12 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 5, 1853. 
What will the natives say of a bedding Begonia ? Parvi- 
flora is the smallest of that race of Begonias, and is almost a 
perpetual bloomer all the year round. Cinnabarina is the 
most difficult of the race to do well:—is also one of the most 
beautiful flowers of them all, and is half its time at rest. 
But there is no question about the “great beauty,” and 
“ bedder.” 
“ Turned out a Pitcairnia seedling, in hopes of killing it. 
Grows like a Cabbage. Fancy a bed of such things.” There 
are more bedders in the dry stores of botanic gardens, than in 
the cold pits of the nurseries; that is, summer bedders, which, 
however, are not so gay as ours. 
“Have new heaps of the new Unique races, of all tints 
and dispositions. One, quite new in appearance, flowered 
yesterday, for the first time. The white Uniques will, I fear, 
be gross and leafy. The Quercifolias are much better; one 
of them, a pure red or scarlet, will be a bedder. Lots of 
pale Sidonias up.” Early this season, and once last summer, 
I gave it out,—for the guidance of young amateur cross¬ 
breeders,—that they had no chance with the Uniques; that 
they were already so far improved, that none could overtake 
this very collection of them. The same with the true Sidonias, 
but the French have made a fine thing of the Sidonia 
breed. The new colour, which came out at the shows last 
May, was got from Sidonia blood. The same colour ap¬ 
peared for the first time among my own seedlings, other¬ 
wise I should never guess how they got into that strain. 
There w T as a beautiful flower in the first breaking up of the 
Sidonia, three or four years back, which no one could strike 
from cuttings. The best London propagation failed to 
increase it. Let me have it for the Experimental, and, if I 
cannot make a plant, I will spoil a cutting. I received one 
cutting of it last May, and towards the end of August it 
Bhowed signs of life, and now it is coming into bloom. The 
experiment is very curious, and well worth minding. Years 
ago I insisted on it, that no method was so sure as the old 
■way, described by Miller,—to put cuttings of all kinds of 
Geraniums out in the full sun, to shade the very weak ones 
for a while, and then to give them Italian climate, if it could 
be done. I planted this cutting, after travelling a long 
distance, two feet from a south-west wall, in the Cocoa-nut 
fibre, and put four panes of 6-inch glass round it, making a 
glass square, six inches on the side, just like the bottom of a 
handglass, without the top, the cutting being in the centre, with 
two leaves only. I put a piece of slate across the square, every 
day the sun was out, for a month; by that time the leaves 
got so accustomed to the light, air, and enormous heat, that 
they could do without covering. June was awfully hot, but no 
sign of life or progress. July was touchy weather,—some¬ 
times too much rain, and little sun, and the reverse,—but no 
progress in the experiment. But the steady, uniform heat of 
August brought on a change, and at the end of the fourth 
month the cutting was rooted, and I hope to see the blossom 
ere long. Every plant and seed I receive for experiment, I 
am hound in honour not to give away to any one. 
The report goes on—“ Baron Hugel, crossed with white 
Nosegay, is a failure for bedding, but beautiful in a pot.” So 
you see pot plants are looked for nowadays, just as much as 
bedders in the same class. The reason why Baron Hugel 
fails in good dwarf bedders I learnt to my cost,—it has no 
pollen, and it was a sport. I saw it go back to its original 
type at Claremont. I bad 600 seedlings from it by the first 
breeders in my stud, not one of which was worth a straw. In 
the scarlet Geraniums, the habit always goes after the pollen 
parent, and if the mother is not strictly a cross, she may be as 
dwarf as the Golden Chain, and the pollen parent even more 
dwarf, yet the seedlings will take after the freak which pro¬ 
duced the mother. 
“ Crossed Mangles' and Tom Thumb seeds, all without germ.” 
This is one more beyond my reach. I never got a crossed flower 
of Mangles' to set; but I had a bed of a see'dling*from 
Mangles', two years rising in the fountain garden, at Shrub- 
land Park. The flowers were twice the size and substance of 
those of Mangles'; but the plants seeded so much that they 
were troublesome to keep tidy ; yet I failed most completely in 
getting any other pollen to act on them. 
“ Golden Chain crossed with Tom Thumb, good seeds ripe.” 
The same rule which spoils the seedlings of Baron Hugel 
applies here also. The Golden Chain is a sport from Inquinans, 
the original plain-leaved kind, from the Cape. Sports may 
come from sports, hut I do not know an instance to encourage 
the sport of breeding from sports. 
“ Four variegated seedlings from Flou'er of the Hay." This 
plant will reproduce as many Annies , Attractions, Mountain 
of Lights, and Countesses of Warwick, as you please. I once 
fell into the error of supposing the Flower of the Hay to have 
been a sport. If it was a sport, it could not produce such 
offspring ; but Mr. Kinghorn assured me since, that it was a 
a genuine seedling of his own raising. The report confirms 
the statement. 
“ The new Zelinda Dahlia ( Coccinella ) is in bloom, about the 
size and height of Tom Thumb Geranium.” One plant of 
Coccinella reached the Experimental Garden on St. Swithin’s 
day, and will not bloom this autumn. 
“ Hauibois Strawberry, crossed with Myatt’s Queen, plants 
up. Black Prince, crossed with ditto, up also. Keens’ 
Seedling, crossed last year with the Hautbois, will fruit next 
summer, the seedlings taking the habit of the Hautbois, the 
male parent. Black Currant crossed with Ribes sanguincum ;• 
seeds apparently good, but did not germinate ; try again.” 
We often hear of crosses by Hautbois, but never see fruit that 
will second the reports. 
“ An ongmalFulgidum cross, almost identical with Ignescens, 
seeds like a Groundsel.” This is the best news of all. It was 
at this stage of the Ignescens minor that the florists lost 
sight of the Fulgidum, or clear scarlet strain of Pelargoniums. 
—D. Beaton. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDEN FOUNTAIN. 
“ I am desirous of having a fountain in my garden, and 
will thank you to tell me if my plan is feasible. We have 
water supplied (by a water company) to our bedrooms, 
kitchens, &c. I want to have a fountain not far from 
the kitchen hall, about twelve feet. My plan is to have a 
basin made of cement, surrounded by rockwork, and the jot 
to issue from the centre of the basin. Will the water rise 
without my having a tank above the level of the garden,—that 
is, will the same force that carries the water to the bedrooms 
be sufficient to work the fountain ? Also, if it does, would 
a hose attached to the fountain-pipe, in room of the jet, throw 
water over the garden ? "— Kate. 
[We do not recommend any work to be done in cement, 
which is to be exposed to the weather, after the middle of 
September, to the end of April. There is no difficulty in 
making the basin and fountain as you propose; but the force 
of the jet will be according to the height of the reservoir of 
the water company above your fountain, as also the force to dis¬ 
tribute the water over the garden. But you might ascertain 
the latter force by fixing a short piece of hose or tubing to 
one of the taps in the kitchen, or back kitchen, or yard.] 
GROWING L1LIUM LANCIFOL1UM IN A BOT. 
“ Knowing that the flowers of my Liliums ( lane folium) at 
the Crystal Palace Show,—kindly noticed in your this week’s 
(Sept. 21st) notice to correspondents,—were good, but did 
not obtain a prize for want of being ‘ in a lump,’ I do not 
intend next year being defeated from such a cause, if I can 
help it. As my bulbs are now only one in a pot, will you 
inform me whether I should take each out of the mould and 
pot them with others into larger pots (present size 16’s), or 
whether I should allow them to remain as they are until the 
spring, and then remove into larger pots without disturbing the 
mould, adding others in fresh mould roui*d the space between 
the old mould and the large pot ? Also, whether I should, in 
either case, repot and plant them now, or wait until the 
spring ? ’’—Will. Worth. 
[Any time in November is the best season to repot the 
Japan Lilies, and if you mean to make a sensation, and take 
an extra first prize, you must put fifteen of the very largest 
bulbs in one lump. In short, the exhibition Lilies are on a 
wrong principle altogether. You arc the only exhibitor who 
put them on the right plan—one in a pot. The test of merit 
ought to be, who can produce the finest leaves, the largest 
flowers, and the thickest stems, in the smallest pot,—one bulb 
in each, A small 32-pot, or a large 48-pot, in good hands, 
