604 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July 1, 1899. 
turn is here in numerous plants, full of its branching 
panicles of white and slightly purple blossoms. 
Bamboos are grown in quantity and in many 
varieties. For conservatory decoration and planting 
in suitable spots in congenial localities there is 
nothing better. Palms, of course, are in strong 
evidence, and the Carnations have large houses 
devoted entirely to them. I noticed fine flowers of 
Primrose Day, a charming yellow, full and 
large; Mrs. Clibran, crimson with white edge, a 
robust grower; Countess Ferrars, rosy-pink; and 
W. RobinsoD, scarlet. Many of the Malmaisons are 
over, and preparation is already in progress for the 
layering of some of the earliest plants. Begonias, 
single and double forms, have much space devoted 
to them. Cinerarias must have been good, judging 
by the quality of those yet remaining. Primulas of 
sorts, and show and fancy Pelargoniums are in 
strong evidence in the houses devoted to them. A 
special feature here are the Calceolarias. I was in¬ 
formed some 200 were away at the York show, 
where they secured high honours. The plants are 
dwarf and compact, with short flower stems, on 
which are large heads of splendidly formed blooms. 
Many are self-coloured, the yellows, chestnuts, 
purple, and deep browns being especially good. 
Others are more or less densely spotted on a white 
ground, the whole making a show most pleasing and 
commendable. Messrs. Clibran justly pride them¬ 
selves on their strain of this most useful plant. 
Houses full of Roses are now mostly past their 
first freshness. Ferns in quantity may be seen from 
the houses devoted to little seedlings to the saleable 
plants in 6o's or even larger. Of zonal Pelargoniums 
we passed a fine lot. Midsummer ist Class C. is a 
mottled salmon of a most pleasing shade ; Oldfield 
Surprise, flaming scarlet, large truss with stout 
stalk ; St. Cecil, salmon ; Dr. Nansen, white ; 
Advance Pink; Herrick, salmon-rose; Wordsworth, 
orange scarlet; and others. Among new seedling 
show Pelargoniums was one named Oldfield Defiance, 
which is likely to have a good stay. 
Among dwarf flowering Begonias were two named 
atropurpurea and Vesuvius, of capital shades of rosy 
pink which are most useful for edging in the flower 
garden. 
The herbaceous quarters were gay with colour, 
plants full of vigour, and many just now at their best, 
showing their respective heights, characteristics, 
habits, and colour, by which their position in the 
borders allowed to them can better be assured. 
Pentstemons in many shades, Pyrethrums of sorts. 
Campanulas of which too much cannot be said, use¬ 
ful for the garden and invaluable for cutting, of the 
Oldfield Blue and Oldfield White varieties of C 
persicifolia, of which the flowers are of enormous size 
and fine shape. The area devoted to the herbaceous, 
alpine and bog plants is very large, and the quan¬ 
tities grown of some sirts most surprising. 
The hardy trees and shrubs occupy a large space, 
and other portions of the nursery which I could not 
visit are more particularly devoted to these. At 
Oldfield, however, were many choice Rhododendrons 
as well as the run of usual and well-known kinds. 
The sight of these in fl > wer always gives one an idea of 
singular richness and fulness in a garden ; and, when 
the season is favourable and the plants are well 
established, there is no time in the whole year when 
the pleasure grounds and borders are more attractive. 
Here they are in full flower, and a few varieties 
deserve special attention. George Hardy has blooms 
of immense size, whilst the truss is probably the 
largest white variety grown. This is especially fine 
just now. Helene Schiffner is also a pure white, 
very floriferous, with trusses globular in form, of 
great size and extraordinary substance. Isaac Davies, 
deep velvety crimson, has a large, conical truss. 
John Henry Agnew is of a delicate pale blush with 
deep chocolate blotch. Countess of Clancarty is 
light rosy crimson. Bruce Findlay is rose colour, 
with large black blotch. Beauty of Ormskirk is a 
blush white with dark featherlike blotch, very hand¬ 
some, and considered one of the very best in culti¬ 
vation. Duchess of Connaught is a fine white, extra 
large trusses, beautiful lemon blotches. Duke of 
Portland is, perhaps, the highest coloured scarlet 
yet introduced. James Marshall Brooks has fine 
trusses of rich scarlet. Frederick Waterer is a fiery 
crimson, with large bloom and very compact truss. 
Stanley Davies is a very fine highly coloured variety, 
with rich deep crimson-scarlet, large truss and fine 
habit. Mrs. Isaac Davies is a novelty of great merit, 
of a delicate blush, and having half of the flower 
heavily blotched with dark maroon. Lancashire 
Witch is one of the earliest to bloom, white with 
maroon blotch, large flower and compact truss. 
Others of special merit include many of the Waterer 
section, beside others raised by the late Messrs. 
Davies, of Ormskirk.— S. 
- .g,- 
NOTES IN A CACTUS HOUSE. 
June is one of the best months of the year in which 
to visit the succulent house at Kew A number of 
the curious and interesting plants are in blossom, 
and many which but a few months ago seemed hard, 
dried-up plants, and least worthy of the name of 
succulents now begin again to appear green and 
juicy with the new summer’s growth. 
On entering the house, the first thing one notices 
is the splendid Solanum Wendlandii growing across 
under the roof, and attracting considerable attention 
by its masses of pale lilac blossoms. Among the 
many Opuntias to be seen O. monacantha was in 
bloom. This is a fine species from Brazil, the 
blossoms, about 3 in. across, being of a rich orange 
colour. At the time there were only about a dozen 
flowers full out, but the (plant will present a hand¬ 
some appearance in a short while when the buds 
showing over the fleshy stems are in full bloom. 
Several small specimens of the Grass Gum Tree, 
Xanthorrhoea, were to be seen, while one with a 5-ft. 
stem was in flower. The bare stems with the 
remains of the old foliage, long since cast off, has 
the appearance of being closely thatched, while from 
the apex a plume of loDg, wavy, grass-like leaves 
grow out, and towering about 3 ft. above is the 
blossom, a long brown spike like an enormous 
elongated bulrush. These so-called "grass trees” 
are common in many parts of Australia, and though 
locally termed grasses, belong to the Liliaceae. 
One of these grass trees or grass gums, the Kangaroo 
Grass (Themeda triandra), supplies excellent fodder, 
and beiDg a great drought resisting plant is of great 
use to the colonial farmers. 
Marica caerulea, with its peculiar flowers, like 
flattened out Irises, of a bright blue colour, with 
brown and yellow barred centre, made quite a change 
amongst the curious growths of Cacti, Cereus, 
Agaves, and Aloes, &c., surrounding it. On the side 
staging are several pots of Sempervivum arach- 
noideum ; rarely is the plant seen with the web so 
exquisitely covering the pointed leaves, and giving 
the name of Cobweb Sempervivum. Further down 
the house is to be be seen a large Cereus rostratus, 
trained across the roof. It is now throwing up a 
good deal of young growth, and carries several fine 
white flowers. Near one end of the house a fine 
large plant of Protea cynaroides was in flower. The 
flowers appearing on the terminations of the long 
stems of the plant are of a pale pink colour about 
1 ft. in diameter. A very large quantity of honey is 
found in the nectaries, and gives it the name of 
Honeysuckle in its native habitat, the Cape. 
The only Phyllocacti in blossom were two ver¬ 
milion varieties, Fireball and J. T. Peacock, which 
was rather disappointing after the splendid display 
of these gorgeous flowers at the late Temple Show. 
Pots of Bryophyllum calycinum are seen all round 
on the side staging, mostly in flower. This is a 
very curious plant, especially in the way of propa¬ 
gation ; a leaf taken off and laid anywhere on a 
moist surface in warmth produces young plants all 
round the serrated margin of the leaf, and is some¬ 
times popularly called the resurrection plant. 
Good specimens of Cereus giganteus (Saguarro) 
are ranged along the middle. This is the largest 
growing Cereus known, often attaining a height of 
80 ft. or 100 ft. Other varieties of Cereus were C. 
splendens, C. triangularis, commonly called Straw¬ 
berry Pear. Globular Cacti putting on fresh growth 
are very numerous, and in great variety ; also many 
species of Echeveria and Sedum. 
Aloes, Agaves, Epiphyllums, Yuccas, &c., and 
other cactaceous plants of quaint shape and feature, 
many grossly distorted, others covered with fierce 
spines, often of varied colours, others again coated 
with a patterned network of sharp hair-spines, com¬ 
bine in giving the house a weird and mysterious 
aspect, quite different from houses filled with other 
sorts of plants, and making one almost imagine that 
he is among the wonderful flora of a different world. 
One last observation made while coming out of the 
house was on Testudinaria elephantipes, a remark¬ 
able and peculiar plant; in appearance it resembles 
the back of a tortoise or an armadillo carved in old 
bark or virgin cork (hence its name), while from out 
this mass the new season’s growth appears, long 
green shoots climbing up towards the roof, bare of 
foliage for a considerable distance. The above are 
but a few brief notes made while walking round the 
succulent house in the Royal Gardens, Kew.— J. 
Ethevington, R.H.S. Gardens. 
TOOTHSOME ASPARAGUS. 
To those who have not tried it in the cooked state 
the fine looking Asparagus in the market and shops 
of the retail dealers during the early part of the 
season, when the Continental supplies come over, 
appears tempting enough. The sticks are of great 
thickness, being practically colossal for Asparagus, 
with the tips only in a green state, the rest being 
blanched; and no doubt the bundles fetch fine prices, 
especially during the early part of the season. Con¬ 
noisseurs, however, including gardeners, are now 
beginning to recognise that only a small portion of 
those fine sticks are really eatable, the rest being full 
of fibre, tough and stringy. It is all a mistake to 
bury the crowns of Asparagus deeply in order to 
ensure that the greater length of the sticks will be 
blanched. Not only are these portions uneatable, 
but they constitute a great waste of energy on the 
part of the plants producing them, finally to be 
thrown into the dust-bin after they have been cooked 
and the eatable part utilised. Mr. H. C. Prinsep, 
gardener to the Hon. H. B. Portman, Buxted Park, 
Uckfield, Sussex, is nothing if not a good vegetable 
gardener. He sent us a sample of the Asparagus he 
grows, and the sticks were green almost from the 
base to the apex, and eatable for a like portion of 
their length. A well known authority on a tooth¬ 
some vegetable, to whom we submitted the Aspara¬ 
gus for an opinion, said it was the best he had had ; 
and we know that his experience is both lengthy and 
extensive. Short, green, unblanched and succulent 
sticks are both eatable and richly flavoured, so that 
gardeners need no longer be advised to imitate the 
Continental plan of growing this dainty vegetable. 
The crown of the plant should be near the surface, 
and the sticks cut while young and relatively 
short. 
-—-—• 
BRITISH FERNS AT FALKLAND PARK. 
In the recent appreciative notice of Mr. A. Wright, 
of the Gardens, Falkland Park, South Norwood 
Hill, I was glad to see that a reference was 
made—amongst other things—to his partiality for 
British Ferns. Readers of that commendable 
article will have read, between the lines, that the 
subject is a many-sided man. This is true in sub¬ 
stance and in fact, as witness his taking up so 
generally despised a class of plants for culture under 
glass. Gardeners, professional gardeners, as a rule, 
know nothing and care less, if possible, for these 
hardy denizens of our native wilds. Their duties 
are already too onerous, and the demands upon their 
time and energies so multifarious, that such like 
cultures are usually relegated to the back garden or 
the out-of-the way rockery. As horticulture in all 
its varied branches is now a science of surpassing 
interest, and of laborious work, it is no wonder that 
some of its ramifications are not brought within the 
scope of the average professional man. 
Mr. Wright, however, is certainly not like other 
men, in this respect, inasmuch as he has, somehow 
or other, found time to work up a very respectable 
representative collection of the more interesting and 
beautiful varieties of our native Ferns. 
Mr. Wright, as already stated, became acquainted 
with the species in his youthful days, before he 
crossed the border and came south to fraternise with 
the hated Sassenach. Times have changed, how¬ 
ever, and since then the keen eye of the horticul¬ 
turist has detected so much more beauty in the 
varieties, as objects of his art, that he has positively 
given them a place of honour in a cool and crystal 
home. Mr. Wright’s plants number about 500, 
large and small, many of them exhibiting good 
culture and marked peculiarities. The Lady Ferns 
(Athyriums) perhaps, predominate, and as their 
designation would imply are the most lovely and 
delicately fragile in appearance, by reason of their 
plumose, much-divided, tasselled, or crested 
characteristics. Athyrium Filix-foemina plumosum 
