February  23,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HGRTICULTURU  ANJ)  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
IJO 
both  ends  meet,  and  yet  oVving  to  the  lack  of  technical  knowledge 
they  expend  on  manures  far  larger  amounts  than  they  would  if 
they  knew  the  requirements  of  their  plants,  and  how  to  proceed  in 
supplying  them ;  or  should  a  fungoid  or  other  disease  appear  they 
are  perfectly  helpless,  and  have  to  solicit  advice  from  the  nearest 
scientific  neighbour. 
The  rule-of-thumb  man  sails  comfortably  in  smooth  water,  but 
he  is  “  all  at  sea  ”  when  the  storms  of  disease  and  difficulty  assail 
him.  A  workman  who  is  educated  and  possessed  of  the  necessary 
grit,  is  in  every  way  more  useful  to  his  employer,  and  is  himself  a 
more  intelligent,  and  therefore  a  happier  and  a  better  man.  He  will, 
as  a  rule,  be  distinguished  by  superior  moral  habits  in  every  respect, 
sober  and  discreet,  and  indulge  in  amusements  of  a  rational  kind. 
The  ignorant  workman  drops  his  tools  and  thinks  no  more  of  his 
work  until  the  next  morning ;  the  intellectual  man  in  his  spare 
moment  devises  and  schemes  plans,  which  improve  his  own  work  and 
benefit  his  employer. 
There  are  few  branches  of  scientihe  knowdedge  that  will  not 
throw  a  strong  light  on  all  we  do  in  the  garden,  in  the  nursery,  or  on 
the  farm.  “Science”  is  what  we  know  to  bo  true,  what  Professor 
Huxley,  I  believed,  called  “organised  common  sense.”  It  can  be 
proved,  for  instance,  that  ten  elementary  substances  are  essential  for 
the  growth  of  a  plant.  Deprive  it  of  one  of  them  and  it  languishes 
and  dies.  Would  it  not  be  advisable  for  all  who  cultivate  jdants, 
either  for  pleasure  or  profit,  to  become  acquainted  with  these  elements, 
and  to  know  whence  they  are  derived  ?  This  would  be  learning 
what  is  termed  “science,”  and  the  particular  branch  known  as 
“  chemistry.”  How  many  there  are  who  yet  view  all  the  different 
objects  of  Nature  with  comparatively  blank  mind  as  to  their  construc¬ 
tion  and  components,  yet  every  hedge  and  ditch,  every  seedling  and 
plant,  every  flower  and  herb,  every  pond  and  brook,  becomes  a  centre 
of  attraction,  a  new  w’orld  to  us,  when  science  reveals  to  us  Nature's 
charms. 
Let  us  begin  with  soine  simple  work  on  botany.  The  poet 
Wordsworth  tells  us  that  to  one  of  his  characters  a  Primrose  was 
a  Primrose — and  it  was  nothing  more.  Yes ;  and  we  may  venture 
to  say  it  is  nothing  more  to  scores  of  our  young  men  of  the 
present  day.  Would  it  not  be  well  to  study  the  wonderful 
device  the  Primrose  has  for  insuring  cross-fertilisation,  or  the 
marvellous  arrangement  for  the  preservation  of  the  nectar  from 
all  insects  which  avould  rob  the  plant  without  in  return  doing  it  a 
service  ? 
Again,  light  and  heat  are  two  of  the  phenomena  of  Nature 
intimately  connected  avith  plant  growth.  An  easy  work  on  these 
subjects  would  enable  many  a  man,  if  he  had  thoroughly  assimilated 
the  contents,  to  avard  off  accidents  that  happen  through  defective 
ventilation  or  too  great  an  exposure  to  the  sun’s  rays. 
(ieology  takes  us  back  into  remote  ages,  revealing  to  us  the  flora 
and  fauna  of  a  world  otherwise  unknown  to  us.  It  acquaints  us  with 
the  history  of  the  soil — that  immense  storehouse  of  plant  food  and 
chemical  laboratory  in  which  some  of  the  most  avonderful  changes  in 
Nature  take  place.  It  teaches  us  that  the  work  of  Creation  is  still 
going  on — that  neav  continents,  and  new  varieties  of  rocks,  and  soils, 
and  plants,  and  animals  are  continually  being  evolved.  It  explains 
why  we  find  sandy  soils  in  one  district,  clay  in  another, 'and  chalk  in 
another. 
Biology  introduces  us  to  the  life  which  is  invisible  without  the 
assistance  of  the  microscope.  It  reveals  to  us  the  mysteries  of  the 
vegetable  cell,  the  eelworm  and  the  Potato  disease,  the  mildew  and 
the  damping-off  fungus.  Every  gramme  of  soil  and  every  drop  of 
impure  water  teems  with  life,  much  of  which  is  of  great  importance  to 
the  cultivator  of  plants.  We  hope  that  enough  has  been  said  to 
induce  more  of  our  young  gardeners  and  nurserymen  to  make  a  start 
in  acquiring  scientific  knowledge.  We  cannot  be  certain  that  it  will 
enhance  their  position,  though  this  is  more  than  probable,  but  we  may 
be  sure  it  will  increase  their  own  happiness  to  no  small  extent. — 
F.  S.  11. 
HARDY  FLOWERS  IN  FERRUARY. 
Fickle  has  been  the  weather  since  the  dawning  of  the  year.  The 
fate  of  the  outdoor  flowers  has  been  a  hard  one.  Under  glass  their 
kindled  have  enjo3ed  the  heat  and  shelter  while  they  have  borne  the 
cold,  the  snow,  and  the  rain.  They  have  had  all  three.  The  frost 
in  the  North  has  been  keen,  and  they  have  withstood  it  without  a 
protecting  covering  of  snow  for  days.  At  length  Nature’s  shielding 
mantle  was  laid  over  them,  and  then  came  rain  and  swept  it  away. 
As  this  is  being  written  there  is  every  appearance  of  the  frost 
having  gone  for  the  time,  but  at  this  season  it  is  unsafe  to  attach 
much  value  to  weather  signs. 
AVe  cannot  expect  many  flowers  in  the  garden  now.  There  are 
fewer  than  we  often  have  at  this  season.  “  Rain,  rain,”  was  the 
burden  of  the  dying  year;  “rain”  again  that  of  the  new,  followed 
by  intense  frost.  Surely  nothing  could  come  into  bloom  and  remain 
with  such  a  time.  Yet  there  are  a  few  flowers,  and  these  we  may 
wander  out  to  see.  Even  the  Snowdrops  are,  as  a  rule,  la'e.  Our 
Fair  Maids  of  February  may  have  opened  in  time  for  their  anni¬ 
versary  dav,  February  2nd,  old  style,  but  they  have  not  anticipated 
it,  though  some  of  those  allied  to  Galanthus  nivalis  have  come 
before.  But  now  they^  are  around  us.  With  pure  blossoms  they 
swing  in  the  breeze.  Of  various  sizes  and  with  slightly  different 
form  they  delight  us  with  their  grace  and  their  sweet  beauty. 
“Fair-handed  Spring”  has  many  brighter,  but  no  fairer  flowers  than 
these  blossoms  sentj  as  the  legend  says,  to  comfort  Eve  when  driven 
from  Paradise. 
Linked  with  the  Snowdrop,  in  Thomson’s  poem  of  “The  Seasons,” 
is  the  Crocus  ;  it  is  associated  with  it  in  our  gardens  too.  Not  yet 
do  the  clumps  of  the  great  Dutch  Crocuses  enamel  the  ground  with 
their  vivid  colours,  but  there  are  some  of  the  race  to  forewarn  us  of 
their  coming — some  w'hose  beauty,  if  less  brilliant,  is  no  less  pleasing. 
Delightful  are  those  clumps  of  Crocus  Imperati,  whose  fawn  and 
black  spirelets  unfold  in  the  sun  into  flat  saucers  of  bright  purple.  If 
le.ss  brilliant,  pretty  are  those  little  flowers  of  Crocus  Sieberi,  which, 
as  if  to  compensate  for  its  lesser  brilliancy  when  open,  is  bright 
purple-blue  w'hen  closed,  opening  almost  the  same  hue  when  the 
sun  lights  upon  it.  The  little  Crocus  ancyrensis  has  not  quite 
disappeared  for  the  year,  but  it  has  been  eclipsed  by  the  larger  blooms 
of  C.  aureus,  which  in  the  border  and  rock  garden  glows  even  in  the 
rain,  as  if  the  sun  were  shining  with  its  utmost  fervour. 
In  the  rock  garden  bushes  of  Erica  cainea  are  ruddy  with  their 
waxen  blossoms,  which,  though  they  have  not  assumed  their  perfect 
colouring,  are  yet  admired  of  all.  Beautiful  as  is  the  white  variety 
E.  c.  alba,  and  more  nearly  as  it  approaches  the  “lucky”  white 
Heather  of  the  Highlands,  it  is  the  pink  which  is  generally  more 
admired,  with  its  jierfectly  colouied  and  formed  little  flower.s.  In 
sandy  peat  in  the  rock  garden  it  is  quite  at  home,  while  in  beds  or 
borders  it  is  almost  equally"  happy. 
Not  many  of  the  Primroses  or  Polyanthuses  have  favoured  us  with 
their  flo.vers  as  yet.  In  few  seasons  have  we  had  so  great  a  short¬ 
coming  of  winter  blossoms  on  these  favourite  flowers.  Thej'  might 
have  had  a  premonition  of  what  was  before  them  if  they  liad 
ventured  to  bloom.  AYe  miss  them,  though,  with  their  varied 
colours  and  hues.  The  garden  is  the  duller  for  their  absence  when 
wf>  Vnvp  bpcome  accustomed  to  their  bright  flowers.  Even  the  double 
white  Primrose,  so  proluse  a  bloomer,  is  unusually  unkind,  and  is  only 
giving  its  flowers  as  it  were  grudgingly.  By-and-by  it  will  strive  to 
atone  for  this  by  juofuse  flowering. 
Kepalicas,  also,  are  less  piolific  of  early  flowers  than  is  their  wont. 
A  few  there  are,  and  among  them  one  on  a  double  mauve  variety 
distinct  from  the  double  red  and  double  blue  we  all  know.  There  are 
more  varieties  of  double  Hepaticas  than  most  people  are  aware  of. 
They  are,  however,  difficult  to  obtain  because  of  their  slow  increase, 
and  because  of  this  it  does  not  “  pay  ”  the  trader  to  take  them  up 
for  profit.  It  is  to  the  amateur  that  we  have  to  look  for  new  varieties 
of  these.  If  a  few  enthusiasts  who  have  time  and  space  would  work 
them  up  and  raise  seedlings  by  the  thousand,  we  would  in  a  few  years 
time  have  .something  to  show  in  the  \yay  of  improvement  of  this  old- 
fashioned  and  favourite  flower. 
In  many  gardens  now  we  see  w'hat  has  been  done  among  the 
Hellebores  by  seedling  raisers.  Lovely  are  some  of  the  Lenten  Roses, 
which,  as  hardy  as  any  flow'er  we  have,  only  want  a  good  strong  soil 
and  a  half-shaded  po-sition  to  produce  their  flowers.  AA^ith  them 
imiirovement  has  gone  on  apace.  Deep  purple,  bright  irurple,  pink, 
almost  blush,  white,  are  the  blooms  of  many,  some  being  exquisitely 
spotted.  Some  of  the  white  Lenten  Roses  are  as  pure  as  those  which 
und(  ■  the  r'ame  of  Christmas  Roses  are  earlier  in  ihe  year  so  highlv 
prized.  Daffodils  are  on  the  way,  and  soon  Narcissus  minimus  and 
N.  cyclamineus  major  will  be  in  full  bloom. 
But  we  may  bring  this  tale  to  a  close.  It  is  not  a  cheerful  one. 
AA^e  cannot  make  bricks  without  straw,  nor  is  it  easy  to  he  jubilant 
