178 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 18, 1898. 
ENDIVE AT CHISWICK. 
In looking over a collection of Endive recently in the 
gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chis¬ 
wick, the varieties were fairly numerous, although 
perhaps not representative of the whole mass of 
names to be found in gardens. The chief 
lines of variation depend upon whether the 
leaves rise up erect forming relatively tall plants, 
whether they spread upon the ground, or whether 
smooth or curled. The latter kinds may and 
usually are dwarf like those ordinary kinds that 
spread flat on the ground. 
The Broad-leaved Green Batavian is one of the 
dwarf sorts that hug the ground, and has deep green 
eaves densely compacted in the centre. To blanch 
them the leaves are tied together, and inverted flower 
ots placed over them. Improved Round-leaved 
Endive is very similar in habit of growth to the 
flower, and both have broad leaves, but the term 
round can hardly be applied to either of them. 
Queen of Winter seems a much grosser growing 
plant, differing from the previous ones in the taller,. 
ascendi*g, loosely-arranged leaves. The plants are 
more bulky and require larger pots to cover them 
for blanching. They are also lighter in colour. 
The leaves of Very Fine Curled Green Summer 
lay flat on the ground, and are likewise much cut, 
curled and light green. A somewhat coarser growing 
sort is Large Green Curled Ruffee, the leaves of 
which are large, more loosely arranged, and have 
the terminal and some of the side lobes bold and con¬ 
spicuous. Very Fine Curled Moss is perhaps the 
least bulky of all of them, and the bright green moss¬ 
like leaves are cut up into numerous very fine seg¬ 
ments. The Louirero Fine Laciniated is another 
compact growing variety with much cut and curled 
leaves, lying flat on the ground. They are also 
bright green, and differ from the previously named 
variety in being curled. The plants look like large 
tufts of Senebiera Coronopus. The Golden Hearted 
Curled Moss has lobed and curled leaves lying 
close upon the ground. They are deep green, with 
the central and younger ones tipped with a more or 
less decidedly greenish-yellow' hue. In summer the 
yellow colour might be more conspicuous. The 
variety does not, howler, look as if it would prove 
so hardy as most of the above sorts named. The 
growth of the plants being mostly made in autumn, 
they show no effects of the great drought of the past 
summer. 
- •*< - 
MIXED FLOWER 
GARDENING. 
V'hat is known as the mixed system of flower gar¬ 
dening, to my way of thinking, gives more satisfactory 
results than any other style possibly can do, for 
from early spring ti'l winter sets in a constantly 
changing display of floral beauty may be had in a 
comparatively small space. Now that the herba¬ 
ceous plants have mostly gone to rest, and the 
Dahlias, summer-flowering Chrysanthemums, and 
Pelargoniums, with other miscellaneous things, have 
succumbed to the frost, all decayed matter must be 
cleared off. Under ordinary circumstances the 
borders, so recently gay with flowers, will look dull 
and drear for several months unless some provision 
is made to prevent it. 
This is by no means an unavoidable result, be¬ 
cause with a comparatively small outlay of time and 
money they may be rendered interesting and 
attractive by a judicious arrangement of evergreen 
shiubs, which for this purpose should be well 
established in pots and plunged up to their rims in 
the soil between the permanent occupants of the bor¬ 
ders. In selecting these the common Laurels, Au- 
cubas, &c., should be avoided, and choice made of 
the more elegant and variegated varieties of Retino- 
spora, Cupressus, Yuccas, and Hollies, and some 
kinds of the Ivy grown specially for the purpose 
would add much to the variety at command, and give 
a distinct feature to the arrangement. The selection 
should comprise the greatest variety of form and 
colour attainable. 
When once a stock is secured and established in 
pots and taken ordinary care of, the expense for 
occasional renewals will be very trifling for some 
years. In placing them in position the aim ought 
not to be to imitate a thickly-grown shrubbery, but 
rather to get a pleasing effect by placing them so that 
they will contrast well one wdth another yet be 
blended together so to form an harmonious whole. 
whilst every plant stands out singly so as to be seen 
to the best advantage. To carry out this system 
satisfactorily some little forethought is required in 
the planting of the herbaceous plants, so that room 
is left between them for Dahlias. Chrysanthemums, 
Marvel of Peru, Pelargoniums, &c., and when 
these are cleared off, sufficient space will be left for 
the shrubs without encroaching on the herbaceous 
plants. 
The now empty flower beds on lawns might often 
be used in the same way and serve as a change. 
Where spring bedding is done, in many instances this 
would give quite a distinct aspect to many a subuiban 
garden,. the sameness and monotony of which 
is trying to witness. Want of space may, with some 
reason, often be urged against the adoption of this 
plan, but many local nurserymen would, we 
believe, for a fair consideration be willing to take 
charge of the plants during the summer and autumn. 
— W.B.G. 
-- 
ARBUTUS UNEDO RUBRA. 
The open autumn has been favourable to the 
development of the flowers of the species of Arbutus 
or Strawberry Tree, and in the case of the species 
under notice at least we may expect to see a good 
display of fruit during next summer and autumn. 
The flowers of the ordinary form are white or more 
or less tinted with some other light hue, which in 
A. Unedo rubra becomes very decided and hand¬ 
some. They are bright red on the side most exposed 
to light, but vary between pale yellow and white on 
the shaded side, with a small, four-toothed, yellow 
mouth. A large bush of the common one is no 
mean object during the fall of the leaf. By virtue 
of its better and brighter colour the red flowered 
variety is far more attractive and constitutes one of 
the most conspicuous objects on the grass at the 
present time. The beauty and value of the ever¬ 
green leaves are now brought into a prominence 
they could not enjoy while everything is in full 
leaf during the summer months. The fruit requires 
a long time to attain full size and maturity, and the 
young berries must be set before winter sets in ; and 
for this reason the crop is liable to fail owing to the 
subtle character of our climate, when the plants are 
in bloom. 
-- 4 -- 
PLANT NAMES AND 
THEIR ASSOCIATIONS. 
{Concludedpom p. 162.) 
Latin and Greek Names. 
Whatever the public may say against Latin and 
Greek names and their tendency—in an aggravated 
form — to dislocate the jaw, or to give " the unruly 
member ” the cramp, they are of great use, and the 
spread of accurate horticultural knowledge has been 
advanced thereby. New plants, as they are 
registered, are described in technical terms in Latin, 
and then any country in the world has the name and 
the description at its service. This could not be 
done were the plant only described in English, 
French, or German, for there are many other nations 
to whom our tongue might be as unintelligible as that 
of an Aztec. Then, again, considering that our 
own language is to a great extent derived from the 
Latin, the advantage is manifest of giving plants 
botanical names. Take the Foxglove—Digitalis ; 
we have digitale, meaning the finger of a glove, and 
digits, the fingers. We have the well-known 
shrub. Rhododendron, bearing a purely Greek name 
— Rhodo, meaning a Rose, and dendron. a tree. 
There is the word Sonchus, the Sow-thistle, from 
the word somphos, hollow, referring to the hollow 
milky stems. Curiously enough, in Scotland we 
have the byword " sumph ” from the same root. A 
sumph is a man who is but ninepence or less to the 
shilling, a sort of good-natured fool, with, so to 
speak, nothing in him. The lovely Chrysanthemum 
comes from the Greek Clnusos, gold, and anthos, a 
flower, all that were named Chrysanthemums 
being originally yellow. Campanula, a bell, exactly 
conveys the aspect of the bell-flower family. 
These are what are known as generic names, 
indicating to what genus the flower or plant 
belongs. The adjectives which qualify these 
nouns are called specific terms, that is, they specify 
whether a plant is tall or short, white or red, single 
or double, as, longifolia, long leaved ; microphylla, 
small leaved ; macrophylla, large leaved ; grandi- 
flora, large flowered ; fiore-pleno, double flowered ; 
major, ta’l ; minor, small ; alba, white ; aurea. 
golden; and so on. Sometimes a name has a round¬ 
about history, such as the common Yarrow. Its 
botanical name is Achillea Millefolium It is called 
Achillea after Achilles, who, when he was wounded 
in his only vulnerable part, the heel, took this herb, 
and applying it to the wound, healed it. Millefolium 
means thousand-leaved, referring to the finely cut 
leaf of the plant. Among grasses, the botanical 
names are descriptive, although their popular names 
are, as might be expected, borrowed from the 
denizens of the park and farm, such as " Foxtail,’’ 
" Dogstail,” “ Catstail,” "Cocksfoot,” while one is 
called after a farm labourer—" Timothy.” 
If time had permitted, I should like to have dwelt 
upon the superstitious and old English customs that 
have become inseparably associated with plants, and 
the association of plants with b irths, deaths, and 
marriages; as to why a bride wears orange 
blossom on her wedding garment, or why rice is 
thrown after her ; the peculiar ceremony of Flora 
Day at Helston in Cornwall ; or the less familiar 
custom of wassail invocation of the Apple orchards 
in Somerset. Then there are the morals of plants, 
for it cannot be denied that lovely as some of them 
are they are not above suspicion, and they, when 
the opportunity occurs, do not hesitate to become 
thieves and murderers, dissemblers, while many of 
them are very embodiments of selfishness and 
autocracy. 
Before leaving the subject I may just quote, as a 
specimen of the writings of the old school of 
herbalists, a passage from old Culpepper, dealing 
with the Pansy. He says, " This is that herb which 
such physicians as are licensed to blaspheme by 
authority, without danger of having their tongues 
burned through with an hot iron, called an Herb of 
Trinity. It is also called by those that are more 
modern ' Three faces in a hood,’ ‘ Love in Idleness,’ 
' Cull me to you,’ and in Sussex we call them 
Fancies,” Some of Culpepper’s descriptions are 
mirth-provoking, while some, I grieve to say, are 
not fit for publication now-a-days. He places all 
plants under the dominion of some planet or heavenly 
body, and the healing virtues ascribed to some of 
them would put Sequah himself to shame and make 
Mother Seigel weep. When I tell you that some 
plants mend broken bones and others rectify those 
out of joint, you may guess the rest. The old 
custom of being guided by the state of the moon in 
sowing seed and gathering fruit has not by any 
means died out. In Cornwall, if not in Devon, 
there are many ardent believers in the practice. 
The Dutch florist, Henry Van Oosten, of Leiden, is 
great upon this score. As illustrative of his style, I 
give you his remarks upon ” How to Sow Emonies.” 
This is one of the finest arts imaginable, and it is for 
the honour to the florists that I discover this. " You 
must take one or more plants of rare colour and 
keep them a year without planting. After a year’s 
time plant them with your other plants and mark 
them for seed. You must pull the seed with a south 
or southerly wind, but not when it has anything of 
a north wind, for that brings only single flowers. 
Keep the seed till March till you sow it in the 
increasing of the moon. When you sow it steep it 
in one part of wine and two of water. After six 
hours time pour off the liquor and let it dry a little 
that you may separate it and so sow it. When all 
this is observed sow it in a box filled with stones 
and horse dung mixed with a little earth eight or ten 
days before the full moon. You will then have 
almost all double flowers in the second year.” He 
recommends Tulips to be sowed with a north wind, 
as it doth feed the Tulip, bring strong colours, and 
gives more offsets, but it must be sown in the 
decreasing of the moon. 
In concluding these fugitive remarks, I can only 
say that I have endeavoured to interest you and to 
draw you to the further study of plant history, for I 
assure you it is anything but dry work. The little 
I have been able to give from the unfathomable 
mine of tradition, and song, and story, of the lovely 
companions whom most of us have every day 
around us in our daily work reminds me of what was 
said of the garden of Dr. Jowett, Master of Trinity 
Hall, Cambridge, an ancestor of the Master of 
Balliol, who died the other day— 
" A little garden little Jowett made 
And fenced it with a little pallisade. 
But little taste had little Dr. Jowett, 
And little did his little garden show it.” 
—Andreiv Hope. 
