52 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September 26, 1885. 
flowered this season, and still gay and effective as many 
of them still are, notwithstanding the heavy rains, 
they are not to be compared for brilliancy at the present 
time with the Begonias ; wherever they have been tried, 
there has been no mistake about the results. In the 
nursery of Messrs. John Laing & Co., who have done so 
much to set this flower on its pinnacle of fame, there has 
been, and still is, such a display of these flowers as incon¬ 
testably proves their sterling worth, and with 60,000 
seedlings in bloom to select them there should be no 
lack of novelties just yet. It is doubtful, however, if 
the run on named sorts in the future will be so great as 
in the past, for the seed sold by the leading growers is so 
good and gives such good varieties for bedding purposes 
that many now depend on seedlings for their stocks, 
and that they have no reason to be disappointed we 
have had many opportunities of observing. At Swan- 
more Park, Bishop’s Waltham, Mr. Molyneaux has 
employed them to great advantage, and may well be 
pleased with the results. A box of blooms which we 
have received from him are of a particularly good type, 
large in size, of good substance and form, and singularly 
bright in the various shades of colour. 
Maurandya Barclayana. —In answer to an enquiry 
for information respecting the history of a plant known 
in gardens as the Barclayana Yine, the editor of the 
American Gardeners’ Monthly remarks, that he does 
not know why it is that flower lovers have dropped the 
name of the genus for that of the species in this case, 
and adds:—“It looks like a determined effort on the 
part of flower lovers to ignore the honour to a lady 
which this pretty Mexican genus was intended to es¬ 
tablish. The author of the name, Ortega, says it is 
for ‘ Donna Catherina Pancratia Maurandy, wife of 
Don Augustin Juan, Professor in the Royal Botanic 
Garden of Carthagena, — a learned lady, a sharer, if not 
indeed a leader in her husband’s botanical labours.’ 
But all our text books give the honour to ‘ Dr. Maur¬ 
andy, Professor of Botany in Carthagena.’ It is 
remarkable that after the botanists should have dropped 
the lady, ladies themselves, whom we supposed started 
‘Barclayana Vine,’should have also given to a man 
the honour intended for the Professor’s wife. ” 
A Cheap Tree Digger.— Perhaps I may serve the 
nursery craft and others by describing a home-made 
one-horse digger, which has proved a very serviceable 
tool for my purposes. Taking a worn-out side-hill 
plough, the swinging mould board and some other 
appurtenances were removed, leaving but the thin iron 
frame under the beam. This frame was left to support 
a steel sword, or cutter, which was made to be about 
2 ft. long, and which went from the beam in front of 
the frame, and extended 18 in. below it. Any black¬ 
smith can affix such a sword to such a plough at a cost 
of a dollar or two. One horse is equal to making a cut 
in ordinary soil from 15 to 20 in. deep. After a cut 
on both sides of a row, most kinds of small trees and 
shrubs wdll readily pull without breaking the roots. 
In some cases it is well to go a second time in the cut, 
driving the cutter down to its length, and inclining 
the point under the trees. The advantage of this tool 
over the larger and patented kinds is in its trifling 
cost, and also in the ease with which it is operated by 
a single horse in any soil. Of course the large double 
machine is much better for large trees and extensive 
nurseries. But for many kinds of digging, this smaller 
cutter will serve the purpose equally well, and at less ex¬ 
pense in operating. - TV. C. Strong, Gardeners' Monthly. 
Cork dust for drainage. —Mr. R. C. Appleton, The 
Bar House, Beverley, writing to the The Garden, 
says :—The two most important conditions as regards 
success with pot plants, are, permeability of the soil 
and efficient drainage. Ordinary crock drainage 
occupies time to put it in position, lessens the space for 
soil, and adds materially to the weight. It cannot 
be said, therefore, that crocks make the best drainage, 
but cork when situated so that speedy evaporation 
cannot easily occur, is eminently suitable. During 
these last two years, I have drained all my pots with 
cork, but I riddle out the dust and use only the nodules. 
My potting is for the most part among alpines, and so 
far as I know, nothing concerns success or failure in 
the case ol these plants when growm in pots more than 
drainage. One may easily interfere with the growth of 
an alpine, if, when giving a shift, crocks or coal ashes 
fall away from some of the best roots, but, in the case 
of cork dust, a few roots interspersed among the nodules 
seem to hold them in position ; consequently, root 
disturbance is, to say the least of it, minimised. In my 
experience, too, I find that there is another and great 
advantage in the use of cork nodules, and that is, 
worms do not often disturb drainage of this description. 
Coal ashes are also good, in this respect, but cork, I 
think, is better, and I know' of no fungus w’hich attacks 
cork in such a position ; moreover, I do not think it 
possible, especially after the separation of the dust, by 
firm potting to so compress the nodules that porosity 
becomes impaired. Cork w r aste, I may add, may be 
obtained in almost every town free from cost, a point 
of no small importance in its favour. 
-- 
LACHENALIAS. 
The ease with which these beautiful spring-flowering 
Cape bulbs may be grown ought to be a sufficiently 
good recommendation to induce amateurs and even cot¬ 
tagers to take up their culture. In consequence of the 
stages in a house once under my charge being too far 
from the glass, I grew them for years in a pit where the 
temperature frequently fell below freezing point, and I 
have seen pots of them that had been exposed to 10° of 
frost. I allude now r to the varieties tricolor, pendula, 
and quadricolor, for I have no recollection of having 
seen any others except in botanical gardens, and I have 
reason to believe that the culture of those enumerated 
is confined generally to large establishments, where they 
are found useful for furnishing, as they stand well in 
rooms. In a cut state the spikes are admirably adapted 
for mixing with other flow'ers, and relieve the monotony 
of those more formally shaped. 
The bulbs should be procured at once and potted in 
soil similar to that used for Hyacinths and other 
bulbous roots. Some recommend peat and sand, but 
as I have not tried these ingredients I am not prepared 
to recommend them ; indeed, I have had such good 
results from the use of various sorts of loam with an 
admixture of leaf-mould, sand, and sometimes manure, 
that I should not think of using such an expensive 
article as peat is in the majority of districts. The pots 
to be used may vary in size from 4 ins. to 7 ins., 
according to the grower’s fancy or requirements, and 
the bulbs must be inserted 1 in. apart and 2 ins. below' 
the rim of the pot, to which, in the first instance, they 
should have been filled. This will allow an inch of the 
compost to be placed over the bulbs, and the remaining 
space for watering, very little of which is required till 
1 or 2 in. of growth has been made. If moderately 
moist soil has been used at potting time, we have 
wdtheld water till growth has appeared above the soil. 
Over watering at this early stage is productive of weakly 
growth, and frequently brings about the total decay of 
the bulbs. For this reason, after they are potted, always 
give them the protection of a light in a frame or pit. 
During the winter they should have a light position, 
and be kept well up to the glass or the leaves will 
become elongated and the flower spikes, instead of 
standing erect, will fall over if not supported. The 
end of March is about their usual flowering season, but 
they vary a week or two like other things, in pro¬ 
portion to the amount of sunshine they have received. 
By keeping them a little warm from December onwards, 
we have, however, had them in flower in the middle of 
February. For this batch the strongest bulbs and the 
earliest potted have been selected, and the weaker ones 
allowed to come on under the coldest treatment 
possible. After flowering the bulbs will need a rest, 
of which they will give indications by the foliage turn¬ 
ing yellow, when the supply of water must be reduced, 
and when all the leaves are faded, be entirely 
withheld, and the pots turned on their sides either in a 
pit or out of doors, or the bulbs may be shaken out of 
the soil and be preserved in pans covered with sand. 
Those rested in pots we generally pot in the first week 
in August, so as to make sure of them before they form 
roots, which of course would be damaged by the opera¬ 
tion of separating them from the dry hard soil. 
Lachenalias are eminently fitted for growing in 
baskets, and their beauty and effectiveness are enhanced, 
if at the time they are planted a flower pot about 4 ins. 
in diameter is inserted in the centre of the basket and 
taken out when the plants are in flower, and replaced 
by a similar sized pot containing Pteris serrulata, or 
some other graceful upright growing greenhouse Fern, 
or ornamental foliaged plant. The temporary pot 
should be plunged level with the surface of the soil, so 
that the one containing the plant may be effectually 
hid, and it may for appearance sake be filled with soil, 
and even planted with the smaller bulbs. The baskets 
should be lined with moss, that which grows under 
trees, and which can be taken up in flakes and placed 
with the green side outwards being the most suitable. 
— TV. P. R. [Besides the three, kinds mentioned by 
our correspondent there are others which are even 
better worth growing. L. Nelsoni which the late Rev. 
John Nelson obtained by crossing L. aurea and L. 
luteola, is the finest of the genus, a strong vigorous 
grower, and of a beautiful rich yellow colour. Two 
other garden varieties raised by him, one from the same 
cross as the last named, red and green in the bud, yel¬ 
low when fully developed, and the second from a cross 
between aurea and rosea, yellow when open, but claret 
coloured in the bud state, are also of the highest 
• excellence. L. fragrans is red and white, and sweetly 
scented ; L.contaminata is rose coloured, and Helio¬ 
trope scented ; and L. pustulata is a very pretty and 
distinct white-flowered kind.—E d.] 
-->¥<--- 
HYACINTHS IN GLASSES. 
A popular writer on domestic floriculture has truly 
said, that “of all the delightful recreations that can 
dispense their kindly charms through the domestic 
circle, there is none scarcely so pregnant with the highest 
and purest enjoyment as the cultivation of a few 
Hyacinths in water. There are many reasons why this 
practice should be much more generally followed than 
it is, for there is so much pleasurable excitement about 
it, that the task of tending them, to one touched by a 
genuine and genial love for flowers, never falls to the 
low level of irksomeness.” Those who have hitherto 
derived so much pleasure from the cultivation of 
Hyacinths in water, do not require to. be reminded 
that the time is near at hand for them to fill their 
glasses and start their bulbs into renewed life, but to 
many others who are unacquainted with the simple 
details of this system of cultivation, a few seasonable 
hints may not come amiss. The first thing to do is to 
procure the glasses and the bulbs, and the latter should 
be obtained at once, as although it is not advisable to 
put them in water until the middle or end of next 
month, the main supply of bulbs having arrived from 
Holland, it is always advisable to buy them early on 
the principle that “first come is best served.” 
When selecting the sorts to be grown the tyro should 
remember two things, 1, that all varieties do not do 
equally well in water, and 2, that it is not necessarily 
the largest bulbs that yield the finest spikes. “Weight 
and plumpness rather than mere size should guide the 
purchaser in his selection of the bulbs. As to the sorts 
which have been proved to give the best results we may 
mention the following dozen single varieties, as being 
thoroughly good :—Grand Vainqueur, white ; Yon 
Schiller, pink ; Grand Lilas, azure-blue ; Charles Dick¬ 
ens, porcelain-blue ; Lord Wellington, pale rose ; 
Mimosa, dark blue ; Norma, pink ; Queen of the 
Netherlands, white ; Yon Humboldt, purple ; Ida, 
yellow ; Argus, blue ; and Robert Steiger, crimson. 
If more than a dozen are required, a selection may be 
made from the following :—Gigantea, delicate rose ; 
Orondates, porcelain-blue ; Grandeur a Merveille, pale 
blush ; Madame Hodgson, pink ; Mammoth, white ; 
Argus, blue ; Cosmos, rose-pink ; Macaulay, rose ; Baron 
von Tuyll, dark blue ; Queen of Hyacinths, rosy scarlet; 
Seraphine, blush ; and Alba superbissima, pure white. 
We have not named any double-flowered varieties, 
because in other than very skilful hands they do not 
come to the same state of perfection as the single ones. 
Having obtained the bulbs and put them away in a 
dry cool place till wanted, the next thing is to secure 
the glasses, which may be cheap or expensive, plain or 
ornamental, according to the fancy or the means of the 
purchasers. The old-fashioned tall chimney-pot shaped 
glasses shown in the left-hand corner of the first 
row of illustrations opposite, are now seldom seen. 
They were always ugly and ungainly in appearance 
and awkward to manage, owing to the difficulty of 
fixing to them the supports required by the spikes to 
prevent them from tumbling over. Thanks to the late 
Mr. G. P. Tye, of Birmingham, who was the first to 
introduce improved and more elegantly shaped glasses, 
and which in turn have been reproduced in artistic 
patterns by other makers, there is now in the market 
a very wide choice of elegant forms, both plain and 
ornamental, of which we add a few illustrations. 
