THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND C’OUNTEA' GENTLEMAN, May 15, 1RC0. 
101 
them, or soon will bo. To prow Jonquils well in beds for 
summer plants, they should be planted in single rows, just in the 
centre of where two rows of bedding plants will stand. Every 
third year, in October, the Jonquils ought to be separated, fresh 
planted, and in fresh soil. Fresh soil is the main secret, but too 
crowded at the bulbs, and getting knocked about with fiddling 
bedders, do much of the mischief.] 
For the last three years my yellow Auriculas which used to 
bloom magnificently have failed. The bunches of blossom are 
small, and half the flowers in them decayed. AVhat. can be the 
reason ? They are in capital soil.—Q. Q. 
[Yellow Auriculas, and the other best border kinds, with all 
the best, border Polyanthuses, to give them justice, ought to be 
fresh transplanted every two years, and to have some fresh soil 
from a meadow, and a lit tie very rotten dung every time. The 
first and second weeks in March, or the last week in February, 
is the right time for tins.] 
AH HANGING VERBENAS. 
Wtt.Tj Mr. Beaton forgive me if I pick a few holes in his very 
useful paper on Verbenas. 
In the first place I object to Freni mg Star being given sneb a 
good place. Its habit is good and the shape of its pip good, 
but the colour is very dull, almost muddy. 
Brillante de False is not Vermillion. It is hardly crimson scarlet. 
Qloire de Paris is much more effective, in my opinion, in a 
mass than Grant des Bat a illes ; it blossoms so much more pro¬ 
fusely, and is very much more the same colour. 
Sufficient, praise is not, I think, given to Chnnverii , where it 
succeeds. No scarlet. Verbena makes so glorious a bed. 
Then, to call Lord Baglan light scarlet. It is a dull, very 
dull Geranium. A miserable colour compared with exquisite 
Cardinal Wiseman. 
I cannot consent to have Lady Harelocle overlooked in the 
list of true Koses, and it stands lain better than any of those 
mentioned by Mr. Beaton. 
1 have done. I tremble at my temerity, but will not retract n 
word. Men, they say,nevpr know anything about, colours, so T have 
taken extensive feminine opinion as to my correctness.—Q. Q. 
[There is no more practical value in discussing the shades of 
colours than the shades of men’s opinions on polities. If 
“ Q. Q.’’ will plant the opposite quarter of the Verbena garden, 
that opposite to the only quarter I planted, no one can read 
bis planting without being wiser ; and if “ Q, Q.” will do me the 
tavour t o read that article again, he will find that lie has shot holes 
in a very different hide to mine, for lie lias not even pricked my 
skin. Vet I am more pleased with him than with any other 
reader, except one, a fair lady, who has sent a world of wisdom 
about arranging Verbenas and other plants.—D. Beaton.] 
CULTUHE OF THE FOHGET-ME-NOT OF THE 
CHATHAM ISLANDS. 
In reply to Mr Beaton, rather than he should murder his 
Myosotidium mobile, and require me to give him two others for 
his indiscretion, I will tell him all I know about it. 
I recollect, well the first time I saw it Mr. Beaton and I 
admiring if, and we both fancied it could be propagated in any 
quantities from the roots. Some time after I thought if I bought 
it I should be able to get any quantity and let. my customers have 
it at a moderate price; but. I have been very much mistaken. 
Soon after the plant was exhibited by Air. Watson, of St, Albans, 
at the Horticultural Society’s rooms. I went down to St. Albans 
with these fancies in my bead, and gave Mr. Watson two 
hundred guineas for the stock of it. But I am very sorry to say, 
both for me and my customers, that I have never been' able to 
gat one plant, from the roots ; the only way is by division of the 
plant or by seeds, which it produces if grown nicely, but not 
else. What Mr. Beaton says about the plant in a great measure 
is correct. It should be placed in a cool place all the summer, 
the cooler and shadier the better. If put into a little beat in 
October, and kept in a temperate bouse until January, or at 
latest until February, it will be in bloom and remain so for a long 
time. I find it does not like much beat.; but. in a temperature 
from 45° to 50° it will thrive amazingly, and go on blooming for 
a long time, each head of bloom getting larger as it lengthens. I 
have a nlant now in bloom, which I keep in a north house 
shaded, that, has seven beads of bloom ; some of them are five 
inches across, and anything more beautiful it would be difficult 
to conceive. I have some seedlings that I have raised and 
flowered which vary very much. Some of their (lowers are as 
large again as others. It is a plant, that requires a good deal of 
1 pot-room while growing ; after which it should be in a cool frame 
at the back of a north wall with the lights tilted up, and kept at 
rest until the end of September, when it should be shaken out ol 
the old soil and repotted in a light rich one, with plenty ol 
vegetable soil in it, such as decayed leaf mould, or a little very 
decomposed eowdung, mixed with turfy loam and sand. T have 
been told by a captain of a merchantman, who has traded down 
at the Chatham Islands, the finest, plants lie has seen there are 
those that are growing in sneb places, as, that, when there are high 
tides, the sea washes oyer them. Perhaps we have something yet 
to learn about the plant. T am trying an experiment with salt; 
but, in case the captain should draw a long bow, my experiment 
will only be in a small way.—J. Standish, Bagshot, Surrey. 
I - -- - 
EVERGHEEN UNDERSHRUBS FOR A 
PLANTATION. 
We have a plantation in which some vacant spots would, we 
think, look well planted with evergreen and other kinds of shrubs ; 
but, as we do not. wish to destroy the game in it, 1 should feel 
very grateful if any of your readers would tell me the names ol 
some ornamental shrubs which are not liable to be destroyed by 
bares or rabbits. The plantation is on one of the high lands of 
1 Yorkshire, so the shrubs must be hardy ones.—E. C. E. 
[The best, under-cover plant for pheasants, woodcocks, snipes, 
and abominable hares and rabbits, is the common evergreen 
Barbery ( Berberis aqiiifolia). It will grow under trees and in 
all soils. On the poorest, sandy soil it seems to do the best. In 
A lay if. is the richest blooming plant we have. In the autumn 
the birds eat up the berries greedily, and sow them that way, and 
, no animal will bark it. The next best, cover plant is likododendron 
ponticum for the birds and “ varmit ” rabbits, but a very bad 
plant for the gamekeepers and the sportsmen, for it crackles 
away like glass under their tread when they have no time to look 
before they leap. The common Privet is the fastest-growing 
plant for under cover, and it is equally exempt from the jaws of 
all nibbling creatures. But the best plant for breeding game in 
is the common Tutsan ( Hypericum calycinum). AVe have trodden 
acres of it under dense trees, which were as literally alive with. 
young pheasants, as small islands near the coast are with duck¬ 
lings where water-fowl breed extensively.] 
A MINIATURE POND IN A DRAWING-ROOM. 
Can you give the names of any plants to look green, if nothing 
more, in the air of an ordinary drawing-room? A friend of 
mine has a large table with a fish-pond in the centre, and “ dry¬ 
land ” at the corners where AIosse3 and Ferns are planted, and 
her desire is to vary the foliage if she cannot have bloom. Of 
course you understand there is no cover.—A. 
[For such a purpose nice little tufts, either planted out or 
grown in pots, of such Grasses as striped Gardeners’ Garters, 
Animated Oats, Dactylus glomerata variegata, and such varie¬ 
ties of Helens saccharaius as are advertised in our columns, 
would break the monotony. Such Amaranthas as bicolor, tri¬ 
color, and even Coleus Btumei, would be interesting for their 
foliage in summer. Myrtles and such hardy striped Grasses, 
and variegated Geraniums as Lady Plymouth, would be interest¬ 
ing in winter. If we knew the size exactly we might be able to 
say more. A ariegated Ivies trained to a single stem, and then 
allowed to dangle weeping fashion from the top, would also look 
well, and do at all seasons.] 
FORCING THE SIR HARRY STRAWBERRY. 
Is your correspondent “ Q. Q.,” certain the plants he saw were 
Sir Harry ! as from his description it. agrees in no particular with 
the true Sir Harry. If lie bns two varieties, one must be wrong ; 
and if either is true, it is the one ten days later than the other. 
As the raiser sent out, probably by mistake, a quantity of 
Hooper s Seedling mixed with the Sir Harry, it. is, perhaps, 
that, kind, as it is a free bearer. I placed a quantity of Keens 
Seedling and Sir Harry in the same hou3o at the same time, and 
the Keens' were ripe before the berries of the other were form ■ i. 
