July 25 , 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
753 
Seedling Pelargonium. —The bloom of the Pelar¬ 
gonium you sent us last week, A. B., is certainly a 
pretty one, but it is not sufficiently distinct from 
other existing varieties to make a fuss over. Nowa¬ 
days a variety has to be really first-class to pay for 
pushing its sale. 
Manure for Chrysanthemums. —You will find 
that Rex will this week tell you what you want to 
know upon this subject, S. Jansen. 
Cucumbers with Yellow Foliage. —Amateur : Your 
plants are suffering from an attack of thrips, which 
are doing a great deal of mischief this year on 
account of the dry weather, which favours insect 
pests of many kinds. Possibly red spider is also 
present. In any case the younger and fresher 
leaves you sent were very much punctured, and the 
yellow ones showed the same state of affairs in a 
more developed stage. We should advise you to 
remove and burn all the worst of the affected leaves, 
and to give the remainder a thorough syringing, say 
about eight in the morning, and again at night when 
closing the frames or house. If this is done while 
the dry weather lasts, it will keep the pest in check 
and ybur plants will recover to some extent in a 
week or two. 
is another handsome white variety, the yellow 
blotches at the bases of the segments being especially 
large and showy. Nita is a medium sized flower, 
the segments of which are bordered and striated with 
rose upon a French gray ground. It would be im¬ 
possible to pass over Tanga in any collection, its 
huge deep blue flowers are at once so brilliant and 
conspicuous. Very pretty also is a variety with 
rich purple flowers, pencilled with violet, that 
rejoices in the less barbarous name of Bertha. 
Nagato throws soft lilac blue flowers, shaded and 
pencilled with white, whilst Princess of Wales is one 
of the best whites. The accompanying illustration 
represents Chigo, a bright purple-blue variety which 
received an Award of Merit from the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society, on June 33rd last. 
A quantity of the type from whence innumerable 
handsome varieties have sprung is also grown at 
Long Ditton, and it is very interesting to compare 
tl e flowers with those of the resulting forms, for in 
A FLORAL ISLE. 
(Concluded from p. 738). 
I think, however, enough has been said concerning 
the land plants proper ®f this floral isle. There are, 
of course, many more than are here recorded, my 
aim being only to chronicle conspicuous plants and 
those in flower at the time of my visit—June 13th, 
1896.—As the search itself was only of about two 
hours duration, I doubt not the omissions are very 
numerous. 
However, as there is a great variety of plants 
which are intermediate between those which grow in 
the water, and those which obtain above it, we will 
now take this " happy mean ” class and devote a few 
comments to it, reserving the water-plants themselves 
to the final paragraphs. 
IRIS LAEVIGATA AT LONG.iDITTON. 
The numerous species and varieties grouped together 
under the genus Iris, are remarkable for the 
wondrously brilliant and varied hues of their flowers. 
They are indeed rainbow flowers, which title has 
been applied to them since the days of Hippocrates. 
I. laevigata, or to give it its common garden name, 
I. Kaempferi, although one of the most showy of 
species, has not entered very largely into British 
horticulture up to the present time. Glowing 
accounts have reached us from time to time from 
the far East-of wondrous flowers, some 10 in. or so 
in diameter, in a variety of gorgeous shades and 
colours. These have been received somewhat 
incredulously. Plants have been imported, but 
owing to improper treatment have failed to yitld the 
results expected of them. Sooth to say, the regal 
laevigata will not do under any conditions. When 
treated as a sub-aquatic, however, its cultivation 
presents no special difficulty; in fact, no more 
suitable subject can be found for planting by the 
sides of streams or ornamental waters, and certainly 
there is nothing more showy and beautiful. 
Messrs. Barr & Son have taken up its cultivation 
in an enthusiastic manner, and with a view to 
demonstrating its high decorative value, and its 
amenity to sub-aquatic treatment, have planted it in 
large quantities by the side of a stream that runs 
through their Nurseries at Long Ditton. Some of 
the plants indeed are literally growing in the water, 
and the long narrowly ensiform leaves are standing 
out from it in much the same way as those of the 
sweet Calamus. Still the plants are blooming away 
grandly, and it is interesting to watch the vastly 
increased size of the flowers thrown by these aquatics 
to those borne by the plants grown in the open 
ground hard by. 
Mr. J. W. Barr, who is in charge at Long Ditton, 
kindly showed us some books of illustrations of 
various varieties wrought by the cunning hands of 
Japanese artists upon Rice paper, and comparing 
these with their real counterparts we were forced to 
admit that, wonderful as the colours and size of the 
flowers as represented were, the real flowers were 
not far behind them. 
One grand flower of Tomoye upon a plant grow¬ 
ing in the water was well over 7 in. in diameter. It 
is white, shaded with soft lilac, with the charac¬ 
teristic yellow blotch at the base of the segments. 
So wide are the latter that the flower is nearly 
circular in outline, and this may be said with equal 
truth of many of the best forms. A curious tendency 
to sport is a feature of I laevigata. Some flowers 
exhibit a great inclination to double, several rows of 
segments being observable. In others, again, we 
find an abnormally strong development of the falls, 
or outer whorl of perianth segments, the standards, 
on the other hand, becoming nearly obsolete, or only 
represented by three small protuberances. 
Everything about the flowers was quaint and 
beautiful, excepting the names bestowed upon them, 
which, being chiefly of Japanese extraction, were 
more quaint than anything else. Kumagi is a large 
pure white flower of surpasssing loveliness. Yama- 
gata has huge white falls pencilled with violet. The 
three standards are almost obsolete, what little there 
is of them being bright purple in colour. Minamoto 
Iris laevigata var. Chigo. 
the latter almost all conceivable shades from pure 
white to black purple are represented. 
Many of the plants, as has been previously 
intimated, were growing in the ordinary manner 
away from the water. The ground they occupy had 
been trenched to a depth of 3 ft., and a good dressing 
of cow manure given previous to their being planted 
there, and although they do not exhibit such great 
vigour as their relatives growing in and by the 
water still they have done fairly well. 
Our visit convinced us that there is a great future 
for Iris laevigata and its varieties once their culture 
is better understood. Any intending cultivators 
cannot do better than copy Messrs. Barr's system of 
treatment, when they will be sure to reap as large a 
measure of success. 
But, the mere mention of water brings to mind a 
sweet and musical sound begotten of that fluid, and 
which is brought about by the tumbling weir, whose 
waters, like the babbling brook cease not to play 
their part, but run on—with greater or less volubility 
—for ever. The sound of falling water is always 
pleasant when the thermometer hovers about 8o° in 
the shade; and so it was on this occasion. In 
truth : — 
Here some in idle mood, 
Do dream, one day in seven ; 
Imbibe ambrosial food. 
Or get a glimpse of heaven. 
