THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— February 24,1857. 307 
those at the Crystal Palace, and are as healthy-looking 
and as full of bloom-buds as a bedding Geranium. 
Then follow standards and half standards of Myrtles of 
different kinds, and of that better kind of Laurestinus 
for standards which the French use so much, and which 
they call multiflorus. It is different from any of our 
varieties, and is even more stiff and compact than our 
! smooth-leaved Laurestinus, from which it must be a 
seedling. The flowers in winter are pure white. Here 
they have it from the Continent “ ready made ” into 
standards from nine-inch stems to the size of standard 
Roses. In terrace gardens, with long, straight walks, it 
is one of the best of the evergreens for “ accompani¬ 
ments ” along the lines of gravel or architecture, and is 
naturally in bloom all the winter, and for wedding nose¬ 
gays is the next to Orange blossoms. Then Acacias of dif¬ 
ferent kinds; then Camellias. A specimen of Stenocarpus 
Cunninghamii, with a pyramidal form, is particularly 
elegant with its “remarkable foliage.” > 
The centre plant in the house, and opposite the front 
door, is perhaps the best specimen in the country of the 
“ Blue Gum trees ” of the Austnalian settlers, the Euca¬ 
lyptus pidvendenta. It is as high as the roof will allow, 
and is feathered majestically down to the ground. If 
they would remove it to the new grand winter-garden 
house, as no doubt they will, it would soon form the 
finest of the kind in cultivation; as it is, they sell from 
it as fast as they can well propagate. The whole race 
make majestic plants for a winter garden, and they are 
all but hardy. A large assortment of standard Chinese 
Azaleas, with clean stems from half a yard to a yard 
high, with proportionate heads, occupy the front stages, 
along with different kinds of Rhododendrons; Azalea 
Pontica and Indica in bloom ; Dielytra spectabilis ditto ; 
Deutzia gracilis, Epacrises of sorts, Daphnes ditto, with 
early blooming bulbs, which give a cheerfulness to the 
whole ; and on the rafters are the best kinds of Kenne- 
dyas, as MarryatUe ; Mimosas, as prostrata ; Brachy- 
semas; Tacsonia manicata, the best of them ; and on the 
end walls are trained Acacia cultriformis, Glycine or 
Kennedya birnaculata, Passijlora Colvillii; and a very 
curious nondescript, called here PhiUopodium rigidum, 
with small, dense foliage and white flowers. From the 
rafters hang a great variety of designs for “ hanging 
baskets ” in wood, china-ware, glass, terra cotta, and iron. 
The seed department is No. 2, and is most extensive 
both for the gardens and fields, with the usual assort¬ 
ments for each, whether for “ pot luck,” flower-bed, or 
lawn, cultivated field or meadow, or the exhibitions of 
the florists in detail. Also, a complete collection of 
garden implements; and on the walls are numerous 
coloured drawings of Camellias and Pelargoniums, from 
which the best and newest of the new French race may 
bo selected in the dead of winter. This is a most excel¬ 
lent plan, which many of our best growers have adopted 
within the last few years. On a platform below these 
stand various kinds of china-ware flower-pots, glass 
shades for Ferns, and other ornaments. 
No. 3, the Heath house, is filled with a very choice 
selection of the most popular kinds, and all the heat they 
get is merely to save them from frost, with abundance of 
ventilation day and night when it is safe: night air 
seems to be one of the grand secrets for keeping Heaths 
in stiff, robust habit and health. The “ show-room,” on 
the right of the conservatory, is furnished with all man¬ 
ner of cast-iron vases, some of them of large sizes, and 
some with plants in them to show the effect; also, iron 
chairs for the garden, and various flower-stands, and lots 
of “ rustic work ” some of which are in very good designs, 
a rare thing in rustics of that ilk. The extreme east- 
end house is filled with Fancy Geraniums, remarkably 
well grown, and trained “ for use,” from which collections 
of dozens could easily be selected for the summer shows. 
• The principal stove is the beginning of the right-hand 
wiug of houses. It is a span roof in two divisions; the 
extreme length is seventy feet, and the width twenty-two 
feet; it forms one of the abutment sides of the winter 
garden, so to speak, and is next to where the boiler is 
placed. In these stoves the following plants are the 
most noticeable :—The firm does not “ profess ” to grow 
Orchids, but I saw a good many about; a good selection 
of Stove Ferns in capital condition, and, like all the 
nurseries, there is a constant call for them. Of Palms, 
Acrofiomia horrida ; a pair of fine Attalea, called syl- 
vestris; Latania Borbonica, Corypha umbraculifeva , and 
Sabal Blackburniana ; several fine Dracccnas, Panxlanus, 
Strelitzias, Zamias, Dion, and Cycas, all in a high con¬ 
dition. Several Begoniaceae in bloom ; the New Holland 
Pitcher-plant, Cephalotus follicularis; Venus’s Fly-trap, 
Dioncea muscipida ; Sonerila margaritacea, and M. 
superba, the better variety of it; the new Lasiandra 
BLoibrenld, named after Baron Hugel’s gardener, a fine 
thing, with Melastoma-like leaves, and, I believe,large 
panicles of purplish-blue flowers, like those of L. petio- 
lata ; Exacum macranthum, a beautiful stove biennial, 
recently received from Ceylon, with beautiful deep pur¬ 
plish-blue flowers of the Gentian class; a large lot of 
the red Bocca del Dragon, or Dragon’s-mouth Orchid, 
Epidendrum macrochilum roseum; and several other kinds 
from the same quarter, the neighbourhood of New 
Magdalena, in South America. They were suspended, and 
hanging seemed to agree with them very much. Musa 
Cavendisldi, putting forth its fruit; a fine pair of Maranta 
zebrina, M. rosea lineata, and all that class of finely- 
marked foliage plants; several Ropalas ; Pavetta Bor¬ 
bonica ; several pairs of Bonapartea juncea, Medinillas, 
Crotons, Ficus, Allamandas, Coccoloba, Eugenia, Brexia, 
Theophrasta; BiUbergia vittata in fine bloom; Aspi¬ 
distra variegata, Artocarpus imperialis, Azaleas, Cri- 
nums, and Russellias; Saccharum Madeni, a new Sugar¬ 
cane plant, looking much like the Pampas Grass; the 
graceful Lemon Grass, which I was told they stand out of 
doors on the Continent during the summer; Prionium 
Palmita, of the Cape of Good Hope, which is of the 
order of Rushes, but “ remarkably unlike European 
Rushes, having the look of an Aloe, or of the crown of 
a Pine Apple mounted upon a thick, black, spongy 
stem ” (Lindley); also Eurcraa gigantea, which never 
flowered in England, I believe, but once, and that at 
Powis Castle, where I saw the flower-stem in 1830: 
it is an Aloe-like plant. Fine plants of Rogiera cordata 
and Euphorbia, splendens just coming into bloom; also 
several Hibiscuses and Gardenias. The rafters are 
covered with such climbers as Iponuca Horsfallice, 
several Passion-flowers, Stephanotis, Cissus discolor; 
Argyreia oleracea, a Convolvulus-like flower, and re¬ 
markably fine silvery leaves ; Combretums and Cherry- 
pie—the new Heliotropes—and what better pie than 
they ? The walls were clothed with the creeping Ficuses, 
Ferns, Philodendrons, iEschynanths, and others, giving 
evidence of superior culture. D. Beaton. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
FORCING POTATOES AND CUCUMBERS UNDER 
CANVASS OR OILED PAPER. 
“ I have set a few Potatoes in a frame of three yards long 
and two yards broad, and a flue under. It is covered with 
thin canvass oiled; the soil is about eight inches from the 
canvass when the Potatoes touch the canvass. What must 
be done to keep the tops inside ? for it will not be con¬ 
venient to raise the frame. Could you give me an idea what 
time they ought to be ready for getting up ? I put them in 
on the 2Gth of January, for when they are ready to get up I 
expect to have some Cucumber plants ready to put into the 
frame. What distance should the plants be from the can¬ 
vass ? I have grown Cucumbers under oil paper, but never 
to any profit. I have a small frame, and last year I covered 
