128 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mat 29, I860. 
average time, notwithstanding that, on the 1st of April, 
some spring-flowering trees at Surbiton indicated six 
weeks behind time, owing to the long winter. On the 
1st of May, however, the evergreen Barberry ( aqu folium ), 
was not half an hour behind time. But the best school 
of art for our business is a good English nursery, and 
when you want to learn how the world goes round, re¬ 
commend me to go to a London one, and to a fair spin¬ 
ning-wheel, for a good, tough, lasting, long yarn, sound 
a3 a telegraphic cable. 
In the show-house a whole row of hanging-baskets 
were suspended from the rafters, covered with Lycopods 
to make them green, and planted with suitable kinds of 
uprights, allabouts and trailers. Calceolarias and Fuchsias 
were the chief uprights, with the Unique section of Gera¬ 
niums. Petunias represent the allabouts, or such as 
neither grow upright nor trail down in baskets. Rhodo- 
cldton volubile is one of the best of the old plants for 
trailing. Linarias, plain and variegated, Decandra pros¬ 
trata, Lophospermums, Maurandyas, Nierembergias, and 
others, with that exquisitely, deliciously scented, and in¬ 
significant bloomer, Pylogine suavis; but turn to what is 
said of it last year. There is a great demand for these 
hanging baskets. One extraordinary and most useful 
discovery has been made abroad and confirmed here. 
Many of the fine-leaved plants from the stove do as well, ! 
all the summer, in front halls, lobbies, galleries, and side 
drawing-rooms, as the India-rubber plant (Ficus Indicus), 
and, in winter, require no more heat than greenhouse 
plants, if so much. Ropalas are of that class. 
In the winter garden—a large cool house here— Pop ala 
corcovadensis has stood since last summer, and looks better 
than in the stove. A pair of them in your lobby, half¬ 
way between the front door and the bottom of the stairs, 
would mark you as being up to the fashion, for several 
such pairs are now in such places round London. The \ 
Green Dragon trees, or Cordelines and Club trees of ! 
Australia, all of the Dracama breed, do just the same way, j 
and half a score more kinds. These collections, or rather 
four collections of new crossed Begonias with fine leaves, 
were in one house ; two of the collections were English, 
one from Ghent, and one from Dresden. The latter is 
the best of the whole. Last year a bed of a cross , 
Begonia held on in bloom, out of doors of course, till 
that early frost in October last at the Experimental; and 
now we would make the front line of a ribbon-border all 
of Begonia Rex, if some good Samaritans would be good 
enough to send them for the experiment; and, better still, 
pay the carriage of them to London. There are, probably, 
twenty kinds of fancy-leaved Begonias for edging flower¬ 
beds, just as easy as Flotver of the Day. There are 
plenty'of plants in the nurseries to prove the thing, and 
no want of money in England when any really good 
thing is on the move. Of course, there will be some 
croaking and opposition to this new move, like the rest 
of them ; but give me the plants, and I shall engage to 
choke the croakers before they can get in chorus. The 
next choker will be the Queen’s favourite Caladium, 
the dear little silver-spotted kind, called argyrites, which 
Her Majesty so praised in St. James’s Hall. Well, I shall 
risk my buttons if that Caladium will not make the best 
front row for a ribbon-border of all the variegated plants 
in the world. In the years 1832, 33, 34, 35, aud 36 I had ! 
Caladiums out the whole summer in Herefordshire, which 
are and were more tender in their nature than this dear | 
little exquisite; and if I had a couple of hundreds of it , 
now I should not hesitate one moment to ribbon them, | 
but in a few years they will be in the edgings as freely as 
Cerastium tomentosum —one of the oldest things that ever 
was, though not discovered till the other day to be a 
bedding plant. This Caladium is increased at this Nur¬ 
sery in prodigious quantities, or soon will be, for this very 
purpose ; for, as the “roots ” remain dry all the winter 
like Potatoes, it will suit most people, and many who can 
never speculate much on bedding Begonias. There is 
nothing new in this, only it is known to very few. Our 
greatest cross-breeder has been bedding new Begonias for 
ten years, and old Caladiums for nobody knows how 
long. The next things that met me were Linden’s new 
fine-leaved plants, such as Campylobotrys regalis, men¬ 
tioned last week. C. smaragdina is the next best. 
Another Cyanophyllum from Assam ( Assamicum ), is the 
next thing to Magniflcum. Gardenia radieans major is 
the best of them all; and Pteris tricolor is the most 
beautifully marked of all the Ferns. There are now 
three kinds of the new Agapanthus-way-of-growing plant 
which no botanist has yet properly defined—the Yallota 
miniata of Lindley, and Imatophyllum of Hooker; one 
with Cyrtanthus or drooping flowers, and one a cross 
between the latter and Miniata. The Cyrianihiflora is 
said itself to be a cross on the continent between Miniata 
and Olivia nobilis: if so, Imatophyllum is right after all. 
One thing was pointed out to me in the home crop at 
this Nursery, and I never saw, or heard, or read of such 
a thing before—that was, that the mere act of crossing 
had altered the position of the seed-pod from an upright 
position, as it holds in Miniatum, to a drooping posture, 
as it is in Cyrtanthijlorum —the most curious thing lever 
saw. Among new greenhouse and half-hardy plants, 
Abutilon Due de Malakoff was pointed out as the best 
Abutilon. 
The Antarctic Forget-me-not is propagated exactly like 
the Rhubarb, dividing the large roots with a crown-eye 
to each piece. Clianthus Dampieri was still in fine bloom 
after flowering for months, and they were crossing it with 
Puniceum both ways. This is the most beautiful flower 
we have, and the most curious plant to cultivate ; but 
done in the right way, as is minutely detailed in the 
“ Illustrated Bouquet,” it seems just as easy as Puniceus ; 
and they have lots of seedlings of it, and a crop of seed- 
pods of this season. The new RudbecTcia grandijlora, 
the new Pyrethrums, the new Liliput Dahlias, the new 
and old Tritomas, and the extraordinary Spergula -pilfer a 
are all in active demand; but I shall have a Spergula 
tale of wonders next week. 
My Shrubland Rose Petunia is beaten at last. They 
have a new one here called the Queen, quite different 
in looks from Countess of Ellesmere and Marquis de la 
Fert, and the marrow of the Shrubland Rose in looks and 
bloom ; but the flower is larger, more wavy, the eye 
larger and brighter, and the Rose more rosy than in rny 
seedling. Ji All that was in>doors, and early in the season, 
recollect; yet I own being beaten for the first time in 
my life with cross-bedders. 
A fine, white, variegated-leavecl Petunia with purple 
flowers was a good thing. Gardoqua Eookeri, a nice 
old plant which few people can do well. Bouvardia 
multiflora comes nearer the old kind Triphylla, and 
seems a good thing. A superior variety of Nierem- 
bergia gracilis, so called. Statice imbricata, the best 
of the Macropliylla breed ; the latter next best varie¬ 
gated Fuchsia gracilis and globosa. Gomphocarpus 
navicularis blooms all the season out of doors. Isolepis 
prolifera, a hanging-basket plant, which must soon be 
as common as Gracilis; the leaves, or grass, are stouter 
than those of Gracilis, and a new plant begins at the 
end of each, just like Strawberry plants from runners. 
Wigandia corracasana —a broad, fine-leaved plant, much 
used out of doors in Paris, though apparently a stove 
customer. Goodia rubra verna, an addition to the fine¬ 
leaved section of stove plants. Cossignia Borbonica, 
another fine-leaved good-looking plant. Muhlenbeckia 
complexa is a hardy excellent rock-plant; a great runner, 
half-shrubby-looking, with very small leaves, which one 
never sees out of the nurseries. I mention it to say that 
it is one of the best hanging-basket plants we have; it 
spreads out in all directions—cip and down, and at every 
angle round the circle. Variegated Solamimjasminioides 
and many fine and curious-leaved Solanums ; all of which, 
stove plants though they be, will grow out in summer 
