792 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 11, 1894. 
For six dishes of fruit, distinct kinds, not more 
than two varieties. Pines excluded, (amateurs.) 
A. R. Gladstone, Esq. (gardener,'Mr. T. Elsworthy), 
Broad Green, staged in splendid condition Muscat 
of Alexandria and Madresfield Court Grapes, Melon 
Court Hey seedling. Royal George Peaches, Pine¬ 
apple Nectarine, and Negro Largo Figs : second. 
Sir Thomas Earle, Bart. With four bunches of 
Grapes, two black and two white, distinct varieties 
(open). Mr. A. R. Gladstone was again first with 
Buckland Sweetwater, finely coloured, and Black 
Hamburgh, good. 
Six dishes of hardy fruits (local) : Frst, Mr. J. 
Grant Morris, whose collection included a fine dish 
of Waterloo Strawberries. Best basket of miscel¬ 
laneous fruits arranged for effect (Pines excluded); 
First, Sir Thos. Earle with a well assorted variety of 
good fruits. 
Vegetables. 
Twelve distinct kind of vegetables (open) : First, 
Earl of Lathom (gardener, Mr. J. Hathaway), 
Ormskirk, with superb Onions, Excelsior, Tomato 
Beauty, Beetroot, Ormskirk Red, etc. Eight dis¬ 
tinct kinds of vegetables (open to exhibitors within 
ten miles of Liverpool) : First, Mr. J. Rainton, 
Prescot. Six kinds of vegetables (amateurs) : First, 
The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Lathom. 
The following certificates cf merit were granted :— 
To Messrs. R. P. Ker & Sons, Aigburth, for Gloxinia 
Aigburth Crimson and Canna Konigiu Charlotte; 
to Messrs. John Cowan & Co., Ltd., for a group of 
Roses and Orchids; to Messrs. Charles worth, 
Shuttleworth & Co., Bradford, for Cypripedium 
Charlesworthii ; to Mr. J. Forbes, Hawick, for a 
collection of Carnations and Pansies; to Mr. John 
Edwards, Allerton, for Orchid pots; to Messrs. 
Thos. Davies & Co., Wavertree, for Gladiolus and 
herbaceous cut flowers; to Mr. Charles Young, 
West Derby, for Carnation Countess of Sefton. 
Messrs. Charlesworth, Shuttleworth & Co. staged 
a choice group of Orchids, including Cypripedium 
Harrisianum superbum, Dendrobium rhodostoma, 
Cattleya aurea (a fine variety), C. Schofieldiana, &c. 
Messrs. Ker contributed a table of choice kinds of 
stove and greenhouse plants, including Cannas, 
Crotons, &c. 
|ardening KiSCELLANY. 
TOURNEFORTIA HELIOTROPOIDES. 
This is sometimes spoken of as a stove plant, but 
has all the appearance of being as hardy at least as 
the Peruvian Heliotrope, if not more so. A 
characteristic piece on the rockery at Kew shows a 
plant very similar in habit and flowers to 
the Heliotrope, but the plant appears much 
dwarfer, and has a semi-procumbent habit 
with the ascending branches scarcely rising more 
than 6 in. from the soil, and terminating in a 
double scorpioid cyme of lilac flowers. The leaves 
are oblong or elliptic, wavy, and therefore differing 
more widely, from a superficial point of view, from 
those of the Heliotrope, than do the other parts of 
the plant. In any case the plant is comparatively 
rare in cultivation, and serves to give variety to the 
other plants there. 
GOETHEA STRICTIFLORA. 
The flowers of this species are moderate in size, but 
ample compensation for it is made by their numbers, 
bright colouring, and the length of time during 
which they continue to be produced. Being a native 
of Brazil, the plant requires a stove temperature to 
flower freely and well. A curious thing about the 
flowers is that they are produced upon the main 
stem or stems, if the plant is old and branched. 
By this arrangement the flowers are not concealed by 
the foliage. The calyx is deep red, and netted with 
crimson, while there are white spots in the areas 
between the veins. The petals are red. A good- 
sized plant in the Palm house at Kew has been 
flowering for many weeks past. 
LINARIA RETICULATA. 
Of the many annual species of Linaria or Toad Flax 
under cultivation, that under notice merits the atten¬ 
tion of the cultivator. It is both dwarf and slender 
in habit, and keeps on flowering for a long time, but 
like many other annuals it often gets too thickly 
sown. Even this can be remedied by a little timely 
attention, when the seedlings have made the first 
few leaves. By giving them at least 4 in. either way 
the plants would have room to develop naturally 
and throw out side branches by which the ground 
would be covered and a long succession of bloom 
ensured. For the sole purpose of seed raising some 
might prefer them to be closer, so that the few stems 
produced would ripen their seeds much about the 
same time. Although the flowers are described as 
purple, they are practically crimson with a golden 
or orange palate often lined or netted with crimson. 
This latter feature is highly developed in the beau¬ 
tiful variety L. r. aurea purpurea. The lower and 
older leaves are much the broadest and almost 
green, but the upper ones are linear and glaucous. 
HELICHRYSUM HELIANTHEMIFOLIUM. 
A PLANT under this name on the rockery at Kew has 
linear leaves densely covered with a white tomentum. 
The barren stems are best furnished with leaves, and 
the flowering ones, which grow to a height of 18 in., 
are more sparingly leafy. They bear a corymb of 
small, rayless, yellow heads. The foliage does not 
very much resemble that of any of the more common 
species of Helianthemum or Rock Rose, but 
possibly the plant is Helipterum canescens of 
another botanist. 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN 
FLOWER. 
Gentiana septemfida— Although the specific 
name of this plant generally, if not always, belies the 
truth, the plant itself is a gem for the rock garden 
and seems as easy to cultivate as any other, for, in 
fact, it outlives a great many of them. The corolla 
is five not seven-lobed, but there are other five small 
and deeply lacerated or fringed segments between 
the primary ones. All are of a beautiful shade of 
blue, and the smaller fringed lobes are directed 
inwards, partly closing the throat as with a fringed 
curtain. The plant may be propagated by careful 
division or by seeds. 
Linaria alpina. —The plant as a whole is typical 
of what an Alpine should be, because dwarf in habit, 
branching from the base, and altogether neat in 
form. The linear leaves have a deep glaucous hue, 
and the spreading stems are surmounted by a short 
and compact raceme of flowers, of a rich bluish- 
violet hue and a golden blotch on the palate. 
Though perennial, it occasionally gets lost through 
one cause or another, but it ripens seeds freely and 
can be propagated readily by that means. 
Epilobium Fleischeri. —The stems of this peren¬ 
nial species usually attain a height of 12 in, to 18 in., 
and, branching very freely, produce flowers in 
succession for a long period of time. They are 
moderate in size, proportionately to the plant, and, 
like most of the species, rosy purple. There is 
no difficulty in propagating the plant by division 
in autumn or early in spring. 
Epilobium rosmarinifolium. —Those who object 
to the height, the general bulk or the creeping pro¬ 
pensity of E. angustifolium in the herbaceous border 
can substitute E. rosmarinifolium for it. The stems on 
an average would grow to a height of 2 ft., though 
in fertile soil, they would attain a stature of 3 ft. 
The rosy flowers are relatively large and bright rose 
in colour. The narrowly linear, dark green leaves 
are very neat and remind one of those of the Rose¬ 
mary. There is a silky leaved variety of this which 
though now getting pretty common is scarcely so 
handsome as the type. 
Campanula grandiflora Mariesi. —The dwarf 
stems are the chief characteristic by which this 
variety may be distinguished. They usually reach 
no higher than 6 in. or 8 in., whereas the typical 
form attains a height of 2 ft. The dark green leaves 
and large deep blue flowers are very handsome at 
the present time. Increase may be effected by careful 
division, in early spring. An economical method 
would be to separate the crowns with a knife and 
establish them in pots before planting them out. 
Campanula rotundifolia alba. —Though by no 
means common in a wild state, yet this beautiful 
variety does occasionally occur. Sometimes we see 
varieties whose flowers are by no means pure white, 
yet in gardens they are suffered to pass as C. r. alba. 
Either albescens, albida or pallida would be more 
applicable. The white variety may be grown in the 
herbaceous border or upon the rockery, where it will 
often grow larger than it does in a wild state, and is 
chaste and pleasing. 
WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN. 
Pancratium fragrans. —If the flowers of this 
beautiful and useful subject are coming on more 
quickly than is desirable, they may be retarded by 
placing some or all of the plants in a cooler house, 
while the flower scapes are still lengthening. 
Gloxinias.—Go over the seedling Gloxinias and 
mark all the best of them for retention another year. 
In this way the earliest batches, including, in fact, all 
the old plants can be depended upon as to quality 
and effectiveness. 
Crotons.—A good supply of young plants of the 
best sorts for table decoration should always be kept 
up. With that end in view, selecc cuttings of mode¬ 
rate strength with well-coloured foliage, and root 
them in a close frame, putting one cutting in the 
centre of a 60 size pot. 
Dracaenas. —Plants that are getting too leggy 
may have their top taken off and rooted as cuttings 
in the same way as Crotons. Of course this can 
only be done with a reasonable amount of success, 
if the operator has the command of bottom heat. 
Hard wooded kinds like D. Goldieana may be 
rooted with care, but it is a safer plan with that as 
well as those having large heads of leaves to ring 
them and place a pot round them, filling the same 
with light soil. 
Browallias.—A late batch for conservatory work 
can be secured by pinching some of the plants now 
showing for bloom. Others may be taken into the 
conservatory at once where they will develop more 
rapidly than those left in the open air. 
New Holland Plants. —There are many of this 
class of plants that do not flower freely unless they 
have been stood in the open air for a time during 
the late summer and early autumn months in order 
to check growth, ripen the wood and plump up the 
flower buds. Amongst these are the Eriostemons, 
Tetrathecas, Epacris, Mitraria coccinea, the 
Acacias and others. 
Leschenaultia biloba.—This may be grown 
under glass all the year round, and flowered mode¬ 
rately well, but it requires careful treatment on the 
part of the cultivator to retain the plants in a 
healthy condition unless they have been hardened 
off by exposure. A sheltered place may be selected, 
and the pots stood upon a bottom of ashes. 
Show Pelargoniums. —The early flowered 
varieties should by this time be well ripened off and 
ready to cut down. Large old plants may be 
trimmed down within a bud or two from whence the 
young shoots started. When the buds begin to push 
the plants may be shaken out, and the ball of soil 
considerably reduced, so that all may be repotted in 
smaller sizes. 
Fuchsias. —Freely growing cuttings taken now 
will make useful plants for next year. Avoid those 
that are hard or now in bloom, or at least those that 
have been flowering for sometime. Pot them singly 
into 60 size pots as soon as rooted, using good friable 
loam with some well-decayed cow manure and some 
leaf soil. If kept in the genial atmosphere of an 
intermediate house they will require another shift in 
two months’ time. 
Sub-tropical bedding. —Ricinus, Wigandias, 
Tobaccos, and other plants of a rapidly growing 
nature, are now making rapid prog.ess, and should 
be staked and tied to prevent a sudden breeze or a 
thunderstorm from breaking them down. Peg down 
Verbenas, Violas and other subjects intended to cover 
the ground beneath the taller growing subjects. 
Remove decayed flowers and seed vessels from 
Pelargoniums, Petunias, Pansies Calceolarias, and 
similar subjects to keep them growing and 
flowering. 
Cucumbers. —The preparations for Melons will 
answer equally well for Cucumbers ; but the soil 
should be of a more substantial Nature and consist 
of good loamy soil that has been stacked for some 
time with alternate layers of good cow manure. It 
should, however, be sufliciently porous to admit of 
the free passage of water. The end of the month or 
the first week in September will be sufficiently early 
to plant winter Cucumbers on the southern counties; 
but it should be done about the middle of the month 
for the north. 
Vine Borders.—Now is the time to remake the 
borders of early vineries if they are in a bad state. 
If the roots are situated in both inside and outside 
