May 19, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
603 
petals are broad and somewhat undulated, rendering 
the variety very attractive. 
Vervaeneana. —For description of this variety, see 
p. 587. 
Louise Vervaene. —There are no blotches to mar 
the pure white flowers of this variety such as we often 
see, and the individual blooms are also of great size 
and semi-double, with slightly undulated or wavy 
segments. 
Theodore Eeimers. —The colour in this case is of 
a clear and attractive rose-purple, with a few dark 
purple spots at the base of the segments where they 
are mostly hidden, so that at a distance the large 
double flowers appear of a uniform colour. Floricul- 
tural Certificates. All exhibited by Mr. Charles 
Turner, Royal Nurseries, Slough. 
Roses. 
Princess Beatrice. —This beautiful variety is now 
becoming familiar to us at exhibitions, and is sure to 
become a favourite with those who grow Tea Roses for 
cut flowers. They are small or moderate in size, bud well 
formed, compact, and pale yellow, more or less flushed 
with salmon, especially in the young condition and 
towards the centre of the flower. The foliage is also 
good. Floricultural Certificate. Exhibited by Mr. 
Henry Bennett, Shepperton. 
Sappho. —Some standard specimens of this new Tea 
Rose were exhibited well furnished with bloom. In 
the young state the half-expanded buds are very com¬ 
pact and extremely pretty. They are yellow and 
slightly flushed with pink, especially towards the 
centre ; but as the flowers get older they become more 
open in the centre. Floricultural Certificate. Exhi¬ 
bited by Messrs. ¥m. Paul & Son, Waltham Cross. 
Tuberous Begonias. 
Mrs. W. F. Bennett. —The strain from which this 
has been derived is characterised by dwarf habit and 
broad leaves. The flowers themselves are of great size 
and pale soft yellow. The outer or guard sepals are 
not prominent. 
Enchantress. —The male flowers of this variety are 
double, and of a delicate salmony pink, with the outer 
sepals forming the guard much longer than the central 
mass, and of a delicate pink. The female flowers are 
similar in colour, but single. 
Lady Mary Fitzwilliam. —This variety is similar 
in character to that of the last, but the guards are of 
a soft rose, and paler than the central part of the 
flower, which is of a beautiful deep rose. Floricultural 
Certificates. All exhibited by Messrs. H. Cannell & 
Sons, Swanley, Kent. 
Narcissus poeticus grandiflorus. 
As the varietal name implies, the flowers of this form 
are larger than in the type, with oblong blunt much 
overlapping segments, tapering to the base. The crown 
is cup-shaped, with a moderately deep and rich scarlet 
edge somewhat similar to that of N. p. poetarum. All 
of this class are very fragrant. Floricultural Certifi¬ 
cate. Exhibited by Messrs. Barr & Sons, Covent 
Garden. 
Geum miniatum. 
The flower-stems of this plant attain a height of 9 ins., 
and are slightly branched, arising out of tufts of 
radical and lyrate-pinnatifid leaves, similar to those of 
G. montanum and G. coccineum. The individual 
blooms are large, flat, and orange-scarlet, with over- 
lapping petals and a widely-expanded disk, enclosing 
numerous highly-coloured stamens. It will make a 
beautiful border or rockwork plant. Floricultural 
Certificate. Exhibited by Messrs. Paul & Son, 
Cheshunt. 
Mimulus, Jubilee. 
The plants as exhibited were very dwarf, with large 
slightly-nodding corollas, and a widely-expanded tube 
or throat, which is variously spotted with red on a 
yellow ground. Each of the five segments of the limb 
is coloured with an almost uniform deep brownish red, 
margined with yellow and very conspicuous. Flori¬ 
cultural Certificate. Exhibited by Messrs. J. Carter k 
Co., Forest Hill, S.E. 
Orchid Trade in America. —The American Florist 
states that Mr. Fosterman, Messrs. F. Sander & Co.’s 
agent in America, has for the last couple of years rented 
some of the greenhouses belonging to Mr. Edwards, of 
Jersey City Heights, and stocked them with Orchids. 
He has now bought some ten acres of land at Madison, 
N. J., where he intends building several 100 ft. long 
housesthis year, and thence remove his Jersey City 
collection. Mr. Fosterman is practical, expert, and 
an enthusiastic Orchidist. For several years he had 
been employed collecting Orchids in their native wilds 
India, Siam, Borneo, Java, the Philippine Islands, 
and others of the Indian Archipelago. 
EASTWOOD PARK, GLASGOW. 
Cool Orchids are well done at Eastwood Park, the 
residence of David Tod, Esq. ; indeed, it is seldom that 
we meet with such fine healthy plants. The bulbs are 
of enormous size on the various Odontoglossums, of 
which there are here many of the finest varieties it has 
ever been my pleasure to see. At the present time 
there are dozens of extraordinary fine forms of 0. 
crispum ; a specimen of 0. Pescatorei, with six spikes, 
and over 300 flowers — a gem ; 0. tripudims, with twelve 
spikes—a novelty, seldom seen ; many fine plants of 
0. Hallii, with over thirty-six spikes of fine flowers, and 
good varieties, make a fine display ; 0. luteo-purpu- 
reum is well represented ; and the charming little 0. 
Oestedii, grown in baskets, of which there are many 
with two dozen flowers on a plant, is worthy of 
mention. The same may also be said of the finely 
flowered 0. Cervantesii and 0. Rossiimajus, which vary 
in their flowers considerably, and Warscewiczii, some 
with three grand spikes, and one of the best varieties 
that I have ever seen is very conspicuous amongst the 
rest. 
Many plants of 0. vexillarium are just coming into 
flower, and these, with the hundreds of other spikes 
showing, will make a fine display for some time. Of 
Masdevallias fine varieties and good healthy plants are 
grown in numbers, M. Yeitchii and M. grandiflora, 
M. Harryana, Bull’s Blood Red, are all very fine ; 
M. Chelsoni I have never seen better, bearing two 
dozen flowers of enormous size ; M. ignea, M. Mas- 
sangeana, and M. aurantiaca are all distinct and 
good. The bright Ada aurantiaca shows up well mixed 
with 0. Alexandras ; Mesospinidium sanguineum is also 
extremely attractive. Of Dendrobiums, Ainsworthii, 
D. infundibulum, and D. Jamesianum, all are well 
represented, and nicely in flower ; Oncidium serratum, 
with an enormous spike of fifty flowers, shines forth in 
full beauty ; grand specimens of 0. macranthum will 
follow in the wake ; OJontoglossum cirrhosum and 
0. Klabochorum, 0. nebulosum, and many others 
are either in flower or just open; also fine plants of 
0. gloriosum, 0. maculatum, &c. Ccelogyne cristata 
and C. Lemoniana are represented by fine healthy 
plants, nicely flowered. There are many others worthy 
of mention, but these are only a few I noticed in a 
recent hurried run through the houses. 
I must not omit to mention the Fernery, which, to 
my mind, is one of the prettiest and most natural in 
the United Kingdom. The rockwork is very natural, 
and the cascades and winding walks are just what they 
should be. Many fine specimen tree Ferns, Dicksonia 
squarrosa and D. antarctica, Alsophila excelsa, 
Cyathea dealbata and C. medullaris, are here in 
perfection ; the beautiful Balantium Culcita is fine 
also. There is also a Filmy house where Todea superba 
and T. pellucida are planted out by the dozen, and look 
pictures of vigorous health. The place is well kept all 
round in its various departments, and the credit for 
this is due to Mr. Ewart, the gardener in chief.—- 
Kusticus. 
--* 36 <*- 
RHODODENDRONS AND SOILS. 
I feel prompted to reply to the remarks of your 
correspondent, “ B. L.,” almost as a duty, if only to 
thank him for his kindly .remarks in the first four lines 
of his paper, as well as to show my gratitude for so 
strongly endorsing what I adduced regarding the 
usefulness of peat for Rhododendrons with certain 
classes of loam (May 5th, p. 567), and his well-meant 
effort to make me acquainted with the fact that we do 
not “see ourselves as others see us,” especially as I fear 
that we often fail in the opposite direction to that 
cited by him, having written of soils hundreds of miles 
apart, and climates in some respects varied and unlike 
each other. Counties, too, are named west and east of 
England, and we might have added Oxfordshire, 
Middlesex and a district on the west coast of Wales, 
each having peculiarities of their own as to soil. It 
would seem from the views of “ B. L.” that I am in 
the habit of committing sins of omission in the few 
papers which appear in The Gardening World, but 
I think the most casual reader will be ready to ask him 
to remove the “beam” from his own eye before he 
searches for “ motes ” in the eyes of others. 
A smoke-begrimed atmosphere is only common in 
few Scotch districts, the larger portion of the country 
having very fine air, consequently well adapted for 
Rhododendrons. I am sorry to admit that ambiguity 
on this subject appears to us as prominent in the remarks 
of “ B. L.” as he could make it, and not unlike a joke 
on the pains we so often take to be explicit when 
referring to soil, climate, altitude, &e. Again reverting 
to soils for Rhododendrons, it is astounding how they 
thrive in some districts with a minimum of attention. 
As for example, at Dysart House, Fifeshire, where the 
ground is low and close to the shores of the Firth of 
Forth, the finest Rhododendrons we have ever seen are 
there, in splendid condition as to health, size, and in¬ 
florescence. The collection is very large, and has been 
got together with consummate care and skill. The 
names of Messrs. John Laing, William Pirie, and others 
are associated with these grand shrubs. At Balbirnie, 
where the grounds are of great extent and of the most 
beautiful description, and enjoy an altitude some 300 ft. 
or so higher than Dysart, and seven miles distant, the 
soil is very varied, but in every dell, hill and dale there 
Rhododendrons grow and flower in great perfection.— 
Caledonian, alias M. Temple, C'arronhouse, Stirlingshire. 
-- 
Hardening §Jiscellany. 
The Changeable Wallflower. 
From the Madeiras came this curious and pretty species 
of Wallflower as early as 1777. It is the Cheiranthus 
mutabilis of botanists, and owes its specific name to 
the fact of the flowers changing colour during the time 
they are open. After expansion they are pale or cream- 
coloured, changing to a deep purple soon after, so that 
a well-grown and flowered plant looks pretty. It is 
shrubby in habit, and no doubt owes its scarcity in 
gardens to the fact that it is not quite hardy, but 
requires the protection of a greenhouse or cold frame. 
It has been flowering for some time in a north aspect 
pit in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
Chiswick, where it receives no artificial heat whatever, 
the pit being unheated. It is a pity that cultivators 
in general do not avail themselves of this plant, and 
use it more extensively for decorative purposes. 
Possibly it might be used as the pollen parent to 
effect a cross with C. Cheiri, and thus infuse into the 
common Wallflower a distinct purple colour. By so 
doing, a new race of kinds might be obtained both 
useful and beautiful. 
Doronicum plantagineum excelsum. 
When this plant first made its appearance in gardens it 
was distributed under the name of Doronicum Harpur 
Crewe ; but it was soon after determined botanieally to 
be a variety of D. plantagineum, a plant found sparingly 
in this country, though more widely distributed on 
the Continent. The type is a plant that grows to the 
height of 2 ft. or 3 ft. under ordinary circumstances, 
and the variety D. p. excelsum is described as being 
more robust, reaching the height of 5 ft. ; but it seems 
to us to depend merely on cultivation, the soil and the 
rainfall of a locality. In the neighbourhood of London, 
where we have seen it on several occasions, it has 
never much exceeded 2 ft. in height, and is frequently 
shorter, as we noted it the other day in the nursery of 
Mr. T. S. Ware, Hale Farm, Tottenham, flowering 
freely about 12 ins. in height. Plants reaching 5 ft. 
in height would no doubt look stately, but -we can 
admire its golden yellow flower-heads on dwarfer and 
more manageable plants, which may be grown not only 
in the herbaceous border, but in some of the more 
prominent places on the rockery. It increases fast, 
enjoys liberal treatment, and by keeping it growing 
will flower all through the spring and summer till late 
in autumn. 
Viola pedata bicolor. 
Although this plant is hardy, it does not seem to take 
kindly to our climate when left unprotected ; but its 
own intrinsic merits are sufficient encouragement to 
grow this as a half-hardy subject, giving it the pro¬ 
tection of a cold frame or a greenhouse, and when so 
treated it never appears to greater advantage, as the 
shelter from wind, rain, and other hurtful agencies 
in spring brings out the flowers in their best garb. 
The habit of the plant is tufted, and increase is com¬ 
paratively very slow, so that this will probably always 
remain a choice, scarce, and highly desirable plant. 
The specific name applies to the lobing of the leaves 
resembling the divisions of a bird’s foot. Like those 
of our own wild Pansy, the flowers vary considerably in 
colour, and several of the varieties have been named 
like that under notice, which has the two upper petals 
of a rich violet-purple, while the three lower ones are 
mauve or of a delicate pale blue. It may be seen at 
present in the hardy plant house at Kew. 
