1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



11 



grown in a warm frame it seems perfectly happy 

 while growing, and equally as happy in my 

 greenhouse when in flower, where it is now de- 

 lighting my friends, who are charmed with the 

 quaintness of the form of the flower as well as 

 the beautiful colors. I gave a spray of one of 

 the plants to a lady friend a week ago which had 

 several unexpanded flowers upon it, and to-day 

 she called again and in the course of conversa- 

 tion stated that the unexpanded flowers had ex- 

 panded as perfectly as if the shoot had remained 

 upon the plant. In every way I consider this 

 Torenia a decided gain to those who are fond of 

 beautiful flowers and have no hot-houses to grow 

 them in. Very early sowing of the seed does not 

 appear to be desirable. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



ACHYRANTHES Emersonii.— X., asks if any 

 one can give a description of Achyranthus 

 Emersonii? 



Salvia splendens ccerulea.— A corres- 

 pondent asks: "Will some of the readers of 

 the Gardener's Monthly give their experi- 

 ence with the new blue Salvia splendens cceru- 

 lea. Is it of a bright blue color ? 



Brugmansia SuAVEOLENs.— E. C. P., asks : 

 "Is it a rare occurence for Brugmansia suaveo- 

 lens to fruit ? I have a plant with one fruit on 

 it." 



[We have often seen this as well as the B. 

 sanguinea in flower, but never saw a fruit.] 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



A friend suggests that in a magazine which 

 circulates all over the United States, and possi- 

 bly in no one part more than another, " Hints 

 for the month " are useless. But the careful rea- 

 der will note that we do not attempt hints for 

 the month, — but " Seasonable Hints." We 

 know well enough that the person who does not 

 know anything of gardening, but what he can 

 read in a calendar of operations for every day in 

 the year, will not profit much by anything that 

 can be written. In a small country like Great 

 Britain, — a country about the size of a man's 

 hand — where a magazine printed in the morning 

 in the north, may be read before night in the 

 south, such directions may do, but when the rea- 

 der and the printer are two or three thousand 

 miles apart, and when winter is just coming in 

 at one end it is spring-tide at the other, it is quite 

 another thing. But "Seasonable Hints" are 

 diff'erent. We have Winter, Spring, Summer 

 and Autumn. It is just possible that once in a 

 while the "hint" will be just too late in some 

 little corner. Even here the reader can store it 

 up. He will only have to consider that it is for 

 him a little early to begin yet. 



Xow we want to say to fruit growers that a 

 very common evil is to starve orchard trees. 

 Further would say that this is the "season" to 



think about reforming, and that it will still be 

 the " season" till the trees begin to grow. It is 

 often said that fruit trees do not like much ma- 

 nure. This is not our experience. When injury 

 results from application of manure, we believe 

 it is more from the destruction of the roots by 

 the plow or spade used at the time of manuring, 

 —for it is not unfrequently the case that after 

 an orchard is manured the trees are " begrudged" 

 the food; and grain, root, or vegetable crops are 

 put in to dispute with the roots the possession of 

 the food. Wlien the manure is applied as a top 

 dressing, and the roots not disturbed, we have 

 never seen any amount of stable manure or 

 compost applied that was in any degree any- 

 thing else than a benefit to the tree. Sometimes 

 it is said a tree grows too luxuriously, and then 

 will not bear. Very few orchard-growers are in 

 this lucky strait,— for it is luck to have ground 

 as rich as this. In such cases, of course no ma- 

 nure will be applied,— but even here it is only a 

 question of time,— for when in such rich ground 

 trees do bear, the rich fruits and enormous crops 

 are well worth waiting for. Just here the "grass 

 question " in orchards comes in. If the ground 

 is already comparatively poor, and you " seed it 

 down with grass," the result is as certain to be 

 poor looking, sickly, yellow trees as anything 

 can be. To expect a crop of grass and a crop of 

 trees where there is scarcely enough of food for 



