1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



103 



Bath in England, whose greatest pride is that no 

 one has ever been able to beat him in growing a 

 Fuchsia. He has scores of plants as good as this. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



CYCLAMENS. 



BV M. J. EDMONDS. 



I am glad to see an increasing interest in the 

 growing of cyclamens. A great many persons 

 have asked me what is the best sort to grow, and 

 in reply I would say the Persicum and its varieties 

 are my favorites. A good way to get an assort- 

 ment is to raise them from seed. Of course the 

 exact colors cannot be reproduced from seed ; a 

 packet of Persicum album will not produce all 

 whites, neither will roseum all rose color. As good 

 a plan as any is to get a packet of mixed seeds, 

 from which will be had a variety to suit every one. 

 With this I mail you a sample of blooms produced 

 from plants from a mixed packet of seeds. They 

 are mostly from young plants blooming for the 

 first time. No. i are from Persicum, No. 2 from 

 giganteum, and No. 3 from old plants. The young 

 plants were watered with manure water but once. 

 Just how long a plant will live I cannot say. In 

 my collection are some seven years old that look 

 good for as many more years. I write this as a 

 general answer to inquiries received respecting 

 this plant, and would have done it sooner, but was 

 waiting till I could send you blooms from my 

 young plants. Gardener to James McCreery, 



Inwood-on the- Hudson, New York. 



[The blooms were remarkably fine. Indeed we 

 have never seen such large and handsome flowers 

 before.— Ed. G. M.J 



mens. Another with not half the variety had each 

 variety displayed in a champagne glass — those 

 funnel-shaped cut glass. Three of each — a bud, 

 half-opened bud, and a full blown rose — with just 

 foliage enough of its own to show its leaf charac- 

 teristics, growth, etc., and to add to the rose's at- 

 tractiveness. I made a table decoration for same 

 fair which carried off first prize. I had an oblong 

 tin trough, 3 inches high and broad, 18x22 inches 

 long. I placed this' on a large waiter, after ar- 

 ranging it full of beautiful flowers as far as the 

 outer edge of the trough extended ; in the trough, 

 water and then flowers of delicate structure, tiny 

 ferns, lycopodiums, partridge vine-bloom, lily of 

 the valley, etc. From the inner edge of trough was 

 a mirror which reflected the flowers and looked 

 like a miniature lake, and in center of mirror I 

 placed an exquisite three branching glass Epergne 

 with the cream of my flowers. It had universal 

 praise awarded it. That being six years ago, I 

 have seen the same idea carried out further, having 

 added small glass swans on the mirror as if swim- 

 ming in the water. This arrangement 1 keep and use 

 now whenever I entertain or have parties, and the 

 effect is quite pretty. 



MILDEW IN ROSES. 



OF TASTE IN FLORAL ARRANGEMENT. 

 BY A LADY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



I agree with "W." about the lack of taste in 

 exhibitors at floral fairs or exhibitions. I had the 

 pleasure six years since to be placed on a commit- 

 tee of three, to award premiums on pot plants and 

 cut flowers. P. J. Berckmans (justly celebrated 

 florist and horticulturist, and now in charge of Hor- 

 ticultural Hall in New Orleans Exposition) was 

 one of the three. One lady had eighty-five named 

 varieties of roses jammed and crowded on one 

 medium sized waiter, not a leaf or bit of green 

 — ^just the roses — so closely packed that it took a 

 truly appreciative person to take in the rarity of 

 her collection, for rare they were and fine speci- 



BY JOHN TILLOTSON. 



1 have read Mr. Veitch's article on mildew and 

 his remedy, and I wish to say that 1 have used 

 dry sulphur over twenty years and never saw any 

 bad effects from it. No one need be troubled 

 with mildew if he will sprinkle the flow pipes three 

 times a week for two weeks, when steady firing be- 

 gins in the fall, and once a week for red spider. 

 His roses ought then to be healthy all the winter. 

 Sulphur on hot-water pipes will not burn, and on 

 steam pipes will melt at fifteen pounds pressure 

 and run like water. Even that severe test will do 

 no harm in a rose house, neither did ithurtsmilax 

 in the same house, and it has been repeated 

 several times through the carelessness of the fire- 

 man. Fishkill Village, N. V. 



THE HOT- WATER CURE. 



BY H. 



In the fall of 1883, I procured a set of about 

 two dozen new Chrysanthemums. They were 

 soon covered with a small, almost black aphis or 

 plant louse that I had never seen before. My 

 man smoked the house with little benefit ; only re- 

 ducing the number, but not exterminating the 



