THE FLOEAL WOELD AND QAEDEN GUIDE. 95 



on this subject, but, on reflection, believe we can best answer your queries here. 

 The essay on berry-bearing shrubs in the January number will furnish abundant 

 information on the hardy kinds. The cultivation of the scarlet-berried Solanums is 

 so exceedingly simple that any one with ordinary appliances and ordinary skill may 

 have as grand a display of them in the autumn as may always be seen in the great 

 conservatory at the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens. There are several species 

 and varieties which produce red berries ; the one commonly grown hitherto has been 

 S. capsicastrum ; but far better, because it makes a bolder bush and bears larger 

 berries, is S. pseudocapsicastrum. To get up a stock of this proceed as follows: — 

 Place an old plant in a warm house, and frequently syringe it. When the young 

 shoots are two inches in length, take them off and dib them into sand in a heat of 

 60 to 70 degrees. When rooted, pot them in light sandy compost, and give them a 

 moderate heat until they begin to grow. From that time gradually inure them to 

 ordinary greenhouse temperature and to fresh air, so as by degrees to get them quite 

 hardy by the middle of May. Then plant them out in a piece of rich light soil, in 

 the full sun, fifteen inches ap.art ; give plenty of water all the summer, and slightly 

 train them out, so as to form open heads. They will require to be twice stopped by 

 nipping olf the points of ail the shoots in June, and after that must grow as they 

 please. About the middle of September take them up very carefully and pot them. 

 In this process the roots must be preserved from injury, and as much earth kept; 

 It bout them as possible. When potted, stake them out neatly ; shade for a week, 

 and after that keep them in the sunniest part of the greenhouse. If you follow this 

 prescription, let us know in November next how they look. Their appearance then 

 ought to be that of neat shrubs, two feet high and eighteen inches through, 

 completely smothered with bright scarlet berries, full double the size of holly 

 benies. 



General V. A. would do well to jolace an evaporating pan filled with water over 

 the flame of the gas-heating apparatus. But it must be placed sufficiently high 

 above the Same to prevent smoke or soot. 



Feuns. — N. B. — Hymenodiam crinitum may be grown well in a greenhouse from 

 the middle of May to the end of September, but it needs more than greenhouse tempe- 

 rature to keep it all winter. It is truly a stove fern, and when it has good stove treat- 

 ment it forms fronds two feet long and ten inches broad, a most remarkable object, and 

 ■worth building a stove on purpose to grow it. It will bear more sunshine than most 

 ferns, yet does well in the fern-case if heated, and, as a matter of course, a sunny place 

 should not be found for it in either stove or greenhouse. Gymnogrammas require 

 careful treatment, and unless they have careful treatment they soon become a disgrace 

 to the house they are in and the person who is supposed to cultivate them. The roots 

 must never be wet and never dry ; good drainage, and a considerable proportion of 

 sand mixed with the peat, are indispensable. The fronds also must be guarded 

 against excessive moisture ; water must not drip on them, no cold draughts must 

 visit them, strong sunshine is death to them. Tiie best place for them all winter is 

 a rather light stove, wliere the night temperature averages 50 degrees during frosty 

 weather and So to <i5 degrees during mild weather, rising by day with sun to 70 or 

 75 degrees. They may be kept by skilful hands in a lower temperature, and then 

 dryness is the secret of success, but such dryness as will not cause shrivelling. la 

 any case, however, the lowest minimum at which they can be kept with safety is 

 45 degrees. 



Grapes in Ground Vinery.—^. B. — You might grow Chasselas Musqu6 and 

 Eoyal Muscadine very well with Black Hamburgh, giving the first a drier border, 

 which is easily accomplished by preparing a place for it, using plenty of broken brick 

 and old mortar in the compost. As for Eoyal Muscadine, it has no objection to a 

 glass house or a ground vinery ; but it will do well in a border of clay or coal ashes, 

 if against a good wall. A certain degree of dryness in the subsoil and full exposure 

 to sun are the first essentials in grape gi'owing. Your proposal to grow vines on a 

 slate pavement in the open air, pegged down, without glass, is ingenious, and in 

 Pembrokeshire, where the climate is mild, may answer M^ell, if you choose the 

 hardier kinds. Tlie chance of success will be increased if you put the ground aslant 

 to the south ; a very gentle slope will suffice ifthe roots are in a border well drained, 

 60 that excess of moisture will quickly pass away. The heavy rains that usually 

 occur when the berries are swelling would run down the slope, and give the roots 

 extra food at the moment when most needed. It is quite true that, as a rule, Saxi- 



