i88s. 



AND HORtlCULTURIST. 



« 



time is lost, and the quantity of water required to 

 be heated is, as before described, very small in 

 proportion compared to that necessary for heating 

 an annular pipe. Another advantage to be gained 

 by these pipes is, that at the unions the pipes can 

 be reversed, and they form excellent evaporating 

 tanks for water where moisture is required. 1 may 

 say that it is the opinion of manufacturers experi- 

 enced in hot-water piping that this form is very 

 likely to become general, in hothouses at any rate. 

 Lengths of these can easily be inserted with the 

 ordinary circular pipes. — Thomas Christy, in Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle. 



Cultivating the Dove Orchid. — A correspon- 

 dent of the Garden tells us that in a collection in 

 England this contains a fine plant, which has 

 again flowered with great freedom. It has pro- 

 duced six flower-spikes, which have grown to a 

 height of 4 feet. It will therefore be seen that the 

 specimen here is a fine one, and it occupies a 

 rather large pot. It receives a liberal supply of 

 heat and moisture, which evidently suit it, for the 

 bulbs are unusually large and as green and plump 

 as it is possible for them to be. It is always giv- 

 en a rest in a cooler and dryer house than the 

 stove when it has completed its growth, but water 

 at the roots is not withheld so long as to cause the 

 bulbs to shrivel. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



OxALls LUTEA PLENA. — A Correspondent asks: 

 " Can you or any of your readers give me any 

 information concerning Oxalis lutea plena? It is 

 described as having large, double, yellow flowers, 

 resembling dandelions. I should like some infor- 

 mation as to its origin." 



[The true Oxalis lutea is but an old synonym of 

 Oxalis corniculata, the well-known " sour-grass " 

 of children, and a common weed. A double 

 variety would be very pretty ; but we should sup- 

 pose it would look like a very small dandelion 



Ed. G. M.] 



Disease in Carnations. — " W.," Sharon,. Pa., 

 writes : " We make the forcing of Carnations a 

 specialty, and this fall when we lifted our plants, 

 we noticed a good many that looked yellow and 

 sickly, and unfit to plant on the benches. All 

 that showed signs of disease we rejected, and we 

 thought we had as fine a show for Carnations as 

 any one could wish, ttut they have been dying out 

 right along, and unless we can check the trouble, 



I shall have to abandon that branch of our busi- 



j ness. Will some reader of the Monthly who 



makes a specialty of forcing Carnations, suggest 



t a remedy ? One man told us to try saltpeter 



ammonia, but we can't find any such article in our 



drug stores. 



"Another suggested syringing the plants with 

 ammonia water. In pinching back our young 

 plants during the summer, we hold the plant with 

 the left hand and pull the tops out, thus detaching 

 them at the joints ; and it is right at the joints that 

 the trouble seems to be, or just below the joints 

 rather, inside the stems; the pith seems to rot or 

 rust like, and we thought perhaps this way of 

 pinching them was what made them go as they 

 do. We have never had any trouble of this kind 

 until last winter, when we lost our entire crop of 

 two thousand plants. We would like to hear 

 from a number of Carnation growers as to their 

 experience in this line, also about kind of soil 

 used, how often it should be changed, tempera- 

 ture to force in, &c. 



"Mr. John Murchie suggests that we quit strik- 

 ing our young plants from plants that have been 

 forced, which we consider good advice. Any 

 light that can be given through the Monthly 

 will be duly appreciated." 



[This is the well-known Carnation root fungus, 

 and is one of the best illustrations known of the 

 modern discovery that some forms of parasitic 

 funguses will attack healthy vegetation. Its 

 presence in a bed of Carnations in the open 

 ground is detected by the practiced eye, by a 

 slightly paler tint on one plant. In a few weeks 

 a circle of a number of plants will show the pale 

 tint, the fungus having spread from the one it 

 originally fed on, to those around it. If examined 

 with a pocket lens the fungus will be seen like 

 small cobwebs over the growing fibres. The 

 affected plants are taken out as soon as seen, for 

 although the thread (mycelium) which propa- 

 gates the plant is in the ground, like all plants it 

 , gathers strength by what it feeds on, and does 

 i not spread so easily when it is kept from its food. 

 Pale plants are never taken into the house for 

 forcing. There is hardly any use in. attempting to 

 combat the enemy after it has found a lodg- 

 ment in the benches, as the injury has been 

 j mostly done before the plants are taken inside. 

 However, if any of our correspondents know bet- 

 ter, we should be glad of their experience. Usu- 

 ally when the fungus gets into a stock, it is car- 

 ried on by propagation, until it almost gets to be 

 permanent, and then we hear that that variety is 



