] S7!». ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
03 
ami so arc ( he petioles, the former, as it were, a reed, 
and the latter like wires. The fronds are thin, 
almost papery, and their narrow segments, curving 
to the points, have quite the line of beauty. Together 
tlipy form the neatest possible crown of foliage, and 
this on a dwarf stem, so as to form an elegant table 
plant. 
— m - Egberts, of Gunnersbuiy, points 
out that the present winter has tested the 
ITardinesr of Broccoli to such a degree, as to 
give one a pretty safe guide for the fnture in 
making selections from tlie hardiest varieties. Dif¬ 
ferent systems of culture, he observes, affect the 
hardiness of Broccoli more perhaps than any other 
vegetable of the Brassica tribe. To produce Broc¬ 
coli plants of a hai’dy nature, the seed-bed should bo 
in an ojien position and on a rather poor soil, and 
should be made as firm as for onions. The young 
plants should be well thinned out in the seed-bod, 
and no weetls allowed. The plants will then bo 
dwarf and sturdy, and will lift with a mass of 
fibrous roots when large enough to be transferred to 
their permanent bod, which should be a piece of 
well-firmed land. Formerly, Avhen practising in 
the North, he always found Broccoli sown in May 
and the beginning of Jtme, and transplanted late in 
the season, hardier by several degrees than when 
sown in March and April, and he has kno^vn them, 
when treated as stated above, stand 34 deg. of frost 
with little injury. The following kinds have proved 
the hardiest at (iuunersbury this season :—Veitch’s 
Sclf-in'otecting Autumn, Snow’s Winter White, 
Adams’s Early White, which stood fairly; Knight’s 
Protecting, Harrison’s Late White, and Wilcove’s 
Improved. The three kinds last named, from late- 
sown beds and transplanted the beginning of August, 
have proved the hardiest, and with a spell of growing 
weather will yet give a fair yield. 
— ftlR. G'. S. V. Wills, of the Westminster 
College, has just issued the first instalment of a 
series of Cheap Botanical Plates, for medical 
students. The series consists of Hellehoms 'nirjer, 
Cheiranthus Cheiri, Cineraria, TuUpa Qesneriana, 
Crocus vermts, Qalanthiis nivalis, Lamiiun album, 
Lotus cornicxtlaius, Atropa Belladonna, MalrO’ syl- 
vestris, Bosa canina, and Papaver somniferum. 
Though not produced with the skill of a Fitch, they 
are fairly well drawn and coloured for the price, the 
parts of the flowers being given in detached figures. 
At the back is printed the name of the order repre¬ 
sented,. diagnostic chai’acters, general characters, 
and remarks ; and here is indicated the chief points 
a learner has to bear in mind. As a help to the 
botanical student, they will be very useful. 
— a recent meeting of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society of Ireland, Messrs. Rodger, 
M’Clelland, and Co., of Newry, obtained First- 
class Certificates for two new plants, Calceolaei.l 
F ucHsi.rroLiA and Daphne japonica Mazelii. 'fho 
former is an undescribed species, very distinct in 
habit and appearance, and a very free and persistent 
flowerer, continuing to bloom all through the winter 
months. The Daphne, which is no less remarkable 
for the exquisite fragrance of its flowers than for 
the profusion in which they are produced, has the 
further recommendation of being perfectly hardy, it 
being stated in an accompanying memorandum that 
plants of it have stood out-of-doors all through the 
past winter, close to where the Laurustinus and other 
things were killed to the ground. In addition to the 
above, the same firm showed a nice panful of the 
pretty .spring - flowering bulbous plant, Freesia 
LeArhtlinii, with ,t view of .showing its free-flowering 
habit. 
— i«R. Crump, of Blenheim, attributes the 
Cucumber disease to the use of dung in the 
coiujtost. He says that for two whole seasons 
ho was completely beaten by it, and cottld scarcely 
]iroduce one fruit free from the gumnty matter. 
Seeds and plants from far and near were repeatedly 
tried, and grown in heated pits, where Cucumbers 
had not been for years previou.s, but all failed alike. 
’The roots were remarkably clean and healthy. 
“Hitherto,” ho states, “we had used a small 
quantity of leaves and stable-dung, prepared in the 
usual w'ay, and placed on the bottom-heat pipes ; but 
this commodity not being forthcoming at the right 
time, ^ve were induced to jiut the soil on and plant 
without it, and the result being a splendid and con¬ 
tinuous .supply of fruit of the be.st quality. 
— iW, Duchartre has recently called at¬ 
tention to a statement that Melons from fresh 
seed boar a large proportion of male flowers 
and very few female flowers; while, on the other 
hand, seedlings raised from old seed bear many 
more female flowers than male. This fact is well 
known to our gardeners, who believe also in the 
utility of carrying the seed for some weeks in tho 
waistcoat-pocket. Apropos of old melon-seeds, the 
“Philosophical Transactions,” of 1742, record that 
one Secretary Hinreus, of Stockholm, finding that 
ho had melon-seeds that were laid up in 1700, was 
curious to try whether they retained their vege¬ 
tative quality ; and accordingly, February 21, 1741, 
ho planted twenty-four of them in a hot-bed, 
from which he had twenty-one good plants, which 
showed flowers before they began to branch, and 
though their branches were slender, yet they pro¬ 
duced good melons early and in jfienty. 
— 2fHE lovely Saxifraga Burseriana is 
tlie earliest to flower of tbe Saxifrage family, 
blooming in February. It would be impossible 
to say too much in its favour. Specimens growing 
on tho rockwork in the York Nurseries, about 6 in. 
in diameter, and quite hemispherical in shape, bore 
upwards of 100 buds and flowers. There are two 
forms of this Saxifraga; one has dull scarlet calyx 
or buds, and pure white flowers f in. in diameter; in 
the other, the calyx or buds are greener, and the 
flowers larger, being Ij in. in diameter. The former 
is found on the Dolomite Mountains in the Tyrol; 
tho latter is also found in the Tyrol, but much 
further south—near the Italian frontier. We have 
recently seen this plant very fine on tho new rock- 
work at Chiswick Garden. 
— 0NE of tlie most remarkable of new 
orchids is Bolbopyhllum Beccarii, now be¬ 
ginning to grow freely in Mr. Bull’s establish¬ 
ment at Chelsea. Like Phalaenopsis and some others, 
it is devoid of the pseudobulbous stems present in 
most orchids, and consists simply of roots issuing 
from a short non-thickened collar, which boars a 
solitary leaf, of immense size and substance, 20 in. 
long, and 15 in. broad. Many of the plants are push¬ 
ing vigorously shoots from the stems just below the 
junction of the leaves, and so far have more the look 
of loaf-growth than bloom. The flowers are in dense 
cylindrical drooping racemes a foot long. 
