THE GARDENING WORLD 
711 
July 6,1895. 
slight start thus given at the beginning of the season 
usually causes them to bloom a week or two before 
those which are planted outside. If proper atten¬ 
tion is paid to their staking at the right time, and 
they are pretty freely disbudded, pot Carnations of 
this kind come in wonderfully handy for the conser¬ 
vatory. A constant watch must, however, be kept 
for the appearance of green fly, which must be kept 
under if the plants are to do satisfactorily and look 
well. 
Malmaisons. —By judicious application of liquid 
manure the later flowers may be made to attain to a 
respectable size, although they will necessarily not 
be so large as the earlier ones. Preparations must 
be made without delay for propagating them. Abed 
of fine light soil should be made up in a cold frame, 
the plants, as soon as they are out of flower, knocked 
out of their pots, taking care not to disturb the roots 
any more than is unavoidable, and then planted out 
in the prepared bed. Layering may subsequently be 
conducted in the usual way. Keep the frame close 
for a few days, and shade from hot sun by means of 
alight covering of tiffany. Treated thus the layers 
will soon root, and nice plants may be obtained be¬ 
fore winter sets in. 
Pits and Frames. 
Most of the cooler pits will need to have air left 
on all night now, while the cold frames may in many 
cases have the lights pulled right off, only putting 
them on during rain or the last thing at night. Many 
of what are usually regarded as stove foliage plants 
do exceptionally well in cool pits during the summer 
months, as, for instance, Acalypha musaica and A. 
marginata and A. obovata. If given plenty of light 
the leaves will assume a much more brilliant colour 
than they would do in the stove. 
Centropogon Lucyanus.— Cuttings of this hand¬ 
some winter flowering subject that were potted off 
into forty-eights a while since may now be shifted 
into their flowering pots—a seven-inch being a handy 
size. For compost a mixture of two parts of good 
■turfy loam to one of well-dried cow manure, and a 
sprinkling of sharp sand will answer admirably. 
Drain well and pot rather firmly. They may then 
be grown on in an unheated frame, which must be 
ikept fairly close, and the syringe kept well at work 
amongst them, for red spider is very partial to their 
somewhat succulent leaves—likewise green and 
snowy fly. 
Reinwardtias. —‘These are likewise exceedingly 
useful and showy winter blooming plants. Cuttings 
struck in April and subsequently potted off when 
rooted into sixties will now be ready for their final 
shift. As a rule six-inch pots will be quite large 
enough, while a soil similar to that recommended 
for Centropogons will do nicely. Reinwardtias, how¬ 
ever, require a little more heat during the summer 
than these last-named plants. Both R. tetragynum 
and R. trigynum, or as it used to be called Linum 
trigynum, are well worthy the room they occupy. 
Cinerarias. —The earliest batch of these must be 
shifted out of the small sixties into forty-eights or 
thirty-twos, according to the size and strength of 
the plants. A cold frame having a northern aspect 
should be selected, thoroughly cleaned, and a fresh 
layer of clean ashes put in. Here the plants will 
be found to do very well. Do not crowd them 
together under any consideration, and thin them 
out as growth requires it. The succession batch will 
now be ready for potting off singly into thumbs or 
small sixties. Take care not to pot them too firmly, 
and should the plants be weak at the collars, give a 
little support by means of wooden pegs judiciously 
inserted. Seed sown to produce plants for la‘e 
flowering will now have germinated. Prick the 
seedlings off' as soon as they are sufficiently large to 
handle, for they soon become drawn. This will also 
apply with equal force to herbaceous Calceolarias. 
Plunging Chrysanthemums. — Where large 
quantities of the Queen of Autumn are grown the 
work of watering them throughout the summer is 
necessarily a heavy one. Where space is available 
it is advisable therefore to partly plunge the pots in 
ashes, as this materially assists in preventing the 
rapid evaporation of water which goes on when the 
air has free play all round the pots. A few weeks 
should, however, be suffered to elapse after potting 
before plunging is attempted, so as to allow the 
plants time to make a number of fresh roots, and to 
get a good hold of the new soil. From now onward 
to the autumn earwigs are more or less of a pest 
among Chrysanthemums. If they are looked after 
in time, however, and traps set for them, they 
may be prevented from doing much mischief. The 
hollow stems of Broad Beans cut into lengths of 
four or five inches and laid about here and there 
among the plants form very convenient traps, as 
also do small flower pots filled with hay. These 
may be looked over in the mornings, and any ear¬ 
wigs they may contain destroyed. 
Gladioli. —Very gay and bright are the flowers 
of G. Colvillei and its beautiful white form, The 
Bride, and during May and the early part of June 
they look exceedingly well in the conservatory. 
After the flower spikes have been removed, water will 
have gradually been withheld to allow the ripening 
of the corms to go on. As growth will now have 
entirely ceased the pots may be placed on their 
sides in a shed or outhouse, where they may be 
allowed to remain without disturbance until it is 
time to pot them up again. 
Winter Flowering Carnations. —It is usual to 
stand these out of doors during the summer months, 
where indeed they do as well as could possibly be 
desired. As the plants, particularly those of two or 
three years' growth, are inclined to get rather tall 
and straggling, it is a good plan to stand them in 
rows, driving a stout post in at either end, and run¬ 
ning a strong wire along to which the stakes sup¬ 
porting the plants may be affixed. This prevents 
them from being blown about by storms of wind, 
and the damage often done in this way is warded 
off, and a semblance of neatness and order is main¬ 
tained. An occasional pinch of Clay’s Fertilizer 
may be given the older plants, the younger fresh 
potted ones of course not needing stimulants as yet. 
—A. S. G. 
-HN- 
Brassia Verrucosa. --This, like the good old 
Cypripedium insigne, is found in almost every 
garden that grows only just a few Orchids, and a 
very fine thing it is, too, when well grown, producing 
plenty of bloom, which is invaluable in the cut state 
on account of the flowers being loosely arranged on 
long spikes, allowing of their being set off to advan¬ 
tage with a few Fern fronds. It also makes a good 
specimen plant; we have one with sixteen spikes in 
an eight-inch pot, and which is much admired by 
visitors. There are a few other varieties such as B. 
Lawrenceana, B. maculata, B. guttata, B. Wrayae, 
all more or less having flowers of a greenish hue. 
Their culture is very simple, requiring as they do 
a plentiful supply of moisture at the roots when 
growing. The drainage should be ample, and the 
compost of the best; pots we have found to be best 
for them to grow in. These should be three parts 
filled with crocks; over this put a layer of moss, 
and then fill in round the plant with live sphagnum 
moss, a good, rough fibrous peat that has had some 
of the fine sifted out. A few pieces of charcoal and 
bits of broken pots may be worked in to keep the 
whole porous and sweet. Do not press too firmly 
or the water will not pass freely away. The shady 
end of the Cattleya House we find is the best place 
for them during the winter months, but during 
summer they will be all the better if pleased with 
the Odontoglossums. 
Dendrobium Jamesianum. —This fine Orchid is 
rather difficult to keep in good condition for many 
years, but when well grown is an object of great 
beauty. Coming as it does from a high elevation, 
it does not require such strong heat as do the 
majority of Dendrobes, yet I think we err in trying 
to grow it too cold. Granted the temperature goes 
down very low in its native habitat as we are told, 
but for how long ? Not long enough to do any harm. 
The cool end of the Cattleya House we find to be the 
best place for the plants. They require pot culture, 
using peat and moss in about equal parts. They are 
great lovers of moisture at the roots when growing, 
and at no time will they require the drying off that is 
necessary in dealing with D. nobile, D. Wardianum, 
&c. 
Angraecum falcatum. —This is one of those 
pretty little Orchids than no one can fail to 
appreciate. It grows with the Cattleyas, which is a 
consideration as most of the genus takes plenty of 
heat. It takes up but little room, is free flowering, 
and sweet scented ; we grow ours in baskets sus¬ 
pended on the north side of the house where they 
are rather heavily shaded. Only live sphagnum 
moss is used as compost, and this in small quanti¬ 
ties.— C. 
(Meaning# fxwm 
af Science♦ 
Freak of an Iris. —Under ordinary circumstancss 
every species and variety of Iris should have three 
falls, three standards, and three petaloid stigmas. A 
very abnormal case occurs in a suburban garden 
where a variety of the Spanish Iris (I. Xiphium) 
developed only two falls, two standards, and two 
petaloid stigmas. One of the standards as if to 
make amends for this behaviour, was divided more 
than half way down into two pieces, each as large as 
the other normal one. Low down on one side of 
the ovary were some rudimentary fragments, which 
doubtless represented the missing fall, but what had 
become of the missing stigma there was no evidence 
to show. The two that were present were perfect 
and normal. It would be difficult to imagine or 
assign a cause for this erratic behaviour, because if 
it had been the result of actual injury the rest of 
the flower should have shown something of it. 
A Green Rose.— There is no actual novelty 
about this any more than about a green Dahlia, a 
green Chrysanthemum, a green Begonia, or even a 
green Strawberry. The green Rose or the Rose verte 
of the French is a variety of Rosa indica, and well- 
known as an inmate of the gardens of the curious in 
such things. A contemporary has been favoured 
with some green Roses from a correspondent in 
Jersey, and confesses that, “ except as curiosities 
they appear to us to possess no advantages whatever, 
and to compare badly with the normal product of 
the Rose bush. It is to be hoped that, whether 
produced by the use of arsenical water or otherwise, 
the green, at any rate in this case, will never be 
placed above the red.” Unfortunately for the above 
statements, the Rose verte of the French comes green 
without any artificial treatment whatever. Suppos¬ 
ing the Roses to have been stained by the imbibition 
of some green colouring matter, as in the case of the 
Carnation and Daffodil, it is more than likely that 
the flowers would have been destroyed if arsenical 
water of such strength had been used as to produce 
the desired tint of green. Moreover if such results 
could be obtained by the use of arsenites Rose 
growers will have to be careful not to syringe their 
Rose bushes with Paris green or London purple on 
purpose to kill the “worm i' the bud” or the 
results will be disastrous. It is more likely that 
some of the aniline dyes were used if the Roses were 
really artificially stained. 
Sporting and Reversion in Violas. —Few 
would suspect the presence of green in the flowers of 
the common Primrose, yet there is a considerable 
amount of that in the pale-faced flower of spring. 
Amongst Violas we find most curious instances of 
the appearance or re-appearance of certain colours 
after a time. Seedlings that have pure white flowers 
one year become extensively splashed with blue the 
next. Flowers that are partly yellow and partly 
white one year become splashed the following 
season in the same way. Others will produce self- 
coloured flowers for a time, and afterwards become 
striped in the most fantaslic way. The named 
variety Columbine sports into several other varieties, 
to wit, something very like Lucy Ashton, also York 
and Lancaster, and a very dark-flowered variety that 
is neither. The yellow-flowered Ardwell Gem has blue 
in it or the power to produce the same ; for Duchess 
of Fife, Goldfinch, and White Duchess are sports 
from it, or some of them have sported from one 
another. Goldfinch on one occasion at least gave 
rise to short bearing flowers wholly of a pale, dull, 
lurid or livid purple. These sports are more or less 
constant, coming true every year; but recently we 
noticed three flowers of Ardwell Gem on a large 
plant of Duchess of Fife. Some of the flowers on 
one branch were actually Duchess of Fife, while the 
rest of the flowers had actually reverted to Ardwell 
Gem, the original parent of this little group or strain 
of plants, usually spoken of under the designation of 
tufted Violas, on account of their dwarf and procum¬ 
bent habit. The sportive character of Violas is 
doubtlessly due to much cross-breeding and hybri¬ 
dising for many generations. 
The National Chrysanthemum Society's Year Book 
for 1895 .— Edited by Mr. Harman Payne F.R.H.S. Price, is. 
post free, is. ijd. from the Publisher of the Gardening 
World, i, Clement’s Inn, Strand, W.C. 
