1882 .] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
68 
amount of £15,350, including £500 raised last 
year for the Augmentation Fund, and £800 received 
from the Arthur Yeitch Memorial Committee. It 
is intended to increase the amount of the pensions 
granted by £1 per annum, as soon as the funded 
property reaches £20,000; and as this requires but 
£4,650 to be got together, it is proposed to repeat 
the general collection of small sums in aid of the 
Augmentation in the same way as was done last 
year. Collectors who in this way contribute ten 
guineas will he entitled to the privilege of life sub¬ 
scribers. We wish the movement every success, and 
commend the matter to the notice of such of our 
readers as may not hitherto have taken any interest 
therein. 
— Jn respect t© tlie Transit of Garden 
Produce the London and North Western 
Railway Company have shown themselves to 
be possessed of enterprise of a kind which is not so 
frequently exhibited by railway companies as it 
might be. The company have arranged to receive 
daily at their Kew Bridge Station all kinds of farm 
and market garden produce, and to forward them in 
time for the early markets next morning in the large 
towns of the northern and midland counties. Seeing 
that Market Gardening will, in all probability, play 
a very important part in our future agricultural 
history, this new departure is a step in the right 
direction.—( Gard. Mag., 140.) 
— (Yiie Alexandrian Laurel is a graceful 
little bush, by far the most graceful of winter 
evergreens. It is not common in gardens, 
though it is not very difficult to obtain, and wants a 
few 3 r ears’ careful culture before it is established, and 
one can cut away freely at the elegant shoots. The 
plant is nearly allied to the Butcher’s Broom, but in¬ 
finitely more free and graceful in habit, and better 
in the rich glossy colour of the leaves and shoots. Its 
place in the garden is as an isolated group, or series 
of small groups among the dwarfer shrubs, and it 
usually grow r s from three to four feet high. Like 
the asparagus, to which it is not very distantly 
related, it, when established well, may be cut and 
cut again with impunity. A more valuable outdoor 
plant for indoor decoration "when cut, there is not.— 
(Field.) 
— Jn discussing the question of Feeding 
Vines, the editor of the Gardener, whose 
successful practice gives force to his teaching, 
observes:—In November a good dressing of bone- 
meal is forked in as near to the roots as possible 
without injuring them, and the border is then 
covered with four inches of the richest manure pro¬ 
curable. The manure is allowed to remain undisturbed 
until about the time when the Grapes are thinned, 
when it is removed without disturbing the border, 
and another dressing of manure applied. If the 
weather be dry when the summer dressing is applied, 
a thorough soaking of water is given. In time of 
heavy rain a sprinkling of guano is sometimes applied, 
and sometimes a dressing of soot, which imparts 
colour and texture to the leaves. No manure except 
crushed bones is put into the border when made, in 
Grape growing there are a few cardinal points to be 
attended to:—Never mix much manure with the 
border but top-dress liberally; have the most perfect 
drainage, and give plenty of water in dry seasons and 
localities ; never have the rods closer together than 
3j feet, nor the spurs closer than 18—20 inches; 
avoid an overmoist atmosphere, give plenty of air 
night and day, and avoid high night temperatures, 
especially early in the season. The nitrogenous 
manures above alluded to stimulate growth in a 
powerful manner, but maturation and ripening of 
the wood have to he considered also, and for this 
purpose in addition to the lime and phosphorus of the 
bone-meal, the addition of potash salts is called for if 
the border does not already contain sufficient. 
— *!Ehe Clove Carnation Mrs. Lazenby 
is highly spoken of; it is a variety having a 
robust habit of growth, and produces large 
well-formed flowers, of a good yellow colour. A 
small selection of these fragrant favourites for a 
beginner might comprise the following varieties :— 
Mrs. Lazenby, yellow; Coroner, scarlet; Bella, 
delicate blush; Corsair, deep purple; Eliza, violet 
purple; Susan Askey, white ; and Sybil, bright rose: 
all most valuable for the flower-border or for 
bouquets.— (Gard. Chron., N. s., xvii., 227.) 
— Che Heliotrope Oxonian is one of the 
most charming varieties for winter forcing, 
and is especially adapted for bouquet making, 
being strongly perfumed. The flowers are borne in 
small trusses of dark purple, and the centre of the 
individual florets is wffiite, which contrasts well with 
the larger body of purple.— (Gard. Chron., N. s., xvi., 
783.) 
— Che Corn-bottle is very successfully 
grown at Gunnershury Park as a winter flower, 
and is found most useful. It is something to 
have a fine flower of a striking colour produced in 
abundance at this season of the year. The seed is 
sown at the end of Juno in 32-sized pots, and when 
large enough the plants are thinned out to four or 
five at most. Kept in a warm house, the plants 
flower with amazing freedom ; and as soon as a crop 
is cut, another takes its place. What a lovely hue 
of blue the flowers take on, bright in tone and last¬ 
ing in character.— (Gard. Chron., N. S., xvi., 662.) 
— jiirlESSRS. Coventry and Carstairs have 
sent us a collection of Flower Seeds done up 
in packets, each bearing on one side a coloured 
portrait of the plant of which seeds are enclosed by 
it, and on the other side directions for sowing, &c. 
The little pictures are fairly good representations of 
the several plants. The idea is a good one; and the 
tiny figures as well as the cultural instructions will, 
no doubt, be fully appreciated by amateur gardeners, 
for whose special benefit they are provided. 
— jUfl. Correvon, of Geneva, writing of 
Androsace villosa, a pretty alpine plant 
which grows in the Pyrenees, the Jura, and 
other limestone mountains, observes that it is one of 
the prettiest and one of the most interesting and 
desirable plants that we can cultivate on rockwo.rk. 
Its silky foliage grows in compact tufts, each of which 
produces a stem laden with rose-coloured flowers, 
with a deeper-coloured eye, and which have a perfume 
of honey. They are produced in May and June, 
and are so abundant that they completely cover the 
plant, so that the foliage can scarcely be seen. It 
should he grown in a little narrow pocket, wdiere it 
has not much room to expand, so that its compact 
habit may be the better preserved. The pocket 
should be well drained with limestone pebbles and 
exposed to the sun. If it is placed in a larger pocket 
it sends off many offshoots, breaks up into a quantity 
