! 11G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 25, 1858. 
good variety, full size, even eye, 
luxuriant grower. 
moderate cropper, not a 
An excellent keeping variety. 
Yellow Top. —I do not know the proper name of this 
variety. It, is quite distinct in colour of foliage from any 
other Potato I ever saw, being 
almost yellow. I first met 
with this variety at Kemerton, in Gloucestershire, growing in 
the garden of a cottager, and I can truly say 1 was delighted 
with its singular appearance. It was then growing between 
some Hegents and Alslone Kidneys, which still made it appear 
more effective. I inquired of the poor man that owned them 
the name of these peculiar-looking Potatoes. He told me a 
friend gave them to him, who did not know their name; but 
lie said they call them the Yellow Top . He also told me 
persons would frequently tell him liis Potatoes were diseased 
in the tops, and that he had better get them up before the 
remainder of liis crop got affected. This Potato is certainly 
a novelty ; its habit is peculiar, being very short and stout in 
the haulm, the foliage very broad and even round the edge of 
the old leaves ; the tubers are full size, yellow and waxy; not 
a heavy cropper; and a late variety.— Edward Bennett, 
Perdiswell. 
(To he continued.) 
CON SOLID A ACONITE 
Raised from seeds presented by H. Calvert, 
Esq., C.M.H.S., of Erzeroum. 
A weak, erect Annual, about one-and-a-half foot 
high, with a very slight covering of silky hairs 
upon all the green parts. The leaves are divided 
into from three to five pedate, linear, taper-pointed 
lobes. The flowers form a loose, straggling, some¬ 
what zigzag raceme, the peduncles of which are 
from one-and-a-half to two inches long, with about 
one awl-shaped bract above the middle. The 
ilovvers, which grow singly, are of a deep bluish 
lavender-colour, with the following structure. The 
calyx consists of five coloured, oblong sepals, of 
which four hang downwards, the side ones being 
the broadest, and the fifth, which is turned in an 
exactly opposite direction, is extended into a 
horizontal, blunt, hairy spur, with a short, narrow, 
ovate, acute limb. The corolla consists of two 
petals, united by their back edge into one simple, 
somewhat fleshy spur, enclosed within that of the 
fifth sepal, and with a hooded limb, having four 
small round lobes at its point, and two larger, 
oblong, lateral ones. The solitary carpel slightly 
projects beyond the decimate stamens. Be Candolle 
and others speak of the petaline spur being slit on 
the upper side, a structure of which I find no 
trace. 
Forskahl regarded this curious plant, it is said, 
as an Aconitum ; Linnaeus considered it a Del¬ 
phinium. In reality it is neither the one nor the 
other. Its united petals, and long, sepaline spur, 
are at variance with the distinct, hammer-headed 
petals, and convex, back sepal of Aconite. Its 
petals, being reduced to two, and those completely 
combined into one, equally remove it from 
Delphinium. That the petaline body is really 
composed of two parts only seems to be proved by 
its origin, which looks as if opposite the back sepal, 
in consequence of the union of the two contiguous 
edges of the lateral petals. But it is completely 
separated from the front sepals, with which it does 
not in any degree alternate. These considerations 
lead to the conclusion that the old genus Con- 
solida should be re-established, and by no means 
confounded with Delphinium proper. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
There is a considerable amount of new varieties of both 
Carnations and Picotees. Mr. Puxley has been more than 
commonly successful, and there are others that have been fortu¬ 
nate in the same way, as my annual list given below will testify. 
THE CARNATION. 
If the amateur has not already placed all his plants in¬ 
tended for blooming, no time should be lost in getting that 
operation performed. It is, however, not too late to order 
the new kinds, for the season is a more than usually backward 
In a scientific point of view, this is a highly- 
: interesting species; but its growth is too feeble, 
and its flowers and leaves too diminutive and 
straggling, to give it any horticultural value.— 
(Horticultural Society's Journal.) 
