12

ON WARMING A GREENHOUSE WITH HOT WATER,

centre, petals narrow; flat in the face, occasionally may be found useful.

REGINA (Bragg).—Said to be a seedling of last year, but to come out in spring; red, with white tips, clear colours; useful looking flower, an improvement on Hermione.

MISS BLACKMORE (Dodd).-White, with purple-crimson edges, middle size, symmetrical, good outline, a little thin.

MISS STEVENS (Dodd).- White, with pale salmon-red edges, medium size, compact form, and good outline.

RAINBOW (Keynes).-Orange-red and white, colours well defined, and the flowers in this respect very striking, but every petal, in the blooms we saw, had a small indentation at the end, which, if its natural character, however superior it may be in other respects, is an undoubted disqualification.

SUNBEAM (Keynes).-Bright red, with a small white tip, rather under the average size, full and neatly arranged, but the petals are very narrow and reflect a good deal.

QUEEN OF THE MAY (Harrison).—A pretty lilac tipped with white, quite novel and distinct amongst the fancies, good centre, and symmetrical form.

MISS JANE (Howard).-Crimson purple, with white tip, good centre, and fairish outline; a useful flower.

MRS. STANLEY (Mitchell).-Crimson, tipped with white, full size, double, and well arranged; occasionally quills a good deal.

QUEEN DOWAGER (Gaines).-Bright brimstone, with clear white tip, very pretty as a border flower, but too thin for show.

PINKS.

NARBOROUGH BUCK (Maclean)—A very large flower, a rich dark colour, with a pure white ground, excellent shape.

WINCHESTER RIVAL (White).-A middle sized flower, a rich bright red, with a pure white ground, very good form.

MRS. EDWARDS (Keynes).—A middle sized flower, of a beautiful rose, with a pure ground, good form.

HARKFORWARD (Smith).-A middle sized flower, a rich purple, with a pure white ground. It is a striking variety, of good form.

CARNATION.

J. SHARP, ESQ. (Holliday).—A middle sized flower, crimson bizarre, petals round, and form excellent.

PICOTEE.

DELICATA (Holliday).-A light-edged purple, colour very distinct, round petal, fine formed, of first-rate excellence.

ON WARMING A GREENHOUSE WITH HOT WATER IN OPEN GUTTERS, &c.

BY "A SUBSCRIBER AB INITIO," OF LIVERPOOL.

HAVING a small greenhouse, about thirty feet by fifteen (in which are vines and a general collection of plants), which is at present heated by

REMARKS ON THE CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDEN,

13

a flue, from a fire in the potting-house, and which, I must say, succeeds very well; but, in this go-a-head age, I think something new might be better, and I have lately read much about "Polmaise," &c. Now, I think, I have in my brain a cheap plan of heating by open gutters, having hot or warm water continually passing through them, but I do not know whether the steam arising might affect the inmates. I am aware it would be much more suitable for stove plants and fruits, but, I think, it would answer well for a greenhouse, and should feel much obliged by having your opinion on the subject. I could easily regulate the heat by diminishing or increasing the flow of water in and out of the pipes or gutters.

Perhaps, at the same time, you could inform me, through the widely spread and read "CABINET," if Gloxinias and Gesnerias will answer in a greenhouse; some gardeners say they will, others that they will not, unless forced in a stove.

Can you tell me when "Fuchsia spectabilis," vide CABINET for July last, will be offered for sale, and about the price; it is certainly a beauty.

[What heat is required in a greenhouse is in winter, and at which season it must be kept as dry as possible. Any steam admitted is injurious, and just to the degree permitted is the evil. We have seen it tried in several instances, and some cases the plants, &c., were a mass of mildew and rottenness. If you must alter, have the usual hot water system of closed pipes, or what is cheaper, Hazard's Warm Air System; for particulars of it, see our Magazine for 1847, pages 257 and 272. Gloxinias and Gesnerias must, to do well, be brought to a flowering state in a higher temperature than a greenhouse usually has. A stove or hot-bed frame heat is required. The Fuchsia will be offered in spring; we do not know the price. See notice on wrapper for the other particulars.]

REMARKS ON THE CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDEN.

BY A VISITOR.

first

NEVER shall I cease to remember the delight I felt during my visit to that luxurious domain of all that is rare and splendid in the vegetable tribes of tropical climes. I landed upon the stone steps which conduct the visitor from the waters of the Ganges to the curator's house, and passed up under an over-arching trellis well embowered by creeping plants effectually excluding the sunshine, and mingled prominently among which plants were in abundance of the flowers of a gigantic specimen of that most poetical of flowers the night-blooming cereus. On either side the path were various species of the most sensitive plants, the mimosas, hedysarums, &c. Passing into the lower floor, the house (generally uninhabited) I found it stored with chests of Assam tea, a produce likely to become one of the most valuable exports of India; and descending the stairs met that most excellent man, Dr, Wallich, the present curator. We examined together his library.

14

REMARKS ON THE CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDEN.

stored with a good collection of botanical works, ancient as well as modern. We watched at their works the native artists copying the flowers as they blossom in the garden, and the pictures from whose pencils are accumulating thus annually to be deposited in the library of the East India Company.

So soon as the sun's decline permitted, we visited the garden. This was commenced in 1768 by Colonel Kyd, and has since that time gradually increased to its present size and importance. It then passed to the care of Dr. Roxburgh, who laboured there most successfully from 1793 to the date of his death, 1813. A small temple shelters an urn dedicated to his memory in one of his most favoured spots near the great Banian Tree; and Dr. Wallich has prepared a grave for himself, where his own remains, it is to be feared, will soon repose, if he does not try before long the invigorating influence of a more northern climate. That Banian Tree to which I have alluded, gives the stranger a more forcible idea of the vastness of tropical vegetation than any other object. The trees of milder climes sink into insignificance when called to memory for the sake of comparison. Its branches and their numerous sustaining self-united stems form of themselves a grove covering about an acre of ground. Not far from the Banian is to be seen a specimen of the far-famed and much-fabled Upas Tree. That its sap is virulently poisonous admits of no doubt, but not to the extent once believed, when that in Java was the only one and that imperfectly known. So far from the very atmosphere around it being rendered pestiferous by the exhalations from its leaves, I have frequently plucked them and handled its stem. During this visit I saw, for the first time, that most rare and most elegant of trees, the Amberstia. But two or at most three specimens are known to exist. No one who has not seen its mingled, graceful, pale-tinted foliage and long pendulous rosy flowers, can form even a proximate conception of its surpassing loveliness. Turning to the waters of the garden I saw floating on their surface the classic flower of the eastern tales, the pink and whitepetalled lotus. Around their margins were to be seen the pitcher plant, with its strange appendages of closed water receptacles attached to each leaf. Palms of various description, and among them that friend in the desert which spouts forth water when wounded with a knife. Passing to other divisions of the garden, we visited the potting houses, where annually thousands of specimens of rare and useful plants are prepared and dispatched to every quarter of the globe. Tea plants, superior varieties of the sugar cane, plants of madder (Calotropis procesa), a substitute for ipecacuanha (Menettia cordifolia), a substitute for the squill (Crinum Asiaticum toxicarum), quassia and guaicum plants, a substitute for sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus Indicus), fustic and a dye-wood abounding in tannin (Casalpina coriaria). I cannot close this slight notice of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta without a further tribute to the merit of its curator, Dr. Wallich. He is by birth a Dane, and was a physician at Chandenagore, the chief Indian colony of his native country; but the late Dr. Carey introduced him to the notice of our Government, and how well his scientific attainments merited such notice, is demonstrated by his published

CONTRIVANCE FOR WATERING PLANTS IN POTS.

15

works, and by the fifty societies which, unsolicited, have enrolled him among their associates. Parallel to his botanical knowledge is the urbanity and liberality with which he meets the wishes not of his friends only, but of all who ask from him either the gratification of their curiosity or an addition to their botanical stores.

THE HOLLYHOCK, AS AN ORNAMENTAL FLOWER. IN the centre of clumps planted with dwarf shrubs, and in vacancies which are two or three feet from the edge, at the backs or at least a yard from the front of borders,-in all places where there are vacancies between shrubs, or at the backs of shrubberies of dwarf subjects, the hollyhock is a fine ornamental plant. In no case is it so appropriately disposed of as where its towering spikes rise above the green foliage or diversified borders of more dwarf subjects. The dahlia, with all its variety and brilliance, its abundant blooms and protracted season, may supersede the hollyhock as a foreground subject, but it cannot be planted in the same space nor assume the same figure; for, strange as it may seem, it is difficult to place a hollyhock where it is not an ornament. It does not seem out of place unless it is out of sight. As an object wholly seen, a good hollyhock in the height of the season is a very noble subject. The splendid pyramid of flower, commencing at the top of the bushy foliage and growing upright, is, when at its best, worthy of a place anywhere, even on a lawn. Groups of them in clumps, where their heights are regulated, the tallest being the farthest removed, and the shorter ones gradually descending to the front, which is for dwarf ones only, are an addition to the best conditioned garden or dressed ground, and from their remarkable figure, distance seems to be no object. In the broad belts of plantation which surround a park, or the borders, made on each or either side of a road; in the wilderness, or anywhere else, the towering hollyhock is a perma. nent and graceful ornament, requiring no further trouble than planting out. In most situations it will stand without support. It will grow up where almost any other subject would be choked, and in the wildest of these places it is scarcely advisable to remove any of the spikes; they may be allowed to bloom in bunches of half a dozen, or the single spike, for as the object is merely show, the quality is no eye sore.Horticultural Magazine.

CONTRIVANCE FOR WATERING PLANTS IN POTS.

BY BURRIENSIS.

In order to prevent the inconvenience of giving too much water to potplants, get a circular piece of deal one inch thick, cut out the inner circular piece, put the pot so that the hole in the bottom shall be about the centre of the hole in the piece of wood; any water will then drain off. At the underside of the wood four grooves must be made crossways

16

ON IMPREGNATING CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES.

of the circle, to admit of the water which so drains off passing out of the circle to the outside of the wood. I have several pieces of wood thus formed, of different sizes. If you have the circulars two inches thick, and put them into a pan or saucer full of water, place the pot upon the wood so as not to touch the water, this will prevent slugs (who will not go through the water) attacking such plants as they are fond of. The circular of this thickness will prevent the pot from touching the water.

ON IMPREGNATING CARNATIONS, PICOTEES, &c., IN ORDER TO OBTAIN IMPROVED VARIETIES.

BY AN AMATEUR FLORIST.

To effect the above object artificial impregnation is essential. Flowers must be selected which possess the best properties, having round petals of firm substance and smooth edges. The colours must be properly disposed upon a clear ground. The operation is found to succeed best with flowers of the same class, as crimson bizarres with crimson bizarres, and scarlet flakes with scarlet flakes, and so with every other class and colour. A few days previous to impregnating a flower a few of the inner small petals, and all the thread-like filaments, must be cut away by means of a pair of small pointed scissors, but the central styles (having coiled horn-shaped tops) must remain entire. No flower must be thus prepared but what is about in its meridian condition.

The pollen (powdery substance from the anthers) may be conveyed by carefully removing the filaments with a pair of tweezers, or by means of a small camel-hair brush. In the operation, lodge all the pollen necessary upon the summit of the styles of the flower which is expected to bear seeds. If the pollen be carefully applied very little will suffice, perhaps as much as a single anther affords.

If a flower be procured from a distance, which is to supply pollen, it should be gathered before the anthers burst, and it may be preserved in a glass bottle of water, in a light situation (a window) till the anthers open.

After the flower is impregnated no water must be allowed to fall upon it for the first fortnight; the shade employed should be a funnelshaped one, such as are used for shading carnations, dahlias, &c., from sun. In a few days after impregnation, if it be effectual, the petals will begin to coil inwards; as they decay they must be carefully removed so as not to injure the seed-pod. The earlier in the season the hybridizing process is done the better the seed ripens. Let the seed be kept in its pod till spring, and then be sown in a pot, placed in a gentle moist heat till the plants are up, then gradually inure them to a cooler atmosphere, and pot off singly as soon as they are sufficiently rooted.

An attention of this process is very interesting and pleasing, especially so when the period arrives of the progeny displaying their floral beauties. The innocent recreation in the process fully repays for attention, and when an improved flower is obtained, the reward not only stimulates to future exertion, but supplies a lovely object of admiration for a future period.