March  15,  169$. 
JOURNAL  OR  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
255 
With  regard  to  the  getting  of  the  fruit  I  have  no  difficulty  at 
all,  a»  abundance  of  air  is  admitted  whenever  practicable,  and  after 
the  1st  of  May  an  inch  of  air  is  kept  on  night  and  day  all 
round  the  house.  This  keeps  the  plants  dry  and  prevents  any 
condensation  on  the  leaves,  which  if  allowed  is  a  certain  source 
of  danger.  The  plants  are  never  syringed  and  no  water  is  put 
on  the  floor,  but  the  house  is  kept  as  dry  as  possible,  and  up 
to  the  present  time  I  have  had  no  trouble  with  eelworm,  spot, 
or  fungoid  pests. 
I  secure  my  wood  ashes  by  burning  all  garden  refuse  and 
pruning.  I  have  a  cartload  at  the  present  time. 
As  the  household  bread  is  baked  in  the  scullery  twice  a  week 
in  a  brick  oven  heated  with  sticks,  I  get  about  a  peck  of  char¬ 
coal  at  a  time  direct  from  these.  I  have  secured  about  half  a 
cartload  daring  the  autumn  and  winter. 
Abont  twenty  sheep  are  slaughtered  during  the  winter,  and 
the  blood  is  caught  each  time.  This  is  mixed  with  dry  sand  to 
absorb  it  instead  of  chemicals,  and  so  I  get  my  blood  manure 
— and  Tomatoes. — Wm.  West  Chapman. 
HARDY  FLOWER  NOTES. 
Lion-like  has  come  in  this  month  of  March,  and  we  can  only 
hope  that  the  old  adage  may  prove  true,  and  that,  as  it  has  come  in 
like  a  lion,  it  may  go  out  like  a  lamb.  It  may  be  so,  but  in  the 
meantime,  as  I  write,  it  is  truly 
“  Amazonian  March,  with  breast  half  bare, 
And  sleety  arrows  whistling  through  the  air.” 
And  we  gaze  compassionately  upon  the  flowers,  which  look  up 
beseechingly  as  if  praying  these  showers  to  cease  their  pitiless  fall. 
They  remind  us  of  the  words  of  Ossian  : — 
“  The  flower  hangs  its  head,  waving  at  times  to  the  gale.  Why 
dost  thou  awake  me,  0  gale  ?  it  seems  to  say.  I  am  covered  with 
the  drops  of  heaven.  The  time  of  my  fading  is  near,  the  blast 
that  shall  scatter  my  leaves.”  And  we  mourn  at  the  thought  of  the 
beauty  which  is  suffering  defacement  so  that  soon  these  delicate 
forms  may  only  be  the  semblance  of  their  former  selves.  But  why 
need  we  linger  in  the  valley  of  melancholy  ?  for  there  are  enfolding 
before  our  eyes  other  flowers  to  be  our  sweet  consolers. 
Fair  are  these  flowers  and  wise,  too,  are  many,  for  they  come 
with  drooping  heads  and  wand-like  stalks  which  bow  before  the 
storm  and  thus  deprive  it  of  its  power  ;  and  they  shelter  in  nooks 
and  corners  where  they  are  not  exposed  to  the  full  fire  of  these 
arrows  of  the  air  winged  by  the  bows  of  March.  So  do  we  think 
as  we  look  lovingly  on  these  fair  Daffodils  which  with  unsurpassed 
gracefulness  and  tints  of  soft  golden  colour  have  come  to  grace  our 
garden’s  bounds,  and  nod  to  and  fro  as  if  enjoying  the  storms 
which  transform  the  gay  Crocus  into  a  soaked  and  colourless 
wreck. 
Brave  and  hardy  are  these  early  Daffodils,  as  they  are  fair,  and 
with  the  coming  of  these  skirmishers  we  are  forced  to  throw  open 
to  them  the  citadel  of  the  heart  so  that  the  succeeding  host  may 
find  free  entrance.  They  tell  us  of  a  time  of  rare  delight  when 
among  the  garden’s  treasures  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  Daffodils 
shall  mingle  with  the  amethyst  of  the  Forget-me-not,  the  ruby  of 
the  early  Tulip,  and  the  emerald  of  the  leaves  of  spring  among 
and  around  them  all.  Need  we  say  more  ?  for  the  thoughts  of 
the  lover  of  flowers  can  imagine  the  joyous  time  when  among  these 
gems  we  shall  wander  and  find  a  pleasure  which  palls  not. 
Meanwhile  the  garden  has  its  treasures  seeking  our  admiration  and 
compelling  our  praise. 
Adorning  the  top  of  a  rockery  is  a  little  alpine  Rhododendron, 
named  R.  prascox,  which  none  can  see  without  calling  forth  their 
expressions  of  pleasure.  There  is  something  almost  ethereal  in  its 
petals,  so  fragile  are  they,  and  it  seems  incredible  that  it  should 
brave  so  early  a  season.  It  is  one  of  those  little  shrubs  which  add  so 
much  to  the  adornment  of  the  rock  garden  that  it  cannot  well  be 
done  without.  It  is,  I  understand,  a  hybrid,  but  as  I  have  seen 
different  accounts  of  its  parentage,  neither  of  which  I  can  verify,  I 
shall  not  say  much  upon  this  point.  It  covers  itself  profusely  with  its 
charming  peach-coloured  flowers,  which,  fragile  looking  as  they  are, 
seem  almost  unmindful  of  the  weather.  The  hard  winter  of  1894- 
1895  seemed  to  suit  it  quite  as  well  as  this  mild  one,  and  this 
although  it  is  pretty  well  exposed,  and  a  more  sheltered  place 
might  have  been  at  command. 
At  the  base  of  the  rockery  on  which  this  little  alpine  Rhododen¬ 
dron  grows  I  seem  at  length  to  have  established  the  quaint  little 
Cyclamen-flowered  Daffodil  (Narcissus  cyclamineus),  and  very 
pretty  indeed  is  it  with  its  bright  colour  and  its  long  conspicuous 
trumpet  ;  conspicuous  because  its  perianth  segments  do  not  come 
over  it  like  a  hood,  but  are  reflexed  like  those  of  the  Cyclamen. 
It  seems  to  like  this  somewhat  dampish  spot,  where  it  also  gets  a 
good  deal  of  sun,  and  one  can  only  wish  for  a  colony  of  this  little 
Daffodil  with  its  deep  yellow  flowers.  A  score  or  more  in  bloom 
in  a  low  nook  like  this  would  be  exceedingly  pleasing. 
Yet  though  the  quaintness  of  the  reflexed  perianth  gives  this 
little  Daffodil  a  great  deal  of  its  charm,  the  soft-coloured  flowers 
of  N.  pallidus  prsecox  with  their  hoods  of  the  normal  form,  look 
more  graceful,  larger  though  they  are.  It  is  gradually  increasing, 
not  only  by  means  of  offsets,  but  also  by  seedlings  and  by 
the  purchase  of  a  few  bulbs  occasionally.  It  is  prized  for  its 
delicate  colouring,  its  earliness,  and  its  form  ;  and  as  mine  is  one  of 
the  gardens  in  which  it  does  well,  one  can  enjoy  it  to  the  full, 
especially  on  the  rockeries,  where  it  spears  through  some  of  the 
dwarfer  Alpines,  whose  foliage  forms  a  delightful  carpet  in  harmony 
with  this  pale  early  Daffodil. 
The  beautiful  little  N.  minor  is  rather  plentiful  with  me,  and 
several  little  clumps  are  most  pleasing.  Like  N.  pallidus  prsecox 
it  does  well  ;  but  I  have  been  less  successful  with  the  pretty 
little  N.  nanus,  which  has  always  succumbed  to  that  enemy  of  the 
Daffodils — basal  rot,  which  I  am  glad  to  say  afflicts  only  a  few  of 
my  Narcissi.  N.  minor  is  such  a  perfect  little  flower  that  it 
should  be  grown  in  quantity,  and  is  never  seen  to  such  advantage 
as  on  rockwork,  where  its  flowers  not  only  show  better,  but  keep 
cleaner  than  in  the  border. 
Exquisite  is  the  bit  of  colouring  shown  by  the  large  Gold- 
Netted  Iris  (I.  reticulata  major),  with  its  deep  blue  flowers  and  its 
golden  crest.  These  Irises  are  the  perfection  of  form,  and  one 
might  almost  say  the  perfection  of  colour  also,  so  velvety  do  the 
flowers  appear,  and  so  deep  the  colouring.  It  seems  as  if  it  was 
impossible  that  such  a  flower  could  be  a  prey  to  one  of  those  fungoid 
diseases,  which  are  the  despair  of  the  bulb  grower,  and  yet  its 
beauty  cannot  ward  off  the  attacks  of  the  destroyer.  I  am  disposed 
always  to  attribute  some  of  the  immunity  of  my  garden  from  this 
to  the  saline  atmosphere  ;  but  when  one  remembers  that  this  does 
not  keep  away  the  Snowdrop  disease  nor  basal  rot,  the  fear  grows 
that  some  day  that  bane  of  the  Gold-Netted  Irises  may  appear. 
Very  pretty,  too,  in  the  rock  garden  are  the  violet-rose  flowers 
of  Primula  marginata,  now  beginning  to  appear.  There  are  several 
varieties  in  my  small  collection  of  hardy  Primula  species,  and 
among  these  one  of  the  best  is  that  known  as  Dr.  Stuart’s 
variety.  It  is  both  pretty  and  free-growing,  and,  like  the  other 
varieties  of  P.  marginata,  pleasing,  even  when  out  of  flower,  on 
account  of  its  prettily  margined  leaves.  There  is  now  a  little 
clump  of  this  variety  in  a  pocket  filled  with  sandy  peat  on  the  east 
side  of  one  of  the  rockeries,  where  it  is  nicely  in  flower,  and  braves 
all  weathers  unprotected.  P.  marginata  is  one  of  the  European 
species,  and,  in  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker’s  “  Synopsis  of  the  European 
Species  of  Primula,”  read  at  the  Primula  Conference  in  1886,  was 
included  in  Group  III. — Auriculastra.  The  young  leaves  involute, 
calyx  short,  both  tube  and  teeth ;  and  in  the  true  Auriculastra,  of 
which  the  leaves,  calyx,  and  pedicels  are  not  viscose.  It  comes 
from  the  Alps  of  Dauphin^  and  Piedmont,  whence  it  is  said  to 
have  been  introduced  in  1777.  P.  marginata  is  increased  by 
division  and  seeds,  and  should  not  be  confused  with  one  known  as 
P.  auricula  marginata. 
Attractive,  too,  is  a  small  carpet  of  Saxifraga  pyrenaica  superba, 
or,  to  speak  correctly,  S.  oppositifolia  pyrenaica  superba,  burdensome 
as  is  the  name  to  a  little  plant  like  this.  Superb  Pyrenean  Rock- 
foil  is,  I  believe,  its  true  English  name,  and  while  the  adjective 
superb  is  suitable  enough  for  purposes  of  comparison  with  other 
plants  of  the  same  section,  the  low  stature  of  this  Rockfoil  makes 
the  names  hardly  appropriate,  unless  applied  to  the  colouring  alone, 
or  to  the  size  of  the  flower.  The  flowers  are  very  large  for  this 
section  of  the  genus,  being  nearly  an  inch  across,  and  they  are  of 
a  bright  rosy-lilac,  which  is  very  pleasing.  The  leafy  stems  are 
larger  than  those  of  the  typical  oppositifolia,  and  the  plant  rises  a 
little  higher  above  the  soil  than  it.  Some  of  my  friends  appear 
to  have  some  difficulty  in  keeping  a  plant  of  this  variety  to  any 
size,  and  divide  frequently,  but  I  have  not  much  trouble  in  that 
respect.  It  is  grown  among  stones  on  the  nearly  level  terrace  of  a 
rockery  with  a  western  aspect,  and  quite  unshaded,  but  where 
it  is  frequently  watered  in  dry  weather  in  summer,  most  of  the 
water  being  poured  at  the  back  of  the  plant  until  the  soil  is 
thoroughly  soaked  The  Opposite-leaved  Saxifragas  flower  better 
on  a  western  aspect  than  on  any  other.  S.  o.  p.  superba  may  be 
propagated  by  division,  cuttings,  or  seeds. 
Delightful,  too,  are  the  Glories  of  the  Snow,  now  in  full  flower 
with  a  few  exceptions.  Space  will  not  permit  of  lengthened 
reference,  but  more  than  a  passing  mention  is  deserved  by  the 
charming  Chionodoxa  sardensis,  the  beautiful  C.  Lucilias,  the  fine 
flowers  of  C.  grandiflora,  or  the  still  finer  ones  of  C.  Alleni,  which 
have  just  unfolded. 
Then  there  are  Anemone  blanda,  with  its  pretty  blue  starry 
flowers,  Scilla  sibirica  in  variety,  Scilla  bifolia,  Snowflakes, 
'  Hepaticas,  some  late  Snowdrops,  Primroses,  Sisyrinchiums,  Heaths, 
