114 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[August, 
where it is possible to protect them easily 
from excessive wet. 
There are two classes of plants, which the 
Hollyhock cultivator has to deal with in the 
spring. Those propagated during the previous 
summer and autumn from side growths of the 
main stem; and secondly, plants raised from 
growths which issue from crowns of the old 
plants during the winter, and are ready for 
taking off with a heel attached in January, 
February, or March. The spring propagated 
plants flower later and prolong the season 
by a few weeks ; a most important considera¬ 
tion if the flowers are intended for exhibition, 
say in September. The two principal factors 
for successful culture are, a very rich and 
deep soil, to be kept moist by watering and 
mulching in hot dry weather, and next, clean¬ 
liness. The red spider gets on the under 
sides of the leaves and quite takes all life and 
colour out of them if it is allowed to spread 
over the plants.—J. Douglas, Great Gearies, 
Ilford. 
MESSRS. CARTER’S SEED FARMS. 
RfiTHAT specially strikes one in walking 
[M over Messrs. Carter & Co.’s seed 
farms (which occupy extensive tracts 
' of land at Dedham and St. Osyth, 
near the Essex coast), is the purity of the 
strains of the many varieties of plants which 
are cultivated thereon, one kind often occupy¬ 
ing wide drifts of from 100 to 200 yards or 
upwards in length. Beyond the merest shades 
of difference such as do not at all affect the 
general purity of the whole, the numberless 
plants appear to have been cast in the same 
mould. That there is a slight divergence 
amongst a batch of seedling plants, and in 
some kinds more than in others, is well 
known, but here it is in most cases barely 
perceptible, so closely and perfectly is the 
necessary system of “ rogueing” carried out. 
It is this purity of strain which gives their 
high character to the seeds sent out by the 
firm. As an illustration of this practical 
identity, which is not destroyed by a certain 
degree of variability, we may refer to an 
immense breadth of a fine light-ground Sweet 
William, which in its general effect appeared 
to bo quito uniform throughout, but when 
more closely inspected it was seen that the 
noble trusses of large flowers presented every 
possible variation of marking, taking into ac¬ 
count the tints of crimson and purple, and 
the breadth of the dark ring of colour which 
gives life to the flowers. Here was certainly 
a highly commendable strain of this beautiful 
and popular flower. 
One of the most unexpected sights was a 
long drift, some quarter of an acre or more in 
extent, of Matthiola bicornis, one of the night- 
scented Stocks, an annual with dull-hued 
flowers, which if they do not commend them¬ 
selves very highly to the organs of sight, are 
most grateful to the olfactory nerves during 
the evening hours. In the present case this 
bed, we were told, is sufficient to perfume the 
whole neighbourhood as night comes on. 
But where go all the seeds of such a plant;— 
not showy, and one would suppose not much 
known or cultivated ? The answer would 
give some clue to the wide-spread character of 
the business transacted by this firm. 
Our space will not permit us even to men¬ 
tion a tithe of the subjects which commended 
themselves to notice as good and worthy of 
comment. We can only briefly refer to a 
few of the more strikingly beautiful, taking 
them in the order in which they were seen. 
First of all then, we come to a bed of Clarkia 
Mrs. Langtry, a charming double-flowered form 
of integripetala of dwarf free-blooming habit, 
the soft rosy flowers distinctly edged with 
white. Near this came Godetia Spotted Carpet, 
a low dense-growing form, no doubt out of 
repens, forming a little later on a carpet¬ 
like sheet of white flowers, having a scarlet 
spot on each petal; while close by was the 
large-flowered and very showy Godetia Satin 
Rose, the finest of all, whose gorgeous blossoms 
are of a brilliant glossy rose colour. The Dane- 
brog Poppy, a single variety of Papaver somni- 
ferum, here growing about 3 ft. in height, and 
producing large flowers with fringed scarlet 
petals, having a broad white basal blotch, was 
strikingly handsome; as also was Papaver 
umbrosum, which belongs to the Rhoeas type, 
and has the blotch on the intense crimson 
flowers, of a glossy black. A patch of Golden 
Queen Mignonetto reminds one of the distinct 
and pleasing character of this still novel variety, 
whose peculiar feature resides in the golden- 
tinted anthers ; while a breadth of Leptosiphon 
