November 11, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD* 
16 B 
on in Belgium to a greater or less extent in the 
kitchen garden, but on prepared beds of fermenting 
material. In this country they have beeij grown on 
to a certain stage in a hothouse and then planted in 
a sunny position in the open ground. In fairly 
warm summers they ripen tolerably well, and would 
have done well the past summer. It is probable 
that the large fruiting kind under notice would 
require more heat to bring it to perfection, so that a 
bed of fermenting material would be a great gain, 
particularly during the early part of summer so as 
to bring them on. 
ASPERULA SUBEROSA. 
The aspect of this little plant takes us completely 
away from the best known type of the genus as 
represented by A. odorata. The whole plant is 
much smaller and dwarfer, with spreading or pro¬ 
cumbent stems, reminding us more of A. Cynanchica 
another native plant inhabiting chalky downs and 
plains, but which is local in its occurrence. There 
are about six leaves in a whorle, and the whole plant 
is hairy and hoary or gray in its appearance. The 
flowers are borne in terminal umbels as usual, and 
are pinkish in bud but paler when fully expanded. 
Their long slender tube reminds one of a Bouvardia. 
It is to be hoped the plant will prove hardy, for it 
would prove a very ornamental and neat species to 
cultivate on the rockery. It flowered recently in 
the herbaceous department at Kew. 
BERKHEYA PURPUREA. 
The better known name of this plant is Stobaeas 
purpurea. Several species have been introduced 
from time to time, but the most of them require 
greenhouse treatment, S. purpurea being the only 
exception, as it is hardy, a fact which accounts for 
its being better known and prized. It comes from 
the Cape of Good Hope, and grows about 2 ft. to 3 ft. 
high in the open ground. The leaves are prickly 
like those of a Thistle, and run down the stems 
forming wings that are equally prickly. The flowers 
are large, with long rays and measure 2.| in. to 3^ in. 
across ; the rays are of the palest lilac and the disc 
purple, fading as the florets expand. The whole 
plant then has a Thistle-like appearance with 
exception of the flowers, whose rays do not occur in 
the true Thistles. It flowers in autumn. 
CYCLAMEN NEAPOLITANUM. 
After having flowered as usual in August, Sep¬ 
tember, and October, this hardy species is now 
throwing up a wealth of handsome foliage, and on 
that account alone is worthy of cultivation on the 
rockery, where the dense clusters of marbled leaves 
form a bright contrast to the decay of most other 
plants around. They vary in outline and in the 
amount of lobing as well as the distinctiveness of 
the grey blotches. Of course this arises through the 
raising of young plants from seed, giving rise to 
slight variations, as in C. persicum. The flowers are 
pink, with a purple base and white auricles. The 
chief fault of this beautiful species is that it throws 
up the flowers in a nude condition some time 
previous to the appearance of the leaves. In either 
state, however, the plant is highly ornamental and a 
beautiful adjunct to the rockery. It is a native of 
central and southern Europe, and so well adapted 
is it for our climate that it has become naturalised 
in several parts of England. It is frequently grown 
under the name of C. hederaefolium, but the 
description of it has been very much confused with 
that of some other species. 
COMMON THRIFT. 
The unusually dry character of the summer and 
the mild autumn has had a wonderful effect upon 
Armeria vulgaris and its white variety, as well as 
some other species. In several gardens they may 
be seen in full bloom and almost as gay as they 
sometimes are in summer. The flowers of the 
coloured sorts appear to be brighter coloured even 
than they are m dry warm weather earlier in the 
season. 
POLYGONUM POLYSTACHYUM. 
A NUMBER of the species of Polygonum find their 
way into most gardens but the subject of this note 
is comparatively little-known outside of botanic 
gardens. It is herbaceous in character, forming a 
large spreading bush about 3 ft. high, freely branched 
and really ornamental on account of the great 
profusion of small white flowers. In certain species 
the flowers are creamy, instead of being pure white, 
but that is not the fault of the present species, which 
has reddish flower stalks and a pink zone at the base 
of the individual flowers, which are otherwise pure 
white. These other colours do indeed serve to 
show off the purity of the white. The panicles 
are produced from the axils of the upper 
leaves and keep up a succession from 
September to October or November. The species is 
a native of the Himalayas and proves perfectly 
hardy in this country. Though it forms a widely 
spreading bush when allowed to attain a large size, it 
can be kept within due proportions by annually 
reducing the size of the rootstock and planting small 
pieces in the herbaceous border. Where the space 
is not necessarily restricted, it may be allowed to 
grow in perfect freedom for it is very effective during 
the autumn months when flowers are getting scarce. 
It might with great advantage be planted in the 
front of shrubbery borders where the white flowers 
would show themselves off against the dark foliage. 
The flowers are slightly fragrant in the mass 
WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN. 
The severe frosts of the early part of the week have 
given many of us plenty to do for the present in 
clearing off the debyis which Jack Frost made on his 
travels. Seldom are Pelargoniums so suddenly and 
so completely destroyed, but the previous summer- 
like weather had, no doubt, rendered these and other 
things relatively more tender than they generally 
are at this season. Where spring bedding is carried 
out no time time should be lost in planting the beds, 
so recently bright and gay with spring flowering 
plants and bulbs. When Alternantheras are used 
in the summer arrangements, it is good practice 
when planning out for the spring display to select 
the later-flowering things, notably Silene pendula 
for position, to be afterwards filled with the 
Alternanthera as the planting out of this is better 
left till somewhat later than the general run of 
things.— W.B.G. 
AGERATUM SWANLEY GEM. 
Can anyone say from what source the delightful 
scent of this variety, so unlike the others we are 
acquainted with, is derived ? It is worth a place in 
the flower garden on this account, but I take it that 
anyone who has attempted to grow it for a dwarf line 
in a ribbon border will have been rather more than 
disappointed with the result. I have seen it used 
thus where some 500 plants were put out, the sole 
quantity of flower being one truss during the whole 
summer. As the past summer has been, in all likeli¬ 
hood, the warmest and sunniest the present genera¬ 
tion is likely to see, I cannot think there is any 
possibility of its ever doing any better than it has 
done.— W.B.G. 
A SECOND CROP OF POTATOS. 
Having noticed in your last issue some remarks 
about a second crop of Strawberries gathered in 
October, in Cambridgeshire, I think it may interest 
your readers to know that I have lifted a second 
crop of Sharpe’s Victor Potato. The Potatos were 
lifted on the 2nd inst., and I have sent a sample for 
your inspection. I think this a most remarkable in¬ 
cident. The tubers they came off were left in the 
ground, and were intended to be lifted for next year’s 
seed. I think this demonstrates in a wonderful manner 
the extreme mildness of the season. The old Potatos 
are still quite fresh, and will yet serve the purpose 
they were intended for. —John Thomson, The Gardens, 
Preston Grange, Preston Pans, Haddingtonshire.— [The 
sample received was quite equal to many produced 
in frames in early spring.— Ed.] 
CURCULIGO RECURVATA. 
This fine old stove decorative plant, since Palms 
have become so plentiful, has fallen somewhat into 
the background, yet as a quickly grown plant, when 
well done, it has few rivals. We have plants whose 
deep-green broad, arching foliage would render 
them conspicuous objects in any arrangement. It 
is readily increased from off-sets, and when too 
large can easily be thrown away and replaced with 
younger plants; in fact, as readily as a zonal 
Pelargonium.— W. B. G. 
The National Chrysanthemum Society’s Catalogue.— 
Centenary Edition. Containing i.ooo new varieties. All the 
novelties. A history and complete bibliography of the Chrysan. 
themum, by Mr. C. Harman Payne. Price, is.; post free, 
IS. ijd. Publisher, Gardening World, i, Clement’s Inn, 
Strand, London, W.C. 
©I^anitifls Jttum fh^ 0)t)clh 
of Science. 
The Daisy Sleeping and Waking. —Lecturing on 
■' Brains—Awake and Asleep,” at St. George’s Hal), 
Langham Place, recently. Sir James Crichton- 
Browne, F.R S., had occasion to illustrate his 
remarks by reference to the sleeping and waking, or 
in other words to the opening and closing, of the 
Daisy. He said that the plant in question continued 
to fold its petals at night even when placed under the 
influence of the electric light. When purposely 
kept in a dark chamber, it continued to open its 
flowers at daybreak. It had also been found that 
yellow light acted like darkness, and that blue light 
had the same effect as sunshine. Now the long 
continued alternation of day and night has endowed 
the Daisy as it were with a habit or custom which 
by long exercise has now become habitual and 
spontaneous. The alternation of light and darkness, 
cold night radiation and v/armth by day, and their 
concomitant or accompanying conditions, have been 
instrumental in bringing about such a result, so that 
it becomes a part of the daily periodicity of growth 
of the Daisy, as in the case of various other plants, 
for the opening and closing of the rays is due to the 
greater rapidity of growth of the upper or under 
surface at different stages and under different con¬ 
ditions. As the individual flower gets old it ceases 
to open or close with any degree of completeness. 
Should the plant be kept for any lengthened period 
of time in a dark room or chamber, the whole of the 
flowers would cease to open or close, because the 
conditions for the proper performance of those 
operations would be absent. Light, heat and 
moisture are essentials to it. 
The hand coloured by Colchicum Autumnale. 
—The Paris journal. Science lUustre, is responsible 
for the following, of which it gives an illustration of 
the method of procedure:—"If in one of your 
rambles you encounter this charming flower, hold 
out the hand, very near, but without touching it. 
Almost immediately, and to your great surprise, you 
will see that your fingers take the dark and livid tint 
of a dead body, and colouration persists for some 
moments. You have only to insure yourself that 
the plant is in full flower—an hour after will be lost 
trouble ; but if the first gives no result, by trying 
upon a great number of flowers, you will certainly 
hit upon one to dye your fingers. That mysterious 
colouration is evidently due to a gaseous matter 
emitted by the anthers at the moment of the 
dispersal of the pollen. M. Isidore Pierre, Pro¬ 
fessor of the Faculty of Sciences at Caen, has noted 
another very curious fact. If one carries a bouquet 
of these flowers in the hand for a sufficient length of 
time, it produces a torpor or numbness throughout 
the whole member, and which lasts for several 
hours.” Should there be any reality in this experi¬ 
ment, particularly the latter, it would probably apply 
to certain individuals, and not to others; and in 
such a case reminds one of the effect upon some 
people of handling Primula obconica. Others are 
not affected by it in any way. 
Fertilisation of Yucca. —It has been known for 
many years past that the flowers of Yucca have to 
be fertilised by insect agency, but the researches of 
the eminent Professor Riley, the Missouri entomo¬ 
logist, have recently shown how this takes place. 
Every known species of Yucca is visited by some 
moth or other, and in the commoner kinds it is a 
species of Pronuba, a small white moth, which 
effects the necessary fertilisation. The moth visits 
the flower with the object of finding a suitable nidus 
for the rearing of her young. She pierces tbe 
ovary, and when crawling out of the flower after 
having deposited her eggs, unconsciously deposits 
the pollen in the stigmatic cavity. This is the 
pollen obtained from some other Yucca flower which 
she has been visiting, so that cross fertilisation is 
effected. The young grubs, when hatched out, 
destroy only a number of the seeds, so that the 
remainder is all gain to the plant, for without the 
aid of this apparently injurious but really beneficial 
insect, no seeds would be produced at all. Thus 
both the moth and the plant are benefited by the 
transaction, and both can live on equal terms. The 
plant supplies the young of the moth with food, 
while it is at the same time able to reproduce itself 
by the involuntary aid of the moth. 
