July 5, 1890, 
Til ill GARDENING WORLD. 
099 
THE CULTURE OF HERBA¬ 
CEOUS CALCEOLARIAS. 
Many readers of The Gardening World will re¬ 
member the original (and then famous) “Dalkeith 
strain ” of the herbaceous Calceolaria of a quarter of a 
century ago, and will, with the writer, have marked its 
improvement in size of individual blooms, or “pockets,” 
its superior marbling and spotting, with its almost 
endless shades of ground colour; and will have watched 
eagerly the unfolding of the flower at the approach 
of the blooming season, in order to discover the quality 
and beauty of the flowers individually and collectively. 
The marbling of some is truly wonderful, and no less 
beautiful, some being the most iealistic imitations of 
marble imaginable. The spattel varieties are no less 
interesting, and, curiously enough, it is scarcely 
possible to select two spots alike, either in exact colour, 
size or position. The ground colours vary through all 
conceivable shades, except blue or pure white ; the 
fawn, claret, and sulphur-yellow shades predominating. 
Some strains are more compact growers than others, 
and this should always be a desideratum ; and once in 
possession of a good strain, care should be taken to 
keep it by all means, either patronising the same firm, 
or saving seed annually from the plants that may be 
considered the best in point of quality as a whole. This 
latter proposition is only advisable, however, in ex¬ 
ceptional circumstances, as the trouble in selecting, 
laying aside in a dry atmosphere, tending, gathering, 
drying and cleaning the seeds, are operations that all 
take time^and, prices considered, do not pay on a 
small scale. ''Seedsmen, as a rule, are too wide awake 
to the importance of providing and upholding a good 
strain of these, and other popular things, to ignore the 
reputation of doing so ; and thus any respectable firm 
may be relied upon to supply a good strain. 
Now is a good time to sow (either at the end of 
June or the beginning of July), and plants raised from 
this sowing will bloom from early in April to the end 
of June. It must be remarked in passing that Calceo¬ 
larias like a cool atmosphere all through their culture— 
indeed, prefer a few degrees of frost to a warm atmos¬ 
phere, as under these latter conditions they soon 
become a prey to green-fly. It is usually considered 
that they will not bear frost, but growing some reserve 
plants in an ordinary cold frame without any pro¬ 
tection except that afforded by the sashes, convinced 
me long ago of their hardihood. There is no better 
place for wintering them than a cold pit or frame, in 
which the pots should be plunged in sawdust or sifted 
ashes, to reduce watering and to protect the roots and 
pots from frost. I would not have it inferred, however, 
that this is advisable on all points, and certainly would 
not recommend the entire disuse of matting or covering 
up in severe weather, for if the atmosphere in the 
frame became too humid, the roots and soil in a similar 
state, and a hard frost attacked them in that condition, 
the consequences might be serious. 
The seeds should be sown in a pan or box, and placed 
in a cold frame or under a hand-glass at the base of a 
wall or similar position. The pan or box should be 
carefully drained by placing a layer of rough crocks in 
the bottom, then a layer of finer ones, and afterwards 
some sphagnum or liypuum moss, over which the 
rougher portions of siftings should be placed to two- 
thirds of the desired depth, the remaining third being 
filled with a mixture of leaf-soil and loam in equal 
parts (finely sifted), a dash of sand, and some pounded 
charcoal. This done, the surface should be damped 
with a fine-rosed watering pot, and the water allowed 
to settle, after which all is in readiness for the reception 
of the tiny seeds. These, from their smallness, should 
be sown on the surface (not covered with any soil), care 
being taken that they are evenly distributed, as the 
seedlings in a matted state are subject to serious injury 
when being pricked off, and this is a matter which 
should be taken in hand as soon as the tiny plants can 
be handled. They should be pricked out in boxes in a 
compost as above, with the addition of some dry, finely- 
pounded cow-dung—perhaps a sixth of the whole—and 
carefully watered. When all are pricked out, the boxes 
should be placed in a position such as the seedlings 
have just occupied, and kept close for about a week, 
when all will have taken hold of the new soil, and be 
pushing into growth. At this stage slugs are very 
troublesome, and care must be taken to give these 
nocturnal visitors no encouragement. To this end, a 
layer of sifted ashes sprinkled over with quick-lime 
should be placed in the frame, and the boxes stood on 
this clear of each other, while the edges of the boxes 
should have a good dusting of the same.— J. Proctor. 
( To le continued.) 
ARDENING 
ISCELLANY. 
—-f*— 
Pear Trees in Flower. 
Seeing an account of the flowering of two cordon Pear 
trees at Chiswick in last week’s Gardening Would, 
has induced me to send you a line concerning two 
Pear trees now in flower here—Winter Nelis and 
Beurre de Jonghe. The former is on the wall of my 
cottage, and failed at the first flowering to set more 
than a dozen fruits ; it is now in full flower, while the 
latter is a cordon. The blooms appear to be of good 
size, and perfectly developed, some of them being 
already set. The Pear crop in this locality is very 
light this year, and Plums nil, while Apples are by no 
means plentiful, many varieties not having set a fruit. 
The sorts of Apples with best crops here are Peas- 
good’s Nonsuch, Keswick Codlin, Golden Noble, and 
Devonshire Quarrenden, with a sprinkling of Mr. 
Gladstone, Bismarlc and Irish Peach, while Beurre 
Ranee carries the best crop of Pears.— IV. Paries, 
Fernside, Bickley. 
Tea Rose, Homer. 
In the open garden, whether as a standard or against a 
wall, this fine ord Rose is simply charming. It is one 
of the earliest to come into bloom on a wall, this year 
running Gloire de Dijon neck and neck. It is a good 
grower, and continues in bloom more or less the season 
through. Its pleasing colour—a pink shade on a white 
ground—and its delightful Tea scent, make it a 
favourite with all. For a button-hole I think it is 
matchless, and for a bouquet or spray requires no 
recommendation. I often wonder that it is not more 
grown. It is one of the most hardy of the Tea section, 
and if I could only grow six Roses, Homer would 
certainly be one of them.— Con. 
Lilium croceum. 
This beautiful European species might be more often, 
grown in gardens than at present. It is allied to 
L. bulbiferum, L. davuricum, and L. elegans, now so 
gay in gardens fortunate enough to possess them. All 
are. characterised by their wide-open, erect flowers of 
glowing orange, scarlet, and crimson colours. The 
flowers of L. croceum are slightly smaller than those of 
the other species here named, but numerously produced 
in a broad triangular raceme, terminating stems that 
vary from 3 ft. to 6 ft. high, according to vigour. 
They are also of a beautiful golden yellow, with the 
lower half of the segments marked with short blackish 
red lines. The leaves are very numerous and scattered, 
as in the allied species, thickly clothing the stems. 
For beds of Rhododendrons or the front of shrubberies 
this would prove very suitable, as the partial shade and 
shelter would furnish all that is necessary in this 
respect. 
The Fraxinella. 
The typical form of this plant (Dictamuus albus) has 
white flowers. The plant with pale purple flowers is a 
variety of D. albus. The name Fraxinella is the 
diminutive of Fraxinus, the Ash, and has no doubt 
been applied from the similarity of the leaves of this 
plant to those of an Ash. Dittany is another English 
though less familiar name. The flowers and foliage, 
as, indeed, all parts of the plant, are possessed of a 
strong odour like that of lemon-peel, if not bruised, 
but, like many other plants of the Orange family, the 
tissues should not be bruised, otherwise the odour 
becomes too powerful to be endurable at close quarters. 
Both the white and purple-flowered forms are, how¬ 
ever, very desirable plants for the herbaceous border. 
They are of very slow increase, and should be propa¬ 
gated by seeds, which they produce freely. Some 
specimens are flowering freely in the herbaceous border 
in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
Chiswick. 
Castilleja indivisa. 
A patch of this plant at a short distance has a novel 
and pretty effect, not from the colour of its flowers, 
which are small and greenish yellow, but from the large 
incurved bracts which are of a bright carmine-red. 
The plant is perennial, but rather tender and short¬ 
lived in this country, consequently it is generally 
raised afresh every year from seeds. Another reason to 
account for the short-lived nature of the plant is that 
they are partly parasitical on the roots of other plants, 
hence the difficulty of cultivating them for any great 
length of time when grown by themselves. The best 
plan of dealing with them is to sow them in pots 
and raise them in gentle heat, planting out later on 
when the weather becomes quite mild. Crowding 
should not on any account be permitted in the seed¬ 
bed, otherwise the plants can never he so fine. 
A Cape Ragwort. 
The Ragworts constitute the largest genus in the 
vegetable kingdom, and many of them are found in 
various parts of the world. The chief head-quarters 
of the genus in the old world is South Africa, from 
whence comes Senecio concolor, the subject of this note, 
a beautiful half-hardy perennial with quite a different 
aspect from the bulk of the species grown in gardens, 
and which have yellow flower heads, the most prevalent 
hue in the Composite. In the present instance the ray 
florets are of a soft mauve-purple with a white disc ; 
the latter colour is also rather uncommon in the genus 
for this part of the flower head. The plant varies from 
18 ins. to 30 ins. in height, and when a good clump of 
it is grown, the effect is good. The radical leaves are 
oblanceolate, while those on the stem are linear, and 
neither are very deeply divided, so that Ragwort is less 
applicable than in the case of S. vulgaris, S. sylvatica, 
or S. Jacobsea, with which we are most familiar. It 
may be seen in the herbaceous ground at Kew. 
Rubus deliciosus Fruiting. 
FAin-sized plants of this beautiful Bramble flower 
abundantly every year, but whether grown on a wall 
or in the open ground it seldom produces fruit in this 
country. The fruits are large and of delicious flavour 
in its native home on the Rocky Mountains of North 
America ; but our climate does not seem to favour a 
free production of fruit, whatever may be the explana¬ 
tion. At present a low-spreading bush in the collection 
of Rubi at Kew may be seen carrying a considerable 
quantity of fruit apparently about half grown. They 
are as yet greenish, and more or less stained of a 
bronzy red. A curiosity about the individual hips or 
fruits is that each is hammered or flattened on the top, 
and deeply furrowed at right angles to the axis, as if 
each consisted of two partly grown together. 
The Yellow Everlasting. 
Although largely grown on the Continent, Heli- 
chrysum arenarium does not often find a place in 
establishments in this country, but why it would be 
difficult to say. A closely allied plant, Antennaria 
margaritacea, is not only extensively grown everywhere, 
but as an escape in some parts of the country, par¬ 
ticularly in South Wales, where it has escaped from 
cultivation, and runs wild in great quantity in barren 
places, as if a true native. The flower-heads of that 
plant are pearly white, while in the case of Helichrysum 
arenarium they are of a deep canary-yellow or even 
golden yellow, and produced in branching corymbs 
terminating stems of 6 ins. to 12 ins. in height. They 
are dried and used in large quantities under the name 
of Immortelles, and are frequently dyed of various 
glaring colours ; but those of cultivated taste cannot 
but look upon such artificial products with disfavour. 
The plant itself is quite hardy, and a suitable subject 
either for the border or rockwork, provided the position 
is well drained. 
Ursinia pulchra. 
Many 7 of the Cape annuals are very pretty, including 
the subject of this note. It is possibly better known 
in gardens under the name of Sphenogyne speciosa, 
and is now getting more and more distributed, as it is 
found to be a useful subject for pot work, as well as for 
the open border. The rays of the flower head are 
bright golden yellow on the inner surface, with a black 
blotch at the base of each, making a zone around the 
disc, which is also black. The foliage is of a light 
green, and finely divided, adding yet another attraction 
to the plant, which varies in height from 6 ins. to 
12 ins., according to soil, season and cultural treat-, 
ment. The stems are slightly decumbent at the base, 
and for that reason the plants should be properly 
thinned out to prevent overcrowding, which is greatly 
detrimental to the duration of the flowering period. 
Chrysanthemum cinerarisefolium. 
The foliage of this species is very finely divided, or cut 
in a fashion similar to that of Cineraria maritima, but 
the silvery character, also suggestive of that species, is 
best seen only when the leaves are quite young. The 
largest ones are mostly radical or produced near the 
