39 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 20, 1858. 
made in tlie root-work beds at the south end, and several al¬ 
terations are still going on in the victualling department. 
1 uchsias are the best of all plants to hold in the hanging 
baskets. Coboeas the best climbers for them. Ivy-leaved 
Geraniums the best trailers ; and Unique the best of all the 
bedders for hanging down. 
Jasminum nudiflorum, not cut like other Jasmines, but on 
the same principle as a Gooseberry; that is, all the wood, young 
or old, which is to be cut, is cut out entirely, not shortened, 
and what young wood is left, is trained in at full length. 
Stauntonia latifolia is thickly in flower-bud in the colonnade. 
It flowers on last year’s wood, and that is a safe guide how to 
prune it. All the climbers were breaking strongly in the 
colonnade, and the border was free from other plants ; the cold 
winds had not affected the Deodars or Araucarias exposed in 
the open garden, but the leaves on the young shoots of the 
common'and Portugal Laurels were scorched here, and in 
most places round London. The double-flowering Gorse was 
in bloom on the banks ; the Magnolia conspicua was lily- 
white in the shrubberies ; the Cydonia and Hikes sanguineum 
w r ere the other hardy shrubs in bloom. There will hardly be 
time for spring flow r ers to do much till it is time to bed out. 
The Tree Pceonias , are still covered slightly w r ith fern ; and in¬ 
doors all the plants seem on the move for a strong: growth. 
1 he Camellias are nearly over, and the Rhododendrons are not 
out yet. 
The following Acacias are still ill bloom— pubescens, fine ; 
graveolens , the lightest of them all, with a sheet of light canary 
coloured bloom ; hykrida , a marked improvement on armata ; 
virgata, a very slender grower as the name implies ; oxycedrus , 
also slender and light yellow bloom ; floribunda ; verticillata 
one of the latest; juniperina , a close slender grower; longi- 
folia , very fine, very strong, and with long broad foliage; and 
dodoncefolia , another slender kind. 
Curcidigo recurvata , a fine-leaved herbaceous plant, seldom 
seen, is doing well among roots in the cold end ; JEuonymus 
fimbriatus, a fine evergreen, the same; Viburnum rugosum , 
the same; the Camphor tree, Laurus camphor a, and Brimys 
Winterly the same also ; Stadmannia Australis , with leaves 
larger than those of Rhopala, as hardy as aFuchsia; Anopterus 
glandulosus , a charming dwarf stocky evergreen in full bloom, 
and as hardy as, perhaps, Pscallonia macrantha , to which 
it is related, but the flowers are more in the way of an Arbutus, 
but larger. Agnostus sinuata , growing beautifully by its 
side ; lilandfordia grandifiora in a large healthy mass, with 
half drooping leaves eighteen inches long, a noble thing when 
in bloom. But there is no end to the riches of this part of 
the collection here. D. Beaton. 
GLOXINIAS AND ACHIMENES. 
(Continued from page 16.) 
One of the plates of “ The Illustrated Bouquet,” in 
the number for last September, is occupied with ten new 
seedling Gloxinias, which were raised in Germany by 
the gardener of the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar. 
The leaves and flowers are drawn and coloured by Mr. 
Andrews, in the first style of art. 
This brings me to the motto for my coat of arms 
“ Doctrinam juventulis, which means, in plainEnglish, 
that my mission is to “teach the young idea,” at what¬ 
ever period of life the idea of my craft may be taken up. 
Now, after a careful perusal of all the illustrated works 
on gardening and botany, for the last 30 years, includ¬ 
ing, in the order of time, WalliclTs great work on 
“Rare Indian Plants,” and Bateman’s and Lindley’s 
great works on the “Orchids;” I can confidently 
assert, that “ The Floral Cabinet,” by Knowles and 
Westmacote, of Birmingham, was the greatest favourite 
among ladies in the drawing-room ; but, during that 
whole period, we had not a single work which might 
be called a drawing-room book on flowers. Too much 
paint, or too much dog Latin, or too much of the 
“ stupid plants ” were in all our serials during that 
period ; therefore, the ladies could not, and did not 
“take” to them, and what the ladies do not take in I 
hand about flowers, flower gardening, and flower books, 
is as sure to go to the dogs, in the long run, as it is 
that we have got a drawing-room book on flowers at 
last, in this “ Illustrated Bouquet,” which is got up, as 
I have just said, in the first style of art, by the first 
artists of the age, without a weed, or a word of Latin 
from end to end, except where a hard name of a plant 
might be so called. There are three quarterly num¬ 
bers of this illustrated work issued—last June, Septem¬ 
ber, and February, with five large “ Bouquets ” in each. 
The Bouquet of Gloxinias has ten kinds in it. That 
of new Fuchsias, last February, has four most splendid 
flowers, two light and two dark kinds ; Bose of Castile 
and Guiding , being the two whites ; and Prince 
Frederich William of Prussia and Loch Katrine , the 
two dark ones. Begonia Bex occupies one page itself, as 
also does a magnificent figure of FucJiaris amazonica; 
another Bouquet is filled up with two new large double 
Petunias, which were shown last summer at the 
Regent’s Park, by Mr. Grieves, of Culforcl Hall, one 
of which is compared with that of a double Hollyhock, 
the other with a Camellia-flowered Balsam, together 
with a new hybrid Begonia, between Fuchsioides and 
Ingrami, “ a fine addition to the shrubby-habited 
Begonias which are in the hands of Messrs. Bainbridge 
and Hewison, Nurserymen, York.” The new Gesnera 
cinnabarina makes a “ Bouquet ” of itself, and a most 
brilliant nosegay it is. Gesnera densiflora, another 
new one, introduced by Linden, in the way of elongata 
and Monochcetum ensiferum, make up another gorgeous 
picture of a nosegay of rose, orange, crimson, scarlet, 
and yellow, with two shades of green leaves on the 
white ground of the page ; altogether a drawing-room 
drawing, and the written account is plain common 
sense, and business-like, while the information about 
culture, propagation, and the proper kinds to grow, 
read exactly as if it were printed from a large memo¬ 
randum book full of dog’s-ears—but looking fresh from 
the potting bench, or from a shelf in the propagating 
house—all simple, sound, and single-handed, that is to 
say, nothing is taken for granted, but everything is 
tried and proved in the establishment before it is re¬ 
commended, just as we do in the Experimental Gar¬ 
den. None but the best kinds of the most popular 
plants are figured in these “ Illustrated Bouquets,” 
and the best selections of each family are given under 
each Bouquet. 
Those which come nearest to my favourite Gloxinias, 
are the Achimenes, which we have treated this winter 
in all respects like the Gloxinias, and which we mean 
to prove how long they may be kept dormant, without 
any sensible diminution of their native vigour. If we 
can keep strong “roots,” of these tribes, in close rough 
paper bags, entirely free from the influence of the air, 
from the end of October to late in May, as, I believe, 
may be very easily accomplished, we shall confer a 
boon on thousands who have not yet thought of such 
aristocratic flowers. A common cold frame, of one 
light, from which bedding plants have been removed 
by the middle of May, or say by the 20th of May, 
would hold 100 Gloxinias and 500 Achemenes for a 
month, and by that time they would be in full feather, 
and just as good as if they were started in a new 
Cucumber-bed in February or March; and that with¬ 
out one farthing of expense for heat, as by keeping the 
glass on all day and night, with a little air to keep 
down extreme heat, the coldest frame may be made a 
“ forcing stove,” and that the best kind of forcing in 
the world, as having no artificial heat at night ; all the 
Gloxinias and Achimenes may thus be had as easily 
as by forcing pits earlier in the season, and as all the 
best kinds of both families will be found in my report 
of the Wellington Road Nursery, I need not repeat : 
them here. D. Beaton. 
