March 3, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
423 
done, trenched if possible, and well enriched with 
manure, and by keeping the crop well hoed and 
giving a good soaking of water in dry weather, a 
crop of excellent crowns for forcing may be 
secured, with, considering the usefulness of the pro¬ 
duce, very little trouble. I have found a dressing of 
salt just before the sets start into growth very 
beneficial to the crop, and a help in keeping the 
ground clean of weeds, very many of which, if in a 
young state, are killed by a comparatively slight 
dressing. 
I have not for some years made use of Seakale 
pots over stools in the old-fashioned way, the 
results of which are most meagre considering the 
expenditure of labour required to procure a few 
dishes. There is one way of getting what the 
market gardeners call natural Kale, which is too 
little practised in private gardens. The sets for 
this should be planted in double rows, allowing 
12 in. between the rows forming the double row, and 
6 in. from plant to plant. Allow a space of 3 ft. 
between each bed with the double row of plants; 
where the soil is light it can be thrown up in the 
autumn from the 3 ft. space over the crowns to a 
height of 9 in., leaving it somewhat rounded; this 
will throw off some of the heavy rain, and such beds 
will afford the late supply and come extra strong 
and be more delicious than any forced produce. 
On heavy soils, instead of throwing up the earth 
between the beds, well decayed leaf soil or well 
rotted tan must be used, the natural soil being too 
wet and heavy for the purpose. A very general way 
of forcing the crowns is to place them thickly in 
rich light soil in pots over which another inverted 
pot of the same size is placed. T'hese pots are 
placed under the staging of a warm house, and by 
bringing them in in succession a constant supply 
may with very little trouble be kept up; but at the 
same time the quality is not so good as that raised 
under fermenting material. A better plan is to 
have some rough frames made, about a foot in 
height, large enough to contain 100 crowns, and lay 
these in at the time of lifting them ; any waste piece 
of ground will do, and by having enough boxes 
ready the whole of the Kale may be put where it is 
to be forced at once. Arrange the boxes in a row 
leaving from 2 to 3 ft. space between them ; begin 
forcing at one end and as the produce is cut much 
of the fermenting material may be used several 
times over : this, unless there is the accommodation 
of a Mushroom house, is far the best plan I have 
ever tried.— W. B. G. 
--4--- 
ARDISIA POLYCEPHALA. 
Several species of Ardisia are now cultivated in 
hothouses for the sake of their berries, which are 
mostly of a deep shining red or crimson, but A. 
polycephala we do not remember to have seen 
outside a botanic garden. Its berries are about the 
size of marrow-fat peas and black, but their colour 
should not be a bar to the cultivation of the plant. 
Variation should be one of the primary objects of 
plant growing, and that under notice grows more 
freely than the bulk of the species in cultivation, 
and not only flowers every year, but seems to fruit 
with more certainty than A. crenulata, the most 
frequently cultivated species of all. A cluster of 
fruit is produced at the tip of each shoot or branch. 
The plant is liable after a number of years to get too 
large to suit the convenience of those whose house 
room is limited, but the same applies to A. crenulata, 
which has to be propagated from seeds or cuttings 
to keep up a succession of plants of a suitable size, 
and which shall not appear leggy. A. polycephala 
could be treated in the same way and prove as easy 
if not more easily managed, for growth is freer and 
not so stiff as in the commonly grown kind. There 
is a plant in the Palm house at Kew which has con¬ 
tinued to be very fruitful for many years past, and 
has at the same time increased till it now measures 
about a yard across and nearly as much in height. 
Every shoot bears a cluster of berries, but the 
centre is not well filled up owing to the loss of leaves 
on the lower and older portions. For private estab¬ 
lishments this could be remedied by occasionally 
propagating and growing on young specimens. 
The Carnation; its History, Properties and Management; 
with a descriptive list of the best varieties in cultivation. By 
E. S. Dodwell. Third edition, with supplementary chapter on 
the Yellow Ground. London: Gardening World Office, i, 
Clement's Inn, Strand, W.C. is. 6d., post free, is. yd.—Advt. 
'In ^ 
fARDENlNG glSCELLANY. 
THE UNITED HORTICULTURAL PROVIDENT 
AND BENEFIT SOCIETY. 
I FEEL sure I need make no apology for claiming a 
little of your space, your columns being always 
open for the discussion of subjects of interest or 
utility to the gardening community. My object in 
writing now is to endeavour to elicit the opinions of 
brother gardeners who are members of the United 
Horticultural Provident and Benefit Society as to 
the best means of increasing its members and 
enhancing its usefulness. I remember some time 
ago hearing an expression something like this, 
“ You gardeners don’t pay enough for the manage¬ 
ment of your Society, and in so poorly paying your 
secretary you are really sweating one of your own 
order.” I have since thought this over, and am 
obliged to admit that there is a lot of truth in it. 
It is the Management Fund that is the cause of our 
slow progression. Instead of having 500 members 
we ought to have 1,000 or more, but we cannot get 
them for the sum we are now paying for manage¬ 
ment. I intend at the next annual meeting to 
endeavour to induce the committee to take this 
matter into their serious consideration and to get them 
to accelerate the pace of the Society’s operations. 
I shall also call attention to the age at which 
members may reap the benefit of the Provident 
F'und, which I think ought to be reduced to sixty or 
sixty-five years instead of seventy. In the mean¬ 
time I should be glad to know the opinions of 
others.— A. J. Brown, School of Handicrafts, Chertsey. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM FLORENCE CARR. 
Probably never during any previous season were 
there shown more of the pretty little Pompon 
CUrysanthemums than during the past one. At all 
local shows they were well represented, while at the 
" National ” they were shown in abundance, and 
except in one or two cases they were of high quality, 
showing that they are becoming very much appreci¬ 
ated. As the number of Pompons in the catalogues 
is not very extensive, good new varieties are acquisi¬ 
tions, and such an one I think we shall find in Florence 
Carr. It appears to have been raised by Mr. W. Carr, 
of Croydon, Surrey, and I saw it at the Crystal Palace, 
where it gained a First-class Certificate. It was a 
beautiful little plant with large blooms of a bronzy- 
yellow colour, very compact and by all appearance 
of a dwarf habit.—IF. Aldridge, Hazelwood Lane, 
Palmer's Green, N. 
IRIS GRANT DUFFII. 
A LARGE addition has recently been made to the 
Oncocyclus group of Irises, including the subject of 
this note. It is characterised by a very much 
shortened and semi-bulbous rhizome covered with a 
mass of brown fibres. The leaves are narrow and 
grassy in appearance, and the flowers produced 
singly on the stems. When expanded and in the 
natural position, without being spread out, they 
measure about 5 in. in diameter. The falls are yellow 
with a variable number of red or crimson spots along 
the centre, below the middle. The erect standards 
are linear-oblong and paler yellow, as are the petaloid 
stigmas. The species comes from Palestine, but the 
flower is not so massive in appearance as I. atropur- 
purea nor I. Marine, nor so showy as the latter, all 
the segments being much narrower and entirely 
different in colour. All the three have found their 
way to this country, but their hardiness has not yet 
had time to get fully tested. Owing to their habit of 
flowering early as most things from Palestine do in 
this country, it may be necessay to shelter them in a 
cold frame. 
HIPPEASTRUM RUTILUM FULGIDUM. 
Amongst the new bulbous and tuberous plants that 
turned up in Italy last year, was the subject of this 
note. As far as this country is concerned, it is by no 
means new. The type was introduced in 1810 from 
South Brazil, where it is, or used to be, pretty com¬ 
mon in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro. The 
variety H. r. fulgidum is a more recent introduction, 
but nevertheless an old plant in this country, and 
has been figured in various works, and described in 
others under nearly a dozen different names. The 
flowers are 4 in. to 5 in. wide, measured across the 
long way, and each flower stem bears two to four 
flowers. The tube is cylindrical, and comparatively 
slender alongside of those with which we are more 
familiar. Three of the segments are directed for¬ 
ward, while the other three are directed backward, 
and all are recurved. The shape of the flower 
reminds us of what occurs in Sprekelia formosissima, 
but the parts are less rigid and more graceful. The 
segments are bright scarlet, with a greenish band 
along the centre of each segment. The irregular 
and peculiar form of the flower breaks the star into 
two equal diverging parts of three rays each. The 
variety was introduced to Italy from Brazil, where it 
was growing in the vicinity of Pernambuco, and not in 
gardens. A woodcut is given of it in the BuUettino 
della R. Societa Toscana di Orlicultiira for January. 
HIPPEASTRUM JOHNSONI. 
This isone of the first, if not actually the first, hybrid 
Hippeastrum that ever was raised bytheagencyof man. 
Curiously enough, it was the work not of a gardener, 
but of a watchmaker named Johnson, of Prescot, in 
Lancashire, who, in 1799, crossed H. Reginae with 
H. vittatum. This gave an impetus to the raising of 
hybrid Hippeastrums, or Amaryllis as they were 
called, and since then the work has been carried on 
more or less intermittingly, but sometimes with 
great diligence, as at the present time. The best of 
recent hybrids have been obtained from H. 
Leopoldii, probably crossed with H.Reginae, through 
the medium of H. Johnsoni. A large batch of bulbs 
under the latter name is now coming into flower 
with Messrs. Carter & Co. If it turns out to be the 
true hybrid, it must present a fine display as well as 
being interesting. The bulbs are characterised by 
great vigour, and bloom very freely, the blooms 
being of a dull red, with a white stripe down the 
centre of each segment. Empress of India has no 
doubt been derived from H. Johnsoni through a 
series of generations by crossing until the dull red 
has given rise to a brilliant crimson-scarlet. This 
again has been largely used in conjunction with H. 
Leopoldii for obtaining some of the finest of the 
recent hybrids. H. vittatum on the other hand has 
been crossed with H. Reginae, H. aulicum, H. 
reticulatum, and H. solandriflorum, giving rise to a 
large number of striped, netted, and variegated 
varieties. 
FINE VARIETY OF SPRING SNOWFLAKE. 
A FEW, comparatively, of the cultivators of hardy 
herbaceous plants are familiar with the Spring 
Snowflake (Leucoium vernum), but we are surprised 
that it should be so little known in private establish¬ 
ments generally. It is but a dwarf plant, but its 
solitary flower is much larger than that of the 
Snowdrop. The variety under notice is L. v. 
carpaticum, which is twice the height of the old 
type, say about 12 in. The flower scapes are thrown 
well above the foliage, and bear a pair of blooms 
equally as large as those of the old form. When 
grown in pots it measures from 12 in to 14 in. from 
the bottom of the pot to the blooms, which are bell¬ 
shaped, drooping, and snow-white, with exception of 
a green blotch close to the tip of all the segments 
and which shows itself both on the outer and inner 
face. The typical L. vernum has a much smaller 
and paler green blotch to each segment. The twin- 
flowered variety is thus an altogether stronger plant 
and therefore more worthy of cultivation. Although 
it can be successfully cultivated in pots that method 
of treatment is unnecessary, as it is equally as hardy 
as the type. It has been flowering for some time 
past in pots in the nursery of Mr. T. S. Ware, 
Tottenham. 
BROWNEA GRANDICEPS. 
In its native country this plant attains the 
dimensions of a tree 60 ft. high. Few cultivators 
would imagine that it was worth their while to 
attempt growing it with the view of seeing it in 
flower. By propagation from cuttings, however, 
small plants can be obtained to flower in the stove 
amongst the ordinary occupants of that structure. 
Growth is very slow, so that it can be grown for 
some years before becoming inconveniently large. 
Those who possess a warm conservatory with a 
moderately high roof could accommodate plants of 
some size, and which will flower from the tips of 
the branches year after year. Cuttings of ripened 
wood can be rooted under a bell glass placed in a 
warm moist atmosphere. A specimen about 10 ft. 
or 12 ft. high may be seen flowering in the Palm 
