100 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ July, 
a wide range, extending from the Cape of Good 
Hope to Natal. Sir Joseph D. Hooker, whose 
figure of it in the Botanical Magazine repre¬ 
sents specimens raised in the Edinburgh Bo¬ 
tanic Gardens from seeds collected in December 
1878 by Serjeant D. Williamson, speaks of it 
as a beautiful plant, and our woodcut from 
Mr. Bull’s Catalogue shows it to be an object of 
no inconsiderable attractions. 
The plant is a greenhouse perennial, but 
flowers freely in the open border during the 
summer months. It has a stout fleshy root, 
crowned with a rosulate tuft of leaves, which 
are about 6 inches long, obovate-lanceolate, 
crenately-tootlied, or sinuately-lobed, or some¬ 
times sub-pinnatifid, as in the accompanying 
figure ; they are usually bluntish, and clothed 
more or less densely with glandular hairs. 
The flower-scapes are numerous, rising out of 
the axils of the central leaves, one to two feet 
high, hairy, furnished with a few small leaves, 
and terminating in a corymb of large showy 
flowers, of a bright magenta colour, the stalked 
flower-heads being fully an inch-and-a-lialf 
across, with a spreading ray of numerous ligu- 
late florets, and a small disk of nearly the 
same colour. These bright flowers are very 
attractive, and they are so freely and con¬ 
tinuously produced, that in a cool greenhouse 
they are developed successionally throughout 
the year, the height of bloom being, however, 
during the summer season.—T. Moore. 
THE TOP-DRESSING OF WALL- 
TREE BORDERS. 
GwON the olden times, whatever else was done 
m or undone, this was pretty sure to be 
attended to, for these were the special 
spots for the production of earl)'- Peas, Cauli¬ 
flowers, Kidney Beans, Lettuces, &c. Conse¬ 
quently these borders were sure of an annual 
dressing of some of the sweetest, if not always 
the richest, available manure. The result w r as 
that the roots that escaped rupture from deep 
digging, or injury from over-crowding, were 
pretty sure to find plenty of food ready to 
hand. The practice, therefore, of this surface¬ 
cropping of fruit-tree borders with vegetables, 
though bad in principle, like a good many bad 
practices, had some compensating advantages. 
It was at least a sure antidote to root starvation. 
True, it often gave the roots a plethora of food, 
and that not always, nor often perhaps, of the 
best quality. But of the two evils—plethora 
or starvation—the former is to be preferred. 
In advocating, some years ago, in these pages, 
that each fruit-tree border should bear the in¬ 
scription, “ Sacred to the Boots,’’ it was 
never meant that nothing should be added to 
the border in the form of food. It is to be 
feared that such was the interpretation placed 
on this advice in not a few quarters. The 
roots have had the soil, and nothing more. 
Now, the best soil gets worn out, and that much 
sooner than is generally supposed. The entire 
amount of plant food in even the best of 
soils would weigh but little, could it be 
separated from the mass or placed on one 
side before us. Most of us would be astounded 
or alarmed at the light weight, the small 
quantity. On the other hand, though the 
roots of trees can hardly be called gross, 
they are persistent feeders. Through summer 
and winter, spring and autumn, they peg away 
at their dark and often scanty larders in the 
soil. This form of expression is used advisedly, 
for the earth itself is not the plant-larder, but 
rather its mere shell or case, in which the root- 
food is stored or held. As the food is con¬ 
sumed, the larder becomes less full—empty. 
Hence the need of replenishment. 
The best, and indeed, the only practical 
mode of refilling the root-larder of wall trees 
is by top-dressing. In general terms, too, such 
dressings must either be solid or liquid. Of 
course, the substances thus conveyed to the 
roots may be infinitely varied, but the vehicle 
by which they can be communicated must be 
solid or liquid. Both forms have their advan¬ 
tages. The liquid is soonest available, and 
most easily as well as more rapidly distri¬ 
buted. It also leaves the physical conditions 
of the soil—its texture, &c.—as it was before. 
This may prove a benefit, or the reverse, ac¬ 
cording to circumstances, but what may be 
termed the spontaneity of the action of liquid 
dressings is a powerful point in their favour. 
Long before solid dressings have reached the 
surface-skimming roots, the plant-food dis¬ 
tributed through the medium of water has 
reached and filled every root. 
Some of the best liquid-feeders are guano- 
water, dissolved superphosphate of lime, and 
water in which such solid manures as those of 
