129 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mat 29, 1860. 
fine as Broccoli, ami should stand near rock or ruin, or 
on t he edges of rough ground. 
The variegated Bamboo, from China, makes small pro¬ 
gress yet. Phlox Criterion, a cross between Drummondi 
section and Depressa, blooms all the summer. Yellow 
Ivy-leaf Geranium, a good basket trailer. Salvia argenlea 
patula, a most curious, white, large, shaggy-leaved plant, 
tor the frosted silver section at night. Pimelea specta- 
bilis rosea, so much better than the species. The new 
loreniapulcherrima blooms only in the autumn. 
Of the new Fuchsias, Count Cavour conies the nearest 
to mauve colour in the corolla. It is, indeed, a most in¬ 
teresting thing, and Solferino is a great French favourite, 
ot course, and we shall estem it as the best double kind: 
then there are Dr. Livingstone, Garibaldi, Lord Ma¬ 
caulay,Longfellow, Princess Alice, Prince Alfred, Prince 
Imperial, Prince of Orange, and Sir Robert Peel, all of 
the newest stamp and mould. 
The new Verbenas are legion, but this is too soon. 
Ni o \ erbena or bedding Geranium can be fairly judged 
before the beginning of June, because when they bloom 
early in-doors they are so much more intense in the 
colour. Twenty years back I used to judge my own 
seedling Geraniums in May, after a slight forcing ; in 
August I had to pull them up by the roots, and cart 
ij ln ° U ^ si ^ fc . Lantana mutabilis is one of the 
oldest plants, and mutabilis fulgens here is the best 
bedder of them all. 
There is a good improvement on the Crystal Palace 
Tropeeolum elegans, called Stamfordianum, a crimson 
scarlet with the same looks and habit as elegans. This 
will have a run like Gazania splendens, of which more 
thousands have been already sold than there are months 
in the year. It is also a famous thing to hang round a 
vase or rustic basket. Miss Nelson is also said to be very 
fine in the way of elegans, but 1 did not see a flower of it. 
I have seen Stamfordianum in full flower, and there is 
none to beat it. A variegated Canna, with the markings 
in the broad-band-like-way of Aspidistra lurida, will be 
a fine thing for the exotic looks of some exquisite flower 
gardens at home, and Canna Warsxewiczii has a metallic 
lustre which will dazzle one in the misty mornings of 
mushrooming in the fields. This has been crossed by 
the king of cross-breeders, and the seedlings will add a 
distinct charm to this class as soon as they come into the 
market. But in these busy times I cannot find room for 
his majesty s budget till the planting-out is finished. 
The new Pinks, lleddcwigii, Verschaffeltii, and Laci- 
niatus, seem quite easy to manage, but the blooms are 
much larger from the spring-sown plants planted out in 
rich borders, and there is an excellent verandah or about- 
the-house trellis, Clematis, called Viticel/.a venosa. It 
blooms from the end of summer all through the autumn, 
with purplish-lilac or Tyrian purple blooms. Lanuginosa 
is still the best Clematis with very large flowers. 
The Fern or Lycopod-looking evergreen close-growing 
shrub ^called Chamcebatia foliolosa, is really a gem of a 
thing,'but is up at a stifllsh price yet. Mr. Veitch ex¬ 
hibited dried specimens of the flowers of this little 
charmer at the Crystal Palace, and you would take them 
for Mays or Hawthorn blossoms in that dried-up state. 
Among bedding Geraniums the variegated class is now 
the rage, and the new golden-leaved ones are now splendid 
under glass, such as Cloth of Gold, the Golden Fleece, 
Golden Vase, then the Fairy, Oriana, and the Queens 
Favourite, which Her Majesty remarked was the next 
prettiest plant in St. James’s Hall, after the fairy Cala- i 
dium, which is to edge the ribbon-border which is to be. 
These are all dwarf gems with three or four shades in 
the leaves. Another class of them represented by Rain¬ 
bow, Silver Chain, Picturata, and Bouquet, are still more 
deeply marked. The best pure white of the horseshoe 
kind is Madame Vaueher, but her madamship was not 
then in bloom, and they speak very highly of a scarlet 
Hybrid Perpetual of the Pelargonium section, called 
Britannia, which will rule the roast until a better comes, 
and Little David, is the dwarfest of the Tom Thumb 
breed, and as free as that in bloom; but it would take 
weeks <to go over them all. H. Beaton. 
HARDY PLANTS FLOWERING IN MAY. 
The following list of hardy-flowering plants were in flower 
here (west Yorkshire) during the ten days ending May 18th, 1860. 
I have complied with the wish of your correspondent “H. N. E.” 
in putting down nothing but what I have seen in flower either 
in my own or my neighbours’ gardens ; but it cannot be called 
a correct list of hardy-flowering spring plants, owing to the back¬ 
ward seasbn and variable cold 
Aqnilegia vulgaris 
Allium moly 
Dielytra specta'oilis 
Soldanella montana 
Scilla campanulata 
S. campanulata alba 
S. campanulata carnea 
S. nutans carnea # 
S. nutans rosea 
Grape Hyacinth (white and blue) 
Convallaria majaiis 
C. majaiis variegata 
Ranunculus aconitifolius 
R. amplexicaulis 
R. aeris plena 
Arabia lucida 
A. alpina 
A. alpina grandiflora 
A. alpina variegata 
Rhodiola rosea 
Aubrietia dcltoidea 
Sedum gentianoides 
Saxifraga rotundi/olia 
S. granulata 
S. granulata plena 
S. umbrosa 
S. umbrosa variegata 
Valeriana dioiea 
Phlox verna 
Phlox (a pink variety known here 
Dodecatheon media [as pinnatum) 
Veronica spicata 
V.repens 
Myosotis (blue and white) 
Iberis sempervlrcns 
I. alpinus 
Leucojum fcstivum 
Hyacinthus aincthystinus 
Alyssum saxatile 
rinds.—R ustic Robin. 
Narcissus pseudo-narcissus 
N. bicolor 
N. Jonquilla fl. pleno 
N.odovus 
N. poeticus 
N. incompnrabiHs 
N. polyanthus (many varieties) 
Fritillaria lutea 
F. nigra 
F. meleagris 
I.amium maculatum 
Trollius Europseus 
T. Europneus alba 
T. Asiaticus 
T. intermedius 
Caltha palustris fl. pleno 
Cheiranthus Cheiri fl. pleno 
C. Marshallii 
Gentiana acaulis 
G. verna 
Trillium grandiflorum 
Sanguinaria Canadensis 
Polyanthus (many varieties) 
Primula vulgaris plena alba 
T. vulgaris plena (lilac) 
P. vulgaris plena sulphurea 
P. involucrata 
P. farinosa 
P. Munroi 
P. eortusoides 
P. eiliata 
Statice armeria 
Beilis perennis hortensis 
B. perennis prolifera 
Cardamine pratensis fl. pleno 
Anemone pulsatilla 
A. nemorosa (var. with pink flowers) 
Doronicum Austriacum 
Gnaphalium (red) 
EARLY INSECT-DEPREDATORS on FRUITS, &c. 
Who that knows what a garden is, but is assured that from 
the moment the fruit trees begin to blossom ho may expect the 
return of insects ? Their certainty, however, at this period 
reduces the straits to which ignorance of the matter would other¬ 
wise expose us, inasmuch as the good gardener is forewarned to 
“keep his powder dry.” It is well known to all experienced 
persons, that there can be good gardening neither in-doors nor 
out of doors if insects are allowed to prevail. Witness our 
exhibition-men with their plants for show, with what jealousy 
they eye a plant witli vermin. Indeed, I have known and helped 
to reject insect-infested plants otherwise fit to compete well. 
In should be remembered in this case, that no tree, or plant, 
however well grown or prolific, will in these times give satisfac¬ 
tion if insect-ravages are manifest. As fruits come first to hand, 
let me endeavour to direct attention to their insidious but certain 
approaches, their immense multiplying powers, and the general 
or particular consequences of the green fly on fruits and fruit 
trees. The earliest depredators are, perhaps, these aphides ; 
although the scale seems a perpetual blood-sucker, yet it must 
surely have some resting period. The first attack of the aphis is 
generally on the Peach, and there can be little doubt that future 
generations are stored in the crevices of our walls during winter. 
Whatever time they begin to produce young, whether warmth 
determines it, or the budding of the Peach, I am not assured; but 
I incline to the opinion that they wait with exactness the earliest 
advent of the Peach leaves, for then they are first manifest fo the 
naked eye. They always thus appear with me just before the 
trees are out of blossom—this season earlier; and they plagued 
me much, for I do not like to apply strong things for their 
destruction until I am assured a crop is set. 
So I waited a week later than usual, when they had begun to 
commit more ravages than I had for years permitted on Peaches 
