288 THE GARDENER. [June 1869. 



J. R. — "We consider Lomaria Gibbii a Tree-Fern. "We have a plant of it with a 

 clear stem of 18 inches. 



We doubt if Mr F. can get any redress from his Dutch correspondent. The 

 best way is to avoid having any dealings with unknown correspondents. 



R. H. — Such plants as dwarf Palms, Dracccnas, Tree-Ferns, Ficus elastica, 

 Aralias, and Crotons will suit you for winter decoration. For summer, any of 

 the fine-foliaged plants, such as Caladium Coleus, Ferns, with the gayer class 

 of flowering-plants, will do. You should visit some respectable exotic nursery, 

 where you can easily make a selection to suit your purpose. 



A Lover of Flowers. — It is impossible for us to advise you how to bed out 

 your little garden in the space at our disposal for these notices, and specially as 

 we do not know what plants you have. Procure ' The Handy Book of the Flower- 

 Garden," Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, and Paternoster Row, London, and 

 you will get full instructions. 



"ViTis. — Your "Vines are attacked by the Vine mildew. Lose no time in paint- 

 ing your hot-water pipes with sulphur. Keep the atmosphere of the vinery dry, 

 and increase the heat and ventilation. This should check the malady if taken in 

 the bud ; but if it has made much progress on both foliage and fruit, mix a quan- 

 tity of sulphur in clear tepid water, and syringe the Vines with it, both fruit and 

 foliage, after which keep the house dry for a time. When the parasite is dead, 

 syringe the bunches with clean water, so as to wash the sulphur off them ; a little 

 of it left on the foliage will do no harm. You never can be too watchful for this 

 most destructive of all the ills that Vines are heirs to. The moment you observe 

 a spot on leaf or berry of something like hoar-frost, apply a glass to magnify it, 

 and you will discover the parasite. It spreads with magical rapidity, therefore 

 attack it at once with dry air and sulphur. 



R. G. — The Golden Champion is the most robust and vigorous Vine we know, 

 whether grafted on another stock or on its own roots. We have it on Muscats, 

 Hamburgs, White Tokay, Raisin de Calabrica, and on its own roots, and can ob- 

 serve no difference in its growth. In your case we would inarch it, as no Vine 

 succeeds well when planted in a border that has been made some years, as yours 

 has been. The other Grape you refer to is a vei-y free bearer, and with us has set 

 well. A writer in the 'Chronicle,' we think it was, said it did not set freely. 

 This is not our experience of it. We have it inarched on the Black Hamburg 

 and Muscat Hamburg, Lucombe and Pince. Mr Meredith, or any nurseryman, 

 can supply you with a plant of it, and we advise you to inarch it on one of your 

 established Vines. 



W. S. — The failure of the late Peach crop this year is all but universal, and is 

 the result of the fine warm weather we had in February, which set the sap in 

 motion early. This was succeeded by the severe cold winds of March, which 

 checked the sap ; and when the warm weather of April came, the buds fell off 

 instead of setting. Your gardener has done all he could do to save them, and is 

 no way to blame. 



J. F. — Apricots are by no means a certain crop under glass. They should have 

 plenty of air when in bloom, and see that they never get dry at the roots. Pears 

 fruit very well in pots ; but unless the ventilation of the house they are in is very 

 complete, so that a current of fresh air passes through and amongst the trees, the 

 flavour is often defective. 



Cymro. — You should have sent us a frond of the Fern with spores on it. We 

 think it is Asplenium Adiantum nigrum var. acutum. 



We cannot, without a flower sent with it, say what the other plant is. 



