April 28, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
549 
notable for its dwarf character and small green leaves 
blotched with pale yellow. 
Ground Colour White. 
We were particularly taken with this section on account 
of the clean and attractive -white or silvery ground, on 
which a venation of some other shade is generally dis¬ 
played. Of this character is Mrs. Laing, with large 
convex leaves, slightly peltate at the base, and white 
with broad rosy veins. Somewhat in the way of this 
is Le Titien, but the white ground is suffused with 
rose. Clio is a silvery white suffused with carmine, 
having green midribs and principal veins. It throws 
its leaves well up and is a fine exhibition kind, as well 
as Souvenir de Madame E. Andre, which has its white 
ground equally veined all over with green. A dwarf 
variety is Baron James de Rothschild, having rosy 
carmine veins on a white ground, suffused with pink. 
Anna Condeixa is similar in the distribution of its 
colours, but the leaves attain a great size, and become 
concave or hollow in the centre. The midrib and 
principal nerves of Madame Marjolin Scheffer are red, 
and run through a creamy white ground. The three 
following are, perhaps, the most decided and uniformly 
coloured of the white kinds, and have a very telling 
effect amongst a collection, although we admit that 
some growers might prefer such handsome kinds as 
Mrs. Laing, Clio, and Souvenir de Madame E. Andre. 
Candidum is white, with slender green veins and a 
green edge ; while Albo-luteum is at first wholly 
white, becoming greenish yellow afterwards, but very 
fine notwithstanding. No one could fail to be charmed 
with the delicate silvery transparency of Duchesse de 
Mortemart, with a faint tracery of green here and 
there on the reticulate venation. The delicate texture 
and transparency is such as we never see in any other- 
kind of vegetation. 
--— 
THE AUSTRIAN PINE. 
Pinus Austriaca is an excellent tree for profitable 
planting in this country, and it is, likewise, one of the 
best shelter producers that has ever been introduced. 
Perhaps in this latter respect it is even more valuable 
than for the quantity and quality of timber it produces, 
for it may with perfect safety be planted either on the 
fully exposed sea-shore or on the wild mountain-side at 
considerable altitudes. The timber of the Austrian 
produced in this country is certainly of no second-rate 
quality, for we have cut up several of the largest trees 
produced in England, and in all cases the firmness and 
weight of the planks have been surprising. We have 
also used it experimentally in the formation of fences, 
and for preventing the banks of a rapid-flowing Welsh 
river being washed away ; a purpose for which it would 
seem to be peculiarly well suited, at least in judging 
from its lasting qualities as compared with that of the 
wood of the Scotch and Silver Firs. The timber is of 
a yellowish white around the circumference, but a 
dirty yellow towards the centre, and works well under 
the carpenter’s tools, taking on a good polish and 
planing smoothly and evenly. It is remarkably 
resinous, more so, indeed, than any other Conifer we 
have cut up except Abies grandis ; and the workmen in 
certain English woodlands, when about to light a fire 
for cooking purposes, know well that the branches of 
this Pine, even in a green state, are superior to those 
collected from any other Conifer for burning freely and 
emitting a great and lasting heat. 
To produce clean and straight timber, the Austrian 
must be grown so close together that the lower branches 
are gradually killed off, for a bad habit of this Pine is 
the production of large and unwieldy branches, and 
from which the stem suffers in consequence. On the 
Snowdon range of hills we have planted the Austrian 
Pine in quantity, but principally for shelter purposes, 
and, we may add, with the greatest satisfaction, its 
massive head affording a great amount of shelter to 
other less hardy kinds. Along the coast of the Irish 
Sea it has likewise been planted largely for the sake 
of the shelter it affords, and that in several instances 
down even to high water mark. Few soils come amiss 
to the Austrian, it thriving luxuriantly even on that of 
very poor description, and where few other Pines could 
eke out an existence. On dry calcareous soils it is 
quite at home, and covers vast plains of chalky gravel 
in Lower Austria, where hardly anything else will grow, 
and has also been successfully planted in the barren 
chalky plains of Champagne Pouilleuse, in France. 
In almost every part of the British Isles this Pine has 
been planted in quantity, and in no single instance has 
dissatisfaction with its general character been expressed 
—a fact that speaks volumes in its praise. 
Where a mixed plantation is to be formed on exposed 
ground, we would say by all means plant the Austrian 
around the outskirts, for no better shelter giver is in¬ 
cluded amongst the whole range of coniferous trees. It 
also transplants with great safety even when of large 
size, thus rendering it useful for ornamental planting, 
but particularly where immediate effect is of first 
importance. A well-balanced specimen on the green 
sward is an object of general delight, the dark green, 
mossy, and well-rounded head, the agreeable healthy 
odour it diffuses, and bright fawn-coloured cones form¬ 
ing a harmonious whole, which strikes even the most 
unobservant with delight. Unfortunately, both hares 
and rabbits are fond of the Austrian, and in some cases 
it has required the utmost vigilance and care to prevent 
wholesale destruction of the plants. We have not 
known it to be attacked in anything like a serious way 
by any of the insect pests which prey on Pines in 
general ; indeed, we were agreeably surprised when 
examining a young plantation, the Corsicans in which 
had been sadly destroyed by the Pine Beetle (Hvlurgus 
piniperda), to find that hardly an Austrian had fallen 
a prey to this much-dreaded insect.—H. D. Webster. 
-~>X<-- 
TRITELEIA UNIPLORA. 
This early spring-flowering bulhousj'plant may be 
grown with the greatest facility either in pots or in the 
open border. Considering that it comes from Buenos 
Ayres, its hardiness is remarkable, as bulbs left even 
in retentive soil of a heavy loamy character come up 
and flower year after year, although no protection 
whatever has been afforded them. It is astonishing 
Triteleia uniflora. 
also with what persistency they cling to the soil where 
they have once been planted ; a trait in their character 
which is no doubt due in a great part to the proliferous 
nature of the bulbs, which give off a great number of 
offsets. As a rule the flower scape bears only one 
bloom, as the specific name implies, but it occasionally 
produces two under good cultivation. The basal 
portion of the perianth is tubular, with a flat six-lohed, 
spreading pale lilac limb. There is a darker-flowered 
form in gardens, named T. u. ccerulea, the flowers of 
which are of a bright sky-blue. T. u. conspicua has 
larger flowers, with much broader segments. When 
grown in pots in a cool house it flowers very freely, 
and proves attractive. 
-->X<~-— 
HAREBELLS. 
I am a petitioner for information. Will some kind 
reader of The Gardening World tell me whether the 
wild Harebell, so common in many parts of England, 
is identical with the Campanula rotundifolia of past 
nurserymen’s catalogues! I say “past” because I do 
not find the name in any catalogues that I possess for 
the present or past year. 
We all know the tender-looking, sprightly flower, 
thriving with every show of gaiety on sandy banks and 
wastes which never can yield much in the way of a 
living, and certainly never less than in the hot and 
dusty days of late August and September, just when 
the lovely bells are nodding most light-heartedly. 
The Harebell, I think, cannot easily be persuaded to 
make itself at home in a heavy soil, however beguilingly 
enriched and flavoured ; its part seems to be to show 
that a wealth of grace and beauty may coincide with 
the barest poverty of circumstance. I have seen the 
sweet Harebells growing like weeds in a country 
churchyard, and treated as such by the sexton, who 
flung them into an open grave almost with every 
spadeful of sand ; but Pine-needles fall in showers into 
that churchyard, and the scent of the Heather steals 
over its walls. So it is open to those of us, at any 
rate who live in a Conifer district, to welcome into our 
gardens a charming plant that actually likes our sharp 
thirsty soil. And what a candidate it is that waits at 
the garden gate ! In habit refined even to fragility, 
in colour a dreamy blue, so soft that the most delicate 
of greys and of purples seem to have met and melted 
into it; in texture transparent as the rarest hot-house 
flower. 
A single gem, however, needs a setting that nobody 
misses or even thinks of when gems are scattered broad¬ 
cast, and the Harebell is certainly deficient in foliage 
at its flowering time. In a garden, therefore, several 
specimens should be closely grouped, and placed as 
near as may be to some plant with conspicuously 
generous leafage. This leads me to ask whether there 
is not a garden form of the Harebell which differs from 
it solely in this matter of the foliage, -which sole 
difference, however, completely alters the general 
appearance of the plant ? [Yes.— Ed.] 
In the garden of my childhood’s home there were 
large patches of these graceful bell-flowers, both white 
and blue (I never, by-the-bye, saw a wild white Hare¬ 
bell), which sprang out of cushions of leaves, and shook 
their delicate bells in close companies, twenty or thirty 
strong. Some years ago I saw the white variety growing 
with equal luxuriance in a garden at Ottery St. Mary, 
but the blue sister was not there, and the flower was 
known only as some sort of a Campanula. [Possibly 
C. rotundifolia Hostii alba.— Ed.] Since then I have 
made inquiries of several nurserymen ; one sent me C. 
muralis, whose flower is more like a star than a bell, 
another, C. fragilis, and two others, C. pumila and C. 
pulla. These last two I have not seen in bloom, but 
some professional people say they are one and the same 
plant under two names, and others deny that, so there 
is clearly room for a little more definite information 
about dwarf Campanulas in general, which I cannot 
hut think will be welcome to many readers of The 
Gardening World. C. pulla sounds like my friend 
of the sandy banks, for pulla must mean dark grey, 
and there is more than a suspicion of grey in the 
Harebell’s blue ; but it seems more diminutive, more 
likely to be extinguished if a frog hopped on to it, less 
able, in short, to take care of itself than the native 
kind ; its flower, as before said, I have not seen. 
I would also gladly learn the proper “fine name ” of 
the Harebell’s tall sister, the Canterbury Bell. If this 
is Campanula medium, the variety is absent from 
many florists’ catalogues. The white Canterbury Bell, 
grown in a long line at the back of a mixed border, is 
a beautiful sight, and one that lasts longer than most 
beautiful sights do. I remember a stately array of this 
kind in an old garden in Devonshire, which challenged 
the admiration of every beholder. In the twilight, as 
one wandered down the path, this erect, silent, motion¬ 
less, white-robed guard was a presence that even the 
most thoughtless could not disregard. There was no 
break in the rank, which stretched away farther than 
the dim light allowed one’s eye to follow—not a single 
crooked stalk, or bent head, or disobediently flowerless 
spike. 
But I must trespass on no more space. If Cam¬ 
panula rotundifolia is the wild Harebell, or the wild 
Harebell cunningly begirt with leaves by culture, I 
shall be infinitely obliged to anyone who will tell me 
so, and still more obliged if I can be told where it may 
be bought. The leaves near the root of the wild plant 
may be of a “roundish heart-shape,” or sufficiently so 
to justify the name Rotundifolia ; but those higher up, 
which alone remain when the plant is flowering, are 
narrow, pointed and insignificant. The Nodding Bell 
of the gardens that I have mentioned, however, had 
the roundish leaves in abundance, and no others.— 
c. a. a. 
[The Harebell is identical with Campanula rotundi¬ 
folia of botanists ; but whether it is that given by past 
nurserymen in their catalogues we cannot say, but we 
believe that it was so, as the Harebell is an English 
name that has long been recognised by botanists and 
nurserymen alike. We have not tried to grow the blue 
and typical form ; but a white variety of it, picked up 
from the banks of a mountainous region, grew and 
flowered finely with us in a border of stiff and retentive 
but rich soil. There are continental forms grown in 
the gardens of this country that have larger and more 
conspicuous leaves on the flowering stems. The stems 
of C. rotundifolia alba are more leafy than the blue 
form ; but we do not think that cultivation would 
