June 13, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
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Ornamental Flowered Gooseberries. 
Everyone is familiar with the ornamental flowered Cun-ants, 
and is fully alive to their value as ornamental flowering shrubs, 
no mixed shrubbery being complete without the several species 
are numbered among the occupants. .The ornamental flowered 
Gooseberries are not, however, so well known, though there are 
several species which are well worth including in a list of good 
shrubbery plants. The majority of the ornamental flowered 
species are American, California claiming most. A species of 
some merit, which bears white flowers, is R. gracile (syn. R. 
niveum). It is a native of the north-western United States, and 
has been cultivated about eighty years. It makes a bush 5 ft. 
or 6 ft. high, armed with stout spines, and bears numerous 
white, pendulous blossoms during April and May. The fruit is 
about the size of a Black Cun-ant, and is purple when ripe. 
The next species to command attention is R. Lobbii, a Cali¬ 
fornian shrub, which is extremely rare in European gardens, 
for, although many nurserymen catalogue it, very few have the 
correct plant. In general appearance it is very like the 
common Goosebeny when out of flower, the leaves being very 
similar in shape, but not so hairy. The spines are borne in 
threes, the largest of the three being about J in. long. The 
flowering period is April and May. The flowers are borne two 
or three together in a pendulous position from the under-side 
of the branches. They are fairly large, and consist of a dark 
red calvx—which, when the flower is fully expanded, is re- 
flexed—and a corolla of small white petals. The individual 
flowers last in good condition for a considerable time. The 
fruit is said to ripen in July in America, and to be pleasant to 
the taste. R. subvestitum is a synonym of Lobbii. 
R. Menziesii is a f'-ee-flowering, tall, strong-growing species 
from western North America. It is of more upright habit than 
the previous mentioned, and grows quite 8 ft. in height. The 
spines are borne in threes, and are stout and formidable. The 
flowers are borne in profusion in April and May, and consist 
of reddish sepals and rather prominent white petals. It was 
introduced in 1830, and has been known under the name of R. 
ferox. 
R. pinetorum. —This species is new to cultivation in this 
country. It has flowered this year, and when well established 
and in its best form should prove a useful shrub. The growths 
are strong, the leaves large, and the spines numerous and large. 
Flowers are borne in early April, and are fairly large, and light 
brown in colour. 
R. speciosnm. —This is a Californian species, and is the most 
showy of all that have been mentioned. It has been called R. 
fuchsiodes, and is till often spoken of as the “Fuchsia- 
flowered Gooseberry.” It was introduced in 1829, but does not 
at any time appear to have become very common, though it is 
quite hardy, flowers freely annually, and is suitable alike for a 
bush in the open ground or for planting against a wall. It 
grows about 7 ft. high in the open—much taller against the 
wall. The branches are intensely spiny, some of the spines 
being little more than stiff hairs, while others are sharp and 
strong. The flowers are pendulous, and scarlet in colour, with 
long protruding filaments, which, with the style, are scarlet. 
Two flowers are usually borne together on a slender stem, on 
which are small scarlet bracts. The flower stalk and the bases 
of the sepals are thickly covered with short reddish hairs. The 
flowering period extends from March until June, blossoms being 
particularly plentiful during May. 
The cultivation of all these species is simple ; cuttings of all 
root readily if made about 9 in. in length in winter, and planted 
m a border out of doors. Young plants should be cut back occa¬ 
sionally when young to induce a bushy habit, and old plants 
should have an occasional thinning. They will grow well in 
any garden soil, but if the ground is poor they should be given 
some manure. Anyone desiring a change of shrubs in a shrub- 
ery, or anyone who is planting a new shrubbery, would do well 
to remember these. W. Dallimore. 
Begonia Fairy. 
The flowers of the above tuberous Begonia are of large size, 
with broad petals beautifully crimped or even slightly goffered 
and arranged round a single centre, so as to form a regular 
flower, which may be compared to a Hollyhock by reason of 
the wavy character of the petals. The colour of the flowers is 
yellow tinted with salmon. This latter effect, coupled with 
the narrowness of the leaves and their silvery-gray veins, 
points to the influence of B. Pearcei as being one of the parents 
or principally instrumental in its origin. This fine variety was 
exhibited at the recent Temple Show by Messrs. Blackmore 
and Langdon, Twerton Hill Nursery, Bath. The photograph 
from which our illustration was prepared was taken at their 
nursery. 
Tulip Greigi. 
As a wild plant introduced to cultivation this must be con¬ 
sidered one of the largest, if not the largest flowered Tulip we 
have. When fully expanded, as shown in our illustration, the 
Begonia Fairy. 
flowers often measure 5in. across. In the last stages of the 
plant the inner segments also spread out more or less, but we 
do not look upon this condition of it as its most, handsome. It 
is characteristic of the species that the three outer segments 
should be recurved while the inner ones close over the centre. 
This form of flower does not conform to the canons of the 
florist, which are best represented by T. gesneriana, which has 
been cultivated for centuries, and selected with the object of 
getting the segments as round as possible and the flowers of 
regular cup shape. For garden decoration, however, and 
effective display, T. Greigi will take a lot of beating. 
The flowers in the ordinary form are of a bright orange 
scarlet, but several varieties have be’en selected and special 
names given to them, but except as mere variations they could 
hardly be said to excel the type. Several of them are charac¬ 
terised by the orange colour being more or less washed out, 
leaving orange blotches or zones upon a yellow ground. We 
have also seen a flower in a bed of the ordinary form distinctly 
tinted with rose. The other feature of interest about the 
