March 7, 1373. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



2(9 



Sown in September it will lift well in patches in autumu and 

 spring. 



Eschscholtzia caUfornica, crocea, alba, and tenuifolia are very 

 gay plants. If sown in spring they will bloom in summer and 

 autumn. Sown in July and lifted, they will bloom early in 

 .spring. 



Most of the foregoing annuals will do best if lifted not singly 

 but in patches, say six or more plants in a patch, with a little 

 ball of earth about them. In somewhat stiff soUs they need 

 little more than to be sown on a fine surface, and to be covered 

 with light sandy soil. In light soils I find it a good plan to 

 •dig the soil, tramp it rather firm, stii' the surface to the depth 

 of 2 or 3 inches, and incorporate with it some rough fresh 

 loam and leaf mould, or rotten dung. Pat the surface even, 

 but not hard, sow the seeds, and cover with some tine soil. 

 With the ground thus prepared the plants may be raised with 

 a trowel in Uttle tufts or patches, with the rough soil adhering 

 to the roots, and they will scarcely suffer from the removal 

 ■when transferred to beds or borders. 



So much for sowing for flower gardens in spring, but if you 

 aueau to enter on the subject at all seriously and to any extent, 

 the best advice I can give you is to obtain '• Spring and Winter 

 Gardening," by Mr. John Fleming, which you can have by 

 post for 2s. 7Jrf. I should have little faith in any Coleus 

 planted out except the brown Verschaffelti. 



I find I have omitted red and white Virginian Stock, which 

 *Jor spring blooming should be sown from the middle of Septem- 

 Jjer. — R. Fish. 



SETS OF EARLY POTATOES. 



I HAVE lately seen it seriously recommended to rub oft all 

 •the forward shoots, and then plant as the eyes are again be- 

 ginning to show. This can only be justified as being the least 

 ■of different evils. I would never allow a shoot to be removed 

 from early Potatoes, but would have them in the ground before 

 .these stout shoots were more than 3 inches in length. I should 

 like to have seed early Potatoes set close together, but singly, 

 /ju platforms or open shelves, if only a foot apart ; and in such 

 .a position, and kept merely secure from frost, the tubers would 

 shoot strongly but late, and there would be no necessity for 

 lessening their strength by rubbing oft the shoots. 



In these modern days, and under the system of modern 

 •gardening, the old gardeners would be unable to find shelf- 

 room for their flowering bulbs and tubers, let alone doing 

 justice to their seed Potatoes. In the majority of gardens 

 Tvhere there are even show plant-houses there is a great want of 

 j'oom for storing. 



I may here add that after having tried aU kinds of sets for 

 Potatoes —cutting them into pieces, each having one good eye 

 or bud, as I should most Ukely do in the case of a new expensive 

 iind, using the bud with merely a slice attached (the bulk of 

 •the tuber being used tor f ood) , and even propagating by rooting 

 shoots, as we would do with a Dahlia — the results of my 

 jJractioe are simply these, that a middle-sized tuber entire 

 igives on the whole the earliest and heaviest returns. If the 

 ■different eyes begin to move it is well , however, to rub oft all 

 •except one or two of the strongest. I say ad-risedly one or two, 

 because, though I have planted rows close together, one having 

 sets with one eye and another ■with two eyes, I could not satisfy 

 myself by the size of tubers, weight, or measure, which was the 

 •better, but I found the crops in either case earlier and better 

 than when I put a tuber in and left the different eyes to 

 struggle with each other for the mastery. If I have any pre- 

 ference at aU, it is to have one shoot from a tuber instead of 

 two or more. — E. F. 



GRAFTING.— No. 4. 



Side Gb-vftins. — Under this head M. Baltet treats of two 

 modes of grafting — one, which he calls sub-cortical, or under 

 the bark, in other words between the bark and the alburnum ; 

 and the other on the alburnum. For aU practical purposes 

 they might have been embraced under one head, for aU graft- 

 ing to be successful must be on the alburnum. However, we 

 shall for the present adopt these distinctions of M. Baltet, and 

 treat the subject after his method. 



SnB-coRTic.iL Gr.vfting. — If we ■wish to implant a twig on 

 the side of a stem or under its bark, the stock ought to be in 

 a state of growth. The operation is done — 1st, from April to 

 May at the rising of the sap, and then it is called, by an active 

 bud ; 2ud, from July to September, when it becomes a graft by 

 a dormant bud. In the former case scions of the previous 



year are employed which have been laid in the earth with a 

 northern exposure, or in a cellar, to preserve their vitality. 

 The sap being in action in the plants at the time they are used, 

 the graft will be developed in the course of the same year. 

 In the second case (from a dormant bud) where the graft will 

 be developed in the following year, a shoot of the current year 

 is chosen, and is taken from the parent tree at the time of 

 grafting, the leaves being removed if the tree employed is de- 

 ciduous. Scions taken from evergreen trees should not be cut 

 from the parent tree tUl they are required, neither ought the 

 leaves to be lemoved. For these two methods, the summits of 

 the twigs with a terminal head form excellent scions. 



There are two systems of sub-cortical side-grafting, one 

 having for a scion simply the fragment of a twig ; the other 

 a twig with a heel or shield, such as is used in autumnal bud- 

 ding, taken from the branch which produced it. 



SiDE-GBAFTiNG WITH A TwiG. — This proccss is important for 

 restoring defective trees, to obtain branches 

 where they are requu'ed, and to change old 

 varieties. It is equally useful for propagation. 

 The woody scion is better adapted to inocula- 

 tion under the old bark than the single bud 

 generally used. The scion is a small twig, 

 or the fragment of a twig, from 4 to 8 inches 

 long, the inferior half of which is cut slant- 

 ingly ■without a tongue to disturb the plane 

 surface of the cut, which is cut then towards 

 the point B. If it is desired to get a branch 

 forming an open angle with the s'em which 

 bears it, a crooked or curved scion is chosen ; 

 the cut, on the convex part being applied to the 

 stock, will give the summit a direction out- 

 wards. With a straight scion it will suffice 

 to preserve a bud on the back of the cut, the 

 growth of which will form a branch nearly 

 perpendicular to the stem. 



In the propagation of certain trees, as the 

 Beech, branching scions are employed of two or ^ 



three years old, and in them the cut is made, 

 as we have stated, then at the point. The scion being pre- 

 pared, two cuts are made on the stock (a), forming an incision 

 (c), Uke a T, right through the bark to the alburnum. The 

 sides of the incision are raised, and the scion is slid into it, so 

 that the top of its cut corresponds with the transverse incision 

 on the stock. The graft is then bound with a ligature, and if 

 there is imperfection in the union between the two parts, the 

 action of the ah- is excluded with the leaf of a tree, or by the 

 application of clay or grafting-wax. — Baltet, L'Art de Greffer. 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



BcLBiNE Mackenii (Bulbineof MacKen). iVoi. orrf.jLQiacea;. 

 Linn, arr., Hexandria Monogynia. — Sent from Natal by Mr. 

 MacKen, and has alrsady flowered two seasons in the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew. The root and neck of the plant are clothed 

 with matted red-brown filaments. The leaves are from 2 to 

 3 inches long, and from IJ to IJ broad, smooth, rather fleshy, 

 nerveless, and pale beneath. Raceme 6 to 10 inches long, with 

 from twenty to thirty bright golden-yellow flowers on pedicels 

 spreading out almost horizontally. Perianth segments extend- 

 ing out almost from the base, with green tips and a keel at the 

 back. Ovary three-lobed ; stigma minute. — (Bot. Mart., t.5')55.) 



Dendbobitjm tetbagosdm (Four-cornered Dendrobium). Nat. 

 onf., OrchidaceiB. Linn, arr., Gynaudria Monogynia. — A native 

 of the wooded islets in Moreton Bay. Stems in a dense fascicle, 

 from 5 to 16 inches long, acutely tetragonal, and gradually 

 blending into a slender round stalk, which expands into a 

 woody, globose, tuberous base, emitting roots that attach the 

 plant to the bark of the tree it grows upon. Each pseudo- 

 bulb has a pair of undulating, coriaceous, keeled leaves. 

 Flowers a pale dirty yellow suffused with pink on a slender 

 yellow peduncle. Two lateral sepals t-wisted and edged with 

 red. Lip whitish, ■with transverse pink bars. — {Ibid.,t. 59.56.) 



Exanthemum palatifekum (Palated Exanthemum). _ Nat. 

 ord., Acanthacese. Linn, an:, Didynamia Angiospermia. — A 

 native of the hUly regions of Bengal. Leaves petioled, some- 

 times blotched with white. Spikes glandular, pubescent, re- 

 curved, many-flowered. Flowers subsecund, two-lipped, lilac 

 or scarlet, with a yellow spot on the lower three-lobed Up. — 

 (Ibid., t. 5957.) 



