THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Amir, 3, i860. 
tlio regular hotbeds, though there was an average difference of 
20° between them, the seeds having got mixed with the soil used 
for the Potatoes. Long ago, I took occasion to refer to the 
hardiness of many seeds, though the full-grown plant was tender, 
such as Portulaeeas, coming up as thick as they could stand 
together, where they had grown out of doors the previous season. 
Here there would, no doubt, be such “ a struggle for life,” that 
the stronger would cover over and destroy the weaker ; but apart 
from the fact that many annual, tender exotics may thus be 
naturalised, we are furnished with a proof, that extra coddling 
by heat to seeds is frequently worse than labour misapplied, 
DWARF YELLOW MARIGOLD. 
Just a word on this subject. Sometimes this orange variety 
is very pretty; but not, in my opinion, a substitute for the 
yellow Calceolaria. The variety I grew had close, upright, 
rather than flat, expanded blooms, very double, and a rich orange 
in colour, and reached from six to twelve inches in height according 
to soil. I obtained it several years ago from Mr. Veitch, of 
Chelsea. The year before last I saved more of it than usual, as 
several friends wished to have some seeds. I am sorry to say, 
that in their case, and also in my own, the plants did not all come 
true, either in height or the colour of the flower, last season. I 
attribute the defect to the flowers getting crossed with other 
French Marigolds. For some years it came perfectly true, even 
though other Marigolds were at no great distance. I believe 
that Mr. Yeiteh has still the same sort; at least in his catalogue 
there is a dwarf new yellow, which is much the snme description 
I had with it. Two years ago, I had an edging round two Targe 
clumps, altogether not much less than a hundred yards, and 
there was not a hair’s breadth of difference in the plants, either as 
to height or colour. From the circumstance mentioned, how¬ 
ever, I should not like to trust to my own seeds for a specific 
effect. The seeds were sown just as I have spoken above, for a 
bed of annuals, and about the 20th of May the plants were 
turned out about six inches apart in the row. Soil rather 
stiff and rich. Though making a nice edging for other things of 
a kindred character, I do not consider it by any means equal 
to an edging of Aurea floribunda Calceolaria. The plants 
bloomed freely from about the middle of June until cut down by 
frost. I shall try to obtain it true again, by keeping it away from 
all its kindred. R. Fish. 
FLOWERING OF COCOS CORONATA. 
Thf, flowering for the first time in Europe of a member of the 
Cocoa-nut family; is too great a horticultural triumph to be 
allowed to pass unnoticed in the pages of The Cottage 
Gardener. Cocos coronata has within the last few months 
produced three large masses of its interesting inflorescence, in 
the noble Palm-house of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. 
This tree is a native of Brazil, and the Indians, who call it 
“ Urucuri-iba," make the pith of it into a kind of bread, as is 
done with that of many other species of Palm ; and they also 
obtain oil from the seeds. 
This Cocos is planted at Kew in what is a perfect grove of 
Talms, many of them large enough to give one a good idea of 
their appearance in the tropics. Here we find the male Date 
Palms flowering freely; Seaforthia elegans with its gracefully 
drooping pale rose-coloured inflorescence ; the Great Fan Palm 
(Sabal umhraculifera), with immense clusters of ripening fruit; 
the rigid-looking Norfolk Island Pine (Areca Bauerii), also 
ripening its seeds, and many others. But the most interesting 
among all these is the Cocos, because no untravelled European 
ever saw it in flower before. Its stem is as straight as an arrow, 
hare and smooth, hut just showing the places where the leaves 
have been attached. The stem is about fourteen inches in 
diameter near the base, and at a height of about thirty feet it 
bears a crown of gigantic leaves. There are a dozen of these 
leaves, each of which is about twenty-five feet long. They all bend 
away from the centre in the most graceful curves. The leaflets 
about eighteen inches long, are lanceolate and acuminate in 
form, and scattered in two irregular lines along the greater part 
of their length, while the lower part clasps the stem. In the 
autumn of Inst year a swelling was observed in tho axil of one 
of the leaves, this gradually developed itself into a club-shaped 
appearance, and attained a length of between four and five 
feet. This was the spathn, enclosing the inflorescence, as is the 
case in all the family of Palms. In due time it burst and dis¬ 
closed a host of the most delicate pal# primrose.coloured spikes 
of flowers. These were each about two feet in length, and formed 
an elegantly drooping mass, not unlike a gigantic trophy of 
feathers. The individual flowers, closely seated on these spikes, 
were small and inconspicuous, they were principally males and 
produced a large quantity of pollen; but on the lower part of 
the spike a few female flowers were observed, and to all appear¬ 
ance many of them were set and will ripen their seeds during 
the summer. Since the appearance of the first flowers, two 
other spathes have been formed, and the flowers are now ex¬ 
panded. The seeds when ripe are about the size of Walnuts, 
but rather longer. It is, therefore, in this particular, far inferior 
to the true Cocoa-nut (Cocos nucifera). — Karl. 
SEEDS OF RARE CONIFERS. 
Having a few seeds of the following kinds: —Wellingtonia 
giganiea, Finns Oordoniana, and Pirns Bon Pedri, I should feel 
obliged if you would inform me how to treat them. —W. L. II. 
[The seeds of these, and of all rare foreign Conifers, do best, in 
pure yellow or brown loam, in a cold close frame, and receiving 
little or no water till the seedlings are well up. The Araucarias 
and Deodar Cedar are exceptions : their seeds do best half buried 
in the soil, by sticking in the seeds on end; but a cold, close 
j frame is far more safe than any heated place. When the seed¬ 
lings begin to break ground a little air should be given all day. 
j When Conifer seeds are in good condition they are more easy of 
management than Mignonette seed ; but when they are in bad, 
or but moderate health or condition, there is a peculiar risk with 
them from damp, during the period between the coming of the 
! seed-leaves and the rough leaf, as we say in other seedlings. 
; Affected seeds throw up seedlings on weak, bandy legs, which 
require good nursing. No artificial heat, no damp, no want of 
air, and not much air or too much strong sun, till the legs arc 
hardened a little.] 
FLOWER GARDEN PLAN. 
This plan has been in my possession a long time, and -I believe 
it is an old plan by some architect, but that I did not inquire 
about. On the face of it is stamped the work of an artist, and 
that artist was not a flower-gardener. The plan, however, is 
capital for learning the art of planting in composition. It is one 
of the most difficult plans to plant properly I have seen for a 
long time - A Becond thought of a designer, or a second addition 
by some one, is plainly enough to be seen in the row of uniform 
beds from 36 to 42, running the whole length of the original 
design, and certainly was intended to amalgamate with it. 
In these days of fast gardening it is very common to see, in 
country places, the rules of simple addition, multiplication, or 
; subtraction, applied, through necessity, to former plans and 
designs in the grounds of flower gardens, when a place is reno¬ 
vated or improved, or altered from one style to another, or merely 
■ for bringing up the taste of the day to the level of the lawn, so 
to speak. 
Indeed, the greatest part of the landscape gardening of the 
present time consists of applying the said rules to existing things, 
and the rule of simple addition has been added to the original 
of this design before us by some one. The additional ground 
occupied by the beds, from 36 to 42, could have been as easily 
as not appropriated in the beds composing the original idea, if 
that extent were then thought necessary. 
The most difficult part which a planter of plans of this nature 
has to overcome is, to get the plants and colours in the additional 
parts to harmonise with those in the original design, and to make 
them appear to have been part of that plan from the first. When 
I saw the way clear to that point, I offered to show how the 
planting might bo done, upon condition that I shoidd be allowed 
to insert tho plan and planting in The Cottage Gardener. All 
the parties were strangers to me, but my offer was accepted; and 
three moro plans of three other flower gardens and several ribbon- 
borders, forming the whole flower gardens of a ducal establish¬ 
ment, wei’e sent to me, I suppose with a view that this, the fourth 
flower garden, should bo so planted as to suit the style of the 
whole place. The place is Raby C'astle, near Darlington, the 
owner is the Duke of Cleveland, and the gardener is Mr. Shortt. 
I never saw that castle or any of the parties; but from the plans 
sent, I had no difficulty in seeing the nature of the plan, and 
how the whole stood. 
The flower gardens of one of ouv ancient and most celebrated 
