Feb. 1, 1904 
regions of these colonies, that there is no 
reason why this handsome shrub, with its 
white, myrtle-like blossoms, followed by its 
wealth of scarlet fruit, should not be in 
every shrubbery. When ripe, the fruit 1- 
juicy and piquant, and in this state it 
forms a conserve, which has a delightful . 
perfume and flavor, like the conserve of 
Dog Rose hips. 
sandy soil on a hot-bed, and the plants, 
when they are large enough to handle, may 
be pricked. off in pots for a month or two, 
when they will be ready to transplant to 
the borders. This fruitis the Brazilian 
Cherry, and will do well. 
SLUGS AND SIGHS. 
A little boy, in preparing an essay on 
“Slugs,” said: “The slug is an animal with- 
out legs : that accounts for its being so 
slow. Its slowness, however, is only in 
movement. The way it can get round a 
flower bed and devour the best things is 
an eye-opener, especially. as it is invisible 
when the flower owner comes along.”’ 
Ycs, indeed! it is an eye-opener, and.a 
mouth-opener _ to. These . pestiferougs 
prowlers must have heard that we were 
coming to our new garden. Previously 
there was nothing worth eating; but now 
-——well, I should say the brutes came right 
through by the first express, bringing all 
their "relations with them. I put up a 
notice warning them off, but they took no 
heed whatever. Rather did they let them- 
selves go all out. It is slugs to the right, 
slugs to the left, slugs on the lawn, and 
slugs in the frames. 
T have dusted with lime, 
with soot, I snip every specimen of the 
gluttonous fraternity that I see, yet so 
many nooks and crannies exist that I al- 
most despair. 
Had TI not taken the precaution to sow a 
potful of each sort of Sweet Pea, IT should 
be wallowing in tears. 
Why do not the demoniacal finches and 
starlings tackle the vermin instead of add- 
ing tomy labors? And if they are incom- 
petent, let the robins, the wood pigeons, 
the crows, the blackbirds, the linnets, and 
the wagtails have a try. 
There is one consolation: A number of 
slugs found their way into geek pheerls. 8 
gardens instead of mine.—T. A. Y 
NARCISSUS EMPRESS: 
There is probably no Daffodil of the 
bicolor section that is a greater favorite 
than Empress, which combines in a marked 
degree the properties of refinement and 
size. The flower has pure white segments, 
of much substance, and a pure yellow trum- 
pet that recurves slightly at the charm- 
ingly frilled mouth. Empress is one of 
the most vigorous of the whole section, and 
is suitable for pot culture, borders, beds, 
or naturalising in grass. The fact that 
Empress is an old variety which has not 
been superseded in these days of highly- 
priced novelties, speaks volumes for its ex- 
cellence, and of the hold it has secured in 
general esteem.’ 
new ones, I should ’still say plant Narcissus 
Empress.—D. We 
The seed grows freely in | 
I have dusted 
Nothwithstanding the ’ : : 
’ flowering, but by keeping them steadily 
- growing all the year round. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
‘SAXIFRAGA GUILDFORD > 
SEEDLING. 
The introduction of Saxifraga Rhei, has 
brought with it, in course of time, some 
lovely varieties, either seedlings or sports 
of it, and S. muscoides atropurpurea, of a 
better color than they. The term “better” 
is used in a narrow sense, inasmuch as it 
refers to depth of color alone, and is not 
intended as a disparagement of the pretty 
tints of S. Rhei. How many of these 
forms are really distinct I cannot venture 
to say at present, but one which has se- 
cured deserved praise is what is known as 
S. Guildford Seedling, a plant with the 
character of S. Rhei, but with deep crim- 
son colored flowers. I have just been into 
my garden to look at it again before writ- 
ing this note, and, making all allowance 
for one’s enthusiasm, one can safely say 
that it is a charming thing, which will, in 
course of time, as the plant becomes larger, 
give the garden a fresh feature of interest 
and pleasure. It appears to resemble 
greatly one not yet generally introduced, 
which is called §. Fergusoni, though S. 
Guildford Seedling seems to have larger 
and more finely colored flowers. However, 
S. Fergusoni has not been long enough here 
to warrant a fair comparison. It seems 
almost superfluous to say that 5S. Guildford 
Seedling hails from that garden of hardy 
flowers at Guildford over which the late 
Mr. Selfe Leonard presided with so much 
enthusiasm and knowledge. It is of the 
mossy section, and easily grown almost 
anywhere. 
SHOULD CYCLAMENS BE RESTED 
My earliest: experience of gardening was 
gained many years ago under a_practi- 
tioner of the old school, who, gardener-like, 
had tremendous faith in the soundness of 
his own methods, but not much opinion of 
the ways of others if they differed at all 
from his own. The Persian Cyclamen of 
twenty odd years ago was not the flower it 
is to-day, yet the old gardener in question 
grew some fine specimens, and when the 
plants were in flower the greenhouse con- 
taining them was a sight worth seeing. 
The process adopted was that of drying 
off and resting the plants after they had 
flowered. ‘The supply of water was gradu- 
ally lessened until it. was stopped alto- 
gether, and after the leaves had died off 
the pots were packed carefully away, and 
the corms treated to their annual rest. T 
do not think it would have been possible 
to persuade the gardener that his favorite 
plants could be grown so well on ae other 
principle than his own, though I am not 
sure whether he was aware thats any other 
system existed. 
A. few years ago, however, he received a 
severe shock, avd it happened in this way. 
He chanced to be paying a visit to a 
Cyclamen growing friend whose plants 
were a trifle better than anything he had 
ever grown himself. © Gardener-like, he 
asked how they were treated, and was ex- 
tremely astonished to learn that the magni- 
ficent results were obtained not by his 
own method of resting the plants after 
There is no 
5 
creature in Christendom who is harder to 
conyince than an old gardener, and it was — 
not until the individual in. question had 
proved for himself that the Cyclamen is 
amenable to any other course of treatment 
than the one he had followed so long, that 
he would have faith in the non-resting 
system. 
Though opinions still differ as to the best 
means of growing Cyclamens, every year 
less faith is now pinned on the drying off 
and resting of the corms, which was at one 
time considered to be essential to success. 
In fact, illustrations prove that the Cycla- 
men is anything but a lazy plant, and does © 
not want to sleep away a couple of months 
of the summer if the necessary conditions 
are given for keeping it growing. On the 
other hand, it enjoys activity, and if after 
flowering the plants are kept steadily grow- 
ing through the summer in a cool frame, 
the way they respond in sending up flower 
spikes the following season shows how they 
appreciate the treatment. 
Probably these lines will meet the eye of 
some champion of the resting process, and 
though he would be quite justified i in tak- 
ing up cudgels on behalf of his view, before 
doing so let me ask him to give the non- 
resting method a trial. I have been the 
means of persuading several incredulous 
Cyclamen growers to do it, and in no in- 
stance has one gone back to the old way.— 
VERNON. 
‘THE SHASTA DAISY. 
We have this season seen some lovely 
specimens of this flower, and we are now 
more prepared to endorse the rather extra- 
vagant praises given it in America in 1902 
and 1903 than we were when it, flowered 12 
months ago. Some -plants now in bloom 
at Mr. Michael Hawker’s fine garden at 
Aldgate, in this State, certainly bear out 
most of the contentions of its introducer, 
Luther Burbank, of California. In our 
opinion it is destined to be one of the finest. - 
florist’s flowers ever introduced. Long 
stems, thin and willowy, not thick and 
stiff like the Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
mum.. The yellow centre of the flower is 
small, while the outside rays of pure white 
petals are gracefully arranged, being long 
and in many cases spent curled. The 
plants grow only about 2 ft. high, the 
flower stems rising straight fr om the clump 
of roots. It is in flower for several weeks 
from December onward. _ The further 
facts of its being a perennial and thoroughuly 
hardv on the plain will further commend 
it to lovers of both good and new flowers. 
Many of the new things are simply new, 
and that is the best that can be said of 
them. That, however, is not the case with 
the Shasta Daisy. : 
ALYSSUM SAXATILE FL. PL. - 
In May gardens are bright with the 
mounds of yellow given by Alyssum saxa- 
tile, the Rock Madwort, which goes so well 
with the white of the Arabises and Iberises, 
and the purple of the majority of the 
Aubrietias in bloom at the same time in 
the rock garden. It is wellmamed, in. 
addition to Rock Madwort, the Gold Dust, 
for the small fiowers so clos:ly cevering 
