April 11, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
509 
Polyanthus, Burnard’s Formosa. 
The Floricultural Cabinet for 1834 contains a coloured 
picture of Burnard’s Formosa Polyanthus, the appear¬ 
ance of which would gladden the heart of Mr. Thurstan. 
It is represented by a plant containing a truss of some 
fifteen expanded pips as large as those of George IV., 
with a dark ground 'and a regular narrow lacing. I 
notice that every pip has six petals, whereas the usual 
rule in the case of gold-laced Polyanthus, as far as my 
own experience goes, is to have five pips only. This 
variety is still to be met with, but is rarely exhibited 
as there appears to be some difficulty in getting it to 
come good. Probably a strong and thoroughly vigo¬ 
rous plant is required to have it in its best character. 
It was raised by a Mr. J. P. Burnard, Formosa Cottage, 
Holloway, hence its name.— E. D. 
The Auricula. 
If the month of April were only a genial one ; if 
there prevailed clear, warm, sunny, southerly winds, 
refreshing showers, invigorating and growing—then a 
cultivator of Auriculas might dispense altogether with 
artificial heat in getting them well into bloom by the 
third week in the month. Mr. Horner is careful not to 
deny that the aid of artificial heat is sought. We are 
quite in agreement upon that point. I have never inti¬ 
mated that the Auricula is a plant requiring the constant 
heat the royal Orchid and lowly Cucumber does ; but 
heat is required, and applied in cold late seasons to 
assist the plants in blooming, if they are to be had in 
flower at a given date. I am quite aware that it would 
be fatal to the Auricula to force it in the ordinary French Giant Poppy Anemone. 
sense, but there is all the difference between forcing a 
plant and aiding it to open out its pips. 
Mr. Horner dwells in the land of clear skies. He 
knows little or nothing down there of the almost is but a partial catalogue of the evils wrought by the 
fog at a place where anything that human skill and 
money [can provide is set in motion to ensure crops. 
The leaves of my Auriculas were seared just as if a 
powerful acid had been dropped 
upon them. Mr. Horner is happily 
without experience of such retarding 
and weakening influences. 
Six degrees of frost and bitter 
north-westerly winds have accom¬ 
panied the opening days of April, 
with leaden skies, and a fog and 
mist-laden atmosphere ; if the sun 
does shine out for a brief period, its 
warmth is tempered by the icy cold¬ 
ness of the wind. How much better 
to grow Auriculas at Burton-in- 
Lonsdale, in a house which, besides 
enjoying “a full south aspect, lies 
sheltered from north and east, and 
the back wall built up close to the 
solid earth behind, which is 9 ft. 
above the ground-level in the 
garden, and is never icy cold.” 
Such conditions suggest a paradise 
compared with the position and 
surroundings in relation to which 
Auriculas can be grown in the 
west of London. 
My plant of the Rev. F. D. Horner 
answers to its namesake’s descrip¬ 
tion of a model one—-“healthy, 
stout, moderate size, large enough 
for one good truss, and no attempt 
at more ”—and yet I am correct in 
again stating that it remains station¬ 
ary. Nothing ails the plant. The 
icy coldness and intense dulness of 
the March weather held it in its grip, and appeared to 
strangle all the plant’s aspirations and impulses 
towards an active life. During the last fortnight it has 
advanced a little, but slowly. I do not think there 
will be one expanded pip by the 21st unless a thorough 
change in the weather happen. I trust entirely “ to 
Nature’s efforts” and my “own best care,” but I do 
wish Nature would be in a little more consenting mood 
and pull with the Auricula grower rather than ap¬ 
parently against him.— E. D. 
The Aldboro’ Anemone, 
constant dulness, mist, fog, and cold sunless days we 
experienced in London nearly all through March, and 
which remained to cloud and retard the awakening 
energies of April. He has no warfare with the London 
fogs settled thickly about a house or pit of Auriculas 
for days without a sight of an unclouded sky, much 
less of the sun to relieve its depressing heaviness—a 
dense suffocating atmosphere, laden with sulphurous 
properties, most injurious to vegetation. On Good 
Friday I saw at Gunnersbury Park, which is close by, 
CHOICE ANEMONES. 
The unusual severity of the past winter has prevented 
an early display of the Anemones, which we are accus¬ 
tomed to see as early as February in mild winters. 
Prominent amongst those which make their appearance 
at this early period is A. fulgens, one of the 
brightest ornaments of the spring garden, and which 
every hardy plant lover ought to possess. We have 
seen thousands of its brilliant scarlet flowers all open at 
one time in February, and the plants were grown in 
beds exposed to all the four quarters of the heavens. 
The flowers are effective anywhere, but to ensure 
success year after year good loamy soil in a moderately 
moist situation is necessary. A droughty and baked 
soil would soon destroy or impoverish the tubers or 
fleshy rhizomes during summer. It is a native of 
Italy, Greece, and other parts of South Europe. Some 
of the finer forms, with broad, blunt sepals, are found 
in Greece, and some of them ate being improved upon 
in gardens. 
A new race is being developed from the above broad- 
sepalled forms, and is named the Aldboro’ Anemones 
(see illustration, kindly lent by Messrs. Veitch). They 
are of various shades of colour, but usually scarlet, 
crimson, lake, purple, and red, with a more or less 
clearly defined ring at the base, and which also varies 
in tints of straw, silvery grey and white. They are 
perfectly single, but the sepals are much broader than 
those of A. fulgens proper, and rounded at the end. 
The foliage is of course the same as in the type. The 
ring in the centre of the flowers certainly gives a 
charming effect to the whole, and reminds us of A. 
coronaria. The plants flower as early in spring as the 
type. 
The double forms of A. coronaria, or the Poppy 
Anemone, are still grown in considerable numbers in 
different gardens ; but several strains of single-flowered 
varieties are now received with much favour. Amongst 
them is a strain variously known as the Single French 
Giant Poppy Anemones, Victoria Giant, Empress or 
Caen Anemones (see illustration). They are char¬ 
acterised by the size of their flowers, and the breadth 
and richness of colour of their sepals. They will grow 
in any good garden soil, particularly of a moist and 
slightly retentive nature. 
Anemone fulgens. 
IPOMiEA HORSFALLIiE. 
This fine species was so named in honour of Mr. Charles 
Horsfall, who received seeds from Africa or the East 
Indies—it is generally supposed from the latter. They 
were raised by his gardener, Mr. Henry Evans, at 
Everton, Liverpool, and the plants flowered in Decem¬ 
ber and January, 1833—4. It is a plant well adapted 
for training up pillars in the stove house. The flowers 
are large, of a deep bright rose colour, and freely pro¬ 
duced in flattened panicles. Some growers state that 
it prefers dull weather to sunshine.— E. D. 
eye when at their best, their top petals remaining erect, 
and not falling over in the undignified manner of some 
of the immense continental varieties.” 
I hope the foregoing will meet the desire of Mr. 
Thurstan. I think it not unlikely some exception may 
be taken to some of Mr. Simkins’ conclusions, and if 
my surmise prove correct, an interesti ng discussion 
may be inaugurated.— E. W. 
large plants of Odontoglosssum thoroughly rotten ; 
Vines with bunches curled up and not a berry left on 
them ; and glass-covered Peach walls, from the trees 
against which almost every fruit had dropped. This 
