634 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 5, 1886. 
one account, Perseus, protected by Pluto's helmet, 
which rendered him invisible, and balancing himself 
for an instant like a hawk upon the wings he had 
borrowed from Mercury, swooped down upon the 
monster, and thrusting the dreadful Gorgon’s head 
in front of his eyes, froze it into stone before it could 
close its jaws upon its shrieking victim. 
“ But the story we prefer to believe is, that Perseus 
met the enemy openly, in the sight of the princess, 
and attacked him with the dagger only. Then the 
sea was lashed into foam, and the noise of the conflict 
echoed along the coast. Poor Andromeda was almost 
drowned in the surges rolled irp by the monster in his 
struggles. Finally Perseus got in a fatal thrust with 
his diamond blade and the battle w r as over. 
“Perseus then broke Andromeda’s shackles and 
bore her in triumph to her father’s court. With the 
death of the sea monster the floods retired, and the 
Ethiopians prepared to celebrate the nuptials of their 
princess and the hero who had rescued her. But there 
was trouble at the wedding. Andromeda had been 
promised in marriage to her uncle Phineas, but she 
preferred the heroic Perseus to the man who had proved 
too cowardly a lover to try to rescue her when she was 
exposed to the jaws of the monster. Phineas went to 
the wedding with a gang of ruffianly followers bent on 
having a row. He got more than he bargained for. 
Perseus was a hero of the first magnitude in every 
respect, and with the aid of the Gorgon’s head he 
overcame all his ’ enemies. The gods were so well 
pleased with Perseus that they placed him and his 
bride, upon their death, among the stars, and gave 
them Andromeda’s father and mother, and even the 
sea monster, to keep them company, And so they can 
all be seen shining there to this day, as they were in 
the time of Aratus. 
“For there a woeful statue form is seen, 
Andromeda parted from her mother’s side. 
Long I trow. 
Thou wilt not seek her in the nightly sky, 
So bright her head, so bright 
Her shoulders, feet, and girdle 
Yet even there she has her arms extended 
And shackled even in heaven ; uplifted, 
Outspread eternally are those fair hands. 
“ It gives one a clear conception of the antiquity of 
these constellations when we know that they must 
have been familiar to St. Paul, for he quoted one of 
the opening lines of Aratus’ great poem on the skies in 
his speech to the Athenians on Mars Hill. And they 
were as ancient as the hills in his day. This story of 
Andromeda, framed in the stars, is older than the 
history of Europe .”—American Gardeners' Monthly. 
-- 
TROLLIUS OR “GLOBE FLOWER.” 
The Globe Flowers are among the most useful and 
valuable of spring flowering plants. Many persons 
are acquainted with the British species, Trollius Euro- 
preus, a kind of aristocratic relation to the Buttercup. 
Its petals are of a larger and paler hue, and more 
numerous than those of any of the Buttercups ; they 
are all cupped and meet in the centre so as to enclose 
the stamens and sepals in a perfect globe. In the hilly 
districts of the south of England, the Globe Flower 
grows freely, and not a few fine natural varieties of it 
have been discovered. There is a white variety also, 
but it is not so numerous as the species, still a very 
useful and attractive flower. T. Asiaticus is, as its 
name implies, an imported species, but it is now 
common in gardens, and very showy and effective. The 
gem of the group is T. japonica flore pleno, one of Mr. 
Fortune’s introductions from Japan, and known as 
T. Fortunii. It has large fully double deep orange 
flowers, and it makes a very showy border plant. All 
the Trollius do well in a moist sandy loam. 
The botanical name of the Globe Flower, Trollius 
Europaeus, is supposed to be of Scandinavian origin, and 
to signify a magic flower. The plant is also called 
Globe Ranunculus, and Globe Crowfoot, from the 
globular form of its calyx. The flower was formerly 
known as the Troll-flower, and in Scotland as the 
Luckan Gowan (Cabbage Daisy). The name of Troll 
was probably derived from the Swedish word troll, a 
malignant supernatural being, a name corresponding to 
the Scotch Witches Gowan, and given to the Trollius 
on account of its acrid poisonous qualities. It is a 
common flower on the Alps, and has been employed 
from time immemorial by the Swiss peasantry to make 
garlands of on rural festive celebrations. In the 
northern counties of England, at the beginning of June, 
the Globe Flower is sought with great festivity by the 
young people, who adorn their doors and cottages with 
wreaths and garlands composed of its blossoms. 
It is a pity to attempt to divide the roots of Trollius 
until the plants have become well established in the 
soil, then side growths can be taken off without 
materially affecting the stability of the plants, and they 
flower so much better when they are thoroughly set in 
the soil. A hot dry position should be avoided ; this is 
too trying for them, and the plants if allowed to suffer 
from dryness at the roots soon give out.— Q. 
-- 
HAWTHORNS. 
Suburban and country gardens are now gay with 
the flowers of the Hawthorns, which come before we 
have quite lost the Lilac, and with the Laburnums 
render the shrubberies very beautiful. The common 
white Hawthorn, or “ May,” of our hedge-rows, which 
covers them with a snowy mantle of flowers, is one of 
the greatest favourites of the wild British flora ; but in 
gardens we have now many handsome varieties with 
scarlet and rose flowers, both single and double, to 
select from. Cratregus oxyacantlia has been under the 
care of cultivators for a long period, as though it is a 
native plant, it has been found so useful for hedges that 
it is now very generally used for this purpose. 
It is readily increased by seeds, and, in consequence, 
many varieties have been so obtained, differing greatly 
in their habit of growth, in the colour of their flowers, 
the colour of their fruits, and the form of their leaves. 
Large collections are, however, seldom seen, and in 
ordinary planting, if the white, scarlet, and rose forms 
are associated in due proportion, it is all that is neces¬ 
sary. The single varieties are very handsome, and 
usually much brighter in colour than the doubles, 
though the flowers of the former do not last quite so 
long, either on the trees or when cut; but we prefer 
them, and a good specimen of the single scarlet, 
drooping at the corner of a shrubbery or in some 
similarly prominent place, cannot be surpassed, especi¬ 
ally if a little taste has been exercised in planting a 
white-flowered shrub near it for contrast. — H. 
-- 
FRUITS, FLOWERS & VEGETABLES. 
Amherstia nobilis. —Ever since its introduction 
to this country, in 1837, but more especially since it 
flowered in 1849, the Amherstia has been an object of 
great interest and anticipation to the cultivator. It is, 
moreover, very capricious in the matter of flowering, 
and the individual blooms are almost ephemeral in 
their duration. These characters are borne out by 
some plants that have come under my notice, the 
largest of which makes a reasonable amount of growth 
annually, but has not flowered for some years. Small 
plants in pots, however, occasionally flower, and 
exhibit a brilliant and geogeous mixture of colours, 
that are as attractive as the duration of the flower is 
short and tantalizing. The petals exhibit a mixture 
of red, some-say vermilion, yellow, and tipped with 
a large velvety golden green blotch, or some such 
colour, that is equally difficult to describe. They are 
very unequal in size, which adds greatly to the 
curiosity of the flower. The figure in the Botanical 
Magazine, t. 4453, hardly does justice to the peculiar 
and brilliant coloration.— J. I. 
Calcolarias. —The first of these that I remember 
seeing was in 1833 ; it was named Kellieana, a very 
dwarf growing variety, with a small yellow flower with 
very dark spots upon it. I have seen this sort stand the 
winter out-of-doors, and bloom most profusely the fol¬ 
lowing season. There were others which made their 
appearance shortly after, but they were very small and 
inferior in form. I think somewhere about 1837, I saw 
in Messrs. Dicksons & Co. ’s nursery, a very fine variety 
named Standishii, a very large yellow striped and 
spotted with bronze all over. This was something far 
ahead of anything that had ever been seen in this 
quarter ; then after this came Lady Constable and a 
host of others. Mr. Anderson-Henry took up the 
raising of Calceolarias about 1840 ; he was very 
successful for a time in raising some very fine things, 
which were distributed by Messrs. Dicksons & Co. 
Shortly after this the late Mr. John Carstairs, who then 
had the Warriston nursery, raised a very fine batch of 
seedlings. He made himself believe, and tried to per¬ 
suade others, that he could see all the letters of the 
alphabet on them ; when I saw that in the papers, I, 
like others, went to see them, but I must confess it was 
by a very strong effort of imagination that we could see 
the A B C on them at all. Flow the days of named 
herbaceous Calceolarias have gone by, a pinch of seed 
is all that is required.— John Downie, Edinburgh, 
Hoya imperialis. —This vigorous creeping stove 
plant is now in flower with' us, and producing fine 
clusters of its large umbel-shaped flowers upon a growth 
some 8 yds. to 9 yds. long. It seems especially adapted 
as a creeper for large houses, and its habit of flowering 
resembles the old Hoya carnosa— i. e., it produces a 
second tier of flowers from the same flower-stem, a fact 
that is worth knowing in cases where the flowers are 
required to be used in a cut state. — TV. C. 
Begonia discolor. —A plant that will flower 
almost anywhere and everywhere must not be despised 
because there are other varieties of its species more 
fashionable and perhaps better. The above variety will 
grow and flower at the base of a wall, by the side of a 
path, in a rockery, or if its roots are even squeezed into 
a little soil and lime rubbish under a stage, it will grow 
and flower as if the most ample preparation had been 
made for it. It is not recommended that the plant he 
treated so unkindly, but the facts are stated in order to 
show the fine constitution and adaptation of the plant 
to grow and flower under almost any circumstances 
and anywhere. — TV. H. 
Scillas. —We herewith enclose you a series of 
Squills (Scillas), which, you will observe, are all more 
or less beautiful, and which form some of the most 
pleasing plants among spring bulbs for naturalising, or 
for massing here and there in shrubbery borders or 
woodland walks, their long pyramidal racemes of bell¬ 
shaped flowers rendering them most attractive. In the 
Campanulata group we have light blue, pure white, 
rosy lilac with fine bold spike, while we find the giant 
in the variety maximus. The same colours occur in 
the nutans section, though of different aspect, the bells 
in this case being more cylindrical. The intense gentian 
blue of S. nutans violaeea is remarkably distinct and 
most telling in a mass. S. hyacinthioides is a very 
pretty deep blue, and shaded with lighter blue towards 
the mouth. These make up a pleasing whole, and all 
are useful in a cut state.— Collins Brothers <£• Gabriel. 
Anemone Polyantha. —A fine clump of this 
Himalayan species has been flowering freely for some 
time in the rockery at Kew. It seems perfectly hardy, 
having stood out for the last two winters without any 
protection. It is a native of the Ganges Valley, at 
elevations of 10-11,000 ft., and was raised from seeds 
sent home through the medium of the Saharanpur 
Botanic Garden. In habit and general appearance of 
the foliage, this species resembles that of A. obtusiloba, 
but has more numerous, whiter flowers, is hardier, and 
altogether a finer plant for cultivation in a rich, moist 
nook of the rockery. The foliage forms a dense mass, 
completely covering the soil in which it is planted, 
while the flower-scape is just sufficiently long to carry 
the pure white and graceful flowers clear of the foliage. 
The anthers, however, are darker coloured, but by no 
means detract from the beauty of the flower. The in¬ 
dividual leaves are reniform or orbicular, with blunt, 
overlapping lobes and hairy, and altogether much 
larger than those we are wont to associate with more 
familiar and more frequently-cultivated species. There 
is a probability of this species proving much less 
troublesome to cultivate than the Primulas from the 
same country.— J. F. 
Rose Insects. —I should feel much obliged if 
any of your correspondents could inform me through 
the medium of your columns, of the best means to 
adopt to get rid of the pest, popularly known as 
“cuckoo-spittle,” which appears just now to be very 
prevalent. I have in my garden made several vigorous 
raids upon it with the “finger and thumb ” process, 
apparently clearing it all away, only, however, to find 
it as bad as ever a few hours later. Is it due to drought 
or to excessive moisture; and does the “spittle” 
generate the insects, or do they produce the frothy 
substance ? I observed appearances of it before the 
late heavy rains, but since these came, it seems to have 
become worse. This species of blight seems this year 
to have attacked every kind of plant indiscriminatety. 
In former years I noticed that it usually bestowed its 
attentions upon certain growths only.— Puzzled. 
