In the Garden
Gifts from other gardens give an added pleasure, and for myself I await the flowering of the latest gift with excitement. It consists of bulbs of the new monbretias, hybridised by that genius in the art, Mr. Backhouse, who has in flower perhaps the most precious bulb in the country, the scarlet trumpeted daffodil, that he has produced after I do not know how many years of work. It is a supreme triumph. The montbretias are not of quite such a sterling glory ; but they are worth the interest of all gardeners as they represent a real, salient advance on the old, and always valuable, bulb. Though they keep the sort of colour that is the mark of the montbretias, they have enlarged the colour scheme as well as the girth. One of them, Mephistopheles, has a sort of maroon tint that is as nearly as may be unique among flowers. The other three are Star of the East, His Majesty, and James Coey. Another species of flower, long neglected by the florist, but now coming into its own, is another autumn flower, the autumn crocus. The Dutch have recently made a very splendid large double variety ; and though doubles are usually less lovely than singles, this is well worth notice, if less comely than some of Mr. Backhouse's novelties in this species.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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