532 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
April 25th, 1885. 
spawn is used when new or fresh far more so than 
was the case formerly, and the fungus roots or 
spores being the more active when thus fresh, 
such improved results follow. That is an expla¬ 
nation which may not suit everyone, and perhaps 
the maker of the spawn least of all, because he 
would like to have the credit of producing more 
prolific spawn than was made a few years since. 
Another reason given from the cultivator’s point 
of view is that he grows these fine clusters of 
fungi in greater warmth than is usually given, 
and farther, that proper stimulus in the form of 
manure water is occasionally applied. It may 
not have entered into the heads of those who 
offer these explanations to give consideration to 
the season in the manufacture of spawn cakes 
and its influence upon the production of special 
fertility because of favourable conditions when 
making is in progress. A warm, dry season may 
assist in the generation of spawn, whilst a dull, 
moist season may work great harm. Spawn,too, 
may come from a good or a bad strain or stock, 
for it is with makers largely an article of home 
production, and there is ample room to create it 
well or badly. Perhaps these wonderful Mush¬ 
room growths may prove after all to have been 
but the products of fortuitous concourses of 
favourable conditions. 
->*<-- 
Lettuces in Winter and Spbing. —A prac¬ 
tical gardener of some repute has just drawn 
attention to our customary poverty of Lettuces 
in the winter and early spring, and has suggested 
that vineries, orchard-houses, and frames be more 
generally utilized for the growth of this valuable 
salad. Anyone who has seen hardy Lettuces 
which have been standing the winter in open 
ground, and specially in market-garden fields, 
cannot but admit that their appearance prior 
to the recent warmer weather was deplorable. 
Really, in many cases the plants seem to have 
stood still for months, even if they have not, 
under the depredations of birds and slugs, 
actually grown less in size and number. It seems 
doubtful whether anything is gained by thus 
exposing Lettuces to the winter, when sowings 
made in frames in October give lots of sturdy, 
robust plants ready to go out at the end of March, 
or a little later, as the weather may favour. Such 
young plants go away quickly, whilst old-standing 
plants seem to become stunted, and when they 
start run away to seed. 
Those who would have an abundant supply of 
Lettuces may well grow a quantity in boxes or 
pans in vineries and other glass houses, but the 
best plan is to utilize turf pits, which, filled up 
within 2 ins. of the surface with good soil and 
covered up with lights, will drive Lettuces, and 
Cabbage Lettuces especially, with great rapidity. 
Some fairly early kind may well be used for this 
purpose, because it is more needful that precocity 
should be preferred to size. Probably the market 
grower would prefer big heads, but those would 
be later and need more space. In any case such 
a pit should pay its prime cost almost the first 
year, if carrying a crop of Cabbage Lettuces in 
the spring and a crop of Cucumbers during the 
summer. Cos Lettuces give bulk and weight, 
but they also give much waste, for big Lettuces 
are seldom so good or crisp eating as are smaller 
ones that have the sooner come to perfection. 
No doubt the recent warm days have made many 
cry out for nice fresh salads, and specially crisp 
young Lettuces. 
— g^ - ^TE -^ err^ — 
Asparagus pluhosus nanus. —Asparagus tenuissimus 
our clever propagators have succeeded in propagating 
by cuttings readily, but A. plumosus nanus has up to the 
present time baffled all their efforts in this direction, 
but if seeds can be obtained the stock can easily be 
increased by such means. Messrs. .John Laing & Co. 
have some hundreds of nice little plants raised in this 
way, in their Stanstead Park Nursery. 
dkrtremrrg; Ipistelkm 
Flower Shows and Meetings to be held Next 
Week.— Tuesday : Manchester Botanical and Horti¬ 
cultural Society, Second Spring Show. The Northern 
Show of the National Auricula Society will be held at 
the same time and place. 
On the 13th and 14th of May a Flower Show will 
be held in the Botanic Garden at Edgbaston, Bir¬ 
mingham, to inaugurate the opening of the new 
conservatories. 
During the month of March, 208,091 bushels of 
Apples, 198,569 bushels of Onions, 54,239 cwts. of 
Potatos, and vegetables of the value of £52,360 were 
imported into the United Kingdom. 
Mr. Leo. Grindon, of Manchester, has in the press a 
book on Fruits and Fruit Trees, Home and Foreign, 
which, in addition to descriptions, histories, and other 
particulars, will contain information respecting every 
kind of fruit esteemed in Britain, whether grown at 
home or imported from abroad. 
The Edinburgh Botanical Club is erecting a monu¬ 
ment, in the form of a granite cross, in Warriston 
Cemetery, to the memory of the late Mr. John Sadler, 
curator of the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. 
The Hereford Bose Show, one of the best in the 
West of England, will be held on July 9th. 
Mr. Bobert Anderson, of the Dalkeith Palace 
Gardens, has been engaged as gardener to the Hon. 
B. H. Temple, Waterstown, Westmeath, Ireland. 
Mb. H. E. Gribble, formerly gardener at Canon Hill, 
Maidenhead, has been engaged as gardener to Lord 
Londonderry, at Wynyard Park, Stockton-on-Tees. 
Mr. Charles Nobles, of Bagshot, showed a novelty 
at a late meeting of the Scientific Committee, in the 
form of a seedling plant of Chimonanthus grandi- 
fiorus. 
A grand specimen of Dendrobium Paxtoni, in the 
garden of Thomas Fildes, Esq., Fairlawn, Lytham, is 
now carrying 816 of its beautiful brown and orange 
flowers. The gardener in charge, Mr. Thornber, is 
not alone in considering this one of the most useful 
Orchids that can be grown where cut-flowers are 
required. 
The Rev. F. D. Horner’s green-edged seedling, 
named Greyhound, was the champion Auricula at the 
National Auricula Society’s Show on Tuesday. 
At the luncheon which took place at South Ken¬ 
sington on Tuesday afternoon, it was decided by the 
majority of Auricula growers and admirers present to 
request the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society 
to nominate some of their number to co-operate with 
members of the Auricula Society in organizing a 
Primula Conference in 188 5. 
Mr. Lynch, Curator of the Botanic Garden, Cam¬ 
bridge, exhibited Impatiens episcopi, a new Balsam 
from Central Africa, which in many respects resembles 
I. Sultani, but the flowers are of a rich, rosy-crimson 
colour. As in its native country it grows at an 
elevation of several thousand feet, it is expected to 
prove hardier than I. Sultani. Mr. Lynch has, we 
believe, obtained some seedlings from a cross between 
the two species. 
Mr. A. Porter, late foreman at Garbally, Balinasloe, 
has been engaged as gardener to Lord Ashtown, at 
Woodlawn House, co. Galway. 
Essays on Nitrate of Soda. —The committee of 
the Saltpetre Producers’ Association on the West 
Coast of South America (Comite Salitrero, at Iquique, 
Chili), offers £1,000 in prizes for essays on the use of 
nitrate of soda as manure. Of this amount a prize 
of £500 will be awarded for the best popular essay 
showing the importance of nitrate of soda as a 
manure, and the best mode of its employment. A 
prize of £500 will be awarded for the best essay, 
treating on the same subjects on the basis of new 
experimental researches made by the author himself. 
The essays must fulfil the conditions already men¬ 
tioned, and they may be sent to any of the judges on 
or before January 1st, 1886. 
ALPINE PHLOXES. 
It is to be regretted that these beautiful Phloxes 
are not much better known and more extensively 
grown than they are at present. I know of no plants 
more lovely when in bloom, forming as they do dense 
masses of rich colours so close to the ground as to 
look like a carpet. Although they are called Alpine 
Phloxes, it must not be supposed that they will not 
thrive if they are not planted on a mound or rocky 
bank. I know that they look grand and are at home 
in that position, but they .wiU thrive on the level 
ground in an open porous soil just as well. As they 
are much appreciated here, we grow them largely, 
and some of our patches on an open exposed border 
are from 1 ft. to 2 ft. across and in the best of health. 
They are so easy to manage that everyone who has 
a garden may enjoy them, yet one not unfrequently 
meets with lovers of flowers who know but little about 
them. When once planted in suitable soil they take 
care of themselves for three or four years, when they 
may be taken up and divided, planting the best pieces 
in a fresh place, or adding a little fresh soil, when 
they will go on as long again without being disturbed. 
Again, when one happens to see them in private 
gardens, it is generally only one or two kinds that are 
grown, and many people are unaware of the great 
variety of sorts that can be obtained. 
During the last few years many beautiful varieties 
have been introduced. We have here a large collec¬ 
tion, and for the benefit of those who do not happen 
to know them, I will name some of the most useful 
sorts first. I may add that all are good and worthy 
of cultivation, though some are better growers than 
others. I will therefore only name such as I have 
proved to be really desirable and good out of a collec¬ 
tion of some eighteen sorts:—P. amoena, although 
not so dwarf as some, is one of the very best, for min g 
a dense cushion of bright pink flowers from 6 ins. 
to 8 ins. high. P. canadensis, P. frondosa, P. pro- 
cumbens, P. purpurea are all good. P. Nelsoni is 
a lovely flowered species, the flowers as white as 
snow, but it is not quite so good a grower as some of 
the others, though better than P. nivalis, also a pure 
white. 
The following are all varieties of P. setacea, and all 
good growers : Atropurpnrea, purplish-rose; Bride, 
white; Compacta, rose; Grandiflora, mauve; Model, 
rosy-carmine ; Perfection, white; Pallida, rosy-lilac; 
and Vivid, rose. The last-named well deserves its 
name, being the brightest of the whole group and one 
of the most brilliant of spring flowers. It can easily 
be imagined how beautiful is the picture when 
planted. These Phloxes are planted in large clumps, 
associated with Aubretias, Saponarias, a few patches 
of the dwarf Silene compacta, and the yellow Alyssura 
saxatile.— J. Crook, Farnkorougli Grange. 
HARDY SPRING FLOWERS. 
Many of our hardy flowers are unusually late in 
putting in an appearance this spring, and compared 
with the corresponding period of last year, our 
gardens generally look rather bare. This is no doubt 
largely owing to the long spell of East wind with 
which we have been visited, but the drought of last 
autumn and early winter have also had a hand in the 
matter. Vegetation seems to have gone thoroughly 
to rest, owing to the wood becoming well ripened, and 
the comparative absence of wet has prevented that 
restless activity which is so often followed with 
disastrous results. If this is followed by a good fruit 
crop, few persons will be disposed to complain of the 
late period at which our gardens are putting on their 
spring dress. The purpose of this note is to mention 
a few showy plants of the rockwork and herbaceous 
border, in addition to those which have already been 
mentioned in these pages. The whole of them are 
in flower at the present time. 
On the rockwork, Saxifraga Eocheliana, a neat little 
Bosnian species, with numerous corymbs of white 
flowers, not exceeding 3 ins. high, is a very pretty 
object; also Primula Clusiana, a plant with shining 
green leaves and the habit of an Auricula. The 
flowers are deep rosy-purple, and an inch in diameter 
—quite a gem for a sheltered niche. Draba bruniie- 
folia is a small moss-like plant with numerous 
corymbs of small yellow flowers, and like its near 
neighbour, D. aizoides, has a very pretty effect. The 
