 
pensable root, the information would be acceptable. A 
greater circulation of this is required, and I suppose pommes 
de terre do not come within the jurisdiction of the Pomo- 
logical Society.—W., Warwickshire. 
[This is from a very reliable source, and we shall be glad 
to receive the experience of others on the subject.— Ed. 
C. G.] 
NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 
Astilbe rubra {Red-Jloivered Astilbe). 
“Avery pretty and hardy plant, with the habit and ap¬ 
pearance of a Spircea.” Found in the Khasia Mountains of 
Eastern Bengal, at an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet. 
Flowers pink, and blooming at the end of summer and 
during autumn. — (Botanical Magazine, t. 4959.) 
Seaforthia elegans (Elegant Seaforthia). 
A very beautiful Palm, native of the northern and eastern 
shores of tropical New Holland. When 28 feet high it 
produced flowers at Kew, in 1856. They are pale pink, in 
long clusters.— {Ibid. t. 4961.) 
Adhatoda cydonlzefolia {Quince leaved Adhatada). 
An erect stove evergreen shrub, introduced by Messrs. 
Yeitch and Son, of the Chelsea and Exeter Nurseries. It is 
a native of Brazil. Flowers purple and white, appearing in 
autumn.— {Ibid. t. 4962.) 
Scheeria lanata {Woolly Scheeria). 
It is Mandirola lanata of some botanists. It is a 
Gloxinia-like plant, native of the Western Cordillera of [ 
Mexico. Flowers with a pale purple lip, softening into a 
pale pink in the tube. They open in October.— {Ibid. t. 
4963.) 
CATALOGUES OF GARDEN SEEDS. 
Carter’s Catalogue of Seeds.* —Were the Catalogues j 
before us mere enumerations of names we should have j 
followed our usual practice of leaving them to make their I 
own way before the public; but, as the manner in which the 
three before us have been prepared, both as regards botanical 
accuracy and the amount of valuable information they con¬ 
tain, is such as we do not often meet with, we have felt it I 
our duty to give them this prominent notice. 
Mr. Carter’s Catalogue contains 1794 species and varieties ' 
of flower seeds, all the usual and many new varieties of 
vegetable and agricultural seeds, besides many other ac¬ 
cessories of the flower and kitchen garden. We are pro¬ 
vided with the botanical and English name of each sort, its 
position in the Linntean and Natural Systems of Botany, 
native country, hardiness and duration, colour of the flower, 
height, month of flowering, and the price of each. What 
more could one wish for? We cordially recommend this 
Catalogue to our readers, which we are informed may be had 
on prepaid application. 
Sutton’s Spring Catalogue. +—Besides a good descriptive 
list of kitchen and flower-garden seeds, this Catalogue con- 
* A Choice Selection of Floricultural, Vegetable, and Agricultural 
Seeds, Ike., to be had of James Carter and Co., 238, High Holbom 
W.C., London, 1857. 
t Sutton’s Spring Catalogue and Amateur’s Guide for 1857. By Sutton 
and Sons, Royal Berkshire Seed Establishment, Reading. 
tains short directions when to sow them, a calendar of 
operations, and some useful tables. Any one fond of garden¬ 
ing will find this, as well as the other two, very useful for 
reference. 
Rendle’s Price Current for 1857.}—This, like the 
preceding, is prepared for the primary purpose of informing 
the public of the seeds and plants to be obtained at the 
establishment of the proprietors, and a very goodly list it 
contains ; but it also includes a slight almanack, and some 
very good papers on gardening subjects by Mr. Errington 
and others. No one who expends his sixpence upon it will 
regret having done so. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
DARK - COLOURED POMPONES FOR POTS.— 
FAILURE OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN THE j 
TEMPLE GARDENS. 
I 
In No. 428 of The Cottage Gardener a subsciiber 
asks to be furnished with the names of the best six dark 
Pompones for pot culture. I do not think he can do better 
than by selecting the following :— Bob, Sainte Thais, Doctor 
Bois Duval, Creole, Brilliant, II Brasiero, Buckingham, 
Autumnum, Requiqui, Daphnis, Helene , and Liliputian. I 
have given a dozen, which I have proved all to be good and 
free-blooming in the open borders. I must except Mr. Bob, 
for he is very uncertain for out-of-door blooming, but does 
well in the greenhouse. 
I beg to thank Mr. Beaton for his interesting article on 
the old and new Chrysanthemums. No one reads them 
with more pleasure than I do, as I always pick up some¬ 
thing new whenever he writes on them. 
The reason I take so much interest in this particular 
plant is this—I find Chrysanthemums are the best town 
flowers we have. They are less sensitive to smoke than any 
other plant, are green all the year, and bloom when all other 
out-of-door plants are gone. For these qualities, being an 
old city gardener, I cultivate them very extensively—from 
ten to twenty thousand annually—and generally succeed in 
making a good display every year, which causes many 
thousands to visit the Temple Gardens in November to see j 
what they term a novelty in the city—a flower-show out of 
doors. 
To my great disappointment, this year I have had, for the 
first year out of ten, a partial failure; and, to add to this, 
my next neighbour, Mr. Dale, who is gardener to the Middle j 
Temple, never had his so good ; so that it makes it appear 
that it is my mismanagement. His is a nicely-kept little 
garden, well sheltered all round with high buildings from 
the eastward. Mine is a very large public one, with an 
open, draughty corner to the east, where, unfortunately, all 
my specimen plants are exposed. Of these I had this sea¬ 
son from two to three thousand, all trained to one stem, no 
laterals, and disbudded to two or three buds. I laboured 
hard all the summer to keep them in as healthy a growing 
state as the locality would admit, and never could plants 
possibly be in a better condition up to October. They Avere 
free from disease, and with foliage quite down to the ground. 
To prevent these losing their foliage, and to increase their 
strength, I mulched them from two to three inches thick 
Avith horse-droppings from a saAV-mill that had been aceu- , 
mulating for three or four years. Perhaps this was unwise, 
and added to my failure. If you think so enlighten my 
understanding, and give me friendly advice not to do so 
again. 
Well, as soon as October set in the plants showed their 
buds as bright as if French-polished ; nothing could be 
healthier till the Avet came day after day, followed by a cold 
east Avind, with fog and frost. They then began to lose all 
their bottom foliage, and the buds split in two, throwing 
out here and there a petal, and out of the whole two or three 
thousand I could not muster six good blooms on my speci¬ 
men plants, about Avhich I had laboured night and day 
for nearly six months. 
t Rendle’s Price Current and Garden Directory for 1857. Sold by W. 
E. Rendle and Co., Seed Merchants, Plymouth, and Simpkin and 
Marshall, Paternoster Roav. Price 6d. 
