1872. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
263 
fine seat of John Berners, Esq., near Ipswich, under Mr. Sheppard’s able management. This 
plant is the lion of that conservatory. For months during the summer the house is quite 
illuminated with its rosy beauty, glowing on the walls, and hanging in innumerable pendants 
from the lofty roof. The other plant is of the white variety, L. rosea albi flora, and is growing 
on the back wall of a cool orchid-houso at Trentham, where, under Mr. Stevens’ skilful treat¬ 
ment, it yields a profusion of its spotless bells, which are extremely useful for cutting. 
Both cultivators appear to treat the plants very much alike in regard to soil, drainage, and 
water at the roots. The tops, however, in the two cases are subjected to widely different con¬ 
ditions. At Trentham the leaves grow in the moist, though cool air of a cool orchid-house. 
At Wolverstone, owing to the character of the back wall of the conservatory, the leaves are 
always dry. They are two superb climbers for conservatory or cool stove decoration. 
- ®he Hardwicke Box is a very fine evergreen shrub, much like the 
Handsworth Box in general character. Mr. Fish informs us that the original 
plant is at Hardwicke, and looks to be about 20 or more years old. Lady 
Cullum, he writes, “ tells me that it came up amongst others. Sir Thomas Cullum, who wa3 
a great admirer of Box, thought, I believe, that it was a cross between the Minorca and the 
Common Box. There seems no doubt it originated here, and all our stock is the produce of one 
plant. It is most distinct and beautiful. All the other kinds of box seed very freely here, 
but I have never seen the Hardwicke variety either flower or seed, which is somewhat 
singular. We have thousands come up in the shrubberies every year, but I have not seen 
one at all like the Hardwicke.” 
- Amongst Ornamented Hardy Trees recently noticed in tlie Milford 
Nursery were three varieties of the Sweet Chestnut. One a silver-variegated 
sort, which originated at Milford, is called Ccistanea vescci cdbo-marginata , 
and has the leaves constantly margined with a narrow border of white. Another, C. vesca 
laciniata, also a Milford plant, has the serratures of the leaves exaggerated into long 
fringe-like teeth. A third, of Continental origin, the C. vesca heterophylla dissecta, is both 
distinct and elegant; the basal leaves borne on the young shoots are broad and laciniately- 
toothed, while the upper ones are so much depauperated as to become linear, and at the same 
time are so much elongated as to become drooping, so that the later summer growth forms 
an elegant kind of fringe over the surface of the tree. The many ornamental forms of 
Hardy Trees to be found in collections are not half enough planted. 
- (JDne of the prettiest hardy shrubs we have lately seen is a tricolor¬ 
leaved variety of Cornus mascula called aurea elegantissima , grown by Messrs. 
Lee, of Hammersmith. The leaves are coloured green, gold, and rose-pink. 
The habit, too, is good, the branches spreading more elegantly than in the 
common form. It is a welcome acquisition. 
- ;£IHonstee specimens of Todea barbara are found on the Victorian 
Alps, whence some have been sent to Europe by Baron Ferd. von Muller. The 
largest we believe yet obtained, of which figures have been given in La Belgique 
Horticole , and the Gardeners' Chronicle , was presented by him to Mr. Booth, of the Flottbeck 
Nurseries, Hamburgh. The height of this enormous caudex, which weighed 1 ton 3 cwt., 
was 5 ft. 8 in., while the thickness was 7 ft. 9 in. in the larger, and 3 ft. 3 in. in the smaller 
diameter. 
- Cyclamen cilicicum of Boissier, a little plant well worth growing, 
has been found to be quite hardy by Mr. Atkins in his garden at Painswick. It 
flowers from October onwards. The flower-stalks are 3 in. to 31- in. long ; the 
petals are not more than | in. long, but fully ^ in. wide, thus giving a bold appearance to the 
flowers, which are rosy white, with a rich carmine throat. The foliage has the usual blotches 
of a lighter colour. There is no difference in the flowers or foliage of the larger and the 
smaller bulbs, all of which appear to bloom very freely; but the blossoms are scentless. 
- 5He are asked if any of the readers of the Florist and Pomologist 
can give the history of the Prince Albert Pine-Apple. Like the Lady Downe’s, 
