636 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 1, 1895. 
and prefer doing so, as it enables the roots to live 
more freely in the fibre, but I find there is a certain 
amount of risk in amateurs doing this, as the plants 
are susceptible to the cold for a few days afterwards, 
and it certainly should not be attempted either in 
any cold weather, or when a plant is beginning to 
throw out its new roots.— C. Halford Thompson. 
SHIRLEY POPPIES. 
These are some of the prettiest and most useful 
annuals in cultivation and should be grown by every 
gardener who has to manage establishments where 
house decoration to any extent is needed. The 
blooms exhibit the most varied and beautiful colours, 
although sad to say they are extremely fugitive and 
last only for a single day. The plants will grow in 
any open situation with exceptional freedom and will 
bloom with astonishing continuity all through the 
summer months. A pinch of seed may be sprinkled 
thinly over about a square foot of soil in any vacant 
spot taking care not to cover it too deeply with earth. 
As the seedlings advance in growth three or four light 
stakes should be inserted and a string passed around 
them for purposes of protection, for rough winds and 
storms play havoc with the young tender plants. 
These beautiful Poppies are well deserving of 
extensive cultivation and may be utilised with great 
advantage for furnishing barren spots where 
nothing else will grow, plenty of light being about 
the only thing needed.— J. G. Pettinger. 
KERRIA JAPONICA FLORE PLENO. 
For very many years the double flowered form of 
Kerria japonica has been accorded a place af honour 
amongst our hardy trees and shrubs, a position, 
moreover, to which its beauty well entitles it. In 
addition to its undoubted attractiveness it has the 
additional merit of possessing an exceptionally 
hardy constitution. Indeed, we now and again come 
across it adorning a cottage wall with its long, grace¬ 
ful sprays of orange-red flowers, that contrast so 
prettily with the shining dark green foliage. In 
positions of this kind it appears to thrive even under 
apparently adverse conditions with regard to root 
room, and blooms away with astonishing profusion. 
We lately noted a very fine form of it in excellent 
condition in the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
Gardens at Chiswick, the flowers being of ex¬ 
ceptionally large size, very double, and wonderfully 
bright in colour. The plant appeared to be in vigorous 
health to judge from the strength of the growths 
it was making as well as by the size and substance of 
the foliage. In this case its roots were free to 
ramble at will in a border that ran along the base of 
the wall against which it was trained, hence the ex¬ 
ceptional vigour of growth and, perhaps, the large 
size of the flowers. 
TWO GOOD WALLFLOWERS. 
These old-fashioned flowers have a charm which is 
quite their own, and nothing is more delicious than 
their odour. It is much to be regretted that the 
severe frost had such a damaging effect on many of 
them. In our own garden all our plants of Blood 
Red, Harbinger, and Belvoir Castle are killed, and 
even cn the w T alls there are none alive in this neigh¬ 
bourhood. When paying a visit to Bovey House, 
near Seaton, the other day, I was, however, charmed 
to see some well-filled beds in bloom on the lawn. 
The sorts were Veitch’s Selected Red and Yellow, 
and they are the best I have seen, the blooms beiDg 
large and the plants dwarf and very hardy. Anyone 
may safely try these strains.— Con. 
RHAPHIS FLAB ELLI FOR MIS VARIEGAT A. 
The segments of the fan-shaped leaves of this Palm 
have broad or narrow stripes of a pale yellow when 
first expanded, but after a time these stripes become 
creamy white. Occasionally a whole leaf will 
assume this character. A plentiful distribution of 
the ordinary striped ones over a well grown plant 
gives the whole a very ornamental character. The 
hard and leathery texture of the leaves together with 
their smooth surface enables them to be washed or 
sponged from time to time so as to maintain them in 
good and presentable order. It has to be propagated 
by suckers, and it may be remembered that few of 
the Palms can be increased in this way. The stems 
are always slender, in time becoming numerous, 
especially when planted out in a bed of soil, and the 
moderate size of the leaves permits room for a great 
number of them in a small area. Plants of great age 
can be tolerated in houses where space is limited. 
There are plants of the variegated form in the 
nursery of Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill. 
MUSCARI LATIFOLIUM. 
Most of the species of Muscari have very narrow 
leaves, but that under notice is a remarkable excep¬ 
tion, having oblong or lanceolate, glaucous-green 
leaves as broad as those of a Tulip, which the plant 
resembles to some extent before it comes into bloom. 
The flower scape is also taller than is usually the 
case in the genus, being a foot high, bearing a spike¬ 
like raceme of flowers on the top, and which at the 
very apex are bright blue, but lower down are dark 
violet or plum-purple. In all these respects it is an 
interesting plant, especially by comparison with the 
better known kinds which are grown so numerously 
by Messrs. Barr & Son, Long Ditton, Surrey, and 
where we noted M. latifolium. 
-- 9 --—— 
DAFFODILS AND TULIPS. 
Professional writers are often accused of being 
technical in their descriptions and reports about 
plants with which they are familiar ; and horticul¬ 
tural writers do of course stick so close to their text 
that in many cases their story is stiff and formal. 
Entomologists are even more severe in this respect 
than botanical and horticultural writers. The fol¬ 
lowing from Land and Water shows some of the ques¬ 
tions which interest those not actually engaged in 
the profession but yet are amateurs or lovers of 
flowers “ It is my fate in many things in life to be 
just a little too late. It was so in my visit to Surbiton, 
or rather Long Ditton, last week. I had visited 
Sanders at St. Albans and Bull at Chelsea, and have 
revelled in their Orchids. Why not Barr with his 
Daffodils at Surbiton ? I had read such glowing 
columns on their beauty. So one fine day, not know¬ 
ing what to do—fine days are so rare in England 
that one has no knack to use them, no clothes to 
wear for them—I hied me to Surbiton. I arrived, as 
I have said, just a little too late, and, with my usual 
luck, just between seasons. The tasselc of the 
Daffodils nodded sparsely across the broad acreage 
under bulbs ; the cruel winds had cruelly nipped the 
stiff, heavily perfumed cylinders of the Hyacinths ; 
and the breeze was playing havoc with the last 
remaining petals of the Tulips ; and the magnificence 
of the Peony was to come. But there was still 
much to learn. If the tide was out of the golden 
sea, many a gleaming gem was left glittering like the 
soul of a shining jest on the foreshore; and as I 
walked the level road, the heir to the house of Barr 
strolled beside me, picking and explaining. 
The Daffodil, it appears, is by no means the 
common-place, indigenous, every-day lady-flower we 
have thought her. Messrs. Barr have no less than 
five hundred and fifty different sorts of Daffodils 
growing to-day in their grounds, and only one of 
them is British by birth, the simplest and perhaps 
loveliest of them all, the flower with white petals and 
a yellow centre, which comes early in March, and 
which the poor call a Lent Lily. It is first mentioned 
as late as 1729 by John Parkinson. About 
Elizabeth's time flowers began to take their place 
in Society, and the cottagers took up the cultivation 
of the Daffodils, and through sailor friends, no doubt, 
in some small way imported them. That is why 
some of the more beautiful specimens bear such 
horrible names. There is a sulphur-and-yellow 
flower called “ butter-and-eggs,” from its obvious 
similarity in colour; another double bloom of 
primrose, with small orange bits of colour under the 
bigger leaves, “ milk-and-eggs,” and so on. But 
the many varieties, only a very few of which are 
ready, or ever will be ready for the market, are 
collected from Spain, Portugal—a great Daffodil 
centre its mountains—the Himalayas, China, North 
Italy, Turkey, and Greece. On the whole the 
Daffodil seems to be of somewhat Alpine tastes 
though the higher it climbs the smaller it 
becomes. And when it comes to associate with 
the amazing blue Gentian it is of a size with 
it, and a yellow as brilliant as the other is blue. 
On the other hand it is very fond of shade, and does 
best of all growing freely in an orchard. All its varie¬ 
ties, by the bye, are hardy, and whether they come 
from an Indian plain or a Greek island, do well on 
the Suirey flats, and better on the Lincolnshire 
meadows. But here is a curious fact. After a few 
years in any one spot the Daffodil suffers from ennui 
and dies. Messrs .Barr send them to Lincoln, or bring 
them to Surrey, and the coquettish lady shakes her 
tassels amongst new friends, and becomes more than 
her former self. 
The Tulip—some of loveliest strain, and some of 
colours so intense that I noticed that, with all their 
effects of artificial light, they could not match it in 
the scarlets of the Alhambra ballet—lives very 
much under the same climatic conditions as the 
Daffodil; but in Greece, Turkey, and Syria it is wont 
to grow its petals long, and twist them up in the 
most curious shapes, as though they were pipe- 
lighters for Venus to hand the patriarchal Jupiter 
or jealous Vulcan. Plants which impressed me 
greatly were dwarf Iris, white, mauve, yellow, and 
purple. They were quite new to me, and I am told 
that they are as yet inedite. They are intended for 
rockeries, and should have a great success. A week 
later the Barr acres will be splendid with the 
Peony, flesh colour and white, up through all the 
reds the darkest maroon. Mr. Barr’s idea for a park 
is, first the Daffodil, yellow and bright, with spears 
of green foliage which rise around the flower like 
the steel of fairy knights ready to protect it; then 
the Peony, which in early spring throws up a 
a foliage of crimson mahogany, and bursts into 
flower just as the Daffodil has finished. The debris 
of the latter might then without harn be cut away ; 
over all should flourish the Oak. Mr. W. H. 
Hitchcock should go down to Barr’s. Then he 
would learn that the old Tulip about which men 
fought is extinct in Holland, and also that England 
can give him the varied orbs of colour his brush 
loves at their best. And let him wait till the Peony 
comes, when he shall look on landscapes of such 
splendour of colour that the Tulip shall seem a drab. 
Visit Barr’s. It is just sufficiently remote from 
London to be in the sun and air—no perversion of 
meaning intended—and it is very Japanese to take 
one’s pleasure in the flower garden. 
-- mfm - 
AGRICULTURE IN THE 
YANG-TSE BASIN. 
The general character of the country' in China from 
Shanghai to Hankow, and for a hundred miles on 
each side of the river, is that of rich alluvial plains, 
traversed by ranges of hills having usually' an east 
and west trend. The tops of the hills give the best 
tea, and where the ground is too st'ny for tea culti¬ 
vation, Fir and oil trees are planted in regular rows, 
which yield oil, resin, timber and firewood. On the 
lands of intermediate height, or where the soil is too 
porous to hold the water during the growth of a 
Rice crop, Cotton, Wheat, Maize, Buckwheat, sweet 
Potatos, and culinary vegetables are made to grow 
in great profusion. It appears from the report in 
the Agricultural Gazette, of New South Wales, of a 
mining engineer lately in the service of the Chinese 
Government, that dairy-farming is quite unknown in 
these provinces, and milk is looked upon with dis¬ 
gust by the majority of the inhabitants. The water 
buffalo is the most useful animal for the cultivation 
of rice, as his immense strength enables him to do a 
loDg day’s work knee-deep in mud, and he can feed 
well along the swampy borders of lakes where 
ordinary cattle would be lost in the bogs. 
Three crops can generally be secured from the 
land in a year, though in some severe seasons the 
winter crop may become damaged by snow and frost 
f.or a week or two in January. In some districts 
indigo and opium are much grown, to the exclusion 
of other crops, but it is not the general rule. Most of 
the Chinese housewives like a few Indigo plants near 
at hand, sufficient to make a vat of dye for the clothes 
of the family. Any other colour is rarely seen in 
these provinces. The plants are macerated in 
wooden tubs, and the resulting indigo is reduced in 
order to make it soluble. The Bamboo is an article 
of considerable value to the Chinaman. Little labour 
is required to cultivate it, as once planted it 
continues to produce for generations, and the occa¬ 
sional stocking up of an old root is all that is required 
to keep the bed in order. In many respects the 
Bamboo takes the place of metals, and although the 
Chinese have been acquainted with iron, copper, and 
brass from very early times, yet the Bamboo has 
played an important part in preventing these metals 
from being so generally used as among Western 
nations. For coopering tubs, and other wooden 
vessels for joinery, the Chinaman can use Bamboo. 
The young shoots make an excellent vegetable, and 
