1862. J 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



363 



Fumigating Greenhouses. — The duty of fumi- 

 gating greenhouses is such an unpleasant one 

 that it is often neglected to the injury of the 

 plants. A French horticulturist has made a 

 discovery which will render it unnecessary to 

 use smoke for the purpose. He finds that the 

 vapor from boiling tobacco juice is as efficacious 

 as are the fumes from the burning weed. The 

 method adopted is simply to mix a small quan- 

 tity of juice in the water and evaporate the 

 whole. The vapor, it is said, kills all the insects 

 in the house. Could not the same plan be 

 adopted against house-flies and mosquitoes? Its 

 recommendation would be its cheapness, for the 

 juice could be expressed from the refuse tobacco 

 which is now thrown away at the factories. 



Arranging Flowers for a Dinner-table. — A 

 correspondent of the Journal of Horticulture, 

 describing two very successful occasions, says : 



" In the centre a good specimen in a five inch 

 pot of the beautifully drooping golden Croton 

 angustifoHus, the pot mossed over, and at the 

 base were disposed large fronds of Maidenhair 

 Fern, next a ring of white Chrysanthemums, and 

 above this large trusses of a beautiful pale rose 

 Rhododendron, ol)tained by forcing. With these 

 between the candlesticks we employed between 

 the dishes of dessert small plants of narrow- 

 leaved Dracaenas ferrea and nigra-rubro and 

 flowering Pelargoniums in three-inch pots. The 

 pots were stood on Maidenhair Fern and cov- 

 ered with moss, in which were disposed a few 

 yellow Chrysanthemum blooms, which by can- 

 dlelijiht really appeared to be white. On another 

 occasion different plants were employed, and 

 sprays of Jasminum nudiflorum were advan- 

 tageously suhstituted for the Chrysanthemums, 

 and richly colored leaves of Mahonia Aquifolium 

 for the Fern fronds. Red Primulas would have 

 been employed failing the more beautiful Rho- 

 dodendron." 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



DuMESKiL Fertilizing Moss. — Mr. E. A Cas- 

 well writes: "A recent number of the Garden- 

 er's Monthly presented an indictment against 

 the Dumesnil fertilizing moss, made by one high 

 in authority, and we beg to offer a few facts in 

 our defence. To state that because early in the 

 century — about the era of stage coaches and 

 tallow dips, — some gentlemen failed to make a 

 moss which would successfully nourish, etc., 

 plants, without earth, that therefore M. Domes 

 nil cannot do so in 1882, is certainly not a strong 

 argument at a period when the discovery of 

 hitherto unknown scientific principles and new 



applications of well known ones occur almost 

 monthly to revolutionize some branch of human 

 industry. And to affirm that probably no fer- 

 tilizing mateiial. not already known to horti- 

 culture, can be used with moss to feed plants, is 

 rather a negation of progress. The fact is, that 

 the Dumesnil moss contains several ingredients 

 that have never been thus used before, and it is 

 a different article from all similar substances 

 hitherto offered. It costs between eighteen and 

 twenty cents to make it, and its materials are 

 too many and too expensive to pretend to com- 

 pete with simple bone dust and moss. Mr. 

 Henderson admits the excellent growth of plants 

 in Dumesnil moss during a trial of only one 

 month. Let him wait four and then report — 

 others bring proof of better results. Mr. N. H. 

 Schmidt, of New York and Astoria, ex-superin- 

 tendent of the Munich and Berlin Royal Botani- 

 cal Gardens, etc., has obtained wonderful results 

 with Dumesnil moss in the growth of 'orchids' 

 from Brazil, and 'palms' (Cocos Wedellianum, 

 Geonoma gracilis and others), which, with moss 

 added to the earth, have reached in two months 

 the point that those planted in earth alone 

 reached in four. Mr. C. J. Power, of South 

 Farmingham, Mass., among many other plants 

 exhibited a ' Hybiscus Cooperii ' in Boston that 

 was confessedly one of the finest specimens ever 

 seen in the city, and he has recently had bril- 

 liant results with 'trailing arbutus,' grown in the 

 Dumesnil moss. The Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society has awarded to the moss a medal, 

 and has thus seen fit cordially to endorse it. 

 When our facilities are perfected we shall ofler 

 Mr. Henderson an opportunity of testing, under 

 impartial conditions, any moss or earth he may 

 bring in competition with Dumesnil moss, and 

 an opportunity also for some one to give a hun- 

 dred dollars to the poor in case of failure. 



"That Mr. Henderson should deem our moss 

 worthy of attack, is a cause of deep satisfaction. 



' 'And the stern joy which warriors feel 

 In foemen worthy of their steeL' " 



[It may be remarked that Mr. Henderson 

 made no "attack" on this moss. Notwithstand- 

 ing the sneer in the last paragraph at Mr. Hen- 

 derson's judgment, it will be remembered that 

 Mr. H. was "invited" to test it, and that a pack- 

 age of the moss was sent to him for the express 

 purpose. He simply recorded the judgment he 

 was invited to give. The invitation to him to 

 make another test is very funny in view of the 

 last paragraph. Mr. Caswell's letter does not 



