June 11, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
653 
exhilarating pleasure of going down on one's marrow 
bones and gnawing away at the grass edge with a 
pair of antiquated scissors. This should be done 
frequently in order to mortify the flesh and improve 
the look of the grass. 
But another attention must be paid to the verdant 
lawn. The showery weather is just the time to give 
it a dressing of some stimulant, say the gardening 
books, and they recommend soot sprinkled over the 
surface by hand. Of all the fiendish ideas that ever 
entered the brain of the adviser sprite this is the one 
that has caused me the most bother. I dressed up 
in various and sundry garments in a more or less 
disreputable condition and bravely set to work. The 
soot was all right, and so was I before very long; in 
fact a bosom friend of mine, with the cruel candour 
often displayed by bosom friends, averred that I 
looked like a first-class devil in a cheap pantomime. 
If any of my readers covet such an appearance they 
can easily cultivate it by attending to their lawn as 
I did to mine .—Nouveau Calendrier. 
•-«*.- 
Hardening ||iscellany. 
MAKING UP PLANTS FOR SPECIMENS. 
The plan of placing a number of plants into one 
pot to form a huge specimen is an old and well 
known practice, not confined to common classes only, 
for pots with five or six Orchids placed together is 
not uncommon on exhibition tables. It is often 
objected to by competitors; but I have seen no 
schedules in which any rules appear against the 
practice, and so have (along with other judges) 
allowed to let the matter pass unnoticed. Some of 
the grandest specimens of Chrysanthemums which 
I have seen have been made up with a number of 
plants; and it would require sharp practice to 
unearth them. When size of pots is stated, as 
used to be the case at most exhibitions, " making 
up ” is difficult.— M. T., Canon, N.B. 
CYT1SUS SCOPARIUS ANDREANUS. 
I enclose sprays of this beautiful Broom, cut from 
plants raised from seed three years ago. The plants 
in question are now nice bushes some 6 ft. high, 
which shows how easy of culture they are. From a 
scrubby plant in a pot I was able to save about two 
pods of seed, which I sowed and obtained about a 
dozen plants, a few of which produced yellow 
flowers, without the crimson markings which 
characterise the parent plant. Both my employer 
and myself are proud of our Brooms, just now very 
gorgeous and beautiful, deserving a place with the 
choicest flowering shrubs.— A. P. 
CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA AS A POT PLANT. 
This elegant Conifer is a well-known and valued 
occupant of the out-door garden, but in this country 
it is very rarely utilised as a pot subject. In this 
direction, however, it closely rivals the popular 
Araucaria excelsa,thousands of which find their way 
upon the market each year. The Cryptomeria can 
be progagated readily from seeds or cuttings, but as 
in the case of the Araucarias, cuttings make the 
dwarfest, closest jointed, and best furnished plants. 
Still seedlings are not unsatisfactory, and as they 
make nice little saleable specimens in 5-in. pots 
within a year from the date of sowing the seed they 
are not to be despised. We think more use might be 
made of the Cryptomeria as a pot plant. 
GUNNERA SCABRA. 
I occasionally find plants in unlooked for places, 
and such was my lot recently in connection wi,th this 
plant, whose native place is among the ravines of the 
Andes, where it most likely gets a plentiful supply of 
moisture. However that may be, it would appear to 
have a somewhat accommodating disposition, judging 
from the way it was flourishing in the position I 
found it, being under the shade of large trees on a 
dry soil. Those having a stock of it, if they have 
some bare places among their shrubberies, will do 
well to try it in these positions, for truly it is a most 
noble and telling plant when developed to its finest 
proportions. If, as it seems to me, it will do fairly 
well where many things utterly fail, it is well worth a 
trial. If those who are ignorant of the plant can 
imagine a gigantic Rhubarb with leaves five feet in 
width and spiny footstalks five feet or so in height, 
they can form a pretty fair idea of the aspect of the 
plant when at its best. I do not think it possible for 
it to attain anything near these proportions in the 
positions above indicated. At the same time it would 
help materially to enliven many a bare, naked piece 
of ground.— W. B. G. 
VEITCH’S EARLY FORCING CAULIFLOWER. 
I have begun cutting to-day, May 19th, this variety 
of Cauliflower from autumn-sown plants. Having 
grown this same variety four years, I find it (although 
not so large as many others), very useful, forming 
close white heads, much esteemed at table. The 
plants in question were sown in September, 
wintered in a cold frame, and planted out the last 
week in March in handlights. The peculiarity of 
this variety is that its foliage is small and erect, 
thus allowing four or five plants to one handligbt, 
which, when filled, was removed to shelter the 
spring-sown plants.— -A. P. 
ADENANDRA FRAGRANS. 
Very frequently the flowers of New Holland plants 
belonging to the same group as Adenandra are very 
small. Those of A. fragrans, however, are about 
the size of a shilling, and white, tinted with red 
beneath. Others again have red midribs running 
along the basal half of the petioles, and presenting 
a beautiful starry appearance, the star consisting of 
five rays. A distinct variety with red flowers has 
been named A. f. amoena. The species grows in 
the interior of South Africa, but though it was 
introduced many years ago it is a rare plant in this 
country. The form with the five-rayed star turned 
up in several of the exhibits at the recent Ghent 
show. 
AMERICAN WONDER PEA. 
I have just been reading in a contemporary an 
account of sickening and turning yellow of this 
garden Pea in an autumn sown crop. An expert, 
so the report states, expressed an opinion that owing 
to the thinness and delicacy of the skin of wrinkled 
Peas, they were not so suitable for autumn sowing 
as round varieties. I am of opinion that little or 
nothing is gained by autumn sowing of wrinkled 
Peas. My practice is to sow in pots (I use the above 
named variety) in February, putting five seeds in a 
60-sized pot, and harden off and plant out at the foot 
of the Peach wall. I expect to gather next week, 
although I picked off a full pod yesterday, May 18th, 
to tantalise a friend, whose crop is still moving, but 
shows no bloom, notwithstanding announcement by 
label that he sowed “ Early Sunrise.”— A. P. 
SPERGULA PILIFERA AUREA. 
Those who are carrying out designs in carpet bed¬ 
ding would do well to introduce this into their 
designs, where a very dwarf-growing subject is 
desirable. A single plant of it is both bright and ele¬ 
gant. Those who do not follow this particular craze, 
but have a love of hardy plants should add it to their 
collections on account of its simple beauty. - IV. B. G. 
BARBAREA VULGARIS VARIEGATA 
There is quite a respectable number of British 
plants of which variegated or otherwise modified 
forms are in cultivation in our gardens. To the 
ranks of these plants must be added the golden 
variegated form of Barbarea vulgaris. It is not com¬ 
monly met with, it is true, and is usually only to be 
seen in botanic gardens, but it is nevertheless pos¬ 
sessed of a somewhat distinct and decidedly hand¬ 
some presence. The lyrate shaped lower leaves are 
prettily barred or striped longitudinally with white, 
gold, and green, and this variegation is possessed in 
an equal degree by the smaller upper leaves. The 
yellow flowers are not greatly different to that of the 
wilding, but they serve to add a finish to the plant, 
although in themselves not very showy. 
TULIP PARISIAN YELLOW. 
This is one of the finest of the later Tulips and one 
of the most suitable for bedding purposes. It is 
rather tall in habit, for the flower scapes often reach 
a height of 18 in. and occasionally exceed that 
height. The flowers are full, deep, and of great size, 
the colour being a rich golden-yellow, very brilliant 
and showy, as indeed we expect everything 
“ Parisian ” to be. The individual segments are of 
great width and substance, and are acutely pointed. 
There has been a fine bed of this Tulip in the grass 
at the back of the rockery at Kew, and near the 
eastern end of the Orchid houses. 
CARNATION URIAH PIKE. 
A house here containing several hundred plants of 
this variety in bloom (sample of which I send) 
is frequently visited just now, and a source of 
delight to many visitors. The fragrance of the 
flowers, in addition to their rich colour, adds to the 
charm of these favourites. This variety, which 
created a sensation three or four years ago when 
brought out, is deservedly popular, possessing as it 
does all the qualities of a good Carnation, robust in 
constitution, amenable to almost any treatment, 
flowering as freely at mid-winter as mid-summer. 
The foliage has a healthy vigorous appearance and 
is remarkably free from the many blights, rusts, and 
rots that plague the Carnation growers in other 
choice varieties.— A. P. 
TULIP PICOTEE. 
Amongst the midseason bedding Tulips Picotee has 
very few varieties to equal it. Even as late as Whit- 
Sunday around bed close to the director s office at 
the northern end of Kew Gardens was making an 
exceptionally fine display. The flowers had rather 
more pink in them than is usually the case, and the 
margins had spread considerably, but this added to 
rather than detracted from the general effect. The 
conspicuous feature, however, was the size of the 
blooms, which really surpassed anything we had pre¬ 
viously seen. The foliage, too, was good, and the 
bulbs must have been exceptionally strong to produce 
such excellent results. 
IRIS CRISTATA. 
This is a gem amongst-a family of gems, for although 
there are many beautiful Irises this dwarf plant with 
its pretty crested flowers is fully as beautiful as any. 
At Kew it is given a nook in the rockery, and judg¬ 
ing from appearances it is just such a place as this 
that it requires. The flower scapes with the flowers 
are only about 4 in. in height, and the leaves are from 
4 to 6 in. in length, so that the plant is a pigmy all 
through. The flowers, however, are relatively large. 
They are bright purple-blue in colour with a con¬ 
spicuous white blotch and crest in the centre of each 
of the falls, next to this, passing towards the apex, 
being a zone of purple-maroon. The plant, which is a 
native of the south-eastern United States has a some¬ 
what tufted habit, and flowers with great freedom, so 
that it is well worthy of a place in the rock garden 
amoDgst the choicer subjects. 
CURIOSITIES OF THE ORCHID. 
The Orchid is in fashion, and we must admit that 
it deserves this honour, if honour it be, or at least 
this distinction, both for its strange colours and 
curious, varied forms and a thousand peculiarities of 
its existence. 
Most of these plants do not bear fruit or come to 
seed unless some insect or bird transports the pollen 
to the stigma. Consequently, there is, as a rule, no 
fertilisation and only some few amongst the thou¬ 
sands of flowers fructify. It is true that ever provi¬ 
dent nature has anticipated this in a very simple 
manner. If a fruit happens to die an enormous 
number of seeds escape; they are small, light, 
tenuous as sand, and are easily wafted on the wind 
in all directions. If a single capsule attains maturity 
in a forest the seeds are scattered everywhere; yet, 
by another strange peculiarity, only a very few of 
these seeds will germinate and grow into a new 
plant. The seed is not destitute of the necessary 
germinative power : in fact, the horticulturist, how¬ 
ever little experience he may have, can easily suc¬ 
ceed in growing this seed by placing it in certain 
necessary conditions not difficult to realise. But 
then, as our American comtemporary, The Inde¬ 
pendent, lately remarked, how is it that nature rarely 
procures for these seeds the requisite conditions for 
success ? Why does she take so much trouble and 
give the fruit the faculty of emitting so many seeds 
to end in such poor results ? Let us observe that 
at least the seeds have extraordinary vitality, and 
that they can remain, so to speak, indefinitely exposed 
to the greatest heat and drought without losing any 
