March 17, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
455 
NOTES ON HARDY PLANTS, 
The Alpine Phlox. 
This family is one of the most effective and useful 
of any group of spring-flowering plants, comprising 
as it does flowers of various shades of colour and 
size, as well as adaptability for a large number of 
purposes. The later flowering varieties of P. 
decussata and P. fruticosa are well known and 
indispensable for autumn decoration, but the spring¬ 
flowering section is, as yet, comparatively unknown 
except to a few persons. Being of dwarf habit they 
are admirably adapted for the rockery or edging, 
while for bedding purposes they are invaluable, as 
when planted in masses they form sheets of blossom, 
lasting in perfection for several weeks. They are 
thoroughly hardy, and succeed well in almost any 
soil or situation, and are easily propagated by 
cuttings in July, or by division. 
Phlox amoena. —A pretty species, growing from 
9 in. to 12 in. in height, with clusters of bright pink 
flowers from May to June, while the leaves are 
lanceolate, deep green and hairy. A native of North 
America. Introduced in i8og, and figured in the 
Botanical Magazine, t. 1308. 
P. CANADENSIS. —This species is frequently de¬ 
scribed under the name of P. divaricata. The 
flowers are borne in corymbs on slender stems, and 
are pale blue in colour, and produced in April and 
May. The plant grows to a height of about 12 in., 
and is a native of North America; introduced in 
1746. A white variety of this species is now in 
cultivation, and forms an agreeable contrast when 
planted side by side. 
P. ovATA. —A charming and useful species, pro¬ 
ducing reddish-purple flowers in great profusion 
during the spring months, and attaining about i ft. 
in height. The leaves are ovate in shhpe, and 
purplish in colour. The flowers being borne on long 
spikes are very useful for cutting. North America. 
Introduced 1759, and figured in the Botanical 
Magazine, t. 528. 
P. PROCUMBENS. —A distinct variety, forming dense 
tufts of green foliage, with clusters of lilac flowers 
and violet centres, borne in terminal panicles. A 
useful species for bedding. North America. In¬ 
troduced in 1827, 
P. SUBULATA (syn setacea).—A number of hybrid 
forms were raised some years ago by the Rev. J. G. 
Nelson. Being of dwarf and evergreen habit, scarcely 
exceeding 3 in. in height, they are extremely useful 
for spring bedding. 
P. SETACEA, THE Bride. —Very dwarf and com¬ 
pact in habit with numerous white flowers which are 
red in the centre. A charming and pleasing 
variety. 
P. setacea comp acta. — Compact habit with 
numerous flowers of a bright rose colour. One of 
the best for massing. 
P. SETACEA atropurpurea.— A distinct and 
vigorous variety with masses of evergreen foliage 
covered with purplish rose flowers with crimson 
centres. 
P. SETACEA Vivid. —The flowers of this variety 
are smaller but far brighter in colour and also more 
abundant; of a fiery rose, with carmine centres. 
One of the best varieties in cultivation. 
P. SETACEA Fairy. —Compact habit and numerous 
flowers of a creamy white colour and carmine 
centres, Very distinct and pleasing. 
P. VERNA. —A distinct species somewhat resem¬ 
bling P. Amoena, but of a creeping habit with heads 
of deep red flowers in spring, and growing about 6 
inches high. A native of N. America introduced in 
1800 and figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 563, as 
P. Stolonifera.— E. Scaplehorn, Fleet, Hants. 
-- 
HEPATICA AND OMPHALODES. 
Your esteemed correspondent " R. D.” may well 
say "What lovely things." To have such grand 
masses of these plants as he describes is indeed to 
possess something to be proud of. When reading 
his notes in your last number I was reminded of 
some fine clumps of double and single varieties in 
all the three colours of Hepaticas, growing in a 
garden that I had charge of in the county of Dorset, 
from 1848 to 1852. I found no difSculty whatever 
in the culture of those plants at that place. The 
natural soil of the garden was a deep chalky loam— 
very moist in the winter season, but rather hot in 
summer, though moist even then a little way under 
the surface. Thanks to the chalk for this. 
The plants were arranged at intervals on either 
side of a central path which ran through the kitchen 
garden, and flowered profusely every spring. In 
fact, Hepaticas were so plentiful that I regarded them 
at that time as very common things. And now 
comes the provoking and painful side of my experi¬ 
ence with these plants. When I first came to Moor 
Hill, I went for Hepaticas, for I had seen but very 
few grown in this neighbourhood. So looking back 
at my picture in the Dorsetshire garden, I became 
entranced with the beauty and determined to go in 
for a surprise. 
But alas for my project. The Hepaticas would 
not respond to all my care. Either the nature of 
our soil, the drought of summer, my mismanage¬ 
ment, or all of these features combined, or some 
other factor not taken into account, baffled any 
efforts, and failure was the result. 
The plants pined away in the course of two or 
three years, notwithstanding the eftorts I made to 
save them. And now, after so many years, I had 
almost forgotten that there were such flowers as 
Hepaticas till I read Mr. Dean’s letter. And lo ! my 
old love for these beautiful spring flowering plants 
has revived—I think I must try once more. Thanks 
to Mr. Dean for his timely note on these old but 
withal most beautiful early spring flowering plants. 
The Omphalodes is also a favourite of mine and 
seems to do very well here.— N. Blandford, Moor Hill, 
Hants. 
-- 
EXOTIC FERNS AND THEIR CULTURE.=:= 
To be successful in the cultivation of Ferns, indeed 
it may be said as in every other branch of horticul¬ 
ture, two things are essential, theory and practice, 
though often it is that the practical man depreciates 
theory, when nothing can be more certain than 
this, that when theory and practice go hand in hand, 
the greatest and most satisfactory results are 
obtained. It is gratifying to find, from the new and 
valuable kinds of Ferns that are being constantly 
raised in British and Continental gardens, that 
something has been done, and that something is 
still being done to improve Ferns. The successful 
cultivator will not work in the dark. His great 
ambition is to dive beneath the surface for fresh 
knowledge, and by using the faculties given him, he 
is enabled to profit by failures as well as successes, 
upon which is founded the true principles of 
practice. " Science," said a wise man, " points out 
and illumines the path of the gardener, but the path 
itself is practice. It therefore behoves every gar¬ 
dener to thoroughly acquaint himself why a certain 
thing should be done, or why some other thing 
should not be done, and having made himself master 
of the theory or science of his profession, he will 
travel with surer confidence on that path of practice 
which must ultimately lead to success.” 
The Methods of Propagation. 
I need not illustrate the first method of propagation 
much at large, for where accommodation can be 
obtained with atmospheric conditions congenial to 
their well-being, the reproduction of most of the 
Fern family is comparatively easy. The section of 
Ferns possessing rhizomes will increase readily by 
divisions, including Adiantums, Davallias, Gleiche- 
nias, and others. Asplenium bulbiferum, and 
numerous others that are supplied with bud-pro- 
producing fronds, will, if pegged down on the surface 
of a box or pan that has been well drained and filled 
with ordinary Fern compost, and placed in a 
moist, shady position with gentle heat, produce a 
number of young plauts. The second or more 
general method is by spore propagation, to which 
process we are unquestionably indebted for many of 
the new kinds which are added periodically to the 
list of Ferns. If we search through the whole 
vegetable kingdom and examine individually the 
multitudinous variations in the construction of 
plants, taking each organ separately, and 
thoroughly acquainting ourselves with the various 
functions each organ has to perform, we shall fail 
to find a subject that offers a wider field for careful 
and more interesting study than the " microscopical 
spore of the Cryptogamia or flowerless plants.” 
Mr. Druery, in his useful little work on " British 
*A paper read by Mr. Camp, Gardener to E. Byron, Esq., 
Culver, near Exeter, at a meeting of the Exeter Gardeners 
Association. 
Ferns,” gives very clearly his statistics of the pro¬ 
ductiveness of the Fern family, which I reproduce 
in an abbreviated form. He says, “ If we examine 
the back of a fertile frond of a Fern, we shall find 
it thickly "covered with small brown patches, lines or 
dots. The space afforded on the frond of a tree 
Fern is capable of containing millions of those 
patches, and that each patch, line or dot, when seen 
under the microscope, will be composed of hundreds 
of capsules or pods, each of which contains from 
forty to fifty spores, and that each spore, though in 
itself invisible to the naked eye, is, under certain 
conditions, capable of producing several plants.’’ 
If anyone would only reflect for a moment he might 
astound himself with the enormity of the countless 
millions of prospective plants represented in the 
one-twentieth part of a single frond, and that each 
plant, in time, is capable of representing a huge 
tree in all its majestic stateliness. 
The Generation of the Spore. 
Passing from this extraordinary fecundity of the 
Fern family to what is called the simple generation 
of the spore, we find a marked difference between 
the spore of the Fern tribe and the seed produced 
by flowering plants. The Fern spore does not in 
the first generation produce a plant anything like the 
parent, but a small green scale termed the 
prothallus. On the under surface of this scale may 
be distinguished certain organs relative to flowers 
which become fertilized, giving rise to the second 
generation, which develops into what we recognise 
as a Fern proper. The reproductive phenomena of 
the spore, the formation of their organisms, and the 
process of generation, constitute a most exhaustive 
study, which time will only permit me to touch 
upon, so I will at once pass on to the method of 
sowing the spores, which may be proceeded with as 
follows :—Take a shallow pan, fill it about two- 
thirds full of broken potsherds, cover with sphagnum 
Moss or rough peat, and fill up the pan to the brim 
with a mixture of peat, potsherds that have been 
broken small, and a sprinkling of silver sand. Many 
adopt a system which is a commendable one, namely, 
by giving the pan a good watering with boiling 
water ; this must be carefully manipulated so as not 
to disturb the surface of the soil. This process 
kills all seeds, fungi, and insects that may be con¬ 
cealed in the compost. Let the pan stand a few 
hours, when the spore dust may be sown thinly over 
the surface. Cover the pan with a piece of glass, 
then place it in a shady, moist, and warm position. 
In from twenty to thirty days the prothalli will be 
making their appearance. When the seedlings have 
attained a size suitable for handling they should be 
pricked off into shallow pans. 
Hybridisation. 
I am here reminded that I intended saying something 
about hybridisation. By a microscopical examina¬ 
tion of the under surface of the prothallus, several 
minute cellular bodies of two distinct kinds may be 
observed. One kind is called the antheridia which 
form a number of vesicles, each of which contains a 
number of antherozoids which perform the functions 
of a pollen grain. The other kind is called the 
archegonia, and fertilization is brought about by the 
antherozoid entering the canal of the archegonium. 
From the minute proportions of these cellular bodies 
it will be seen that fertilisation cannot be artificially 
performed, but by sowing the spores of different 
kinds of Ferns together, hybridisation and crosses 
are effected. (To he continued.) 
THE TURnTp rooted 
CELERY. 
Where a frequent change of vegetables is expected 
this comes in most useful, making a very agreeable 
variation, and in some made dishes cooks even 
prefer it to ordinary Celer3L It makes a first-rate 
dish cut up into slices a third of an inch in thickness, 
boiled, then fried with butter and served up with 
brown sauce. Cut into very thin slices it is an 
excellent addition to winter salads. I have known 
some cooks when the Celeriac ran short to reserve 
all the thick roots of the ordinary Celery for cooking, 
but owing to the great difference in size the Celeriac 
is preferable for the purpose. 
As regards culture the treatment accorded to 
Celery is all it requires till the final planting out in 
May, when they should be planted a foot or 
more apart in the rows and sixteen inches from row 
to row. Keep them free from weeds and give a 
