Nov. 8th, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
155 
among them is The Bride, which has pure white 
flowers, and these work up well in bouquets. Any¬ 
one first getting the corms of G. Colvilli may consider 
them weak, but instead of being of the size of those 
of Gandavensis or Brenchleyensis, they are little, if 
any, larger than the bulbs of a Crocus; but though so 
small, they send up several spikes of beautiful blooms. 
— Alpha. 
Jasminum grandiflorum in Small Pots.— 
Few plants are more useful for autumn decoration, 
or better calculated to afford genuine pleasure to 
plant lovers, than examples of this fine Jasmine 
grown in small pots. In this form they are valuable 
for grouping in large vases in rooms, for forming- 
front rows in houses, or used in other combinations, 
then - delicious fragrance being most enjoyable in the 
dull season, when sweet-scented flowers are none too 
plentiful. The double-flowered variety is equally 
useful, and both should be included among the best 
plants that can be grown for the purposes indicated. 
Abutilon Thomsoni as a Pillar Plant. —The 
extraordinary vigour of many of the freer-growing 
varieties of Abutilon has only very recently been 
discovered by practical cultivators, -who in the 
majority of cases relegate them to solitary confine¬ 
ment in 6-in. pots. It is well that such useful plants 
should be grown in a variety of ways, but it cannot 
be too widely known that the true character of many 
of them is only seen when they are generously 
cultivated—in other words, planted out in a good 
border. Abutilon Thomsoni will travel up a pillar 
for 20 ft. or more in a couple of seasons, and if 
loosely trained, no more striking object could be 
desired as a pillar plant in a greenhouse or other 
cool structure.— G. H. 
Lobelia cardinalis.- —When one meets with a 
good plant, well grown and effectively placed, it is a 
pleasure to sing its praises. I have grown this plant 
extensively, and have seen it planted in many situa¬ 
tions, in mixed borders, among sub-tropical plants, 
and dwarf shrubs, and also Mr. Roberts’ plants 
alluded to in your last by Mr. Sheppard, but I have 
never seen it look half so well as when planted on a 
rookery formed of white stones, where its dark foliage 
and bright crimson blossoms had a charming effect 
in the sunlight.— T. Williams. 
--G-- 
Ismene Andreana. —This is a very beautiful 
Amaryllidaceous plant from Ecuador. The bulbs 
are globose, and about 3 ins. in diameter. The 
leaves are light green, linear, 12 ins. to 14 ins. long 
by 1 in. broad. The peduncle is shorter than the 
leaves, and bears a large solitary flower; the ovary 
is dark green, with three white lanceolate mem¬ 
braneous bracts at its base; the perianth tube is 
light green, cylindrical, and 4 ins. long ; the 
lanceolate pure white segments are 3§ ins. long, and 
elegantly recurved ; the corona is funnel-shaped, 
nearly 3 ins. wide at the mouth, and pure white 
with longitudinal green bands; the free parts of the 
filaments are sharply turned inwards, and each 
filament is terminated by a bright yellow anther ; 
the style and capitate stigma are light green. There 
is a beautiful coloured plate in the Revue Horticole 
for October 16th, 1884. 
Pentstemons. —The open character of the season 
in Scotland is well illustrated by a box of seedling 
Pentstemons received on Wednesday from Mr. Downie, 
of Edinburgh. The spikes are strong, and the flowers 
of capital shape, as well as bright in colour. Most of 
them are light-coloured varieties, with short tubes, 
flat and broad, and the throats nicely pencilled, but 
the finest of all is a rich crimson flower of good size 
and quality. 
Ruellia Portellae is a beautiful little plant, 
now flowering in the stove at Kew. The leaves 
are oblong-lanceolate, 1J ins. to 2 ins. long, dark 
green, with light green mid-rib, on either side of 
which is a narrow -white band. The flowers are 
disposed at the ends of the branches, and measure 
1£ ins. long by nearly 1 in. broad; and the colour is 
very deep rose. It is a dwarf and compact little 
plant. 
Cauliflowers or Broccoli all the year 
round. —Going backwards is scarcely the order of 
the present day, but to enable your readers to quite 
understand me, I must take them back to August 
25th, -when the first crop of Cauliflowers should be 
sown. I sow mine in the open land in drills. When 
they get large enough to handle I prick them out in 
cold frames, 3 ins. apart, and here they remain all 
the winter. They are fully exposed in fine weather, 
but during heavy rains and sharp frosts the frames 
are closed. The varieties which I look upon as the 
best early Cauliflowers are Martin’s President and 
Barr’s Best of All. These two varieties gave us 
excellent heads, from the middle of June to the 
middle of August. On March 25th, or thereabouts, 
we sow Martin’s President, Walcheren and Veitch’s 
Autumn Giant. The Walcheren, being a bad stock, 
did not turn out satisfactorily ; but Martin’s President 
and Veiteh’s Autumn Giant both turned out well, and 
gave us an abundant supply, which will last until the 
latter end of November. On or about April 25tli 
we sow seeds of Snow’s Winter White, Veiteh’s 
Protecting and Autumn Protecting Broccoli, and the 
plants from this sowing keep us well supplied until 
the middle of February, or later. On May 7th we 
sow all the late varieties of Broccoli, including Barr’s 
Mayflower, Burghley Champion, and Cattell’s Eclipse, 
which come into use in the order named. The whole 
of our Broccoli crop is planted on what we call the 
crow-bar system, because when so planted they grow 
stubby and short-legged. I never heel in any Broccoli 
whatever, but if hard frosts occur I cover the plants 
right over with Bracken Fern, a plan which I have 
followed with great success for eighteen years.—- 
Richard Gilbert, High Park Gardens, Stamford. 
On Wintering Turnips. —Turnips, Carrots, and 
Onions are staple articles required by the cook daily, 
and remarks on the storing of the two latter crops 
often appear in the horticultural journals, but not so 
as regards the storing of Turnips. Your excellent corre¬ 
spondent “Alpha,” whose contributions I always read 
with profit and pleasure, has a note about Turnips last 
week. To obtain a winter crop I have for a number 
of years sown in the first or second week in July, on 
land that some other crop has been taken off, such as 
Peas or Potatos, and I always sow a few rows of the 
Chirk Castle Black Stone variety, because I have 
proved its value as a very hardy and good-keeping sort. 
The bulbs are as black as coal outside, but the flesh 
is -white, and the flavour good. It was sent out about 
thirty years ago by the late Mr. George Brown, then 
gardener at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, and when I 
served under him as a journeyman about that time he 
grew it largely, and if I remember rightly brought 
it with him from Scotland. But I am digressing; 
how to store Turnips so that they may be comeatable 
through the winter months is the subject I started to 
write about. I draw ours all up, and then lay them 
in short rows across a piece of land, letting their tops 
remain on them, so that the tops of every row covers 
the bulbs of the preceding one; and when severe 
weather sets in, we cover them over thickly with 
litter, uncovering them again as soon as the hard 
weather goes. They will keep on growing—or forming 
—young roots around the bulb all the winter, and 
require once or twice to be drawn out and relaid again 
to check this. This little extra trouble is the means 
of keeping them sound and good till late in the 
season ; and this is the best way of storing Turnips I 
have found.— T. W., North Norfolk. 
Lettuces and Endives. —I notice on p. 139, 
under the heading of Vegetables, that a writer states 
that during the summer, Lettuces are abundant and 
good, but not so now'. Surely, the writer must have 
made a slip of the pen, as at this moment we have 
them in abundance, in fact, Endives, are not relished 
here, not even when well-blanched in the identical 
way the writer mentions. I am, therefore, called 
upon to supply Lettuces every day in the year, which 
I do without the slightest difficulty, and have done 
for many years past. Our winter crop of Lettuces 
is sown in the middle of July, the variety being the 
Black-seeded Brown Cos. At the present moment, 
I have a large quarter of them nearly ready for use. 
If sharp frosts occur, I cover the whole up, from 6 ins. 
to 8 ins. deep with dry Bracken, which forms an 
admirable protection, and also to me a cheap one. 
I may be told that “ everybody cannot get Bracken.” 
In that case they should apply to Richard Gilbert, 
High Park Gardens, Stamford. 
Storing- Carrots and Beetroot.—For the past 
three years we have stored these vegetable roots 
through the winter successfully under a north wall, 
packed in cocoa-nut fibre refuse. They should be 
stacked in layers, with a little of the fibre refuse 
placed between each, building it to slope from the 
wall when finished. Carrots keep quite good stored 
in this way until the young roots of the next season’s 
crop are fit for use. Beetroot we have had in good 
condition months after the current year’s supply has 
been ready.— C. H. 
-Hh- 
Heeling in Broccoli.—Like young Cauliflowers, 
Broccoli are feeling the effects of the very warm 
weather, and are “proud ” as they are full of growth, 
which is against their wintering, for instead of 
maturing and becoming firm in leaf and stem, they 
remain soft and succulent, in which condition frost 
acts most unfavourably on them and ruptures the 
vessels. Broccoli, to stand severe weather, must have 
hard stems and not be over vigorous, and any not in 
accordance with these conditions should be heeled in, 
for though the doing of it may be the means of 
diminishing the size of the heads, it will render the 
plants tolerably safe if they are dropped in sufficiently 
low, and by doing it early they get fresh roothold 
before winter sets in. Where the rows stand wide 
apart from having Potatos grown between, it is a good 
plan to earth up, as the plants stand, in the same way 
as Celery.— Alpha. 
Cauliflowers.—Young plants of these are getting 
what are technically termed “proud,” that is to say 
they are growing too fast for the season, and unless 
checked there is danger of their getting much too 
forward, when they either get killed by hard weather, 
or turn in prematurely by forming small heads. 
To prevent these evils they should either be trans¬ 
planted or potted, the latter mode of treatment being 
preferable, as when in pots they may be transferred to 
the open ground in the spring without feeling removal. 
In potting 60-sized pots are quite large enough, and 
instead of crocking them, they should have a pinch of 
half-rotten leaves or dung put in the bottom and then 
filled up with light soil. The way to winter Cauli¬ 
flowers so treated is to plunge them in coal ashes in 
some pit or frame, keeping them well up to the glass 
that they may have plenty of light-, and if they are 
then supplied freely with air by tilting the sashes, the 
plants will remain short-legged, sturdy and strong. 
Although tender under certain conditions, Cauliflowers 
are very hardy if kept moderately dry, but cold, wet, 
and confinement they cannot stand, as frost then lays 
quick hold of them and destroys them at once. If 
wintered outdoors, the only place they are safe is 
under the foot of a south wall or fence, where any 
standing out in seed beds or borders should be pricked 
out or transplanted at once, when, by-and-bye, if we 
get severe weather, they may be protected by having a 
few evergreen branches stuck up in then front. The 
best way of obtaining a few early Cauliflowers is to 
plant under handlights placed on a sunny border that 
has been well manured, but whether there or elsewheie 
the plants must have plenty of air.— Alpha. 
The Burghley late Queen Broccoli.—Two 
years ago, I crossed Chou de Burghley with Cattell's 
Eclipse, and obtained a later and whiter variety than 
the latter. To prove this, the seedling, which I call 
the Burghley late Queen, was exhibited at the Broccoli 
and Cauliflower Show at South Kensington last June, 
where it was placed first among forty dishes. The 
three heads shown weighed together 15 lbs.; they 
were perfectly protected by then own foliage, and 
white as milk. I have a large breadth this season, 
and intend exhibiting it again at one of the meetings 
of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee .—Richard 
Gilbert, High Park Gardens, Stamford, 
