THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 13, 1858. 
Shows ; and to make a big plant, winter your plant or plants 
as high in the middle of the stove as the glass will allow; 
give a liberal and early encouragement to a rapid growth ; 
i finish the first groiclh as early in the summer as your means 
will allow; and before a second growth is thought of, 
make cuttings of the first side-shoots, and every one of 
them will bloom before they will begin to grow next season, 
because the incipient, or say the “ seed of the bloom,” was in 
the shoots when they were made into cuttings; then, by 
“forcing” and “retarding,” little Medinella plants, not more 
than a foot high, may be bloomed from Christmas to May 
dav. 
% / 
Rhopala jonghei (shong-ei) has the largest and the most 
magnificent-looking foliage of the order. Rhopala princeps , 
I Slcinneri, magnified, sessil folia, Calegi, and corcovailensis , are 
the next best of these “ fine-leaved plants.” What a lesson 
I for young gardeners to turn up their noses at what “used to 
be!” When I broke the ice with fine-leaved plants notin 
bloom, for exhibition twenty years back, the what “ usecl-to- 
be ” people thought I was “ stark mad.” But look at the 
Rhopalas, and all the rest of them now ! the trade in them, 
and how they “take” at the Exhibitions! Above all, look 
how high I get into the saddle writing about them wherever I 
meet them; and if I w r ere on the sunny side of thirty, there 
are a dozen of new moves into which I would j ump headlong, 
[ and carry them, as well as plants not in bloom, and fine-leaved 
plants, better than “ our own Portugal Laurels.” 
Pulzeysia rosea , a new fine-leaved plant ; Rivenia Icevis, 
j new, bright scarlet berries; Ruellia grandiflora , new, large 
| violet flowers; Saurauya mollis , new, beautiful, extra fine 
broad leaves ; Stadmannia Jonghei, the best of them ; Olmedia 
: ferox, majestic leaves ; Cupania (? Jacaranda) filicifolia, just 
like an elegant Tree Fern ; Cupania glabra , exceedingly orna¬ 
mental foliage ; Cassia S/cinnifolia , free blooming, and golden 
yellow ; JEchmea miniata, discolor, spectabilis, and Milioni , 
all four very strikingly handsome; AEschynanthusfulgens and 
pulcher , the best of them; Aralia papyracca, leptophylla, 
farifera , and reticulata , all with very oramental foliage; 
Amherstia nobilis, down to five guineas at last; Allamanda 
Paraguayensis , and Aubletia , very large yellow ; Ancectochi- 
lus Eldorado, Lowi, cordatus, intermedins, and Veitchi, the 
best of them ; Caladium picturatum , splendens , and niarmo- 
ratum, most beautiful ; Echites Soutteana , one of the finest 
! stove climbers; CossigniaBorbonica, fine leaved, with yellowish 
i midribs; Bromelia sceptrum , spiny-leaved Pine Apple-look- 
| ing, with stolons a yard long; Bilbergia Moreliana, and 
thyrsoidea, the best of them ; Draccena ferrea , versicolor, 
fragrans , latifolia, maculata, nobilis, and Rumphii, all of the 
; handsomest kinds of Dragon trees ; Eucaris Amazonica, the 
best stove bulb to bloom all the year round, and fully as easy 
to grow as Agapanthus, but is best in the greenhouse all 
summer; Bertolonia marmorea, better than maculata. 
Begonias.—T he best of them are Rex (illustrated), splen- 
dida, Saundersianci, zeylanica, frosted foliage; Billeteri, 
another for the flower garden out in front of a greenhouse, 
deep rosy flowers all the summer ; Cinnabrarina hybrida , 
fine; Mortiana, multiflora, nitida, and n. coccinea, the best 
old and new of that style ; Rosacea, fine; Roylei, Thwaitesi, 
argentea (Xanthina breed), Reichenheimi (after Baron Ilugel’s 
late gardener), and Piet a Grijfithi (Hooker), have all orna¬ 
mental foliage. Thus making the first and last two of the finest 
: leaved in the genus, and no need to add older and well-known 
sorts. Every one put in this list is of the “ best.” 
Exacum (genus near Chironia) zeylanicum, a fine thing; 
Xanthosoma pilosa, with white flowers, and fine largo leaves, 
closely related to Caladium; Theophrastra imperial is, a really 
imperial leaf, which will easily propagate by the midrib, as all 
of them will do, and as I did them twenty and twenty-one years 
ago for the original collection of fine-leaved plants; Thun- 
bergia laurifolia, with porcelain-blue flowers, as large as those 
of the new Gloxinias; Rudgea leucocephala, first reported 
from a meeting of the Horticultural Society, in Regent Street, 
with magnificent leaves, and “ large bunches of pure white 
flowers;” Gesnera cinnabarina, one of Linden’s introduc¬ 
tions in the way of Zebrina ; but “it is impossible to give any 
idea of the extraordinary splendour and richness of this plant,” 
I suppose, by likening it to any Zebrina on the face of the 
earth; Gesnera Donclcelari, vermillion, and like the finest 
Pentstemon in shape of bloom ; Purpurea macrantha, dwarf; 
Zebrina excelsa, green, but veined with dark maroon; Miellez, 
long tube, lilac-purple flowers, like a Gloxinia; Densiflora, 
another fine thing; and Blassii , which blooms in winter, 
scarlet. 
Allied to these is a new trailing, or basket Acliimencs-like 
plant, quite new, in the way of Achimenes cupreata, but with 
glossy and silvery-shining leaves. It is called Tapina splen¬ 
dens, and is the same as Achimenes splendens. It is a brighter 
scarlet than Tom Thumb, and is more easy to grow and to 
propagate than Tom Thumb himself; and Tom is more dif¬ 
ficult, and more expensive, to winter, than this most extra¬ 
ordinary beautiful plant for trailing down from a hanging 
basket, or for training up over a balloon. 
Goody era rubro-venia is a great improvement in the leaf on 
discolor. Gompliia decora, with racemes of yellow flowers ; 
the best of the genus, and one of the best “ bitters ” in the 
Brazils. Guzmannia picta, which I often spoke of as Nklulciria 
fulgens, a stumpy Bromeliad of striking beauty. Soya grand i- 
flora, white, in the way of imperialis. Orbiculata, new, with 
a round fleshy leaf. Tysmanni, also new, and with long fleshy 
leaves with the variegated kind, and imperialis, are the newest 
and best here; Marccnta regalis is, perhaps, the best of them 
all—broad leaves with carmine stripes. Vittata and Warce - 
tviezi, very good ; but they are all beautiful in their illustrated 
foliage. Ouvirandra fenestralis, the lace water-plant from 
Madagascar, still keeps up its price, being at the same level as 
it stood this time last year. Passiflora amabilis, scarlet; 
Gontieri, sweet-scented; Vitifolia, another new scarlet; and 
Schlimiana, new and beautiful; are the best of what is new 
in Passion Flowers, as far as they have been collected to the 
Wellington Road Nursery. 
There are two kinds of Sanseviera zeylanica (not Javanica). 
Orchids. A select collection is grown just to the size of 
selling, and no more. Ferns of all degrees of temperature, 
and temptation to buy, on account of their lovely forms. 1 
have slept on all kinds of beds, but, for the weary sportsman, 
commend me to a bed of Fern, if properly made, after a 
canker or two of Glenlivet! 
Azaleas. The best of the American, or deciduous kind, 
for forcing is called Taylor’s Red, a deep blush flower, with a 
crimson eye, very showy. 
The Cliusan Palm assumes a bold, stiff, upright Chaem crops- 
looking aspect, and will make groves with us which will rival 
the Chamcerops excelsa of the south of Europe. Dasylyrion 
angustifoliwm, a fine Dracsena-looking plant, with drooping 
leaves four feet long ; a fine thing. Seaforthia elegans — 
Cabbage Palm of Australia—all but hardy; another fine 
thing. Clianthus Dampieri was coming into bloom in pots, 
and planted out in a cool house. 
Rhododendrons. —The species from Sikkim and Bhotan 
have now taken their true shapes and habits, and look remark¬ 
ably v r ell; and they cultivate a large assortment of all. the 
home-obtained crosses, both here and from the Continent. 
Among the latter is a new lot of Belgian beauties, said to be 
very good. One standard plant of the double Myrtle is four 
and a half by four feet. I should think the finest specimen of 
the kind on sale in this country. 
Also collections and selections of all the hardy climbers, 
twiners, trailers, and creepers ; Conifers, Roses, Phloxes, Per¬ 
petual and Tree Carnations ; herbaceous plants, spring flowers, 
florists’ flowers of all sorts, sizes, and shapes. Thus giving up 
the hall and the circle altogether; and thousands and tens 
of thousands of bedding plants, which, with Mr. Kidd’s new 
system of cuttings, and Mr. Weeks’s bottom heat by the rood 
and acre, would soon fill all the beds and borders in the three 
kingdoms.— D. Beaton. 
FUMIGATION MADE EASY". 
First, as to the fumigating material. Buy some good 
leaf tobacco. Mind, leaf, not roll. Next, make “touch” of 
it. Every boy, whether he be a. growing boy of fifteen, or a 
grown boy of thirty, knows how to make “touch.” But as 
your lady readers may not be so wise, I will, for their sake, 
add, that the way to make “touch” is to take some nitre 
and dissolve it in warm wnter. About a table-spoonful of 
crushed nitre to a pint of w r ater. Steep brown paper in this 
solution, dry it, and you have touch. Now, instead of brown 
