112 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May, 
of new sorts. No plant is more easily fertilized tlian the Gladiolus, and the seed 
pods swell very fast in the temperature of a greenhouse. To be successful in 
raising new kinds from crossing, only the very best kinds for colour, arrangement 
of spike, and shape of flowers must be selected. In the fine warm summer and 
autumn of 1869, I saved an immense quantity of good seed from Gladioluses 
grown in Rhododendron clumps, and what with the seeds and spawn left in the 
ground, thousands of young plants are springing up yearly, and will be left in 
the ground till they flower, which will be this year or next. 
I was pleased to see, from an article in a contenqiorary, that Mr. Lombard, 
the celebrated grower of the Gladiolus in Ireland, had taken my view of raising 
them from seed yearly, on purpose to fill up the losses in his beds. We cannot 
afford to give up the culture of this gorgeous autumn flower, for, whether on 
the exhibition table or for decoration, it is unequalled. 
The black spots on the conns of the Gladiolus are as fatal to them as the 
fungus specks on the foliage and tubers of the potato, and about as mysterious 
as to their origin. We know that potatos of approved sorts wear out after a 
certain number of years’ cultivation, and seedlings are raised annually to take their 
place—to succumb in their turn, and give place to others. May not all this, 
both in the Gladiolus and the potato, arise from the plants coming originally 
from a tropical climate, and from ours being too cold, and thus giving a check 
to their constitution, requiring a renewal of vigour by raising new varieties from 
seed?— William Tillery, Welbeck. 
BLANDFORDIA AUREA. 
(WwF this most interesting genus of greenhouse perennial herbs, some five or six 
species are or have been in our gardens, all eminently beautiful, and 
W deserving of more extended cultivation. They belong to the Liliaceous 
order, and have fleshy root-stocks with stout fleshy roots ; tufted, narrow, 
erect, or spreading leaves; and erect flower-scapes, terminating in a raceme of 
large funnel-shaped drooping flowers, which are generally of an orange-red 
colour, recalling that of their near relatives the Tritomcis or Kniphojias. The 
larger-flowered and finer of the introduced species are :— B . jlammea, with slightly 
rough-edged leaves, and distant long-stalked flowers ; B. Cunninghamii, with 
entire-margined leaves, and dense umbellate heads of short-stalked flowers ; and 
B. aurea , with narrower leaves, and yellow long-stalked flowers, as represented 
in the annexed cut. Though smaller-flowered than the foregoing, both B. 7iobills 
and B. marginatci (the latter being, according to Hooker, the true B. grandiflora) 
are also remarkably ornamental plants, the latter having a much elongated 
raceme of conical rather than funnel-shaped flowers. 
B. aurea is a cool greenhouse perennial, of evergreen habit, with numerous 
narrow, grass-like, acutely-keeled leaves, somewhat rough at the edge. It throws up 
short racemes of bright golden-yellow flowers, which are from an inch and a half 
to two inches long, campanulate, slightly contracted above the base, w T ith the limb- 
