8 



THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[January, 



superior vigor of the Manetti, and it is very rare 

 that a double variety grows stronger than the 

 single original from which it sprung. 



Railway Gardening.— The Boston and Maine 

 Company now allows its station agents $10 a 

 year each with which to buy seeds, plants, etc., 

 and ofiers prizes of $50, $30 and $20 to the agent 

 whose stations are best kept and present the 

 neatest and most attractive appearance. — Scien- 

 tific American. 



Fine Chrysanthemums. — At the November 

 meeting of the Germantown Horticultural So- 

 ciety, some remarkably fine varieties of Chry- 

 santhemums were exhibited by Mr. Walter Coles, 

 gardener to J. I. Blair, Esq , of Belvidere, New 

 Jersey. They showed that the improvement of 

 this pretty fall flower has not yet been finished. 

 These had the petals all of one uniform breadth, 

 and all curved inwards regularly. The flowers 

 attracted much attention Mr. Coles is one of 

 that class of gardeners whose intelligence and 

 genuine love of his profession makes gardening 

 so attractive to so many. 



The Cactus Dahlia.— Blooms of this new 

 species. Dahlia Jaurezi, were exhibited by Peter 

 Henderson at tlie November meeting of the New 

 York Horticultural Society. 



Florida Jute.— The mixing up of common 

 names among numerous plants, is a fearful pest 

 to the intelligent reader. The newspapers tell 

 us that " a plant which grows wild in Florida — 

 Florida Jute," produces an article " in tensile 

 strength superior to Indian Jute," and that a 



company has been formed in Philadelphia. 

 Strangely, however, we are told in the same 

 paragraph "seed has been ordered from India," 

 although the "indigenous Florida jute" is so 

 superior. At any rate what is Florida jute? 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



TN.IURED Bark. — "L.W.," Philadelphia, writes: 

 "Some vandal permitted his horse to bark two 

 of my maple trees, both within three feet of 

 hitching posts. The weather and growth of 

 trees burst the strings with which I had secured 

 a plaster of earth and cow dung, and I find the 

 edges of the bark healed, but a good deal of bare 

 wood exposed. Is there anything I can put on 

 to prevent a rotting of this wood. The trees are 

 about twelve years old and very healthy.'' 



[It is best in these cases to paint the wood, to 

 keep it from decaying, until the new wood and 

 bark at each side grow over the exposed part. — 

 Ed. G. M.] 



A Blue Bedding Plant. — " W. D.," Sandusky^ 

 Ohio, says: "Can you- give me the name of a 

 bedding plant that can be used in ribbon gar- 

 dening, as blue, in making a banner or flag 

 (Union), with acharanthus and centaurea for 

 red and white, or any other plant, no matter 

 what size. Please let me know, if this is not 

 asking too much from you, for which I shall be 

 thankful, and oblige." 



[Do any of our readers know anything better 

 than blue Lobelia?— Ed. G. M.] 



Greenhouse and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Flowers grown in pots often need re-potting 

 while they are growing. This is an operation 

 requiring much thought and care. As a rule 

 there is more danger of a plant being in too 

 large than in too small a pot. It may not grow 

 well in a small pot ; the leaves may not be of as 

 dark a green as when it has plenty of earth to 

 grow in. The trouble with a large pot and a 

 small plant is that the water does not always run 

 away fast enough. When this is the rase small 

 mould grows, or, as gardeners say, the soil gets 



sour, and the young and tender points of the 

 roots are rotted. The plant sickens and very 

 often dies. In old times, say forty years ago, 

 there were gardeners who prided themselves on 

 their success with what they termed the '' one- 

 shift system." A plant would be taken from a 

 thumb pot, and at once put into one six, eight 

 or ten inches in diameter, and they often did 

 succeed admirably. But it was very much like 

 the effort of the celebrated driver, who loved to- 

 see the wheels of his vehicle go straight along 

 within a quarter of an inch of the chasm, with- 

 out throwing you a thousand feet down below. 



