1381.] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
Go 
by Mr. J. Sheppard. Then various specialities are 
dealt with by competent specialists, and the result 
is that altogether a very useful and handy book of 
gardening information, from which many a useful 
hint may be gleaned, and embracing the whole range 
of practical horticulture, has been produced. 
— iftftR. Maw, writing to the Gardeners' 
Chronicle , mentions a red Crocus under the 
name of Crocus Cicalesi. In the autumn of 
last year, he says, my friend, Mr. F. N. Reid, of 
Minori, near Ravello, South Italy, sent me a single 
corm of a unique variety of Crocus Imperati, named 
by him C. Cicalesi. It was found by the side of a 
watercourse in the valley of Minori. To-day I have 
had the pleasure of flowering it, and it is remark¬ 
able for the inner segments, and the inner surface 
of the outer segments, being of a distinct dull red 
colour, in lieu of purple. The red is not a mere 
vinous lilac, but a distinct red, which I can only re¬ 
produce on paper by a mixture of carmine and burnt 
sienna. This is such an extraordinary departure 
from the ordinary range of Crocus colouring, that I 
think it worth recording. 
— J»B. Diggles, in the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture , gives the following directions to pre¬ 
vent the ravages wrought by the Gooseberry 
Caterpillar :—“Boil some white hellebore powder 
in water, and place it in a tub or garden engine, 
adding sufficient boiling water to syringe all the trees. 
Apply it when it is cold on a dry day, to dry on the 
leaves, as soon as the trees are in leaf, immediately 
after blooming, and before the fruit has grown. 
One application is sufficient for the season, and 
does not injure the fruit. One pound of white 
hellebore powder is enough for sixty trees, and 
is best applied with a hand-syringe.” He states 
that he has tried this plan for years, and found 
it to answer. 
— Amongst the choice sorts of Violets the 
followingliavebeen recommended:—White Czar, 
which produces as long foot-stalks as Victoria 
Regina, but requires high cultivation; Odoratis- 
sima, a single dark blue, undoubtedly the finest 
single Violet grown, producing immense flowers in 
profusion, and throwing the flowers well above the 
foliage. Of double-flowered sorts, Duchess of Edin¬ 
burgh, creamy-white, each petal bordered with 
azure-blue, very large and double ; Belle de Chate- 
nay, a large white ; Belle de Chatenay coernlea 
plena, a large blue ; Marguerite de Savoie, a large, 
deep blue ; and Parmensis plena, white, striped 
with rose, very fine, will certainly displace all the 
older varieties when better known. To grow Violets 
in perfection an eastern aspect, where the morning 
sun only shines upon them, is requisite, and they 
should be planted in good strong loam, mixed with 
an abundant supply of leaf-mould and rotten dung. 
Their greatest enemy is the red-spider, but this can 
be kept under by the free use of the syringe. 
— {The Pine-apple Nursery lias long been 
famous for its collections of bulbous plants, 
especially of Nerines, an undeservedly neg¬ 
lected hutbeautiful family, including N.coruscamajor, 
flexuosa, Fothergillii, Fothergillii curvifolia (the latter 
unmistakable, from the inward curve the leaves 
have at the extremities), humilis, humilis angusti- 
folia, pudica, pulcliella, rosea, undulata, and 
venusta. Mr. O’Brien has also raised three fine 
hybrids— elegans, bright pink; cinnabarina, yellow¬ 
ish-orange; and atrosanguinea, blood-red—all three 
of which form leaves before blooming. 
— According to the Ironmonger , Olive’s 
Patent Seed and Fruit Protectors offer an 
ingenious invention for protecting seeds, fruit, 
&c., from the ravages of birds and vermin. They 
have been patented by Messrs. Hickman and Clive, 
of Birmingham, in the shape of a stamped metal 
representation of a hawk on the wing, for suspen¬ 
sion in fields and gardens. The metal bird, which 
is shaped and coloured in close imitation of a hawk 
with extended wings hovering over its prey, is made 
in three parts, for greater convenience in packing and 
transport, but is so contrived that it may be put 
together by any person in the space of a minute. 
The most effectual way of using it is to hang it as 
high as possible over the garden or field to be pro¬ 
tected, for which purpose an elastic string or wire 
carried from one tree to another, or from a chimney 
to a tree, offers, perhaps, the best support, as it 
responds readily to the motion of the wind, and so 
increases the lifelikeness of the effigy. If desired 
to heighten the illusion, a dead bird maybe suspended 
from the beak of the scare. The device is said to 
be extraordinarily efficacious in scaring birds, from 
whose ravages it offers almost infallible protection. 
— Referring to Spir^a Thunbergii, a 
correspondent of Moore’s Rural , an American 
paper, observes :—Of all the small shrubs I 
have grown, I know of none more beautiful in 
•winter than this. Its real beauty is not fully de¬ 
veloped, however, till the plant is at least three 
years old. The spray is small and delicate, and 
prettily recurved; the leaves are about an inch long, 
and very narrow and willow-like. The plant is quite 
dwarf, andrather solidly furnished, exceptitbe thinned 
out. It is not a plant for the barbarous practice of 
heading-in. At present (Nov.), with the ground 
frozen as hard as a rock, and covered with four inches 
of snow, the plant does not seem to have lost a single 
leaf. It is a mass of rich purple and green, remind¬ 
ing me of some of the Japan maples. To my mind, 
it is, in this state, a more beautiful object than when 
covered with its tiny white flowers very early in the 
spring. It would seem to be almost evergreen. 
— ®he new Azalea Mrs. Gerard Leigh 
is of the fine varieties of the amoena type 
wliicli Mr. B. S. Williams has recently intro¬ 
duced, and is doubtless one of the best. The flowers 
are of good shape, about 1| in. in diameter, of a very 
bright rose-colour, with cinnamon spots on the upper 
segments. It grows and flowers as freely as A. 
amoena, and will bear forcing equally well. These 
amoena hybrids are very useful for cutting, as they 
form neat little sprigs of bloom, and the flowers are 
not so heavy as those of the indica type. 
— 2Me learn from the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
that Senecio grandifolius is the more cor¬ 
rect name for the showy plant commonly 
known as S. Ghiesbreghtii, which, when in full 
vigour, produces dense corymbs of rich yellow 
flowers, more than a foot across. It is now a little 
over twenty years ago that it was figured in Regel’s 
Gartenflora (t. 296), under the name of S. Ghies¬ 
breghtii, but fifty years ago Lessing described it in 
the Linnaia (v., 162) as Senecio grandifolius; and 
subsequently Steetz described and figured what is, 
no doubt, the same species as S. arborescens in 
Seemann’s Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald 
(162, t. 31). There are copious specimens in Kew 
Herbarium from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Yeraguas. 
In its native country it sometimes attains a height 
of 15 ft., and presents a very stately appearance. 
