282 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



When the male plant comes to be fully 

 distributed, the aucubas in our gardens 

 "will be glorious in winter ; they will 

 far surpass in beauty all other known 

 berry-bearing shrubs. "We advise our 

 friends to secure male plants as early as 

 possible, fcr it will become a race soon 

 amongst amateur gardeners who first 

 shall have fruitful aucubas. As regards 

 the various new aucubas from the 

 Himalaya, etc., it is probable that the 

 pollen from a male of one species will 

 fertilize females of its own and of other 

 species indifferently. That, however, 

 remains to be proved. Certainly, in 

 purchasing any of the new aucubas, we 

 should secure miles and females, if 

 possible; but the question is, if it be 

 possible. Your wild ivy is a fine form 

 of pal/mata ; it is an altered form of the 

 common ivy. To secure it, you must 

 strike a few cuttings on which there are 

 leaves fully developed in the palmated 

 form. We find July the best time to 

 strike cuttings of the fruiting form of 

 ivies ; but a quicker way is to graft 

 them on stocks of Irish ivy. Your 

 variegated Arabis is as good, but not 

 better, than the kind in general cultiva- 

 tion. 



Barren Fig-tree. — Horticultor. — A fig- 

 tree that produces abundance of young 

 fruit which quickly dwindles away, is, 

 no doubt, in a very bad state at the 

 root. You say the "top soil is gooi, 

 but thin, upon coarse gravel, which is 

 sometimes wet, and sometimes scorched 

 up;" a state of things quite sufficient 

 to account for the failure of the tree to 

 mature its fruit. By some means or 

 other the roots must be raised ; aud as 

 fig-trees are not easily killed, we should 

 — unless it is very large — take it up and 

 replant it in a better way than it was 

 planted at first. At a foot or eighteen 

 inches below the common level of the 

 ground there should be formed a hard 

 pavement of concrete, sloping gently to a 

 drain. On this lay six inches of hard rub- 

 ble, and then form a bank of good earth, 

 and plant the tree two or three feet 

 above the common level of the soil. 

 The best soil for a fig-tree is maiden 

 loam, with a fifth part of calcareous 

 matter, such as old plaster, chalk, lime 

 rubbish, etc., added. We greatly prefer 

 fresh chalk for such purposes, because in 

 lime rubbish poisonous substances some- 

 times occur. We cannot inform you 

 on the subject of iron filings. 



The Garden Oracle and Horticul- 



tural Year Book for 1865. — As in 

 every issue of the Oracle an endeavour 

 has been made to present to the horti- 

 cultural public something new, the 

 present issue contains a list of stove and 

 greenhouse orchids arranged to bloom 

 every day throughout the year. This 

 is accompanied with notes ou the cul- 

 ture of the several genera, and supple- 

 mented by a paper designed to show 

 that the collecting and cultivating of 

 orchids need not of necessity require 

 large outlays of money. In this paper 

 there are numerous practical hints 

 which will no doubt be of great value 

 to beginners in this pursuit. The Oracle 

 also contains descriptions of all the new 

 plants, flowers, fruits, etc., of 1864, and 

 selections of useful objects for 1S65. 

 It is, in fact, crammed full of informa- 

 tion of the utmost value to gardeners of 

 all classes, and will repay its cost a 

 hundredfold to all its readers. 



Tuberose Culture. — T. R. — Burntash. 

 — There is but one certain way of having 

 the flowers of the tuberose, and that is 

 to procure fresli bulbs every year, and 

 grow them liberally in a genial atmo- 

 sphere. The bulbs should be potted as 

 soon as obtained, giving them a rich 

 sandy soil of the same quality aud con- 

 sistence as is used for hyacinths. When 

 potted they should be set aside in a 

 warm pi <ce for a fortnight, and then be 

 placed on a flue, tank, dung-bed, or 

 elsewhere, and have a bottom-heat of 

 at least 60'. It does not answer well to 

 place them in the stove, because it is 

 the bulb rather than the top that needs 

 warmth. Give plenty of water, and the 

 floweis will appear in due time. As 

 soon as they are sufficiently advanced to 

 be attractive tal< e them to the drawing- 

 room, and when the bloom is over 

 throw the bulbs aw r ay. 



Various. — Honor. — The subject shall be 

 dealt with in an article nest month ; it 

 cannot be disposed of here ; and, besides, 

 the explanation you need will be useful 

 to many of our readers.— J 7 . A. IV. — 

 Taylor's is the best book on Bees. We 

 cannot promise the design you ask for. 

 Polly. — Cut back the peach-rods only 

 about a fourth of their length. For the 

 wall in your house, Rhyncospermum Jas- 

 minoides. We are preparing a number of 

 useful lists for next year, and with them 

 some short practical articles on subjects 

 of general interest. The lists you wish 

 for next month. 



^ 



ff 



