i88s.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



33' 



plants as ferns to exist in during the tender seed- 

 ling state, when a very short period of actual 

 drought suffices to cause them to perish. One of 

 the best ways to insure a good supply of seedling 

 ferns I have yet found is to put a layer of broken 

 bricks, clinkers, and other rough porous material 

 under the plant stages, and work some very fine 

 soil amongst it ; and, if this is kept constantly 

 moist by syringing, the fertile spores will settle on 

 it and vegetate in great quantities, and may be 

 potted up as required, or used for cutting from, 

 some of the strong growing ferns, such as Pteris 

 tremula, being especially useful for cutting.-^ 

 Gardening lUttstrated. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Improved A.marvllises (see cut).— So much 

 has recently been noted by correspondents of our 

 magazine in regard to the beauty of the Amaryllis, 

 and the ease with which they were grown, that we 

 give on opposite page an illustration of one, that 

 the reader may behold with his own eyes how 

 lovely they are. This was taken from a sketch 



made of one growing in the celebrated Amaryllis 

 house of Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, near London. 



Loss BY Gas. — Charles Morat, a florist at Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky, has had all his stock of green- 

 house plants destroyed by leakage from the city 

 gas pipes. There is no excuse for leaky pipes, 

 and a city that permits such severe losses 

 should be made to settle for damages, just as 

 much as when a horse gets killed by a bad 

 road. 



Black Aphis. — "J. B.," Allegheny, Pa., writes: 

 " I mail specimens of insects which have caused 

 much trouble and considerable loss. I have used 

 tobacco in powder and as a fumigant ; also used 

 whale oil soap, insect powder, carbolic acid solu- 

 tion, but found none effective. Smilax has been 

 only crop injured. Was annoyed in same way 

 last season. Can you suggest a remedy ?" 



[This appears to be only the large black Aphis, 

 so troublesome to the Chrysanthemum grower 

 especially. As it is one of the suctorial tribe, the 

 usual beetle poisons are useless, but it ought to 

 succumb to frequent fumigating with tobacco 

 smoke. — Ed. G. M.] 



iRjjiT AND Vegetable Gardening 



^''G. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Among the numerous varieties of new fruits 

 continually coming into market, it must puzzle the 

 novice which to select. The raiser of novelties — 

 as in the case of a grape introducer — whose 

 card is before us, tells us that he had his new 

 "seedling" alongside of the Concord, Salem, 

 Hartford, and a dozen others, which all rotted 

 and blighted, and " fizzled out " generally, while 

 his glorious " Pride of Grapedom proved all that 

 could be desirable in a first-class grape." We 

 have a friend who is fond of growing numerous 

 grapes. He has thirty kinds in full bearing and 

 more coming on. His opinion is that : "So far as 

 doing well is concerned, I do not find that one 

 does much better than another, except perhaps the 

 Delaware and the Catawba. These do not al- 

 ways ripen very well. That is to say, some green 

 or immature fruit will always be found among the 



mature ones. They all do well. My plan is to 

 plant in dry ground ; that is, ground in which the 

 water will surely run away rapidly. I like hard, 

 solid ground. By digging about the vines some 

 roots get cut, and these get fungus and molds on 

 the bruised parts, and this communicates to 

 the whole mass. And deleterious insects get into 

 soft ground much easier than when the ground is 

 solid and firm. I keep weeds and grass from 

 getting much headway by piling coal ashes 

 under the plants, and I give the vines as much 

 rich food as I can spare. They do not care how 

 much you give them. This is all my secret." 

 This is the experience of a successful amateur. 

 He does not grow for market, but for pleasure. 

 To some extent such a mode of culture could not 

 be applied on a large scale. But it goes to show 

 that when "every kind rots," and so forth, it is 

 to the cultivator and the cultivation, and not the 

 variety, that we may often place the blame. 



