July 14, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
725 
more reasonably expected if given separate houses; 
however, in the words of the old saw, “Those who 
pay the piper have a right to call the tune.” The 
remaining house in this range is a fernery, con¬ 
taining a choice collection of well-grown and taste¬ 
fully-arranged Ferns. At the angles of the garden are 
situated a Peach-house, with a well-cropped collection 
of trees in pots, and a vinery, with an enormous crop 
of fruit, among which we noticed Black Hamburgh, 
Gros Colmar, and Mrs. Pince. There is a grand col¬ 
lection of exhibition Azaleas, Camellias, and also of 
miscellaneous greenhouse plants. Melons and Cucum¬ 
bers are well grown in pits. In accordance with the 
prevailing fashion—and often to the detriment of other 
subjects—we found a collection of 300 Chrysanthemums 
being grown for exhibition purposes. The plants bear 
evidence of a master hand, and, judging from present 
appearances, should give good flowers for the exhibitions 
in due course. The kitchen garden is well stocked 
with vegetables of every kind, and what I was 
particularly anxious to see—a collection of fruit 
trees that is probably unequalled in this part of the 
country. Mr. Cuban is a most successful exhibitor at 
all shows where he competes. The trees are singularly 
healthy, and with few exceptions were carrying good 
crops of fruit. Strawberries were heavily laden with 
fruit. The first to ripen (May 10th) was King of the 
Earlies ; this Mr. Cuban considered should be named 
the King of all Strawberries. From what I saw of it 
here it is an enormous cropper, of good colour and flavour. 
A south wall is devoted to Peach trees ; all were well 
cropped, though some of the trees are past the meridian 
of their vigour. Mrs. Malcolmson is a keen patron of 
horticulture, and it must be a source of great satisfac¬ 
tion to her that the gardens have been presided over 
by such an able and enthusiastic gardener as Mr. 
Cuban for upwards of a quarter of a century. I will, 
conclude these notes by tendering our heartiest thanks 
to Mr. Murphy, and to Mr. and Mrs. Cuban for their 
unbounded courtesy and hospitality, and express our 
warm approval of the well-kept gardens at Minella.— 
H. Weller, Glenstal Castle Gardens, Limerick. 
-»!<->- 
HARDY SHRUBS IN FLOWER. 
Jasminum eevolutum. 
We admire the naked-flowered J. nudiflorum when 
blooming freely at mid-winter, but it cannot be com¬ 
pared to the richness of the Indian species under 
notice, and which is at present adorning many a villa 
in the suburbs of the metropolis and elsewhere. At 
the winter pruning the leading stems should be nailed 
to the wall, and as growth proceeds lateral branches 
are given off, which hang down in great profusion, 
producing an abundance of rich yellow flowers and a 
great wealth of foliage. It is perfectly hardy in our 
climate, and would thrive without other protection 
than a wall in most of the counties in Great Britain. 
Cassinia fulvida. 
This beautiful shrubby Composite is better known in 
gardens under the name of Diplopappus chrysophyllus, 
and is frequently treated as a greenhouse subject. In 
the more-favoured southern counties, however, it will 
give great satisfaction, whether planted against a wall 
or in the open ground. In cold or exposed places a 
specimen or two might be kept in pots, so as to guard 
against loss. There is no difficulty in increasing the 
stock, as cuttings of half-ripened wood placed under a 
hand-glass or in a close frame root readily. A compost 
consisting of light sandy soil is all that is necessarjq 
and the cuttings should be kept moist. If planted in 
the shrubbery it should occupy the front line, as it 
does not usually much exceed 2 ft. or 3 ft. in height 
under those conditions. Against a wall it will grow 
to the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., forming a delicate and 
beautiful covering with its twiggy branches and ever¬ 
green leaves, which are fulvous yellow on the underside. 
It is now coming into flower, bearing terminal trusses 
of small, white, but pretty heads. 
Raphiolepis japonica. 
The species of Raphiolepis are generally spoken of as 
Indian Hawthorns ; but it would sound rather para¬ 
doxical to speak of this species as such, seeing that it 
comes from Japan, and, for the matter of that, is not a 
Hawthorn at all. Only two species, with several of 
their varieties, are in cultivation, that coming from 
Japan being the dwarfest and hardiest. It grows 
slowly, but is long-lived, and flowers regularly from 
about midsummer onwards when planted against a wall 
in the open air. Under these conditions, it attains a 
height of about 2 ft. or 3 ft., with the shoots terminating 
in small panicles of pure white sweet-scented flowers. 
The latter are much larger than those of the Hawthorn, 
and of a different type. The leathery evergreen leaves 
never seem to get damaged by frost at Chiswick, where 
a plant has been grown for many years past on an east- 
aspect wall in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 
The Fiery Thorn. 
Everywhere this season the fine old Crateguspyracantha 
has flowered most abundantly, so that we may expect a 
profusion of berries in the autumn, which last the 
greater part of winter, as birds do not readily attack 
them unless pressed by scarcity of food. Whether in 
fruit or not, however, this plant is deserving of a place 
on walls on account of its warm evergreen appearance 
when climbers in general have lost their foliage. The 
fiery red colour of the fruit renders the popular name 
appropriate. It should not be hard pruned back, 
otherwise there will be little fruit, except on the tips 
of the leading shoots. 
-- 
HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER, 
The Wood Vetch. 
Few of our native Vetches are under cultivation, 
although some of them are very pretty. A number are 
self-supporting, but Vieia sylvatica, the subject of this 
note, as well as Lathyrus sylvestris, another beautiful 
British wilding, climb rather extensively by means of 
tendrils when they come in contact with an object to 
which they can cling. The former may occasionally 
be seen clothing the grassy slopes of rocks facing the 
sea, which they embellish with a profusion of flowers. 
The latter are numerous, of fair average size, and 
produced in axillary racemes ; and they are of a pale 
rose or pink colour, beautifully variegated or reticulated 
with purple lines, which are particularly prominent on 
the standards. There are some fine pieces of the plant 
now well established on the rockery at Chiswick, in 
the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens. It requires 
but little root room, and when trained against or 
over the large stones, the association is particularly 
appropriate. 
The Laech-leaved Sand Spueey. 
Most of the species of Arenaria are of a weedy character 
and consequently seldom seen in gardens, but a few 
large-flowered ones enjoy their due reputation. A. 
laricifolia forms low-spreading dense evergreen patches, 
which during the months of June and July become 
profusely covered with pure white flowers about the 
size of a sixpence, or even larger. The procumbent 
wiry stems are clothed with long awl-shaped leaves, 
that bear some fancied resemblance to those of the Larch. 
When once established, even on the dry and sunny slope 
of a rockery, it takes care of itself, and practically 
requires no tending, as the stems and foliage are too 
dense to admit the growth of weeds. Being a native of 
the Alps of Switzerland and France it is perfectly hardy, 
and proves accommodating to our lowland climate. In 
the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick, 
there is a finely flowered patch which has not been 
disturbed for many years. 
Verbascum phcexiceum. 
Although this South European Mullein cannot be 
compared to the stately grandeur of V. olympicum, nor 
even of our native V. Thapsus, yet for the herbaceous 
border or for the more select collections the species 
under notice is the most refined and best. There are 
numerous varieties in cultivation, but any departure 
from the violet-red flowers of the type is deterioration, 
notwithstanding the fact that some of the rosy or pink 
varieties may be termed pretty. The rootstock is 
perennial, but by no means bulky, nor do the radical 
leaves occupy much space, while the stems generally 
grow from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in height, bearing racemes of 
flowers that continue developing over a long period. 
Thus it will be seen that while the robust and tall- 
growing species may with propriety be relegated to the 
wild garden or to the shrubbery, that under notice 
may be grown in the better-kept places. Several 
varieties differing in colour only may be seen on the 
rockery and elsewhere in the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s gardens, Chiswick. 
Gladiolus Byzantinus. 
Besides that mentioned, there are two or more old- 
fashioned species that used to find favour in gardens, 
and which might yet be employed to grace the flower 
garden on account of their hardiness. Their flowers, 
although small compared with those of the large 
garden"hybrids, are pretty. In the present instance 
they are bright red, with a long white stripe along the 
centre of each of the three lower ones. It is now in 
season. Originally it came from Turkey in 1629. 
ANTIQUITY OF VEGETATION— III. 
Jura-Teiassic Flora. 
A new element in the vegetation occurs but sparsely 
in the New Red Sandstone of the Secondary Rocks, 
though it does not appear to have been introduced 
earlier than in the Lower Oolite system in Britain. 
These are Cycads—a pre-Adamite Old World-looking 
kind of vegetation, with short, stout, rigid-looking, 
naked trunks and Palm-like leaves. Many of the 
familiar plants of Carboniferous times still exist, but 
Pines and Cycads are predominant, showing no great 
advance in organisation ; while in the animal world 
reptiles of all sizes swarm in great numbers, giving rise 
to the term “Age of Reptiles.” The pioneers of the 
great class of mammals also make their appearance. 
Cycads and Conifers culminate during this period, but 
the latter are continued equally abundantly till near 
the end of the secondary period. 
The Cycads were world wide in their distribution at 
this time, and appear in great luxuriance and abundance 
in the Dirt Beds in the Peninsula of Purbeck, Dorset¬ 
shire. They formed an undergrowth to the forests of 
giant Conifers, furnishing abundant evidence by the 
presence of tree stumps with their roots fixed in the 
soil of an ancient forest. Some of the Cycads are erect, 
but so flattened by pressure from above that they are 
known amongst quarrymen as fossil Birds’ Nests. The 
prostrate trunks are believed to have been broken off 
by the wind, water or some other agency after the 
subsidence and submergence of the land, which caused 
the tree stems to rot quickly above the base, when 
they became easily snapped asunder, leaving the 
stumps in an erect position. 
Amongst Conifers the Araucarias again appear in the 
Lower Oolite. The Maidenhair Trees (Ginkgo) prevail 
in many diversified forms in temperate Europe, in 
America, Siberia and Greenland: while trees allied 
to the Yew and Cypress, such as Sequoias—the latter 
to the number of twenty species—prevail in great 
abundance. The Sequoias, enjoying at one time a 
world-wide distribution, are represented by the Red 
Wood and Mammoth Trees of California, to which the 
fossil forms bear a close resemblance in size and 
structure, and constitute a sad memento of the biggest 
trees the world has ever seen, now confined to a very 
small area. The Jurassic Epoch also witnesses the 
in-coming of an entirely new element—namely, Mono¬ 
cotyledons in the form of Bamboo-like grasses and 
Screw Pines allied to the Palms. The flora, on the 
whole, is of a monotonous kind, probably consisting of 
vast uninviting and sunless forests tenanted by but few 
forms of animal life. The numerous herbivorous 
reptiles, insects and a few herbivorous animals, the 
precursors of mammals, were in all likelihood confined 
to the open sunny spaces, and many of the former to 
the waters. 
Cretaceous Flora. 
The prevailing vegetation in the Cretaceous system in 
Britain seems to be confined mostly to Ferns, Cycads 
and Conifers ; but in other parts of the world these 
types decrease, and we witness the sudden addition 
to vegetation of the higher plants (Dicotyledonous 
Angiosperms), similar to the trees still existing. This 
sudden appearance of the higher plants has given rise to 
much speculation amongst evolutionists. The earliest 
plants we meet with are Poplars, Willows, Sterculias, 
Birches, Alders, Beeches, Oaks, Chestnuts, Palms, 
Sedges, and Grasses (the three latter are Monoco¬ 
tyledons). Later on we meet with nine species of 
Tulip Trees (Liriodendron), Magnolias, Persimmon, 
Walnuts, Sweet Gum (Liquidambar), and others, 
bearing large and showy flowers, while in the upper 
Btrata of New Jersey (Amboy Clays) there occur, in 
addition to the last mentioned, Aralias, Cinnamon, 
Eucalyptus, Fig, Holly, Walnut, Laurel, Plum, Ivy, 
and others. At Aix la Chapelle in Germany we have 
more than 133 species of flowering plants, including 
Myrtles, Figs, Proteads, Oaks, Walnuts, Ferns, and 
Conifers. The beds correspond to the Upper Chalk 
of this country, and the flora represents that existing 
in Australia at the present day. 
The climate of the Cretaceous Period was warm and 
equable, enabling a temperate flora to exist as far north 
as Greenland. Animal life is scantily represented.— 
J. F. --5*- 
Double White Campion.— Several of the Clove family 
are improved by doubling, and among them a number 
of the Lychnis. L. vespertina is interesting from its 
opening in the evening, and being sweet scented. The 
double form, however, is the most popular in gardens, 
and when well grown is a beautiful object. The greatest 
difficulty experienced with it in gardens consists in its 
propagation, because the rootstocks do not branch 
much, nor divide easily. 
