126 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ February 8, 1872. 



Lady Downo's for keepkig, and iu flavour is snperior. It miX 

 also colour well eveu without fire heat, which is auother jjoint in 

 its favour. I have had it planted in a cool house, but there it 

 is not so much at home, still even iu such a house it will do 

 better than many other kinds. The fi-uit, like that of the 

 Alicante and Lady Downe's, requues to hang, as Mr. Rivers 

 describes, till fully ripe. 



Those about planting a vinery for a supply of late Grapes 

 win find the Gros Colman, Madresfield Court, Alicante, Lady 

 Downe"s, and Muscat of AlesantMa the best varieties for the 

 piu-pose. A few other Grapes hang well, but I question if 

 there are five to equal these, wliich ai'e sure croppers, large in 

 bunch, fine in beiTy, good keepers, and, above all, of strong 

 constitution. — Stephen Castle. 



BLUE-FLOWEBED HYDRANGEAS. 



As we were on a Ti.sit to .Jersey in company with oui' col- 

 league and fellow-worker. Dr. Eug. Fouruier, we saw some 

 fine blue Hydrangeas iu the teiTaced gardens of the Hotel 

 Royal, the coloirr of which was a beautiful ultramarine, and 

 distributed in a wonderfully even manner. We noticed that 

 there were some rose-colom-ed heads among the blue ones, but 

 these were upon much less vigorous subjects. As the blue 

 colouring was alwaj's in dii'ect proportion to the strength of 

 the plant, one reasonably comes to the conclusion that the 

 substance which imparts the colom' acts at the same time as 

 manure upon the soU, that rose is the colour peculiar to the 

 Hydrangea in a low state, whilst blue would be that of it iu a 

 natural or overfed one. The blue colour of Hydrangeas arises 

 from the mixture of certain matters with the soil, and it is upon 

 this practice that the following remarks bear. 



In 18.57 Mr. Luscombe showed some splendid blue Hydrangeas, 

 which had been growu beneath a group of Fu's in the soil 

 formed by their decayed leaves, and by so doing threw open a 

 new field for inqutrv', as it had hitherto been thought that 

 blue Hydrangeas could only be j^roduced by means of the 

 following substances, and eveu then in different degrees : — 

 Lime water, chalybeate water, common red sand, Norwood 

 loam, water in which red-hot iron had been plunged, solution 

 of alum, and iron filings. 



To the presence of iron in solution, of lime, and of alvmi, 

 the action of the above-named materials was thought to be 

 due. Professor Solly, however, proved on trial that lime, alum, 

 or u'on, made more soluble by means of hydrochloric acid, or 

 less so by carbonate of soda, were of but little use for colour- 

 ing plants of the Hydrangea genus ; whilst Mr. Fortune, who 

 was unable to obtain blue Hydrangeas by the employment of 

 pure iron, did so by means of alum diluted in water. Now, 

 neither in peat earth nor leaf moiild is there any alum to be 

 found. The only explanation of the effect of these soils is 

 that the tannin which they contain is acted upon by the 

 peroxide of iron in the tissues of the plant. The experiment 

 which Dr. Lindley formerly advised can be made by supplying 

 the plants first with water impregnated with peroxide of ii'on, 

 and then with a weak mfusion of tannin. 



This, however, is only one side of the case. In 1861 another 

 EugUshman brought out the idea that Hydrangeas, so long as 

 they were grown in virgin soil, could be had blue in all sorts of 

 eai-th. He tried various ways of giowiug them, and whether 

 it was in an ordinary garden soU or a new and turfy one, the 

 upshot was always the same during five years. Moreover, a 

 plant wilh rose-coloured flowers and placed iu common garden 

 soil, no sooner had reached with its roots the virgin soU which 

 lay midemeath, than it began to produce blue corymbs. On 

 the other hand, it is well known that Hydrangeas take on a 

 deep blue colour' in granitic, schistose, mica-schistose, and 

 other soils of an igneous origin. 



Thus the matter lay, and some new trials of M. A. Gris had 

 thrown but little light upon it, when M. Eug. Founiier set 

 himself to work out some essays iu consequence of a dispute 

 which had arisen on this subject at a meethig of the Botanical 

 Society of France. He watered some rose-coloured varieties 

 of Hydrangeas daily, and with equal quantities of the following 

 solutions, beginning on the 1st of May. 



1. 20 gi-ammes of amiuouiacal altuu to a litre of distiJleil water (175.3 gi-pins 



to an imperial pint). 



2. 20 ;ji-ammes of sulphate of ii-on to a litre. SuKgestcii by Dr. Boisduvol. 

 .". 20 ^Tammes of carbonate of coppei-. Suggested by M. CrocLord. 



4. Ajunionia, quantity not determined. 



On the loth of Jime, those plants to which ammonia and 

 carbonate of copper had been conveyed by means of water, 



perished ; those treated with sulphate of iron showed decent 

 strength and rosy sepals ; whilst those to which the am- 

 moniacal solution of alum had been applied bore a luxmiaut 

 growth and large flowers of a violet blue. Of the other experi- 

 ments made by M. E. Fournier we can speak no further here, 

 but they all tend to show that if iron colom- Hydi-angeas blue 

 under certain conditions, it also possesses the power of pro- 

 moting growth like ammoniacal alum. The true cause, there- 

 fore, of the blue coloiu' of Hydrangeas is an excessive growth 

 artificially obtained. — [L'llliistrtition Horlicole.) 



THE GLASTONBURY PEAR. 



A FEW more words may strengthen yoiu' opinion, and then 

 I shall have no more to say, I hope, on the Glastonbiu-y Pear 

 until the autumn, when the question ought to be finally 

 settled. 



There can be no mistake about the three shoots I sent you — 

 they are one sort — my letter, which was posted the same day, 

 firUy explained how they were growii. The balance of opinion 

 points to its being Brown Beurre. On referring to Mr. Scott's 

 descriptive catalogue to the " BeuiTe, Brown " Pear, every re- 

 mark there equally applies to the Glastoubuiy Pear- ; and had 

 I known Beurre du Eoi and Beurre Rouge were the same 

 variety under different names, I should never have troubled 

 you with this discussion. 



Many year's ago Mr. Chapman told me he had seen his Pear 

 figured iu an old work with only one name, Beuri'c du Roi, 

 and to this day he calls it by that name. You may well ask, 

 Why did I not mention this before, or iu 1865 ? I had for- 

 gotten all about it, and it was the reference to Scott's catalogue 

 that recalled it. I have seen the work ; it is Batty Langley's 

 " Pomona." Batty Langley was an advanced gai'dener. He 

 recommends the Quince stock for Pears, Paradise for Apples, 

 root-pruning, and many other practices which I thought 

 modern. On looking over many of my trees, I find on the 

 wall all the shoots are mahogany-coloured and slightly freckled, 

 the smaller shoots on pyramids slightly coloured red and more 

 freckled. If we had had a warm summer to ripen the wood 

 on standards, the wood would have been mahogany-coloured. 

 — John' Albert Pokch. 



SERICOGEAPHIS GHIESBREGHTIANA. 

 This is a plant more easily managed than its name, and may 

 be growu in a greenhouse. I raised a cutting two years ago in 

 a sunny window, and kept it in a very poor greenhouse after 

 near the window, but the early frost of October, 1870, made it 

 drop its flowers. Tliis year, as soon as I saw flower-buds, I 

 removed it to the middle of the greenhouse, and about a month 

 ago I brought it into a sitting-room. It is now in full flower, 

 being 4 feet high, and each branch with four sets of flowers 

 springing from the base of each remarkably handsome leaf, 

 with which its bright scarlet flowers form a fine contrast. No 

 doubt it could be better grown with a little more heat, but to 

 lovers of flowers, especially in winter, it would form a pretty 

 addition to a greenhouse. — Makt, Drvoit. 



DEATH OF ME. WILLIAM EAYNER. 

 It is our painful duty to have to record the death of Mr. WilUam 

 Rayner, surgeon, on the 26tli of January, in the 71st year of 

 his age. Mr. Rayner was a native of Uxbridge, and resided 

 the whole of his lifetime iu the town, where he gained a high 

 reputation in his profession, and the respect of a large code of 

 friends, by his rare intellectual talents and active zeal iu every 

 work he considered calculated to promote the interests of the 

 town and its inhabitants. The study of his profession, to 

 vjiich he was devotedly attached, was the chief business of his 

 life. He was a frequent contributor to the I.iiiicft and other 

 medical works ; his leisure hours were given to the study of 

 natural history, omithologj-, entomology, and botany. On these 

 subjects he furnished a series of papers, which were published iu 

 the " Cott.^geGaedexek," and which possessed great merit from 

 the popular style in which they were written. Some years ago 

 he prepared a scries of lectures on his favourite subjects, which 

 he deUvered iu Uxbridge, Windsor, Staines, and other towns; 

 these lectures were highly attractive, interesting, and full of 

 useful information ; they were profusely illustrated with dia- 

 grams and drawings, in the preparation of which a great 

 amount of labom', skill, and time must have been bestowed, in 

 which he was greatly assisted by his talented daughters. He 



