THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Novembeb 30, 1858. 
12‘J 
pity that this plant, in commemoration of our earliest 
and greatest circumnavigator, who lost his life in the good 
cause, should go to a private collection, and be seen no 
more, as it were. If I were a rich shareholder, I would 
buy it, and present it at once, gratis, to the Crystal 
Palace. Then I should have my name on the label, asso¬ 
ciated with the name of Captain Cook, and I could die 
contented. But, hark! fourteen Wardian Cases, from 
Sydney, two months back, brought 500 Araucarias, and 
a great many Dammara Bidwillii, which comes nearest to 
B. Brownii, and not one single leaf was hurt out of the 
whole lot. The plants are now as good looking as if they 
were raised from seeds on the spot, and are from nine to 
twenty inches in height. The kinds are Cunning hamia \ 
excelsa, Cookii, and Bidwillii. But, with the exception of I 
one more case from Hobart Town, none before ever came to l 
hand at Clapton, from Australia, with all the plants in as 
good condition as when they were packed, if not in a ; 
much better state. So that some kinds of plants, at any ' 
rate, will live, and that most comfortably, for four or live 
months in the year, without much change of air, in these 
cases,—notwithstanding what Dr. Lindley has said, on 
“ Give me air, or I die.” 
But I must name Bacrydium elatum, the most elegant 
plant among Conifers I ever saw in a young state. A 
wood of it, such as the plants under review, would be 
in keeping with the fairies’ festival at Windermere, as 
told by Christopher North. A whole house of Otaheite 
and other dwarf Oranges, large Camellias, Azaleas, Libo- 
cedruses, Welling tonias, Araucarias ; and up on a brick- 
shelf bed,—the original propagating-bed described by Mr. 
Low, in “ Loudon’s Magazine ” for 1826-7,—thousands 
of Li Hum giganteum, in all stages of raising, from seeds. 
Six ranges of cold pits, each six feet wide and 217 feet 
long, are brimful of the younger members of all the best 
families of greenhouse plants, hardy Conifers, and hardy 
Perns. There seems no end to these Perns, or to the 
interest and trade in them, and in variegated and line¬ 
leaved plants. There is a silvery variegated Chinese 
Azalea, called G-rande Duchesse Selene, the best of that 
race. A tree Lycopod, from Borneo, the only plants of 
it in Europe, and they are ticklish to strike, and the 
oddest of all that come near to Perns. At the end of each 
shoot springs out a tassel of another aspect, as we see buds 
next growths sometimes. This will, probably, be a dear 
ptant for a long time. 
Scores of Witsenia corymbosa, and the largest specimen 
of the same I ever saw. It is four feet by four feet, and 
healthier than a young plant. Lots of Pentstemon Mur¬ 
ray anum, a difficult subject. Two hundred Begonia rex, 
all together, and in one-sized pot, made as good a bedding 
show as two hundred Blowers of the Bay; and lots of 
Begonias are as handsome and as cheap as rex. 
The way they propagate these “ illustrated Begonias,” 
as some one called them, is most remarkable. Mr. Low 
bought three leaves of Begonia rex, from the Messrs. 
Eollinson, for £10, to begin with, and from these three 
leaves he made 300 plants in three months. The whole 
secret was shown and explained to me, as practised just 
now on several other newer kinds, which promise to be 
as handsome as rex. The first thing is to cut according 
to your cloth, and the cost of the article. Then, if a 
gardener, with a piece of cloth, and of the shape of a 
Begonia leaf, had to cut it for shreds, to nail trees with, 
and wished to make the most of it, he would exercise his 
geometrical skill in cutting the piece, so as to have no 
waste ; and that is how they do cuttings of these leaves, 
every cut, or bit, of which will make roots, and form 
plants. These bits are put in just like cuttings, all over 
the pot, as thick as they can be placed: they are kept 
close and moist, in strong heat, but have no bellglasses 
over them. Rex is now seeding there, after being set 
with the pollen of other kinds, which are as beautiful as 
itself; and here they are—Begonia argenlea guttata, Mi¬ 
randa, lazula, Madame Wagner, ricinifolia, maeulata, 
and Prince I'roubetskoy, which is after the looks of 
Griffithii, which was first called picta. The true pitta 
is here also,—a greenish-brown leaf, spotted with silver. 
A large stock of Gesnera Bonc/celarii, showing it to be 
a great favourite; and of a new kind, named Madame 
Auguste Miellez, with purplish flowers, after the manner 
of a Gloxinia also, and deservedly a great favourite. The 
little silver - spotted Caladium, which attracted Her 
Majesty’s attention so much last spring, in St. James’s 
Hall, goes to rest for the winter, like a fairy, as it is. A 
stock of Pitcher Plants from cuttings. Heterocentrum 
roseum, the pretty winter-flowering Melastomad, which 
Dr. Lindley and myself pronounced new last week, in 
St. James’s Hall, from the Messrs. Spary and Campbell, 
of Brighton, is just as old as the hills. Mr. Low had it 
from an old garden in the North, and recollects my having 
it in 1830, on rockwork, in the Orchid-house. If that be 
so, it is far better than we know r of now; for give it free 
soil and space, and it will bloom nine months out of the 
twelve ; and it is as cheap as a good two-year old Fuchsia. 
This is another example against being too positive in our 
opinions and estimations of plants, and a peg to hang on 
the two most positive and opposite opinions of the very 
same individuals from the same Hall. Dr. Lindley is 
positive that the cut flowers of the Chrysanthemums at 
St. James’s Hall were not dressed, and Donald Beaton is 
just as positive that they were dressed, and that in the 
first style of fashion. If a lady took in a man about 
dress or dressing so easily, she might liken him to 
green Gooseberries, of which they make Gooseberry fools. 
But here is a case to the point. There is a very pretty, 
dwarf, old-fashioned plant, which was out of sight and out 
of mind for years and years, and some of the Continental 
nurserymen have taken it up, and are passing it off as a 
new, double, fairy Myrtle, which they name Myrtus 
Bletia. But at Clapton it goes by its proper name of 
Serissa feetida Jlore-pleno, although it might be called a 
fairy Gardenia, to which it is closely related; and the 
fairy Gardenia blooms all the year round, grows ten 
inches high, and forty or fifty inches through, in about 
twelve years. 
But, to change the subject, let us go among Fuchsias 
and bedding plants. A fine Continental kind, called Tri¬ 
color, took my fancy : it has a scarlet tube, white shaded 
sepals, and a violet-blue corolla, after the fashion of Venus 
de Medici. Madame Miellez is much after the same model. 
Prince of Prussia (Smith’s) they told me was the best of 
all the white corolla kinds. Queen Victoria and Mrs. 
Story are the next best of that strain, but both of them 
too rambling in growth. 
The best new double Petunias, from the Continent, are 
— Sendersoni, Leopold, Imperatrice, Madame Louise 
Tliibant, and Verschajfeltii. And, best of all, a new 
dwarf, blue, bedding Lobelia, which is likely to turn 
speciosa out of cultivation. This was discovered out in 
the far interior of Morton Bay, by the curator of the 
botanic garden there, who went there from Kew. It has 
been drawn, to be figured by Sir Wm. Hooker, in the 
“ Botanical Magazine,” and is to be called Lobelia trigo- 
nicaulis, which, being interpreted,means treis, three; gona, 
an angle or knee, or some swellings like them; and caulis, 
a stem or shoot. The flower I can vouch for, as the 
original plant was planted out last summer, and was 
taken up and potted in October, and is still flowering as 
freely as ever. The flowers in shape, size, and colour are 
intermediate between those of speciosa and ramosa, which 
grows eighteen inches high; not ramosoides. The plant 
will be more compact, but stronger than speciosa. Ten 
thousand of it will be planted out next May, as Mr. Low 
has begun giving it out to the trade already, and very 
reasonably indeed. 
This Lobelia I consider the best acquisition of the 
season. But, among a host of new plants from Borneo, 
at Clapton they think far more of a fine new stove plant, 
for specimens to the shows,—a noble-looking plant, which 
