618 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 29, 1886. 
recurvus, a fine bold flower, and the pure white 
Poeticus plenus. The former lias been in bloom a 
fortnight, and the latter is now (May 24th) emerging 
into bloom. 
To those enumerated, I may add the various kinds 
of Scilla, beautifully adapted for naturalising. In the 
forms of S. nutans, we find intense blue in violacea, 
whilst we have rosy lilac in rosea, and pure white in 
alba. In the Carupanulate group, the colours are 
similar, while the general aspect of the plants is very 
distinct.— J. 
-- 
SEEDLING POTATOS. 
It is fortunate for those who embark in the raising 
of seedling Potatos that they find the labour involves 
some considerable interest, in which pleasure is always 
existent if profit is not always present. Why Potatos 
should be so largely objected to by a certain class 
of critics it is hard to say, hut the very men who 
revel in the increase of varieties in some flower or 
other, seem never to tire in denouncing increase of 
variety in Potatos. That is a very dog-in-the-manger 
sentiment, but happily hurts no one, for the simple 
reason that, with all their complaining, the Potato 
world still moves. It will be bad for the horticultural 
planet as for many similar ones when it does come to 
a dead stop, for sure as fate, it will but stop to fall into 
oblivion. Those who keep the axil of the planet well 
oiled, by constafitty adding to its products, render 
good service ; and I think it will be long ere we cease 
from doing so at the bidding of some hypercritics. 
I have been tempted into the penning of this 
exordium because it is not possible to think about seed¬ 
ling Potatos without having one’s mind drawn to the 
criticisms so freely lavished from time to time ; and, - 
thinking cannot be helped when one is engaged in 
planting, as well as in thinking: I made a few crosses 
last year, with more or less success, but was greatly 
handicapped by the heat and drought, for these 
combined, not only seriously affected the production 
of pollen but also the retention of the flowers on those 
kinds employed as seed parents. It is well worthy the 
attention of all who may feel interest in Potato seeding, 
that kinds usually very prolific in pollen, make good 
pollen parents, but should never be employed as seed 
parents. It is a nuisance at any time, to have sorts 
which produce an abundance of seed-apples. Wood- 
stock Kidney, Grampian, and Eadstock Beauty are 
examples of this class and should be avoided as seed 
parents. Not only are such kinds nuisances, but it is 
most obvious that the production of a heavy crop of 
seed-apples robs the plants of much of their power to 
produce root-crops. Hence it is, that kinds which 
bloom fairly free but never set their blooms, make the 
best seed parents, asssuming that, the by no means easy 
task in all cases of fertilizing the blooms with pollen 
from some other kind can be performed with success. 
Mere haphazard cross breeding is undesirable, and 
anyone setting out to raise seedling Potatos should 
have in their minds some ideal towards which they 
should work. If they do that, they may look even¬ 
tually to find their labours have not been in vain. 
I draw attention to this matter now, because the 
blooming season of Potatos will soon be here, and those 
who would strive for new varieties should be ready as 
soon as the proper season opens. When fertilisation is 
performed, not more than a couple of flowers on any one 
truss of bloom should be manipulated, the rest being re¬ 
moved. It is not at all needful toremove the pollen cases 
which surround the pistil of the flowers to be fertilised, 
as these probably contain no pollen. If ever so thin a 
covering of pollen grains can be obtained from other 
flowers, and be thrown upon the thumb-nail of the left 
hand, enough may be found to fertilise several blooms, 
if needful, by simply drawing the top or point of the 
projecting pistils across the surface of the thumb-nail, 
as the pistils will take up the pollen. Each cross should 
be noted, and the blooms marked and supported by 
having the stem tied to a stake. The seed-apples are 
quite fit to gather as soon as they assume a yellowish 
tint. Last year, owing to the drought, some few of the 
seed-apples I had, the product of fertilised flowers, 
dropped ere mature, and some seemed almost to shrivel 
up on the stems, but in all cases the seed though very 
small has proved fertile, and I have a considerable batch 
of young plants ready to plant out in rows in the open 
ground. These are from several crosses, and are certain 
to produce many good forms, but whether really distinct 
and improvements remain to be seen. Certainly it is 
not easy to obtain a new kind which excels all the sorts 
we have in commerce.— A. D. 
TABLE, WINDOW AND INDOOR 
PLANTS. 
Many of the varieties of Lilium are among the most 
beautiful of plants for the dwelling-house when in 
flower, and fortunately the cheap and moderately cheap 
ones are the best, viz., the varieties of L. speciosum 
(lancifolium) and the varieties of L. longiflorum. 
These are very handsome, and are delightfully fragrant; 
but not with the overpowering and heavy odour of L. 
auratum, which constitutes its only objection as a plant 
for decoration in the dwelling-house, for its beauty 
admits of no question. Liliums may either be grown 
in pots plunged in ashes or cocoa-nut fibre in a shady 
garden frame, and brought into the house when in an 
advanced condition of growth, and with those who get 
into the way of so growing them, they are very easy 
to manage ; but, on the other hand, some fail with 
them in pots. 
In several instances I have gained the thanks of 
those who could not grow Liliums well in pots by 
recommending them a plan which I adopt sometimes, 
and which I find hardly admits of failure, viz., to plant 
the bulbs outdoors in a shetered place, and lift and pot 
with good turfy loam as they are coming up strongly in 
spring. In this manner they may be taken up even in 
an advanced stage, and flowered successfully indoors, 
and afterwards returned to the place outdoors until the 
next spring. From my experience Liliums do not like 
bright sunlight, and are easily injured by being nursed 
up or kept close while dormant; and, consequently, 
when the dormant bulbs are potted up, they should 
rather be placed under ashes outdoors or in a cold cellar 
until they start strongly than in a greenhouse or close 
room. Lilies require to be kept always moist, but like 
a liberal supply of water while the growths are coming 
up. 
The best varieties are:—L. speciosum, white, spotted 
rose ; L. album, white ; L. Kratzeri, the best white ; 
L. rubrum superbum, white, tinged crimson ; L. 
rubrum cruentum, glowing crimson, edged white ; and 
L. longiflorum varieties, all white. Most of the other 
dwarf Lilies do well in pots indoors when lifted in spring 
from the open ground as directed.— M. A., Camb. 
-- 
FRUITS, FLOWERS k VEGETABLES. 
Tiger Flowers.—After Mr. Jenkins’ re-assuring 
remarks I will venture to get a little closer to him, and 
as our objects are mutual— i.e., for the benefit of the 
general readers—I hope he will remain perfectly docile 
and harmless. It is now evident that Mr. Jenkins is 
basing his remarks on out-door culture of the Tigridia, 
whilst I, oil the contrary, have from the beginning—as 
your readers will have observed—confined my observa¬ 
tions exclusively to the cultivation of them “in pots,” or 
in other words, to their cultivation under glass. This is 
a distinction with a difference. Mr. Jenkins bases his 
criticisms on my warning not to subject the Tigridias to 
very much artificial heat, and Mr. Jenkins comes 
“ down upon” me the following week, and says that 
artificial heat is not only unnecessary, but postively 
injurious, but he has not brought forward a tittle of 
evidence to prove that assertion, but so far he has relied 
upon the “rule of thumb” practice of storing and 
keeping them through the winter under out-door culture 
in this country, and under such conditions the advice 
of Mr. Jenkins is good, for the bulbs imperfectly 
matured out of doors could not withstand—to remain 
quiescent—the amount of artificial heat during the 
winter, as what those bulbs will that have been grown 
and matured under glass. I have practically demon¬ 
strated, year after year, that Tigridias grown as I have 
stated, and wintered in a glass structure from which frost 
is excluded by means of artificial heat, do not grow 
“ smaller by degrees, and beautifully less,” and that it 
is not prejudicial to their welfare, and mere assertion 
is not sufficient to prove my statements to be erroneous. 
The amateurs, for whom I write, in a majority of 
cases have not suitable borders in which to cultivate 
them out of doors, and still worse, the local climatic 
conditions are more unsuitable ; and in my opinion the 
average annual temperature in the Midlands and North 
of England is insufficient to properly develope and 
mature the corms of the Tigridia, except in favoured 
localities, and I fear that is the reason they are so 
rarely seen. In the southern counties the case is 
different, but even there, occasionally, a season comes 
in which the Tigridias have a bad time of it, as many 
have found out. 
In my mind’s eye I see scores, nay hundreds, of small 
greenhouses, so small that a full-sized man can touch 
with his fingers the sides and ends of each house as he 
stands in the middle. These miniature greenhouses 
are full of things as precious, yea, more precious to 
them, for do not the owners water, and pot and tend 
them with their own hands, than are the most costly 
exotics to the nobleman or wealthy commoner 1 One 
house here and there may belong to a “specialist,” 
but the majority are filled with miscellaneous plants, 
and all the owners of these houses cannot help admiring 
the Tigridias when they see them. It is for these, and 
such as these, that I write. It is hopeless for them to 
try the Tiger Flowers out of doors ill their allotments, 
as some of them have found out, and that for other 
reasons besides those of cultivation ; but everyone of 
these men may grow them in their greenhouses if they 
choose to try, and they may grow them successfully. 
I have never yet known an ordinary greenhouse 
filled with ordinary greenhouse plants, to be “arid” 
during the winter months, how is it possible for 
such a structure to become “arid” under such 
conditions ? even if a drop of water were not given 
to the occupants for weeks, it would take a tolerable 
amount of firing—far more than any amateur in his 
senses would be likely to waste—to create an “arid” 
atmosphere during one of our cold damp winters. 
With most people the difficulty is to keep the atmo¬ 
sphere of such houses dry enough. Mr. Jenkins’ ex¬ 
perience appears to be of a different character. 
Is a damp cellar anything like the “natural 
quarters” of the Tigridia? I trow not. I condemn 
cellars in general as storehouses for the subjects 
mentioned by Mr. Jenkins, and I have not made 
special reference to cellars “containing several inches 
of water above the floor.” It is perfectly true that 
people may embrace Tigridias, Begenias and Gladioli 
under the conditions mentioned by Mr. Jenkins, and I 
have no doubt people 'who so “embrace them” will be 
satisfied with a qualified measure of success. It is also 
true that people may embrace Tigridias, Begonias and 
Gladioli under the conditions mentioned by me, and 
have a full measure of success, and that when Air. 
Jenkin’s conditions are not available. 
Is it more “natural” lor Tigridias to remain in the 
soil in which they grow 7 , or to be taken up out of the 
ground or out of the soil and be stored away in sheds 
and cellars ? If the latter are more natural, by what 
means does nature perform those functions ? It is true 
the plants mentioned do loose their roots, but their vital 
functions are no more dormant than are those of the 
sleeping child ; but in case they are dormant, then they 
would be dead, as would be the child under like cir¬ 
cumstances. 
The Tigridias in their native habitat in Mexico are 
warm and dry, and remain in the ground during their 
period of rest ; and I maintain that under artificial 
culture in this country, no matter whether in pots or 
in borders, they are better for being kept in soil dry 
but not too dry, and in a structure from which frost 
can be excluded—a cool greenhouse being the best. I 
like them to be kept either in soil or some other suitable 
medium, so that they may not be in direct contact 
with the atmosphere, no matter whether it be moist or 
dry, and thus prevent a certain degree of loss of vital 
force owning to direct contact with the atmosphere. 
Tigridias are taken up from outside borders every year, 
not because it is natural to them to be so taken up, nor 
yet because they could not be placed out of the reach 
of frost, for that would be an easy matter by placing 
a few ashes or cocoa-nut fibre over their places, but 
because our winters are jointly too cold and wet. A 
winter temperature anywhere between 40° and 50° will 
suit them admirably, and if they are kept in the pots 
in which they have grown and flowered, a watering 
occasionally when the soil is very dry indeed will do 
them more good than harm.— Reader. [AYe think it is 
due to Air. Jenkins that we should say his experience 
as a grower of these plants is much greater than 
“Reader” would appear to give him credit for.—E d.] 
Richardia sethiopica. —Although this plant is 
by no means new, it is still one of those useful things 
that those who have to provide plants in number and 
variety for winter or spring decoration cannot afford to 
neglect. AVhen well grown, it is always handsome and 
effective in any combination, and has the great merit 
