TeDruary 22, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



169 



fheir tissues through the sap, as expcrimeuts to that effect 

 have beeu tried with colouring matter ; but I do not think our 

 chemical experiments with respect to the physiologj- of plants 

 arc sufficiently adrauced to say whether certain substances 

 may not act at times as stimulants to growth as well as being 

 built up as food ; and I am strongly convinced that ammonia 

 itself acts as a stimulant, and helps in that way to induce 

 gi-owth, just as much as heat and moisture do. 



I will not add more on this head as it is only speculative, 

 but let me repeat one argument mth respect to nitrogen that 

 I have already used in your columns, and that is, that as 

 nitrogen is the most inert (inactive, that is to say) chemical 

 agent, as its tendency when in combination is always to set 

 itself free again, when it constitutes four-fifths of the air we 

 breathe, and is only of use as a dUuent to mix, as it were, with 

 the oxygen to prevent the oxygen being too powerful — just as 

 we mix water with brandy to make it less injurious — it is con- 

 trary to the whole course of natiu-e to put plants and animals 

 in the midst of this superabundance of nitrogen, to find only 

 a small proportion of it in theii' systems, and yet to argue that 

 the value of manures and foods depends on this nitrogen. Is 

 it not much more likely that it is only relatively of value, 

 because all substances winch contain it are easily decomposed ? 

 — C. P. Peach. 



Peristrophe salicifolu aureo-variegata. — This has beeu 

 flowering freely in the stove here all winter. I had a few small 

 plants last autumn which were placed in the stove to get up a 

 stock of it by spring for trial in bedding-out, when, to my sur- 

 prise, it commenced flowering. The flowers are of a bright 

 rose colour, but rather insignificant, yet looking extremely 

 pretty mixed with more gaudy flowers in winter. It is worthy 

 of a place among choice plants owing to its lovely foliage ; the 

 leaves are deep green with a golden band in the centre. The 

 plants here are growing in peat and sand. It is a Javanese 

 plant. — James Shith, E.rton Park, Rutland. 



KEEPIXG GEAPES IN BOTTLES OF WATEE. 

 We have received from Mr. Nesbit, gardener to Sir T. 

 Wlnchcote, Bart., Aswarby Hall, Lmcolnshire, specimens of 

 Lady Do'mie's and Muscat of Alexandria Grapes, the former of 

 wliich has been cut and kept in water for sixteen weeks, and 

 the latter eighteen weeks. Both were as plump and firm as if 

 they had been recently cut from the Vine, and were equally 

 succulent ; but there was an evident loss of flavour. The per- 

 fume had quite or all but left the Muscat of Alexandria, which, 

 so far as flavour went, might have been White Tokay ; and Lady 

 Downe's were sweet without bouquet. Notwithstanding these 

 evident deficiencies both sorts were in the most perfect state of 

 preservation, and served as a sufiicient proof that the method of 

 keeping Grapes in water-bottles during winter, though at the ex- 

 pense of flavour in the fruit, affords the advantage of enabling 

 the fruit to be gathered and stored early, while it is preserved 

 in a condition to be served at table as fresh in appearance as 

 when taken from the Vine. 



We shall be very glad to receive any information on this 

 .subject from those who have practised this plan. A week or 

 two ago we gave a description of the arrangements for this 

 purpose in the gardens of Earl Brownlow, at Belton, where the 

 quantity of water taken up by the Grapes was so great as to 

 burst the berries. — Eds. 



I H.AVE kept Grapes , Lady Downe's principally, with the ends 

 •of the bunches inserted in bottles of water, for four seasons, 

 and they have kept as well as when left on the Vine. The 

 room in which they are is dark, very little ventilated, and 

 warmed by one of Joyce's patent stoves, in which specially pre- 

 pared charcoal is burned to keep the frost out, though in severe 

 weather the thermometer has sometimes registered 30° Fahr., 

 or 2" of frost. I cut the Grapes between Christmas and New 

 Tcar's-day, and this year I took six very large bunches of 

 Gros GuUlaume, about thirty of Lady Downe's, and twelve of 

 Mrs. Pince. Clear glass bottles are the best to use, as those made 

 of opaque glass cannot be refilled without spilling the water. 

 Mr. Moore says, " Many gardeners of standing doubt the 

 possibility of Grapes taking up water." There is no doubt that 

 they do take up water, as the bottles in which the stalks of 

 Lady Downe's and Mrs. Pince were inserted required refilling 

 twice a-week, but as soon as a bunch was cut the waste of 

 ■water in seven days was scarcely perceptible. As bearing 



somewhat on Mr. Ferme's statement, the waste of water from 

 the bottles in which were the Gros Guillaume was very little in 

 proportion to that from the bottles in which were Mrs. Pince 

 and Lady Downe's. The reason of this was soon apparent, as 

 the footstalks began to shrivel, and every one of the bunches 

 soon had the appearance of shanking. 



The berries are still plump, but, as maybe expected, no water 

 is now taken up. The stalks of the other two sorts still remain 

 fresh, and the berries still continue to absorb the same quantity 

 of water. I have never weighed any bunches myself before 

 hanging them up, but it woiild be interesting to do so, then 

 weigh the water they absorb, and afterwards weigh the bunches. 

 I always use rain water with a few lumps of charcoal in the 

 bottle, and have never found the berries crack. I think the 

 system a good one, a great boon to gardeners, and a great saving 

 of fuel to employers. I hope others of our readers will give their 

 experience. — J. Docglas. 



BOX-EDGING AND THE TEEE BOX. 



Amongst the many excellent maxims and the sound practical 

 advice which the worthy writer of " Doings of the Last Week" 

 from time to time places before us, there is one to which I am 

 strongly disposed to make an exception, and that is the trim- 

 ming of Box-edgings. " E. F." recommends this to be done in 

 the spring, which is, no doubt, the time most suited to the 

 welfare of the plant, but certainly not the best for cutting in 

 order to secure a neat edging dm-iug the greatest number of 

 months in the j'ear. I make this statement on the assumption 

 that the Box is only cut once a-year, which, with the slow- 

 growing variety generally used for edgings, is in most cases 

 suflicient. If the cutting is done at the end of March or in 

 April, the Box will begin to grow again soon afterwards, and 

 by July wiU have attained nearly its fuU growth, in which con 

 dition it must remain till the following March or AprU. Now 

 although I by no means approve of close-shaven Box-edgings 

 but rather of those which have been trimmed by means of a 

 kind of knife-pruning, still this last mode can only be adopted 

 where the quantity is limited or labour easily obtainable. 

 Assuming, therefore, that the shears have to be used (and I 

 have even known the scythe), the time and mode of doing it, 

 so as to insure the shortest possible period of unsightliness, 

 appears to deserve attention. 



In my practice the best results have been from the cuttings 

 done in the middle of summer rather than from those made in 

 the spring. At the end of June or thereabouts, when the 

 growth of the season is about half made, the Box should be 

 cut in dull weather, by which means the browning of the newly- 

 exposed leaves by the sun is avoided. When after-growth sets 

 in it gives to the edging the appearance of having grown the 

 required height and width, instead of having been trimmed to 

 it. It quickly attains this condition if the weather be at aU 

 favourable, and from the month of August tUl the following 

 May remains in a great measure stationary. 



This practice has its drawbacks, for, as showery weather 

 does not always happen when wanted, I have often had to 

 wait tOl late in July, and on one or two occasions later than 

 that. I always try to have it done in time to allow of a little 

 after-growth, as it is more pleasant to look upon this than for 

 a long time on a saw-cut edge. The cutting of it in moist 

 weather can usually be effected by a httle management, and 

 the result will be satisfactory, as it is surprising how quickly 

 the Box recovers its proper hue again compared with what it 

 does in dry weather. 



It is much to be wondered at, that of the many plants added 

 to our various lists of the useful and ornamental classes there 

 has not been one to compete with the dwarf Box as an edging 

 of a durable kind ; but there are more varieties of Box than one, 

 and now and then an inferior kind gets mixed with the other. 

 In this case the dwarfest variety does not re(iuu-e much clip- 

 ping for some two or three years after being planted ; whereas 

 a stronger grower rushes up several inches high at once. The 

 tree Box proper is also a shrub deserving of cultivation, as it 

 excels in hardiness that of most others. Unfortunately it is 

 of slow growth, and is, therefore, less planted than it ought to 

 be ; but there are places for which it is especially fitted, par- 

 ticularly where rabbits abound ; and althoiigh I have seen 

 Berberis Aquifohum and the common Yew destroyed, and the 

 Rhododendron much injured by these vermin, it is rarely in- 

 deed that they attack the common tree Box. 



It has often been a mystery to me from whence the Box- 



