September  30,  1807. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
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in  texture  if  they  can  be  roughly  broken  up  and  exposed  to  a  whole 
winter’s  frost,  snow,  rain,  and  wind.  There  is  nothing  like  the  full  play 
of  natural  elements  for  pulverising  and  ameliorating  stubborn  soils.  On 
such  it  pays  to  defer  planting  for  permanent  occupation  for  a  season,  and 
give  attention  to  thorough  cultivation.  Mix  with  the  soil  when  breaking 
it  down  after  a  winter’s  exposure  the  parings  and  scrapings  of  roads  and 
roadsides.  Any  gritty  material  is  useful.  Coal  ashes  and  the  contents 
of  a  smother  prove  useful. 
Sandy  soil  is  hot,  dry,  and  usually  deficient  in  quality  because  of  its 
inability  to  retain  food.  Mixing  with  strong  or  clayey  loam  will  improve 
it.  Chalk  or  lime  added  freely  and  jiointed  in  conveys  to  the  soil  an 
essential  food  it  is  likely  to  be  deficient  in.  Cow  manure  is  the  best  for  a 
light  soil,  for  being  of  a  binding  and  moisture-holding  character  it 
rectifies  the  heat  and  dryness  natural  to  a  sandy  soil. 
Land  gives  certain  indications  as  to  its  fertility  or  poor  quality.  If 
weeds  grow  luxuriantly  the  soil  is  in  good  heart,  and  only  needs  a 
minimum  amount  of  manure  and  deep  cultivation  to  fit  it  for  the  growth 
of  vegetables,  flowers,  and  fruit.  Small  and  wiry  weeds  indicate  poor 
soiL  Such  ought  to  have  the  best  spade  cultivation  and  the  most  liberal 
manuring.  The  manure  employed  for  heavy  adhesive  soils  should  be  of 
a  strawy  character  rather  than  well  decayed.  The  strawy  part  helps  to 
keep  the  soil  open  because  it  is  longer  in  decaying. 
Ordinary  soil  that  is  fairly  good,  but  needs  enriching,  should  have  the 
addition  of  decomposed  manure  and  leaf  soil  as  a  means  of  improving  it 
for  the  planting  of  herbaceous  plants,  bulbs,  annuals,  and  biennials. 
Fruit  trees  are  not  benefited  by  the  addition  of  much  manure  to  the 
soil  previous  to  planting.  Eoses  require  liberally  manured  soil,  but  it 
ought  not  to  be  placed  so  as  to  be  in  contact  with  the  roots  when  the 
trees  or  bushes  are  inserted.  Shrubs  and  trees,  both  deciduous  and  ever¬ 
green,  need  a  fair  depth  of  good  fertile  soil  intermixed  with  manure.  For 
general  autumn  planting,  the  sooner  digging,  trenching,  and  manuring 
is  carried  out  the  better,  so  that  the  soil  may  become  consolidated. 
—  S.,  Gravesend. 
CUXILA  MARIANA. 
This,  “  D.  Jameson,”  is  what  is  known  in  North  America  as  the 
Dittany,  which  is  a  name  that  is  applied  to  several  different  i>lants- 
For  instance,  the  Dictamnus  Fraxinella  is  so  called,  as  also  are  two 
species  of  Origanum.  Possibly  these  names  have  arisen  from  some 
fancied  resemblance  between  the  plants  so  designated  ;  but  to  say  the 
least,  the  similarity  of  the  Cunila  to  the  Dictamnus  is  by  no  means 
strongly  marked,  Cunila  Mariana,  of  which  an  illustration  is  given  in 
fig.  49,  is  a  tufted  dwarf  hardy  perennial  plant  included  in  the  Mint 
family  and  related  to  the  klonardas  and  Salvias,  though  differing 
materially  in  general  appearance.  The  plant  rarely  exceeds  a  foot  in 
height,  and  produces  its  small  rosy  purple  two-lipped  flowers  in  great 
profusion,  in  dense  corymbose  or  cymose  clusters.  According  to  Gray 
this  Cunila  is  found  in  the  dry  hills  south  of  New  York  ;  in  England 
it  thrives  in  any  ordinary  soil  not  too  wet,  and  flowers  in  late 
summer. 
AUTUMN  FLOM'ERS  AT  HAMPTON  (X)URT. 
Descriptions  of  summer  bedding  in  gardens  or  parks  invariably 
give  glowing  accounts  of  the  beauty  found  in  every  direction  when 
written  in  July  or  August.  With  the  advent  of  lower  temperature, 
colder  nights,  heavy  rains,  and  wind  storms,  the  later  portion  of  Sep¬ 
tember  often  tells  a  different  tale.  Good  bedding  plants,  or  combinations 
of  plants,  should,  so  far  as  possible,  have  the  merit  of  looking  gay  and 
effective  up  to  the  end  of  the  season,  indeed  right  up  to  the  advent  of 
frost.  If  beds  Ijecome  overgrown,  wild,  or  demoralised  in  any  way  in 
September,  especially  as  so  many  beds  did  last  year,  and  again  this 
season,  then  are  such  plants  or  beds  of  questionable  value,  charming  as 
they  may  have  been  up  to  a  certain,  though  very  limited,  period.  'Thus 
we  saw  this  autumn,  as  last  autumn.  Zonal  Felargoniums  quite  demo¬ 
ralised  early  in  September,  and  have  been  worthless  as  bedding  plants 
ever  since. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  saw  last  year,  and  again  this,  the  too  much 
despised  and  criticised,  yet  with  the  general  public  always  popular, 
carpet  or  mosaic  beds  almost  more  effective  under  the  autuipn  rains 
than  earlier.  These,  indeed,  are  of  their  kind  the  successes  of  the 
season.  This  has  been  the  experience  at  Hampton  Court  Gardens  both 
with  Pelargoniums  and  carpet  beds.  I  went  over  there  on  the  20th  pur¬ 
posely  to  see  how  the  bedding  plants  had  fared,  and  found  these  to  be  as 
described.  A  rather  foolish  J ubilce  design  worked  out  with  diamond, 
crowns  and  monograms  in  one  of  these  beds  attracted  so  much  notice 
that  the  grass  for  some  3  feet  wide  round  the  bed  became  almost  bare. 
Probably  that  sort  of  design  will  not  be  repeated. 
Single  Begonias  of  the  large-flowered  section  were  florally  the  best 
weather  plants,  although  it  was  evident  that  the  earlier  beautifu 
B.  Worthiana,  so  pretty  then  as  an  edging  plant,  but  always  so  heavy  in 
a  mass,  was  quite  washed  out,  and  all  beauty  had  departed.  Scarlet  or 
crimson  Begonias  on  carpets  of  Koniga  variegata— really  a  beautiful 
mass  of  soft  silvery  white  when  in  bloom — on  Sedum  glaucum,  and  on 
Mesembryanthemum  cordifolium  variegatum,  and  yellow  Begonias  over 
Viola  Duchess  of  Sutherland— here  so  long  misnamed  Mrs.  Turner _ 
were  all  still  bright  and  effective,  although  yellow  and  white  Begonias 
never  stand  so  well  as  dark  coloured  ones  do.  Besides  Duchess  of 
Sutherland  Violas,  so  singularly  beautiful,  the  old  Blue  Bell,  planted 
freely  amongst  Carnations,  which  make  such  poor  bedders,  was  full  of 
bloom,  as  also  was  Ardwell  Gem,  apjiarently  here  named  Yellow  Prince. 
Some  few  other  Violas,  Countess  of  Kintore  especially,  were  blooming 
well,  and  fully  displayed  their  great  value  as  summer  bedders. 
Petunias  and  Verbenas  had  become  wild,  and  almost  flowerless. 
Fuchsias  generally  had  lost  colour  and  brightness,  also  making  rather 
too  strong  growth.  It  is  questionable  whether  these  plants  would  not  be 
best  plunged  in  good  sized  pots,  to  check  strong  growth  after  heavy  rains. 
Heliotropes  were  still  fairly  good.  The  leaves  of  Gladioli,  amongst  those 
Souvenir  de  la  Malmaison,  were  getting  brown  and  unsightly,  but  Mont- 
bratia  Pottsi  around  them  was  blooming  charmingly.  The  Gladioli 
should  be  relegi^ted  to  the  mixed  border  another  year.  Beds  of  mixed 
flowering  and  foliage  j)lants  had  become  overgrown,  and  not  at  all 
attractive  ;  but  some  of  the  sub-tropicals,  though  rather  dull,  were,  all 
the  same,  in  capital  form.  Some  large  masses  of  bedding  Dahlia  Flam¬ 
beau,  brilliant  scarlet,  especially  one  having  white  Marguerites  inter¬ 
mixed,  were  very  effective  ;  so  also,  blooming  profusely,  were  the  lemon 
^Marguerite  Etoile  d’Or. 
Silver  variegated  Pelargoniums  kept  fairly  well,  especially  Flower  of 
Spring,  mixed  with  blue  Viola  and  the  yellow  Crystal  Palace  Gem,  dotted 
with  Verbena  venosa,  was  also  very  good.  Of  course  edging  plants  of 
foliage  form  kept  very  well,  but  blue  Lobelia  was  quite  over.  Lobelia 
cardinalis  Queen  Victoria  and  seedlings  were  exceedingly  attractive, 
and  gave  rich  colouring  at  this  time  of  the  year.  A  bed  of  white  Begonias, 
dotted  with  the  tall  scarlet  Lobelia,  was  excellent.  Abutilons,  too,  came 
out  well.  The  golden  marbled  Thompson!  kept  wonderfully  good  colour, 
and  on  a  bed  of  scarlet  Begonias,  set  in  a  carpet  of  variegated  Koniga, 
Abutilon  Souvenir  de  Bonn  was  telling,  its  ereen  foliage,  broadly 
edged  with  cream,  telling  effectively.  These  plants,  however,  generally 
seemed  planted  too  formally  in  rows  running  parallel  with  the  beds. 
A  bed  of  Lilium  tigrinum,  blooming  freely,  was  rather  marred  by  an 
intermixture  of  white  Tobaccos  that  do  not  harmonise.  Some  dwarfer 
plant  would  have  done  better.  A  huge  bed  of  early  blooming  Chrysanthe¬ 
mums,  chiefly  Madame  Desgrange,  because  rather  close  under  trees,  had 
the  plants  tall,  and  both  late  and  irregularly  blooming.  Tying  these  up 
also  gave  them  a  formal  appearance.  A  broad  margin  in  front  of  Aster 
amellus  in  full  bloom  was  very  effective.  On  the  mixed  borders  single 
and  Pompon  Dahlias  were  very  floriferous,  and  clumps  of  really  first-rate 
double  African  Marigolds  were  most  telling ;  but  a  large  number  of  a 
wretched  strain  that  never  should  be  grown  were  horrid.  These  are  but  a 
few  hurried  notes  of  effective  late  autumn  plants  in  these  gardens. 
They  show,  in  any  case,  that  there  is  still  much  beauty  in  them,  rough 
as  the  weather  has  been.  That  the  new  superintendent  means  to  do  his 
utmost  to  render  the  gardens  attractive  there  can  be  no  doubt.  -  A.  D. 
