424 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March. 5, 1S8T, 
BEGONIA GOGOENSIS. 
This ornamental species is not generally met with 
in gardens. It is nevertheless well worth growing 
where handsome foliage plants in variety are in con¬ 
stant demand for decoration. The leaves are nearly 
round, and borne on stout leaf-stalks from the base or 
creeping rhizome. This species is quite distinct, with 
foliage of a deep velvety green, with a very pleasing 
bronze metallic hue, while the mid-ribs and veins are 
of a slightly paler colour. 
Large plants have a coarseness about them that 
detracts very much from their beauty and effectiveness 
for decoration, but in a small state they are very 
conspicuous, and few plants are more telling amongst 
Ferns, mosses, and other similar subjects. The flowers 
possess no beauty, and are only produced on plants 
after they attain a fair size in 5 or 6-in. pots. These 
should be removed as soon as they are visible. 
Symmetrical little plants can be had in 3-in. to 5-in. 
pots, which are the most suitable for furnishing pur¬ 
poses. Fortunately there is no difficulty in raising or 
maintaining a good stock of small plants ; but for 
this purpose a plant should be grown on, and the 
matured leaves can be removed from time to time and 
pegged on the surface of pans. From the centre of each 
leaf a young plant will be produced. 
"We have cut the mid-ribs of the leaves, and although 
they callused no further signs of growth took place ; 
but as each leaf will-,produce a plant, there is no 
difficulty in maintaining a stock of charming plants 
suitable for any position. Plants raised from leaves in 
autumn are just now very ornamental in 3-in. pots. 
If a batch of leaves are pegged at once on the surface of 
sand in pans or boxes, young plants will issue in a very 
short time. To grow this plant well it requires stove 
treatment, and does not appear to be very particular 
about soil.— TV. C. 
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THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
Seasonable Notes. — The time has now arrived 
when growers should pay special attention to tlieir 
plants. Cuttings inserted during November and 
December should now be nicely rooted and ready for 
potting off into 3-in. pots, in a compost consisting of 
two parts of good turfy loam to one part of well-decayed 
manure, and enough coarse silver sand to keep the whole 
porous. Before potting, the grower should look over 
his stock and sort out those varieties that he intends 
to grow for specimen blooms, and keep them separate 
from the varieties required for training or for ordinary 
greenhouse decoration. Having done this, the varieties 
intended for training into specimens or ordinary culture 
for greenhouse decoration, should be stopped to induce 
the formation of side shoots, which they will do in 
about a week, when they should be potted off. Those 
intended to be growm on for specimen blooms must not 
be stopped, but should be potted at once into 3-in. pots. 
When the plants are potted they should be placed in a 
cold frame and be kept close for a few days, after which 
air should be given on every favourable occasion; 
varieties that are required for standards should be kept 
steadily growing until the required height is attained, 
when they must be stopped to induce breaks to form 
the head, keeping any shoots that may appear up the 
stem well pinched back. 
For ordinary greenhouse decoration cuttings may be 
inserted as late as April with very good results ; there¬ 
fore the stock should be looked over, and a note made 
of any sorts that the grower is short of, so that they 
can be inserted in due course. Cuttings of Pompons 
for cut bloom purposes should now be inserted. They 
will soon strike and make nice plants. The following 
varieties should be included in every collection, es¬ 
pecially where it is intended to grow for exhibition 
Black Douglas, Caractacus, Exposition de Chalon, 
Madame Marthe and Golden Madame Marthe, 
Marabout, Mdlle. Eiise Dordan, President and its pale 
rose sport Mrs. Mardlin, White and Rose Trevenna, 
Sanspariel, Sablon (good), Rubra perfecta (good), and 
of Anemone-flowered varieties Antonius, Briolis, Eugene 
Laugaulet, Jean Hatchett, Madame Chalonge, Madame 
Montels, Maria Stuart, Mr. Astie and Queen of 
Anemones (good). 
The early-flowering varieties should not bo forgotten, 
as these will amply repay the grower for the time and 
space devoted to them ; there can generally be found 
room in the borders for a few, and if cuttings are 
inserted now, they will make nice plants fit to put out 
in April. A few select varieties if grown on in pots will 
be found very acceptable during September and October 
for decorating the greenhouse, until the ordinary 
November varieties commence to bloom. 
Any borders intended to be planted with Chrysan¬ 
themums, should now be well dug and manured.— TV. 
E. Boyce, Archway Road, Highgate. 
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FERN WALL TILE. 
Messes. Aethuk Booty & Co., High Harrogate, 
have sent us some samples of what appears to be a 
practicable and useful invention for covering bare or 
unsightly walls with living vegetation, especially 
Adiantums and other Ferns. This is to be accomplished 
by the use of ornamental tiles of unglazed pottery--ware. 
These are made in such a way that they can be fixed to 
walls by the means of nails with India-rubber washers 
or brass screws. The tiles are each complete in itself, 
or is open at the ends so that any number can be added, 
forming with the wall a receptacle for soil in which 
plants of a drooping character can be planted, covering 
the wall, and producing an immediate andstriking effect. 
Our illustration shows part of a wall furnished with 
tiles in rows about 7 ins. apart, one above the other. 
These tiles are filled with Adiantum, the drooping fronds 
of which hide all but a few of the lowermost ones. 
This plan of covering walls will doubtless recommend 
Adiantums geowing on a wall. 
itself to those who experience the trouble and labour 
expended on the back ivalls of greenhouses, where wire¬ 
netting and moss is used in -which to grow Ferns and 
other plants. Both moss and plants are liable to die in 
winter, when it is necessary to keep the house dry and 
cool. The tiles, from their more retention, hoivever, 
would naturally require less watering. 
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HERBACEOUS PiEONIES. 
The herbaceous section of Preonies, as distinguished 
from the P. Moutan, which has an arborescent habit 
of growth, is only now, after many years of comparative 
neglect, engaging the attention of all who can appre¬ 
ciate true beauty. No class of plants, to our mind, 
are more worthy our best attention, and very few yield 
such excellent results in proportion to the time and 
labour expended. They are both varied in character 
and colour, the latter ranging from pure white to the 
deepest red or purple, and the seeds laid open to view 
in the rough hairy follicles are, in many of the species, 
bright coral red—almost as beautiful, and certainly as 
interesting, as the floivers. Many of the groups vary 
through all the stages of semi-double and double, a few 
almost as large as a well-known vegetable—a blaze of 
colour. AVhat, however, will recommend them most 
to the readers of this paper is the ease with which they 
may be grown, almost any ordinary garden soil giving 
a fair measure of success. Indeed, all through their 
exile, when discarded from the leading establishments, 
they were to be found in plenty in a sunny corner of 
the peasant’s little garden, mingling with Rosemary, 
Mint, or other sweet herbs, and far out of the reach of 
the carpet-bedding mania. 
We have seen a group of these Pieonies, single and 
double, that had been handed down from the great¬ 
grandfather, cared for and tended with the greatest 
regularity, and they were the pride of the neighbourhood. 
What can be done in one garden can surely be done in 
another, and as Pieonies are now.becoming the fashion, 
they should receive more attention. The market 
growers have already taken the hint, and many of the 
double forms are being cultivated on a large scale, and 
we are told they are highly appreciated for decorative 
purposes. One essential to their success should not be 
overlooked, and that is a deep well-drained soil, which 
may be yearly enriched by a top-dressing, the manure 
being merely forked into the surface with care, so as 
not to disturb the fleshy tuberous roots. The present 
will be found a good time for this operation, as the buds 
or young growths are now appearing above the soil, 
clearly marking the locality of each plant. They can 
be propagated or increased to almost any extent by sub¬ 
division of the tubers, and the best time to perform this 
will be between the end of October and January. 
The full blaze of the sun seems to be the most natural 
position for the majority of the species, but we have 
also seen them flower exceedingly well in the dense 
shade of a wood, planted in large groups, and in this 
way they continue in bloom three weeks or a month 
later than those more fully exposed. All through the 
growing season they require an abundance of water ; 
indeed, the most successful cultivator we know subjects 
his plants to a periodical irrigation, and the healthy 
robustness of the foliage and size of flowers speak 
volumes in favour of the process. Every grower, how¬ 
ever, is not in possession of an irrigating apparatus, 
but everyone can give his Preonies a plentiful supply 
of water during the active season, and they will, 
undoubtedly, be greatly benefited thereby. The fol¬ 
lowing are a few good doubles :—Amabilis, Faust, 
Globosa, Grandiflora carnea, Delache, Eclatante, 
Fulgida, Comte de Paris, Charles Binder, &c., &c. 
Good singles are Anomala, Albiflora and the varieties 
rosea and r. pallida, Arietina, crimson and white Decora, 
Officinalis and its varieties, Corallina, Peregrina, Para- 
doxa, Wittemanniana, &c.— Rocony. 
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PLANTING UNDER YEW TREES. 
Now and then there crops up in our garden papers 
the unanswerable question, “What shrubs will succeed 
beneath the shade of Yew trees ? ” I say unanswerable, 
and shall, perhaps, be called to task for making use of 
such an expression with its present bearings, but I 
cannot help that, for eertadnly one of the stiffest, most 
unsatisfactory, and never-to-be-forgotten jobs that I 
ever took in hand was to make—or rather attempt to 
do so—the ground surface beneath a couple of lines of 
stately, far-branchcd Yew trees, that guard in a most 
majestic manner the roadsides leading to our village 
church. The ground, as might be supposed, was pure 
and simple, composed of little else than masses of tiny, 
branching, matted rootlets, with an inch thick top¬ 
dressing of decaying and decayed Yew leaves. Several 
plants of low growth had from time to time been 
tried but with little good, the ever penetrating roots of 
the Yew soon finding out and monopolising the 
freshly imported soil that had been placed around their 
roots. The dryness of the soil, too, considerably 
retarded growth in fresh transplants, and altogether it 
was deemed, if not an impossibility, certainly something 
near akin to it, to get any plant to succeed beneath 
the shade of these trees. 
Ivy was next tried, but with little better results, the 
unfavourable condition of the soil telling very markedly 
even on this plant so tenaeeous of life. As a last trial, 
the lesser Periwinkle, Yiuca minor, was planted thickly 
over the surface, and this time with a fair amount of 
success ; for even to-day, after the planting has been 
done a number of years, there are a few patches in a 
semi-flourishing condition, and these only in the more 
open places and midway between the pairs of trees. 
Altogether the work is by no means satisfactory, and 
unless a great deal of expense and trouble in removing 
a considerable depth of the soil is incurred, and the 
branches shortened so as to admit of more light, the 
getting up of a green carpet beneath these trees is an 
impossibility. By doing as above recommended, two 
