SEPTEMBER, 
201 
from other sources also. There were besides Gooseberries, Apples, Potatoes, 
and some very large pods of the Pat-tailed Radish from Mr. W. Melville, of 
Dalmeny Park. p P 
THE CORREA. 
The Correa is an old and was formerly a favourite greenhouse plant. C. alba 
has a small white but rather mean flower ; C. pulehella has a larger brilliant 
orange scarlet; C. virens a pale green, and C. speciosa a crimson flower with 
green tips. These have been for many years as common as any greenhouse 
plants in cultivation, and no particular progress was made beyond producing 
them, as usual in neglected greenhouses, very large and very ugly ; indeed of 
late years Correa alba has been regarded only as a stock to work better sorts 
on. C. rufa, with its rusty leaves and pale green flowers, was next introduced; 
and last, C. cardinalis, a bright red and green, the handsomest of them all, but 
unfortunately apt to be rather bare of leaves. 
Mr. Milner, of Clapham, was the first in this country who successfully 
crossed the several species of Correa, and those who remember the noble speci¬ 
men of Correa Milneri in 1838 or 1839 will be able to appreciate the greatest 
improvement of any that has been the result of crossing in this country. 
Correa Milneri was one of a hundred seedlings which among them possessed 
all the best features of the best old sorts. C. Milneri was a crimson scarlet or 
a scarlet crimson of rich texture, with flowers above the average size. It was, 
however, so experimentalised on that it was soon lost altogether. In the mean¬ 
time a lot of the other seedlings got distributed, such as C. Lindleyana, C. Caven- 
dishii, C. longifiora, C. grandifiora, C. rosea, C. bicolor—not the bicolor that was 
dirty red and dirty white, but the bicolor that was conspicuous for the brilliance 
of its crimson, the cleanness of its green tips, and the elegance of its habit. The 
plant became deservedly popular, and considering there is not a single green¬ 
house plant so truly beautiful from November till March, the most dreary time 
of the year, it is to be regretted that it does not more generally work its way 
into modern collections. I attribute this to a fact which cannot be gainsaid. 
The great bulk of plant-growers order their stocks from those specimens which 
figure at the exhibitions, consequently winter beauties are generally neglected, 
and conservatories comparatively bare of bloom; nobody thinks of what they 
do not see, and gardeners find quite a distinct business in providing lor shows. 
Mr. Milner continued to raise seedlings, and as he left the neighbourhood of 
Lone! on to begin farming, where flowers would not be appreciated, the whole 
of the remainder went into the hands of the late Mr. Gaines, of Battersea, 
who named and sent out several, but the buyers of such plants were few. 
No conservatory ought to be without a dozen of the most striking varieties, 
for they are one mass of bloom during five or six of the barest months in the 
whole year ; they are free growers, abundant bloomers, by no means tender 
enough to be hurt by a slight frost, want but little attention, are better without 
fire heat than with it, and well repay us for the room, attention, and labour 
they require. Again, having taken to sport, there is no saying to what end 
the improvements might be carried. Those who desire to raise seedlings 
should procure, in the first instance, half a dozen or a dozen of the best and 
most conspicuous sorts. Let them be grown in an ordinary greenhouse, close 
together, from November until they are completely out of flower. There will 
be found on some of them -a pod or two of seed ; take off the pods, dry them 
in the shade, and before they have been dry a week, sow them in pots. 
The soil adapted for seedlings would be good for the largest plants, except 
