May 17, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
583 
short season of rest after flowering, as also a lack of 
strength through not being liberally fed in the growing 
season. 
The former, if judiciously considered—as I have no 
doubt it is by some—will b9 apparent, although it does 
not follow that they must be dried up like Gladioli or 
similar roots. They will require a certain amount of 
rest, even if grown in water-tanks, and where grown 
thus, ought to be taken out annually for a few weeks, 
when they will cast their foliage, and become semi¬ 
nude stools. This is the perplexing period with those 
who admire their Lily of the Nile in the window or 
other selected position ; and this is the time to rest 
them by withholding water—not entirely, however, but 
merely by keeping the plants from suffering. Feeding 
with ordinary liquid manure is out of the question in 
dwelling-houses—and, indeed, conservatories too—but 
some of the artificial manures have a by no means 
unpleasant odour, and if applied in small quantities 
(mixed in the water) at intervals,. its presence would 
never be known. I do not mean, however, to dilate on 
the qualifications of the Richardia for the embellishment 
of the window or lobby, but trust these few remarks 
may prove useful ; and now to the gist of the subject. 
For festive decorations at Christmas or Easter-tide, 
both in an entire and cut state, Richardias are most 
serviceable and deservedly popular, and to have them 
in bloom at these seasons is a matter of deserved con¬ 
sideration. To have the plants in good heart is of 
primary importance, and where the proper means are 
resorted to is easily accomplished. Growing in pots all 
the season has its advocates, and the results from this 
practice are fairly satisfactory if the plants are well at¬ 
tended to with water and stimulants in the growing 
season. 
The soil cannot well be too rich, and hence a good 
compost will be found in good friable loam, one part, 
and well-decomposed manure, charcoal, and a slight 
dash of sand, forming the other two parts. The pots 
should be drained with nodules of charcoal in place of 
crocks, and a layer of manure placed over them instead 
of moss : thus all the pots contain is a healthy feeding 
medium. These plants are well known to be gross 
feeders, hence frequent applications of liquid manure 
are necessary to insure a luxuriant growth and satis¬ 
factory flowering. Grown in water tanks in the houses 
they are very ornamental, but the growth made in tanks 
is rather flaccid, and consequently of no use for 
decorative purposes, except in a cut state. When 
grown thus they ought to be potted as above, and the 
pots lowered gently to the bottom of the tank. They 
may also be enveloped in hay-bands, or sphagnum moss ; 
in short, anything that will prevent the ball being 
broken up with the water ; especially in service tanks 
where frequent plunging of watering pots would move 
the water. 
The most satisfactory method of growing Richardias, 
and at the same time the least troublesome, is planting 
them out annually in shallow trenches, in any situation 
that is sheltered from strong -winds, in a rich compost 
as recommended above for pot culture ; although I have 
seen very fine plants grown in the ordinary soil, well 
manured as for Leeks or Celery. The trenches will be 
found quite deep enough, formed one spade deep ; on 
the bottom of which should be placed a layer of sifted 
ashes about 3 ins. in depth, trod down hard, on which 
place the compost, and plant, dividing the stools as 
the work proceeds. When a large stock is wanted for 
8-in. or 9-in. pots, they should be divided into single 
crowns ; classing the strong and the weak for different 
treatment. The strong crowns, if grown very liberally all 
the summer by being attended to in the way of stimulants, 
and lifted and potted up about the middle of 
September, placed in a cool house or pit, and kept 
close for a week with frequent syringings to keep the 
foliage up, and afterwards given a temperature 
of 50° or 55°, will bloom with perfect freedom at 
Christmas. The weaker plants, if lifted a month later and 
nursed in the same way for a few days, and afterwards 
kept in any cool Peach house or similar structure where 
frosts may not reach them, will be easily brought into 
bloom for Easter by placing them in heat about the 
beginning of February. Where stock is scarce the 
small off-sets may be planted singly, and if potted up in 
the autumn, will make fine blooming plants the second 
season ; in fact, some of the stronger will flower well the 
first season. In any case a few of these ought to be 
nursed on annually to keep up a vigorous stock. 
When planted out they make far more sturdy plants 
than they do if coddled in pots all the year round, and 
the extra trouble in watering pot plants is very much 
outbalanced by the less trouble of those planted out. 
We usually plant them out as described about the end 
of May (dividing with a fork to save mutilation), anl 
water them copiously in dry weather, using stimulants 
towards the end of July onwards, only withholding for 
a month or six weeks after pitting up, and we usually 
have them iu bloom about five months, with several 
spathes at a time on each, of great size and leathery 
texture. 
For room decoration in a cut state, large spathes 
associated with their own foliage have a conspicuous 
effect, and if taken just before fully expanded will keep 
fresh in an ordinary heated, gas-lighted room for nearly 
a fortnight. For large, trumpet-shaped glasses there is 
no flower better adapted ; they themselves being trumpet¬ 
shaped contrast well with the glasses. 
Green-fly must be guarded against all through their 
culture, but especially when brought into heat, when 
they rapidly increase on the under sides of the foliage 
and spathes, and spoil and ruin the latter ; and, at 
best, have a disparaging effect on the plants and the 
cultivator. Sponging the foliage, as also the spathes, 
is quite easily performed, but care must be taken not 
to use dirty water on the latter ; the foliage may, 
however, be sponged with tobacco water or any other 
favourite insecticide. A slight fumigation at intervals 
will set all unwelcome visitors at rest, and other 
matters in detail hiving been carefully attended to, 
the cultivator will be left in the happy possession of a 
useful lot of healthy, clean Richardias.— J. Proctor, 
Olenfinart. 
-- 
LATE SPRING FROSTS AND 
VEGETATION. 
Tits seasons come and go, and we receive the usual 
visitations of late spring frosts, which are sure to do a 
certain amount of damage ; but practically they seem 
to leave us no better and no worse than what occurs in 
an average of years. Plants of various kinds are most 
liable to be injured at the initial stages of their vege¬ 
tation, whereas a little later on they will stand the 
same amount of frost with impunity. Others again— 
such as Dahlias, Heliotropes, Potatos, and others—get 
more or less injured by a visitation of frost, whether 
early or late in the year. 
Early in March the Rises in some gardens were 
almost decimated by a sudden visitation of frost, 
whereas in other establishments there was no unusual 
amount of damage. Potatos peeping through the 
ground late in April and in the beginning of May had 
their tops somewhat blackened, thus checking them a 
little, but very slight difference will be noted in the 
time when they will be ready for use. About the same 
time many of the Pear trees had their petals discoloured, 
thus causing them to shrivel up, in some cases wrapping 
over the stigmas, which appeared blackened at the 
tips on examination, although all beneath this was 
quite fresh. Had they been fertilised some days 
previous to this, the chances are that the ovaries would 
develop into fruit ; if not then, it is impossible for the 
pollen to be retained by them, much less for them to 
foster the development of the pollen tubes. Close by, 
the Apple trees came into blossom a little later, and 
were perfectly uninjured. 
Amongst ornamental shrubs, several got injured 
during March, April, and May, just at the particular 
period when they were bursting into leaf. This 
happened in some situations to Nuttallia cerasiformis, 
as it usually does, while in more sheltered places it 
escapes. Photinia serrulata suffered in the same way ; 
and both of them seem to owe this peculiarity to their 
coming into leaf at a very early period. P. japonica 
and the closely allied Rhaphiolepis japonica, both 
coming from the same country as P. serrulata, seem to 
be perfectly hardy under the same conditions, a fact 
doubtless owing to their starting into growth at a much 
later period. During severe winters all the three are 
liable to get cut up, but the Rhaphiolepis least so of all. 
A shrubby plant closely allied to Spirsea, namely, 
Exochorda grandiflora, a native of North China, re¬ 
sembles Nuttallia cerasiformis in its liability to get cut 
up by frosts during the month of April when it develops 
its first leaves in preparation for flowering, which 
generally occurs during May. This early crop of leaves 
seems particularly liable to damage, and the racemes of 
flowers also occasionally suffer ; but these leaves drop, 
or the injury is concealed by those developed on the 
young wood during May and June. The warm weather 
during the latter part of April had the effect of bringing 
out a fine development of foliage, but it was tender, and 
the occurrence of a single frosty night rather disfigured 
the more exposed leaves ; by midsummer, however, 
probably no traces of it will be seen. — F. 
GOLDEN FEATHERS. 
The summer phase cf yellow fever, as manifested in 
gardens, will take a lot of killing. Wc cannot at any 
time dispense with so striking a colour as yellow, and 
in many districts where smoke is prevalent it would be 
difficult to impart any colour into small town gardens, 
unless yellows were freely used. This fact has un¬ 
fortunately driven some persons to plant yellows almost 
entirely, and with bad taste. Some other hues must 
be introduced to effect the desired balance, and it is 
this wanton use of yellow, and especially of Golden 
Feather, which has led to the adoption of the somewhat 
contemptuous phrase, as applied to flower gardening of 
this sort, “An outbreak of yellow fever.” It is 
excused on behalf of Golden Feathers that they arc 
easily produced from seed, and come very true. They 
also seed so freely that it is absurdly cheap. 
Even if not so obtained, plants may be purchased in 
myriads in the spring from costers’ barrows or flower- 
stalls at a trifling price, so that it is no wonder—bright 
hues in the garden being specially acceptable—Golden 
Feathers are popular still, and are likely to remain so. 
The oldest form is, perhaps, the semi-double-flowering 
kind of the Tyrethrum, known as Golden Gem. There 
are green and yellow forms, both of which bloom 
profusely, and furnish capital flowers for cutting ; but 
the golden one gives the most pleasing effects. Still, 
it is too late and loose growing for bedding purposes. 
The old Golden Feather, so universally in use, everyone 
knows, and on the whole it seems to be one of the best. 
The pretty cut-leaved form known as Laciniatum, 
sent out by Osborn, of Fulham, is a very pleasing 
graceful variety, but does not, as a rule, colour so well 
as others of broader leafage. Very pretty and compact, 
as well as effective in colour, is Williams’ Selaginoides, 
for the fuliage is exceedingly pretty and elegantly 
fimbriated. It is, perhaps, the tenderest of the family. 
Listly, there is a dwarf form of the popular or old 
Golden Feither, not much known, which is a capital 
variety, especially for carpet bedlirig or edging. —A. D. 
-- 
INTELLIGENCE OF HIVE BEES. 
Whether these have become more educated or not 
since man took to domesticating them would be 
difficult to say, as there is probably no record of their 
doings extending back for any considerable period of 
time. Certain it is they exhibit an intelligence (some 
would probably call it instinct) superior to that of their 
wild relatives the bumble-bees in the methods they 
often adopt in collecting their food. It is evident they 
pay no attention to what in the eyes of nature would 
be considered the legitimate way of abstracting honey 
from flowers which by their formation exclude them 
and other short-tongued insects as unbidden guests. 
Man pays no attention, as a rule, to their misdeeds 
unless they encroach upon his domains, so that wild 
flowers, or those grown in the garden purely for the 
sake of ornament, may be systematically robbed and 
no attention paid to the matter. On the contrary, 
when the long, narrow flowers of the garden or field 
Bean are perforated at the base in order to make a 
short and sure passage to the honey, a cry is raised 
against the bees directly, and methods devised for their 
destruction. Curiously enough, the bumble-bees in 
this instance are considered the depiredators, although 
I myself have not observed it. In gardens the latter 
always seem to behave properly, and enter the flower 
by the mouth. Hive bees, on the contrary, are unable 
to reach honey situated at the base of the long, narrow, 
tubular flowers, and they accordingly pierce a hole close 
to the base of the corolla, and those flowers if not visited 
by bumble-bees never get fertilised, and consequently 
cannot bear seed. Various species of Salvia, Sym¬ 
phytum, Antirrhinum, and others with similarly 
constructed flowers belonging to the same natural 
orders, are served in this fashion. 
Hive bees seem to know what flowers have been 
perforated, or to expect they have been so ; for on 
alighting upon them they go direct to the artificial 
openings without the slightest hesitation. This may 
arise from the visitors having been there before, and 
many of them probably made the openings originally. 
Bumble-bees enter the flowers by the mouth, whether 
they are already pierced at the base or not. They are 
enabled to get at the honey by reason of their longer 
tongues, or by their greater weight and strength. 
The mouths of the Snapdragons (Antirrhinums) are 
closed by a gibbosity, or hollow elevation of the lower 
lip. Bumble-bees alighting on this are able by their 
weight, and by a little exertion of their strength, to 
depress the lip and enter. The hive bee cannot do so, 
and must therefore rob the flower.— Bee. 
