214 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 3, 1892. 
PRIMULAS & CYCLAMENS 
AT CASTLE HILL. 
The Chrysanthemum season being pretty well over, 
it will soon be time to reckon upon other classes of 
flowers to supply a needed want. Of ordinary 
florists’ flowers the Chinese Primula and Persian 
Cyclamen naturally claim attention during the 
winter months. Numerous fine strains have been 
worked up, so that it is difficult to see where im¬ 
provement can be made. Larger flowers both of 
Chinese Primulas and Cyclamens can be obtained, 
but it is at the expense of number in the case of the 
latter, and at the expense of fertility in the former. 
Where extremely fine flowers of very large size of 
Chinese Primulas are selected, the varieties are 
found to produce but a limited number of seeds, 
even when carefully fertilized. 
We recently examined Mr. Robert Owen’s Im¬ 
perial strain of Chinese Primulas at Castle Hill, 
Maidenhead. There are numerous varieties, all 
grown in 48-size pots, but it is only fair to say that 
the plants are only commencing to bloom, and will 
hardly be at their best till February. The varieties 
are named so as to indicate the colour, such as Car¬ 
mine, Magenta, Violet Purple, Crimson, and Blue. 
The colours in each case are very rich, indicating 
careful selection of the plants intended for seed. Of 
the blue there are several shades, varying from a 
very pale to a deep hue. As a rule, cultivators 
prefer the darkest shade of this colour. Pure white 
varieties are represented by batches having the 
ordinary type of leaf and also those with fern-leaved 
foliage, and in both cases they are very choice. 
There are some very beautiful laced varieties 
amongst the single types. That named Rose-laced 
has rose flowers edged with white, the latter follow¬ 
ing the outlines of the much-cut edges, giving a 
very pretty effect. There are also purple and pink 
varieties laced in the same way. Curious in its way 
is a white variety bordered with irregularly shaped 
pale rose blotches ; if the latter were a little more 
intensified it would be more effective. There are 
several semi-double varieties that are regularly per¬ 
petuated from seeds, including a delicate, bright 
pink one, that is certainly fine. Another of the 
same type is pure white, or faintly tinted with 
blush. 
The Cyclamens are more decidedly in season, and 
will continue to throw up flowers for a long time to 
come. The pure white flowers of the Giganteum 
strain are wonderfully pure and effective. Another 
white variety, named Butterfly, is notable for its 
spreading flowers—that is, the segments instead of 
being erect are spread out horizontally like a butter¬ 
fly on the wing. Others of the ordinary type have 
rose, deep purple, crimson, and white flowers. 
Considerable differences may be noted amongst the 
latter, for some have long and others have short 
and broad, rounded segments. A strikingly distinct 
variety has been picked from amongst the others. 
In their early stages the flowers are of a deep rosy 
red or purple, but as they become fully developed 
they acquire a dark bronzy, crimson, metallic lustre, 
of a shade which is very difficult to describe as it is 
uncommon. 
-- 
AMERICAN VIBURNUMS. 
Viburnum Opulus is now so well known and so 
commonly planted that any further notice of it does 
not seem necessary. It occurs all over the northern 
hemisphere; and it is, perhaps, worth recording 
that there are now growing in the arboretum plants 
raised from seed sent from Northern China, which 
are much more ornamental in flower than either the 
North American or the European forms ; the sterile 
ray flowers, being twice as large and rather more 
than an inch across, while the anthers, instead of 
being green, are bright purple. The plants are per¬ 
fectly hardy, and this variety should be better 
known and generally planted. 
But the most beautiful of all the American Vibur¬ 
nums, as far as concerns the flowers, is V. lantanoides. 
It produces, like Viburnum Opulus, neutral ray 
flowers around the outside of the cymes, and these 
are very large and pure white. The leaves are broad 
and thick, and in the autumn turn to a brilliant 
scarlet colour. Naturally this plant grows under the 
dense shade of trees in the northern forests, which it 
cheers in early spring with its great cluster of 
flowers, and again in autumn with the bright colours 
of its leaves. It is a difficult plant to cultivate, and 
we have heard of a single instance only where, 
brought into the garden from the woods, it has been 
made to grow successfully. Mr. Dawson has found 
that grafted on the European Viburnum Iantana, it 
grows stronger and more vigorously than it does on 
its own roots, and his stock of grafted plants now 
gives promise of ultimate success. It is such a 
beautiful plant, and one so well suited to flourish 
under the shade of trees, that serious efforts to get it 
established are well worth making.— Garden and 
Forest. 
ABIES AS FOREST TREES. 
Abies Albertiana (Prince Albert's Fir—or, as it is 
now called by botanists, Tsuga Mertensiana—is one 
of the finest and hardiest of Jeffrey’s introductions 
from the north-west of America, which he sent home 
to Oregon Association in 1851. It is already 
tolerably common in Scotland, although seldom 
met with except in ornamental grounds in the 
other divisions of the United Kingdom. It is seen 
thriving and growing with marked rapidity in many 
northern districts, as well as at rather high altitudes, 
wherever it has been planted with ordinary cir¬ 
cumspection, and it is likely to prove one of the most 
useful, as it is one of the most graceful, of the new 
Conifers introduced by the Scottish Society. At 
Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, planted twenty-six years 
ago, it has attained a height of 35 ft., with a girth of 
2 ft. 6 in., at an altitude of over goo ft., and of the 
many trees growing there, all seem to be perfectly at 
home. At Castle Menzies, Perthshire, it is 72 ft. 
high, and 5 ft. 9 in. in girth ; at Munches, Kirkcud¬ 
brightshire, 69 ft. high, and 4 ft. 3 in. in girth; at 
Riccarton, Mid-Lothian, 68 ft. 6 in. high, and 
3 ft. 2:1 in. in girth—these being noted places for fine 
collections of Conifers, and where this tree was 
planted soon after its introduction to this country, 
exactly forty years ago. At the Cairnies, Perthshire, 
at an altitude of 630 ft , it is 63 ft high, and girths 
6 ft. 9 in., the greatest girth recorded. At Dolphinton, 
Lanarkshire, at an altitude of 830 ft., it is 55 ft. high, 
and 3 ft. 6 in. in girth, raised about twenty-seven 
years ago from home-grown seeds. 
Abies Douglasii (Douglas’s Fir)—now known 
to botanists as Pseudotsuga Douglasii—is a grand tree 
in every respect, and so far has proved to be the 
most valuable Conifer introduced to Britain since 
the Larch reached our shores early in the seven¬ 
teenth century. It was one of the first Conifers 
sent home by Douglas to the Royal Horticultural 
Society, in 1827, from the North-west of America, 
and worthily bears the name of that intrepid 
explorer of the primeval forests of the Far West. 
It has long been a favourite with the tree-planter, 
and under suitable conditions no tree grows more 
satisfactorily. Of late years it has been freely used 
as a plantation tree, raised chiefly from home-grown 
seed, which is produced in abundance. It is thus 
raised in large numbers at a comparatively small 
cost, so that it can be planted in quantity as a forest 
crop at about the same rate as ordinary forest 
Conifers, all of which it quickly leaves far behind in 
height and girth of stem. To see it at its best as a 
forest tree at the present time one has to visit some 
of the Perthshire estates, where for many years it 
has been more frequently planted than any other 
one of the newer Conifers. At Scone (of which 
David Douglas was a native), Murthly, The Cairnies, 
and many other places, it is planted in quantity, 
thriving well in the woods, under ordinary treatment, 
along with the common coniferous trees, and 
occasionally forming plantations by itself, as on the 
Scone Estates. The tallest tree recorded is the 
famous Douglas Fir at Dropmore, Buckinghamshire, 
which is 120 ft. high and n ft. in girth. The equally 
famous trees—-there are two of them—at Lynedoch, 
Perthshire, are respectively gi ft. 9 in. high and 12 
ft. in girth, and 72 ft. 2 in. high and 11 ft. 2 in. in 
girth. These fine trees grow in a free, loamy soil, at 
an altitude of 340 feet, in a tolerably well-sheltered 
spot near the small river Almond. They are the 
oldest trees of the Douglas Fir in the district, and 
were planted in the year 1834. 
Abies Grandis is another of the giants introduced 
by Douglas in 1831, from North-west America, which 
grows with great vigour in the British Isles under 
much the same conditions as the Douglas Fir, and, 
not being at all fastidious as to soil, it is sometimes 
seen outstripping that rapid grower on poor and cool 
ground. The tallest tree recorded grows at Riccar¬ 
ton, Midlothian, 83 ft. 3 in. high and 3 ft. 8£ in. in 
girth; this particular tree having been carefully 
measured by the owner, Sir James H. Gibson Craig, 
Bart., and found to have grown 53 ft. in height in the 
last twelve years, or an average of 4 ft. 5 in. annually 
—a most remarkable growth, and showing what the 
tree can do in a fair soil under good treatment. The 
late baronet of Riccarton, Sir James’s father, was a 
leading member of the Oregon Association, and the 
collection at Riccarton, which has abvays been 
tended with the greatest care, is at present the finest 
in the county, and contains many beautiful specimens 
of new and rare Conifers. The next tallest tree is at 
Dolphington, a high-lying estate at the south end of 
the Pentland Hills, where the owner, John Ord 
Mackenzie, Esq., an enthusiastic admirer of 
Conifers, has grown them with great success for 
many years, and his Abies grandis is 68 ft. high and 
5 ft. jin. in girth. The tree with the thickest stem 
in Scotland grows at Poltalloch, Argyllshire, and 
girths 7 ft. 9 in., with a height of 64 ft. 
Abies Menziesii (Menzies’ Spruce)—or, as it is 
now called by botanists, Picea sitchensis—is still 
another of the giants of the forests of North-west 
America, which in suitable soils of a moist, cool 
nature has made remarkable progress in Britain, 
particularly in Scotland, and in some parts of Ire¬ 
land, for which it seems specially well adapted.— 
Malcolm Dunn, Dalkeith, in the Journal of the Royal 
Horticuliural Society. 
--t-.- 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND 
THE MILD WEATHER. 
The continuance of mild weather through the month 
of November shows what may be done with Chry¬ 
santhemums, that is, late flowering ones, without 
any special care beyond planting, staking, and 
keeping them free from weeds. By planting them 
against a wall or a close wooden fence in a sunny 
position, their flowering could be rendered more 
certain, even in seasons that were not very favour¬ 
able. In such a position protection could be afforded 
by means of a light covering of tiffany or some 
similar material. There have been several sharp 
frosts already during the past autumn, freezing the 
plants so much in the open as to cause them to hang 
their heads, yet not a bloom seems to be injured 
when they come to expand. In the face of these 
facts it seems strange that those who grow their 
plants for exhibition should find such injury result 
from a single night’s exposure, should there happen 
to be frost. It would mean that highly fed plants 
are more susceptible to injury from frost than those 
that receive no attention whatever. A priori it 
seems difficult to reason why they should be so tender. 
In many gardens this autumn, Chrysanthemums, 
both named and nameless, have been flowering pro¬ 
fusely without any protection whatever, and in some 
cases those that have been growing with perfect ex¬ 
posure on all sides have done much better than those 
huddled up in close proximity to shrubs. When 
originally introduced to this country many varieties 
proved to be not only hardy, but capable of pro¬ 
ducing a large quantity of flowers useful either for 
garden decoration or for cut flower purposes. 
Some of those in flower at the present time are 
Empress of India, Mrs. Sharpe, and a sort named 
Bardeer, all incurved varieties. The blooms of the 
first named are not of large size, but regularly in¬ 
curved. The last named has bronzy rose-coloured 
flowers of good size, but not much incurved. 
Of the three Mrs. Sharpe is no doubt the 
best for outdoor work on account of the great 
quantity of flowers it produces. The crown buds are 
incurved, moderate in size and rose coloured, with a 
nearly white centre. The others, which are the most 
copious, are of a bright rose, without the slightest 
evidence of injury from either cold or wet. When 
grown under glass the flowers are only of medium or 
small size, and rose-pink in colour, For pot work 
the variety is most suitable for growing into trained 
specimens. 
In the way of Japanese varieties Lady Selborne 
produces a large quantity of bloom, branching freely 
all along the upper part of the stems, and furnishing 
a large quantity of bloom suitable for cut flowers 
William Holmes is also a very free-flowering sort, 
producing its blooms in heavy clusters near the top 
of the stems. A Pompon, variously named Beauty 
of the Garden, President, and William Murray, 
