Watcrino- Out-Door Plants 



169 



as well to dispense with evening wide-surface 

 watering, as by its brisk evaporation an in- 

 jurious excess of cold is produced throughout 

 the night. An exception to leaf-watering 

 throughout the day may be made in the 

 case of recently transplanted evergreens, 

 which are the better of being syringed morn- 

 ing, noon, and afternoon, in sunshiny weather. 

 Lic^uid manure is always a good adjunct to 

 ordinary water, when applied directly to 

 the soil ; but in very dry weather, it should be 

 used with extreme caution, and only when 

 very much diluted, or it may prove highly 

 injurious instead of beneficial. Dung-hill 

 drainage is the safest of all, but only as much 

 should be added as will bring the water up to 

 the colour of pale ale ; and if the better class 

 of guanos or other equally rich fertilisers are 

 used, a dessert spoonful of these to the gallon 

 of water will be sufficient, which should, if 

 possible, be mixed with the water some hours 

 before it is applied. Wherever slugs and 

 snails are troublesomely abundant — except 

 among rhododendrons or other erice^ — dry 

 weather should be taken advantage of to 

 water the ground with clear lime water, and 

 the best time to apply it is in the dusk, or 

 just after nightfall, when these pests have left 

 their retreats in search of food. 



All who have abundant and unfailing sup- 

 plies of water, which they can apply to their 

 gardens ad libitum, when droughts prevail, 

 may consider themselves highly favoured. 

 Many cannot, however, deem themselves safe 

 from that greatest of discomforts, the want 

 of fresh water when extreme and prolonged 

 tracts of dry weather have to be endured. 

 " Waste not want not," should be the timely 

 watchward of all so circumstanced, and for 

 the sake of themselves and neighbours, to say 

 nothing of the feelings and pockets of water 

 company shareholders, they should use all 

 house refuse water for garden purposes, such 

 as wash-hand and bath-room slops, soap- 

 suds and the like, instead of taking all they 

 want from the usual clean water- supplying 

 sources. Waste of water, as Avell as of labour 

 in watering might also be greatly lessened by 

 more frequently covering ground surfaces wth 

 stable or byre manure, straw, short cut grass, 

 tanners' bark, partly decomposed sea weed ; 

 cheap rush, straw, or bark mats ; stones, tiles, 

 gravel, deals, &c. None of these may be 

 universally applicable, and for ornamental 

 grounds some are highly objectionable, but 

 numerous instances will occur in which one 

 or other may be largely as well as beneficially 

 employed. 



NEW AND RARE FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



AXCYLOGYNE LONGIFOLIA. 



It is undoubtedly one of the finest tropi- 

 cal Acanthaceae ever introduced into 

 this country, and cannot fail to be a most 

 important accession to our stoves. — See 

 page 170. 



NO. „ 



A MOST beautiful plant, introduced by 

 James Veitch & Sons in 1866, with 

 something of the inflorescence of the 

 Russellia juncea, introduced by Mr Pearce, 

 Messrs Veitchs' collector, in Guayaquil. 



NO. 4. — CASTLE KENNEDY FIG. 



Considerable attention has of late been 

 directed to this fig by notices in the 

 horticultural periodicals, and especially 

 by the highly commendatory report which 

 was bestowed upon it by the Fruit Commit- 

 tee of the Horticultural Society on the 30th 

 May 1865, and the no less flattering com- 



mendation by the judges at the Show of the 

 Glasgow and West of Scotland Horticultural 

 Society on the 8th June 1865. Of the origin 

 and early history of this fig nothing can be said 

 to be known. The oldest tree at Castle- 

 Kennedy is supposed to have been planted 

 at least eighty years since ; and it shared in 



