54 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 26, 1896. 
May. A native of Mexico, it was introduced to this 
country in 1841, under the name of Mina lobata, 
under which name, also, it is noticed and described 
in vol. vi of the " Floricultural Magazine,” 1841-2, 
as a convolvulaceous plant of great beauty and more 
singularity. It was introduced by G. F. Dickson, 
Esq., who presented its seeds to the Earl of 
Burlington, whose gardener, Mr. Wilson, succeeded 
in raising one specimen plant and flowered it on 
November, 1841. On the same authority the 
Mexicans are said to cultivate it for the beauty of its 
flowers. — A. Pentney. 
-- 
POTATOS. 
In The Gardening World the other week (p. 24), 
I see that the editor is inviting people to send 
particulars of any heavy crop of Potatos they may 
have lifted this season. I lifted a root the other day 
that turned the scale at 14 lbs. ; the variety being 
Holborn Abundance. It is one of the best all-round 
Potatos grown, being a heavy cropper, disease-resist¬ 
ing, and a splendid Potato when cooked. There are 
two varieties of Holborn Abundance, quite different 
from each other ; but the one that I am writing 
about, I bought direct from Jas. Carter & Co., High 
Holborn, London, five years ago, and I have never 
found a diseased tuber yet.— Thos. Cockerill, Gate 
House, W irkswortli, Derbyshire. 
--*•- 
SEED FARM AT ORPINGTON. 
The other week we paid a visit to the seed farm of 
Messrs. Dobbie & Co , OrpiDgtoD, Kent, when it 
rained more or less all day, so that we had to pick 
our way about between showers. The early part of 
the season had been altogether too dry for this part 
of Kent ; but nevertheless a good harvest of the 
earlier kinds of seed had been made. 
Work out of doors being impossible and useless, 
the workmen were mostly busy in the seed-drying 
houses, threshing and cleaning the seeds which were 
laid about everywhere in canvas, bags, trays, boxes, 
papers, etc. Something like seventy to seventy five 
varieties of Sweet Peas are grown here, including the 
best of the new sorts. A good harvest of Cupid has 
been made, but here, as elsewhere, it has the fault of 
producing too short flower stalks. Here, too, were 
Candytuft in quantity, Gaillardias in variety, Geum 
coccineum atrosanguineum, Clarkias, and Antirrhi- 
nums, including Yellow Queen with large and 
prepossessing yellow flowers. Coreopsis grandiflora 
is an excellent hardy perennial for beds, cut flowers, 
etc., produces seeds freely and germinates readily. 
In the way of vegetables we noted Dobbie’s Selected 
Parsnip and Intermediate Carrot, the roots of which 
are graded and sorted according to quality before 
planting. 
Several things are being grown in the houses, pits 
and frames for seed, including a very good strain of 
single tuberous Begonias. Celosia pyramidalis 
Thompsoni is a fine strain with rich crimson 
plumes now ripening their seed. In another part of 
the same house are some mixed strains of Celosias 
with crimson, yellow, orange, straw-coloured, and 
golden yellow plumes. There is a fine dwarf strain 
of Cockscombs in frames over shallow beds of 
manure. Here one may see crimson, scarlet, rose, 
bronze, orange, yellow, straw-yellow, and white 
varieties, many of them being very beautiful indeed. 
Florists’ Flowers. 
A considerable quantity of Dahlias of the leading 
sections finds a place at Orpington, including new 
varieties being tried. Yellow Globe is a wonderfully 
floriferous show variety of relatively dwarf habit. 
Florence Blundell is a fancy variety, striped with 
purple and rose on a white ground. Mrs. Stephen 
Walker is a blush-white, show variety of fine form. 
The new Cactus Dahlia Miss Webster is a vigorous 
growing, free-flowering white variety which has been 
honoured with twelve certificates as a Cactus Dahlia 
and one as a decorative sort. Mrs. Peart, creamy- 
white with a yellow centre, and Mrs. Francis Fell, a 
purer variety, together with Miss Webster constitute 
a trio of Cactus Dahlias with white flowers. Fabio, 
orange with bright crimson edge ; Purity, white ; and 
Nerissa, rich rose, and the best of its type, are 
excellent pompons we noted. Not far from the same 
place was a much larger collection of Dahlias, 
including many of the choicest varieties of the show, 
Cactus, decorative and single types. In another 
plantation we noted Glow-worm, scarlet ; Yellow 
Globe, and Cherub, a buff-yellow variety, all flower¬ 
ing more profusely than the rest. The earwigs do 
not seem to molest them, although thousands have 
proved very destructive to the other old varieties. 
Some 3,000 seedlings of single varieties were planted 
and include some fine varieties. 
Carnations are grown in quantity and comprise all 
the best of the border varieties. The new yellow 
Miss Audry Campbell does well here. As is well 
known, Messrs. Dobbie & Co. possess a very large 
collection of Phloxes, many of which are undoubtedly 
fine. The modern improvements are noted for their 
dwarf habit. Lemoine’s new varieties may also be 
seen here. Choice and showy are Lawrence, white ; 
Laniborre, carmine with a paler eye ; and B. Comte, 
crimson-purple ; all having flowers of great size. 
China Asters. 
A considerable industry has sprung up in the cultiva¬ 
tion of China Asters for seed in this country. They 
are well represented on the Orpington seed farm of 
the firm. Something like 70,000 seedlings were 
planted out, including 18,000 of the Victoria Aster of 
all colours, and which have done splendidly not¬ 
withstanding the dry summer. The white, crimson, 
and blue are useful for exhibition and bedding 
purposes. There are yellow, blue, and light rose 
varieties which are very early. After picking out the 
best of some twenty-six varieties of the dwarf German 
Asters, the list was reduced to eighteen good sorts. 
About 12,000 Quilled Asters, in twenty-six varieties, 
were planted, and most of the sorts are really very 
fine. They include Jubilee, lilac with a white centre ; 
Lord Salisbury, blue and white ; OxoniaD, blue- 
purple with a white centre ; Grace Darling, pink, 
most floriferous and true to character ; Duke of 
Buccleuch, a large, deeply built, pink flower ; Red 
Globe, a showy large dark red variety, quite new; 
Princess of Wales, soft red ; and Duchess of Albany, 
a late white variety. The Yellow Aster is decidedly 
distinct and worthy of all encouragement. The 
quilled Asters stand the wet weather quite as well or 
better than any other type. The Comet strain, like 
the last, is very handsome, and is comparable to 
the long-petalled Japanese Chrysanthemums. The 
Bride is white tinted with blush, and deepens with 
age. Altogether there are twelve of the dwarf and 
eight of the tall varieties, the latter being the newest. 
The dwarf Chrysanthemum Asters run to seven 
varieties, and are notable for their large blooms. 
There will be a heavy harvest of seed provided the 
weather is favourable to its ripening. Very pretty 
is the Aster named Mignon, with white flowers. It 
is one of the earliest and suitable for bedding or for 
pot culture. 
Pansies and Violas. 
A large quantity of different strains of decorative 
Pansies are grown for seed. Two of the best strains 
are Bronze and Peacock ; the former fills eight large 
beds, and the flowers are bronze, red, crimson, 
and iron-brown, like a shade often seen in the Wall¬ 
flower. All the finer varieties are very handsome. 
The same good qualities may be attributed to Pea¬ 
cock, of which there are nine large beds exhibiting a 
great variety of showy types, including light and 
dark blue shaded with crimson or purple. 
Fiery Faces form a strain with dark flowers, and 
appear to be a selection from that named Bronze. 
All are useful for garden decoration. 
Violas constitute one of the specialities of the firm, 
and are grown in large numbers. We noted a very 
few of them only, and they were the varieties which 
stood the test of the dry weather better than the rest, 
and were still flowering profusely when we saw them. 
Artificial watering was entirely out of the question, 
so that the varieties under notice may be regarded 
as suitable for cultivation even in the sunny south. 
Wm. Niel is still the best of the rose-coloured 
varieties. Yellow sorts were well represented by 
Ardwell Gem and Lord Elcho ; while White Duchess 
and Duchess of Fife—the former a sport from the 
latter—stood the edged varieties in good stead. Max 
Kolb, very dark, and Archibald Grant, even darker, 
upheld the reputation of the violet-blue varieties. 
True Blue was in equally fine form. Lady Dun- 
donald was the freest of the white varieties. J. B. 
Riding is a dark rosy-purple of considerable beauty 
for those who like this colour. Dawn of Day was 
flowering as freely as ever we have seen it. Indeed 
the whole of the above were flowering profusely on 
the 10th inst. 
Miscellaneous Flowers. 
Near the Pansies was a fine lot of Verbenas raised 
from seed, and showing a grand mixture of white, 
rose, blue, purple, and violet colours, many of the 
varieties having white eyes. From a packet of seed 
a fine display can therefore be secured without the 
trouble of taking cuttings. Golden Gem is a very 
dwarf and bushy variety of Mignonette. Marigolds 
in quantity and variety were producing a heavy 
harvest of seed, and flowering at the same time. 
Here a fine strain of striped French Marigold may 
be seen, one which has been carefully selected for 
many years. The Dwarf French Orange was both 
dwarf, floriferous, and of a deep orange. Tall French 
Marigolds were to be seen in quantity. Orange and 
lemon African Marigolds are grown to great perfec¬ 
tion. The Scotch Marigolds, a term applied to the 
selected forms of Calendula officinalis, were in grand 
form, and we could not but admire Orange King, of 
a rich orange, almost orange-scarlet, and a very 
conspicuous feature even at a distance. Sulphur 
Crown is of huge size, but rather flat. Here we 
noted some very perfect samples of Hen-and-Chicken 
Marigolds. Orange Globe and Lemon Scotch are 
the neatest and most perfect forms of Calendula 
officinalis we have seen; they are of the colours 
indicated by the name, but the florets are tipped 
with black, and all beautifully and closely imbricated. 
Antirrhinums are well represented by dwarf or 
Tom Thumb and tall strains both mixed. Firefly is 
crimson with a white tube and Beauty is crimson 
with a yellow tube ; both are handsome for tedding 
purposes. Some yellow varieties and the dwarf 
Yellow QueeD, with large and finely built flowers, 
had been two years in the ground and were most 
floriferous. They might be more freely utilised than 
they are. Scabiosa atropurpurea and the common 
Balsam, the latter being double, were largely grown 
for the production of seed. The Sweet Peas had 
not all been harvested ; something like two and three- 
quarter acres of them are grown. The large-flowered 
Helianthus Miss Mellish, was very conspicuous with 
its black centre. The brilliant scarlet flowers of 
Lobelia Firefly were choice and beautiful. Eucomis 
puncfata was still flowering and very pretty with its 
violet centre. Hardy perennials are very extensively 
grown at Orpington, there beiDg about six acres of 
them, including the fine named varieties of 
Delphiniums, Phloxes, and Pyrethrums. Of the 
latter, something like, ii,coo are planted. 
Vegetables. 
In the course of our ramble over the ground we noted 
large plantations of Onions and Leeks, grown for 
seed. The exhibition bulbs of the former had been 
pulled up but were still lying upon the ground. They 
had been sown under glass in January last and 
planted out in the usual way. Dobbie's Golden 
Globe was of great size, and the same might be said 
of all the usual exhibition varieties. A cross had 
been made with Dobbie’s Selected Blood Red and 
Cranston’s Excelsior, and the progeny was inter¬ 
mediate in colour, and very much larger than the 
old Blood red. Of sixteen varieties of Tomatos tried, 
The Conference had proved the best for outdoor 
culture for it was heavily laden with fruit Cab¬ 
bages and Kales are largely grown for seed on widely 
separated parts of the ground. Dobbie’s Victoria 
Kale is of medium height, rich green and finely 
curled. Dobbie’s Selected Parsley is grown to the 
extent of one and a half acres, which should indicate 
the demand for this finely curled variety. 
--- 
DERIVATION OF SCUTELLARIA. 
Concerning the lively discussion that was carried 
on in our pages till quite recently, a correspondent 
writes as follows :—" With regard to the Scutellaria 
controversy, I wish the Editor would tell his un¬ 
learned readers who is right. I pass my Gardening 
World on to my under men, and one of them is 
quite excited over the discussion and looks for each 
disputant’s argument almost as eagerly as for the 
result of a cricket match at Lords, in his “Star.” 
Paradoxical as it may seem we feel inclined to give 
the palm to both, for as far as we can make out, the 
main issue (leaving aside minor outgrowths from the 
question and its bearings) was argued from two 
different points of view. One contended that the 
best Latin authority should be followed, and in this 
we would give due consideration to the authority of 
the best classical scholar. New dictionaries, even 
upon such an ancient language as Latin, if compiled 
by our best authorities, are of more weight than old 
ones, simply because discovery and research has 
enabled the scholar to arrive at a better under¬ 
standing of the dead language. If a good Latin 
