800 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 8, 1904. 
merit should be given by planting in soil of the most suitable 
character*, so asi to encourage length of flowering stems. Where 
it is inconvenient to plant the bulbs in the ordinary herbaceous 
border, a small round bed might be selected for it in the 
pleasure grounds, where everything should be made favourable 
to it by the preparation of the soil previous to the planting of 
the bulb®. 
Meconopsis Wallichii. 
Several names have been given to this Himalayan Poppy- 
wort, including the Blue Poppy and Satin Poppywoirt. 
Although not exactly a Poppy, it is closely allied, being-only 
distinguished from Papaver by the presence of a style on the 
top of the ovary, whereas a true Poppy has no style. The 
Blue Poppy, so called, is* a biennial, and is very handsome 
during the first season if the cultivator succeeds in developing 
strong growth, so that the leaves attain some size before 
autumn. Not only thei leaves*, but the stems, during the 
second year are covered with orange or rusty-looking hairs, 
which give the plant a unique and interesting appearance. 
During the second year the stem reaches a height varying 
from 3 ft. to 4 ft. or 5 ft., and flowers from the axils of the 
upper leaves in succession- Short branches arise in the axils 
of the leaves and expand their flowers in succession, from the 
top 1 downwards. By reason, of this, a long succession, of flowers 
is 1 kept up, so that the plant never at any time becomes over¬ 
crowded with flowers, hut seems as if it intended h> show off 
the individual beauty of each in succession,. Plants raised 
from seed show a considerable variation in the colour of the 
flowers, but we think those varieties are the most beautiful 
where the flowers are of tlie most decided blue without any tint 
of purple. In some individuals the purple is the prevailing 
hue. 
Our illustration shows the top- of a plant, which grew in a 
shady situation, on the rockery at Kew, and serves to give an 
impression of the stately character of this particular specie®. 
Some will have a difficulty with it by the occasional loss of 
some of the plant® during winter occasioned by circumstances 
that can hardly be avoided, owing to the wet, character of 
many of our winters, but, those who succeed in bringing the 
plants through the winter will be well rewarded when the 
plants reach flowering size. It, ripens seed in this country, and, 
being only a biennial, some seedlings' should be raised every 
year, so that a succession of flowering plants may be kept up. 
The seeds should he sown in March in a little warmth, but 
after the seedlings have made a, little growth they should be 
gradually hardened - off by placing them under cooler condi¬ 
tions 1 , and when, the weather is favourable to growth they 
should be planted ini their permanent or flowering position®. 
Rudbeckia Golden Glow. 
This splendid composite is worthy of a. place in, every col¬ 
lection of herbaceous plants. The flower® are perfectly double 
and clear yellow in, colour] and in shape they much resemble a 
small Cactus Dahlia. The flower-stems are stiff, about a foot 
long, which makes it a splendid plant for cutting. It, does not 
seem at all particular as to soil, any good garden soil appearing 
to satisfy its requirements. Here it grows to a height of 
nearly 8 ft., and has been in bloom for two months, and will 
continue for some time yet- It is: easily propagated by division 
in the spring. It is a, variety of R. lacimatus. 
H. Arnold. 
Mushrooms or Toadstools. —The difficulty which the ordinary 
collector has of distinguishing between edible and poisonous 
Agarics is very great, and we are not at all surprised that those 
who are not perfectly familiar with the real article may some¬ 
times make a mistake by eating a poisonous one. This’has 
recently been demonstrated once more by the death ,of two 
children belonging to Cardiff. Other members of the family are 
ill from the same cause, so that the children were not alone 
responsible for the mistake. 
Round the Nurseries. 
The Royal Nurseries, Craigmillar. 
During the second week of Sept,ember we paid a visit to the 
nurseries of Messrs. Dicksons and Co., 1, Waterloo Place, Edin¬ 
burgh. T'he R-oyal Nurseries, Craigmillar, are easily reached 
by tramcar from the post office, the cars placing the visitor 
within easy distance of the nurseries. During the continuance 
of the flower show at Edinburgh a motor car was kept flying 
between the office® in, the city and the nurseries, so that we 
took this opportunity of being placed inside the gates. These 
nurseries extend to 120 acres, and are now in splendid order, 
although the proprietors only commenced to put them in trim 
for public inspection, about, four years ago. 
The previous nurseries of the firm were situated in a part 
of the city that, has, since mostly been built, upon. Messrs. 
Dicksons, therefore, had long been, making preparations for 
the removal of their extensive collections of fruit trees, forest 
trees, and ornamental trees and shrubs. This nursery lias 
now attained a, condition fit for the inspection of anyone. Not 
only are the trees: and stocks of all sorts arranged in admirable 
order, but the ground everywhere wasi perfectly clean,, which 
must have entailed a considerable amount of labour to have 
them in, such excellent ogder a,t the end of the season, when 
people in private garden® even; have almost given u,p keeping 
down the weedsi, which are always plentifully aided by the 
rains: that are frequent in the northern part of Britain. 
As time was pressing, we could only take note® of the sub¬ 
jects which we hurriedly passed, sio that we shall take our 
readers through the various stocks in the same order pursued 
by ourselves. We first, passed through a, fine break of Apple 
trees, three years: old, and in many cases fruiting abundantly. 
This was 1 particularly the case with, James Grieve, the merits 
of Which are just now being recognised. It, is a dessert Apple 
of first-class quality, and is an excellent cropper. Plantations 
of Cherries, including dwarf-trained ones three years old, were 
also in excellent condition. Next to, this came plantation® of 
maiden Apples,, Pears and Plums, all of which bad made ex¬ 
cellent, growth. 
The next plantation through which we passed consisted of 
Apple trees about two years old, and 4 ft- to 5 ft. high, show¬ 
ing that they make vigorous growth in the rich soil here. 
Keswick Codlin was notable for the unusual size of the fiuit. 
Here we noted that 99 per cent- of the budded stocks had 
taken. A plantation, of Pears: three years old varied from 3 ft. 
to' 6 ft. in height, according to varieties. Eveiy row of the 
plantation and practically eveiy plant was of the same height 
as another where the trees were all of the one variety. Marie 
Louise was: only 3 ft. in height, hut, here again all the trees 
were' uniform. 
Further on, we came to another plantation, of Apple: tree®, 
three years old and of wonderful height- Ecklinville Seedling 
stood 6 ft- high. Some of the trees were laden with fruit, 
many of them carrying from ten to twelve Apples on a, tree. 
Lens known was the variety Beauty of Moray, which is a 
dwarfer-growing variety, standing about 21, ft. high and laden 
with fruit. We: presume it- was raised in, the country from 
which it, takes, its* name. The trees of Lord Grosvenor stood 
4 ft- to 5 ft- high. True to its character, Duchess of Olden¬ 
burg was laden with fruit. A plantation of Crab John Downie, 
about, three year® old, stood 5 ft- to’ 6 ft. high, and the dark 
green, colour of the foliage was very notable. 
While passing through the main entrance walk of the nur¬ 
sery, we noted a, splendid collection of Conifers on one side, 
and flowering shrub® on the other. At one end of this walk 
the space is devoted to 1 a collection of all the finest Roses in 
cultivation. The object of thus grouping the principal col¬ 
lections together near the entrance is to facilitate the inspec¬ 
tion, of the subjects grown, by people who have only a, short 
time to spare, and cannot therefore make a journey over the 
nursery to see the several and separate plantations. Amongst 
