January 2, 1909. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
9 
Primula Sieboldii alba magnifica. Maclaren and Sons. 
R Handsome Hardy Primula. 
Primula Sieboldii alba magnifica. 
other of the S. Sedenii group, S. conchi- 
feitim, S. grande and S. nitidissimum are 
among tlie best hybrids of their particular 
class, and as the whole of this section pro¬ 
duce their flowers on the same stem in suc¬ 
cession they continue in bloom for a pro¬ 
longed period and are thus useful in afford¬ 
ing a succession of flowering plants. 
Coelogynes. 
Coelogyne cristata, including C. c. alba, 
may be induced to .'-flower practically at any 
■ season from Christmas to April. The 
flowers are exceedingly useful in January 
and February, but to get the plants in 
bloom thus early -in- .the season it becomes 
necessary to have a stove or forcing house 
for the purpose, as this is. outside the 
ayerage amateur’s facilities; they may be 
left in the intermediate hcuse to flower at 
a later period. In the immediate neighbour¬ 
hood of large towns and in smoky manu¬ 
facturing districts this is desirable. In 
fact, to grow and flower C. cristata satis¬ 
factorily it is desirable to retard their 
flowering until .March, for even where the 
flower scapes are in an advanced state, dur¬ 
ing a dense fog it-will generally' be found 
that the scapes turn black and pulpy, and 
rarely are they induced to expand their 
flowers afterwards. 
Early-Flowering Dendrobiums. 
The Dendrobiums, that is to say, the early- 
flowering kinds of the deciduous section, if 
examined, will nowT>e found to have their 
flower buds advancing to a prominent state. 
Care must be taken not to tread these plants 
too liberally or instead of flowers growths 
will proceed from the sides of the pseudo- 
bulbs. The early-flowering varieties of D. 
nobile, D. aureum (hetroCarpum), D. Cas- 
siope, and the numerous varieties of the 
D. Ainsworthii type are all useful for this 
purpose. The Mexican Laelias, especially 
L anceps in its numerous coloured and 
white types, are exceedingly useful early in 
the new year. Where these can be induced to 
grow and flower well they should be exten¬ 
sively cultivated, for there is nothing more 
attractive at this season of the y'-ear. As 
they are not favourites with many of the 
prominent Orchid enthusiasts they are 
easily procurable. 
H. J. Chapman. 
-- 
French Gardening. 
In view of the success of the intensive 
system of culture in other parts of Eng¬ 
land, French gardening is to be tried by 
the Lancashire County Council, at their 
farm, at Hutton, at a cost for the first 
year of ^50. 
Fowls as Pest Destroyers. 
Writing in “The Field,” Mr. J. W, 
Hurst says: “During a recent visit to the 
holding of a large and successful fruit 
and flower grower, who is also an en¬ 
thusiastic poultry breeder, I noticed a 
brood of cpiite young chickens busily 
, occupied among the Chrysanthemums, 
‘ and learnt that they were purposely 
placed there to destroy the earwigs. The 
1 old hen, no doubt from long experience, 
fully' understood the possibilities of the 
I situation, and deftly tapped the stems of 
the plants shaking out the insects to pro¬ 
vide food for her brooch This is only' 
one instance of the manner in which 
poultry keeping may' be made comple¬ 
mentary to horticultural and agricultural 
pursuits, the chickens when .they grew 
too large for the. neighbourhood of such 
plants being removed to other sections 
of the holding to continue their similar 
pest destroying work.” . . - 
At one time Primula Sieboldii was 
placed under P. cqxtusoides and con¬ 
sidered a variety of that species. Long 
ago,, however, the botanists were agreed 
that P. Sieboldii was very distinct, seeing 
that it has gi ven rise t0 so many beauti¬ 
ful varieties under cultivation having 
blooms several times the size of any that- 
have arisen from P. cortusoides. 
The variety under notice is distin¬ 
guished by having large, pure white, 
beautifully fringed flowers. The plant is 
also of a very dwarf habit when grown 
under cool conditions. The plant is 
really hardy and deciduous, but if not 
disturbed while the leaves have/died away 
it will spring up again on the return of 
spring. The flowers are so handsome 
that many people are tempted to grow 
them in pots and pans, so that they can 
shelter them in. cold frames and get the 
flowers in the finest condition during 
April and the early part of May, when 
our climate is very often unsettled. When 
planted in the open, however, the. flower 
stems are dwarfer and the flowers appear 
later, and if not so large, they are. never- 
thelesss very handsome. Our illustration 
of: this variety was prepared from a photo¬ 
graph taken in the nursery of Messrs. 
Barr and Sons, at Long Ditton, Surrey, 
on the 12th May' last. 
- - 
Dendrobium Coelogyne striatum. 
The sepals and narrow petals of this 
variety are heavily striped with purple on 
a pale yellow ground. The lip is black¬ 
ish maroon, forming a strange contrast. 
Award of Merit by the R.H.S., when 
shown"by’Mr. H. A. Tracy, Orchid Nur¬ 
sery, Twickenham.- 
Heating Apparatus. 
Messrs. Jones and Attwood. Heating 
Specialists, Stourbridge, have issued the 
'thirty-fifth edition of . their Pocket Cata¬ 
logue of heating apparatus. It is pro¬ 
fusely illustrated with various designs 
showing how to fit up the same in houses 
of various size : s and shapes. In the ab¬ 
sence of a stoke-hole, such as is required 
in large establishments, the boiler is 
always set up either as part of the wall 
or: entirely outside of the wall of the 
house, so that no fumes can enter when 
stoking is being done. The' method of 
doing rhi'- is well shown. 
