748 THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Notes on . . . 
! Our Illustrations. 
ON CENTRE SHEET (pages 746 and 747). 
The Purple Heather (Calluna vulgaris). 
The purple Heather of Scotland, no doubt, 
has its headquarters or metropolis in the 
northern part of this island, where it 
assumes its finest form, and forms the 
greatest continuous stretches, and where it 
acquires much of its fame from those who go 
to the hills and moors for the shooting season. 
The homely shrub does, however, thrive in 
practically every part of Britain, from Land’s 
End to John o’ Groats. Indeed, in the south¬ 
west of England it competes for attention 
with a number of other heaths that are con¬ 
fined to that locality. 
In the neighbourhood of London even 
there are some very beautiful heaths, par¬ 
ticularly on the sand formations, including 
the Bag shot sand and the lower green sand. 
Those who have casually taken a stand on 
the top of the chalk hills of Surrey and 
looked down over the lower green sand may 
have been astonished at the difference in the 
vegetation. The purple Heather does not 
like lime in any form, consequently it is not 
to be found on the chalk except that is over¬ 
laid by a good bed of gravel or clay. On the 
sand formation, however, like the Scotch Fir, 
the purple Heather revels. This, then, will 
account for the absence and presence of 
Heather in two adjoining localities in the 
near neighbourhood of London. We present 
our readers with a bouquet of the purple 
Heather as gathered from a common not 
many miles from the borders of the municipal 
county of London. During the month of 
August it was in perfection, perhaps three 
weeks earlier than it would be on the Scotch 
hills. Besides the ordinary form, which we 
illustrate, numerous choice forms have been 
picked up in different parts of the country 
and named and preserved in gardens for 
many years. Almost every one of them is 
worthy of careful cultural treatment in 
gardens. There is even a double form which 
is very choice and pretty. 
A Fine Oriental Poppy (Papaver orientate 
bracteatum Margaret). 
During the past ten or fifteen years con¬ 
siderable activity has been displayed in the 
raising of new varieties of the oriental 
Poppy. Many of these have very little 
resemblance to the original as far as the 
colour is concerned, but many of them are 
certainly very handsome. The variety brac- 
teatum has proved most popular for the pur¬ 
pose of raising new varieties on account of 
the greater size of the flowers. 
The variety which we represent has deli¬ 
cate pink flowers resembling crumpled silk, 
with a black blotch at the base of each petal. 
This also is a development from the variety 
known as bracteatum. The popularity of 
this strain is due to the larger flowers and 
the fact that the stems carry their flowers 
more stiffly erect, without staking, than 
does the original P. orientale. 
June is the month of flowering for this 
race of Poppies, but the present is a very 
suitable time for propagating or increasing 
the plants. Where a large stock is desired 
the whole plant may be lifted and separated 
into as many crowns as possible, with a few 
roots to each. These, if planted out in pro¬ 
perly-prepared soil, will get established 
before winter. If the soil happens to be very 
stiff and inclined to clay, it would be safer, 
perhaps, to pot up each of the crowns and 
keep them in a cold frame till the end of 
March or beginning of April, when they can 
be transferred to their permanent quarters. 
Beds of these Poppies on the grass are very 
effective, and we think the delicately-coloured 
ones would be just as attractive at a distance 
as the ordinary scarlet ones. The bunch of 
flowers which we photographed was in a col¬ 
lection of hardy flowers exhibited by Messrs. 
It. Wallace and Co. at Regent’s Park in 
June. 
Plant for the Lake Margin (Gunnera 
manicata). 
Amongst plants with broad and sub¬ 
tropical looking leaves, few are more effective 
than G. manicata and G. chilensis, better 
knowm as G. scabra. That which we illus¬ 
trate has perhaps the broadest leaves, though 
not the longest stalks. The plant is very 
fond of moisture, and requires it to support 
its immense leaves, which may be 4 ft. to 
5 ft. or more in diameter. For this reason 
a special position must be prepared for the 
plants, unless one has the margin of a stream 
or lake on which to plant it. No more effec¬ 
tive plant can be used than G. manicata if 
planted, on the opposite shore from the 
beholder so that he can look on the face of 
the leaves and see their bold outlines. The 
best plan is to select a position where the 
ground of the plant will be relatively dry 
and the roots dipping down into the 
moisture. 
Hardy Succulents planted to Stand the 
Winter. 
Many of the Cacti are very nearly hardy 
in the more favoured parts of England. The 
chief difficulty, however, in keeping them 
alive during our winter is on account of the 
moisture and the rapid changes from warm 
to cold weather and from snow to rain, etc. 
For this reason some people adopt the plan 
of growing them in a frame for the purpose 
of throwing off the moisture. 
Our illustration shows another contrivance, 
by which they may be grown practically in 
the open air. Behind them is a rocky bank 
with some of the stones projecting forward 
in such a way that they throw off the rain 
and thus leave the roots dry. The specimens 
shown consist chiefly of Opuntias, but some 
of the Cereus of dwarfer habit may also be 
grown under the same conditions. Those 
who adopt this plan would be able to get 
their plants to flower more freely by water¬ 
ing them as they commence to grow. 
Those who are fond of Cacti or take a 
liking for them can grow a considerable 
number of them in the windows of their 
dwelling houses, where it -will certainly be 
easy to keep them sufficiently dry to exist 
throughout the winter without fire heat. 
Enthusiasts for this class of plants even go 
so far as to build a greenhouse for their 
September 23, 1905. 
reception. Another plan that might be 
adopted would be to build -a miniature green¬ 
house as a form of development upon the 
bay window. They would thus have the 
plants continually under their eye, and would 
be surprised at the number of species they 
oould grow satisfactorily under those con¬ 
ditions. 
The Chinese Astilhe (Astilhe chinensis). 
The species of Astilbe belong to the Saxi¬ 
frage family, but they form a connecting 
link between this order and the Rosaceae. 
In the latter family the Spiraeas, but par¬ 
ticularly S. A mucus, form the connecting 
link. To the ordinary observer it is indeed 
very difficult to separate the two ; and, 
indeed, they cannot be separated by the 
naked eye. 
Most of the Astilbes have white or creamy- 
white flowers, but we have now shades 
running through pink to rose and purple or 
violet-purple. The genus Astilbe has pale 
pink flowers, and has come into greater oi 
less prominence recently through the hybrids 
which have been raised with it. While it 
may be said to possess the habit and the sta¬ 
ture of Spiraea floribunda, which we illus¬ 
trated in our supplementary sheet for August 
26th, the flowers are more gracefully arranged 
on more slender spikes. The pink colour, 
when fully brought out, is also an additional 
recommendation by way of contrast with the 
white species. The foliage is also orna¬ 
mental even before and after the plant has 
finished flowering. The plant which we 
illustrate belongs to Messrs. T. S. Ware, 
Limited, Ware’s Nurseries, Feltham, Mid¬ 
dlesex. 
Carnation Enchantress, 
During the past winter and spring a tree 
flowering Carnation was very freely exhi¬ 
bited at the various London exhibitions. 
This was Carnation Enchantress, a delicate 
light pink variety, with flowers of large size 
and charming appearance. One of the most 
notable features about it was the length and 
slender character of the stems. Usually 
these were cut about 2 ft. in length, and the 
upper portion being slender allowed the 
flowers to drop over gracefully. Some years 
ago raisers of Carnations had an idea that 
the acme of perfection was stiff, erect stems, 
so as to carry the blooms erect. This idea 
has recently very much fallen away after 
varieties, of this character had been shown 
with long stems arranged in drooping 
fashion. The decorative effect of Carnations 
shown in this manner appealed to the public 
eye and taste at once. We are therefore 
likely in the near future to see many more 
Carnations raised having this slender droop¬ 
ing habit that can be employed with such 
fine effect for decorative purposes in the cut 
state. The flowers from which our photo¬ 
graph was prepared were given us by Messrs. 
Hugh Low and Co., Bush Hill Park, Enfield. 
Giant Leeks. —Mr. A. M’Clure, gardener, 
Kincraig, Antrim Road, Belfast, has achieved 
a notable horticultural record by producing 
some giant specimens of that indispensable 
domestic vegetable, the Leek. One of the 
Leeks is exactly 4 ft., and the other 3 ft. 7 in. 
long, and the longer one measures 7 in. in 
circumference at the base. It is doubtful 
whether the digestive apparatus of most 
people would be sufficiently strong to pro¬ 
perly assimilate such a monstrous kind of 
Leek. 
