1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



77 



the maiden hair fern rested on the lace bor- 

 dering. Above this dark heliotrope, mignon- 

 ette, and dark carnations, lightened by white 

 ageratum. Rather lighter colored flowers fol- 

 lowed, such as Bon Silene rose, La Piirite car- 

 nation with double white primroses, and other 

 lighter flowers interspersed, still carrying 

 through the ageratum. Towards the centre 

 were the lighter colored roses, carnations, with 

 a more plentiful supply of mignonette, but with 

 the ageratum decreasing in quantity. The 

 grading of the dark colors into the light, and 

 of the ageratum into the mignonette was very 

 good indeed, and the whole a very successful 

 eff"ort of design in bouquet making. We learned 

 that it was made for the ladies by Mr. O'Neill, 

 gardener to Mr. Krause, of that city. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Disease in Greenhouse Plants. — "Sub- 

 scriber," Syracuse, N. Y., writes: " Being a con- 

 stant reader of your valuable Monthly, I would 

 like to ask of you a little advice. I notice as I 

 go from one greenhouse to another, that there 

 are a great many plants, such as Carnations, 

 Bouvardias, etc., that seem to damp, or rather 

 rot off just at the neck of the plant. Could you 

 inform me of the remedy, or what is the cause ?" 



[This is caused by a parasitic fungus at the 

 roots, closely allied to the fungus which pro- 

 duces the yellows in the peach. It is too late 

 to apply a remedy after they are in the house. 

 The fungus is at work all through the Summer. In 

 the case of the carnation you can readily detect 



it when growing out of doors by the yellowish 

 color of the foliage as compared with the nor- 

 mal green. We have heard that watering with 

 lime water is a good remedy, but have not tried 

 it.— Ed. G. M.] 



German Method of Making Flowers 

 Bloom in Winter. — G. H., Yarmouth Point, 

 Mass., says : " I read in the Gardener's 

 Monthly of 1862, p. 330, " German Method of 

 Making Flowers Bloom in Winter." I put in a 

 piece of lime about the size of an English walnut, 

 and one about the size of a cherry to a quart of 

 water each, and about one-third of an oz. of vit- 

 riol, but removed the lime and water before 

 adding the vitriol water; it failed to bloom or 

 leaf out. I put in lilac and other free-bloom- 

 ing shrubs. Please answer in next month's 

 Gardener's Monthly why it failed." 



[The article referred to was contributed by a 

 highly intelligent lady botanist, — the late Eliza- 

 beth Morris of Germantown, and we know no 

 more of it than that. It will be observed that 

 she had herself some doubt of it, as she re- 

 marked, "I will not vouch for its success." 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



Forcing Lilies.— S. F. T., Saratoga Springs, 

 writes: "I would like to know about forcing 

 Lilliums candidum and longiflorum. How long 

 it takes from the time of potting to flowering, 

 soil, heat, etc ? I wish you could make it con- 

 venient to issue the Monthly semi-monthly." 



[We should be very glad if some of our read- 

 ers who have had some actual experience would 

 favor us by a reply. — Ed. G. M.] 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



There is nothing more certain, from cumulative 

 daily experience, than that a great proportion of 

 the diseases of fruit trees come from the roots 

 being in overheated soil. Species growing natur- 

 ally in mountain districts or high elevations, 

 where the summer temperature of the earth is 

 little above 55", find themselves in places where 

 the sun pours on the soil for eight or ten hours a 



day, heating it to 80^ or 90°, and which results in 

 " enervating" the vital powers and in making 

 the plant a prey to all sorts of diseases. This is 

 one of the great evils of what is known as clean 

 culture in many places, and does as much as the 

 actual mutilation of the roots to injure the pros- 

 pects of the orchardist. Yet in all discussion 

 about cropping orchards versus clean culture, we 

 rarely see it alluded to. It is owing to this over- 

 looking of an important point that so much dif- 

 ferences occur among the " Doctors." One has 



