June 20th, 1885. 
667 
Double Pyrethrums.—The value of these for 
cutting from is being admirably illustrated by Mr. 
Barron at the Chiswick Gardens. On a border facing 
the north there is a plantation of Pyrethrums. The 
plants have grown into large tufts, and they are now 
flowering with surprising plenteousness, even for 
Pyrethrums ; bushels of blooms might be taken from 
the plants, so thickly are they covered with flowers. 
Many gardeners, aware of the usefulness of the 
Pyrethrum in this respect, have made a plantation 
of them, but there are not a few gardens where they 
can be looked for in vain. As selections of the best 
varieties can now be had at reasonable prices there is 
no reason why they should not be extensively grown. 
—Quo. 
Nemophila insignis. —If anyone would see this 
popular blue annual in all its beauty, they should fix 
their eyes on a large patch or two of it in the Seed 
Trial Grounds of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, at Reading, 
or, where it can be seen growing on a much more 
extended scale, at the Seed Grounds of Messrs. Carter 
& Co., at Dedham, and St. Osyth, at Essex. Looked 
at from a distance a large patch of it looks like a 
carpet of the loveliest sky-blue. The patches at 
Messrs. Sutton & Sons now in flower, are from seeds 
sown in autumn, and this can be done in light warm 
ground. The consequence is the plants root deeply 
into the soil, they grow strongly, and make a great 
display. When the seeds are sown in early spring 
they come into flower earlier than when sown in 
autumn ; the plants do not therefore make such a 
free growth, nor produce such enduring masses of 
bloom. N. insignis, the showy Nemophila, was 
introduced from California in 1833. I can well remem¬ 
ber, when a little fellow of some six years of age, being 
sent by my father with some plants of it to a lady of 
his acquaintance who was passionately fond of annuals. 
That was my first acquaintance with this useful plant. 
— B. D. 
- ^ - 
Costus igneus. —A beautiful stove plant of dwarf 
habit, and with bright orange-coloured flowers, it is 
said to be a native of Bahia. The stem grows from 
1 ft. to ft. high, the leaves are broadly lanceolate 
and bright green, and the flowers, which arc almost 
circular and with notched edges, measure 2 ins. to 
2J ins. in diameter. There is a coloured illustration in 
the June number of The Botanical Magazine. It thrives 
well under ordinary stove treatment, producing its 
brilliant flowers in the autumn. 
An Autumn-flowering Horse-chestnut.— At 
p. 52 of The Gardening World is a note respecting 
the autumn-flowering of a Horse-chestnut tree, owing 
perhaps to the plant going to rest during the drought 
of last summer, but commencing to grow again with 
the autumn rains. In any case the tree bore a large 
number of small panicles of flower. It is interesting 
to note that this tree has again flowered this spring, 
the panicles being of the normal size. It is not, how¬ 
ever, as floriferous as most other trees—the flowers 
might be described as about half a crop—and this may 
possibly be due to the precocious development of last 
autumn. 
-^- 
Lapageria rosea superba. —The red and white 
Lapageria rosea and alba are so well known, almost 
in every garden where there is a greenhouse, that it 
is nearly impossible to write anything new about them 
of a cultural nature. The variety under notice is, 
however, an exception, and is not nearly so well 
known as it should be for the benefit of horticulturists 
generally. It so completely supersedes the old variety, 
rosea, that it is a question whether the latter variety 
would be grown at all were the variety rosea superba 
better known. The only description required to 
recommend this variety is to state that the flowers 
are fully double the size of rosea, and that the 
trumpet form is much more clearly defined and 
altogether more striking and noble in appearance. 
Iheie remarks were suggested by the sight of a 
stock of all three kinds growing in an establishment 
where plants are raised in hundreds annually, £and 
where a display of flowers second to none in autumn 
adorns a whole house devoted solely to the culture 
of the Lapagerias.— H. W. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
The Kitchen Gardener’s Calendar. —Broccoli : 
This will be a good time to get large breadths of 
Borecole and autumn and spring Broccoli planted. Of 
the Borecole, the dwarf curled Scotch and Cottager’s 
are undoubtedly the best and the most hardy varieties, 
and in order to secure sturdy plants the seedlings 
should, as recommended in a previous calendar, be 
transplanted into nursery-beds before they become 
crowded in the seed beds, and then, as soon as the 
plants have thoroughly established themselves, and 
before they get crowded, be finally planted out, and in 
the absence of rain carefully watered until they have 
taken root. Ground on which old Strawberry plants 
and early Peas have been grown, and not subsequently 
dug, is the best for receiving winter and spring Broccoli, 
the plants not making therein an over - luxuriant 
growth. 
Planting Winter Greens. —In the act of plant¬ 
ing, the stem should be inserted in the soil as deep as 
the lower leaves, in order to keep them dwarf, so that 
in the event of a severe winter the plants may have 
the protection of both the soil and snow, if any ; 
moreover it is a fact that cannot be too well known, 
that it is the stems of Broccoli, Borecole, and kindred 
plants that suffer most, and that where these, through 
habit or cultivation, are dwarf, the losses are incon¬ 
siderable, hence the advantage of growing divarf, sturdy 
plants. Borecole will succeed moderately well in 
almost any garden soil and position, but where a good 
strong open piece of ground can be given to it, the 
quantity and quality of the crop will be correspond¬ 
ingly enhanced. The green curled Kale should not be 
planted closer than 20 ins. between the plants in the 
rows, and 2 ft. between the latter; and Cottager’s 
Kale should be allowed from 9 ins. to 12 ins. more 
space each way. 
The following varieties, together with Walcheren 
and Autumn Giant Cauliflowers, make a good succes¬ 
sion, and a good planting should be made forthwith, 
in ground prepared as for Cabbage and Cauliflower 
plants, in drills 3 ins. deep, 2 ft. apart, and the same 
distance in the rows, viz.: Veitch’s Self-protecting, 
Grange’s Early White Cape,. Early Purple Cape, 
Dancer’s Late Pink Cape, Snow’s Winter White, and 
Early Penzance. The later and stronger growing 
varieties of Broccoli should be allowed from 6 ins. to 
9 ins. more room between the plants each way, using 
an iron dibber or a crowbar if the ground is very 
hard, as it will often be after Strawberries, &c. 
In planting Broccoli plants some kind of classification 
of the respective varieties, and the time at which they 
come in for use, should be observed, so that the crops 
may be cleared in convenient rotation, and the ground 
made available for other cultivation. 
Make another planting of Early London and Veitch’s 
Autumn Giant Cauliflowers, and cover the heads of 
those now coming into use with the leaves, so as to 
keep them white and firm. Also plant out a sufficient 
number of dwarf Savoys in rows 15 ins. by 12 ins. 
apart. Another planting of Brussels Sprouts should 
also be made in drills at from 2 ft. to 2\ ft. apart, and 
at the same distance from plant to plant in the rows. 
It is a good plan before planting to dip the roots into 
a puddle made of ordinary garden soil, with sufficient 
clay added to make it adhesive, and with which a few 
handfuls of fresh soot has been mixed. This will have 
the effect of making the roots distasteful to worms, 
which are sometimes very troublesome in gardens. 
Capsicums, where much in demand, may now be 
planted out under a south wall or wooden fence in a 
bit of rich soil, which should then be watered to settle 
it about their roots.— H. 17. Ward, Longford Castle, 
Salisbury. 
-**-<- 
New Vegetables. — This is a perennial an¬ 
nouncement in the seed catalogues of all the leading 
firms, and one that is read with interest, more or 
less, by all who have to provide for the culinary 
department. But after all has been said, the 
announcement simply amounts to this, that someone 
has been more or less successful in raising a few 
varieties of vegetables, the equals of which have been 
in the country for years. I have not the least desire 
to disparage any honest effort in this direction; on 
the contrary, such efforts, I think, should meet with 
every encouragement, for in this, as in every depart¬ 
ment of human endeavour, there will always be room 
for improvement. For instance, a particular kind 
of Pea may have the desirable qualities of coming 
quickly into bearing, and great productiveness, and 
yet be deficient in flavour, but by cross breeding, this 
deficiency may be corrected. The progeny of such a 
cross may be found, however, to be exceptionally 
liable to mildew, and this the hybridist will master 
by recrossing with a more robust variety. We have 
had for some years a regular supply of so-called new 
Peas, Beans, Onions, Carrots, Turnips, Cabbage, and 
Broccoli, but after all, they are only varieties, slight 
improvements it may be in some cases, of what we 
already possess. Our list of culinary vegetables, 
excluding salads, numbers only about forty kinds, 
and of these there are but twenty-two in general 
cultivation. Ten more may be found in compara¬ 
tively few places, and the rest are seldom seen 
anywhere but in the seed lists. Of the forty kinds, 
only four or five have been introduced within the last 
thirty years, and not one of even this limited number 
has come into anything like general cultivation. Like 
Belshazzar of old, they have been tried and found 
wanting. Our plant collectors search every corner of 
the earth for flowering and ornamental plants, and 
we are at times almost inundated with them, yet 
nothing new in the way of vegetables comes from 
them : how is this ? Have all the plants available 
for the purpose been discovered by the fathers 
of horticultural science, or is it that there is not 
held out a sufficient inducement of a pecuniary 
kind ? 
Could not our Royal Horticultural Society, through 
the liberality of some of its patrons, offer a prize, say 
of £100, to the introducer of an entirely new vege¬ 
table, making it a condition that whatever is put 
into competition for the prize must be an introduced 
plant, and not a variety gained by cross-breeding or 
selection, and that before the final award is made, its 
adaptability to our climate and the public taste must 
be satisfactorily established. Some money spent in this 
way may lead to results of the highest importance, 
and confer untold benefits on producer and consumer 
alike. We may, perhaps, have all that are really 
worth growing, but still, as there is at least a doubt 
about it, it is to be hoped that someone may be 
induced to have a try.—IF. B. G. 
Late Broccoli. —Without wishing in any way to 
detract from the merits of Mr. Gilbert’s Queen Broccoli, 
which was awarded a First - Class Certificate on 
Tuesday week at South Kensington, I think, having 
seen the samples sent and mentally compared them 
with samples of Sutton’s Late Queen, which I had 
seen growing but a few days previously, both at Heck- 
field and Bearwood, that Mr. Gilbert’s were of the 
same kind, but rather looser or coarser in form. That 
it was neither whiter, nor more solid, nor later than 
Late Queen is certain, and it is rather odd too that the 
designation “Queen” should have been chosen; 
indeed I cannot but think that the samples were sent 
up to show the late form of the Messrs. Sutton’s fine 
kind, and got certificated under a misapprehension. I 
know nothing of the raiser of Late Queen ; I only know 
that it is a grand late Broccoli, one of the finest, 
whitest, and latest in cultivation, and if in splendid 
form in the south during the first week in June it 
would not be a surprise if it were equally in good con¬ 
dition at Burghley a few days later. Not only Messrs. 
Wildsmith and Tegg, but many other gardeners, 
speak in the highest terms of Messrs. Sutton’s variety. 
At the same time, at Heckfield Mr. Wildsmith had 
Veitch’s Model in fine form. This too is a very late 
kind, and so distinctive that it cannot well be mistaken. 
It resembles a skittle pin in shape, but the heads are 
so covered or protected that they are white to the last. 
Though not displaying its heads so well as does 
Late Queen, it is most valuable for very late work, and 
specially where very large heads are not in favour. 
As a market Broccoli for late work, especially if find¬ 
ing a profitable sale at that time of the year, I think 
none can excel Late Queen.— A. D .— [If not identical, 
these two varieties bear a very close resemblance. 
Mr. Gilbert’s Burghley Queen is said to be the result 
of a cross between Chou de Burghley and Cattell’s 
Eclipse, can any one give us the origin of Late Queen ? 
—Ed.] 
